Internet & Media

The company that's known for giving you access to the Internet now also wants to be entrusted with storing your personal files.

Comcast, one of the biggest Internet service providers in the U.S., on Thursday launched its online backup service called Secure Backup & Share for its high-speed Internet customers. This service is powered by Mozy, a known online backup provider currently owned by EMC. It was a CNET Webware 100 winner of 2009.

According to Mozy, some 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States every week. Files can also be lost other ways, too, including … Read more

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reportedly continued his campaign against Adobe's Flash video technology, this time at a meeting with The Wall Street Journal, according to a report in Valleywag.

People who were at a recent meeting Jobs had with some of the paper's executives told the Gawker-owned site that Jobs dismissed Flash as "a CPU hog," full of "security holes," and "old technology" and would therefore not be including the technology on the iPad, or presumably, the iPhone. (Adobe did recently promise to make the Mac version of its browser plug-in … Read more

Do you check your e-mail while driving or during an "intimate moment?" If so, you may be one of many e-mail addicts.

E-mail addiction is causing people to engage in risky or inappropriate behavior, according to a study conducted by Osterman Research and commissioned by Neverfail. Released on Wednesday, the second annual "Mobile Messaging Study" surveyed employees at businesses to learn about their e-mail habits.

The study found that 95 percent of those questioned check their business e-mail outside of work, 78 percent while in the bathroom and 11 percent during "intimate moments." (The … Read more

MySpace has apparently scheduled an all-hands meeting Thursday, which one source noted was to talk about new order and rally the likely much dispirited troops at the struggling social-networking site.

With the sudden firing of relatively recently installed CEO Owen Van Natta last week by News Corp. digital head Jon Miller, it will be up to the two new co-presidents he installed, Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones, to give the MySpace employees a whole lot of reason to believe that they can reinvigorate a site that seems woefully resistant to revival so far.

While the one-time trio of Van Natta, … Read more

Last month, Paul Chambers revealed a little of his frustration on the modern public-access broadcasting network known as Twitter. On Friday, he will be appearing in court to answer for that frustration.

Chambers is the chap who, in January, was choked with concern that he would not be able to vacation in Ireland because his local airport, Robin Hood in Doncaster, United Kingdom, was snowbound.

Naturally, he tweeted. Perhaps slightly less naturally, he tweeted what appeared to be a bomb threat: "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, … Read more

NEW YORK--Federal Judge Denny Chin kicked off the much-anticipated Google Books hearing Thursday morning here by making one thing clear: there will be no quick ruling in the case.

"I'm going to say right off, I'm not going to rule today," Chin said, highlighting the droves of written submissions that have come in from passionate parties on all sides of the case. "I'm going to listen to opinions carefully and I'm going to ask a few questions."

And that he's already done in morning testimony, which has been going on for … Read more

Microsoft and Yahoo have cleared the final hurdles to their search outsourcing deal--approval from the U.S. Justice Department and the European Union.

The two companies said Thursday they will now focus on the nitty-gritty of the transition.

"Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo's algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers globally," the companies said in a joint press release.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the approvals an "exciting milestone" … Read more

Google could be earning some $497 million a year from the registered owners of Web site addresses that mimic typographical errors in existing sites, according to a new study.

Harvard University researchers Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman estimate that Google could be making millions from the practice, known as "typosquatting," because its network of display ads--from which it receives a cut of the profits--run on the typo'd sites.

If it's a frequently misspelled site address--for example, zddnet.com instead of yours truly--the tactic could pay off handsomely.

Read more of "URL typos earn Google $497 million per year, study says&… Read more

What is more surprising? The fact that Google claims it was taken aback by the negative reaction to its Buzz feature, the one that ventured to make public your most frequent e-mail contacts? Or the fact that a couple of law firms have got together to present Google with a class action lawsuit?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, law firms in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have filed a suit on behalf of Eva Hibnick. Hibnick is a Florida woman who has been chosen to represent the many Gmail users who felt, well, used, when Google launched Buzz.… Read more