The Internet Goes Celebrity Crazy

Celeb watching went digital this year in a big, bad way. Star watching blogs like PopSugar and Perez Hilton tapped into the public's appetite for celebrity dish—making themselves a little richer and a lot more infamous in the process. Meanwhile, celebs themselves were making fools of themselves on a level that rivaled just about any year in recent memory. Those wacky Hollywood types seemed more bound and determined to go off the deep end, bounce on the couch, abuse their pets, criticize their colleague's depression meds, dress for sex instead of success, and otherwise humiliate themselves than ever before.—Sunshine Mubrabi

Wikipedia Founder's Google Killer

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is planning to launch a new search engine that he hopes can compete with top search engines Google and Yahoo. Mr. Wales plans to launch the new search engine, currently dubbed “wikiasari,” in early 2007, he wrote on a Wikia page devoted to the project. The name combines the words “wiki”—a Hawaiian word meaning quick, and “asari,” Japanese for “rummaging search.”—Laurie Sullivan

25 Titans in WaitingIf you’ve fallen into despair over a world gone to hell with Iraq and other disasters, the profiles featured here, in our annual look at the most exciting young businesspeople under 35 should give some cause for optimism. These snapshots of young entrepreneurs are just a sampling of the bright sparks who will be setting the global technology agenda for years to come—and Red Herring’s reporters thought long and hard about the most interesting and compelling young innovators they have encountered this year. –Joel McCormick

Google Search Linked to ProfitMerrill Lynch analyst Justin Post said Tuesday that search queries on Google are growing between 30 percent and 50 percent, far exceeding the number of page view growth on Yahoo, eBay, or Amazon. Mr. Post said Google would benefit the most from online sales. The Mountain View, Calif., company will see benefits without margin pressure from competitive pricing that is affecting the business at rivals, he said.—Laurie Sullivan

Security Flaws Found in Vista

A researcher from the Silicon Valley security firm Determina confirmed reports Tuesday of potentially serious flaws in Microsoft’s newly released Windows Vista computer operating system. One flaw found in Vista, executable through Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers, can corrupt memory when handling certain types of requests, according to Alexander Sotirov, senior security researcher at Determina.—Laurie Sullivan