French regulators: Google snagged passwords, e-mail

Google collected passwords and e-mail when the company intercepted and stored data detected on open Wi-Fi hot spots in France, according to the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty.

Google Street View cars collected personal information while detecting wireless networks.(Credit: CNET Asia)

The commission launched an investigation in early June after Google admitted that it had stored fragments of personal information from open Wi-Fi hot spots as its fleet of vehicles drove around neighborhoods around the world collecting data for its Street View mapping service. Google collected data in 30 countries. Some countries asked the company to delete the data. Other countries, namely France, Spain, Germany, and Italy, requested that the data be kept so that they could conduct investigations. Google claims that it had been collecting only fragments of payload data because vehicles were on the move and could only get information when they passed places where an unsecured Wi-Fi network in use. The company also said that the collection was a mistake. The code that was written to collect the data was part of an experimental Wi-Fi project started in 2006. When a new Wi-Fi project was launched a year later for Street View, Google has said, engineers included the old code without realizing that it was collecting payload information. Lawsuits have already been filed against Google in the United States. Congressional leaders are also looking into the matter.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Deal brings $100 million for home solar financing

A deal between California utility Pacific Gas & Electric and solar company SunRun will eliminate the upfront cost of installing rooftop solar panels for 3,500 homes. PG&E subsidiary Pacific Energy Capital has created a $100 million tax equity fund that will be used by SunRun to offer homeowners financing for solar electric panels.

SunRun offers a power purchase agreement through which consumers pay a small upfront fee and then a monthly payment for the solar panels, rather than purchase them outright. The financing, regularly used with business customers, allows homeowners to lower their monthly electricity bills with the panels, but avoid the installation cost, which can be in the range of $25,000 to $40,000 depending on the size. The $100 million will fund installations this year and in 2011 in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. SunRun already has 4,000 customers of its financing service through partnerships with 15 other solar installers. The solar financing model of offering a power purchase agreement, or leasing solar panels, is one of the most promising methods for making solar photovoltaic panels accessible to more homeowners. The financing companies own and maintain the panels over 20 years and so they benefit from the state and federal tax credits and rebates and sell the electricity to the utility. The credit crisis that started in 2008, along with the dipping economy, took a toll on financing for renewable-energy projects which rely on tax credits for financing. But solar financing companies focused on residential customers have continued to expand over the past two years. PG&E, which raised the fund mainly through shareholders, expects to get a return on its investment and learn more about the residential solar market. "As a company in a region where distributed solar is becoming increasingly important, we are focused on continuing to take advantage of smart, strategic opportunities that enable us to acquire an in-depth understanding of this market and these technologies," Brian Steel, senior director of corporate strategy and development at PG&E, said in a statement. Earlier this year, PG&E announced a similar deal with SolarCity, in which PG&E provided $60 million in tax equity to finance a solar panel leasing program.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

B&N adds $149 Wi-Fi-only Nook, cuts Nook 3G to $199

The new $149 Wi-Fi-only Nook looks virtually identical to the original Nook 3G but is half an ounce lighter and has a white instead of gray back. (Credit: Barnes & Noble)

We've been waiting to see which company--Amazon or Barnes & Noble--would blink first when it came to price cuts for its e-readers, and now we get the answer. Barnes & Noble not only introduced on Monday a new Wi-Fi-only Nook for $149, but also cut the price of the original Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled Nook from $259 to $199. The new model will be available later this week and can be preordered now. Barnes & Noble is also upgrading the software for its Nook e-readers to version 1.4 and offering "complimentary" access to all AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots around the country. But the real news here is the price cuts because the new Nook has only minor design and feature changes; it weighs in at half an ounce less than the Nook 3G and has a white instead of gray back. When the Nook got off to a rough start with negative reviews from major publications like The New York Times, Barnes & Noble sought to snuff out a number of software bugs and add promised features, such as free in-store streaming for many e-book titles. This is the fourth software upgrade since the Android-powered device launched in November, and the company recently released a new B&N Reader iPad app that was generally well received. The price moves obviously put pressure on Amazon to the cut the price of its $259 Kindle and possibly bring out a cheaper Wi-Fi-only model as well. Rumors have been floating around for a while that Amazon is getting set to release a new e-reader of its own that may have a touch-screen interface and offer zippier performance since current E-ink technology is inherently slow. Barnes & Noble's ability to drop the price to $149 for its entry-level e-reader is key because at that price the Nook begins to enter the territory of the impulse purchase. Sony's Pocket Edition e-reader now can be had for around the same price, and Borders is just bringing out its Kobo e-reader for $149. But neither of those models features Wi-Fi-connectivity, and the Sony model has a smaller 5-inch E-Ink display. Of course, someday, e-readers like the Nook and Kindle may cost close to nothing with the purchase of a subscription to an e-book club that requires you to buy a certain number of titles each month. That day is still a little ways off, but we'll see what Amazon has up its sleeve. If it doesn't respond soon, its huge market lead will erode even more quickly as big competitors like Barnes & Noble--and perhaps Apple in the future--make aggressive moves in the e-book market. Note: Early Monday afternoon, Amazon responded to Barnes & Noble's price cut with a price trim to the Kindle, which now costs $189. Additionally, Borders announced that it will bundle a $20 gift card with its $149 Kobo e-reader.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Good Technology boosts iPhone security controls

Good for Enterprise works on iPhones, iPods, and iPads.(Credit: Good Technology)

When an employee at AIM Media lost his iPhone containing company e-mails and other sensitive data last year, there was nothing to be done except hope that whoever found it didn't care to snoop.Now, if that happens again AIM Media IT Director Nelson Saenz can just remotely wipe the data. "Apple made it possible for the iPhone to work with Microsoft Exchange," he said. "But from an IT standpoint what was missing was centralized administration and security."Since January, AIM Media has been using Good for Enterprise, software and service from Good Technology that lets companies manage and secure smart phones that employees are increasingly using for work and play. For many employees, it means they don't have to carry two phones, such as the work-sanctioned BlackBerry and their beloved iPhone, because the corporate data on the device can be protected.And as of Monday, companies that are paying the subscription fees for employees' iPhones will be able to remotely wipe the entire device and not just the work-related e-mails, calendar, contacts, and other data. Good Technology is releasing iPhone Management so that companies, government agencies, and other organizations that may have more stringent compliance and other regulatory restrictions can have more control over the iPhones, iPads, and iPods their workers use. This could free up doctors and others who work in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-governed areas to be able to use iPhones for work, said John Herrema, chief marketing officer at Good Technology."We're giving the IT department a finer level of control so if you are coming from a regulated industry you can manage that subset (of iPhone users) in a more controlled way," he said.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Telstra signs on for pan-Australia fiber network

Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has managed a real, tangible win-win outcome with Sunday's deal between Telstra and the National Broadband Network Co., according to telecommunications analysts. Sunday, Telstra revealed it had signed a preliminary $11 billion (Australian, or $9.6 billion U.S.) deal with NBN Co. that would see the telecommunications company migrate its telephone and broadband customers onto the fiber National Broadband Network, with its copper network to be shut down and no more broadband services to be provided over its hybrid-fiber coaxial cable network. It was a day many thought might not ever come, but did: a day Telstra agreed on a way forward. Read more of "Telstra's NBN deal a win-win: analysts" at ZDNet Australia.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Geometry Playground takes shape in SF

Geometry as jungle gym (photos)

View the full gallery

Does the thought of geometry bring back stressful high-school math memories? Geometry Playground, a new exhibit opening Friday at San Francisco's Exploratorium, could help you rethink your associations with proofs, polygons, and acute angles by moving geometry from the textbook realm to, well, the playground realm. The exhibit includes a series of experiential displays that let you do things like crawl inside giant 3D spaces; watch yourself in a big curved mirror as you try to play hopscotch; look into a tapered kaleidoscope to see a live video creating a 120-sided shape; and use a flashlight to "draw" in the air around yourself and then see your movements manifest as geometric sketches on a large video screen. Geometry-related films such as "Between the Folds," which chronicles artists and scientists who devote their time to modern origami, will accompany the exhibit, as will workshops focused on geometric problem-solving through activities like paper folding, lacemaking, crochet, and tessellating (creating perfectly fitting patterns of shapes). Geometry Playground stays in San Francisco through September 6 and then moves on to San Diego; St. Paul, Minn.; and other cities. It's made possible by the National Science Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Click on the gallery to the right to get a sense of how Geometry Playground is shaping up.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Changing the rules of the Digg game

A management shake-up, tepid traffic, and a hyped product revamp that still hasn't seen the light of day: Much has been made, lately, of the woes facing onetime social-news darling Digg.But even if things turn around after the release of Digg's "Version 4," which will go live later this year following an alpha test that's starting to make the rounds, its launch will give Digg an additional challenge. It's built up an elaborate network of influence and deal making between media companies and "power users" over the years, and the Version 4 launch may amount to nothing less than a regime change."With the new way that Digg Version 4 works, the new homepage, 'My News', when you log in is going to be the curated content of the publishers, tastemakers, and friends that you follow, and that's going to define your customized news feed," Matt Van Horn, the company's head of business development, explained to CNET. In other words, gone will be the singular focus on the top choices of the Digg community, a grassroots rabble that's managed to build up a finely honed pecking order of influence over the years. And, in turn, gone will be many media companies' attempts to harness the power of Digg's community by dealing with those select few."It'll supposedly end the concept of the Digg power user, which has been a problematic thing for them," media consultant Rex Sorgatz, whose company Kinda Sorta Media has worked with digital publishers to build effective social-media strategies."Something like a hundred people control a huge percentage of the (Digg) home page," said Garrett Camp, the CEO of StumbleUpon, a "discovery" service whose advertising program is targeted by many of the same media strategists who work to bring in Digg traffic. "It's got some personalization, but it's really only when you're logged in."It's been both a blessing and a curse for Digg that it became such a choice destination for the young, geeky, and vocal: The community has been beyond loyal, but its slant toward high-level tech news, fringe politics, and all things Apple has kept it from having a lasting grip on the mainstream. But Digg has another kind of loyalist, and those are media companies. Despite reports that Digg is passe, marketers and consultants who work on digital-media outlets' visitor analytics and social-network promotion say that Digg is still an extremely significant source of traffic for their sites.Version 4, with users' personalized home pages putting the central most-Dugg list on the back burner, will change that.Obviously, Digg had to do something. Executives have teased the major revamp for over a year now, hinting repeatedly at features that still have yet to launch. At the same time, there's been clear internal friction: CEO Jay Adelson quit his post in April, citing an "entrepreneurial calling," with founder Kevin Rose returning full time to the company and taking over the helm. There was a round of layoffs shortly thereafter. Other prominent Digg employees have quit too, joining the ranks of companies like SimpleGeo, a start-up co-founded by longtime Digg lead architect Joe Stump, and AOL.Meanwhile, Digg's Valley cred has been waning. In 2006, an ebullient BusinessWeek cover story depicted a cheeky Rose on the eve of Digg Version 3's unveiling, the company fresh off the announcement of a VC funding round that valued it at $60 million. Four years later, there are no more rumors about Google or News Corp. courting Digg for a sale. The social-news aesthetic that was once unique to Digg and a few other sites has now been co-opted by Facebook, which now offers "like" buttons that many publishers run alongside the Digg buttons that have been placed there for promotion for years; and TweetMeme, which aggregates Twitter links into a Digg-like interface."It feels like its cultural influence is dissipating," Sorgatz said of Digg. "It seems less relevant.""Twitter's sort of stealing (Digg's) limelight, and Facebook with the 'like' button is doing what they always did," StumbleUpon's Garrett Camp said.In the days of the heaviest hype, some media companies turned directly to influential Digg users as a way to buy traffic; in its heyday, one source in the digital-marketing world explained, a Digg power user could pull in $3,000 to $5,000 per month for those services alone. While it still goes on to an extent, those price tags have fallen."The only thing left to Digg is a grave," Website Magazine dramatically asserted early this June, pointing to Compete.com data that said the once-hyped social news site saw its traffic plummet by 13.8 million unique visitors from March to April.Digg says those numbers are misleading. "Most of it is due to the Google algorithm change that took place in mid-February, and that was really directed at Facebook and Twitter and we saw the negative effects of that," spokeswoman Michele Husak told CNET, hinting that the impending product revamp may see additional traffic aberrations. "We're shifting our platform over to Version 4, so there will be some obvious changes in what the numbers look like."Traffic at Digg might not be plummeting, and arguably, it's more than lukewarm. There are 40 million unique visitors, even if it's just a few of them doing the "digging." In many cases, particularly sites that deal with content that Diggers find particularly appealing, Digg still trumps inbound traffic from Facebook and Twitter. Sorgatz pointed to one of his clients, TheWeek.com, which continues to see big traffic coming from Digg's politically minded users. "They're really big on political cartoons, and occasionally they will get Dugg and on the front page, and suddenly servers go bananas," Sorgatz said."I think the demise of Digg is greatly exaggerated. I think they're still a huge site," said Jonah Peretti, the CEO of BuzzFeed, a start-up that works with media companies to help them drive their content "viral," and has partnered with many sites including Digg.The idea of "going viral," with the sudden bursts of traffic that ensue, is an appealing one to publishers. One consultant forwarded a document to CNET that it distributes to clients who want to figure out how to get on Digg's front page by making inroads with the site's elite. "Digg is the ultimate social media exercise in quid pro quo; if you are not willing to interact and help promote (by Digging) other users stories, you will not be able to use the site effectively," the document explained. "Most Digg sharing is done through instant messaging; if you don't have access to IM during the day, you won't be able to grow your Digg profile and status."But the document warns that there is "no exact science" to getting on the Digg front page, and that the community can be unreliable. BuzzFeed's Peretti agreed, saying that media companies should now expect to see a steadier stream of traffic coming from Digg rather than the massive peaks and gulfs that many now experience."With Digg, if you get on the front page you know that it sends (lots of traffic) all at once, but then it might not send very much for a couple of weeks, and then it sends a lot again," Peretti said. "The blessing and curse for the old Digg model is that you send it all at once and people notice it and get excited, but it also makes it hard to depend on, it makes it all about the front page rather than personalization."With Version 4, the company hopes to replace the back-room dealing of the old Digg with an official presence on the site for media companies and publishers."I think we're hoping to still allow for that (hit-driven business) while being able to send more predictable, regular traffic," Matt Van Horn said. "The default home page is going to be 'My News', which is going to be the customized news feed for you, so we hope we're going to send a lot more 'long tail' traffic, but we're still going to have a 'Top News' page."Van Horn, an energetic 26-year-old, is known in the media industry as the guy who puts together open-bar "Digg Swiggs" for the local digital crowd on his frequent visits to New York. These days, tasked with easing media companies into a new, post-"power user" Digg, he's arguably a more prominent face of the company than Rose himself."I think that the savvy will always evolve," Van Horn said. "The Digg algorithm has always been changing; it's very different than it was years ago. I can't speak to the relationships that media companies have with power Diggers, but I do know a lot of smart media companies that have a lot of people that are very active on Digg. I think that the smart ones and the savvy ones are going to evolve and learn to be successful in the new Digg ecosystem."Van Horn's job entails not just working with media companies on how to wrangle Digg, but also encouraging them to promote Digg itself in the process. "One of the smartest things that publications can do is optimize their sites for getting Dugg most easily, so having yellow Digg buttons with the number count as well as modules of the most-Dugg stories can really help both on the old site and on Version 4," he said.But when all is said and done, Digg is a community site. It's the people pushing the buttons who are ultimately in control. And the company may have a chicken-and-egg problem on its hands: for a new Digg that relies in part on your friends' recommendations, it helps to have friends already using Digg actively, and for millions of potential users that won't be the case, at least not immediately."They have a ton of unique visitors, of which most do nothing," StumbleUpon's Garrett Camp said. "I've seen the screenshots, and it's neat, but I don't know enough people who use Digg for it to be effective for me."
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

A look at iPhone cash and exchange deals

You may have heard there's a new iPhone hitting stores this week. If you're planning on buying one and still have your old iPhone, why not sell it?There's a good chance you can recoup much of what you originally paid and put it toward the new iPhone 4. Individuals, resellers, and retailers are willing to pay for old iPhones, you just need to know where to look. The gadget resale market, especially for the iPhone, is hotter than ever right now. Consumer electronics reseller Gazelle.com said last week that 10,000 iPhones were sold to the site in the week following the iPhone 4's introduction on June 7--and that was 10 times the number of old iPhones sold to the site following the iPhone 3GS announcement a year ago.Your best options for making money off your iPhone include the obvious places like eBay and Craigslist, but if you don't feel like doing the work yourself, gadget resellers will do most of it for you: they'll buy your phone from you and handle the reselling themselves. And this year, iPhone retailer RadioShack is offering an incentive to sell back your old phone.

Gadget resellers will pay you for your old iPhone.(Credit: NextWorth.com/Screenshot by Erica Ogg/CNET)

Though most places will take any model iPhone with normal wear and tear, the later the model of iPhone you're selling, and the better the condition it is in will increase the resale value. And, of course, before you part with your phone, remember to wipe it of all your personal data.Here are some of your best options:Gazelle.com Gazelle will buy your old iPhone and pay you depending on the condition. It'll wipe the data for you as part of the service (though you should probably do it yourself just for peace of mind). You just answer a few questions about your phone's condition and which accessories you have, and it'll spit out a price and send you a box for shipping your phone. Last week a 32GB iPhone 3GS in good condition with normal wear and tear was worth $198. NextWorth.com Like Gazelle, it'll buy your old iPhone provided it's in decent working shape. If it's close to new, with everything in working order, a 32GB iPhone 3GS will fetch as much as $300. For an iPhone 3G in good condition, NextWorth is offering more than $100. RadioShack The consumer electronics retailer is offering perhaps the most efficient way of reselling your old iPhone and getting a new iPhone 4. For the first time, RadioShack has been included as one of the first retail outlets to get the iPhone on launch day. And it's sweetened the deal for potential customers by adding an extra incentive.RadioShack will let you turn in your old iPhone for store credit toward the new one. The retailer says it will pay "up to $200" for an iPhone 3GS. Just bring it into the store and an employee will plug the device's specs and condition into their system and pay based on that recommendation. That value can be put toward a new iPhone 4 the same day or kept on a RadioShack gift card for future use.

If your phone looks like this, you probably can't resell it. But be sure to check out electronics recycling centers.(Credit: magerleagues' Flickr)

Best Buy will also pay you for an old iPhone in good condition as long as you bought the phone through Best Buy and you have your original receipt.Craigslist It's easy and free to list an old iPhone on the online classified listing site, so it's a natural choice. Craigslist allows you to choose from among potential buyers, and there's more room to haggle on a price. A quick perusal of San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist shows people willing to pay $200 to $250 for a 32GB iPhone 3GS. Just remember to insist on cash from buyers, and always meet the person in a public place when you do the exchange.eBay eBay is a good choice for people who want an established system through which to offload their old goods. With eBay you get less chance of being scammed, and the option of auctioning your unwanted phone to buyers, potentially sending the price up higher. PayPal payments also help ensure you'll get your money, and eBay's buyer protection program will help you smooth out any conflicts with buyers and help you get paid. There are more than 1,100 used iPhone 3GS 32GB models on sale on eBay as of late last week, so there will be some competition in attracting buyers. But the bids that are coming in are fairly high: One iPhone 3GS had 11 bids at $273.If your phone isn't in good enough shape to resell or if you want to get rid of it, don't just toss it in the trash. You can go to the National Center for Electronics Recycling Web site to find an electronics recycler in your area.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Is Google far too much in love with engineering?

It's nice if a pilot has a background in flying. It's really quite special if a colonoscopist has a background in medicine. But does everyone who heads up a department at Google really need to have a background in engineering?I should be lying in the sun rather than pondering this existential mind-twister, but I was moved past reluctance by a blog post written by Don Dodge, developer advocate at Google.Dodge, who used to perform advocacy at Microsoft, wrote this post to celebrate surviving--I'm sorry, I mean enjoying--six months at Google.In a section titled "Engineering Rules!," Dodge offered the following: "Google has always been driven by outstanding engineering talent. Google hires only the best engineers. The legends of complex interview questions and coding problems are true. Educational achievement is valued at Google."Do complex interview questions really test your educational achievement? Or do they merely test your ability to answer complex questions asked by, no doubt, complex people--people with certain complexes--in an interview situation?But even that mind-number isn't the one that keeps me from the sand.It was this: "Engineers are at every level, starting at the top, in all kinds of positions at Google. Nearly all the top management at Google have engineering backgrounds. Marketing, sales, business development, product management, are all more likely to be former engineers."My troubled educational achievement suggests to me that Dodge is holding up this intellectual monochrome of leadership as a good thing. He is suggesting that this is a company that is so immersed in engineering that only those who understand its complex rudiments can be trusted to, say, market Google's products.

I believe this is an image from a Google presentation called "The Joys of Engineering Leadership."(Credit: CC DailyLifeofMojo/Flickr)

This is how Dodge explained it: "The engineering background brings a rigorous thought process that questions assumptions and requires accurate data in the decision process. That doesn't mean every decision will be perfect, but it will be based on data...not opinions."Perhaps some will be heartened, given how much information Google manages to collect about their everyday interests and proclivities, that Google is a company where opinions do not rule.Yet there is something slightly shiver-making about this supposed data worship. It might remind some of frenzied arguments they have had with the lovers when one party screams at the other: "You just don't understand me! You're not an engineer!"Is it really possible that there exist so few human beings beyond the educationally superior dome of Google who might not be able to muster an idea or two about how Google might market its highly complex engineering products? You know, like those highly complex all-copy ads that sit at the side of search results?Does one really need a background in engineering to wonder how best to offer real people, whose closest relationship to engineering might come every time they go over a bridge while humming along with their iPods, a browser?And how much of an engineering background does it take to decide which of 41 shades of blue really is the right one?Please, I don't wish to offend the world's greatest engineering talents. Whether they work for Google or not. If I say something too mean, I know they have the power to sever my ability to communicate with the world.They could prevent me from watching Justin Bieber videos. They could steal information from my Wi-Fi signals, reveal all the e-mails I have written to my closest friends, Cameron Diaz, Lady Gaga, and the archbishop of New York. They could make it so that my garage remote control will never work again.However, I wonder whether such slight, but no doubt data-driven, infelicities, such as the launch of Google Buzz, the riotously misguided home page designs, or the launch of Nexus One, might have done with one or two fewer data-driven managers and one or two more people who offered suggestions about what real people like and how they might react?Google does many interesting and clever things. But, at this stage of its development, its office does seem to be full of too many people with the emotional maturity of Dwight Schrute.At a time when the company needs to create more products that become an essential part of real people's lives, it often seems incapable of communicating the worth and, dare one suggest, the magic of such products to those very people.In my fanciful though intellectually inferior way of thinking, I can see the head of Google's marketing department walking into a Parisian bakery, ordering the most exquisite pastry, tasting it, delighting in its complex wonder until his lips are moist beyond imagining. Then he hears the lady behind the counter say: "Ze baker. He has a degree in archaeology."A true Googlie would, naturally, put the pastry down and walk out of the bakery. Well, at least that's what the data would tell him to do, wouldn't it?
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Software layers BP oil spill over your home

Using freely available government data, a new Web site helps people quantify the BP oil spill in local terms.IfItWasMyHome.com uses a combo of Google Maps and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite tracking data to place the parameters of the BP oil spill--the result of the April 20 explosion of an oil rig--over any area in the world.The spill can be moved to center on any location of one's choosing by simply entering location data (such as a city or postal code) as one would usually do for Google Maps.Playing with the tool is devastating.Many in the media initially compared the spill to the size of Rhode Island or Delaware, America's smallest states. But playing with this tool that follows NOAA data daily, one sees that if centered on Boston, the spill now would cover almost all of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, more than half of Connecticut, and parts of New Hampshire and Maine combined. That's more than half of New England.The tool is the work of Andy Lintner, a software developer from Royal Oak, Mich. who wanted to better demonstrate to his wife the scope of the spill. He initially Photoshopped the spill over a map of Michigan, but then got the idea to use Google Maps to let anyone put the spill over their home area.Lintner told The New York Times that he created the Web site last week and posted its address to his Facebook page. Since then, Lintner has seen at least a quarter of a million visitors, a number that will no doubt grow quickly after this morning's exposure from the NYT article and other media outlets.The site seems to be updated daily

Here is a visual image of the BP oil spill when placed over a map of New England as of Thursday.(Credit: Google Maps/IfItWasMyHome.com)

Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)