Google and Microsoft this week traded counter-punches over voice and social networking tools as the two continue to battle each other over emerging technologies.

Google Friday unveiled a voice recognition application for the iPhone that lets users speak search terms into the phone such as “restaurant.” The technology is similar to voice recognition software for the BlackBerry that Microsoft introduced at the Web 2.0 conference in April via its TellMe subsidiary.

On the flip side, Microsoft on Thursday unveiled the Windows Live Wave 3 set of consumer services, a Live Wave API called Project Silkroad, and struck partnerships with social networking sites such as Flickr, PhotoBucket, Twitter and Yelp. The announcement came roughly a week after Google’s OpenSocial celebrated its one-year anniversary.

OpenSocial is a set of APIs that let developers create applications that run across many social networking sites instead of having to create a version of the applications for each individual site.

Maybe it is a good time to check your Facebook page right now, whether your boss is around or not.

The same with Bebo, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any of your online social network profiles.

Because if you believe what a British think-tank has to say about social networking, it just might be a good thing for your employer, too.

The London-based Demos has released a report that suggests social networking sites may benefit the workplace by helping employees establish new contacts, strengthen ties with clients, or learn more about what is happening in other parts of their industry.

These same workers may use social networking sites to keep in touch with former co-workers, who can pass on useful tips and information to their former workplace.

Nurturing and hosting networks can bring benefits in terms of productivity, innovation and workplace democracy,” reads the report written by researchers Peter Bradwell and Richard Reeves.

Bradwell told CTV’s Canada AM on Friday that the report “Network Citizens: Power and Responsibility at Work” has probed a subject that has become an issue in workplaces in recent years, but has yet to be fully explored.

“The kind of focus of our report was looking at a lot of the very real benefits that people and organizations find from social networking,” he said. “But also to just bring out some of the challenges that might have been ignored so far.”

The report, released Oct. 29, also points to the difficulties of trying to ban such networks from the office.

It is becoming difficult to separate workers and social networking as they become increasingly intertwined, the report argues, and “smart businesses” recognize this.

“Bans on Facebook or YouTube are in any case almost impossible to enforce,” reads the report. “Firms may as well try to put a time limit on the numbers of minutes allowed each day for gossiping.”

But the report does warn that social networking can also pose problems for the corporate world: Such as online clubs and cliques that are the antithesis of what social networking is supposed to be about.

Bradwell said workplaces should keep open lines of communication about the way these sites should be used, but there is no need for “strict, overt surveillance” of the ways employees are making use of social networking.

Jennifer Porter is a little freaked out.The 17-year-old is hunkered over a sheaf of papers scattered across a spotty Tim Hortons table in Ajax, Ont., one hand flipping pages, the other twirling an oversized blue earring. She brushes an errant lock of sandy blonde hair away from her face, looks up and giggles nervously. “That’s kind of creepy,” she says.

Indeed.

What she’s looking at is quite the biography — everything from her cellphone number, home address and a map to her work (she’s a lifeguard). All of it has been furnished by the man sitting in front of her — a man she’s never met. full story

Social networking sites like Facebook, Zooped, MySpace and Friendster are all seeing significant growth in their subscriber base — just not in the United States. According to a report conducted by comScore, a company that measures online digital growth, world-wide growth of social networks has grown by 25 percent, compared to just nine percent in the United States.

The region driving the most growth in adapting social networks like Facebook and MySpace is classified as The Middle East-Africa region. In June 2007, comScore recorded 18,226,000 unique visitors in that region. In June 2008 that number jumped to 30,197,000 unique visitors, a jump of 66 percent from the previous year.

While North American social network users may have been early Friendster, MySpace and Facebook adopters, the domestic numbers have leveled off. Compared to the Middle East-Africa region, North American network growth was recorded at nine percent.

“While the social networking trend first took off in North America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world — especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets.”

The other markets that are being developed, besides the Middle East-Africa region, are Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific, all of which have grown more than 20 percent since July of 2007. Europe leads the charge with the highest number of new adopters. In 2007, there were approximately 122.5 million users. In 2008 that number jumped 35 percent to 165.2 million. Latin American social networking users grew 33 percent from 40 million to 53.2 million users. The Asia Pacific region grew from 162.7 million users to 200.5 million users over the course of the past year.

The Asia Pacific market is a good example of how some social networks will catch fire in some regions while not in others.

Before MySpace and Facebook began to dominate online social networking, Friendster was the toast of the town. But before long, MySpace caught up and overtook it with users. The same thing happened to MySpace — which is by no means dead in the water — when Facebook became the big dog. In the United States Friendster became a second or third thought. But in the Asia Pacific market, Friendster is alive and well. In fact, the social networking company recently hired Richard Kimber, former Google regional managing director of South Asia, to be the new CEO and a member of the board of directors. Along with that announcement came a cool $20 million in venture capital to expand Friendster’s footprint in the region. From 2007 to 2008, comScore reports that Friendster grew from 24.6 million to 37 million users.

“Friendster is growing at an enormous rate in Asia Pacific and is clearly leading the competition,” said Kimber in a statement.

Facebook is no slouch either. The social network grew 38 percent in North America over the course of the past year. That’s a relatively modest growth rate when considering that Facebook growth in Europe alone grew 303 percent from 2007 to 2008. The Asia Pacific market grew 458 percent from 3.7 million users to 20.7 million in 2008. The Middle East-Africa region grew 403 percent from 2.9 million to 14.9 million users. Meanwhile, Latin America saw the largest percentage growth year over year going from 1 million users to 11.9 million users for a growth rate of a staggering 1055 percent.

Social network users are much heavier consumers of digital content including SMS, mobile email, photos, music, games and mobile TV than mobile phone service subscribers.

The revelation comes from recent research published by industry analyst ABI Research which canvassed 1,000 mobile subscribers and just over 500 social network mobile subscribers in the US.

Three quarters of the latter group were aged between 18 and 30, and were twice as likely to own a smartphone as their non-networked equivalents.

“The fact that online social networkers consume more mobile content and media than mobile subscribers who are not into online networking may not be really surprising,” said principal analyst Nick Holland.

“However, what we have long suspected is confirmed by the numbers: for most kinds of mobile content, online social networkers consume about twice as much as their non-networked peers.”

The driving force behind online social networkers’ consumption of mobile media is that they are on average younger and more tech-savvy.

Also, many social networks are organised around a specific media-related interest such as photography or music.

“Advertising on social networks is not working particularly well, so promotion of mobile content on online social network sites should be a high priority for mobile operators, content distributors, media companies and advertisers,” said Holland.