Jeremy Bailenson and Nick Yee, of Stanford University, have spent years studying online behaviour in other contexts.

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I've been studying online communities since 1994, believe it or not.

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Page, who will turn 38 about a week before taking over, invented the original formula for Google's effective and secret online search algorithm while studying at Stanford University.

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The Commerce Department recently called for a privacy bill of rights for Internet users, while the Federal Trade Commission has proposed a do-not-track tool that would let users stop or restrict advertisers from studying their online behavior to target ads.

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There are already a good amount of organizations out there devoted to studying and protecting online privacy, notably the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

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While working as a vice president of technology at Elder Research, an engineering consultancy, Buckner began methodically studying the meteoric rise and fantastic fall of Web 1.0 online grocers.

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Nelson is meant to clue you in on a book's context by providing online commentary, fact-checking, and statistics about cultural impact, which is great when you're studying global warming for a class, perhaps, but seems a little over the top if you're curling up with the latest Left Behind novel.

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