Over the objections of the U.S. State Department, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt visited North Korea “in a private capacity” and told them unless they drop barriers to global Internet access, it will be harder for them to catch up economically. The Wall Street Journal reports Schmidt as having said ”We made that alternative very, very clear”.

Josh Bernoff on why Facebook keeps pushing the privacy envelope with its users:

Not stated, but in the background, is this key fact: the more private your content is, the more Google can’t index it. The more public it is, the more Google searches can land on it. Facebook is trying not to be part of the splinternet, but its own members won’t let it.