Within hours of the release of the updated map, Internet users had begun to put their stamp on it.

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Most strikingly, Mr Gore is interested in science: his famous concern for the chemical balance of environment is matched by similar passions for the Internet, the genome map, new research on learning.

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An intercontinental project that bridged citizen science, open data, open source hardware, civic hacking and the Internet of things to monitor, share and map radiation data?

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The iPhone has a larger screen than BlackBerry, a better (virtual) keyboard, a GPS map, and a unique configuration of Internet, phone, iPod, and calendar tools.

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Last September, Qwiki won top prize at Internet startup conference TechCrunch Disrupt, putting it on the map for potential investors.

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To add another layer of complexity, many tweets contain shortened URLs, and the Library of Congress is in discussions with many of these providers as well as with the Internet Archive and its 301works project to help resolve and map the links.

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So far, that app is making intelligent use of the shared functions of the social and search giants, and the value of a fast (and, in alien data environments, fairly cheap) map not at the mercy of spotty local internet services should not be underestimated.

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In one of its many attempts to make the world more accessible and interconnected, the Internet giant sends cars out with cameras mounted on their hoods in order to photograph and map the world down to the street level.

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