Internet | featured news

More than a billion people now log into Facebook each month to check up on old friends, tag photos of new ones and post about politics, religion, cats or what their kids are doing. That's double the 500 million it hit in July 2010 - what now seems like a lifetime but was a little more than two years ago. August 2008 marked another milestone, 100 million. The latest milestone also amounts to nearly half of the world's roughly 2.5 billion Internet users, as measured by the International Telecommunications Union.

Virtual public schools, which allow students to take all their classes online, have exploded in popularity across the United States, offering what supporters view as innovative and affordable alternatives to the conventional classroom.

The operator of Web sites for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and others agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle federal charges that it had illegally collected information about thousands of young children.

Hey, YouTubers! Have you danced your fill to "Gangnam Style"? Have you seen enough versions of "Call Me Maybe"? Now video grazers can check out a brand-new YouTube channel that promises to be as amusing as any cat on a skateboard but also to engage you with ideas for changing the world. TakePart TV, launching Tuesday, is a digital home for what the network has termed "clever, eye-opening and optimistic content around big issues that face our planet." The target audience is millennials ranging from teenage to 30.

Facebook is rolling out a feature that will let users give presents from their network profiles, marking the company’s first big step into offering physical goods. The new service goes way beyond the network’s old gift feature, which let you send virtual puppies and hearts. It’s more of a riff on the company’s ill-fated Deals service — which the company shuttered after four months — but with a twist.

The Food and Drug Administration is warning U.S. consumers that the vast majority of Internet pharmacies are fraudulent and likely are selling counterfeit drugs that could harm them....

While most people decide to buy their computers outright, some come to the decision that rent-to-own is a better option. What these people might not know is that their rented computer could have been spying on them.

Dish Network is adding a satellite broadband service called dishNET that will target rural customers with little or no current Internet access.

Google Inc.'s head of operations in Brazil was detained by the country's federal police Wednesday after the company failed to heed a judge's order to take down YouTube videos that the court ruled violate Brazilian electoral law....

Jacob Tillman, a skateboarder and artist, wants to help his sister Lydia continue to recover from a savage 2011 attack and has created an IndieGogo fundraising campaign called ‘Still Kickin’’ to raise money for her medical costs. The campaign’s goal is $65,000, the price of a special reconstructive jaw surgery she is slated to receive in January.