How Silicon Valley spends its money on Capitol Hill

[Commentary] MapLight recently released a tool for tracking the lobbying activity of any company since 2008, so I decided to see where some of the biggest internet companies and legally entangled startups are trying to garner influence. It’s probably not surprising to see Google in the lead considering how expansive the company is becoming, moving beyond web search and into telecommunications, mobile devices and aerospace. Oh, and all the antitrust and privacy lawsuits it must face around the world. Looking at the higher-level categories into which lobbying expenditures are organized, it becomes pretty clear the types of issues that keep internet companies up at night -- things such as telecommunications, intellectual property, immigration (surprised?) and, yes, taxes.