Favorite new Facebook feature?

We now know that Americans blow billions of minutes each month on Facebook. It's no wonder folks get in a tizzy when a new feature rolls out.

This week has been a particularly busy one when it comes to Facebook-related improvements. Which of these shiny new features are you most enamored by?

Subscribe option: The subscribe button makes it easier to get just the information you want. Click on it and get updates from that profile in your news feed. This will even work for public updates from some profiles that you're not directly friends with.

Smart Lists: Smart Lists will automatically shuffle your gazillions of friends into groups related to school, work, city, and family. You can then make manual adjustments.

Skype adds Facebook for Mac: Mac users finally get the full Skype-loves-Facebook treatment that Windows users had already been enjoying. The Skype 5.4 for Mac beta lets you message friends, update your status, and read posts from within the program.

Less frequent e-mail alerts: Facebook e-mailed some users telling them to start expecting fewer e-mail notifications from the company. If you prefer to keep your e-mail alerts just the way they are, however, you can turn this new feature off.

Take a moment from updating your status to let us know what floats your social-networking boat. Which new Facebook feature are you most excited about? Vote in our poll and be sure to elaborate in the comments section.

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Happy 20th birthday, World Wide Web!

An illustration from Tim Berners-Lee's original proposal for an organizational system using hyperlinks and a computer network--a system then referred to as the Mesh. The proposal preceded the Web's public debut by a couple of years.

(Credit: W3C)

Happy birthday, Web!

On August 6, 1991--20 years ago--Tim Berners-Lee posted a summary of a project for organizing information on a computer network using a "web" of hyperlinks: the "WorldWideWeb," or W3. At the same time, the W3 made its debut as a publicly available service on the Internet. Now, as the Web turns 20, those of us here at CNET and sister site CBS News.com are giving it a big thank you for revolutionizing the world as we know it.

There have been some definite downsides to the Web, such as online predation and a reduction in privacy, but the good has far outweighed the bad. Web companies have created millions of jobs across the globe, opened people up to different cultures and ideas, and created a level of transparency in politics that's never quite been achieved before.

Through social, economic, and political actions online, the world has become entirely different than it was two decades ago. News travels faster than ever; every single person with access to the Internet has a voice to vent frustration or foster a following; and social interactions have become more varied and far-reaching.

The Web has changed the way people think and revolutionized the world as we know it in a remarkably short period of time. From clunky modems to smartphones, Web-based technology has come a long way. The only question is how far will it continue to evolve in the next 20 years?

Here's a slideshow of our favorite things to come out of the "W3."

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