genpop.net

In China’s young Internet industry, competitors draw blood. When Binghao Cheng launched a social networking site two years ago, he named it Kaixin, or Happiness. But he didn’t have the money to spare to buy the domain name “Kaixin.” So he used Kaixin001, which was not already owned by someone else. (c) 2010, San Jose [...]

When scholars seek to understand long-ago cultures, they tend to draw conclusions from the handful of famous writers and thinkers whose works endure today. John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle peppered their books with words like “sunlight” and “hope,” so their Victorian era is often thought of as earnest and optimistic. (c) 2010, San Jose [...]

There’s been a lot of squealing of late over our rapidly eroding privacy on the Web, with the finger of accusation pointed directly at those sneaky Facebook folks. Founder Mark Zuckerberg is now the Snidely Whiplash of the Web, tying our privacy to the railroad tracks as he twirls his handlebar mustache and cackles with [...]

Two decades after the first Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, a group of privacy advocates, computer scientists and others hope to wrap up a four-day conference here with what organizers hope will be a milestone for the social Web — a “bill of rights” for social network users. (c) 2010, San Jose Mercury News [...]

Sitting with Sunny Mahant at a neighborhood coffeehouse near his San Francisco home — the home that serves as his office and a funding source for his startup — it’s hard not to root for him. (c) 2010, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

In its earliest days, Facebook was primarily a white and Asian phenomenon. No more. In the first-ever study of the race and ethnicity of its U.S. users, Facebook said Wednesday that blacks and Latinos have joined the social networking giant at a rapid clip in the last several years. (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News [...]

In its earliest days, Facebook was primarily a white and Asian phenomenon. No more. In the first-ever study of the race and ethnicity of its U.S. users, Facebook said Wednesday that blacks and Latinos have joined the social networking giant at a rapid clip in the last several years. (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News [...]