Stories by Heather Havenstein

Blogs becoming entrenched in mainstream, and more profitable

Blogs have become entrenched in mainstream life, according to the 2008 "State of the Blogosphere" report that found bloggers are adding new posts at a staggering rate - more than 37,000 per hour - to their increasingly profitable blogs. That growth, the report said, has attracted the attention of companies who are turning to such blog sites to promote their brands.

Google's Brin blogs, says he's predisposed to Parkinson's

Google co-founder Sergey Brin Thursday became the first of the company's top three executives to launch a blog, and he immediately used the platform to reveal that he has a genetic mutation that predisposes him to developing Parkinson's disease.

Facebook's Beacon 'returns' for some bloggers

Facebook's Beacon advertising system found itself in the midst of a blogosphere brouhaha Thursday after two Facebook developers posted about Beacon "returning" to the social network and its partner sites.

Target pact won't lead to Web access standards

The settlement signed last month by Target to resolve a class-action lawsuit charging that its Web site isn't fully accessible by blind persons won't become the basis for online-accessibility standards, said the US National Retail Federation.

Here come the Millennials! Are you ready?

Like most generations before it, Generation Y -- those born roughly between 1982 and 2002 -- has been stereotyped based on a cultural change identified with its era. In this case, the group is bound by a hunger to use the latest technologies to communicate.

Cloud computing takes hold despite privacy fears

As consumers flock to the cloud computing world to store photos online, back up hard drives or use Web-based e-mail, many harbor worries about the security of that personal data, according to a study released late last week from the Pew Internet & American Life project.

Building a new window into crime

By combining business intelligence and two foundations of Web 2.0 -- search and mapping -- a police department in the US state of Kentucky has built a brand-new window into crime. This Web-based BI portal allows patrol officers to enter data -- or even pieces of data such as a few numbers from a license plate -- into a simple search interface and retrieve information from their own databases and those of neighboring towns.

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