Story Archives of 'Internet'

Tuesday on Word of Mouth, we take a look at one of the companies hit hard by yesterday’s tumbling technology stocks: Google. The Internet giant’s shares fell below the $400 mark. That’s a two-year low. In November of last year, a share of Google, Inc cost $750.

Google just celebrated its tenth anniversary, and it’s astounding to look at the company’s first decade. It went from a simple search engine started by two guys in a tiny dorm room to a multinational company with over 16,000 employees. Not only does it dominate 70 percent of the online search market, it’s created many more applications and products, including a new web browser and a cell phone platform.

New York Times columnist Randall Stross just published a book about the rise of the company that one day hopes to be the gatekeeper of all the world’s information. His book is called Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know. He joins us on the show to discuss the company, the principles that guide it, and its impact on our culture.

In 2006, the verb “to google” officially entered our lexicon when it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The birth of the Internet age has brought about all kinds of new words, known as "neologisms." Words like "blog" or even "broadband" didn’t exist too long ago. Some neologisms can also be existing words that take on new meaning, like the term "spam." Jenny Attiyeh, host and producer of ThoughtCast, visited the "Future of the Internet" conference at Harvard to track down more new words for the digital age. Click here to listen.

A suicide bomber wreaked havoc in Islamabad, Pakistan, this past weekend. A van laden with a ton of explosives destroyed a Marriott hotel, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 260. The bombing came less than two weeks after the swearing-in of Pakistan’s new president, Asif al Zardari.

The attack highlights the country’s ongoing struggles with terrorism and the confusion and mistrust that many Pakistani’s feel about the so-called “war on terrorism”. The United States has stepped-up attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan recently as it tries to stem the tide of violence in neighboring Afghanistan. Meanwhile, domestic terrorism – like Sunday’s bombing – is on the rise in the country. Many pakistani’s distrust the actions of the US, and conspiracy-theories are swirling around who’s truly responsible for the Marriott bombing.

Deborah Dilley joins us on Word of Mouth to help us get a better understanding of popular opinion in Pakistan and other Islamic countries. She’s a writer and editor for Global Voices Online, a website that keeps track of what people are talking about on blogs all over the world.

Stories Discussed in Today's Roundup:
Pakistan Bleeds Again
Pakistan: Another 9/11, We are Burning
Jordan: A Popular Cafe Shut Down in Ramadan Crackdown
Saudi Arabia: Outcry Over Fatwa to Kill Satellite TV Owners

(Photo montage by A§ma using images from the BBC)

For years, Delaware attracted entrepreneurs looking to start a business.

Flexible laws made it one of the easiest states in the country to incorporate.

But the newest corporate models are companies that exist only in cyberspace.

And these have been burdened by requirements for a physical presence and paper trails.
But that could soon change.

And not where you might expect.

The Vermont Standard’s Kevin Forrest reports.