TechBytes: After Chile Quake, Google Launches Person Finder
In TechBytes today, news on the go, YouTube goes disco and more.
March. 01, 2010— -- Google is aiding the recovery effortin Chile. The search giant has launched a tool to help people search for friends and loved ones in the aftermath of this weekend's devastating earthquake. Google Person Finder lets you search for information about people by name, or you can leave information if you know someone's whereabouts. As of Monday morning, the page had records over more than 36,000 people.
News on The Go
A new survey highlights how technology continues to reshape the way we get our news. According to the Pew Research Center, 26 percent of Americans now read news on their cell phones. The shift is even more pronounced among younger Americans. About 43 percent of people under 50 say they read the news on the go. The technology is evolving so quickly, Pew doesn't even have data on this from a few years ago.
YouTube Goes Disco
YouTube is testing a new featurethat lets you use the site like your own personal jukebox. The YouTube Music Discovery Project lets you create a playlist, with each clip playing automatically once you press play. You can search for videos by artist or song title and then mix and match your favorites. You can find the feature at youtube.com/disco.
Texting Trail
There's a new iPhone app for cheaters, crooked politicians and anyone else worried about their text messaging trail. TigerText wipes any questionable texts off your phone after a set period of time -- anywhere from 60 seconds to five days. The messages will also be scrubbed from the recipient's phone, and servers that normally store them. The company behind the app says it was developed to protect privacy, not help people cheat. And if you're wondering whether TigerText was named after Tiger Woods, the answer is no. The company claims it had the name before the golfer's scandal.
