Craigslist removes 'adult services' section

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

The move comes just over a week after a group of state attorneys general said there weren't enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution. It's not clear if the closure is permanent, and it appears to only effect ads in the United States. Read more from the Associated Press. 

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Glenn Beck launches news website, 'The Blaze'

Glenn Beck, a conservative Fox News cable personality and host of the 'Restoring Honour' rally over the weekend, has launched a new opinion website - hot off the heels of his latest controversy. Beck, who hosts his own show on the conservative 'noise channel' Fox News, is known for controversy and provocative thinking - he once called President Obama a racist.

The site, which was launched on Monday, intends to focus on 'news and information' as well as “Some commentary and opinion stories we’re interested in that are being under-covered or not covered.”

Beck has noted in his introductory note to the site's new readers that he intends to be heavily involved with its day-to-day operations. "We want this to be a place where you can find breaking news, original reporting, insightful opinions and engaging videos about the stories that matter most."

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Facebook friend request lands man in jail

Harry Bruder, 54, probably didn't expect that a social networking site would become his downfall. He was arrested on Monday night after he breached his court protection order by sending a 'friend request' to his wife on Facebook.

According to an Orlando television station, the man admitted to contacting his wife twice via the social networking site, which has around 500 million members.

Detectives had determined that this contact with his wife was a violation of a domestic violence injunction filed by his wife. "Yeah, I did it", he said when asked by investigators. “Today my future x wife thinks she won but the real winner is me for i know the truth she is nothing but a lying emotionally disturbed woman who needs help to handle previous abusive relationship," he wrote on his 'wall'. 


He has been jailed on $5,000 bond. 

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Only 13% of Wikipedia editors are women (plus 14 other facts about the site)

Turns out Wikipedia isn't just a place to get prosecuted for libel when you edit the profile of a celebrity, it's also a vibrant and growing community of people who come together to share information. An article on sex, it turns out, is the number one article on the non-profit website and has been translated into almost every language the site is allowing.

You may not have realized, also, that the number of entries into Wikipedia increases when there is bad weather. The people who put the following chart of "15 Interesting Facts about Wikipedia" together tell us that this is why the Dutch Wikipedia has more pages than the Spanish version.


Via: Online MBA Rankings

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Google, Verizon reveal worrying pact to end the internet as we know it

The new wave of collaboration between mobile communications company Verizon and search giant Google has sparked an equally large wave of worry from within the internet world itself. The new pact, which has been coined as the 'pact to end the internet as we know it' by the press and net insiders has a number of big players in the industry fearful of the change it could bring.

Despite the "Don't Be Evil" slogan which Google employees frequently parade around, there is nothing altruistic about the company's most recent dealmaking with Verizon. The proposal has been perceived by many to allow massive corporate takeovers of the internet.

An issue known worldwide as 'net neutrality' is at the centre of the deal. Should the deal between the two companies go ahead, it could radically alter the even playing field seen at present on the internet. It is net neutrality, argues Craig Aaron - managing editor for Free Press, that makes sure the next Google, in a garage somewhere, will have just as good a chance as any corporate behemoth to gain an audience and thrive online.

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Google Gears Up to Take on Facebook, Twitter

Google is preparinganother attempt to crack the social networkingworld owned by Facebook, and to a lesser extent, Twitter.

Why is Google traveling down this path once again? Aren't the failures of Orkut, Buzz, Wave, etc. enough for Google to realize that it just doesn't understand social networking? Maybe, but Google can't afford to watch the web become social without it. 

As Google researcher Paul Adams explains in a huge deck of slides getting passed around on the web, people buying things are more inclined to trust their friends than strangers—or search ads.

Do you think Facebook or Google is more trustworthy if you're thinking about buying the new Prince CD? What about a new toaster? Or a new golf club? Today, it's probably Google, but soon enough you could be asking Facebook friends what to buy. It's this threat that should (and probably does) scare the pants off Google's executives.

Adams revealed some of these threats in his presentation—a great read in the context of him presenting these results to Google execs who are plotting "Google Me."

A couple things to keep in mind: This presentation isn't new. And it's not necessarily indicative of how Google feels. The company has hundreds of researchers. Still, we think this is instructive for people wondering why Google wants to get in the social network business. [Republished from www.businessinsider.com]

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Prince rants and raves about the internet - "it's over"

Prince is as renowned for his feelings towards iTunes and the internet as he is for women wearing raspberry berets. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, he repeated that "the internet's completely over," and slagged off these "digital gadgets."

His full quote on the topic:

"The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

"They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."

[Republished from Gizmodo under Creative Commons]

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Foursquare's new value: just over $100 million

Foursquare, that annoying location based social network that your friends invited you to, you used once and then never visited again...yeah, that one, is now worth an estimated $100 million based on a venture capital investment valued at just twenty million.

The company, which runs a website where users can become 'Mayors' of any location from Mexican run cafes to Asian massage parlors, has raised money from venture capitalists before, but never on such a scale before.

It was rumored that Yahoo had placed a bid for Foursquare, which has been reluctant so far to any notion of selling out.

Kara Swisher, of the Wall Street Journal's technology blog All Things Digital, says that the site has been overhyped. It seems that each new social network seems to deal with a subject or purpose that is even more trivial than the last.

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Will Google fight back with so-called "Facebook killer"?

In something of an internet born rumor, news over the launch of a new Facebook search product have sparked speculation that internet search market leader Google may fight back and encroach on Facebook's territory in social networking with what has been dubbed the 'Facebook killer'.

Google, a posterchild of the internet 2.0 era, has been around since the dot-com bubble. It survived the burst, and now it hopes to make it well into what is becoming known as 'Web 3.0' - the next generation in the evolution of the internet.

Facebook, which was only launched in 2004 by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg (pictured), has already taken the number two spot on Alexa's list of the world's top trafficked websites, and looks to be the likely suitor to Google's crown.

When it was recently announced that Facebook would launch an "Open Graph Search" feature, tech industry watchers speculated upon a Google retaliation - which may include the fabled 'Facebook killer'.

Google's forays into the dark world of social networking, now dominated by Zuckerberg and his goons, have thus far been unsuccessful, and it would seem that resistance is futile against the huge growth of the company - which is said to have revenues approaching one billion dollars.

However, Google isn't giving up without a fight. The company still remains the number one search engine, despite formidable competition from bigger companies such as Microsoft.

This isn't to say that everything Google does has been a runaway success, however. The company's other ventures have been only marginal successes, and the company has thus far struggled to separate its revenue model from the old search ads the company displays alongside results.

YouTube, a 2006 YouTube purchase, has been - despite its unrivaled popularity and dominance within online video - a financial nightmare for the company. The video sharing site has yet to turn a profit.

Could this be the beginning of Facebook's reign as the top internet brand? Maybe. But one thing is for sure: one side is surely about to meet its programmer.

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Is Diller fighting a lost battle with Ask.com?

Barry Diller, the internet mogul who owns Ask.com (fmr. Ask Jeeves), is surrounded in speculation that he may flog off the search engine as the annual Sun Valley mogul get-together approaches.

The New York Post, owned by rival media mogul Rupert Murdoch (with whom he launched the Fox Network) has speculated that the search engine may be sold, despite the fact that it's advertising makes up around half the revenue of his company IAC.

The Post uses Diller's most recent sale spree as evidence of any imminent sale, while IAC continues to burn through what money it has left.

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In major copyright law twist, YouTube/Google tastes victory in Viacom lawsuit

In an extraordinarily well greeted triumph in terms of copyright for YouTube, Google - the website's parent company - has won over media giant Viacom in a billion-dollar lawsuit that was filed over clips containing the company's copyrighted content.

The justice system, which has effectively saved YouTube from economic and legal ruin, ruled based on summary judgement - dismissing Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against the internet giant.

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Barry Diller laughs at your online paywall

When asked about the new paywall that the New York Times is erecting around its website, Barry Diller, longtime media mogul and studio head turned internet entrepreneur, gave us his everlasting wisdom on the matter of paid online content. 

His wisdom: paywalls will fail at first, but will eventually succeed. 

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diller, who is the Chairman and CEO of IAC (the owner of Ask.com among other sites) said that free content will end because "people are used to paying for applications". 

Although I'm not entirely sure how he made that correlation between content and applications, and how the two relate in terms of people paying for digital products, he may very well have a point. 

"Everyone said, no one will pay for music. It took seven or eight years for the iTunes concept...and now it's a multibillion business," he said. "People are paying for music, they could get it free, but they're paying for it....these are industries so to speak that are going to push to say our content is, we think it's valuable at this. Steve Jobs did this in music. He said music is for 99 cents and he changed everything. Because he said I'm going to price it so low, that everyone is going to adopt it. So the same will happen."

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Facebook revenue for 2009 almost $800,000,000?

Tech analysts may be having a community word-eating get-together, as revelations surface that social networking giant (which was previously shrugged off as being unprofitable) may have had revenues close to $800 million in 2009.

Facebook, which was founded and is managed by Mark Zuckerberg, a hacker and Harvard dropout, has only been in operation some six years, but is already showing signs of high profitability.

Sources even noted that the company had a strong net profit to match all of that revenue - meaning that the company is covering its huge costs.

This is particularly promising, especially when one considers that other popular 'Web 2.0' sites like YouTube, are still struggling to pay bandwidth bills. Facebook, unlike YouTube which sold to Google in 2006, is still an independent company.

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So called Obama 'Kill Switch' gives president the power to shut down the internet

Conservative news site, Drudge Report, linked to a story on Prison Planet, that talks about how new legislation gives the president the power to control, or effectively shut off the world wide web.

"The US Government", reads the article, "would have absolute power to shut down the internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman." Lieberman, Prison Planet alleges, has been trying to force censorship and greater control on the internet for years, and this is merely his latest foray into control of cyberspace.

Click here to read the story. 

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AOL looking to sell Bebo for 98% less than they paid for it

After paying around $850 million for social networking site Bebo (you know, that one that you had an account at but disabled because it became embarrassing) AOL is looking to sell the website for around $10 million.

Under the intense and crumbling competition of Facebook, and, to a lesser extent, MySpace, the once thriving online community has abandoned it, leaving the site worth 98% less than what it was worth less than it was 48 months ago.

Michael Arrington of the blog, TechCrunch, had reported that AOL sold Bebo to a private equity firm for the measly sum, which he described as 'rather uninspiring'.

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I Can Has Cheezburger has been profitable from day one

In a New York Times article today profiling I Can Has Cheezburger, the collection of eccentric user-submission driven blogs, the founder, Ben Huh, revealed that the company had been profitable from day one of operation, and has not sought any further investment for growth. 

Huh, who bought the company off the two Hawaiian bloggers who founded the original site for just ten thousand dollars, has grown the company to a small empire of 'LOLs' - spinning out user-submitted internet humour everyday. 

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Pakistan blocks YouTube, Facebook

'Sacrilegious content' was cited as the reason for the blocking of social networking site, Facebook earlier this year, and today video sharing site YouTube was given similar reason today in Pakistan.

YouTube, one of the most popular internet destinations to date, has been blocked by the Pakistani Government - in part because of depictions of the Profit Mohammed.

The blocking is part of a growing program that aims to block sites that conflict with the religious beliefs of Pakistan's Muslim population - which forbid depiction of any sort of the Profit Mohammed.

Likewise, access to photo sharing site, Flickr, and collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia, was also put on hold.

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With Bing, Microsoft challenged Google in search, now they've set their eyes on email

Microsoft, the software giant, has today announced a major facelift to its Hotmail email service that will help it better compete with popular services, such as Google's Gmail.

With almost 15 years of experience in email, Microsoft should have a considerable edge in knowing what people want from email - especially compared to Google's 6 years since the launch of its Gmail service.

Now, after challenging Google in search with its Bing search engine, Microsoft hopes to do the same with email, making the usually cumbersome and tiring job of reading email a joy to do.

Click here to read a comprehensive Wired Magazine article on the redesign.

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Yahoo, in a sorry effort to keep up, buys content producer

Yahoo has joined AOL in the field of mass producing content sourced from freelance journalists.

The company, which has seen its fortunes sag in recent years as it fails to evolve along with the internet audience it targets, has bought Associated Content for what is rumored to be around $90 million.

Carol Bartz, Yahoo's CEO, was brought in to revive the fortunes of the company, which has recently seen a profit rise based on increased advertising sales.

The company is still not as profitable as it used to be, however, and its stock price (see "MAX" chart) is not what it once was.

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Mass social networking exodus planned for "Leave Facebook Day"

With increased controversy over social networking site Facebook's privacy settings, a group of users have organised a "Leave Facebook Day" where people...well, leave Facebook. 

Many have pointed out that Facebook's privacy policy is now longer than the U.S. Constitution and offers some 50 different settings, and over 170 different setting options. 

To combat further privacy changes, the group has banded together (perhaps ironically, through social networking) to leave Facebook together. Their site, QuitFacebookDay.com, asks users to 'commit to quit' on May 31 by signing their name or Twitter username to the list of pledges. There is also a Facebook Page devoted to the event. 

Facebook, which is currently up to around 400 million users worldwide, has not commented on the topic of mass-organised 'leavings'. 

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