I was drawn to a story in my local paper about New Hope Community Church outside Portland, Oregon -- two of my sisters have attended services there regularly, and it's a landmark in the metropolitan area. But what struck me as culture-changing was a quote from the developer who's working with church leadership. He has one goal as he plans an entirely new church-centered commercial complex: "We hope this will be a Starbucks experience from one end to the other."

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) has a funny relationship with God; after all, the chain famously offended a woman so much she boycotted its coffee. So how is purchasing and drinking a caffeinated beverage in a Starbucks outlet similar to going to church? Part of it is about the audience; churches (at least in my hometown) have moved away from the formal experience in which the members of the congregation are simply watching a show put on by the "cast" of the church, and toward more interactive experiences in which small groups, focused around common interests, meet to discuss Bible passages or work together on a project -- from feeding the hungry to overcoming addiction. The parallels in retail? Yep, less convention center, more coffee shop.

This is where Starbucks comes in.

Google has a knack of taking something prosaic – such as email – and redefining the category. That's the case with its mapping products.

This week, Google announced an upgrade to its ultra-cool mapping product, Google Earth.  In fact, the announcement came at the company's inaugural Geo Developer Day.

In just a year, Google Earth has had over 100 million downloads.  Well, expect the downloads to increase again – since Google Earth has key enhancements.  There is four times as much coverage of land (about a third of the world's population can see their homes from a satellite view).  What's more, there has been a 4x increase in the resolution of the graphics.

Jason Fry of the Wall Street Journal has been hanging out in a lot of bars (for journalism's sake, you understand). He's been researching a piece on digital jukeboxes. His working theory: digital jukeboxes, like those from TouchTunes or Ecast, destroy the community-building nature of their more mechanical cousins.

He takes us to bars throughout New York City, from a couple of Blarney Stone's in lower Manhattan to Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn, and wonders if bar owners will take the time required to customize their jukebox (while, at the same time, recalling proudly how much fun it can be to "find the gems in a jukebox full of classic-rock warhorses ... Give an frat-boy jukebox an indie tinge ... Keep your rock-minded friends entertained in a country bar ... "). He

But if you're going to subscribe to Fry's theory, that with mass customization and digitization comes loss in community and the thrill of the hunt for that one good song in an otherwise terrible jukebox, you'll have to agree that digital music -- and, most specifically, iTunes -- is killing community. If people can get any song they like, why should they listen to their friend's music, or (horrors) listen to the music selected by a group of barflys? By allowing people to have whatever they want, are we destroying that ability to get along?