IBM has developed a multimedia browsing accessibility tool that helps blind and visually impaired people experience streaming video and animation on the Internet.

The multimedia-browsing tool offers people with visual impairment the same multimedia control features sighted people see and operate with a mouse. To experience a streaming video on a video-sharing Web site, visually impaired are able to select a "play" button by pressing a shortcut key to operate the media. The tool enables users to control video speed, volume and sound.

Olav Phillips at Anomalies.net has put the freely available IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition to work at UFOCrawler.com, where people can plumb the Internet for information on the unexplained.

IBM and Google have partnered to bring Google Gadgets to WebSphere Portal allowing users to create, customize and use Internet applications directly within the portal. In April, IBM will release a version of WebSphere Portal that will allow users to search an Internet directory of Google Gadgets that will operate on IBM’s software.

Users will be able to select from around 4,000 Google Gadgets such as language translators, package delivery tracking, Wikipedia information and YouTube postings. These features can be accessed through a company’s portal.

About a month ago a friend said the following before a hockey game (yeah – our team has very geeky locker room talk):

“Is IBM not making enough money these days? I hear they’re providing services for some online world”

A little CPU could go a long way toward making inroads on several medical research fronts, including cancer, muscular dystrophy, and AIDS, and IBM promotes its World Community Grid to help with that.

Bazaarvoice, a company focused on helping brands use online word of mouth to improve their businesses, announced it is teaming with IBM software to assist retailers in creating an interactive and customer centered shopping experience.

Faced with what many believe is the imminent demise of their lawsuit against IBM over Linux code, SCO Group may be pursuing a ‘scorched earth’ strategy where they can drag the true identity of Groklaw’s Pamela Jones into public knowledge.

Roberto writes that Sun has agreed to include an Italian dictionary and thesaurus (from the Italian Native-Lang Project team) in the official OpenOffice.org distro. Congrats to Roberto & team!

Ogilvy North America is partnering with Technorati to offer clients blogs, vlogs, videos, photos, and other online user-generated media. The hope is for their clients to better understand the blogosphere and improve in building their brands.

Big Blue has announced that they are working on a new product called “Lotus Connections,” which is targeted for a late 2007 release. From the IHT:

Social networking has become one of the most buzz-worthy news terms in recent memory as the concept as spread at a viral rate throughout the realms of marketing and eCommerce, respectively.

Matt Asay has some good advice for folks asking him for career advice: “Work for an open source company.”

Line56 published an article Monday talking about presence becoming a more important part of IBM’s collaborative environment.

IBM has announced that it has teamed up with Circuit City to construct an online replica of the retail store within the virtual world of Second Life. The venture is geared at experimenting with the introduction of virtual worlds and 3-D technology into a cross-platform retail environment.

IBM continues to find itself embroiled in ongoing litigation surrounding the wrongful termination claims of former employee James Pacenza, who is suing the company over his dismissal after it was revealed that he had utilized his office computer to access sexually oriented chat rooms.

Recently IBM sued Amazon.com over patent infringement. On Thursday Amazon fired back with a suit of it’s own directed at IBM for patent infringement. The countersuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Amazon disputes that they infringe on IBM patents and that IBM infringes on patents that Amazon holds.

IBM and Yahoo! have jointly announced the release of OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, a product designed to provide search functionality on both the local enterprise and web levels.

Brian Kramer from McDonalds dropped me an email with link to a C|Net story about the seriousness with which IBM is taking Second Life and other metaverses.

Based on the number of hits this blog is getting with the search term “Geronimo vs. WAS CE”, it appears that there is some confusion about the similarities and differences between Apache Geronimo and IBM WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS CE).

Engineers at Sony are developing a set of wireless headphones that use a person’s skin to transmit a signal between the headpiece and music source.

IBM announced last week that a settlement had been reached in a civil suit with a very high price tag.