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Good technology has value, but leading social networks require "network effects." Facebook is infinitely more valuable because all your friends are on it. Facebook has leveraged this "critical mass" of users to stay ahead of new rivals, too. Why visit Twitter, you may ask, when Facebook has continually extended its feature set to keep up with its less popular competitor? The story of social networks is in fact a story about network effects: How can a service reach a point at which there are enough users and content to be useful?

The BBC is proposing large cuts of its online operations after critics from the Conservative Party and its commercial rivals have claimed that its public funding gives it an unfair advantage over other operations

Federal regulators are voting on closing a loophole that allows cable TV operators to withhold sporting events and other popular programming that they own from satellite companies and other rivals.

A look at Google's competition in advertising revenues, online media, communication technologies, etc.

Microsoft's Xbox Live internet service, which recently lost one of its trump cards when rivals Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Nintendo matched its partnership with Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), may soon fire back with a new content deal of its own. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) "has held in-depth discussions" with Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) over a deal that would let Xbox 360 owners stream some live ESPN content directly on their consoles, the NYT reports.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages after a jury verdict of illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Google introduced a new service called Google Buzz, a way for users of its Gmail service to share updates, photos and videos. The service will compete with sites like Facebook and Twitter, which are capturing an increasing percentage of the time people spend online.

Price cuts by the two biggest U.S. wireless providers, AT&T and Verizon, could put beleaguered Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's No. 3 wireless carrier, in an even tighter bind as it fights to turn around its fortunes.

Op Ed Exploring the rates and speeds available in other countries, and the fact that the United States has among the slowest speeds and the highest prices of advanced economies. Also discusses the proposed FCC National Broadband Plan.