President-elect

Web Searches That Really Bear Fruit

Katherine Boehret in The Mossberg Solution on January 13, 2009 at 4:18 pm PT

There’s nothing more frustrating than a fruitless Web search — or one that returns results that distract you from your original goal. This week I tested two free tools that attempt to make your Web searches more relevant by learning from users’ reactions to search results.

Yes We Can (Um, Can't We?)

Kara Swisher in News on January 5, 2009 at 12:32 am PT

President-Elect Barack Obama arrived in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, which was the first step in what is likely to be one of the most historic inaugural events in American history. The Obamas arrived Saturday and took up residence at the Hay-Adams Hotel, right across Lafayette Park from the White House, which was caught better than any news footage I saw by a tourist with a video camera and posted quickly online. So begins the YouTube Presidency.

Verizon Apologizes to Obama: Sorry We Snooped on Your Account

Peter Kafka in Media on November 21, 2008 at 4:02 am PT

This may make it easier for Barack Obama to kick his well-publicized BlackBerry addiction: News that Verizon employees have been snooping through his phone records. The phone company says the handset in question is a “simple flip-phone,” and not a Berry, and that it has been inactive for several months. But the startling public admission should be enough to convince Obama, if he needed any more prompting, that he’s going to have to give up his prized gadget.