Google has revealed its latest foray into the social space: a tool called Google Buzz that integrates with Gmail.

The basic idea is similar to the feed on a Facebook user's home page: Buzz allows a user to see a stream of comments, links, photos, and videos that have been shared with friends. But while the interface looks familiar, Google could have a real advantage in tying Buzz to other successful products to beef up its functionality and adoption. The company also seems to have been working hard to identify and solve several problems inherent to existing social networks.

Gmail users will be automatically subscribed to 40 people based on their e-mail and chat behavior. The Buzz page (already available to some users) will show items shared by these people, and it will also recommend items that a user might be interested in, even if those items were posted in their extended network. As with Twitter, a Buzz user can direct an item to a specific person by using an @reply. This sends the item to the friend's inbox, where it functions as a "live object," updating in real-time as others comment on it.

Whenever social sites like Twitter are discussed, the issue of signal-to-noise typically comes up, and Google seems to have a plan for that too: using location information to help decide which posts are most relevant to a user.

Buzz will also help users control who sees the items they share. Todd Jackson, product manager for Google Buzz, notes that "many users use one product to share things publicly and a separate product to share things privately." Buzz, on the other hand, has been built with a user interface that makes it easier to flip back and forth between public and private, in the hope that users will use it to perform both functions.

Google has also announced three efforts to promote Buzz on mobile phones. First: a mobile app for both the iPhone and Android; second: links to Buzz on Google's mobile home page; and third: integration of Buzz with Google Mobile Maps so that users can see items posted near a location. For the mobile versions of Buzz, users can also choose whether to have Google rank posts based on social considerations or proximity. Selecting the "nearby" option within Buzz shows items posted near the user's current location, regardless of whether they were posted by a friend.

Google says that Buzz will reach most Gmail users within the next few days; the mobile application is available at buzz.google.com.

During a press conference held in Mountain View, executives said there were many great opportunities to integrate Buzz with Google Wave. But to my eye Buzz takes many of the attractive features of Wave offered and pulls them into products that people actually use. This seems like a better way of executing these ideas.

The announcement also demonstrates the keenness of Google's recent push into real-time search. Google executives have said in the past that it's hard to determine the best ways to rank tweets. But having better access to information on user's social behavior will help the company rank trending items on its search page (which is, after all, still its main product).

Some people may be genetically programmed to age at a faster rate, according to new research. Scientists have identified a genetic variant linked to the length of telomeres--a region of repetitive DNA that caps the chromosomes. Previous research has shown that telomeres shorten with age and are considered a marker of biological aging. The research was published this week in the journal Nature Genetics.

Other scientists have identified genetic variants that appear linked to healthy aging and longevity, including a variation that causes people to produce less of a protein called cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP). These people have higher levels of so-called good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), as well as better cognitive function in old age and lower risk of Alzheimer's.

In the new study,

"what we found was that those individuals carrying a particular genetic variant had shorter telomeres i.e. looked biologically older," said Nilesh Samani, of the University of Leicester of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, who co-led the project, in a statement. "Given the association of shorter telomeres with age-associated diseases, the finding raises the question whether individuals carrying the variant are at greater risk of developing such diseases."

"The variants identified lies near a gene called TERC which is already known to play an important role in maintaining telomere length," added Tim Spector from King's College London and director of the TwinsUK study, and co-leader of the project. "What our study suggests is that some people are genetically programmed to age at a faster rate. The effect was quite considerable in those with the variant, equivalent to between 3-4 years of 'biological aging" as measured by telomere length loss. Alternatively genetically susceptible people may age even faster when exposed to proven 'bad' environments for telomeres like smoking, obesity or lack of exercise - and end up several years biologically older or succumbing to more age-related diseases. "

Last year, we selected the "intelligent software assistant" Siri as one of our top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2009.

Now, you can try the software out for yourself, as the app has be added to Apple's app store.

Siri, which the company's CEO Dag Kittlaus describes as "the mother of all mashups with a big brain in the front," tries to perform all sorts of useful tasks based on simple voice or text commands. The iPhone version can, for example, be used to find upcoming local events, make reservations at a restaurant, or check the weather. The voice technology is licensed from Nuance and Siri's core technology, which allows it to understand, classify, and respond to user requests, is licensed from the CALO project--a massive artificial-intelligence effort that has made major strides in machine learning in recent years.

Siri responds impressively to fairly vague requests. For example, I asked it, "Who's playing tonight at the Paradise?" (The Paradise Rock Club is a music venue located in downtown Boston, but I didn't give Siri that context). The software returned a list of music venues with the Paradise at the top, and, after a single click to confirm that this was correct, showed me who was on tonight. In contrast, entering that same vague question into a search engine yields completely nonsensical results.

I also had good results from questions such as, "Is it snowing now in Annapolis?" and "Where can I buy guitar strings?" I was particularly impressed with the latter, since Siri had to recognize that guitar strings are something I would buy at a store that sells musical instruments, and then identify likely locations from there. It offered me a list of stores within walking distance of my current location.

I did manage to trip the software up a bit a couple of times though. For example, I asked, "Where's the best place to get sushi in Allston?" and, as often happens with voice-recognition software, the app offered me Austin, TX, instead of Allston, MA. I was able to correct the city name easily, however, and Siri then offered me top-rated sushi restaurants, using ratings taken from Yelp. It was also pretty easy to request reservations at these restaurants using the app.

Another error occurred when I asked for "action movies at Boston Common," which was an admittedly casual way of referring to the AMC Loews Boston Common movie theater. Siri understood what I was asking for, but thought that "common" was the name of an actor I wanted to see. Again, it was fairly easy to correct the query and get the question answered.

These examples certainly show how Siri is "a great big mashup." After figuring out what I want, the software relies on integration with a variety of Web services, including Yelp, OpenTable, and airline websites.

The company plans to release versions for Blackberry and Android devices soon.