Kenneth Corbin

WASHINGTON — A Senate Democrat is mulling legislation to restrict content on the mobile Web in a bid to protect kids from indecent material. The move is in response to concerns that sophisticated mobile devices are giving the Internet a ubiquity that increasingly exposes children to inappropriate content. It’s also bound to raise the hackles […]

The Internet is awash with opinions and predictions about the death of the newspaper — one of the favorite metaphors is the leaking lifeboat, where the only serious question is how long it will continue to float. This is to be expected. It’s been generally understood for some time that the Internet has taken a […]

During the Olympics, people were Googling Michael Phelps. When the presidential campaign kicked into high gear, the buzz was all about Sarah Palin. Is it any wonder then that online metrics firm comScore today reported triple-digit increases in search terms like “coupons”, “bankruptcy”, and “unemployment”? There’s good reason for the spike in unemployment-related searches. Earlier […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks last week in Barcelona.Source: Reuters With the grim economic climate weighing on all sectors of its business, Microsoft reiterated warnings about slowing revenues and profits for the second half of the year, but vowed prudent spending as the company looks ahead to new fronts in its war with Google. But sparring […]

AOL is rolling out a spate of new features today to spiff up social networking site Bebo, including a status update that will sync information from friends’ profiles on other sites like Facebook and YouTube. The Time Warner-owned Web portal is also integrating its instant messaging client with Bebo, which will mean that anyone with […]

Privacy advocates are lashing out at a renewed effort by lawmakers to impose requirements on ISPs and wireless network operators to keep records about the identities of Internet users. The new bills are an effort to combat child pornography and other types of exploitation. Under the law, network operators would have to retain the network […]

Two controversial moves this week by streaming video site Hulu highlight the obstacles that remain for distributing premium content like TV and movies across the Web. Hulu, a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp., pulled its content from TV.com, a competing video site owned by CBS since last June, which it acquired through […]

As the Federal Communications Commission scrambles to cope with first major wave of the digital-television transition, wireless providers and other tech firms are plowing ahead with their ambitious plans for the analog spectrum that will be vacated once the switchover is completed. That’s in spite of the fact that the spectrum won’t be available for […]

WASHINGTON — If the hopes for a cleaner, more efficient energy economy are riding on the back of the Internet, it shouldn’t be any surprise that a company like Google is positioning itself at the center of the debate. Here at Google’s D.C. office, the search giant co-hosted a seminar with GE to press for […]

Vodafone’s Android-based HTC Magic phone, introduced this week at GSMA Mobile World CongressClick on the graphic to enlarge.Source: Vodefone Vodafone today unveiled the world’s second smartphone powered by Android, the open source mobile operating system developed through the Google-led Open Handset Alliance. The HTC Magic, which Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) showed off at the Mobile World […]

After twin floor debates flush with partisan rancor, the House and Senate today passed the economic stimulus package that would send billions of dollars to broadband expansion and other IT initiatives. President Obama could sign the $787 billion bill into law as early as Monday. In the Senate, the same three Republicans who broke ranks […]

The Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on the online privacy debate with a new set of recommendations concerning how marketers can track consumer behavior on the Web. But the agency’s guidelines have privacy advocacy groups disappointed — as well as some of the FTC’s own commissioners. The 55-page report (PDF here) aims to lay […]