In the middle 1990s, Timothy M. Armstrong, the young co-owner of a struggling small newspaper in Boston, had lunch with some people from Mosaic.

In addition to its lobbying efforts in Washington, which have increased dramatically in recent years, Google has many connections to the top people around President Obama.

Yahoo’s new CEO, Carol Bartz, has gone outside the Internet biz once again to restaff the executive suite as the company looks for ways to replace slipping online advertising revenues while challenging rival Google for search engine dominance.

Law enforcement wins and charity loses in Wednesday’s announcement that Craigslist is taking the “erotic services” section of its online classified ads out of service.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who carries a gene mutation that predisposes him to Parkinson’s disease, is contributing his DNA and millions of dollars to research into the condition’s genetic basis.

We wish we had said it first. The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal made the observation Monday that investor Carl Icahn has adopted the Securities and Exchange Commission as his personal blog.

CBS announced today that is acquiring CNET Networks Inc., for $1.8 billion, at $11.50 per share.

It’s not only his day job that is drawing attention to Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Sarah Lacy reports on technology for Business Week, but on Sunday, technology was her worst enemy.

As she interviewed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference and Festival, the audience was reporting on her questions and style by using Twitter, and their reviews weren’t good.

They were pioneers in the worlds of media, publishing and entertainment who made it to the top - and who became pals along the way.

Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo has put a harsh spotlight, perhaps too late, on the company’s board.

Kara Swisher, writing on All Things Digital this morning, predicts that the directors’ response to the unsolicited buyout attempt may simply be inertia.

Being pursued by Microsoft hasn’t deterred Yahoo from its own pursuits of smaller fry.

Yahoo announced yesterday that it had paid $160 million for Maven Networks, a firm that sells video-management systems for online advertising. Maven’s customers include such major media outfits as Gannett, Scripps and Fox News.

Can Google maintain the company motto - “Don’t be evil” - while building a powerful lobbying machine?

That’s just one of the challenges facing the internet giant. Another is Microsoft, a competitor not only on the web, but in the courts and the halls of Congress.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. may never sleep.

Gates, 57, is a Harvard professor as well as an author and editor of a shelf-load of books. He’s also the host of African American Lives, a PBS series on genealogy that begins its second season next week.

A consortium of investors, led by Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners, is trying to seize control of the CNET Networks board.

Jana has joined Alex Interactive Media and the VC firm Spark Management in an effort to increase the size of the board from eight directors to 13. The group plans to nominate seven people at the next shareholders’ meeting.

The group has also filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court, to stop CNETfrom rejecting its proposals.

In a press release issued today after the New York Times published a story about the dispute, Rosenstein said, “This effort is about taking an underperforming company and increasing shareholder value by building on its top-notch editorial talent and premier internet assets.” .

If traffic to a candidate’s web site is any indication of the candidates popularity in the Iowa caucuses, then Barack Obama and Ron Paul will be the winners of their parties caucuses after the votes are tallied this evening.

Web site traffic statistics provided by Alexa show Obama with a clear lead in the Democratic contest over second place finisher Hillary Clinton. John Edwards lands in third place with Joe Biden taking a distant fourth and Christopher Dodd finishing fifth. Bill Richardson’s doesn’t even break the top 100,000 websites, so there is little data on Alexa about their traffic trends.

Writing the first draft of history is always perilous.

In September 2004, in a story about a then new lawsuit that accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for Facebook from fellow Harvard students, The Boston Globe wrote: “There isn’t much money at stake.”

Oops.

Today Facebook is valued on paper at $15 billion or so, making Zuckerberg’s 20 percent stake worth $3 billion. The 23-year-old is well on his way to becoming the second richest Harvard dropout in history, behind Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.

Despite losing to Microsoft in its bid for a piece of Facebook, Google isn’t giving up on social networks.

The behemoth of search is partnering with other tech companies and social networks to develop a competing approach called OpenSocial. The open-source technology will enable developers to write applications that can be used on many sites, including partners in the project, such as LinkedInand Friendster.

What’s so funny about the 2008 presidential race?

Not much so far, unless you count Rudy Giuliani taking a cell phone call from his wife while he was giving a speech to members of the National Rifle Association, a moment that became a YouTube hit.

But, take heart; JibJab.com is back and making fun of the scary side of politics.

JibJab, you may remember, is the Internet humor site that produced the flash animation video, This Land is Your Land for the 2004 presidential race.

The video established the JibJab brand and significantly improved its fortunes.

The This Land video featured singing heads of George W. Bush and John Kerry dissing each other to the tune of the Woody Guthrie song.

Execs from Google and Microsoft are scheduled to appear before the Senate today to argue the merits of Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.

Google announced the $3.1 billion deal in April, but the plan requires approval of the Federal Trade Commission and regulators abroad.