Richard MacManus stumbled on AskX.com, a testing user interface for Ask’s search engine.

With all the drama on the Internet this year, it was difficult to narrow down the villains list. But the heroes list was harder to make – mostly because there’s nothing more subjective than a hero. Subjective or not (and it’s not not), there are a few clear standouts, as far as we’re concerned.

Ah, the raw, unyielding power of Web 2.0. My friend, Lee Odden, learned his Top Rank blog site was banned from Digg. He discovered this unceremoniously and is justifiably angry.

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have changed the Internet and are now changing the mobile society as well. A new report from ABI Research titled Mobile Social Communities says that social networking is going to have a major impact on mobile phones.

If you have too many friends, you have no friends, the great architect I.M. Pei once told me. His opinion clearly isn’t shared by Marc Freedman, who describes himself as the “LinkDaddy” of the LinkedIn network.

The need for efficient control within the company network to safeguard assets and maintain productivity has fallen hard onto the shoulders of system administrators everywhere.

Here are a couple of tips to speed up your Windows XP computer and help keep you protected and secure online.

Spam made a big comeback in 2006 according to a report from IronPort Systems, a gateway security provider. The report says that the increase in volume was due to advanced image based spam, which is usually ten times larger than text spam. Because of that digital data sent tripled.

The deal between Microsoft and Novell that will promote SuSE Linux to Windows customers proved too much for Jeremy Allison, who has cited it as his reason for departing Novell and its SuSE Linux team.

Everyone has a social bookmark tagging button these days; Del.icio.us has updated its usual button to be more functional, and renamed it as well.

Thanks to John/Rick for drawing my attention to this great post from Fred Wilson.

Google has added two more links to its expanding “More” box that pops out of its search engine tabs.

Which one of these methods is the most effective when it comes to search engine marketing? Is it a “one or the other” technique or is a successful SEM campaign dependent on prudent utilization of both techniques? These questions have been brought to the forefront thanks to a brewing disagreement between parties supporting each side.

Seattle was hit bad by violent winds and power outages over the weekend, and Microsoft’s employees blogged their experiences (in many cases only after days of waiting for the power to return). Todd Bishop has a rundown.

Wikis have been a hot topic this year, and most of the stories about them have been both positive and optimistic. Everybody likes wikis, a lot of individuals (and businesses and organizations) want them. But a recent open peer review experiment at the scientific journal Nature has failed, and some people are now second-guessing the model.

When you create a new site design, you should always remember a few key points. If you don’t, not only is it bad for search engines, but also visitors.

More aggressive SMO marketers often talk about being careful not to get user accounts banned on digg.

The Democrats gained control of congress in this past November’s midterm elections. Analysts believe that, at least in part, the failure of the Republican Party to retain congressional power is due to its hesitation to adopt modern media strategies to work in tandem with traditional campaign techniques.

Ok, I’m not sure if “evenness” is really a word, but if Steve Colbert can make stuff up – so can I. Before Spry 1.4, Spry supported a simple way to apply different CSS styles to datasets rows to support even/odd colors.

Robert Scoble thinks they do but is that enough to solidify the idea? Of course, any service that creates backlinks and can help generate buzz can be gamed for search engine purposes, but does that mean companies like PayPerPost exist …

Niall Kennedy wrote on his blog that The Yahoo Developer Network provided a short preview of the soon to be released del.icio.us webbadge.

I like Pixelotto.com, Alex Tew’s followup to his Million Dollar Homepage.

Video-sharing website YouTube has helped catch a suspected killer, Canadian police say.

A deal between Google and Dell has finally come to fruition: some computer owners, after booting up for the first time, are being greeted by the phrase “Welcome to your new Dell PC – in partnership with Google.”