Top Items:
Constant Brand / Associated Press:
EU data-privacy officials probing Google — BRUSSELS, Belgium - An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States. — EU spokesman Pietro Petrucci …
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BBC:
Google queried on privacy policy — Google has been told that it may be breaking European privacy laws by keeping people's search information on its servers for up to two years. — A data protection group that advises the European Union has written to the search giant to express concerns.
Karen / Official Google Blog:
Calendar for mobile devices — Posted by Devesh Parekh, Software Engineer, Google Calendar team — We realize that more people in the world have mobile phones than have computers, and people take their cell phones with them everywhere. Since one of our main goals on the Calendar team …
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Harry McCracken / PC World: Techlog:
Google Calendar Gets Mobile — If there was an award for "Best Google Service That Not That Many People Think About When They Think About Google," it might well go to Google Calendar. It's just plain well done, with a slick and simple interface and plenty of features.
Kris Graft / Next Generation:
Nudity the Cause for Halo 2 Vista Delay — UPDATE - Microsoft reps have told Next-Gen the real reason for the Halo 2 Vista delay: partial nudity—specifically someone's backside in the game's map editor, the Entertainment Software Rating Board added today. — In an e-mail statement sent …
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Dave McClure / Master of 500 Hats:
Top 5 (or 6) reasons PR doesn't work. if you're a geek. — DISCLAIMER 1: some of my best friends work in PR. really. me too. — DISCLAIMER 2: i started out as an engineer, then an entrepreneur, then an internet marketer. i probably still suck at all of them, but since 2001 i've done …
Discussion:
Global Nerdy
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Brendan Sinclair / CNET News.com:
Sony sued over Blu-ray — Given its global position as an electronics giant, Sony is quite familiar with patent law and the potential penalties for infringement. — Barely three months ago, Sony paid $97 million in damages and interest to Immersion Corporation in a dispute over the rumble functions in Sony's Dual Shock controllers.
Fred / Unit Structures:
The Facebook Platform: Analysis — I've spent the morning reading the endless coverage of the recently-launched Facebook Platform. In case you can't figure it out from the breathless tone of the coverage, this is big news; I commend the folks at Facebook for all of their hard work.
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I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
The Final Days of Google — Back in the 1990s Bill Gates said the company that would eventually beat Microsoft probably had yet to be founded, by which he meant that Microsoft was in such a strong position that only something truly disruptive — a whole new business — would have a chance to unseat Redmond.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com, Search Engine Land, eWEEK.com, Valleywag, Scobleizer, Digital Markets, Sadagopan's weblog …, CrunchGear, MediaVidea and Digital Inspiration
Robyn Tippins / The MyBlogLog Blog:
All About Tags — By now you've seen our newest feature, tagging, on MyBlogLog. We have had FAR too much fun this week tagging each other, so I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as we have. — Some people have suggested that tags, while well-known to the tech savvy, are still unfamiliar to many web users.
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Jeremy Reimer / Ars Technica:
Dell goes Ubuntu; "Windows tax" is $50 according to pricing — When Dell put up its IdeaStorm community-feedback site, the company was surprised by the strong response in favor of shipping personal computers with Linux. The PC company then announced that it would offer Ubuntu Linux on select systems …
Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:
Advertising's Brave New World — Different Lineup of Players — Emerges With Online's Rise — For decades, advertising has been a relatively simple process dominated by a clubby world. Long-established advertising and media-buying agencies, most owned by half a dozen global giants …
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
comScore:
comScore Releases April U.S. Search Engine Rankings — comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In April 2007, Google Sites captured 49.7 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 1.4 share points from the previous month.
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Apple confirms MySpace ban in retail stores — In New York City, you can go to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in midtown 24 hours a day, seven days a week and browse the Web from the Macs on display. But due to a new Apple regulation, you can no longer access MySpace.com.
BBC:
Wi-fi and RFID used for tracking — Wireless tracking systems could be used to protect patients in hospitals and students on campuses, backers of the technology said. — The combination of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and wi-fi allows real-time tracking of objects or people inside a wireless network.
Discussion:
TechFold
Jeremy Toeman / Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally:
Exclusive Pix+Vid: New NETGEAR Skype Wifi Phone — As I've written before, (guest) blogging has its priveleges. While at NETGEAR's HQ last week interviewing employees for the blog, the company's CEO, Patrick Lo, walked in and pulled from his pocket the still-in-development 2nd-generation WiFi Skype Phone!
Discussion:
jkOnTheRun
Marcus Yam / DailyTech:
Legalized Blu-ray, HD DVD Copying Coming Soon — Managed copy in the works for HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc — One of the biggest arguments against digital rights management (DRM) is that it restricts users from doing what they wish with the media for which they've paid.
Daniel Dumas / Wired News:
Star Wars Rewired: Interviews, Galleries and More — Star Wars. It's the backbone of geek DNA, even more essential than an intricate knowledge of Linux or the inability to get a date. And now, 30 years after an independent filmmaker blew us away with the exploits of a Cinnabon-coifed princess …