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.

Robert W. Pittman made a good investment in 2003, when his company, Pilot Group LLC bought a controlling interest in the online newsletter, Daily Candy.

Google is planning a venture-capital division, to be headed by David Drummond, company SVP and chief legal officer.

Microblogging site Twitter has made it easier to navigate every up-to-the-moment update published on its website with a newly acquired search engine, Summize.

Thanks to a Facebook founding friend, Barack Obama now has well over one million Facebook supporters.

Don’t bother reading the Rolling Stone story (dated June 26) on Mark Zuckerberg and “The Battle for Facebook.” It has been done before. And better.

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.

Such a deal has long been speculated about because of Yahoo’s sagging prospects. This morning Microsoft made it a reality by offering $44.6 billion ($31 a share) for Yahoo! That’s more than a 60 percent premium over Yahoo’s closing price Thursday.

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.

Do a Google search for Dr. Larry Brilliant and you’ll get links to the worlds of medicine, technology, music and religion.

Prominent, too, is a link to Google Inc. itself, as Brilliant, 63, is now the executive director of Google.org, the Internet company’s philanthropic arm.