Is Google spying on you?

Sometimes it feels like somebody's watching me ...

I use Gmail. I also watch YouTube vids, both Google-owned. And until very recently, I published a blog at Google's Blogger. I wondered just how much all these programs were tracking my Internet usage.

Now we can find out with 'Google Dashboard', a page where we can see the data Google stores about us in any of 23 different Google-run services.

"We think of this as a great step towards giving people transparency and control over their data, and we hope this helps shape the way the industry thinks about these issues," stated Alma Whitten, a Google engineer who works on privacy and security.

The Dashboard lists each service that stores data, along with which types of data it stores. Here's what the Dashboard doesn't do: specify which services keep user data or for how long. Neither does it alert users that their web search histories and e-mails are constantly scanned for the purposes of selling products to them and others. Big Brother?

Google's YouTube refines video blocking

Google-owned YouTube now gives its partners more control over the blocking of video content they upload to the service with two new buttons – one for blocking a vid by country, the other by confining video viewing to a single region.

Google also adds music search to its repertoire.

Thumbs up?

Don't like an Internet ad? Tell them! More ads are going interactive with a thumbs up or down, allowing you to vote on whether you liked the ad. Or not.

Internet archive - It's a treasure

Want to watch a full-length feature film? World War II propaganda? How about animation or cartoons of a bygone era? News and public affairs, sports videos – Internet Archive has all of that and much more. IA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, it provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars and the general public.

The book vaults

The reading room

Library Spot – for a million reasons.

The book nook

You know those comfy little reading nooks at a well-known bookseller? Where folks curl up with a brand new off-the-shelf book for an hour or more? Well, now you can get cozy in the nook with a Nook. A Nook? A Nook. Coming soon to a bookseller near you.

Oprah and Sarah, you betcha!

Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate, will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Monday, Nov. 16, about her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Palin's book will hit bookshelves Tuesday, Nov. 17, the day after the Winfrey/Palin parley.

The online news stand

I always enjoyed the slick feel of a magazine's pages, the smell of the ink, and the heft of the page. It remains to be seen if gadgets like Amazon's Kindle or B & N's Nook can compete with old-fashioned ink-on-paper. Now here comes Issuu, an online newsstand with infinite shelf space, hundreds of interesting micro-publishing projects and a slick online reader. Spend time browsing through thousands of magazines, reports and documents from around the world that are archived on the site.

Five dollars a month to read the New York Times?

The great newspaper firewall is coming. Newsday is going to start charging for its online news website. The New York Times is reportedly mulling it over, despite the fact that its earlier attempt to charge for its columnists' scribblings fell flat.

Maybe the newspapers will charge micropayments for every story, extra for tiered membership packages. Will you be willing to fork it over to read yesterday's news?

Hot holiday shopping trends

Thinking about what to get that special someone for Christmas? Here are some of this year's hottest tech goodies, from Netbooks to touch-screen computers to connected GPS navigation systems and more.

Save fuel and time by shopping on the Internet. WorldNetDaily has a superb collection of books and items for the political junkie in your life, or the history buff who wants to fill out his or her bookshelf.

Amazon makes shopping easier than ever. Can you say "payphrase"?

Holiday Travel

Before you leave for that Thanksgiving trip home, you'll print out your flight info, car and lodging reservations. With TripIt, you can forward all that information to [email protected], and the website's "itinerator" does the rest. Everything is organized in one place, and the itinerator will find weather forecasts and maps, so you're completely prepared.

The info can be printed, accessed via iPhone and shared with friends. A TripIt social-networking feature alerts you if you're about to cross paths with a friend who is also signed up with the service. So if you and one of your friends happen to have a similar layover, you'll know beforehand and be able to meet up.

Feeling a bit socially isolated?

Is the time you're spending on the Internet and your mobile phone isolating you from those in your immediate vicinity? You might be surprised to learn what this Pew Internet study reveals.

For the disabled, communicating just got easier

For the vocally impaired, computer technology provides a voice just by using the keyboard. And it's more affordable than ever.

Reflections in the rearview mirror

Forty-nine years ago on Nov. 9, 1960, Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president of the United States, beating Vice President Richard Nixon by a slim margin. The final result showed JFK won by less than 200,000 votes – 34,227,096 popular votes to Richard Nixon's 34,107,646.

In his victory speech at Hyannis, Mass., the youngest elected president in U.S. history urged all Americans to help him "move this country safely through the 1960s."

Let's go to the movies!

This week's movie trivia: "You a politician, or does lying just run in your family?"

Name the film's director. Send your answer to me at the email address below. The first reader to guess correctly will be announced in next week's Surfin' Safari. WorldNetDaily Surfin' Safari readers Doris H. of Evanston, Ill., Helen Cranston of Matawan, N.J., and Gardner S. of Syracuse, N.Y., correctly answered last week's movie trivia question. All three identified the character O'Brien played by Richard Burton in the 1984 movie "1984", who spoke the line, "If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever."

The film was based upon George Orwell's novel of the same name, following the life of Winston Smith in Oceania, a country run by a totalitarian government. The film was directed by Michael Radford and stars John Hurt, Richard Burton (in his last film role) and Suzanna Hamilton. Winston Smith endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The story takes place in London, the capital of the territory of Airstrip One (Britain).

Winston works in a cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the agenda of the Party which rules Oceania under its supreme figurehead, Big Brother. A man haunted by painful memories and restless desires, Winston is an anti-hero and everyman who keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus committing thoughtcrime – the crime of independent thought contrary to the aims of the Party.