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The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--updated all day. AOL Forced to Hire New Engadget Editor After EIC Bails After Editor-in-Chief Josh Topolsky and the entire senior staff left to start a competitor site, Engadget knighted automotive editor Tim Stevens as a replacement. The defections highlight growing disdain for the " AOL Way ," which includes quotas for page views and prioritizing search-engine driven content.

Photograph by Robyn Twomey Photograph by Robyn Twomey Wikipedia director Sue Gardner has transformed the site's broken business into a growing hub with global ambitions.

As applications for the 2011 Inc. 500 | 5000 arrive, we thought it would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. (For more information and to apply, go to http://www.inc.com/inc5000apply/2011/index.html .) One that caught our eye was Tagged , one of the first social networks (it was founded in 2004), which aims to foster new social connections through games and linking people with shared interests

Academic librarians, led by Harvard's, are positioning themselves as the successors to Google's scuttled vision for a massive digital library. But do they lack a coherent vision? Not long ago a federal judge in Manhattan scuttled Google 's plans to create a digital universal library (a dream kicked off when Larry Page scanned "The Google Book" years ago--his company has since scanned 15 million more).

Apple seems to be planning some clever, instant social media sharing skills for the iPhone's photo app, at least if new discoveries in Apple's code prove true. Could Apple have even pre-empted Instagram and Color ?

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs.

Air pollution, in case you missed the memo, is really bad for you.

Next year, U.S. electronics companies will be required by law to disclose and trace their use of conflict minerals (gold, tungsten, tantalum, and tin deposits that fund war in Central Africa). Instead of waiting to be attacked by human rights groups, Apple and Intel, and other companies involved in the Conflict-Free Smelter program opted to avoid embarrassment and ditch the minerals altogether--and the decision is causing some problems.

Work coming out of MIT's Media Lab has taken the imaging powers of a Microsoft Kinect and used them to power software that reveals how we'll be videoconferencing in the future.

Alec Ross on subversive technologies, Libya, Wikileaks, and the future of digital diplomacy."We're willing to make mistakes of commission," he tells Fast Company, "rather than omission." In the turbulent center of the Venn diagram involving President Obama's multilateral foreign policy, open government mandates, and Middle-East unrest is Alec Ross, the Senior

The common, renegade approach of sending imperfect tech products out into the world--and having user experience guide improvements--comes under fire. Silicon Valley is renowned for its culture of innovation. There a common, renegade approach is to send products out into the world while they’re still half-baked, in the belief that it’s better to improve them based on real-world use, rather than trying to perfect them behind closed doors

1. Google's presence in China, always in the balance after its very public spat with the Chinese government over censorship, seems to be at a critical juncture .

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a nasty skin infection often picked up at hospitals that can lead to pneumonia and blood stream infections if left untreated.

Prospecting, Sales, Marketing – oh my! It can all feel quite overwhelming and frustrating at times, can’t it? Recently, I spoke with an acquaintance who has been in the job market for over a year. I noticed a pattern in John’s marketing of himself that I’ve seen in many business owners as well.

If every company institutionally implemented innovation practices, we might all be just as successful as Pixar, Apple, or 3M.