Google on Thursday revealed that an army of citizen cartographers is behind its widely used mapping service, helping the Internet search giant chart the world, including often inaccessible places.

Volunteers from various countries post updates on their neighborhoods or travel to remote places to map the area before uploading their findings to Google Map Maker, the company said at a conference in Singapore.

Nestle is out to boost its share of the global breakfast cereal market with a dose of augmented reality supplied by French technology firm Dassault Systemes.

A marker printed on 26 million Nestle cereal boxes being sold in 53 countries lets people with Web cameras linked to computers play an augmented reality game starring the main character of the animated film "Rio."

Computers may soon understand people better than their spouses do, courtesy of innovations from startup Affectiva that expand on groundbreaking sensing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Affectiva co-founder and MIT professor Rosalind Picard showed off the fledgling firm's feelings-sensing applications at a Web 2.0 Expo that ended Thursday in San Francisco.

The advent of 3D television and a new wave of smart mobile devices are energizing the four-day MIPTV audiovisual entertainment industry show that gets underway Monday on the French Riviera.

"I have a sense that the digital economy hasn't had an opportunity to really explore the truly trans-media experiences offered by broadband Internet and its connection to TV," said Gary Carter, chief operating officer of FreemantleMedia, a major international entertainment production company.

The worldwide smartphone market will grow nearly 50 percent this year and Google's Android will take over as the leading operating system, a technology market research firm said Tuesday.

International Data Corp. (IDC) said smartphone vendors are expected to ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to 303.4 million last year.

Facebook on Tuesday removed a page calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel, following a high-profile Israeli appeal to the popular social-networking site.

The affair highlighted how Facebook is increasingly involved in charged political conflicts, balancing between protecting freedom of expression and defending against hate speech.

Most Indians are missing out on the "digital revolution" due to poor Internet access for the nation's poor, despite the economy boasting one of the world's strongest growth rates, a study found.

The study said India was at "extreme risk" from a lack of "digital inclusion" -- along with sub-Saharan Africa -- as a vast proportion of its 1.2 billion population were being left behind shut out of the so-called.

The co-sponsor of Asia's leading IT trade fair is expecting up to 100 tablet computers to be launched at the event in May, with technology firms vying for a slice of Apple's success with the iPad.

Chang Li, secretary-general of the Taipei Computer Association, which co-sponsors the 2011 Computex Taipei trade fair, said that the sector was increasingly shifting towards the tablet market.

Inspired by a desire to help victims of Japan's deadly earthquake, a group of bloggers and writers have come together through the Internet to create a book of stories about the disaster.

The result, "Quakebook", is a moving collection of photos, memories and reflections about the massive tremor and monster tsunami that demonstrates the power of the web to unite people around the world in times of tragedy.

U.S. online retail giant Amazon is planning to launch a "cloud" service for storing videos and music online, enabling individuals to access their files from a range of digital devices, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Seattle, Washington-based Amazon may announce the project as early as Tuesday, said the financial daily, citing sources close to the matter.