Social networking

In a world full of gall, NBC Sports deserves an asterisk.

Sporting events tend to be rather more fun when you can watch them live. You, indeed, might want to watch the Winter Olympics, which begin Thursday, live. Well, NBC Sports is the kind of host that will invite you for dinner and serve you cornflakes, coffee, and a dried croissant--in the restroom.

It seems only yesterday that NBC was annoying people, especially those on the West Coast, with its coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The peacock network takes pride in being able to censor your ability to watch Olympic … Read more

MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta is stepping down less than one year after assuming the job, parent company News Corp. announced late on Wednesday.

Van Natta's resignation is effective immediately. He will be replaced by Mike Jones, chief operating officer, and Jason Hirschhorn, chief product officer, who are being promoted to serve as co-presidents, News Corp. said in a statement.

The new co-presidents will each report to Jon Miller, chairman and chief executive of digital media for News Corp. Asked whether the company would be looking to hire a new CEO for MySpace, spokeswoman Dani Dudeck said the … Read more

Gmail appeared to be unavailable to some users in Iran on Wednesday, possibly as part of a government crackdown designed to suppress anti-regime demonstrations scheduled for Thursday.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Iranian government said it would shut down Gmail and replace it with a national e-mail system. CNN reported that government officials were believed responsible for blocked text messages and sluggish Internet speeds in Tehran for days.

Gmail users in Iran reported to Google that they were having trouble getting to the service, Google said in a statement later on Wednesday.

"We can confirm … Read more

All across America, people blew their noses over their nachos during the third quarter of the Super Bowl.

Google's foray into broadcast brand communication, "Parisian Love," a moving story of international angst and amour, moved some, perhaps, to consider finding meaning overseas.

It also moved some to consider that perhaps this extremely cheap-to-make movie should enjoy a little gentle mimicry and mockery. Actually, in some cases, the mockery wasn't all that gentle.

Some of it was even created before the Google ad, which originally ran on YouTube in November, entered football territory.

However, here are two … Read more

Correction 1:05 p.m. PST: Boy, did I get it wrong.

Writing off available information this morning--the AIM beta download site and a few news reports--I assumed the Facebook-AOL interoperability was the result of a corporate partnership. Instead, it's because Facebook actually did open up its technology, embracing rather than neglecting the approach I called for. In this case at least, the bad instant messaging network habits from the past were not carried over.

I have to say I'm impressed with Facebook's move, and not because it makes the crow I'm eating any tastier. What … Read more

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the team behind Buzz, Google's service that aims to organize your online social life, started out small. But as they tested the system within Google, they "found it so useful for internal communications that we became really motivated to bring this to the world," he said in an interview recorded immediately following Google's announcement Tuesday. (Scroll down to listen to the interview.)

For him, one of the most useful features is the ability "to start typing a thought right off the bat without having to worry about disrupting other people...… Read more

I have come to terms with the truth: however hard I try, there are some things (and people) I will never understand.

Please let me present Marios Symeonidis. He decided to go on a trip to New Zealand. I can understand that. New Zealand is pretty. It doesn't have many inhabitants. And some of the locals like to perform blissfully threatening dances before rugby matches.

According to a Monday report by Reuters, Symeonidis decided to wander up Mount Ruapehu with a friend. I understand this too. There is some great skiing up on Ruapehu.

Our intrepid tourist then encountered … Read more

Here are some deeply perceptive estimations brought to you in the new ad campaign from cell phone service provider MetroPCS: All Indian males work in the tech industry. Unless they are in Bollywood. And all Indian techies are terribly nerdy beings with the dress sense of a dead gardener in his coffin.

Perhaps, you, too, were mesmerized by one of these spots, featuring Ranjit and Chad, two Indian tech experts, during Sunday's Super Bowl. Or perhaps this was merely some kind of local buy, as the so-called "Tech and Talk" campaign has been plaguing my own television … Read more

Put yourself in their shoes.

They are twins. It's the morning of their 20th birthday. So they log on to Facebook, expecting to find messages from well-wishers.

Instead Angela and Maryanne Vourlis discover posts that read "RIP Chris Naylor" and "RIP Bobby." It took more than a few seconds for them to realize that their 17-year-old brother was the "Bobby" to which the posts referred.

According to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the twins saw the RIP posts and tried to call their brother.

They then called their mother.

"I rang Mum and … Read more