Broadband Advisor

Instant messaging (IM) is set to overtake e-mail as the preferred form of business communication by the second half of 2010, according to research by IDC.

Facebook said late Tuesday that it was not aware of any blocking of its sites in China, despite reports of outages from cities around China.

Google has found itself immersed in a blogger brouhaha after its Blogger subsidiary shut down the postings of several political bloggers opposing the election of Senator Barack Obama for president.

One of the first social networking upstarts, MySpace, is facing continuing security problems that threaten to spoil many of the innovative features that make the site useful.

Google has quietly begun limited testing of several new social features created for its iGoogle personalized start page. The updates include chat, activity streaming and a new interface for the gadgets offered on the start page.

The Internet offers a wealth of excellent tools, information, and entertainment--and it asks very little from us in return. So don't get upset when a poorly designed online tool or site gets on your nerves; instead, use Greasemonkey, a free Firefox add-on that harnesses the power of JavaScript to right usability wrongs and improve the functionality of specific Web sites and of the Internet at large.

If there is any doubt to the power of social media, social networking and social software, then nonbelievers may need to Think New Orleans.

The virtual flood gates have been opened and social networking is rushing in from the personal lives of employees and into the workplace -- bringing a host of concerns along with it.

Whether you're looking for a job, a party or long-lost friends, your ideal online meeting place is out there. We uncover the best social-networking sites on the web.

We've all heard of, played with or used the most popular Facebook applications  -- Scrabulous, Owned! and (Lil) Green Patch come to mind. But what about the not-as-popular Facebook applications? With more than 27,000 apps to choose from, and the number growing daily, there are plenty of diamonds in the rough that may be unknown, but still stand out because they are particularly interesting, unique, viral or just darn fun.

These days, you can find a blog for just about anything. Looking for affordable art prints? Weheartprints.com has them. Interested in Craftsman, Mission, and Prairie furniture? Check out Hewn & Hammered.

Howard Schmidt was reluctant to hop on the social networking bandwagon - a byproduct, he says, of the paranoia he internalises as a security professional. Eventually, though, Schmidt - the one-time cybersecurity adviser to President Bush and itinerant CISO turned consultant - decided the positives outweighed the negatives. He joined not just one social network but three: Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

Transform your network to enhance your personal and professional life

Put the 'you' in YouTube with this hands-on guide to shooting, editing, and uploading your own movies and mashups

True or false, the information people find about you on the Web can have a big impact on your life. Here are five techniques to make sure that what people read about you is good (or at least true).

For the majority of those looking to upgrade to broadband Internet for the business or home, it's all about the extra speed.