Top Items:
Maria Aspan / New York Times:
Costly gift from Microsoft becomes invite to blog — In Microsoft's latest attempt to reach out to bloggers, the company recently gave away expensive laptops loaded with its new Windows Vista operating system. — But the gifts generated controversy as well as goodwill …
Laura M. Holson / New York Times:
Disney Plans to Introduce a Sleek Makeover of Disney.com Site — LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31 — When the Walt Disney Company's chief executive, Robert A. Iger, takes the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 8, he is expected to introduce the new Disney.com Web site that has taken more than a year to redesign.
Skrentablog:
Winner-Take-All: Google and the Third Age of Computing … Google has won both the online search and advertising markets. They hold a considerable technological lead, both with algorithms as well as their astonishing web-scale computing platform. Beyond this, however …
Discussion:
John Battelle's Searchblog
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Looking for the Next Google — SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29 — In brand-new offices with a still-empty game room and enough space to triple their staff of nearly 30, a trio of entrepreneurs is leading an Internet start-up with an improbable mission: to out- Google Google.
Wall Street Journal:
Jobs Helped Pick 'Favorable' Dates For Option Grants — Apple Report Clears the CEO — Of Wrongdoing, Blames — Ex-Executives in Backdating — Apple Computer Inc. acknowledged that it backdated stock options and that Steve Jobs recommended "favorable" dates for some options awards.
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
Nokia's Gizmo Project: Phone-to-Phone VoIP — Written by Rudy De Waele from m-trends.org and edited by Richard MacManus. — We are entering an era of broadband being available anywhere, on any device - and this will happen all 'over IP' (Internet Protocol).
Arn / MacRumors:
Macworld San Francisco 2007 Rumor Roundup — With Macworld San Francisco (MWSF) quickly approaching, MacRumors provides this Rumor Roundup as a summary of major rumors circulating around the Mac Web before the big event. (Previous MacRumors MWSF roundups: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, and 2002.)
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
PREDICTIONS 2007 — Yes, I'm at it again, but this year I promise to be a bit more pared down, a bit more to the point. I had nearly 20 predictions last year, I'm hoping that by the time I lift my fingers from the keyboard I'll have a few less. So Happy New Year, and to business:
Charlie Demerjian / Inquirer:
Windows screwup forces Ubuntu shift — A match made in hell — YOU NEVER QUITE wrap your head around how anti-consumer Microsoft's policies are until they bite you in the bum. Add in the customer antagonistic policies of its patsies, HP in this case, and vendors like Promise, and you have quite a recipe for pain.
Michael Rose / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
Apple web site features teaser shot — Is it a sunrise? A monolith? The light from an oncoming train? Whatever it is, it's now decorating the website of everyone's favorite fruit-flavored company. — Presumably we may expect big things this year from AAPL. — [via MacRumors]
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Calculator Gone? — Google way back (with a working calculator) — This isn't a good start for Google in 2007: the Google Calculator and currency converter doesn't work anymore, as Ionut Alex. Chitu notes... at least I can reproduce this when I try from here.
Discussion:
Googlified
Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog:
THE BEST WEB 2.0 SOFTWARE OF 2006 — Looking back over 2006 it's clear that we've experienced one of the most remarkable growth surges in Web application history. Literally hundreds of Web sites and applications were launched this year and brought to our attention via the popular review sites …
Discussion:
Web Worker Daily
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Gmail bug exposes your mail account to spammers — Like your Gmail account? Consider it a sacred place which must be protected from spammers at all cost? Yeah, us too. Well, we hate to break the bad news at the dawn of the new year but there's a weakness in Gmail which exposes …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
EroShare - User Generated Porn — What better way to ring in the new year than with a site that is most definitely not work safe. Eroshare is to Flickr what PornoTube is to YouTube - user generated porn. The site, which launched an hour ago, encourages users to upload their home made erotic photos …
Discussion:
Scobleizer
Paul / Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus:
We call it "The Hurd Defense" — I'm not sure what's funnier, what Apple actually did this week or the way Mac-friendly bloggers and Web sites lapped it up and declared that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had been "cleared" of wrongdoing. I'm pretty sure that Apple actually announced that Jobs knew …
