Time Travel: Google Shows You the Web in 2001

Lamar Smith seems unfazed by powerful opponents to piracy bill

(NEWSER) - Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the fiercely controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, doesn't sound like he's bothered much by the heated opposition from e-powerhouses such as Facebook, Google, Reddit, and Twitter. "It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don't want to protect American consumers and businesses," the Texas Republican tells Reuters . The SOPA bill, which would authorize the government to seek federal injunctions against foreign-based websites suspected of piracy, is still in committee hearings and could reach the House floor in a few weeks. More»

Esquire : Sites that were before their time

(NEWSER) - Everything old is new again, especially on the Web. Some of today's tech darlings owe a lot to websites of years past. Here are some of Esquire's 15 favorite, and mostly kaput, Web 1.0 pioneers:

1. Dodgeball (2000) "A location-based social network for mobile devices, and the Internet's gift to stalkers," says Esquire. Today's Foursquare was co-created by one of its founders.

Google search leads to prez call for reform

(NEWSER) - The White House has launched a stealth attack on Wall Street in a controversial but deft Internet ad. A link to "Help Change Wall Street" pops up when users search "Goldman Sachs SEC" on Google. The link takes users to mybarackobama.com and features a photo of Obama and his call for Wall Street reform, noting "too little accountability on Wall Street and too little protection for Main Street." The ad was purchased by the White House political wing, Organizing for America, reports ABC News . More»

Arizona senator's following 46 times greater than nearest rival

(NEWSER) - John McCain is leading the charge of tweeting lawmakers, with 46 times more Twitter followers—a cool 1.7 million —than his nearest competitor, Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill. McCain’s popularity also illustrates Republicans’ quick embrace of the social network; twice as many of them tweet, compared to Democrats. “I love it; it’s so interactive,” McCain tells Bloomberg . More»

Where is technology taking us? There are a few schools of thought

(NEWSER) - Michael Wolff hears so much about the Internet’s future “that I should be in a position to get rich, finally.” But it’s tough deciphering all this chatter, “because the technology business is at least as much talk as it is science,” he writes. So in his latest Vanity Fair column he’s broken down the big competing theories about the Internet’s future, kind of like "a Next Big Thing for Dummies. More»