On any given night, up to 60,000 people stay in places they found on Airbnb. One of them is always the guy who co-founded the fast-growing online travel lodging service.

"In June 2010, I moved out of my apartment and I have been mostly homeless ever since, off and on," Brian Chesky said at the South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive, film and music festival.

How important were Twitter, Facebook and other social media in toppling regimes in the Arab Spring uprisings?

Amid a fierce debate in academic circles, an upcoming book argues that social media and new technology made a key difference in successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and helped foster grassroots movements in other Arab nations.

Google has retaken the role of superstar of the tech sector with a stunning stock rally as rival Apple flounders.

Google has hit fresh all-time highs in recent weeks, and closed Friday at $831.52, capping a nearly tenfold rise from its public offering price in 2004 of $85. The stock is up about 17 percent so far in 2013.

The 27th edition of South by Southwest kicked off Friday with a bold prediction that desktop 3D printing will unleash a new industrial revolution guided by "creative explorers."

Inventing or replicating everyday objects in three dimensions using laser beams and molten plastic is a major theme of the interactive segment of the 10-day SXSW festival that also celebrates independent film and music.

A number of countries are aggressively trying to control the Internet, a top U.S. diplomat cautioned Thursday, insisting Washington would give no ground when it comes to curbing freedoms on the Web.

"Many Middle Eastern countries, Russia, China and others are I believe going to take an increasingly aggressive stand to try to control the Internet," Alec Ross, the State Department's outgoing senior adviser on innovation, told reporters in Geneva.

Facebook began Thursday transforming the stream of updates from friends at homepages into a "personalized newspaper," with news ranging from the personal to the global.

The News Feed on homepages at the leading social network was revamped to get rid of clutter and present "bright, beautiful" stories, such as insights from friends or trending news of the day.

The Czech Republic has been hit by an unprecedented wave of cyber attacks this week, with investigators stumped over their origin amid concerns they could lead to worse mayhem.

"We don't know anything about the motivation for now, because no one has claimed the attacks," Radek Holy, spokesman for the National Cyber Security Centre, told Agence France Presse following attacks on media, banks and telecommunications websites.

Known throughout the world for quality cars and industrial giants, Germany is now seeking to position itself for the coming revolution, "industry 4.0", powered by Internet.

"The Internet has become an integral part of industry," said Chancellor Angela Merkel as she inaugurated the CeBIT, the world's biggest high-tech fair here in the northern city of Hanover.

When John Kerry took to Twitter on his first day as U.S. secretary of state, he joined an army of diplomats using social media to reach out and connect directly with people around the world.

"Exhilarating to walk into @StateDept today and get to work with remarkable team. Dad on mind! -JK," Kerry wrote in his first personal tweet.

"You want to get rid of email? Good luck with that," smiles Tom Reuner, an IT analyst at British firm Ovum.

But at the CeBIT, the world's biggest high-tech fair in the northern German city of Hanover, some firms are considering doing just that, as studies show that workers spend nearly one third of their day sorting through emails.