I've been involved in a rather intense REST web services testing project over the past 6 weeks, so I haven't been able to do much blogging. Now that the project is complete, I can turn my attention back to emerging technology trends and resume my normal posting to this blog. Here are a few tidbits that that I picked up over the past couple of days...

• Google announced a new communication platform called "Wave" which combines the functionality of email, instant messaging, bogs, wikis, and social networking sites. Perhaps its most notable feature is real time interaction between participants. This will be an open platform with a public API. It's a bit challenging to get my arms around the full potential of this platform, but this Mashable post does as good a job as any explaining what Google is doing.

• I continue to be intrigued by Amazon's Jef Bezos. I do 99% of my shopping on Amazon, the EC2 cloud hosts my localhikes web site, and the Kindle is now my primary reading tool. In this wide ranging conversation with Mr. Bezos on internetnews, he discusses many of the factors that help Amazon succeed including an entrepreneurs'  willingness to stick with an idea for the long haul.

• This ReadWriteWeb post discusses the convergence of social networking and browser platform technology. Although it seems like a bit of a stretch to me, I can see how a day might come when opening your browser presents you with your entire social networking environment and the distinction between the browser and the social networking functionality may be lost.

• The iPod is an amazing device, having transformed the music industry. Now the iPod takes the next step as a life saving device. This cnet post documents the strange case of a British girl whose iPod headphones saved her life when struck by lightening.

I'd enjoy hearing any comment you have on these items!

Jim