This week we launched several new features at Jobster.com. Jason describes  them in his blog.

First, we launched a new layout to the Jobster homepage. One thing you’ll notice is a map which shows job searches as they are occurring on jobster in real time… A fun little trick is to search for yourself e.g. “Jason Goldberg in Seattle, WA” and then go back to the homepage quickly to see yourself appear on the map.

We also updated our tools which enable users to add a jobster job feed or job search widget onto their blogs or websites. You can create your feed here (requires log-in for now). we also launched an entirely new jobster.com corporate information site for employers to learn about jobster’s tools for targeting candidates and gaining referrals. more on the way …

Fans of interactive visualizations will appreciate gapminder.org, as will those who want to understand whats happening in the world.  There are some highly effective animations showing the shifting distribution of poverty over time, vastly different healthcare results at the same income levels, and other interesting results.  The news isn’t all bad, and the site aims to present the facts without political bias.  The static picture below can’t do the animations justice, so click on through to the site for the full experience.

subSilver_mobile provides discussion forums that are optimized for mobile devices — it’s a phpBB template based on subSilver.

Adfh Au was kind enough to point out that I’d earlier uploaded the wrong file, an error which has now been corrected. See the Project Page for more info.

It’s time to relabel the terms of the “civil liberties versus security” debate.

Longings for “security” are visceral and deep, whereas “civil liberties” feel abstract, legalistic, and professorial.

Relabel civil liberties as “freedom”, however, and we’re comparing apples with emotional applies.

“Security versus freedom”– that’s what the tradeoff actually comes down to, and labeling things this way helps us find the right balancing point in the middle.

Those who advocate for freedom can and must find words that connect emotionally with feelings that everyone shares. Labeling the debate in this way connects with those on both the left and the right who are concerned with the tendency of governments to overreach and to cloak their actions in secrecy.

Rich Tong reports that T-Mobile has nearly completed their Edge Network, which will be four times faster than GPRS.

As a user of T-mobile’s unlimited data plan on the Blackberry, I’m excited about this. It will make the Blackberry much more effective both for mobile data apps and as a tethered modem.

I don’t believe anyone has really created a decent browser based spreadsheet For example, Jotspot Tracker has table editing functionality, but with some significant limitations. (No formulas (!), no horizontal scrolling, no rectangular selections, etc.)

Part of the problem is that implementing a great spreadsheet using the standard browser text widgets is virtually impossible.

Rather than forcing a Flash or Java based approach, why not standardize a spreadsheet input field and build it into browsers?

It’s seems not difficult to specify or use:

Something like this would define the spreadsheet in markup:

<input type=”spreadsheet” name=”sheet”/>

When submitted, the spreadsheet values would be posted as a set of values such as “sheet[0][2]=hello”.

Naturally the spreadsheet field would be scriptable, allowing for things like formula computation, sorting, etc.

This seems simple and obvious enough that standardization and implementation in a range of browsers is achievable.

Om Malik confirms that Google has purchased Upstartle, the parent company of Writely.

I am a fan of Writely. The benefits of documents that I can access anywhere and edit collaboratively in many cases outweigh the loss of richness associated with browser based applications.

As you look at Om’s “Google Office” chart below, the obvious gaps are spreadsheets and presentations. More on that latter.

CBP Career Consultants reports that 52% of Chinese office workers write Internet blogs.

I think the 52% figure might suffer from sample bias, but it’s still a pretty interesting result. Also interesting is the greater tendency of bloggers to limit access to their blogs to more trusted contacts, for understandable reasons.

Shanghai. February 20. INTERFAX-CHINA - Blogging has increasingly become more popular in China, with 52% of white-collar workers now keeping weblogs (blogs) according to CBP Career Consultants Co., Ltd., a leading career consulting firm in China.

Unlike western bloggers who often focus on news and politics, the Chinese white collar bloggers see complaining alongside office and personal gossip as their priorities, according to the survey…

“Weblogs have become the fourth online channel for Chinese people to communicate with each other, following email, bulletin board systems (BBS) and instant messaging tools such as QQ and MSN Messenger,” Bian Bingbin, President and Chief Career Consultant with CBP Career Consultants, told Interfax Monday. “Blogging is now a lifestyle habit for more and more Chinese white-collar workers, with a majority updating their blogs once every three days on average,” he said…

Although 67% of white-collars bloggers write about their private lives, only 27% make their blogs completely public. 41% of the survey respondents said they chose MSN Spaces to host their weblogs, citing the option to limit access to users on the bloggers MSN contact list as a main reason for choosing Microsoft’s free blogging site.

Microsoft’s Street Side does for interactive street level photographs what Google Maps did for regular maps.

You can interactively drive around the city using the keyboard and see street level photographs (left, window, front view, and right window), plus a satellite overview. This is a more effective and easier to use presentation than Amazon’s Block View .

It’s really pretty cool, though limited to Seattle and San Francisco for now.

Microsoft has launched a public beta of the MSN Expo Live service as well a FAQ.

MSN is pitching Expo as an “online marketplace and social networking site.” Users will be able to target postings not just regionally but also nationally and to trusted groups like Messenger Buddies and coworkers.

It’s smart of Microsoft to leverage pre-existing groups like Messenger Buddies rather than forcing the user to recreate their social network through invitations.

One of the inspirations for Expo is clearly the Micronews– like many companies Microsoft published an internal newsletter with classifieds. When I was working at Microsoft, I bought a car through the Micronews. It really did give me a higher level of confidence knowing that, at a minimum, I knew where the seller worked and could find him if I needed to!

Some of the specific advantages touted by Microsoft include:

(1) Control over who sees your ads based on your Messenger buddy lists or other contact lists:

“Expo builds trust into your experience because it lets you control who will see your ads. You can keep it strictly among your Messenger contacts, your co-workers, or your school friends. Or you can throw it open to the world at large. The choice is yours. ”

(2) National and local search

“Unlike most other classified services, Expo allows you to search listings in your neighborhood or nationally, whichever you choose.”

(3) Integration with other MSN properties like MSN Spaces, Messenger, Windows Live Local Maps, and Driving directions