It's a Mesh: merging web, mobile and traditional marketing

You've probably heard about the controversy surrounding SOPA and PIPA, but if you're like most people you have no idea what it is, what it means, and why you should care.  SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA stands for the Protect IP Act.  Like most things, they started out with good intentions but have dangerous implications for the future of the internet.

The goal of SOPA and PIPA is to give the government and copyright holders the ability to block access to "rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods," especially those outside of the US.  SOPA is supposed to protect against copyright infringement and would allow copyright owners and/or the US Dept. of Justice to seek court orders against anyone who facilitates or enables those who are infringing on copyrights. The key words are facilitates and enables - notice it doesn't say actually infringing.

You've probably heard people talking about Google's new project, Google+, and wondered what it is; basically, it's just Google's latest shot at making a big impact in the social networking arena.  The company's goal is to make social neworking more like real life; according to their blog "Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it."

Many of the online services you probably already use are owned by Google - Picasa, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Earth - and plans are for all of their services to integrate with Google+ so you don't have to login to different accounts to share information.