Google Maps pioneer defects to Facebook

Lars Rasmussen - who built the original Google Maps alongside his brother Jens, before helming the ill-fated Google Wave - has parted ways with Google. And, according to one report, he's bound for Facebook, says the Register.

Rasmussen revealed his departure from Google on his Facebook page.

Lars and Jens Rasmussen joined Google in 2004, after the company gobbled their tiny online mapping start-up, Where 2 Tech. Once Google Maps was released, they left the project to start a new Web-based app codenamed Walkabout, and after more than two years of work Down Under, they released a preview version of this e-mail-meets-IM-meets-document-sharing tool to 4 000 developers at Google's 2009 developer conference.

The UK has one of the most advanced cloud environments in the world, according to Westminster City CIO David Wilde, writes Computing.

Wilde, who has worked as CIO for Westminster since 2008, said it is surprising but the UK has become a leader in this field.

“Over the last three years the UK government has embraced the cloud; this combined with a challenging cloud debate fostered by the press and the conference circuit has meant that the private sector has responded with solutions to the challenges faced by end-users.”

Mass Effect 2 has won the ultimate game of the year at this year's Golden Joystick awards, reveals the BBC.

Other winners at the gaming industry's biggest event include popular titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Mass Effect 2 also won role-playing game of the year, with tower defence game Plants vs Zombies also taking home two prizes.

Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube, two years after it blocked access to the Web site, because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder, notes the BBC.

Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who is in charge of Internet issues, said the government had been in contact with Google, which owns YouTube.

Yildirim said there was no longer any reason to ban the Web site, because the offending videos had been removed.