Bloggers Battle Over Hillary Hoax

(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»

Blogger ponders path Web surfers take to his threshold

(NEWSER) - Freud would have a field day studying Google searches, posits a blogger who tracked the terms visitors to his web page used and found a window into man's pathologies. John Kelly, a columnist on leave from the Washington Post, writes in the Guardian about "how the fetishes, pathologies and strange obsessions of humankind are catalogued every day on the world wide web." More»

Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper become casualties of economic belt-tightening

(NEWSER) - Gawker Media is cutting loose three of its blogs, CNET reports: Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper. “To be blunt," explained Gawker founder Nick Denton in an internal email, "they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did." Denton wouldn't comment on the prices the sites might've fetched. More»

Salon explores the web-based underbelly of the '08 campaign

(NEWSER) - What do a $400 haircut, a hawkish rendition of a Beach Boys tune, and a decade-old donation to Planned Parenthood have in common? They're all results of an "opposition research game" that's pitting presidential campaign teams against each other in a contest to leak dirt to blogs and news sites as the '08 race waxes viral. More»

Virtual sexual harassment stifles voices, raises fears of real-world hostility

(NEWSER) - Violent, sexualized threats against female bloggers are forcing some of them out of the online community, reports the Washington Post. The problem, highlighted by the harassment that caused Kathy Sierra to suspend her popular technology blog, is frustrating at best; at worst, it causes women to fear for their safety and abandon the medium. More»