The Social

Blogger targets AOL, seeks class-action status

"Arianna Huffington is pursuing the Wal-Martization of creative content and a Third World class of creative people," Tasini said in a press release. "Actually, that is unfair to Wal-Mart because at least Wal-Mart pays its workers something for the value those workers create. In Arianna Huffington's business model, economic gain is only reserved for her. Everyone else, apparently, is expected to work for free regardless of the value they create. Greed and selfishness is the order of the day."

Tasini has been a prominent online advocate for labor rights, specifically those of freelance writers, for about a decade now. more

Google tests game-mechanics strategies with Recyclebank

It looks like Google has taken an interest in a start-up called Recyclebank, which offers points and rewards for "green" actions like joining curbside recycling programs and installing eco-friendly appliances--it's using it as a test bed for a new beta version of its Google Analytics tracking tool.

More specifically, along with a consumer research company called ROI Research, Google Analytics will be parsing the progress and results of Recyclebank's impending "Green Your Home Challenge," and then releasing a research paper about the whole process. The contest in question is taking place over the course of April for "Earth more

Google confirms product boss departure

Google has confirmed the resignation of Jonathan "J.R." Rosenberg, its senior vice president of product management, who has been at the company since 2002. Rosenberg's departure was reported today by Business Insider--the same day that co-founder Larry Page returned to the CEO post at Google, taking over from Eric Schmidt.

Business Insider reported that Rosenberg had planned to leave the company in a few years, when his teenage daughter graduated from high school, but that Page wants executives to commit in the long run. So Rosenberg, the report said, decided to bow out early.

"We tried to more

Larry Page, here's your six-month plan

Today marks Google co-founder Larry Page's first day back on the job as CEO since he handed over the reins to Eric Schmidt in 2001. He's been deeply involved with the company during Schmidt's tenure, of course, but in a decade's time the job of chief executive of Google has invariably changed. A lot. Instead of a company on a fast rise, it's a conglomerate that in the meantime has gotten itself involved in telecommunications, self-driving cars, television hardware, and venture capital investing.

So maybe this is what Page should be focusing on for his more

Time to hit reload on Web 2.0 Expo?

SAN FRANCISCO--The Web 2.0 Expo this week was missing something. It might've been Tim O'Reilly, the founder of conference co-producer O'Reilly Media and a well-regarded, if slightly granola-inclined, industry sage. He was out of town; gone from the program was his traditional opening keynote, a quick but poignant take on the state of the industry.

Or it might have been the hype missing from the rather quiet halls of the Moscone Convention Center. A few years ago, it was a must-attend event for industry insiders and a launch pad for new start-ups looking to get onto more

Google, eBay execs make mobile commerce pitches

"Shoppers don't distinguish between online and mobile. They think of mobile as an extension of their everyday activities," Glasgow said. "Mobile's clearly having an impact on e-commerce."

That's been a big eBay talking point of late.

Glasgow's presentation was primarily to emphasize eBay's dual focus on mobile and local shopping, like the bar code-scanning technology it built into its mobile apps after acquiring start-up RedLaser and the local shopping search features brought on board by its purchase of Milo.com. He unveiled a new eBay feature in which searches for products on both the Web more

Twitter kills wildly unpopular QuickBar

The only real surprise is that it took this long: Twitter has released an update to its iPhone app that eradicates the QuickBar, a pop-up display of rotating "trending topics" that users seemed to find almost universally annoying and nonhelpful.

Twitter claimed that people did, in fact, interact with the heavily maligned feature, which was initially released earlier this month. "Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today," a post on the Twitter blog explained. "We believe there are still significant benefits to more

Google's '+1' experiment looks Delicious

Google today launched an experiment called "+1," a small button alongside links in search results that it says users can click "to give something your public stamp of approval, so friends, contacts, and others can find the best stuff when they search."

In other words, it's the company's answer to Facebook's ubiquitous Like button. It'll keep a log of your favorite discoveries on Google, and (almost more importantly) use that to customize what sorts of ads you see. It's also a way for the company to get a better gauge on the quality of content more

Kansas City, Kan., to be Google's broadband test bed

There's some rough news for Topeka, Kan., the city that courted Google's ultra-high-speed municipal broadband project by changing its name to Google. The Mountain View, Calif., tech giant announced Wednesday that the lucky city that gets to be its broadband guinea pig not only isn't Topeka, but it's Kansas City, Kansas--just an hour's drive away. Ouch.

More than 1,100 communities had applied since the call for applicants was announced about a year ago. Kansas City will first see the new developments next year, and Google is already looking for additional communities to join the more

Jack Dorsey rejoins Twitter executive team

"Excited that Twitter Chairman @jack will be returning to the company day-to-day leading product as Executive Chairman," Costolo's tweet read.

Dorsey came up with the original concept for Twitter--something that has been very noticeable in the company's recent fifth-birthday commemorations--and served as CEO until 2008 when after a well-reported ouster he was replaced by fellow co-founder Evan Williams. Dorsey remained Twitter chairman, but in the meantime co-founded Square, which uses a piece of hardware to turn mobile devices into credit card readers, and became one of the tech entrepreneurship world's more prominent angel investors.

Late last year, more