Internet

Iran Walks Back Internet Censorship, Restores Gmail

After seriously flipping out, cutting of Iranian access to Google and basically herding all its citizens into a tiny little government-approved intra-net pen, the Iranian government has softened its Internet ban just a little bit and restored access to Gmail. https://gizmodo.com/iran-shuts-down-google-will-completely-cut-citizens-of-5945862 Though the outcry against censoring the Internet at large was loud, the backlash against…

Why Cable Companies Really Want You to Get a Landline

BuzzFeed FWD points out something awfully backwards in the world today: cable companies really, really want you to get a landline. In fact, they make it so damn cheap that it feels irresponsible not to get a landline—even if you absolutely do not need it. What’s the deal with cable companies’ obsession with landlines? Why…

What Device Do You Watch Most Web-Based Video On?

A new consumer-tracking survey by NPD suggests that times are changing: apparently the TV has overtaken all other devices as the go-to device used to watch online video. According to the survey it’s taken quite the lead: nowadays, so it says, 45 percent of online video content is viewed through a TV, 17 percent on…

Maybe The Internet Only Wants One of Everything

In the early days of the web, the technology space was flush with not only money, but a specific type of optimism: that this new medium would allow anybody to make whatever they wanted, and have the world see it (assuming it was any good). This was before Facebook, of course. If you wanted to…

Salon has sold one of the web’s oldest online communities, The Well, to its own members. [The Well]

A Website that Lets You Securely Share Your STD Status

There’s really no easy way to tell the person you’re sleeping with that you have an STD. Whether it’s something easily treatable or an incurable virus, it’s just not a conversation anyone ever wants to have. So, better to just not have that conversation at all. No. No, I’m not saying to withhold said serious…

Could someone really destroy the whole Internet?

In just 40 years, our whole civilization has become dependent on the Internet, in more ways than we could count. So when you hear activist groups threatening to crash the whole thing, or doomsday preppers warning of a global Internet failure, it’s pretty scary. But could someone actually bring the entire Internet down? We asked…

Indentured Servitude, Money Laundering, and Piles of Money: The Crazy Secrets of Internet Cam Girls (NSFW)

If you think cam girls—those flirty naked characters that plague porn site pop-up ads—are raking in easy money, you’re right. If you think cam girls are bleakly stripping online out of desperation, you’re also right. Peel away the sex and pixels and money and you’re left with the cloudy truth about the Internet’s relationship status…

Starting tomorrow, all TV news since 2009 will be available, for free, on the Internet Archive. Literally all. [NYT]

Do You Google Your Symptoms When You’re Sick?

Sites like WebMD can be great when you’re looking to learn more about one syndrom or another. But they can also inspire unnecessary fear and anxiety, when it seems like—no matter the symptom or the actual cause—all roads lead to cancer. Is googling your symptoms a good idea, or should we avoid the hypochondriacal Internet…

Google Developer Hints at Possibility of an Internet Without Site Log-ins

Today in a post on his personal blog, Google developer Tim Bray wrote elliptically of a project he’s working on that could—if he means what I think he means—radically change our experience of using the Internet—for the better. “Logging in is annoying and slows you down. My job these days is mostly about reducing that…

Twitter Reacts to the Great Williamsburg Internet Outage of 2012

Confession: The majority of Gizmodo staff lives in Williamsburg, so we count ourselves in this mass of angry “hipsters.” But here’s the deal: The Internet went down in Williamsbug/Greenpoint (Brooklyn) today at approximately 3:54PM (EST). And, seven hours later, at 10:56PM (EST), word on the street (by which I mean Twitter) is that it is…

Get a free domain name and web hosting for one year, from Google. Time to start that small business! [PC World]

Facebook Could Help Hide Your Identity

When you think of privacy protection, chances are Facebook does not immediately spring to mind. But anonymity researchers are suggesting that social networks may hold the key to better anonymous online interactions. Existing anonymity tools, such as Tor, work by routing a user’s internet traffic through a random chain of other computers called a circuit.…

What’s Your Favorite Site Affected by the GoDaddy Outage?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, GoDaddy was the victim of an attack which took everything down today. Anonymous is claiming responsibility for the attack and million of sites are unaccessible as a result. Surely some of the sites you read use GoDaddy for your internet hosting purposes. Which makes me curious: which…

Five Free Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal

Your home wi-fi network can be a fickle mistress, with connectivity coming and going seemingly on a whim. But there’s no need to shell out hard-earned cash for a brand new router just because you can’t get online. (Besides, how would you order one?) Instead, try these five free steps to whip your wireless network…

Is This the Saddest Corner of the Internet?

Most of the time, the Internet is home to happy and humorous memes and viral content. A fun and funny realm for us to play in and with. But the Internet, if we treat it objectively, like life, is more than that. At least, so some believe it should be. Memmento, A new website launched…

FCC Testing Mobile Broadband Speeds to ‘Spur Competition’

The FCC is planning to test mobile broadband speeds across the entire US from September 21st, in order to provide consumers with detailed information and “spur competition among service providers.” The initiative follows on from its National Broadband Plan, which continues to gather detailed data on national fixed broadband speeds. The FCC claims that the…

How Yelp Scores Make or Break Restaurants

Smart diners rely on restaurant reviews to find good food. But a new study investigates for the first time the complex relationships between online ratings and real-world success—and reveals that losing just half a star can leave a restaurant in ruin. The Guardian reports that a team of economists from the University of California, Berkeley,…

Google’s Having Some Trouble Filling Up Its Kansas City Fiberhoods

Google Fiber’s whopping 1000Mbps Internet connections sure sound sweet, but despite the awesome deals which include free option (after a $300 construction fee), fiber doesn’t seem to be having quite the draw you’d expect. That being the case, Google has lowered some of the pre-registration goals. Google’s dropping the goal in 73 affected fiberhoods, meaning…