Facebook has announced a big expansion for its Seattle office. What does the move say about our local tech industry? more ›

The UW doesn't reconcile its credit card receipts, or didn't anyway, state jails will no longer allow inmates to Like things online, and a totem pole will be erected in John T. Williams' memory, all in today's headlines. more ›

And you thought it was weird when your mom friended you. more ›

Watch out, Seattle: the Timbers have officially hexed us. Assuming a voodoo donut wearing a Sounders jersey and filled with pretzel "pins" can be considered threatening. more ›

Personalized search’s implicit promise is to help users avoid the mind-numbing uselessness of the majority of web content. The troubling problem with personalized search is that it only delivers what a user already believes he or she wants, and this contributes to a narrowing of worldview. more ›

Photos of a person who may be involved in the Kent Metro shooting, two girls having a good time (and getting busted) and yes. The weather. Why? Because it's crappy and because we can. more ›

For the first time ever in the history of the universe, someone has drawn a few parallels between the ascent of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and our own Bill Gates with Microsoft back in the day. more ›

That's right--thanks to The Future, your private ballots can become public! As the Slog reports, yesterday local youth-in-politics organization The Washington Bus launched My Ballot, a Facebook application which not only lets you pretend-vote, but also lets you see how your friends have voted (if you look to the left, you can see that I have no friends) and the results of the Facebook election so far. The application gives you a ballot based on the ZIP code you enter. more ›

As the only media outlet to cover Facebook Seattle's office warming party, we were very interested to see the photos posted by Techcrunch last week of the office at work. (Go see the full album of originals.) more ›

Last week a mean-spirited commenter at Techflash said, "As I was solving the second part of the puzzle it suddenly dawned on me that I did not want to party with a bunch of people who would take the time to solve the second part. As Groucho Marx once said, 'I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member.'" Last night the nerds had their revenge. more ›

If you chose to read this article, it may mean that you are able to debate whether the headline sounds more like it came from Spiderman's Daily Bugle or Superman's Daily Planet. And that, in turn, may mean that you're nerdy enough to go to the Facebook Seattle office warming party. more ›

Speaking of regular readers, hey, you fly-by types: What the hell, make a commitment for once in your life. 5,000 people already subscribe to our RSS feeds (full stories on four separate channels), or you can follow us via our automated headline feed on Twitter. Crank up your iPhoneBerryDroid and enjoy our mobile version. more ›

Okay, just a quick rundown for new readers: Staying in touch with Seattlest is all about choice. You've got your RSS feed (full stories on four separate channels), or you can follow us via our automated headline feed on Twitter. We've just upgraded our mobile version for extra iPhone optimization, and we've also got a Seattlest fan page on Facebook, which lets us post our Seattlest feed for all you Facebook addicts out there--and invite you to Seattlest Happy Hours. Lastly, if you're one of the ten people who own a Kindle, you can subscribe to Seattlest at the Kindle Store for just $1.99. more ›

The PSBJ's Al Scott, musing about whether Facebook has jumped the shark, said he heard it from "Troy Nelson and an assistant at KEXP, the youthful listener-supported music station that's the definition of sonic cool in Seattle. Nattering between songs, they said Facebook takes up too much of their time, and includes too many people from high school who want to connect--people they didn't want to talk with back then." Can't argue with the timesuck or the Classmates.com effect, but who knew the Biz Journal was so tuned in? more ›

We only know one person who owns a Kindle, so we often forget to mention you can subscribe to Seattlest at the Kindle Store for just $1.99. more ›

• The Rainier Valley Post reports that the third (ever!) director of the Union Gospel Mission will retire at the end of the year. That's truly the end of an era.
• Capitol Hill Seattle reports on the Capitol Hill (natch) art walk, newly upgraded to something called Blitz, after a redesign led by Ellen Forney--there's a map and a Facebook page.
• If you're on Phinney Ridge on Friday night, you can see their art walk and "party in the streets."

(via Publicola, who stick their noses into politics so we don't have to) more ›

Microsoft-owned Razorfish, one of the largest digital ad buyers in the world, has a new virtual book out, the 2009 Digital Outlook Report. These reports are very much documents of their moment--as Forbes points out, two years ago Razorfish was announcing that portals were back from the dead; this year portals have an icy gray hand clutching their ankles again. more ›

Seattlest reader Nick would like to know what Seattle has to offer in the way of budget recording studios. We imagine he's asking for the best value, not just someone with a walk-in closet and fuzzy microphone. We used Jackstraw way back in the '90s for a project. They seemed reasonable, and it worked out well. What else you got? Also, if you have a second, why not vote for a Seattle entry in the "America's Best Restrooms" competition. Finally, if you're between the ages of 16-25, HotDish on Facebook is holding a competition for eco-warriors. Ends May 3. more ›

You know what's exciting? We finally remembered to check the Seattlest Twitter account stats and 488 people are listening in. It's actually an easy way to keep track of headlines, if you're into that sort of thing. Twitter, we mean, not headlines. Everyone loves headlines! Also, last month we were hoping to break 3,000 RSS subscribers, and now there's 3,500 of you listening in that way. All we did was ask! Remember, RSS gives you options. If you're on Facebook, come on over to the Seattlest Facebook group, and you'll get special invitations to our happy hour meet-ups. What else? You've bookmarked us, right? Got us on your phone? Okay then. more ›

The internet is indeed alluring and the source of many pleasures, and locals just can't keep their hands off her. This morning, we learn that Washington state legislators are ga-ga for Facebook (late pass! but welcome) and that Mars Hill Church has given worshippers the go-ahead to tweet during services (...ugh). Careful, guys: the world wide web is a cruel mistress. Forgive the Napoleon Dynamite reference, it was unavoidable. more ›

As you recall, there's a Facebook fan page for Peter Steinbrueck urging him to run for mayor. Guess what? Steinbrueck wrote its founder and asked for some feedback: "I'm overwhelmed by the outpouring of people interested in new leadership in the mayor's office! Well, it's gotten me thinking... political leadership should always be about change. I am in a listening mode, and I would like to ask ask a simple question of those who are urging me to run. That is: Besides a new mayor, what three things, 'For the Love of Seattle' would people like to see changed?" We feel like we're writing Santa a letter but okay: 1) affordable housing for the full spectrum of those making less than 60 percent of the median income, 2) a waterfront Central Park, and 3) city-funded start-up incubators (for profit and nonprofit) in partnership with the SBA. Drop your suggestions in the comments--we'll find a way to forward them--or over here. more ›

We've been following the news releases--cleverly disguised as Slog posts--issued by Peter Steinbrueck's stealth campaign manager, ECB, and she's gotten us fired up. Now if they just work on Steinbrueck himself, we'll be all set. Yesterday ECB was publicizing green golden boy Steinbrueck via a "RUN FOR MAYOR" Facebook group that has sprung up--it had 41 members then and this morning we became 99, just like in Get Smart. Today ECB has hit the e-bricks early, quoting an unnamed "recent poll" in which "Steinbrueck wallops Nickels 46.6 percent to 24.1 percent, with 29.4 percent undecided" in a head-to-head match-up. (ECB doesn't mention our equally scientific 5-way poll in which Nickels just edged out Steinbrueck 38 percent to 36.) So all we've really learned so far is that ECB would vote for Peter in a heartbeat--but maybe...just maybe...that's enough? more ›

The same day the CityClub of Seattle was holding--and tweeting--its panel discussion "The Newspaper Business: Sunset or a New Dawn?" strange things were happening. The P-I linked directly to a story on the West Seattle Blog. KIRO 7 TV started filing stories on Twitter, following KING 5's lead, though KING 5 was using its Twitter feed today to promote its new Facebook page. News is suddenly everywhere. At the panel, tears were still being shed over Craigslist stealing all those classified ad dollars back in the late '90s--right about the time that everyone in the U.S. was reading Who Moved My Cheese? Ten years later, major newspaper chains are still at the mercy of a cramped, ugly, lo-fi site started by some guy in San Francisco. Hearst thinks the P-I is a money-loser; from where we're sitting, the guys who've been losing billions are in the corporate suites, paying themselves top dollar while they redesign the buggy whip paper to make it more attractive to younger readers. more ›

Seattlest's gregarious Aquarian sister knows someone in every city and state in the country. She's also far more likely to have friends with Girl Scouts for children than we are, so we posed the question (even though she lives in Cumming, GA—stop giggling): "Do you know anyone in Seattle with Girl Scout cookies?" She posted it on Facebook and one of her pals responded with this site, which tells us, "Girl Scouts in Western Washington will sell cookies in front of local stores and businesses February 27-March 15, 2009." So...those of you who claimed to have seen Girl Scouts selling cookies recently are all liars. Or, like us, you were duped by those pesky Campfire Girls and whatever it is they're peddling. (Nothing against Campfire Girls, honestly!) more ›

RSS subscription drive! Literally thousands of people follow the news on Seattlest via our Seattlest RSS feed. So come on, everyone else is doing it. Subscribe today! If RSS is too many words, you can catch headlines on our Twitter feed. We also have a mobile device site if you want to bookmark that for when you're out and about. Lastly, you can also join our Facebook group, which we use mainly to invite people to Seattlest Happy Hours. Are we missing anything? Oh, as always, if you're interested in writing for Seattlest, let us know. more ›

In this guest editorial, Chris Kaasa, a senior at the University of Washington, responds to John Fay's controversial pro-Prop 8 article, published last week in the UW Daily. more ›

A few genius University of Washington students created a new social networking application called Friendbo, and for once, this is an app you might find useful: it password-protects certain user-defined groups of photos using security questions you invent. This means you won't have to worry about potential new bosses examining last weekend's party pics on Myspace or Facebook, but you can still post them for your friends to see--as long as your friends know what you want to name your next dog, or what have you. Alternatively, you could use annoying riddles or Mensa questions. File under "Ways To Alienate People, Perhaps Intentionally." more ›

We just got this message after logging in to Scrabulous on Facebook: "Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here." To which we say: KHAAAAAAN! We've also just had to switch back to Firefox 2.0. Any page with Ajax was giving Firefox 3 fits--since we usually have at least three Ajax-heavy Google and Gmail pages open at one time, we were constantly getting error messages, having to resend, and having to log back in to accounts. Firefox 3's tendency to bonk on Ajax and its javascripts is kind of a huge oopsie, but we haven't heard anything from Mozilla about how they missed noticing the problem. Maybe they don't use Gmail. more ›

Seattlest was in Vancouver this weekend, and, on a whim, made our first foray into a Tim Hortons. We'd heard good things -- "the apex of Canadian cuisine," for example -- and as lifelong doughnut fans we were happy to test that claim. more ›