Tech Bites: 12 January 2009

• Two search requests on the internet website Google produce "as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle", according to a Harvard University academic. BBC News reports US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross claims that a typical Google search on a desktop computer produces about 7g CO2.Honestly, don't these academics have anything better to do -- like boiling a kettle, for example? Mine's white, one sugar. Still let's not be too harsh, Alex is a darn clever bloke: an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University, he's authored 14 publications, received 88 national and international distinctions, and been issued seven full and pending patents. Braniac!

• Talking of Google, if you're one of those people who simply can't have enough browsers on your PC, the websearch and technology giant has made an early test version of Chrome 2.0, available for download. The Inquirer reports the update overhauls the way the browser handles HTTP and adds functionality such as auto-complete fields. Released quietly via Google's Chrome developer channel, the early access code has an updated version of the WebKit rendering engine, and new network code to provide a cross-platform implementation of the HTTP protocol.

• Bacteria seem to release a powerful detergent into the atmosphere that may be one of nature's most powerful rain-makers, according to New Scientist. Meanwhile, the top British science mag also reports that researchers are still trying to scrape CO2 from the atmosphere, arguing that air capture is not only theoretically feasible, it will soon be a practical weapon against global warming. Maybe they should start talking to the rain making bugs.

• It's getting hard to tell who's real and who's not on all these social networks. Rosetta, the largest independent interactive marketing agency in the US, has released a social media study showing 59 percent of 100 leading retailers currently have a fan page on Facebook. According to the study, which was first conducted in April of 2008 and updated in September, 29 of the retailers surveyed added Facebook pages during those four months including Best Buy, Toys "R" Us, Kohl's and Wal-Mart. Maybe someone should create an UnFriend Application for the service. You know, "I Am Not a Friend of Apple..." etc.

• Talking of how difficult it is to separate reality from fiction, in a weird twist on the world it seems Marvel character Captain Britain, like President Obama and other major world figures, is now officially on Twitter, posting daily: twitter.com/Captain_Britain. If you've been holding out from being part of this social communication revolution, what better reason to leap aboard? (Hmm, nope, still not convinced, but if you are a Twitterer, you might be interested in TweetScan, which enables you to download a portable web page and CSV file with your message archive including replies back to December 2007).

• Everyting's going virtual these days. The Guardian reports the city of Decatur, Georgia in the US has opened up their call for developers to create a virtual city, titled Virtual Decatur, in a massively multiplayer online environment. Potential winners of the competition will have creative liberties to the extent that any activity supported in the online version must be "considered acceptable in the actual environment of Downtown Decatur" and is aligned with their mission for the project.

• While not the first to offer such a service, Vote For Art is a new new online gallery, where you can vote and shop for your favourite art.