Saw today that Google Maps now has a Traffic layer, which color codes congestion around 30 major cities, Washington DC included.  If you zoom in close enough, you'll also now see markers for Metro stations.  HT: Tags: Google, Internet

Someone does Government 2.0 style - OpenCongress is live, complete with "Beta" sunsplash thingy and a few gray gradients.  This, along with The Open House Project, seem to be built on top of the data provided by govtrack.us.  Will it make a difference?  Will you use it to track any issue, industries, or your local representatives?

What are some strategies for keeping track of comments you leave on other people's blogs?  Knowing when someone replies to an interesting comment encourages discussion and participation. 

If you're using Internet Explorer, or are forced to use it at work, you should seriously consider switching browsers until Microsoft deems it time to release a patch to the latest Internet Explorer security hole. This one is pretty serious as it does not require any action on the user's part beyond visiting a compromised website. Once you visit such a site, spyware and keyloggers can be installed on your machine to steal personal information.

Via Network-Centric Advocacy, I had a small "aha" moment, from a piece they linked to on AlterNet, Blogging While Black. To me, it resonates with why many communications folks within an organization don't know what to make of blogging. Being the Communications Director somewhere means your supposed to be crafting , filtering, and controlling the org's message and outreach. Blogs can be a threat because anyone beyond the anointed can have a voice.

I know I'm a bit late to the game, but some of you may not know that Mozilla Firefox 1.5, was released last week. If you are still using Internet Explorer on your Windows machine, you should install and start using Firefox because its more secure, faster, and extendable. This Introduction to Firefox is a great starter's guide for making the switch form IE.

Scott Berkun, who designed and worked on the development of Microsoft's Internet Explorer versions 1 to 5, explains why he switched to Firefox.

He has great praise for the design team, particularly those who have kept the browser focused on appealing to the mainstream user.

It seems Microsoft is trying to stem the tide of users ditching the security hazard that is Internet Explorer for Mozilla Firefox. They just announced that Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta Due This Summer. Why wait until this summer for a preview version of their next browser when you can get Firefox today?

At least in sales pitches? From DivaBlog: What if Mozilla were to win in the end?

Anyway, the presenter was doing his pitch in a polished way and at one point he said he wanted to show us a "really cool" feature and he looked up into the audience and said "Show of hands...How many of you use Internet Explorer?".

According to broadband reports, phishing scams which exploit Microsoft Internet Explorer's bug that allows scam artists to hide the real url of a link while displaying a legit looking address.