I try to dig out some of the more intriguing technology news items from the various feeds I trawl each day rather than playing echo chamber, here’s the latest selection from the wires:

• Aol relaunching its webmail system – Is Aol to about to relaunch its tired, old webmail system…the day before Facebook Mail arrives?
• facebook-email-is-this-actually-an-enterprise-play/2621″>Facemail? – Facebook email could actually represent a big “Uh-oh” moment for Google. Especially if those Office Web App integration rumors turn out to be true.
• How Facebook could beat Google – In 1993, The New Yorker ran a famous cartoon with two dogs near a computer, with one mutt telling the other “On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.” Oh, how times have changed. On the Facebook version of the internet not only do they know you're a dog, they know what breed you are and when you liked to have your tummy tickled. Watch to see how Google bares its teeth on Monday when Facebook launches "Facemail"
• Social networking and your friends – Dutch scientists claim to have shown something worrying about online social networking. They claim that a study of just 117 people shows that interacting with people online via the likes of Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging does not strengthen your emotional ties to your "offline" social circle. Hmmm…aside from the trivially small sample size they worked with, I would beg to differ. I think almost all of the people in my social circle and their own social circles are benefiting immensely from the new connectedness you can gain from instant messaging and sharing chit-chat, information, jokes, dates and other stuff online. I suspect this is the same the world over where people with wide circles of friends online and offline that overlap even to a small degree are benefiting from the new technology in their real-world lives. It also spills over into business, work, activism, campaigns, club publicity, sports, gigs, health discussions etc etc. Wouldn't you agree?