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Monitoring Google's Street View for serendipitous moments of ridiculousness provides seemingly infinite possibilities for hilarity, depravity, and eccentricity. A recent event captured by the Street View mobile on a remote Scottish island actually intertwines all of those aspects into one incredibly awesome shot.

The picture clearly portrays a gathering of masked superheroes at a local pub as they prepare to unleash their heroic fury on evil pint glasses of beer. This league of extraordinarily geeky gentlemen definitely features some interesting and odd characters, though. (Wouldn't Captain Britain be a little more appropriate than Captain America? And, Aquaman? Dude, he is sooooo lame.)

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First, on Monday, the rest of the world met a version of the high-end Android handset compatible with both AT&T and the Canadian provider Rogers. Then, just 24 hours later, Sprint announced that it too would be getting the Google-branded smartphone "soon." That means the unlocked Nexus One will soon be available, open software platform in tow, for all four of the major U.S. cellular carriers.

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Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

• Over a decade ago, Web TV seemed to represent the future of television and Web browsing, but the technology never truly fulfilled its promise. According to the New York Times, some heavy hitters are currently investigating a similar system; Google, Sony and Intel are reportedly developing an Android-based 'Google TV' Internet platform for televisions and set-top boxes. [From: Engadget]
• Even though users were uploading 20 hours of content to YouTube every single minute, the site challenged its members last year to add even more useless footage. Those pleas for more material have somehow produced their intended results, as people now upload a staggering 24 hours of video to the site every minute. [From: YouTube]
• It seems that being incredibly patronizing and disdainful may actually be a prerequisite for working for a major tech company. When discussing the iPad, Apple's Steve Jobs recently claimed that people aren't "going to read for 10 hours." Now, a Microsoft spokesperson has told Engadget that the new Windows Phone 7 Series won't allow for copy and paste because people "don't actually use it" very often. Hmm. The customer is always . . . ah, who cares, right? [From: Engadget]
• One of the few drawbacks of Twitter's micro-blogging system is the dubious security of shortened URL's, and the ability of scammers to hide malicious links in them. The site is now directly combating this epidemic with the development of its own shortener, twt.tl, which it hopes will heighten security and increase user comfort. [From: Download Squad]
• Facebook attracts the majority of the public's attention over privacy issues, but MySpace is also firmly establishing itself at the forefront of the troubling debate. The site is apparently allowing Infochimps, a data collection service, to sell user information to third-party developers as part of a revenue-sharing agreement. [From: PC World]
• Upon its release, Google Buzz immediately inspired a heated debate over privacy issues. Although Google has actively addressed the specific issues, the service is still drawing significant criticism. Pamela Jones Harbour, the outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner, told a roundtable gathering that "protecting consumer privacy is of upmost importance," and that Google's Buzz launch represented "irresponsible conduct." [From: The Wall Street Journal]

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

• According to online marketing firm Hitwise, Facebook has supplanted Google as the most visited site in the United States. While its seemingly infinite communicative tools continue to encroach on the popularity of Google and Gmail, the social networking behemoth can't claim complete U.S. dominance just yet, as Google still attracts more unique visitors. [From: Tech Crunch and The Financial Times]
• Twitter's short-attention-span platform apparently carries over to reality, as hordes of bored nerds exited en masse from the South by Southwest keynote event featuring Twitter CEO Evan WIlliams. Most observers placed the blame squarely on interviewer Umair Haque, who has been getting lambasted by the blogging nerd-osphere. [From: Gawker and NBC Bay Area]
• Rhapsody is developing a new app for the iPhone, and the music streaming service will apparently allow users to actually store songs for playback. The music cache will significantly increase battery life, as the offline mode will not drain as much as power as cell or Wi-Fi activity. [From: Wired]
• It may be a collateral effect of the massive hype and publicity surrounding the iPad, but Apple is experiencing a sales boom for a variety of its devices. According to marketing firm Piper Jaffray, January and February sales of Macs skyrocketed 39-percent over the sales from the same period last year. iPod sales also increased during the two-month period, the first such rise for the gadget in over a year. [From: Engadget]
• Apple is not only in the midst of a highly successful sales period, but the company has also earned some significant bragging rights over one of its primary competitors. Research firm Crowd Science is contending that an astounding 40-percent of BlackBerry owners would rather have an iPhone. (But maybe those people just aren't aware of the BlackBerry's superior life-saving capabilities.) [From: Ars Technica]
• The perennial, public disputes between Apple and Google have apparently devolved into a childish, personal spat. A weekend piece in the New York Times categorized the corporate feud (featuring Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt as the main event) as being "fierce" and "heated." Tim Bray, an Android software developer, ratcheted up the intensity when he labeled Apple's approach to the Internet as "a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers." Zing! [From: Engadget]

Thanks to Google, finding products in local stores will soon be much more convenient for on-the-go shoppers. According to the Official Google Blog, iPhone, Android and Palm WebOS owners can use a new feature on the site's Product Search that shows whether or not an item is in stock at nearby retail stores. You'll see a small blue dot next to the listing. So far, national chains like Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm have signed on. To access, just visit Google, select the 'Shopping' tab or just view the 'Shopping Results' when performing a regular search.

This feature should save tech-savvy shoppers some gas money. Rather than driving all over town to find a hot product, you can just power up your mobile device's browser and look for the blue dot. Then again, you could just cut out the middleman and do all your shopping on the Web. [From: Google, via: CNET News]

It's an accepted fact of life in the Internet age that companies like Google will collect (supposedly) anonymous information about your browsing habits and serve up targeted ads relevant to your interests. Though, there is a problem with this model (beyond the privacy concerns): What good does showing you 50 ads for laptops in 30 minutes do?

Newer systems are coming into favor that let advertisers buy ads as their target audience is loading a specific page, instead of buying blocks of advertising from a network. eBay has been testing such a system from a company called AppNexus that uses not just browsing history, but leverages eBay's knowledge of location, searches and purchases. The whole process takes just milliseconds as eBay identifies and offers ad space to its clients, and advertisers must then decide whether or not to bid on the space in order to customize it to that particular visitor.

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Yesterday, we spotted a strange tweet from the Google Reader team that simply read, "Getting ready to play..." Well, after about 24 hours of mystery, all has been revealed. (We could only hope that iamamiwhoami would be so prompt.)

Google Reader Play is a new slideshow-esque tool that focuses on short-and-sweet posts that works with your Google Reader account. By default, it pulls from a selection of popular posts (e.g., we're seeing pictures of otters, Yahoo! Answers disasters, and other funny and sensational stories). Play provides simple controls for moving between news items and lets you star, share, and like posts, without having to deal with the complex folder structure of Google Reader's usual view. Images and videos are automatically blown up to fill the screen. You can view content straight from your Google Reader folders (e.g. your folder of finely curated YouTube accounts showing pet videos), but it's a bit of a backwards process. Go to your regular Reader view, select feed options (the triangle next to the folder/feed), and click "View in Reader Play."

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Google Maps was already one of our favorite tools on the Web, thanks to its (borderline creepy) satellite images, (usually) reliable directions, and powerful search tools. The latest edition, though, has really endeared Google to many of us here at the Switched offices: biking directions.

The specific navigation tool for cyclists joins existing options for driving, walking, and public transportation. The biking guide avoids major roads and highways (as well as hills), and, wherever possible, sticks to existing bike lanes and paths.

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One of the few communities in which cloud-based services have been slow to take root is that of business. Sure, the average Joe is fine trusting his e-mail and scheduling to Google or Yahoo!, but enterprises still rely heavily on expensive desktop and server-based programs that cooperate with products like Microsoft's Exchange. Last night, though, Google fired yet another shot in the battle for the hearts and minds of business users when it launched the Google Apps Marketplace.

The premise is simple enough. Google Apps users with their own domains can search the marketplace for cloud-based applications that will integrate directly with their Google services. For example, domain managers could add the Aviary design suite or Inuit's Online Payroll app to their Google apps dashboard. These apps can also directly communicate with apps like Google Calendar or Talk to pull in schedules or to allow in-app instant messaging.

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They might not have as high a profile as the Oscars, but Britain's first annual Google Street View Awards ceremony was held Monday. The Telegraph reports a panel of U.K. experts, selected by Google, and about 11,000 online participants voted a cobblestone road in York, called The Shambles, "Britain's Most Picturesque Street." "It has been the backdrop for many a jigsaw, chocolate box and railway poster and once you visit you will see why," shop owner Ian Addyman told the Telegraph.

The competition, intended to hype the many new locations added to the U.K. Street View, also included other award categories. Bath's Milsom Street won for "Best Fashion" and Hampshire's Stockbridge High Street came away with "Best Foodie Street." In return, these winning walks get a ton of free publicity (which business owners must love), and will be highlighted on Street View with special guides and point-of-interest markers. Google hasn't provided Street View links on the Awards announcement, but you can still browse the best of the digitized U.K. via the voting page. [From: Telegraph and Google]

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Google has been offering public data and statistics via search for some time now. In November, it added stores of information from the World Bank to its database. Now, the search giant has supplemented Google Labs with a new tool, the Public Data Explorer, which is designed to make that torrent of numbers a little easier to understand.

Data, anything from common last names to unemployment figures, can be combined and compared into line or bar graphs, as well as into animated maps and bubble charts. The animated bubble charts are particularly impressive. In the example below, you can watch the number of worldwide births drop as life expectancy increases. An extra layer of data is added by separating countries into color-coded bubbles. Representing various demographics, those bubbles grow and shrink in accordance with each group's size in relation to the overall population.

In addition to the World Bank, data can be culled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, the California Department of Education, Eurostat, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (whew!) -- making it an invaluable tool for researchers, students, and anyone else who needs easy access to a bottomless store of statistics. [From: Official Google Blog]

Hoping to be selected as test sites for Google's upcoming high-speed fiber network, many cities have launched weird viral campaigns. According to an Associated Press report, Google set the nomination deadline for March 26th, and will announce the winners by the end of the year.

Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, told the AP that Google wants cities that are ready to hit the ground running. "They want a fast, easy rollout," he said. "They are really looking for a community that is fully bought into this." Judging by a few of the more interesting nominees that PC magazine found, that won't be a problem.

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There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

• An enterprising knitter took advantage of her Apple power adapter's tendency for heating up by creating a 'Sockintosh' foot warmer. Yes, it's a joke. [From: Engadget]
• Popular Science teamed up with Google to offer 137 years of Popular Science online. Dive in and read about everything from June 1964's jet-powered autoplane to October 1986's piece on the pickup boom. [From: Popular Science and Google]
• The coolest dad ever created this amazing Voltron costume for his daughter. [From: BuzzFeed]
• We wrote about Internet Explorer 6's mock funeral yesterday, and Microsoft humored the gathered mourners by sending along flowers and a note. [From: seattlepi]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

• Hack n Mod shows you how to take a clunky gadget scratched from months of abuse to a sleek, brandless futuristic device with just a few simple polishing tips. [From: Hack n Mod, via: OhGizmo]
• Though Google first announced automatic captions on YouTube videos way back in November, the world's most popular video site is finally rolling out the features on all English-speaking videos. [From: TechCrunch / Washington Post]
• This coffee thermos, from Canon's press center at the Olympics, was designed to look like the company's pro L-series "white" lenses. It's also possibly the coolest geek swag ever, and will probably be going for thousands on eBay in a few weeks. [From: pdn via Chad Mumm]
• Claiming that whole "Internet thing" isn't going to work out or that we'll all be using flying cars in a decade probably isn't the best way to gain credibility, so Slate's got a guide to sussing out bad tech predictions. [From: Slate]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Only sissies use voice commands on their mobile phones, and physically typing a search term is really no better than scratching a crude picture of a bison on a cave wall. Google has recognized that Android users are waaay too savvy for those antiquarian methods of search, so yesterday, the geniuses at Google Labs released the Gesture Search app for users running Android's version 2.0 and above.

Once you've opened Gesture Search, apply your trusty finger to the touchscreen, make broad stokes that barely resemble Roman script, and behold as your phone starts listing the contacts, apps, bookmarks and music that begin with that squiggly mutation of a letter. As the Official Google Mobile Blog points out, even if your 'A' looks like an 'H,' Gesture Search will list results for both letters. The fact that you have the handwriting of a two-year-old child will no longer bar you from searching to your heart's content. [From: The Official Google Blog]