Technknowledge

To show support for the global fight against AIDS, both Google and Twitter changed up their sites a bit Tuesday.

If you go to Google.com, you'll find a link under the search box that leads to several resources where you can learn more about AIDS, volunteer to fight the disease, and donate money to fight AIDS. It's no small contribution to the cause--Google's home page is undoubtedly driving considerable traffic to all the organizations the company lists.
Twitter red

Twitter has turned red for World AIDS Day.

Twitter has introduced a more obvious change to its site. Whenever a user adds the hashtag #red to their tweets, the message they update their status page with will be displayed in red to followers. Users can also add the hashtag #laceupsavelives to turn their tweets red. The change is part of the Turn Red initiative, which aims at battling AIDS in Africa.

You can learn more about Join Red and the fight against AIDS on the organization's Twitter page.

Twitter has now launched the geotagging API, or application programming interface, that it announced in August.

Users now have the option to opt-in to geolocation by clicking a box in their settings menu, according to Twitter. For now, the company said, the impact of geotagging will be in third-party apps. Users won't see a difference to Twitter.com just yet.

Twitter contends that including a user's location when he or she tweets could significantly add to its microblogging service. The company wrote in a blog post that the new feature should allow users to "better focus in on local conversations."

Several third-party tools, including Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, and Twittelator Pro are already supporting geolocation, Twitter said. It should be interesting to see how other developers will incorporate location-based information into their apps.

Connecting with other movie fans and discussing films you select from Netflix can be fun. Although sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have become important parts of the online experience for movie buffs, they aren't exactly the forums for engaging movie chat and social networking that the sites in this roundup are. Below are some of the best I've found.

Movie social networks

Filmcrave Filmcrave lets you create lists of all the movies you love, rate films, and discuss those ratings with friends in the site's forums. You can also find other members who might have similar movie tastes by comparing their reviews to yours. Filmcrave is designed well but doesn't stand out from the competition.

Flixster Once you sign up for Flixster, you'll immediately be asked to find friends who are already on the service. It takes only a few seconds, so it's worth trying.

When complete, you can take a test that will help determine how compatible your movie tastes are with your friends'. You can check out movies, tell others what your favorite films are, use widgets that let you add voice comments to Flixster, and more.

The site even has a chat function, so you can instant-message with others while reading up on films. And unlike the other services in this roundup, Flixster is available for mobile phones, including the iPhone and BlackBerry. It also has applications on MySpace and Facebook. It's everywhere for good reason--it's the best movie social network on the Web.
Flixster

Flixster lets you see how compatible you are with your friends.