Kara Swisher (born May 9, 1962) is an American technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and an author and commentator on the Internet.She created and wrote Boom Town, a column which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and online.
Swisher wrote many stories about the World Wide Web and Internet policy issues and wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. During that period, she was cited as the most influential reporter covering the Internet by the Industry Standard magazine. Currently, she keys-in an online-only blog called BoomTown for AllThingsD.com, which she co-runs with Walt Mossberg. She also thinks "screening" is a lousy word to use for reading on a screen.
She is the author of aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, published by Times Business Print Books in July 1998. The sequel, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future, was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Print Books.
In partnership with her fellow Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, Swisher created, produces and hosts the Journal's annual D: All Things Digital conference, in which top technology leaders, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs appear on stage with or without prepared remarks, or slides, and are interviewed by the two columnists.