Kenneth Corbin

Remember when Facebook rolled out the stream? You know, that status update feature that everyone took to mean stodgy old Facebook was copying trendy Twitter in all its real-time splendor? Well, in that context, today’s announcement makes a lot of sense. Soon, Facebook users will be able to tag their friends in their status updates […]

WASHINGTON — Google’s controversial digital book project saw another wave of public scrutiny this morning, this time in the form of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the competitive implications of its landmark settlement with authors and publishers. In an effort to blunt the charge that the settlement gives Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) exclusive access to […]

WASHINGTON — In some ways, the Seattle P-I is one of the best testbeds the country’s got going for what local journalism will look like after the city paper takes its inevitable place behind the glass case at the Smithsonian. The paper, formerly the beta daily in a two-newspaper town, ended its 146-year print run […]

WASHINGTON — The signs of social media creeping into government are everywhere. Members of Congress famously Twittered during President Obama’s address to the country in February. Tonight, he’s to give what many are calling the most important speech of his young presidency, addressing both chambers of Congress about the lightning-rod issue of health care, and […]

WASHINGTON — Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s first federal CTO, pledged this morning that the government will issue a sweeping open-government directive within “literally weeks,” making good on the oldest promise of the administration. The day after his inauguration, President Obama issued the first edict in his new office. It was his open government directive, calling […]

The Federal Communications Commission today issued a report on the agency’s emergency-response systems, emphasizing the importance of cooperating with state and local responders. To emphasize the spirit of coordination across the government, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski released the report at a media event this morning with senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Health […]

With Google’s controversial Book Search agreement under review this week in a series of meetings in Brussels, some European authorities have expressed cautious praise of the settlement. EU Commissioners Viviane Reding and Charlie McCreevy marked the occasion by issuing a lengthy statement calling for an overhaul of European copyright laws to accommodate new digitization efforts […]

CTIA CEO Steve LargentPhoto: CTIA In some ways, this seems a golden age for the wireless industry. The smartphone revolution has made mobile computing a reality, a necessity, for many. The devices are now less a status symbol than a way of life. For a growing number of users, the smartphone is coming to rival […]

Open government advocates have scored another victory, with the Obama administration agreeing to publish records of White House visitors on its Web site. That concession would end four legal disputes initiated by the open government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “For the first time in history, records of White House visitors […]

With a couple of key deadlines approaching, Google has been scrambling to defend its controversial settlement with authors and publishers to clear the way for its ambitious Book Search project. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) had given authors until today to opt out of its settlement, the same day the federal court reviewing the deal set as […]

Twitter continues to line its executive roster with Google veterans, reportedly bringing in Dick Costolo to serve as the company’s first COO. Costolo, who founded RSS service Feedburner and sold it to Google in 2007, left the search giant in July and will begin work at Twitter next week, according to a Reuters report. As […]

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) appears close to inking partnerships with several major Hollywood studios to offer streaming movie rentals on YouTube in what would be the first foray toward paid content on the world’s largest video site. The negotiations are laying the groundwork for a three-month trial that would see YouTube begin offering streaming movie rentals […]