Top Items:
Josh / Netly News:
More Google Brass Head for the Exits — Bigshots from around the world are converging on Google HQ tomorrow for Zeitgeist, the faithful's annual mecca to the Googleplex. But at least one of Google's top brass is heading for the exits: Benjamin Ling, a high-ranking engineer described by Google …
Discussion:
Inside Facebook, GigaOM, ParisLemon, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Mashable!, Search Engine Land, eBay Strategies and Valleywag
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
CBS Buys 10-Month Old Celebrity Gossip Blog Dotspotter; Price Around $10 Million — CBS (NYSE: CBS) has bought 10-month-old celebrity gossip blog Dotspotter, for a price of around $10 million. The rumor was first reported on Valleywag, and has also been confirmed to us by sources.
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Valleywag:
Acquisitions: CBS eyes gossip site for $10 million — CBS eyes gossip site for $10 million — Why was a roomful of venture capitalists and lawyers clinking champagne glasses at Zibibbo in Palo Alto last week? The target of their fulsome praise was entrepreneur Anthony Soohoo, a former Yahoo executive.
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Madonna Dumps Record Industry — Since reporting Monday that Nine Inch Nails had dumped its record label and was to offer future albums direct to the public, Oasis and Jamiroquai have also joined the move away from the record industry, but the biggest announcement …
Discussion:
Reuters, Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab, gHacks technology news, franticindustries and CrunchGear
Stephen J. Dubner / Freakonomics:
Here Are the Answers to Your Craigslist Questions — Last week, you submitted lots and lots of questions for Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster, the founder and CEO, respectively, of Craigslist. They couldn't answer every question but I think you'll agree they've given us a lot of good answers, time, and ideas.
Discussion:
Valleywag
BBC:
Universal avatars bestride worlds — A virtual character, or avatar, for all the virtual worlds in which people play is the goal of a joint project between IBM and Linden Lab. — The computer giant and the creator of Second Life are working on universal avatars that can travel between worlds.
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / Read/WriteWeb:Interoperability in Virtual Worlds: Experts Discuss Possible Futures
ABC News:
Plasma TVs may be banned — Most plasma television sets are in danger of being banned from sale in Australia if a proposed energy-efficiency rating system is adopted. — A report commissioned by the Federal Government says there is a growing demand for plasma and LCD televisions, which use more power than traditional TV sets.
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Happy 1st Anniversary YouTube and Google; Now Move Over a Bit — Time for another roundup, and this one coincides with a notable first-year anniversary: that of Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube, confirmed on October 9th, 2006. — Since then, the name "YouTube" has become virtually synonymous with "online video sharing".
Ellen Simon / Associated Press:
Is that your phone or your imagination? — NEW YORK - If your hipbone is connected to your BlackBerry or your thighbone is connected to your cell phone, those vibrations you're feeling in the car, in your pajamas, in the shower, may be coming from your headbone.
Discussion:
Gizmodo
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Fred / A VC:
30 Thoughts At 30,000 feet — I thought I'd try Jason Calacanis' new favorite way of writing a blog post on for size. I am on a flight from NYC to Portland Oregon and my entourage email database crashed this morning so I don't have an inbox to work on (except on my blackberry and that's getting tiring).
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
Mother's ire puts Ballmer on defense over Vista — He says the OS is delivering value to corporate customers — For a few minutes during Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer's appearance at the Gartner Inc. conference here, emotionless management-speak gave way to a mother's frustration with the Vista operating system.
Adam C. Engst / TidBITS:
Confessions of a Twitter Convert — I'm eating a hearty meal of crow (roasted, with garlic and rosemary) today, since I'm here to tell you how interesting and downright useful I've found Twitter to be since being turned onto it properly at the C4 conference in August.
Anick Jesdanun / Associated Press:
Blazingly fast Internet2 gets 10x boost — NEW YORK - The ultrahigh-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster, partly in anticipation of rising demand for capacity after the world's largest particle collider opens near Geneva next year. — Until recently, the Internet2 …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Facebook Vs ConnectU: "Facebook Makes Untrue Assertions" Claims ConnectU — The long running saga of claims and counter claims between Facebook and ConnectU hit court today with an initial setback for ConnectU. — The case before the San Jose Federal Court was not the allegations …
David Pogue / New York Times:
(Mostly) Good Things in a Small Package — Sometimes the tiniest adjustment can make a huge difference. A tenth of a grade-point average could get you into Princeton. A bid $1 higher could win on eBay. And a half-step toward the cliff edge could — well, you know.
