Steve Mermelstein of /usr/bin/geek asks what would happen if Google started using some of the stats in their Google Reader app to pull up the most popular stories of the blogosphere (ie techmeme, technorati, et. al.). A couple of others have also picked up on it now. Google Reader’s shared items and starred items certainly seem ripe for the picking, I’m surprised there’s not already a “Most Starred” and/or “Most Shared” story page. Could Google Reader really be a stealth entry into the user-generated news business? With Blogger recently adding an easy way to put AdSense on their user’s sites, you can definitely see Google wanting an easy way to draw people to their user’s blogs. Remember, Google’s primary business is Advertising, a site ala Digg, using blogs from their Blogger Service has the potential to draw a lot of revenue. Of course not everyone uses Blogger, but how many people use AdSense? It’s really in Google’s best interest to be driving as many people to as many blogs as possible, and putting a user-generated news aggregation service on their front page would sure do that, and nobody would even have to work that hard! No more “digging” just hit “s” or “shift-s” as you’re going through your feeds. And there’d be no overhead for Google, everyone is responsible for their own blog! It’s a win-win.

Christmas was very enjoyable. Since Marissa doesn’t have to be on the apnea monitor 24/7 any more we got to take her out an about. The resulting activity caused her to sleep very well over the night! I also got my first chance to play the Nintendo Wii first hand, it really is a different experince. Wii Sports shows off the console and control schemes very well I think. It’s also quite a work out in the end! Twillight Princess is enjoyable, but not quite as revolutionary as Wii Sports I think. The channels show real promise, but there’s not alot there, browsing with the Opera browser (trial edition) is suprisingly enjoyable and functional (Youtube on the TV is a sight to behold).

In the Technology arena we have the whole Wikiasari news hitting, seems the founder of Wikipedia is setting out to revolutionize searching. TechCrunch posted a screenshot that purported to be an early beta of the service, but Jimmy Wales denied it’s related to Wikiasari. Has one of TechCrunch’s readers pointed out to them, the screenshot seems to be from this site. As Michael Arrignton asks, if WikiSearch isn’t Wikiasari…what is it? And will Wikiasari contribute to the end of the Google Era? 2007 looks to be the year alot of sites go mainstream. Youtube get’s sponsored by Chevy, and Myspace get’s used by the Colts. The next week or two should be interesting…

Sean Lyndersay, Program Manager Lead for RSS at Microsoft, has responded to the RSS Patent Flap. Microsoft is essentially saying: “We only patented what we feel is some cool additions we invented, we promise not to try and take over RSS.” Niall Kennedy has a good in-depth analysis of the patent application which essentially says “Most of this stuff is all obvious prior art, there’s a few new ideas, but not many.” He also asks the scary question of “What other “inventions” are yet to be unveiled as the patent system’s 18-month privacy rolls forward?”.

Stephen Griffen over at MSDN as discovered an easter egg in LEGO Star Wars II. The Santa Clause code was already known, but he discovered a Rudolph Code (using strings no less)! He’s asking for your help getting a screenshot, so leave him a comment with a link to one if you can.

Marcel Ortiz and Satish Mathew of the Windows PowerShell team posted this powershell script on the powershell blog yesterday. Save the script as a ps1 file, open up PowerShell and run. You’ll be quickly in the spirt! If you don’t have PowerShell, download it here. Then we have “Software Wonderland” from The Braidy Tester. WillItBlend asks if you want to drink your Christmas dinner. And last but not least, Happy Holidays To You! What geeky ways are you celebrating the season?

There’s been a lot of buzz in development circles lately about Google deprecating it’s SOAP Search API and replaced it with an AJAX widget. Dave Megginson laments the End of Open Web Data APIs, I’m not so sure about that. I think it’s a bad move for Google, in that it 1) Makes it less easy for windows developers (as Scoble points out), and 2) It’ll make developers less trusting of Google in the future. Obviously Google doesn’t want to loose ad revenue, but that might be easily fixed by requiring AdSense on a hosting web page. Or via some other method. Good news though, some people are fighting back. I’m sure EvilAPI will be getting a C&D letter soon, but it’s a valiant effort. Google is really shooting themselves in the foot here, Microsoft also still has their SOAP search API. I’ve recently started really drinking the Google Kool Aid (tm and all that) from an end user stand point, but now I’m really questioning taking the leap as a developer. My instincts say to stay with the 800lb gorilla that can’t afford to drop things on a whim. In addition to that news, there’s also word that Google is starting to deceptively advertise it’s own products (specifically the one that this blog is hosted on) with the ads disguised as “tips” while you search. Maybe they forgot the “Do No Evil” part? It’s looking like the honeymoon may be coming to an end. If developers jump ship, and people start writing more apps that utilize Windows Live services….Google may just fade into the background like Pets.com. As the man said, “Developers, Developers, Developers!”. Microsoft loves them, Google can obviously care less. Regardless of what actually happens to Google in 2007 (I doubt they’re going anywhere anytime soon), I get the distinct impression a line as been drawn, and perhaps an era has come to an end.

One of Scoble’s recent posts briefly mentions some announcement by Time magazine. I think I’m going to follow his lead…the blog world is just overrun with this news (Technorati lists 700 blog links), I can understand why, but it seems a tad narcissistic. So I’m just not going to link it myself.

Just as I decide to really start a blog, this news from the BBC hits. It seems that blogging is going to “peak” next year because “most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so”. Here’s hoping I’m just a late bloomer :)

I guess I should explain the picture in the upper right hand part of the page. CodeMash a development conference that’s actually taking place in the midwest! These things never happen close to where I live and this is right down the highway in Sandusky, Ohio! CodeMash is a way for developers of different backgrounds a chance to mingle, I look forward to learning something new. And at $99 you can NOT beat the price. If you still need to convince your employer that you need to go I HIGHLY recommend this blog post from Jim Holmes one of the founders, he lays the case out pretty well. And if you still need convincing..it’s at the Kalahari Resort!

links:
CodeMash
Kalahari Resort
Why Conferences Matter, and How To Pitch To Your Boss – Jim Holmes

Microsoft announced today that the one and only Santa Claus was going to be available for live chatting exclusively on their Windows Live Messenger service. It’s amazing to see the changes that occur to things within one’s own lifetime. When I was a good the thought of a “modernized” Santa wasn’t really widely thought of. Now he’s using IM to chat with the kiddies…AND he has a blog (though Manga Santa is scary)! Simply amazing.