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SAN FRANCISCO--There wasn't much time for Current Media, the cable news network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, to recover from last week's election and its marathon live broadcast, infused with content from Digg, Twitter, and countless video bloggers.

On Friday, Gore was giving the final address of the Web 2.0 Summit, a few blocks to the west of Current's offices, at the Palace Hotel, and plenty of advertising and marketing types were in town for the occasion.

Since it's a media company partially dependent on ad and sponsorship revenues, Current seized the opportunity, … Read more

We should all be very concerned that the Detroit motor car manufacturers are asking the U.S. government for $50 billion of bailout funding.

No, not because these are companies that may have deliberately held back the production of cars that might have wrecked our planet just a little less over the last, say, 30 or 40 years. No, no. These are companies on whom millions of people rely, many of them living in Michigan. A mass exodus from Michigan might not be a good thing for the rest of America.

It strikes me, and perhaps it has struck you … Read more

During a trip Down Under, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has had a lot to say. This week in Sydney, Australia, he stated that he isn't interested in wooing Yahoo anymore, he doesn't understand how Google plans to profit from Android, and he has confidence in President-elect Barack Obama's leadership.

And while the expressive executive on Friday also said Microsoft "may look into" using WebKit, the open-source browser-rendering technology used by Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers, he mostly rejected that idea, according to a Computerworld report. Instead, he said the two prominent Microsoft … Read more

If you're a United Kingdom dweller feeling left out of U.S.-only services like BuyYourFriendADrink.com there's light at the end of the tunnel. Launching Friday is Get Them In, a new way to buy your friends food and drink items right on Facebook which can be redeemed at various U.K. pubs and retailers.

Unlike BYFAD, Get Them In is not just centered around bars, and it works in grocery stores too. Purchases of drinks and snacks are made through Facebook using PayPal, so you've got your entire list of friends available in one place. … Read more

The on-stage chats at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday featured heavy-hitters from the realm of online applications.

Day 2's lineup at the San Francisco event included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AT&T's Ralph de la Vega, and a four-executive panel of VMware's Paul Maritz, Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff, Adobe Systems' Kevin Lynch, and Google's Dave Girouard. Below are videos of their on-stage talks, courtesy of TechWeb.

Want to know what's up with an old friend or a new acquaintance? For many people, the place to keep up with their social circle … Read more

Social network Facebook hopes to replicate the phenomenal success of its 2008 U.S. presidential election outreach and coverage in other countries, outreach and marketing director Randi Zuckerberg told CNET News on Thursday.

"This week is definitely all the post-election aftermath, but I'm definitely looking forward to jumping right into some of the international politics (and) international elections," said Zuckerberg (who is, in case you were wondering, CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister). "It's a little more fun to work on some of those because they don't draw out their elections for a year and … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, decided to have a little bit of speculative fun onstage Thursday with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit. It's the sort of "speculative fun" that could give tech bloggers a gossip-overload headache for weeks to come: Battelle decided to throw some fuel on the "Facebook might buy Twitter" fire. Which, as far as I can tell, is a relatively new addition to the rumor-roasting pit.

"Is Twitter just a feature of Facebook?" Battelle prodded. Facebook, after all, has its own "status&… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Two of the most commonly heard words in Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's talk at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday were "iteration" and "evolution." Facebook, he repeatedly emphasized, is a company that attributes much of its growth and innovation to going through small changes and expansions.

The site launched in 2004 as a feature-light networking tool for students at Harvard, where Zuckerberg was an undergraduate at the time. It then gradually expanded to other colleges and then corporations before finally opening up to the public. Photo- and video-sharing was added. The &… Read more

I don't know who did it, but someone taught my mom how to instant message people through Facebook. I have Facebook IM delivered through Adium, my open-source IM client for the Mac, and was surprised to have Vicky Asay (aka "Mom") blistering me with IMs about politics and family at 7:30 AM.

My mom ("mother," for the Northeasterners reading this :-) lives in Argentina and feels a bit disconnected from her family at times. No more.

My computer time will never be the same. Nor will Facebook. The fact that my mom has discovered … Read more