Horizon highlights – Obama edition

Our regular roundup of sci-tech stories from across the Web includes: A newspaper that feels like a blog, Microsoft cuts its losses, and several examples of Obama-tech. Let’s kick it off:

New media: In the realm of the real
"As financial difficulties for newspapers mount, the prospect of shutting down the presses and going web-only is frequently raised as an option. But Josh Karp is attempting to do the exact opposite. He's launching The Printed Blog later this month in Chicago, San Francisco and New York, which will take all its content from blogs to create a free, hyper-local daily paper." [via WNYC's On The Media]

Grim news: Google can't save newspapers either, ends Print Ads program
"It seemed like a goodwill gesture: Google, the company that many newspapers grumble about when lamenting their troubles making money online, said in November 2006 that it was determined to figure out a better way to sell print ads." [via LA Times]

Losses: Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs
"Spooked by a rapid decline in orders for personal computers, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, initiated the first broad layoffs in the company’s history on Thursday and warned of waning technology spending in the months and even years to come." [via NY Times]

The rundown: 100 top sites for the year ahead
"The online world has changed dramatically even since we last drew up a list of 100 useful sites in December 2006.... So here are our 100 revised best sites to see you through the next couple of years. They're organized roughly along those lines." [via The Guardian]

Catch up: Staff finds White House in the technological dark ages
"If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past. Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts." [via Washington Post]

Bullet-proof style: Does the Kevlar number come in a French cuff?
"Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president on Tuesday under tight security. He rode to the Capitol in an armored Cadillac limo, spoke behind a protective glass shield, and wore 'bullet-resistant clothing.' Is that the same thing as a bulletproof vest?" [via Slate Explainer]

The moment: How to slow Google: Get Barack Obama to speak
"Check out the chart below, via the 'Official Google Blog,' which shows the overall volume of queries at the search engine giant yesterday. That valley in the middle of the graph? That’s the period when Obama actually spoke during his inauguration ceremony, starting a little after noon Eastern time. That’s one powerful speech." [via All Things Digital]

Social experiment: The inauguration in Photosynth
CNN and Microsoft teamed up to pool people's pictures of the inauguration, creating a 3-D spin of a cultural snapshot. [via CNN]

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