Top Items:
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Gmail 2.0 Screenshots — Google during the recent Analyst Day announced they want to release an updated version of Gmail that's supposed to be faster than the current one, thanks to a JavaScript back-end rewrite. Also, the new version aims to improve contacts management.
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Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Gmail's New Version Is Now Available — The new version of Gmail I was talking about the other day is already available in some Gmail accounts. If you see a link to an "older version" at the top of the page, that means you can enjoy the new features: mail prefetching, updated contact manager and other small updates.
Discussion:
Gadgetell
Robby Stein / Official Gmail Blog:
Code changes to prepare Gmail for the future — When Gmail launched in 2004, the web was a very different place: people's expectations were different, browser capabilities were less advanced, and certain terms that are now commonplace on software engineer résumés hadn't even been coined yet.
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
Can a Google Phone Connect With Carriers? — Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the wireless market, people familiar with the matter say. The Web giant's ambitious goal: to make applications and services as accessible on cellphones as they are on the Internet.
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on Its Own Kool-Aid — This is a sad time for the web. It's as almost somber as the time just before the last bubble burst in 2000. I was working in PR with dot-com startups at the time and the way I feel now is how I did back then. I wish I didn't, but I do.
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
Plentyoffish: 1-Man Company May Be Worth $1Billion — We've written before about PlentyOfFish, a leading online dating site that is run by a single person and is raking in money. Markus Frind is the singular force behind PlentyOfFish. At the time of our last review, June 2006 …
Tom Krazit / CNET News.com:
Report: NBC wanted a cut of iPod revenue — I will say this: NBC's Jeff Zucker has got serious stones. — According to a report in the venerable entertainment industry trade rag Variety, Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal, asked Apple for a cut of iPod revenue as part …
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John Heilemann / New York Magazine:
Web Bubble 2.0 — Well, maybe it is a bubble. But out in Silicon Valley, they don't think of that as a bad thing at all. — T — he Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz is kinda-sorta the West Coast version of New York's own Steve Rattner.
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
@ FOBM: Amid Consolidation, Forbes.com Looks To Further Define Itself Against Its Print Version — One year after Forbes sold a significant minority stake to Elevation Partners, Rafat Ali, ContentNext's publisher and editor, opened the Future of Business Media Conference discussing the issues …
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
Laurie J. Flynn / New York Times:
BEA Defends Its Rebuff of the Takeover Attempt by Oracle — BEA Systems defended itself yesterday in the face of mounting pressure to strike a deal to sell the company after it allowed Oracle's buyout offer to expire Sunday night. — In a letter to Carl C. Icahn, BEA's largest shareholder …
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:BEA's stance on Oracle deal pummeled
Discussion:
Business Week, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, eWEEK.com, Good Morning Silicon Valley and Reuters
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
AdBrite puts spotlight on Facebook application ads — Online advertising firm AdBrite is set to announce on Tuesday a new program to serve ads for third-party Facebook applications. Considering it a niche "channel" alongside existing AdBrite verticals, the company has launched …
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google Maps Halloween Icon — Google included a little Halloween Easter Egg on their Google Maps Street View feature - instead of the usual icon person walking around, now there's a witch icon. — Halloween is a holiday on the night of October 31 celebrated in various parts around the world …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Internet Now The Primary Local Medium — Last week, Judy's Book joined the list of companies that have tried but stumbled or wiped out in local. The market's complexity and business model challenges make it tough for most startups to succeed. Yet, paradoxically, consumers have clearly embraced the …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Meebo Platform Launches With Big San Francisco Party — Sequoia backed Meebo launches Meebo Platform this evening, allowing third party developers to create applications for the Meebo web chat service. They're celebrating the launch with a big party in San Francisco with hundreds of the company's closest friends.
Discussion:
Download Squad, Tom Foremski: IMHO, Silicon Valley Watcher, 901am, VentureBeat, Between the Lines, GigaOM and Mashable!
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Automattic Spurns $200 Million Acquisition Offer — Automattic, the company that created the Wordpress.com blogging platform and oversees the Wordpress.org open source project, has rejected a $200 million acquisition offer, says multiple sources. Half the price was to be paid in cash, half in stock in the buyer.
