Google Buzz has been a magnet for skepticism, controversy, and criticism since it launched earlier this month. The skepticism is a result of past Google social media efforts not having the greatest track record. Much of the controversy and criticism has been the result of privacy, and more recently copyright concerns from users.

A news organization that was founded in 1846 is making another attempt to transition to the digital age.  The Associated Press has announced the creation of a unit called AP Gateway, and with the unit, the agency intends to "facilitate development of fresh news consumer experiences for the Web as well as mobile phones, tablets and e-readers."

Expedia has launched a new free iPhone application, TripAssist, that links to its mobile website to allow users to mange their travel itineraries.

TripAssist allows users to research flights, destinations, hotels, cars and activities. Once they make a reservation, they can manage and update their itineraries, find an alternative flight, research their seats and access real-time flight information.  The app also offers real-time SMS and email updates for free.

State Farm has introduced a new free iPhone and iPod touch application aimed at helping young drivers stay safe on the road.

The "Steer Clear" application is part of State Farm’s safe drivers discount program. The app gives young drivers a way to complete the Steer Clear discount program and encourages supervised driver education.

Google has added the ability to search by location to its list of search options. The option is called "nearby".

"Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you’re a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer’s market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information," says Google Product Manager Jackie Bavaro.

Back in 2008, Google filed a patent, which was recently published for public viewing. The patent is called "Segmenting Printed Media Pages Into Articles," and appears to imply that the company wants to take individual articles from print publications and turn them into individual articles on the web. The abstract says:

The creation of the Chinese equivalent of Hulu is now officially underway.  Providence Equity Partners, which invested $100 million in the original American video site, will give Baidu $50 million to create Qiyi.com.  Qiyi should similarly offer premium content and rely on ad revenue.

Tracking offline conversions has been a challenge for businesses for years. As long as the Internet has been widely used to drive business, tracking online marketing efforts to offline purchases has been no easy feat, but while there is no silver bullet approach, rest assured, there are ways to make it easier.

The European Union has asked Google to revise the way it stores images for its Maps and Street View services, due to privacy concerns.

Google currently keeps all images on Street View for a year, but the EU’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party wants that time cut in half to no longer than six months.

A number of social networks may be in a significant amount of trouble.  Facebook has managed to patent the idea of "dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network."

This is no rumor or joke; the paperwork is all in order.  Facebook filed for what the United States Patent and Trademark Office has designated patent number 7,669,123 in August of 2006, and Mark Zuckerberg’s name appears eight times on the official document.

Our Twellow team has been working hard on getting Twellow set up to use Twitter’s OAuth system, and that support is now available on Twellow.com.

"The Twellow OAuth upgrade is a major improvement for Twellow users," Twellow’s Lead Developer Matthew Daines says. "Not only is it much more secure, but it also increases the amount of interaction users can have with the Twitter universe from Twellow."

Symantec’s MessageLabs tells WebProNews there is a new targeted attack using emails pretending to be from the New York Times. MessageLabs Intelligence tracked the attack yesterday, which used emails pretending to come from the NYT’s "Times Reader" software, hitting six different domains. One domain was a public sector domain, one was a law firm, and three were to chemical companies, and one was an online gambling company in the UK.

Update: Tragically, Koenig’s body was found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. His father Walter Koenig reportedly said in a press conference, "Our son took his own life. He was obviously in a lot of pain."

More here.

Although Google’s undoubtedly best known for dominating the traditional search market, the company’s no slouch when it comes to mobile.  New stats from Opera indicate that Google has a huge lead over its closest rival, and that its other well-funded competitor barely enters the equation.

A growing number of state transportation departments (DOTs) are communicating news and information to travelers using Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) survey of 32 state DOTs found 26 states or (82%) are now using Twitter to communicate with travelers when major traffic incidents or severe weather such as snow storms, hurricanes and tornadoes force roads to be closed or detours.

Although it isn’t quite a done deal, Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have more or less ensured that Facebook will open a sales and operations office in Austin.  Perry’s offered the company $1.4 million as an incentive to establish the branch and create some jobs.

The U.S. Census Bureau said today it has launched a new online mapping tool detailing how well communities responded to the 2000 Census in an effort to raise awareness for the upcoming 2010 Census.

As smartphone usage becomes more and more mainstream, businesses have to consider how their audiences are interacting with them online. For that reason, it can help to gain insight into how users of different devices interact with those devices.

Human-driven Q&A search service ChaCha launched some new functionality this week for local businesses. Now users can access information about over 15 million businesses in the U.S., courtesy of partner Localeze.ChaCha spoke with WebProNews about why the company considers itself a legitimate contender in the ever-growing local search space.

World of Good is likely to get a lot bigger in the near future.  The brand, which helps artists in developing countries connect with buyers, has been acquired by eBay, and expansion seems to be the first thing on both sides’ "to do" list.

The winter Olympics are off to an interesting start, as always. And while I’ve only caught parts, I did manage to watch short track skating when Apolo Ohno miraculously won silver. From the qualifying heats to the final race he was pretty amazing to watch.

While his competition in those qualifying races wasn’t super stiff, you could still see the mark of experience…As well as how strong and fit he is going into this competition. In both of those early heats he calmly hung out in the back of the pack waiting for the chance to make his move.

Newspaper websites are the most valued sites for people seeking credible and trustworthy local content, according to a new survey conducted by comScore for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

More than half (57%) of the 3,050 respondents cited local newspaper websites as the top online source for local information. That percentage increases for upper income households (63%) and for the college educated (60%).

It looks like the people in charge of Gmail Labs have decided to do a little spring (or more accurately, late winter) cleaning.  They’ve removed a full 11 experimental features from Labs, with six of the bunch becoming regular Gmail features and the other five failing to make the cut.

As you might imagine, conversations tend to be more productive and enjoyable when they’re not interrupted and cut short all the time.  Google’s made a smart move, then, by upgrading Google Talk in several respects.

The upgrades actually pertain to one of Google Talk’s most advanced features: the voice and video chat plug-in.  As for what they do, users should experience fewer crashes when newer Macs are in the mix and benefit from increased webcam compatibility.