Online Spaces Snub Free Speech That Offends

From Facebook to bank accounts, online afterlife a thorny legal area

(NEWSER) - These days grieving relatives have a new problem to contend with: managing the Facebook, Flickr, and eBay accounts of the dead. As people trust ever more of their lives to the Internet, from email and online banking to identities on Second Life, very few have considered what exactly will happen to all that online data when they die, the Washington Post reports—and new businesses are popping up to help the heirs of the dearly departed access everything from password-protected photographs to money. More»

Integration will boost traffic on both sites, they hope

(NEWSER) - Yahoo is finally getting seriously social in a new partnership that will integrate Facebook Connect into its many properties. Yahoo users will be able monitor their Facebook feed on Yahoo, and vice versa. The integration will be done “on a deep level,” a Yahoo exec tells Kara Swisher, who finds it ironic in light of the fact that Yahoo almost managed to acquire Facebook for just over $1 billion several years ago. More»

Racy pics, suicide threats get would-be cops dumped

(NEWSER) - Law enforcement agencies are probing potential recruits’ digital lives for information that might make them unfit for the job, USA Today reports. More than a third of police agencies look into applicants’ social media presence, says a new report conducted for police executives. Reviewing postings to sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, some agencies require applicants’ online passwords, or want to see their text-messaging and email records. More»

Social network and search giant switched spots over New Year's

(NEWSER) - Facebook has felled another Internet giant, surpassing Yahoo in January to become the second most visited website in the US. In December, Facebook had 132.1 million unique visitors to Yahoo’s 133.4 million. But last month the tables were turned, Mashable reports, with Facebook garnering 133.6 million unique visitors to Yahoo’s 132.0 million. The top spot, of course, belongs to Google. More»

From NBC's site to Twitter lists, little need for actual TV

(NEWSER) - With watching the Olympics on actual TV being so, like, 2008, TechCrunch presents the best places to keep tabs online:

• NBC Olympics : Lots of scores and news—and if you’re a premium cable customer, 400 hours of live events.
• Vancouver 2010 : The host committee’s site has the usual stuff, plus maps and more local flavor.
• Facebook : The news, plus status updates and photos from athletes.