The Next Web’s Weekly Recap: New Words, TMI and the Nexus One

Welcome to The Next Web’s Weekly Recap!

This week was a relatively quiet week with not too many major news stories. It was the new year holidays after all, and new year usually means a barrage of top 10 and best of lists. However there was some big news this week around Google’s upcoming Nexus One phone. More specs were released as well as a major upcoming event on January 5th.

Zeitgeist and New Words
Every year, many reflect on Google’s Zeitgeist to remember the events of the past year. This year bought a new kind zeitgeist courtesy of WhatTheTrend, the popular tool that tracks and defines Twitter’s trending topics. Also defining what happened this year was Oxford Dictionary which added a handful of new Internet terms from the past year including freemium, unfriend and paywall among others.

The Year of TMI?
This week saw the end of a decade and a great year for tech. While I won’t recap the year with top 10 lists, I will bring up one issue that has consistently come up over the past year due to the ease of which we can now share all of our personal information online – that is the issue of too much information (TMI).

Martin recently wrote a great article on the many ways in which you can perhaps overshare information about yourself. While many new tools came out in 2009 that allowed us to share as never before, I believe that 2010 will be a year that users become more aware about what they’re sharing and the tools available to filter information will be drastically be improved. I also believe that all of these services will become more tightly integrated with each other and provide more value than they currently do. If I’m wrong and things don’t improve in 2010 you could always take the drastic approach and commit web 2.0 suicide.

More Info on Google’s Nexus One
This week saw a bunch of buzz around Google’s upcoming phone. High res videos of Nexus One’s UI were released and it was also announced Google will be holding a big press event on January 5th. While the final specs are still uncertain, initial information shows 512MB RAM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB, A 3.7 inch display, 5mp camera and Android 2.1. Although the release is certainly big news for consumers in the United States, Martin questions whether Europeans will be as excited.

Quick Hits

• The Wibiya toolbar (which we use here at The Next Web) went public this week and and also got a massive upgrade.
• Why is the mobile web still so frustrating? Martin rants…
• Avatar, the most expensive movie ever made, is crushing it at the box office. More interesting is the crazy amount of data it takes to store the movie.
• Nuance, a leading provider of speech recognition announced the acquisition of SpinVox.
• Facebook revamps its Help Center for its growing masses.
• Google City Tours was updated: Be your own tour guide.
• 2009 was definitely the year of the cloud, Alex takes a look back.
• LinkedIn updated their iPhone app with a major refresh.
• Google Voice to go fully VoIP, open to all in 2010? Recent info provides some insight.
• Beware, Self-proclaimed Social Media Gurus on Twitter are multiplying like rabbits
• Apple has a location-based social network in the works? New patent details suggest that may be the case.
• A must have for every National Geographic lover – get every issue since 1988 on a 160GB hard drive.
• Social media pros predict what’s on tap for 2010.
• Type while on your iPhone with Walk n Type – pretty smart idea.
• While buzz over Apple’s upcoming tablet remains high, LG makes a big bet on E-paper.
• This week some additional specs regarding price and multi-touch capabilities of Google’s Chrome OS were leaked.
• While many in the US complain about data coverage, the UK also has their issues as well. Zee talks about O2’s effort to change that.