Mike Elgan

Beatle Paul McCartney wrote a song in 1963 that famously said: “money can’t buy me love.” But as Facebook learned this week, that’s not true. Money can buy you love, if you spend enough of it. And I believe a lot more companies will be making similar acquisitions for similar reasons. Facebook spent a billion […]

Does new technology make us more free or less free? It’s easy to say “both,” and point to examples on either side. And in fact, some uses of technology support the cause of individual liberty and others work against it. I believe the biggest threat to our freedom in the long term is when governments […]

Ever since the invention of beer, humans societies have coalesced into civilizations, always defined by outlying towns, villages and cities with all roads leading to one all-powerful uber city that drives innovation, drains the outlying areas of talent and dictates cultural innovation. We live in a transitional age, with the waning power of states and […]

Everyone seems confused about Google these days. A disgruntled former Google executive named James Whittaker last week posted a rant on the Microsoft blog called “Why I left Google.” (He now works at Microsoft.) In the post, Whittaker said “The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. […]

Technology giants like Apple, Google and Amazon are in a constant battle against myriad startups, each of which seeks to beat the big companies to new markets, and unseat them from the old ones. Plus, the giants are constantly at war with each other, as expanding business models create overlapping territories and new rivalries. It’s […]

You’ve read the headlines. You’ve heard the panicking pundits. Google, Facebook and many other companies are harvesting as much data about you as they can get. They’re dropping cookies on your PC and “tracking” you as you surf the web. All these companies are desperate to “violate your privacy” and monitor, track, record, eavesdrop and […]

The current crop of iPhone killers failed to kill the Apple iPhone. Many of the iPhone’s competitors are really great phones with incredible screens, amazing cameras, powerful processors and advanced user interfaces. On most specs, the iPhone has been bested by several competitors. But still the iPhone reigns supreme in the market. Apple made more […]

Tracking tech news and commentary, we all get caught up in the scandals, politics, speeds and feeds and competitive jockeying between companies all competing for survival and dominance. But every once in a while, you just have to stop and smell the awesome. Sometimes you realize that technology is making the world a better place […]

Four years ago, I wrote a column in this space about the incompatibility between Apple and China . And four years later, that observation is proving to be truer than ever. What do I mean by “incompatible”? Countries have cultures. And companies have cultures, too. And the cultures of China and Apple are diametrically opposed […]

A strange thing has been happening lately. On political, commercial and social issues where people on the Internet are broadly united, the Internet is forcing opponents to back down. Has the Internet become invincible? Hardly. But as a force in the world, the Internet seems to be getting more powerful, thanks to the growing popularity […]