THE HORSESHIT WHISPERER

“When you’re listening to the Internet, the discussion is taking place in real time.”

Intelliseek spokeswoman Sue MacDonald, on advising companies to read blogs for the keen insight and analysis the medium is so well known for, News.com, 3 January 2006

OUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION? 72 DPI

“There is a lot of fear that there will be banner ads now on the Google home page. We are not considering that at all.”

Google executive Marissa Mayer, on cutting a deal with AOL to feature its content in search results, 28 December 2005

ALLONS, ENFANTS DE LA PC

“It is wrong to describe the eight million French people who have downloaded music from the Internet as delinquents.”

French socialist Patrick Bloche, who probably wouldn’t like the RIAA’s proposed nickname “freedom thieves,” either, International Herald Tribune, 23 December 2005

THE PEDANTIC WEB

“WWW was soon full of lots of interesting stuff, but not a space for communal design, for discource through communal authorship.”

World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, taking note of the existence of blogs half a decade late, MSNBC.com, 21 December 2005

HOW INTRIGUING — HEY, SHINY!

“Our culture is about distraction, numbing oneself. There is no self-reflection, no sitting still. It’s absolutely exhausting.”

David Greenfield, a psychologist specializing in Internet addiction, on our need for broadband speed, CNN.com, 21 December 2005