Top Items:
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook — Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook. — The two companies said on Wednesday that Microsoft would invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
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Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Source: Microsoft wins Facebook bid battle — Update: 12:30 p.m. see bottom. — After weeks of speculation, Microsoft appears to have won a battle with Google over who would get a stake in Facebook, according to a source familiar with the situation. — Microsoft and Facebook were close to a deal, according to the source.
Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Is Close to Choosing Microsoft or Google for Deal — SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc. is close to choosing between Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to sell ads for the social networking service outside the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
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PR Newswire:
Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance — Microsoft to take equity stake in Facebook; companies expand advertising deal to cover international markets. — PALO ALTO, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Facebook® and Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Facebook Takes the Microsoft Money And Runs. — While the storyline would have been more dramatic if Facebook had spurned its current ad-serving partner Microsoft for Google, it is confirmed that Microsoft has won the deal. It will invest $240 million in Facebook and expand its existing relationship …
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Microsoft wins Facebook bid? Here's the insider scoop on why... Last night I was hanging around at the Ritz near my house. That's where Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo spoke yesterday, and where the Right Media conference is going on right now. — I talked with several people …
Peter Lauria / New York Post:
ONLINE FACEOFF — M'SOFT AND GOOGLE DUKE IT OUT OVER HOT SITE — Google is threatening to once again beat rival Microsoft to the deal punch, this time in the white-hot Facebook investment sweepstakes. — Microsoft and Google are each vying to take a stake of between 5 percent and 10 percent …
Discussion:
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Liveblogging The Facebook Press Conference — Facebook is holding a press conference at 2 pm PST to discuss and presumably confirm the Microsoft investment. We'll be liveblogging the event here. Stay tuned. — Press Release On The Investment: … - Sphere It -
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Google Declares Jihad On Blog Link Farms — A major Google page rank update has punished large scale blog link farms and similar sites indulging in heavy cross linking by dramatically cutting their Google page rank scores. — There is some suggestion that the changes may be related …
Discussion:
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Andy Beard / Niche Marketing:
Digg Favorites Slapped By Google — For a company such as Google with a stock price based extensively on anticipated growth and public sentiment, it doesn't take a huge swing in goodwill to have a dramatic effect on valuation. Google has just slapped their biggest fans.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links? — Seems like there is a PageRank update taking place now that seems to be impacting sites that sell links. Can't say that we were not warned about this? Danny Sullivan wrote Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings …
Discussion:
Internet Marketing, Search Engine Journal, Googlified, Google Blogoscoped, Guardian Unlimited and Robin Good
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:Google's PageRank Shuffle: Big Sites Say Bye-bye, Traffic?
Discussion:
Geek News Central
Robby Stein / Official Gmail Blog:
Sync your inbox across devices with free IMAP — There are two online petitions I've signed in my life. One was for a "Xena: Warrior Princess" movie. The other, which I signed a few months before starting at Google, was for Gmail IMAP. As some of you know, IMAP is the best way to access …
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google Analyst Day: CEO Eric Schmidt — The last speaker at the Google (GOOG) analyst meeting today is CEO Eric Schmidt. — Schmidt says it has become clear we are at the beginning of a massive transition to cloud computing. A global transition from one form of information sharing to another, of one form of computing to another.
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Ben Worthen / Business Technology:Is Google Causing Microsoft to Drop its Prices?
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eWEEK.com
