Web retailers, states tussle over tax rules

NEW YORK — In a big break for online shoppers, Web retailers generally don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a store or some other physical presence.

Full article (993 words) »

Companies pledge more openness about Web tracking

Companies that track consumer behavior online for advertising purposes are vowing to make their practices more transparent and to give people a way to decline being shadowed.

Full article (515 words) »

Media on standby for Jackson memorial plans

NEW YORK — The mysteries that continue to surround Michael Jackson's death include a frustrating and potentially costly one for news organizations: how and when the fallen pop idol will be laid to rest and where a memorial service would be held.

Full article (984 words) »

Jackson death was twittered, texted and Facebooked

NEW YORK — "Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died," the woman called out breathlessly upon boarding a Manhattan bus, moments after the news had broken. Not a word was spoken in response. But nearly every passenger reached for a BlackBerry, a cell phone, whatever device was at hand.

Full article (1093 words) »

PC makers race to comply with China's Web filter

BEIJING — Days before a deadline abruptly imposed by China, computer makers are scrambling to comply with an order to supply Web-filtering software with PCs amid concerns about what it might do to their reputations.

Full article (1062 words) »

China accuses Google of spreading pornography

BEIJING — China accused Google Inc. on Thursday of spreading pornography after Chinese users were unable to connect to the search giant's Web site, while Washington called on Beijing to scrap its order for personal computers to be equipped with Internet-filtering software.

Full article (594 words) »

US calls on China to revoke Web filter order

BEIJING — Washington is calling on Beijing to revoke an order to personal computer makers to supply Internet-filtering software with every PC, adding to an array of disputes between the major trading partners.

Full article (665 words) »

LinkedIn connects with ex-Yahoo exec as new CEO

SAN FRANCISCO — After six months of grooming, LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman has decided former Yahoo Inc. executive Jeff Weiner is ready to take over his job running the Internet's largest site devoted to professional networking. The change in command announced Wednesday isn't a surprise, given that Hoffman brought in Weiner as LinkedIn's interim president to start the year. Weiner joined LinkedIn as Hoffman reclaimed his job as the Mountain View-based company's chief executive from Dan Nye, whom he hired to run LinkedIn in early 2007.

Full article (436 words) »

Often you have loads of files to share with your friends, family and colleague. But sharing your files with a group with tools such as Dropbox is a test of your patience. To share your files with a group of users you need to upload your files to a centralized server first, then generate a shared URL and send to the recipients that entire process could be much time consuming. What if you could share files directly from your computer to a group of people without going through so many time-consuming steps. Voila! I got across a freeware that allows you to share your files easily from your computer directly using Gmail - . It simplifies the process of file sharing by treating each of the Gmail addresses as unique IP address for all the computers with g2Peer installed.  Let's see how to share files on your PC using g2Peer.

Full article (446 words) »

Before people feel obnoxious about the rather ambitious title this article ventures through, I must put you to peace by this self-quote:

Behind every successful machine, there is a human, always watching.

I know you are lost in the mazes of correlating it to the title but, a well researched article from Wired may help you realize what seems to be less convincing unless you see the real objective in the future. Long entry short: Facebook can actually creep into the empire of Google by denying them what they do the best, show your project to the world and profit.

Let's just think for a second, Mark Zuckerberg says

Google is a top-down way of organizing the Web that results in an impersonal experience that stifles online activity. You have a bunch of machines and algorithms going out and crawling the Web and bringing information back, That only gets stuff that is publicly available to everyone. And it doesn't give people the control that they need to be really comfortable.

Full article (904 words) »