As the world awaits news of Google’s fate in China, which some believe may come this week, a group of Chinese Internet activists have started a public letter addressed to the company and the Chinese government, demanding answers about the status of talks between the two parties, who for months have wrangled over the extent to which Google can operate in China if it stops cooperating with Chinese censorship regulations. Read More »

BoomTown runs into venture capitalists all the time in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, and usually tries to run the other way. Not so last week, when I enjoyed a lovely lunch and chat with Accel Partners’ Kevin Efrusy, the former entrepreneur and techie who is making a lot of investments in both the social consumer space and also the enterprise arena. Here’s the video. Read More »

More human-rights groups are expressing concern about the use of social-networking sites to spread racism. Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Sunday, three groups in Europe issued a statement indicating alarm at the use of social-networking sites to advance “racist and xenophobic views, especially among young people.” Read More »

Palm’s partnership with Verizon hasn’t done much to bolster flagging sales of the company’s smartphones. Perhaps they will fare a bit better with AT&T. Against the backdrop of the CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas, Palm this morning said AT&T is adding the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus to its handset lineup. Read More »

Separated at birth? Or not at all? Someone needs to get to the bottom of this, and fast. Read More »

While in Washington, D.C., last week, one of BoomTown’s last stops was at the office of Colorado Democratic Congressman Jared Polis on Capitol Hill. Although I usually try to avoid politicians at all costs, it was terrific to check in with Polis, who was one of the more interesting players in the Web 1.0 scene. Here’s the video. Read More »

China’s state-run news media are ramping up their anti-Google rhetoric amid reports that Google will soon announce the closure of its Chinese-language search engine. This morning, China Daily accused Google of political chicanery and warned the company that it will be “the biggest loser” if it pulls out of the Chinese market. Read More »

Want to read the books you bought for your Kindle on your new iPad? You’ll have to be patient. Amazon promises that the iPad version of the Kindle app it is working on will be cool, but it won’t be ready when the first Apple devices show up next month. That’s because Amazon, like most developers, hasn’t been able to test the app on a real device yet. Read More »

Google Inc. is expected to announce its next steps in China this week, according to a person briefed on the matter. The details of the Internet company’s plan, reached after talks with Chinese officials failed to make progress, remain unclear. The person briefed on the matter said the announcement could come as soon as Monday. Read More »

Last week, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart spoofed Fox News’s Glenn Beck in a blackboard parody almost as good as Tina Fey’s spot-on impression of Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live.” The conservative pundits seem to be the online comedy gift that keeps on giving. Read More »

Most cellphones can take pictures, but their resolution lags far behind the images created by more costly digital cameras. InVisage hopes to change that. Read More »

BoomTown traveled to Washington, D.C. this week for festivities surrounding the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first .com domain name, and while in our nation’s capital, lugged a giant binder containing a paper printout of the National Broadband Plan to various historic spots for educational opportunities. Read More »

When BoomTown went to Washington, D.C., last week to visit the Federal Communications Commission on the occasion of its release of the National Broadband Plan, I was actually given a paper version in a giant binder. Yes, at hundreds of pages, a dead-tree copy of a federal scheme to make the United States more digital! So, natch, I gave it a tour of the nation’s capital. Read More »

The NCAA basketball tournament, with its array of games played at conflicting times during the workday, has long been discussed as an ideal sporting event for online coverage. And based on numbers out today from CBSSports.com, more people are indeed watching games on streaming video this year. Read More »

QOTD

“[They've] burnt bridges and they’ve burnt the Google brand in China. There is no way Google can ever come back. It’s over for Google in China.”

– Peter Lui, Google’s former chief financial controller for the Asia Pacific region