Imagine the odds: No sooner did Facebook swing open the doors to its fire sale of vanity URLs than a geeky frat party ensued, as members reserved prankish, clever and lewd names instead of maybe the digital alias their friends (and mothers) might have hoped for.

Mashable reports that 500,000 people got processed within 15 minutes of launch, which is impressive service, especially since there are virtually no reports of anything going wrong technically.

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Social networking feels free, but we pay for it in ways that may not be readily apparent.

The rich personal data many of us enter into these networks is a treasure trove for marketers whose job it is to target us with ever-increasing precision.

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A new feature for Gmail aims to rid your life of that classic “Oh Sh*t” email moment.

“Undo Send” puts a five-to-ten-second hold on all outgoing messages. If you addressed an email to the wrong person, let slip with an embarrassing typo or simply said something you really, really shouldn’t have, Undo Send can be a lifesaver. Or, more accurately, a job-saver.

As with most enhancements to Google’s (GOOG) free Webmail app, Gmail users can enable the new Undo Send feature by going into their Labs settings and turning it on–click on the little green flask at the top of the screen, or go to Settings and click on the Labs tab. Gmail users can usually access new features shortly after they’re announced, but the features do take time to roll out across all accounts, so be patient if it doesn’t show up right away.

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The Wikimedia Foundation recently announced an $890,000 grant from the U.S.-based Stanton Foundation to simplify its very techie user interface for editing posts. It’s a big chunk of change on top of a new $6 million budget for the nonprofit encyclopedia, who some argue needs major restructuring rather than a simple cash infusion.

“Any amount of money thrown at it is not going to solve the problems,” said Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo. “Putting up a WYSIWYG editor will cost like $50,000. It’s not that big of a deal.”

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Here’s the thing about the TV business: It’s only as profitable or as valuable as the people who watch it. And if the only people who watch it are senior citizens strapped by debt, it’s not worth much–not to advertisers, anyway.

When Viacom posted second-quarter results yesterday, the company admitted its TV business hit a snag. Global advertising sales grew just two percent, and U.S. ad sales only eked out one-percent growth. Ad volume “dropped off” mid-quarter, according to Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman.

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“The Dark Knight” made a mind-warping, record-breaking $155.3 million at the box office over the weekend. Thousands of people waited hours in line to sit in a dark room and watch the movie with strangers. They didn’t have to wait in line, though–they could have watched it at home.

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Ariel Waldman says she’s been harassed over Twitter for close to a year and the company has refused to do anything about it, despite the fact that it violates their own terms of service.
Waldman, a community manager at Pownce, says a longtime stalker launched a campaign against her over Twitter in June 2007. When she contacted the company about the tweets, somebody said they took them down from the public time line. As the tweets continued to stream in, Waldman says she periodically reported them to Twitter.

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