A juror and an acquitted drugs-trial defendant have been found guilty in what has been described as the UK’s first Internet-related contempt-of-court prosecution. The juror involved was 40-year old Joanna Fraill, who admitted contacting the defendant – Jamie Sewart – via Facebook. Although the defendant had been acquitted, a number of other defendants were still on trial in the same case. The incident led to a series of drug cases collapsing at a cost of £6million....

Lanyrd, the startup aiming to make meeting people at conferences and other events easier, is today launching abrowser extensionthat should make Twitter a more useful networking tool. Taking to form of a Chrome and Firefox extension, it overlays Lanyrd users’ profile and event schedule information directly onto their Twitter profile page. It also we also links through to any videos, slides, audio clips and books by that user, enabling you to get a better idea of who that person is....

A newTwitter-fueled events planning app,Laynrdlaunched today,as TechCrunch reported. Similar toPlancastand Upcoming, theY-Combinator-backed start-up wants to be the ultimate app for conferences. “We hope to have a positive effect on the conference landscape,” says Simon Willison, one of Lanyrd’s two founders. “One of the hardest parts of launching a new event is getting the word out and we hope that by making that easier more people will be inspired to start event organizing....

Larry Page, one half of the duo that founded the world’s most popular search engine, will replace Eric Schmidt as Google CEO today, seeing his co-founder Sergey Brin moving into the title of Co-Founder, with Schmidt taking his new position as Executive Chairman. As part of the changes,announced on January 20, Schmidt has moved to concentrate on Google’s external partnerships, facilitating deals, connecting with customers and businesses, advising Larry Page and Sergey Brin internally as the company looks to go back to its startup roots....

The talk today, of course, is about the triumviratemanagement shiftat Google. While it’s absolutely important, I think that we need to take in the happenings of the past few months in order to really understand the direction that Google is heading. There comes a point in the life of any tech giant where introspection becomes vitally important. As Google fights against plateaus and backlash in certain areas, the company is making the moves necessary in order to hold its position....