Boxing's popularity seems to have been overtaken by such pleasures as mixed martial arts and American Idol over the last few years. This doesn't seem to have discouraged Facebook users from forming groups around their love of expressing hate for certain boxers.
According to the Telegraph, WBA World light-welterweight champion Amir Khan, a Briton of Pakistani heritage, has decided to threaten the social-networking company with legal action over some of these Facebook groups.
Together with his manager, Frank Warren, Khan has employed legal counsel after so far failing to persuade Facebook to take down so-called hate groups aimed at him. These groups, in the view of Khan and Warren, made racist and defamatory comments about the boxer.
Khan and Warren complain that they have so far received only standard acknowledgments from Facebook and have therefore employed the law firm Lupton Fawcett.
"The problem is, when you search for a celebrity on the site, you also come across pages using the celebrity's name and image that have no official link but in some instances are full of defamatory and illegal content," according to a quote in the Guardian of Lupton Fawcett's Stephen Taylor Heath.
Khan is a somewhat-polarizing figure in British sports. However, it is perhaps surprising just how many Facebook hate groups there are aimed at him. I counted more than 20.
Does he know there appear to be 1,600 "Hate MySpace" Facebook groups?
(Credit: Cc Deneyterrio/Flickr)Facebook's terms of service are very clear about hate: "You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence." So perhaps it's hard to understand how the company can allow so many groups that claim they hate Amir Khan in their very name.
One can, of course, argue that you can say you hate a sportsman, in the sense that the mere sight of them arouses unpleasant thoughts (for some, David Beckham, for others, the German national soccer team). One doesn't necessarily wish that person or those persons harm.
Indeed, when one goes through the Amir Khan hate groups, the vast majority seem to dislike Khan for his attitude, for only fighting (in their opinion) boxers of a poor level and for his lack of boxing skill.
Much of the tone and content, however, is undoubtedly abusive, and there are suggestions of racist overtones in certain comments. Khan's lawyers say they are specifically focusing on material that they believe is defamatory or racist.
This case lends further indication that many interpretations Facebook makes of content on its site are highly subjective. In removing some Holocaust denial groups and one Muslim-hating group, Facebook made it clear that it made its own judgments on what should be considered hateful speech.
It will be interesting how far Khan's lawyers are prepared to push their case. It will also be interesting whether other sporting personalities will join together in attempting to remove potentially defamatory content from Facebook and other sites.
While it seems almost comical that there appear to be 1,600 Facebook groups that profess to hate MySpace, there are only 54 that claim to hate David Beckham, and only one Facebook group appears when you search for "I hate the German football team."
After several months of waiting, fantasy football is finally back. Football fans all over the U.S. are gearing up to take on friends as they compete to find out who has what it takes to capture this year's crown.
To achieve that goal, you'll need the right tools. That's where we come in. Check out these tools for the fantasy football player.
Get your fantasy on
League creation
CBS Fantasy Football If you're looking for a full-featured fantasy product, check out CBS Fantasy Football.
After you sign up for CBS Fantasy Football, you can either join a public league or create your own private league for free. The app makes it easy to find players, you have the option of online and offline drafting, and customizing your league takes just seconds. When you finally create your league, you'll find everything from expert advice to draft kits. The service has some really nice features. (Disclosure: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)
CBS Fantasy Football is a great fantasy game option.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)ESPN Fantasy Football ESPN Fantasy Football features everything you'd want from a fantasy service.
After you sign up for the free Fantasy Football on ESPN, you can opt to join a public or private game. From there, you can rank you players, research those that will provide the best chances of helping your team, and more. Thanks to ESPN's wealth of information, you can research any stat you want. Playing in the ESPN league is simple and fun. But I had one issue with ESPN's service: the company's "Insider" offering, which provides the best information on players, will cost you $3.33 per month for access to it. That's a bummer.
ESPN Fantasy Football provides information on every player.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
Facebook and MySpace get most of the mainstream attention, but social networks focused on various niches can help you connect with people more effectively. One of those niches is sports.
Although sports-centric social networks aren't nearly as popular as general social networks, their uniqueness garners a loyal, passionate following. If you're a sports fan, joining at least one of these social networks can be rewarding.
Sports social networks
ArmchairGM ArmchairGM gives you the opportunity to support your favorite sports teams and talk about them with others on the site. Using collaborative wiki technology, it lets you write articles about topics that interest you, comment on others' articles, and go to the "Locker Room" to discuss sports topics with other fans.
Unfortunately, ArmchairGM's design isn't very compelling, and its community is smaller than that of some of its competitors. But it's still a good way to connect with rabid sports fans.
ArmchairGM lets you blog about your passion.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)FanNation FanNation is a community for sports lovers to get up-to-date information on their favorite teams and players while discussing their love of sports with others. And for the most part, it delivers.
After you finish registering with FanNation, you can start joining groups on the site. Those groups range from communities specific to a particular team to general sport topics. For the most part, those communities are quite active.
FanNation lets you write up blog posts on topics that interest you. You can also comment on other users' blog posts. FanNation is designed well, and the information provided by other users is interesting. But having the ability to communicate more effectively with other FanNation users would be nice. Right now, comments on blog posts are about all that one can do, to that end.
FanNation lets you do all kinds of stuff on the site.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Golf Finder Golf Finder is a simple service that provides some real value. The site allows you to sign up, adding where you live and when you'd like to play golf, and then it matches you up with some of the best golf courses in your area. You can also input your handicap and age, so you can find the right course to match your skill level. It's a great way to discover new courses and at the same time find others on the site with whom to play.
Golf Finder helps you find the best courses for your skill level.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
Teens in Tech, a blogging network that's written by young adults, announced Friday that it has acquired Youth Bloggers Network for an undisclosed sum. According to a post on the Youth Bloggers Network blog, both companies "decided that by joining forces, our projects could help each other vastly." Going forward, the combined company wants to create unique Wordpress themes, e-books, coupons, and a variety of community features "to slowly transform Youth Bloggers Network into a social network for young and teen bloggers."
Kardia Health Systems, a company that was formed to commercialize the Echocardiography Information Management System from the Mayo Clinic, will launch an online reporting system for vascular laboratories this weekend. The Web-based platform will allow doctors to communicate with patients and other practitioners over the Web detailing a patient's vascular information and past procedures. The company claims users will be able to focus more on patient services by deploying the platform.
GetJar, an independent mobile app store, announced Friday that it has topped 400 million mobile app downloads since its launch in 2004. Over the past month alone, it has witnessed a 200 percent increase in downloads over the same period in 2008. The company claims that based on its download figures, its app store's popularity is second only to the Apple App Store. GetJar's store provides apps for over 1,300 different handsets.
ConnectedVentures, owner of online comedy site CollegeHumor, has acquired sports satire site SportsPickle, the company announced Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed and there is currently no word on whether SportsPickle will remain a separate entity or be rolled into CollegeHumor.
The NCAA Basketball Tournament is just days away. And now that the teams are ranked and ready to play, we have you covered. Not only can you join our Webware Bracket Challenge, but we've compiled a list of online services that will help you get the most out of the tournament. Whether it's creating brackets, researching players, or just watching the games online, it's all right here.
Stream, stream, stream
CBS (which owns CNET News and the Webware blog) is the television host of all the NCAA men's basketball games this year, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the company is poised to unveil streaming options for every game in the tournament.
By surfing to CBS' March Madness On Demand page, starting Thursday at 12 p.m. EDT, users will be able to watch every single game on their computers for free.
Bracket it up!
CBS Sports You can join our Webware Bracket on the CBS Sports site. Along with choosing your winners, you can also engage in forum discussions or send e-mails to participants in your group. And if you want to go it alone and try to win cash and prizes by picking the best bracket, you can do that too. Disclosure: We'll say it again. CBS owns both CBS Sports and CNET News.
ESPN ESPN also offers an outstanding bracket service. Much like CBS Sports, ESPN's brackets are open to the public, and users can create their own groups. Picking teams is simple. The service is free, but if you want scouting reports or help with your picks, some ESPN content requires a subscription.
NCAA If you're the type who wants to use the "official" bracket for the NCAA Tournament, you'll need to use the NCAA's bracket service. It's easy to sign up, but I wasn't too pleased with how the bracket picking was implemented, and it was difficult to work my way through the process. But it is one of the best-looking offerings in this roundup.
Yahoo Pick 'Em Yahoo Pick 'Em is, one of the best tournament bracket services. It allows you to quickly choose winners by clicking on a name in the bracket, and regardless of the match-up you create, it provides you with a full look at the teams, including their record, points scored, points allowed, and the "Yahoo Outlook."
Extra goodies
AllBallers If you want to engage in some basic research or find out which teams others are picking for the tournament, AllBallers might be a good place to start. It's a community designed specifically for basketball fanatics and its forums are hopping with discussions on basketball in general and the NCAA Tournament in particular. It's a great resource to find out what others think about teams before you make your own decision.
CollegeHoopsNet CollegeHoopsNet is the best source for everything you ever wanted to know about college basketball. From national player rankings to scores and team evaluations, the site gives you the lowdown on what to expect from teams throughout the entire tournament. And although it's designed specifically for die-hard fans, you shouldn't worry: the articles and player details are so useful and worthwhile that novices won't have any trouble understanding them.
InfiniteHoops Maybe this has little to do with March Madness or the NCAA Tournament, but InfiniteHoops is a unique site that lets you find others in your area who might want to start a pickup basketball game. Users input where they will be playing a game and when, and others who want to play can join the game. It's a great way to connect with people around town when the tournament makes you want to play some hoops.
KlickSports If a simple bracket isn't for you and you want to engage in a head-to-head competition, look no further than KlickSports. The site recently unveiled its College Basketball Championship Challenge game, which will allow you to play one game against another user in each region in the first round and then continue to play one regional game in each round until the tournament ends. Even better, you can play both online and on mobile phones and the top players will win prizes when the tournament is over.
Pickspal Pickspal might look like any other sports news site, but it's actually a great resource for those who want to see some of the best college basketball news stories on the Web. Pickspal searches across the Web for basketball news stories about teams, players, or game results, and makes them available on the site. Although all the news and information is available elsewhere, Pickspal is one of my favorite places to find news, simply because it does all the legwork for me and puts all the top stories in one place for my consumption. It's also a handy tool when trying to figure out which team to pick.
Has all this bracket talk gotten you in the mood to pick your winners? If so, join our Webware Bracket Challenge! Simply sign up for a CBS Sports ID, follow this link, and input the password, webware, into the appropriate field. You'll then be able to pick your winners for this year's bracket.
RSS repository Alltop announced that it has launched a new feature called MyAlltop that allows users to create a custom page to which they can add the feeds they care about.
The widgets can be viewed on that single page and shared with others. In order to create a MyAlltop page, visitors will be required to register for the site. Once they do, they can click an icon next to the feed to add it to their page. The feature is available now.
Sorenson Media, a company that provides encoding and compression applications on video that will be streamed over the Internet, announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its operation into San Diego, Calif. and it plans on increasing its workforce. The company's new San Diego office will be the hub of its operations, and it wants to triple the size of its staff within one year.
KlickSports, a provider of sports-based prediction games, announced that its College Basketball Championship Challenge game is now open. Users will be able to play one game against another user in each region in the first round and then continue to play one regional game in each round until the tournament ends. Users are able to play online and on mobile phones through automated text messages, and KlickSports will award the top players with prizes throughout the series.
Apture, a company that develops context-based pop-ups for Web publishers, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $4.1 million in Series A funding in a round that was led by Clearstone Venture Partners. According to the company, it plans to use the funding to expand its operations and help pay for expenses.
Pick 'em before it's too late!
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)Are you getting ready for the most exciting season in NCAA Basketball? So are we. And that's why we've created a public bracket for Webware writers and readers to create their own brackets and see who stands above the rest as the best March Madness performer in our community.
If you want to sign up and compete, sign up for a free CBS Sports ID, and once complete, follow this link to get to the Webware invite page.
You'll be asked to input a password. Type webware into the password field, and you'll be able to pick your winners. You can modify your picks until Game 1 on Thursday, March 19.
After each round, I'll be writing a quick update post, filling you in on who's winning, and once the tournament is all said and done, we'll announce the winner right here on Webware.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for CBS Sports, and join our NCAA Bracket. Good luck!
Click here to get to the Webware Bracket Challenge page, and don't forget the password: webware.
Baseball season is almost under way. So it's time we all get online and start forming our fantasy leagues. Perennial favorite sites from ESPN, Yahoo, and MLB.com will probably top the list for most people when they decide which service to use, but more goes into fantasy baseball than simply signing up for leagues. What about stats? Did you forget about the news? Did you happen to remember scouting tools?
Hear are the rest of the sites you need.
Step 1: Form the league
There are a number of fine league-building services out there, but if you want to have the best experience, stick to these selected few:
CBS Sports Not only is CBS Sports' Fantasy Baseball league free, it provides real-time scoring, live chat so you can talk with buddies during the game, and adequate player news and stats to help you make more informed decisions. I've used it a few times over the past five years and find it to be easy to use and high-powered for a private or public league. Disclosure: CBS Sports and CNET are owned by the same parent company: CBS.
ESPN Fantasy Baseball provides an easy-to-use interface.
(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)ESPN Fantasy Baseball I've also used ESPN's fantasy sports services for years, and I've been impressed with how much they offer. Leagues are free, player news and stats come straight from ESPN, one of the best sources for sports news, and managing your team couldn't be easier. But ESPN's penchant for charging for extra scouting help and more in-depth player information is annoying.
MLB.com If you want the most basic offering for your fantasy baseball league, you'll probably want to use Major League Baseball's service. It's free and makes it easy to set up a league. But I'm generally unimpressed with its stat tracking, and managing a team isn't nearly as easy as it is in competing services. It's a well-known fantasy site, but it's not the best.
Yahoo Sports Yahoo was one of the first companies to start fantasy leagues. More than a decade later, it's still providing an outstanding experience. All the leagues are free, player information is always up-to-date and reliable, and the service's stat tracking is second to none. Yahoo does charge some hefty fees for access to a draft kit ($9.99) and a scouting report ($14.99), but it's still a great service.
... Read moreIt's a fun time for sports fans. There's the Super Bowl extravaganza on Sunday, and a few days after that, Major League Baseball's spring training starts up. March Madness is right around the corner and in a couple of months, all our favorite sporting pastimes will be in full swing.
Because of that, I've found four relatively unknown sports statistics sites that will provide you with all the sports research you need to make more informed decisions in your fantasy baseball league or make you look smarter with your friends.
Sports Data Hub isn't just a statistical hub for those who want information about a football player's performance over the past year; it provides users with an incredibly useful stack of information that narrows basic statistics down to its most detailed level.
Do you want to know how Peyton Manning (quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts) has performed in outdoor stadiums on Sunday afternoons during the month of November for the past four years? Sports Data Hub will provide that information.
That said, the site isn't just a directory of stats. Sports Data Hub also lets users share insight with others through the site's blog and forums.
The only problem with Sports Data Hub is that it currently only offers statistics for the NFL, and it has not indicated whether or not stats for other sports organizations will be coming soon. But since it's free with registration, it's definitely worth using if you want to find out which players will give you the best shot of winning each week in your fantasy football league.
SportsGenie, much like Sports Data Hub, tries its best to provide users with the opportunity to make more informed decisions in their fantasy leagues. But unlike its competitors, SportsGenie employs calculations using formulas and algorithms to make predictions on a player's future performance.
Once you sign up for SportsGenie, you're allowed to run scenarios on player performance and team variables to determine if you should start a player or bench him for someone else.
SportsGenie is updated daily with player statistics to help you make the most informed decision. In fact, the company claims that it currently has a database of more than 750,000 games that it uses as a frame of reference.
Unfortunately, SportsGenie isn't free. Upon registration, you only have access to one prediction. Subsequent to that, the company charges $20 per week for its service.
Sports Reference provides the most comprehensive statistical data I've ever seen. Ranging from baseball to football to hockey, the site caters to just about every sports fan and allows you to find information about any team, person, or coach for free.
To give you an idea of the scope of information Sports Reference currently provides, you need not look further than its Baseball page. The company's baseball statistics date back to 1871 for major league players, teams, and leagues. Minor league stats are available for 1992 to the present and minor league box scores are available back to 1952.
But Sports Reference doesn't just cater to baseball fans. The company's football page features every statistic and game result ever recorded in the NFL, including Pro Bowl selections and draft picks. Its Olympics page contains data for "every year, every athlete, every sport, every country, and every event." It's filled with more than 150,000 pages of statistics.
Sports Reference is easily one of the best places to perform exhaustive research on sports figures. It's huge, it's useful, and it's free. It's a winner.
Although it originally started as a college basketball site where users could find any statistic they wanted on hoops players, StatSheet has quickly grown into a hub for those who are looking for statistics on the NBA, NFL, and even high school basketball.
But the main issue facing StatSheet is that much of its data is still incomplete. If you're looking for college basketball statistics, StatSheet is an ideal destination. But so far, its NFL statistics leave much to be desired. In fact, its NFL page is populated mostly by 2008 data and little else.
Regardless, StatSheet provides exhaustive data on the world of basketball. Whether you're looking for scores, player statistics, or coach information, the site has it all. It even boasts a chart builder so you can compare multiple data points, and gives users the option of embedding the site's widget, which contains statistical information, into their own sites.
StatSheet still has some growing to do and right now, it's not ideal for those who want information outside of basketball. But if you're looking for basketball information, StatSheet is a great source. And it's free, so that makes it worth trying.
Can't get enough of sports? Good! Coming Thursday and Friday, we're going to take a look at how to stay updated on the Super Bowl without actually watching it--and we'll find other related online activities aside from the big game.
Well, well, well. Here's something that just came into my inbox, and presumably the inboxes of the rest of the digital-media press corps: an e-mail from the media team at Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., announcing that the company will be running an ad during Sunday's Super Bowl XLIII. Considering the game airs on NBC, a Hulu ad is not too hard to fathom.
It seems like there's always a rumor about some huge tech announcement that will come to light during the annual football-and-advertising bacchanalia, like that Beatles-iTunes thing two years ago that never surfaced. But at least we know this one actually exists, and to boot, it sounds like Hulu is really hoping to make a splash along the lines of Apple's landmark "1984" ad that aired 25 years ago.
"During Super Bowl XLIII this Sunday, look for the launch of Hulu's ad campaign," the e-mail read. "Finally, we'll reveal the secret behind Hulu."
Ooh! Secrets! I love secrets! Clearly we will learn one of three things this Sunday:
1. Hulu is the Matrix.
2. Hulu is Luke Skywalker's father.
3. Hulu is people.
Aw, heck. With a revelation like this on the way, who cares whether the Steelers or Cardinals win?
