What all of this means is that Google is working to make Buzz content something that can be used in as many services as possible, while letting as many services as possible come into Buzz.

"The idea is that someday, any host on the web should be able to implement these open protocols and send messages back and forth in real time with users from any network, without any one company in the middle," says Google software engineer DeWitt Clinton. "The web contains the social graph, the protocols are standard web protocols, the messages can contain whatever crazy stuff people think to put in them. Google Buzz will be just another node (a very good node, I hope) among many peers. Users of any two systems should be able to send updates back and forth, federate comments, share photos, send @replies, etc., without needing Google in the middle and without using a Google-specific protocol or format."

Google has most recently turned on WebFinger in Gmail (via RRW). WebFinger is described as being about making email addresses more valuable, by letting people attach metadata to them. According to the WebFinger page at Google Code, that can include things like:

- public profile data
- pointer to identity provider (e.g. OpenID server)
- a public key
- other services used by that email address (e.g. Flickr, Picasa, Smugmug, Twitter, Facebook, and usernames for each)
- a URL to an avatar
- profile data (nickname, full name, etc)
- whether the email address is also a JID, or explicitly declare that it’s NOT an email, and ONLY a JID, or any combination to disambiguate all the addresses that look like something@somewhere.com
- or even a public declaration that the email address doesn’t have public metadata, but has a pointer to an endpoint that, provided authentication, will tell you some protected metadata, depending on who you authenticate as.

WebFinger is enabled for all Gmail/Google Profiles with public profiles. Google’s Brad Fitzpatrick discusses more technical details about it here.

This week we learn the European Commission levied an additional $1.3 billion fine for failure to comply with an antitrust ruling, and the timing of everything becomes pretty clear. I live-blogged the conference call last week, and I remember Steve Ballmer breezing by with a couple of sentences, sliding them in at the end of large chunks of rhetoric and then moving on.

The sentences were about full compliance with EU rulings. I would have asked him about it during the Q&A period, but the Microsoft execs were very busy and had to run.

This week, big fine. Coincidence? Sounds like Microsoft knew it was coming and was working on getting out of it. The show of openness then, would be a show for the EU in the Lord’s-Prayer hopes of being forgiven their trespasses.

It conceivably could help, too, when they’re trying to buy a major competitor as a salve to further antitrust concerns. Plus that’s one more billion they’ll have to come up with in the purchase process, right? 

Standardization would also ensure interoperability between camera, printer, display and software companies.

Developed by Microsoft’s Core Media Processing team, the HD Photo technology is already included in Windows Vista, and the company says the new file format offers better image fidelity, higher image-compression efficiency, and more flexible editing features than traditional JPEG formats.

“We are voting on consideration of this new file format for standardization because we believe it will foster breakthrough, innovative products and services in the photography and printing industries that will have widespread value for consumers around the world,” said Dr. Daniel Lee, convener of the Joint Photographic Expert Group.

Lance Howarth, general manager of the Media Processing Division at ARM Holdings PLC, says the proposed JPEG XR format will improve the capabilities of digital cameras and wireless devices.

"Higher compression efficiency offers faster wireless uploads for longer battery life and an enhanced dynamic range that will help improve photographs taken in low-light conditions with a mobile phone or digital camera that does not offer sufficient flash assistance."

The higher compression is also thought to be important for web-based applications, as higher quality images are enabled by more digital information while decreasing upload and download times.