Top Items:
Official Google Blog:
Adieu to Google Answers — Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time — and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here.
Discussion:
Webware.com, GigaOM, SearchViews, Digital Inspiration, Google Blogoscoped, Things That, Download Squad, TechCrunch, Monkey Bites, Between the Lines, HipMojo.com, Don Dodge on The Next …, TechSpot, LiveSide, Google Operating System, Digital Micro-Markets, CenterNetworks, Quick Online Tips, 21talks, Mark Evans, StartupSquad, Clickety Clack, MediaVidea, Microsoft News Tracker, Googlified, Rex Hammock's weblog and PaulStamatiou.com
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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Goodbye Google Answers — Wow. Google is shutting down its Google Answers service. The company has announced that new questions won't be accepted after the New Year, though the site will continue to let people view the question archives. Killing off the service, which never seemed to catch on much …
Discussion:
Geeking with Greg, ResourceShelf, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Chip Griffin, TechCrunch and PaidContent
Valleywag:
Answers deleted — What a relief. Google is finally trimming its product line, closing down Google Answers. This is, as far as I can tell, the first time the search company has ever shuttered a service, if one doesn't count Google X, a Google search page redesigned in the style …
Business Wire:
BitTorrent Strikes Digital Download Deals with 20th Century Fox, G4, Kadokawa, Lionsgate, MTV Networks, Palm Pictures, Paramount and Starz Media — SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—BitTorrent, Inc., home to the world's leading peer-assisted digital content delivery platform …
Discussion:
Torrentfreak, GigaOM, TechEffect, Deep Jive Interests, PaidContent, Download Squad, broadbandreports.com and digg
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Troy Wolverton / Mercury News:
BitTorrent cuts online video deals — In the latest volley in the growing battle to distribute movies, television shows and other video content online, BitTorrent plans to announce deals today with Paramount, MTV Networks, 20th Century Fox and several smaller studios.
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Wal-Mart Plans to Test Online Films — The decade-old DVD moved two small steps closer yesterday to technology's endangered-species list. — Wal-Mart, the country's largest seller of movies, announced that next year it will begin testing a video download service on its Web site.
Dawn C. Chmielewski / Los Angeles Times:BitTorrent set to unveil deals with studios
Discussion:
Good Morning Silicon Valley
Guy Kawasaki / How to Change the World:
The Venture Capital Aptitude Test (VCAT) — If you want additional proof that we're in a bubble, here it is: young people are trying to get into the venture capital business again. I get several emails a week along these lines: … They see a wonderful job: going to cocktail parties …
David Ellis / CNNMoney.com:
Don't cry for the Zune just yet — Microsoft's challenger to the iPod takes second place in digital audio player market in first sales week, according to report. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Reports of lackluster sales of Microsoft's Zune that surfaced earlier this week might be a bit premature.
Michael Kinsley / Slate:
Like I Care — ON THE INTERNET, EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU'RE A DOG. — The first person I knew who had a Web site of his own was a fellow Washington journalist. This was when many journalists were still just getting into e-mail, but the URL for this Web site quickly circulated around town and around the world.
Eric Jackson / Breakout Performance:
Laying Odds on Semel's Successor for the Corner Cube at Yahoo! — After the pre-turkey "Peanut Butter" memo, speculation is swirling on who's in the running for Terry Semel's corner cube in Sunnyvale. — Here are Breakout Performance's odds on the front-runners: — Susan Decker: 3 - 2.
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily
blog.memeorandum.com:
Unhappy mobile reader? Try Mini... Different people report different experiences reading my sites on their mobile phones. The happy bunch tend to have larger screens or prefer to scan every last link on the page. The unhappy bunch tend to have small screens and can't stand all the scrolling.
Discussion:
michael parekh on IT
Reuters:
Time Warner plans movie downloads in 2007 — Largest media company says consumers will be able to burn downloaded movies onto DVDs; CEO Parsons says he's not counting out a political career. — NEW YORK (Reuters) — Time Warner Inc.'s digital businesses will see improvements in 2007 …
Discussion:
PVR Wire, PaidContent, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Blogging Stocks, Hacking NetFlix and Gear Factor
Natali Del Conte / TechCrunch:
Yahoo! Launches Group Texting Site — Yahoo! is getting in on the group text messaging biz with the launch of their new site, Mixd. TechCrunch was tipped off to the site's existence today but we have not been able to determine how long it has been live. — Mixd allows users to set …
John Noble Wilford / New York Times:
An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists — A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone. — But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece.
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Optimus 103 keyboard demands $1,200 pricetag — yes, you read that right — For as much feature slashing and resulting public outcry involved in getting this thing out the door for a "reasonable price," it sure didn't amount to much: Art Lebedev just announce its uber-hyped Optimus 103 keyboard will debut in May of 2007 for $1,200.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Russia agrees to shut down Allofmp3.com — Russia has agreed to shut down Allofmp3.com and other music sites based in that country that the U.S. government says are offering downloads illegally. — The nation has struck the agreement with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as it seeks entry to the World Trade Organization.
