likes

Voting day is finally upon us, so don't forget to get out there and punch in your ballot or you will turn into that creature above! We're clearly experiencing technically difficulties while Jeff is away, so apologies to everyone watching today's video because I'm hulking out all episode! By the way, if you need help finding your nearest polling station, you can head over to Google Maps' voter info page, enter in the home address where you're registered, and Google does the work for you.

An artist here in New York has started a new project that literally integrates technology into the city. Aram Bartholl's "Dead Drops" is a public file-sharing network that places USB flash drives into buildings, walls, and curbs that are accessible to anyone with a computer and a willingness to share.

Each flash drive, distributed in five locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, contains a readme.txt file that explains the project and invites users to openly share their digital lives, but The 404 knows how low the Internet will go, and this doesn't bode well for the Dead Drops. The chat room has its own NSFW name for the USB keys, but we won't spoil it in the blog, so be sure to listen to the show to get all the filthy details.

A few weeks ago we showed you what OK Cupid tells us about the real Stuff White People (and other people) Like, but a new TED talk from David McCandless called "The beauty of data visualizations" shows what Facebook tells us about trends in breaking up.

The graph shows that the biggest peak in breakups is right before spring break, specifically on Mondays, which means that people like to party with other singles in the spring and summer months. Another peak happens right before Christmas, which could be attributed to penny pinching or perhaps the desire to get a fresh start for the new year. Thankfully, the lowest amount of breakups throughout the year happens on Christmas Day, so have a great holiday!

Security vendor Avast takes a cue from its own name and a slightly aged Internet meme to bring you a pirate-themed approach to home computer protection. In honor of the upcoming annual "Talk like a pirate day" on September 19, Avast rebrands its main interface in pirate-speak for people who opt in to the feature through September 22. There's not a lot to the changes, but check out the our slideshow of the four newly rechristened pirate-themed windows in Avast.

After I expressed my disappointment with Ping yesterday, a helpful reader pointed me to Like.fm as an example of the promise of social music.

Here's how it works. First, download and install the free plug-in for iTunes. (There's also a WinAmp version for you holdouts.) Whenever you play a song from iTunes, Like.fm posts the title and artist on a public Web page. Other users can then click on the "play" button on that page and if a video of the song exists on YouTube, it'll start playing. If you link Like.fm … Read more

I followed Apple's music event keynote live on my MacBook and as CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the upcoming Ping social-networking service for iTunes 10, I had a strange sense of deja vu. Ping lets iTunes users connect to friends, share their now-playing lists publicly, and make recommendations. It's built into the iTunes desktop client software and accessible from mobile devices as well.

Where have I heard this before? Let's see, iLike was kind of a social network. The Rdio subscription service has a social-networking element. But I'm thinking earlier than that. MySpace? No, that was more … Read more

Google has snapped up Like.com, the start-up announced Friday, as Google puts its product-shopping search strategy on the front burner.

Techcrunch, which reported a deal was in progress earlier in the week, said the official deal could be for as much as $100 million. "We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing, and more. We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion," said Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO, in a statement posted on Like.com's home page.… Read more

Microsoft on Tuesday introduced the latest update to its plucky come-from-behind search engine, Bing, offering specialized results for music, TV, movies, and games. (CNET's Ina Fried has the full details.)

On the music front, Bing now offers playable search results: users can play a full-length version of each song once, and 30-second samples after that. The feature is similar to what Google introduced in October, provided by partner iLike. (Google also had a partnership with Lala, but Apple acquired that company in December and discontinued its online music-streaming service in May.)

If you like the song, you can then … Read more

Vehicle registration data adds weight to the stereotype that men drive sports cars and trucks and women drive small, practical cars and crossovers.

A survey by TrueCar.com of more than 13 million cars over the last two years in the U.S. found gender differences in the types of cars that are registered to men and women. More cars are registered to men than women, with women making up only 36 percent of vehicles registrants even though the fairer sex represents 51 percent of the country's population. However, the data does not take into consideration the buying decision-maker … Read more

Each time you see a nice photo or interesting link on your friends' Facebook walls, you would probably click the "Like" button to give the person a virtual pat on the back. Wouldn't it be great to have such a button in real life?

That's exactly what the Facebook Like Button Stamp does. U.K.-based design studio Nation created the product, which is essentially a rubber stamp that lets you "Like" paper documents complete with the thumbs-up icon. It isn't in mass production, but the company seems to be assessing market interest … Read more

Oh, what's the big deal?

People appreciated those Facebook privacy settings that they had to spend hours working out. For 50 percent of those people, it was so much fun they even changed their settings at some point. Soon, they got bored of them and just wanted them simpler. So Facebook came along and made them simpler.

What's the big deal?

We at Facebook are convinced that you should be forced to share as much as possible because it's good for you. It's like dragging your kid to elementary school. Except that you're the little … Read more