Top Items:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Cisco's wrong bet on Social Networks — A few months after switch-and-router maker Cisco Systems acquired a content-management start-up, Five Across, the San Jose giant is going to acquire the assets of Tribe.net, an early social network, reports The New York Times.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com, Social Media Club, Screenwerk, Message, This is going to be BIG., hubbub, Susan Mernit's Blog, PaidContent and Digital Markets
RELATED:
Fred / A VC:
All Software Should Be Social — I had lunch with Marc Canter yesterday and told him that one of the most important thoughts that I came across last year was his assertion that "all software must be social". I can't find the specific post where he said that or I'd link to it.
Marc Canter / Marc's Voice:
I'm in the NY Times today — Marc Andressen spent some money on a launch and did the rounds - touting the relaunch of Ning. When I tried it - it was clear it's not done yet - but yah can't blame them for that. — To be clear - Ning does some of what we do - which are hosted social networks.
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
WTF is Cisco Doing? — I don't get it. The NYTimes reports in Saturday's edition on Cisco's purchase of social networking provider FiveAcross, and adds that they're buying the tattered remains of Tribe.net, the San Francisco-based social network that fell out of favor and was reported …
Joe Duck:
Social networks = people, not technologies — The New York Times reports that Cisco has acquired Tribe Networks in what appears to be an effort to become a player in the social networking space. The article quotes Marc Andreeson of NING, another social network facilitator …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:Tribe Gets Aquired, For Real This Time
Discussion:
InfoWorld Tech Watch
Scott E / Library House:
Search engines emerge from Google's shadow — What do Hawaii, Hungary, Brazil, Egypt and the Philippines all have in common? They're each home to one of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines to Google. The list of the best 100 alternative search engines was put together by Read/WriteWeb …
RELATED:
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
California Home to Quarter of Top 100 Alt Search Engines — The Library House blog has done a geographic analysis of Charles Knight's Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list. After a bit of Web research, Library House was able to find out where 94 of the 100 search engines in our list are located.
Randall Stross / New York Times:
What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace — WI-FI service is quickly becoming the air-conditioning of the Internet age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in the same way that cold "advertising air" deliberately blasted out the open doors of air-conditioned theaters …
Discussion:
Furdlog
Anne Zelenka / Web Worker Daily:
WORKSTREAMING: THE NEW FACE TIME — Face time: "Unproductive time spent at the office meant to project the image that you're a hardworking employee." — My favorite story of a face time trick is the attorney who would come to his office each Saturday, drape his jacket over his chair …
Paul McDougall / InformationWeek:
Microsoft Hit By U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007 — Tens of thousands of federal workers are prohibited from upgrading to the latest versions, according to memos seen by InformationWeek. — Citing concerns over cost and compatibility, the top technology official …
Discussion:
Slashdot
Sara Kehaulani Goo / Washington Post:
YouTube Struggles Despite Dominance — Some Big Media Firms Take Videos Elsewhere — In the few months since Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube, both companies have tried to come up with a formula to turn the hugely popular online video site into a moneymaking venture.
Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:
Ten Sites for Free and Legal Torrents — Bittorrent downloads are either illegal or DRM-infected, right? Wrong. There are plenty of websites out there that offer free and legal Torrent downloads to save bandwidth and make file sharers happy at the same time.
Evan Blass / Engadget:
Disneyland intros roving animatronic Muppets; Mickey and friends fear pink slips — The happiest place on Earth (Disneyland, not Las Vegas during CES) just got a little happier this week, thanks to a new exhibit called the Muppet Mobile Laboratory that roams the park and delights visitors with inane banter and sprays of water.
David Goetzl / MediaPost Publications:
Shock Waves: Microsoft To Move Bulk Of $1 Billion In U.S. Ad Spending To Digital — LAS VEGAS — NOT SURPRISINGLY for a tech behemoth, a top Microsoft executive said Thursday that in three years, the bulk of its nearly $1 billion in U.S. ad spending will be in the digital sphere.
