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One of the co-founders of Twitter, Evan Williams, has been telling the BBC how he believes that social networking sites such as Twitter are the future of communication.

Williams says that the open exchange of information as a means of combating censorship and will fundamentally alter the way we interact with our governments.

He also confirmed that Twitter still had no intention of charging users.

“Our goal at Twitter is to be a force for good,” he said. “We have a fundamental belief, having worked on this type of thing for 10 years, that the open exchange of information has a positive impact on the world.”

The challenge now is to extend Twitter’s reach into areas where technology is not so well advanced. Williams thinks that the site’s influence will be even greater in these areas as there is less access to information. Efforts are being made to improve SMS coverage in remote areas of India and in Haiti, as this would allow people to keep in touch with the world even via a relatively low-spec mobile phone.

“My hope is that eventually the open exchange of information will prevail in most regions, but we don’t have any specific plans in China or other areas where we’re blocked,” he added.

A deal has been signed between Google and the Italian government so that up to a million books could be included in the Google Books project.

The deal covers everything from two of Italy’s national libraries and would see them all accessible via the internet. This would include books by Dante, Machiavelli and Galileo and they would all be available for free.

All of these books were published prior to 1868, which means that there are no copyright issues and the scheme has been welcomed in Italy as budget considerations have limited what can be spent on trying to preserve the collections that are kept in Rome and Florence.

A 1966 flood in Florence damaged thousands of books and Mario Resca, speaking on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, pointed to this catastrophe, saying that having the books scanned for the internet would ensure that the content was never lost.

Other Google attempts to scan books have encountered difficulties. A French court found that the process was an infringement of copyright, while the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers brought a lawsuit against the search giant for the same reason.

It has been announced that Microsoft’s Bing search engine will be the new sponsor of The Simpsons when it is shown on Channel 4. The three-month deal is thought to be worth over half a million pounds.

Microsoft is looking to raise awareness about its new search engine and is using traditional advertising means as well as those online. Bing will sponsor The Simpsons on weeknights on both Channel 4 and Channel 4+1. This will be Microsoft’s first TV partnership and will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the immensely popular cartoon sit-com.

The adverts will incorporate Simpsons characters and will be shown before and after each episode as well as in the ad breaks. Different Simpson family members will be shown using the search engine to solve problems.

Bing was launched in November of last year as Microsoft made a renewed effort to close the gap on Google and Yahoo! According to the most recent statistics concerning internet usage, Bing currently has 4 per cent of the market share in the UK, as does Yahoo! Google is still way out in front with 86 per cent of the market.

Search engine giants Google have released yet another innovative product to help improve the web browsing experience. This latest feature is called Google Reader Play, and it is designed to display RSS news feeds in a more visually entertaining format.

Some have described the way the new interface displays the web as similar to ‘an interactive entertainment magazine’, and this sounds about right. It is an experimental feature that focuses heavily on the visual, as well as the fun, side of browsing RSS feeds.

How does it work?
Google Reader Play focuses on pictures and videos, and also displays statistics and information in the form of entertaining graphics and maps. It lets you browse one story at a time this way, making it easier and more entertaining to spend time reading news feeds.

One of Google’s software engineers, Garrett Wu, believes that:

“Reader Play is a fun way to browse interesting items online that you wouldn’t find otherwise,”

Unwittingly however, Wu has highlighted one of the main user complaints about the new interface; that it is great for time-wasting, but not for efficient and speedy searching. This is likely why the product is only an experimental feature, an entertaining distraction from serious searching. The fact that Google Reader Play has been introduced just a few weeks before the launch of the Apple iPad is also another probable reason behind its launch.

According to a new report published by Barracuda Labs, only around one fifth of all users registered on Twitter regularly use their accounts. The study categorises users as active if they:

• Follow more than 10 other Twitter accounts
• Have 10 or more followers
• Have posted more than 10 tweets since signing up to the micro-blogging service

The results of the study showed that only 21 percent of Twitter users match this description and can be classed as active.

Implications
This percentage of active users is much lower than most people’s expectations of Twitter’s total user base. Promotion from celebrities and high-profile figures – dubbed the ‘Twitter Red Carpet Era’ by the report - as well as frequent reports of the service’s popularity in the media result in a misleading impression of how many people actually use Twitter. The results of the Barracuda Labs’ study could have a detrimental impact on Twitter’s ability to attract advertisers, although the strength of the brand nowadays seems to overshadow the total number of users.

Active users are on the rise
Despite these surprising results, the report does however demonstrate that the number of active Twitter users is on the rise. The number of accountholders gaining followers has risen to 34% from 17%, whilst figures for inactive users with no followers have dropped from 30% to 17% since June 2009.