washington

The country's top Internet companies have formed a lobbying group to strengthen the industry's voice in Washington when it comes to Internet regulation, according to a press release announcing the head of the new organization.

Google, eBay, Facebook, and Amazon are among the members of the group, the Washington Post reported, citing a person familiar with the group's plans.

The group has appointed Michael Beckerman as its president and CEO. Beckerman is former deputy staff director to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications and Internet policy, and was a longtime advisor to … Read more

Cell phone videos and photos have increasingly brought law enforcement activities to the public eye, such as the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland, Calif., and crowd control tactics during the Occupy Wall Street protests. But this has also meant that police are more wary of camera-toting citizens.

However, Washington D.C.'s police chief, Cathy Lanier, recently announced that cops are going to have to learn to live with people recording and snapping photos of them, according to DCist. In a six-page General Order, Lanier outlines specific do's and don'ts that her staff must adhere to when … Read more

Washington state is the first state to get hip to social media for its voter registration. According to the Associated Press, the secretary of state's office announced today that it will feature an app on its Facebook page letting residents register to vote.

"In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered," co-director of elections Shane Hamlin told the Associated Press.

The app was designed by Microsoft, which joined … Read more

In a brewing D.C. cab war, Internet-based Uber feels the city is trying to drive it out of town.

Uber, a quickly-growing startup that lets people request private car service in select cities via their smartphones, is once again battling the D.C. Taxicab Commission, which is reportedly considering legislation that would require sedan car services like Uber to charge at least five times the minimum fare charged by cabs, according to a copy of the amendment Uber posted.

"Sedans would be required to charge a minimum fare of five times the drop rate for taxicabs.[And] sedans … Read more

Is Digg's turbulent run on the Web about to come to an end?

The social news site that was once the talk of Silicon Valley has given up its engineering team to Washington Post Company-owned SocialCode, Digg CEO Matt Williams announced this morning. SocialCode is a social advertising agency designed to improve marketing techniques on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"At Digg, we have been studying social media since its inception," Williams said in a blog post. "From Digg Social Reader to Digg Ads, we established a new paradigm for content and advertising on the web. … Read more

If you hate Facebook social readers as much as the next guy, you'll probably love hearing that the tools, which let you share articles you're reading, are tanking.

In a post on BuzzFeed today, we find that social readers from publications as diverse as The Washington Post, The Guardian UK, Daily Motion, and others, are collapsing. Essentially, users are abandoning the tools in droves. For example, The Washington Post, which grew its social reader to nearly 18 million users last month, has subsequently seen that number crater -- it's sitting at 9.2 million today, according to … Read more

Adscend Media, accused by the Washington state attorney general in January of running a "likejacking" scam on Facebook, agreed today to a consent decree to stop spamming Facebook users and pay the state $100,000 in attorneys fees.

Facebook, which also sued Adscend in January over likejacking claims, settled that case for undisclosed terms last week.

In the state's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, it accused Adscend of tricking Facebook users into clicking links that then mark a site as one they "like" on their Facebook news feed. That, in turn, … Read more

Google continues to up the ante on the money it spends each quarter on Washington lobbying.

The search giant spent a record $5.03 million (PDF) last quarter, according to the company's lobbying report. That figure compares with $3.76 million spent in the fourth quarter and just $1.48 million in 2011's first quarter.

Among the lobbying issues grabbing Google's attention were the regulation of online advertising, privacy and competition issues in online advertising, openness and competition in online services, and International tax reform.

The search giant devoted lobby dollars to HR 1389 - Global Online Freedom Act of 2011, … Read more

Google got a leg-up in better navigating the U.S. political system today.

The Web giant hired former congresswoman Susan Molinari as the new head of its Washington office, according to Politico.

"She's a true trailblazer and her enthusiasm for our technology and its potential to change lives will be a real asset to our team in the Americas," David Drummond, Google's senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer, said in a statement.

Her tenure is slated to begin in mid-March with the official title of "Google's vice president of public … Read more