The Big Picture

An overview of important stories in recent days:

Steve Jobs' power grows

• First, Stevie J gets his way with the music studios on pricing for the iTunes store, then he wins a court case brought against Apple Computer by the Beatles' company Apple Corps. That's two heavyweight knockouts in less than two weeks, solidifying his position has a growing force in entertainment.

Web 2.0 and the 3D Web

• The World Wide Web stepped into prominence just over 10 years ago, and now it is ready to move past its initial baby steps toward a brighter future. That's right, the Web now has it's own version number - 2.0 - which describes the way the Web now incorporates multimedia functionality (video, for example) and dynamic changes to Web pages (pages that update themselves without the need for clicking the refresh button. Furthermore, there was a recent conference to brainstorm the potential of the 3D Web, a Web universe that allows people to exist in a virtual world. Interesting stuff.

Social networking

• This key buzz term refers to the growth of networks of people with similar interests who come together through the use of technology. My Space has gotten plenty of coverage of late as the platform of choice for teenagers and young adults to post their interests for other like-minded individuals. The other day while watching the ABC News podcast, there was a story about a site called Platial.com that allows people to create their own maps marked with things they think are cool or important (for instance, all good bookstores in San Francisco). And, of course, social networking is the theory behind the latest research into search technology, as companies like Yahoo, Google, and Amazon attempt to use people's interests as a means of providing personalized search results.