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Dennis Crowley, inventor of many things good, including Dodgeball (the social Web tool, not the terrible movie or the gym game Justin and Wilson can't play because of their thick glasses), joins The 404 today to talk about some interesting stories from the Web and his latest social Web tool, Four Square.

Today, we go a bit back in Web 2.0 history with the first Twitter/Loopt social-networking tool, invented by Mr. Crowley, Dodgeball--from its inception, to its purchase by Google, to its eventual shutdown.

Not to be deterred, Dennis is back at it again with Four Square, another social-networking tool, where users can compete with one another and earn badges and points when they hang at certain places. It's available for both iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and SMS. We encourage you to check it out and report back to us, whether it improves your social life or earns you a "Douchebag Badge."

Also on today's show, we get to some voice mails about Buzz Out Loud infringing a little too much on 404-territory. It's no surprise, given our general awesomeness. In actual stories, we've got Justin Yu's review of the new "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" movie that his "friend" let him watch through a telescope in another room.

We learn through the new Digg Bar that young, white males binge drink. You can thank the U.S. federal budget deficit for that wonderful, no-duh study.

Per usual, send us a voice mail, especially about your social life experiments with Four Square, at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Or via e-mail, if you're international, at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. More guests coming up, including an appearance by Dan the Mantern and Alison Rosen.

FBI agents have started looking for whoever uploaded to the Web an incomplete version of the unreleased movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

The film, which reportedly cost $100 million to make, was not scheduled for theatrical release until May 1 but was leaked to the Web Tuesday evening. Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Thursday that the agency is responsible for investigating copyright infringement and allegations of piracy.

She said the bureau received a call within the last 24 hours from 20th Century Fox, the News Corp.-owned studio that produced "… Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--For many fans of the hit TV series "Mad Men," one of the biggest events of 2008 was the sudden emergence of a number of the show's characters on Twitter.

At first, it seemed as though whoever was posting regular tweets from within the fictionalized 1960s world of the AMC network show was doing so on behalf of the producers. But as is well known now, they were a group of people who had taken on the task themselves, and who quickly found their project shut down. As is equally well known now, a public outcry … Read more

Justin kicks off the show with some fresh haterade for Fox "personality" Bill O'Reilly and his views on the godless liberal city of San Francisco. Also on the show, Wilson goes hands on with the Blackberry Storm, an inmate gets $300 K for his lost genitals, NASA installs a fart detector in the space station, same sex couples can join eHarmony and PETA releases "Cooking Mama: Mama kills animals." We conclude with a geeked out discussion about X-Men.

Dan the Mantern here. In case you haven't seen it already, you should check out the above "documentary" from the O'Reilly Factor that claims that, should the Christian right not remain vigilant, all of America will begin to resemble San Francisco, the modern-day Sodom. If you analyze the video, you'll notice that several interviews were conducted with homeless people and burnt-out hippies, precisely the type of people who would make any city seem like an undesirable place to live. Obviously O'Reilly is running out of material. You better watch your back, Bill, because I know a 130-lb. Asian man who loves skinny jeans and ass-whupping, and his skinny jeans are in the wash...

UPDATE: If you're having problems listening to today's episode of the show, please re-download the episode. We apologize, but there was an error in the MP3 encoding, which caused the file to not play passed the 7 minute mark.

OMG, WTF, LMAO, and a million other Internet expletives for our new leader, Mr. Barack Obama. Even Jeff, The Lone Hater, can't seem to contain his excitement over the election results. Former 404 host Randall Bennett also joins us via completely useless hologram to share in the excitement and recap the events. Hats off to you, Mr. President. Please give us a call if you're ever in the Gramercy, N.Y. area, we'll see if we can pencil you into the show.

Even though all of us are out of breath and stricken with sore throats from a night of "Whoos!" and "F**K You Tennessee," we still manage to drag ourselves into the studio this morning to celebrate our country's triumphant return to common sense. It's like waking up from an awful nightmare that somehow managed to last eight grueling years. Our special guest on the show today is Randall Bennett, former host of The 404, who helps us weigh on the presidential election, the cheerful optimism resonating from the streets of New York, Twitter's flawless victory in the face of 13562834791 simultaneous tweets, and perhaps most hilarious--the AMAZING CNN HOLOGRAMS! Because when you've got money coming out of your ears and split screens just aren't enough, count on CNN to be the face of American frivolity. USA! USA! USA!

Four years after women's media and advertising network Glam Media made its debut, the company has announced its male counterpart: Brash.

Like Glam, it's an editorial hub with both original and partner content, but more importantly, it's a "publisher network" of sites that run Brash ads.

Looking at Brash's smooth, purple-and-charcoal-gray color scheme, you can tell this isn't the same sort of male demographic targeted by the fratty Heavy ad network. Like Glam, Brash aims for upscale audiences--that way, it can charge higher click-through rates. One of the advertisers on the mockup of … Read more

It's been way too long since we've had Caroline McCarthy on the show! She makes a very attractive Jeff Bakalar replacement, and it's a trade that we'll take any day of the week. On today's show, we solve the mystery of the Natural History Museum whale, touch on virtual iBoobs, join the British Secret Service, and Wilson reads a very heinous headline about (what else?) butts. We also treat ourselves to a very steamy call from the public, over and over and over again...

I must admit that in Jeff's absence, Wilson and I are super stoked to welcome CNET News reporter Caroline McCarthy to the show today. Caroline is an expert in social media and even started her own Internet meme: the tale of the Twittering Natural History whale. For those of you who aren't familiar, the Natural History Museum in New York is home to a gigantic, life-size blue whale. The museum completed the construction of the whale in 1938, and the big boy somehow managed to sign up for a Twitter account. Check out his page and follow his tweets, the tongue-in-cheek humor is on par with DeadBigFoot. While you're at it, follow The404 and Caroline McCarthy as well!

NEW YORK--When Yahoo finally debuted its display-ad platform in a press conference here on Wednesday, CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker had an unusual guest on hand: actor Jon Hamm, who plays 1960s-era advertising exec Don Draper on the critically acclaimed drama Mad Men.

"I do feel a little strange being up in front of a group of people, in front of cameras, talking about advertising, instead of smoking nine cigarettes and drinking three or four glasses of Scotch," Hamm said, referring to Draper's hard-living attitude, "although maybe if this was a little later in … Read more

It looks like wiser heads--or at least those who could be made to recognize a great PR opportunity--have prevailed at AMC.

If you're one of the many hooked fans of the cable channel's hit show, Mad Men, which chronicles the goings-on at a fictional 1960s New York ad agency, and you're also a Twitter user, you might have found yourself eagerly following tweets from folks like Don Draper, Roger Sterling, or Peggy Olson.

And getting people to follow the show's characters probably seemed like a clever way of using Twitter for marketing.

Except that AMC had … Read more