If all commenters are ticking time bombs waiting to go off, then rule one is: don’t light the fuse by responding directly. But as a professional writer and critic, Lee Siegel had had enough. So he used a pseudonym to respond. He explains the hard-won lessons from ...

There's been a bit of a backlash recently against the angry commenter on newspaper websites. Some are calling for newspapers to stop allowing comments sections all together. But what about democracy on the web? Bob, with the help of "This American Life"'s Ira Glass, ruminates on ...

When the Associated Press busted a little-known website for posting excerpts from AP stories, the blogosphere responded with indignation. After all, appropriating content with a link back to its source is common practice. Media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan looks at the ongoing battle between blogs and the mainstream media.

In a recently-settled obscenity lawsuit the defense lawyer planned to deploy Google Trends as a tool. By showing what locals were looking for on the web, he could prove that his client's website was in line with community standards, and therefore not technically obscene. Slate's William Saletan analyzed ...

What happens when a single company becomes the gateway to the Internet? Critics are raising concerns about Google, where over 60 percent of all internet searches in the U.S. originate. Boston Globe reporter Drake Bennett investigated the Google juggernaut.

Users of YouTube, which is owned by Google, are screaming mad because a judge has ruled that Google should hand over information about who is watching what to Viacom. Peter Kafka of Silicon Alley Insider looks into the case.

Last November the FBI used a top secret National Security Letter to demand user information from the Internet Archive, an online library. Internet Archive co-founder Brewster Kahle decided not to comply. Instead he sued and the FBI backed down. Kahle describes what it's like to challenge ...

Consuming the same media as your peers is what social scientists call homophily, better known as ‘birds of a feather flock together’. Ethan Zuckerman, blogger and internet theorist, has been trying to fight this instinct online. He offers techniques for surprising and challenging readers with news ...

Despite the internet’s runaway success, its future is anything but clear. So says Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance at Oxford University. He explains why the very devices and applications that have enabled internet ubiquity may now be limiting innovation.

Few of the ambitious plans, promised by dozens of U.S. cities, for municipal wireless internet service have materialized. That is, until Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle turned on lightning-fast, free internet this week to hundreds of residents of San Francisco's public housing projects. ...

If there’s one essential quality of the world-wide web it's that it is, well, world-wide. But recent moves by the body that governs the net may be opening the door to individual webs, starting with countries like China and Russia. Tim Wu, professor of internet and ...

Computer scientist Gordon Bell is at the vanguard of a movement called "lifelogging," digitally recording every moment of his day in an effort to create a complete virtual memory of his life. But why? We talk with Bell and also technology writer Clive Thompson ...

Brooke interviews Bob about his one man crusade to take down cable-giant, Comcast. Bob talks about his recent campaign in the blogosphere, Comcast’s insatiable appetite for bad customer service and why a change might begin with one provocatively-named blog.

The most viewed clip on YouTube has 62 million views, but the most-discussed clip has over 200,000 comments. The New York Times' Virginia Heffernan says virtual novels are forming on YouTube's comment section and that the conversation has surprising depth.

On the occasion of a new Zogby poll of internet users/lovers, Bob muses on an unlikely romance in 1’s and 0’s.

Many Comcast customers attempting to file share online are being thwarted by ... you guessed ... Comcast. It’s exactly the type of activity that net neutrality advocates warned us could happen. AP reporter Peter Svensson explains.

A year ago, publications were touting municipal Wi-Fi as free for all and coming soon to a city near you. In recent weeks, however, the euphoria has turned to eulogies. But CNET writer Maggie Reardon says reports of Wi-Fi’s death have been exaggerated.

While many media outlets hope that web advertising will provide a much-needed new revenue source, web users have already found a way to nullify ads' value - by making them invisible. C-Net's Declan McCullagh explains that new ad-blocking plug-ins raise serious problems for websites and maybe ...

A group of Russian computer hackers, called the Dream Coders Team, are selling a user-friendly hacking kit. It’s called M-Pack and comes complete with one year of customer service. Are the days of the underground, anti-establishment, renegade hacker over? Technology reporter Robert Lemos says that ...

From early photography to the VCR to streaming video, innovations in communications technology have often been driven by porn. But sex and tech Wired correspondent Regina Lynn argues that porn may be losing its innovation mojo, at least online.