Top Items:
Jeremy Zawodny / Jeremy Zawodny's blog:
Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!? — I'm not sure if this is stupidity, laziness, or a mix of both, but check this out. — Back when IE7 launched, Yahoo! created a customized version and began to market it to our existing IE users. The "splash page" looked like this:
Jeff Leeds / New York Times:
Squeezing Money From the Music — "Konvicted," a new CD from Akon, promised to be one of the year's big sellers when it appeared in record stores last month. Buoyed by two of the hottest singles in the country, Akon, a silky-voiced R&B singer, even had the most-viewed page among major label acts on MySpace.com.
Discussion:
PaidContent, ringtonia.com, The Digital Music Weblog, hypebot, blackrimglasses.com, Fine On Media and digg
RELATED:
Mike / Techdirt:
Record Labels Looking For Ways To Squeeze More Money Out Musicians — But They're Too Late — from the squeeze-away dept — For years, many people have been pointing out that the real problem with the recording industry is that they didn't seem to understand their own market.
Discussion:
Technically Speaking
wikia.com:
WIKIA UNVEILS OPENSERVING - THE MOTHER OF ALL FREEBIES — New Web Business Model: Get Rich Using Wikia's Services for Free! — Wikia, Inc., the leading provider of community resources for building free content on every topic, today announced OpenServing (http://www.OpenServing.com) …
RELATED:
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Federal judge: Making files available for download = distribution — The RIAA's argument that making files available for download constitutes copyright infringement received an important boost from a federal judge. In an decision delivered in October and first reported over the weekend …
Rachael King / Business Week:
Outsourcing: Beyond Bangalore — Companies are increasingly sending IT work to hubs outside India. They're saving money but facing a whole new raft of challenges — After 10 months of working with software developers in Bangalore, India, Bill Wood was ready to call it quits.
Anil Dash:
How Matt Haughey Beat Google — Summary: In 2002, Google launched one of their few pay services, Google Answers. The service attracted only 800 responders in the past 4 years, and was shut down a few weeks ago. Three years ago, Matt Haughey created Ask MetaFilter, pays no money …
Andrew Orlowski / The Register:
iTunes sales 'collapsing' — Digital flatline looks ominous for music labels — The leading DRM digital download service, Apple's iTunes, has experienced a collapse in sales revenues this year according to analyst company Forrester Research. — Secretive Apple doesn't break out revenues from iTunes …
Google Blogoscoped:
The Anti-Google FAQ — The year 2006 is nearing its inevitable end, but a lot of unanswered questions remain - I hope to answer some of them in this little Anti-FAQ. — How can I get banned from Google's web index? — There's a variety of methods to get "googleaxed."
Discussion:
Technically Speaking
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Windows development chief: 'I would buy a Mac if I didn't work for Microsoft' — Microsoft's James Allchin made the comment in a 2004 e-mail to colleagues — Longtime Windows development chief James Allchin wrote in a January 2004 e-mail to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and company co-founder Bill Gates …
Chris Taylor / Business 2.0:
Google's copyright fix — Barely two months ago pundits were predicting a litigation explosion for Google and its new YouTube video-sharing unit. But look what's happening instead. — (Business 2.0 Magazine) — YouTube might just be the best thing that ever happened to old media.
Toby Sterling / Associated Press:
Dutch Pull Plug on Analog Television — AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands ended transmission of "free to air" analog television Monday, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals. — Few Dutch consumers noticed, because the overwhelming majority get TV via cable.
Andy Beal / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim:
Exclusive: Google's Click Fraud Rate is Less than 2% — Back in November, Google's business product manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, declared that click fraud at Google was "on average is in the single digits, quarter over quarter." I recently sat down with Ghosemajumder …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, InsideGoogle, Digital Markets, Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog, shmula, Google Blogoscoped, Search Engine Journal and digg
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Desperately seeking Zune — reporter's notebook SAN FRANCISCO—Welcome to the social. — That's the promise Microsoft makes with its new Zune. Unlike the solitary iPods, the digital music player lets you make new friends and discover new music. Using its built-in Wi-Fi …
Discussion:
Digital World, TechEffect, Blogging Stocks, Business 2.0 Beta Blogs, TechBlog, Webware.com and Wi-Fi Networking News
Roughly Drafted:
Newton Lessons for Apple's New Platform — Apple's press releases all end with the phrase "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh." Today, Apple is building a new platform, and applying lessons it learned from the 90s.
Discussion:
O'Grady's PowerPage
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Metacafe Traffic Dips, Acquisition May Have Stalled — The rumors around a possible Metacafe acquisition continue to swirl around silicon valley, with Yahoo or Microsoft being considered the most likely acquiror, at a $300 millionish acquisition price. Another potential acquiror …
Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:
Early (non)users of free Wi-Fi pay the price: frustration — Portland network - In some areas it works extremely well, but MetroFi clearly says an amplifier is needed indoors — Free. What's not to like about that? — A lot, it turns out, for some Portlanders.
