Threats Force Women Out of Blogosphere

(NEWSER) - If you think blogs are useless, think again: Scientists have developed a “hedonometer,” or happiness gauge, that analyzes personal online statements to pinpoint the overall contentment of the US population on a given day, the Discovery Channel reports. The program looks at sentences beginning with “I feel” and then grades the statement based on what follows. “Triumphant” gets an 8.87; “hostage” scores a 2.20. More»

Newest social networking takes web shorthand to its extreme

(NEWSER) - Short, random and mundane musings fired from around the globe are blowing up big in an Internet phenomenon called micro-blogging. Social networking is reduced to photos and single sentences—or less—that the Financial Times notes is to the blogosphere what reality tv is to cable: compelling and mind-numbing at the same time. More»

Salon Editor offers mea culpa for years of telling women to ignore it and "man up"

(NEWSER) - Salon Editor-in-chief Joan Walsh admits that sexist web trolls are a serious problem, despite her own longtime dismissal of the issue. Her mea culpa follows the implosion of programming instructor and game developer Kathy Sierra's blog after Sierra was assaulted, on her site and others, by crude sexual insults and finally death threats. More»

(NEWSER) - The blogosphere might not be the future of news sprung fully formed from the corpse of old media, Michael Massing writes in the New York Review of Books, but neither is it “parasite” feeding on newspapers. “The practice of journalism, far from being leeched by the Web, is being reinvented there, with a variety of fascinating experiments in the gathering, presentation, and delivery of news.” More»

(NEWSER) - Women's "infidelity blogs" have surged in number in recent years and they're attracting a large and loyal following, the Independent reports. The bloggers say they're not trying to flaunt their affairs, but rather to use anonymity to share details of their secret lives and find support among like-minded people. "I feel there is a definite lack of space for women to say the unsayable," says the founder of True Wife Confessions. More»