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9:31 PM ET, March 20, 2007

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Andy Beal / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim:
Google's Launches Pay-Per-Action; a Threat to Affiliate Networks?  —  If you're reading this post, then you can expect a flurry of news covering Google's beta launch of its Pay-Per-Action (PPA) product for AdWords.  Yep, after years of hinting, Google is finally ready to let us test their platform on a CPA (cost per action) model.
RELATED:
Inside AdWords:
Pay-per-action beta test  —  Is there a specific action on your site that you want visitors to complete?  Do you know how much that action is worth to your business?  If so, you may be interested in our pay-per-action beta test.  Here's Rob K., Product Manager for Pay-Per-Action, to tell us more:
Inside AdSense:
Now accepting applications for new referrals beta  —  Many of you already use referrals to direct users to your favorite Google products.  Now, with our new referrals beta, you can select products and services from our base of AdWords advertisers.  This is good news for those of you who have wanted …
Jeremyliew / Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog:   Google CPA will crunch lead gen arbitrageurs margins further
Kevin Newcomb / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Google to Test Pay-per-Action Ads
Discussion: Vinny Lingham's Blog
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Elite: new, black limited edition Xbox with HDMI and 120GB drive  —  We've confirmed with trusted sources that the black Xbox 360 is indeed coming (the image above is of the original 360 dev kit, FYI), and will be dubbed the Xbox 360 Elite.  Here's what you need to know about it:
RELATED:
Unstrung:
Palm Deal in the Final Stretch  —  A Palm Inc. buyout could be finalized by Thursday this week, demanding $20 or more per share, according to sources close to the situation.  Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK - message board) is seen as the leading vendor bidder; while Palm's management is said to prefer a private equity buyer.
Brad Stone / New York Times:
MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users  —  Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded.  —  MySpace, the Web's largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions.
Business Wire:
Yahoo! Reinvents Search for the Mobile Web  —  Yahoo! oneSearch(TM) Accessible Today Through More Than One Hundred Million Mobile Phones  —  SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) has today expanded the reach of the popular new Yahoo! oneSearch service to the Mobile Web in the United States.
CNNMoney.com:
PlayStation 3 price cut may be ahead  —  Sony game console's hefty price tag has drawn criticism; Goldman Sachs analyst expects worldwide price reduction of $100 later this year.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Japanese electronics giant Sony may cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 worldwide …
CNET News.com:
Who exactly wrote the first blog  —  Someone, somewhere created the very first Web log.  It's just not quite clear who.  —  It may not be one of the Internet's grandest accomplishments, but with the number of active bloggers hovering somewhere around 100 million, according to one estimate …
Financial Times:
Google searches for European lobbyists  —  By Andy Bounds in Brussels and Richard Waters in San Francisco  —  Google is seeking to hire a network of lobbyists in capitals across Europe as it tries to shape debate over pressing internet policy issues, from copyright to online privacy.
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Twittering your Home  —  I had no sooner got finished writing "don't discount twitter.  I'll lay odds that it gets hacked into a really useful service before long" in the comments on Nat's twittervision post, in response to the various people saying that twitter was drivel, and who cares …
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies  —  John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.
Valleywag:
ADOBE: Scoble's favorites  —  Robert Scoble, the geek commentator whose fame still mystifies me, once tried to answer a question — Who is the Adobe blogger? — about the web communications strategy of one of the key web software firms.  The answer was staring him in the face.  Scoble himself is the Adobe blogger.
Discussion: Ryan Stewart
Leander Kahney / Wired News:
Apple of Our Eye: Macs Save Money  —  There's been a distinct sea change in the way people think about Apple in the last few weeks.  —  Recently, people have been saying the strangest things about Apple and the Mac.  Everything is topsy-turvy.  Pundits aren't trotting out the old conventional wisdoms any more.
Scott McNulty / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
VMware Fusion Beta 2 now available  —  VMware, the top banana in the virtualization market though relative new comer to the Mac, has just released Fusion Beta 2, their Mac virtualization client.  Fusion, much like Parallels, allows you to run Windows (and many other operating systems) …
 
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 More Items: 
Katie Geminder / Facebook Blog:
Facebook Sneak Preview
George Ou:
How Apple orchestrated web attack on researchers
Rob Beschizza / Gadget Lab:
5 Reasons Why Apple TV Rules, 5 Reasons Why it Sucks
Seth Sutel / Associated Press:
Online broadcasters challenge price hike
Discussion: PaidContent and Tech Beat
Mark Gibbs / Computerworld Malaysia:
Verizon's weird antispam science
Discussion: Techdirt
Alan Graham / Web 2.0 Explorer:
How do you get people to use Web 2.0 technology?
Tom Raftery / Tom Raftery's I.T. views:
Vista really does have driver issues!
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
How To Spy On Google  —  Is Google working on a phone?
 Earlier Items: 
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
NFL fumbles DMCA takedown battle, could face sanctions
Discussion: Techdirt, PlagiarismToday and digg
Paul Kapustka / NewTeeVee:
An Appreciation: Ze Frank's Genius
Discussion: Common Craft
Judi Sohn / Web Worker Daily:
RSS ON THE GO: A LOOK AT WEB-BASED MOBILE AGGREGATORS
Valleywag:
BUBBLE: Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence
BBC:
Virtual worlds are 'worth $1bn'
Karen / Official Google Blog:
Personality goes a long way
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple's next-generation iMacs to add a touch of grace
Julio / iinnovate:
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Evan Drellich / New York Times:
The MLB is planning national packages for streaming companies to bid on in 2028, when its national TV deals with ESPN, Fox, and Turner expire

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

 
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