Politics Battles Tech for Soul of Digg

User-generated site pulls code, loses cred, reverses course

(NEWSER) - Web 2.0 blogs are rushing to declare Digg dead, after a night in which the site's main page was saturated with its own obituaries. The web's most popular user-generated news site prompted a mutiny by removing posts revealing how to crack encrypted DVDs and HDs. Digg said the illegal posts put the site's survival at risk. More»

Vin Diesel, Linkin Park have a lot more friends than you do

(NEWSER) - We know Lady Gaga and President Obama have plenty of fans (more than 10 million, though the leader of the free world actually trails the singer). Here are some other surprising social media mavens, singled out by Time , along with their number of fans (as of Thursday) and a taste of the tidbits they disseminate:

1. Vin Diesel, second to Gaga with 10.7 million fans (seriously): "I got a sexy feeling about this summer... GRRR... "

Search giant rumored to be trying social networking again

(NEWSER) - A single tweet from Digg co-founder Kevin Rose hinting at a Google challenger to Facebook has opened the floodgates of speculation about what a Google social network, aka "Google Me," would look like. Most focus on Google profiles, a service that establishes a small profile that comes up when people Google a name. Profiles is currently minimal, but all Google would have to do to have a first-class social network is integrate its existing services, Brennon Slattery writes for PC World . More»

Forbes list includes Digg, Twitter, TechCrunch, Mashable founders

(NEWSER) - When it comes to Internet celebrity, Perez Hilton tops the list. The gossip blogger excels in all of Forbes ' criteria, including hits on Google, page views, media saturation, and Twitter followers. Each person on the list must be famous primarily for their Web presence. Herewith, the rest of the top 5 of the top 25:

2. Michael Arrington: The corporate lawyer is also the founder of widely read tech blog TechCrunch. "A mere mention of a company on its pages can make or break a startup."

Distressing response rate for fake Facebook friend requests

(NEWSER) - If someone you don’t know, represented only by a photo of a rubber duck, tries to friend you on Facebook, you’ll probably...accept. That’s the conclusion of a study by a security firm that created two fake accounts—the fictitious woman behind the duck was named Daisy Feletin—and sent out 100 random friend requests, with about a 50% success rate. And take a look at that name again, gullible ones: Does it not look suspiciously like an anagram of “false identity?” More»