Can media organizations leverage the social web to get story tips faster than they could through traditional methods? A number of news aggregators believe so and are looking to Twitter for tips. Six weeks ago popular tech news aggregator Techmeme began accepting story tips submitted on Twitter. Toda...

Netbooks, iPhones, Android mobile devices. Personal computing around the world is converging into the hand held device and the combination of price point, sophistication and network effect could help deliver more of what many early supporters of the internet were aiming for - democratization of medi...

These days it's all about making your free web site "go viral" right? Maybe that was the all-too-common business plan in recent years - but many people were uncomfortable with that vision at a time of relative economic well-being. You can imagine how crazy such a plan sounds now. Well-known PR pro J...

Search is a versatile tool, but if you've had a hard time integrating all the awesome niche search engines available into your workflow (Google is so easy to access!) then the following instructions might be perfect for you. I've put together a multi-step process that uses two Firefox plug-ins and s...

Analyst firm Forrester published a report this morning telling corporations that it's a good idea to engage bloggers in "sponsored conversations," or the exchange of goods or credit in exchange for blog coverage. The report, titled "Add Sponsored Conversations to Your Toolbox", is 8 pages long, focu...

Some people say that "the real-time web" could be the next generation of post-Google search. Social media tools have greatly increased not just the number of people posting content online but also the speed with which they are able to do so. Do we need a new search paradigm that prioritizes publishi...

Next month Austin, Texas will fill to the brim with geeks from all around the world gathered to attend the South by Southwest Interactive festival. While smaller than the Music part of SXSW, Interactive is very big and very fun. One part of the event that always goes over our heads, though, is the a...

The DEMO conference, a Silicon Valley institution, will announce a changing of the guard tonight. Executive producer Chris Shipley will begin a hand-off of leadership to Matt Marshall, San Jose Mercury News reporter turned blog founder at VentureBeat. That's right, DEMO is being taken over by a blog...

It was 5 years ago today that Yahoo! stopped using Google to power its searches and started using its own search technology, the company wrote today in a blog post. Everyone knows that things aren't looking good for Yahoo! in business terms, and the company's search and advertising market shares loo...

Techmeme is a semi-automated site that tracks the hottest conversations among tech blogs each day, with updates every five minutes. It's one of the most innovative efforts in news gathering today. In December, Techmeme hired its first human editor, freelance writer Megan McCarthy. McCarthy tends the...