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By Ted Gioia
$18.45
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By Deus Ex Machina
$10.17
$22
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Illustration from an image of Hong Kong by Flickr user skyseeker
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In an effort to work through some of its issues with the Chinese government and circumvent Web censorship, Google is pulling its search operations out of the mainland and routing Chinese traffic through the company’s Hong Kong portal. Google will leave its engineering and business operations in China proper. (continued)
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Flickr / Mike Gonzales (CC-BY-SA)
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Can we bring George W. Bush out of retirement so Venezuela’s president has something more appropriate to rant about? A reportedly pissed Hugo Chavez said Saturday, “The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done.” Someone tell @shitmydadsays.
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Flickr / Don Hankins
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From Nigerian “millionaire” plans to “FBI agent” schemes, millions of dollars have been lost to scams on the Internet. Last year saw reported losses from Internet fraud more than double, rising from $264.6 million in 2008 to $559.7 million in 2009.
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They may be in the minority, but Republican members of Congress far outnumber Democrats on Twitter. They’re also more active, tweeting about twice as often as Democratic lawmakers. House Republicans alone make up 50 percent of all tweeting members.
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Flickr / LoopZilla
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Americans are picking and choosing from an information smorgasbord to get their news, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and a large majority are switching between different platforms, with the Internet playing a significant role in their news “grazing.”
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A class-action lawsuit claims online business review repository Yelp charges businesses a kind of protection fee to make bad reviews disappear. Yelp vehemently denies this, although the allegations line up with an earlier report of bad behavior.
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By Chris Hedges — The Internet has become one more tool hijacked by corporate interests to accelerate our cultural, political and economic decline.
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Google
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Unsatisfied with running just your searches, browser, e-mail, calendar, documents, videos, cell phone, turn-by-turn navigation, operating system, electricity monitoring, much of the advertising on the Internet and more, Google has announced that it plans to experiment with providing Internet service that is about 100 times faster than what most Americans are used to.
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Computer security experts have identified a malicious virus that steals your credit card information and orders Mario Batali kitchenware, usually after 2 in the morning. Either that or you were just drunk. Here’s the full story from the satire masters at The Onion.
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google.com/friendconnect
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Google has been pretty successful at just about everything its engineers have attempted, with the glaring exception of social media. Still getting trounced by Facebook and losing buzzshare to upstarts like Twitter and Foursquare, the company plans to get aggressive, starting with new social features in Gmail. (continued)
Posted on Feb 8, 2010
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Google already threatened to quit China over a network attack originating from that country, but it seems the Internet giant was shaken up enough to call the National Security Agency (of spying-on-Americans fame) for assistance. (continued)
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AP / Greg Baker
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It certainly did sound dramatic, the whole idea that execs at Google were throwing down the virtual gauntlet and threatening to pull out of China after clashing with the government over censorship, but it turns out that there hasn’t exactly been an uproar among the Chinese about the possibility of losing Google’s services.
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newsday.com
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In the future, news junkies may be willing to pay a subscription fee to get their fix, but judging by what’s happening over at Long Island’s Newsday newspaper, that time has not come. According to The New York Observer, after three months, only 35 people had signed up to have full access to newsday.com for $260 a year.
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Flickr / Flair Candy
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If it is true that “how you do one thing is how you do everything,” then Americans are right on track with their consumption habits, both in terms of food and information. Among his observations, The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson points out how the info-glut on the Internet doesn’t exactly lead to a more accurately informed public.
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In a push for increased government transparency, the Obama administration has announced it will require each Cabinet-level department to post online three collections of “high-value” data—covering everything from tire safety ratings to workplaces where injuries have occurred—previously undisclosed to the public.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Many fear that a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court may be an omen on how the court might rule if the legal battle over Proposition 8 arrives in Washington. The 5-4 decision ruled that Internet streaming of the Prop. 8 trial in San Francisco would cause a hostile public climate toward anti-gay marriage advocates.
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The British PM has announced a plan to spend the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars providing free laptops and broadbrand Internet access to 270,000 low-income families. The program will need parliament’s blessing.
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While the real-life Mrs. Robinson, an ultraconservative, “sanctity of marriage” homophobe from Northern Ireland, was shtupping a teenager, our feet were all getting bigger. Confused? Head on past the jump for clarification—and maybe even a little enlightenment.
Posted on Jan 12, 2010
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flickr / deneyterrio
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Facebook has come under fire more than once for its execs’ creative interpretations of the term privacy, and now the megasite’s fresh-faced CEO Mark Zuckerberg has drummed up a very interesting line of argument to justify his stance on the issue. What you might see as violations of personal privacy, Zuckerberg and his team view as “reflect[ing] the current social norms.” Oh.
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youtube
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What to do when your business and the medium it’s printed on are disintegrating into pulp? Form a consortium, of course. Condé Nast, Hearst, Time, News Corp. and something called Meredith have banded together to crack this nut with a common digital format, shared innovation and maybe even a new gadget or two. (continued)
Posted on Dec 8, 2009
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flickr.com / andersdenkend
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With 4.2 million surveillance cameras in Britain and not enough people to observe them all, a company called Internet Eyes has come up with a solution: reward volunteer “spies” with cash prizes to watch streaming camera footage and blow the whistle on evildoers.
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Flickr/Gisela Giardino
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Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt has gazed into the future of the news business, and—surprise!—he sees Google playing a big, vital role. In his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece, Schmidt heralds the advent, in the not-so-distant future, of an era in which the Internet “will foster a new, digital business model.” Hmmm!
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flickr.com / babaghan
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Encompassing an estimated 78 percent of e-mail, spam remains the bane of many Internet users. The man who has declared himself spam’s godfather, Alan Ralsky, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for his role in an e-mail stock scam.
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Worried about the info-hungry beast that is Google going after your personal details with grabby-handed glee, greedily harvesting private information about your tastes, desires, shopping habits and geographical location with impunity? There is a way out, in the form of a remote mountain village sealed off from the world.
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In an interview with Sky News Australia, the News Corp. tycoon laid out his vision for the future of the news business, which bears little resemblance to the present state of the news business. Murdoch said he would soon begin charging for online content, block Google searches and ... (continued)
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cnet.co.uk
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In what is being described as the biggest change to how the Internet works in 40 years, the ICANN Internet oversight organization has finally approved plans to allow Web addresses to include non-Latin letters, such as Arabic and Chinese, instead of just www.whatever.com.
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gop.com
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The Republican Party’s new social network wants photographic evidence and an answer to the question “Why are you a Republican?” (good question). Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele brings the hip to this new Facebook for white people with a blog titled “What up?” Update 2: This is more interesting than we realized.
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Composite image: Kleininstruments.com, twitter.com
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It’s official: Movie marketers can no longer afford to ignore social networking sites. This may strike some as a foregone conclusion (i.e., duh), but those in the industry who are still resisting the all-consuming pull of online vortexes like Facebook and Twitter are doing so at their own peril, according to the new “Moviegoers 2010” report.
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Flickr / Gauldo
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The U.S. Secret Service investigates all threats against the life of the president, including a recent user-generated Facebook poll that asked whether the president should be killed. The social networking giant has disabled the survey, which, according to CNN, carried the possible answers “yes,” “maybe,” “if he cuts my health care” and “no.” —PS
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Flickr / brewbook
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Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski proposed two rules Monday that would preserve the Internet’s status quo of openness and equality. If the rules are adopted, Internet service providers—including mobile carriers—would be barred from restricting or blocking access to “lawful” content.
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congress.gov
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Rick Santorum is thinking of running for president, but he has a serious PR problem. The former senator’s rampant homophobia inspired sex columnist Dan Savage to launch a campaign to usurp the conservative’s name. The result: If you type “Santorum” into Google, you’ll find that, in addition to a former senator, it refers to ...
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Flickr / WB-CMH
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The Internet has introduced a whole host of new marvels to the world, but as this list compiled by the U.K.’s Telegraph demonstrates, the Web giveth and the Web taketh away. And it has taken away a few things from users’ lives that we might miss (see: “The art of polite disagreement”)—others, not so much (cf. “Sarah Palin”).
Posted on Sep 9, 2009
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Collage: Flickr / Qfamily and melloveschallah
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Just about every Web site you visit, including this one, keeps track of details such as who you are, where you come from, and what you look at on the site and for how long. But some go even further to please advertisers, who may know what kind of books you read, what you search for, whom your friends are and more. Enter the House of Representatives.
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Wikimedia Commons / Husky
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The online user-generated encyclopedia will require editors to approve changes to articles about living people, an effort to curb misinformation and the sometimes nasty food fights made possible by the site’s pioneering format. The changes are either a direct assault on Wikipedia’s soul or a sign of its growing maturity, depending on whom you ask.
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management-mentor.com
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Twitter, the superstar microblogging service that media outlets like CNN are flocking to as they struggle for Web credibility, has hit a roadblock in its steady march to global popularity. A company attempt to trademark the word tweet, describing an individual blog post, has been rejected by the U.S. patent office.
Posted on Aug 22, 2009
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columbia.edu
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A significant Internet “denial of service” attack Thursday directed at popular Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter may have been carried out or instigated by the Russian government in an attempt to silence a dissident blogger in Georgia. At least so says the blogger.
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Flickr/Torley
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A game of Internet telephone has distorted the story of EATR, or Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, thus morphing the vegetarian, bio-fueled, DoD-sponsored robot from innocent twig forager into ... corpse-eating battleground vulture! Long live the Interweb.
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ppcforhire.com
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A long-rumored partnership between software giant Microsoft and Internet giant Yahoo has come to pass. In an effort to tag-team Google, Microsoft will combine its new Bing search engine with Yahoo’s vast advertising empire.
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dailymail.co.uk
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It’s not news that the planet is in trouble, that global food and energy supplies won’t last long at the current rate of consumption, and that we’ve basically got a big mess on our hands as the species most responsible for all of the above and more. What’s the human race to do? Why, the answer may lie in intelligence augmentation, according to The Atlantic’s Jamais Cascio.
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facebook.com
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We talk with UC Santa Cruz history professor Matthew Lassar about the FCC, how Internet has altered the media, and why college kids can’t stop checking their Facebook accounts during classroom lectures.
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guardian.co.uk
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If a movie written about Facebook by Aaron Sorkin wasn’t enough, the fast-growing social networking site is in the midst of hiring lobbyists in both Washington and Brussels to push for easing privacy regulations, no matter how well-meaning those restrictions may be, “that would keep people from the beneficial sharing of information.”
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By David Sirota — Today’s technology revolutions have been rightfully celebrated for improving everything from education to medicine to commerce, but we don’t often consider the psychological and societal consequences of always being connected and available.
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By Marie Cocco — Amid the Web site’s trashy home videos and other uneven chronicles of pop culture is a memorable new look at America’s past that whets the appetite for more free fun. The National Archives, in celebration of its 75th anniversary, has posted 17 videos to YouTube.
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bizzia.com
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Twitter, the popular microblogging network, has played a significant role in connecting people interested in the popular protests happening in Iran. The service has been so important that the State Department asked Twitter to stay online—and delay its scheduled maintenance—so as to keep Iranian dissent open to the rest of the world.
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Flickr/NotionsCapital.com
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Investigations into China’s new anti-pornography software “Green Dam-Youth Escort,” which is to be bundled with all personal computers sold in the country, reveal that it blocks more than just porn. The new software also censors Web sites with controversial political keywords related to the Tiananmen Square military crackdown and the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.
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Keith Allison
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Starting July 1, every computer sold in China will come bundled with software designed to block access to pornographic sites and whatever else parents—and, critics fear, the government—want to keep at bay. As one of the software’s developers explains, “If a father doesn’t want his son to be exposed to content related to basketball or drugs, he can block all Web sites related to those things.”
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Courtesy of Apple
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Apple unveiled a faster, more powerful version of its popular iPhone Monday, but the bigger news is that the company slashed the price of the current model to $99. That makes a robust portable computing experience available to a much bigger crowd, assuming they can handle AT&T’s horrendously overpriced service.
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Mike Keefe, The Denver Post —
Posted on May 31, 2009
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switched.com
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Craigslist is seeking legal action against South Carolina’s Attorney General Henry McMaster after McMaster criticized the online classifieds site despite the removal of its erotic ads section. Craigslist is, amazingly, looking for “declaratory relief and a restraining order” from the vigilantly moralizing Southerner.
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Twitter.com / WhiteHouse
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It’s not entirely clear how the White House joining the cyber-ranks of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter will serve to make the American government more “transparent” and “efficient,” but perhaps micro-blogging will save our democracy ... or maybe we’ll get to hear about what Joe Biden had for lunch.
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Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’
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