Top Items:
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Bebo Embraces Facebook Apps With Its "Open Applications Platform" — When Google developed OpenSocial, it was intended to obviate the need for developers to reprogram the same social networking applications for separate platforms. Several social networks without their own proprietary developer platforms …
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Yahoo! Search Blog:
Yahoo! Gets More Social with Applications for Bebo — Socializing isn't quite what it used to be. For many people, it's no longer just about catching up with your pals at an evening happy hour; it's also about staying connected to a wider group by using the web as a networking tool.
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:Breaking: Facebook to Compete With OpenSocial
Discussion:
CNET News.com, mathewingram.com/work, ParisLemon, Alec Saunders .LOG and The Praized Blog
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Second-gen iPhone in final phase; Apple TV update planned - report — After meeting with key component suppliers and manufacturers in Asia, researchers for investment bank Goldman Sachs said this week they believe Apple will introduce two revisions to the iPhone in 2008 — one minor …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Scoble To Leave PodTech, Heading For Fast Company — Famous blogger Robert Scoble will be leaving his current job at PodTech in mid January, he says. He will likely be joining Fast Company to start Fast Company TV. — Scoble was with PodTech for just a year and a half.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
House Republican targets Google on privacy grounds — A top Republican in the House of Representatives is demanding that Google answer a barrage of questions about privacy, some of which are related to the company's proposed purchase of the DoubleClick advertising firm.
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Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:Sources: FTC gets more time to review Google-DoubleClick deal
Discussion:
TechSpot News
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Microsoft rebrands PlaysForSure to Certified For Windows Vista, confuses world — Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM just took another step closer to the grave with the help of some rebranding. Those of you with players from SanDisk, Nokia, and Creative among others, looking for compatible music from Napster …
Discussion:
paidContent.org, Ars Technica, Valleywag, Electronista, TechSpot News, Blackfriars' Marketing, mocoNews.net and Venture Chronicles
Times of London:
Microsoft swoop hands Multimap founder $25m — The deal, understood to be worth about $50 million, expands Microsoft's fast-growing footprint in web and mobile advertising — Microsoft has agreed to buy Multimap, the privately-owned British company that is snapping at the heels of Google's dominance in online mapping services.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, PR Newswire, Mashable!, Digital Daily, paidContent, TechCrunch, Screenwerk, The Register, WebProNews and GigaOM
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Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Windows 7 to get more touchy-feely — For those wondering when touch features such as those found on the Surface PC or iPhone would make it into mainstream PCs, the answer appears to be "whenever Microsoft gets around to releasing Windows 7." — A Microsoft blogger said this week …
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Saul Hansell / Bits:
Cheatsheet: Online Ad Spending to Slow — If you have been following this space, here is a conclusion that's not going to surprise you: Online advertising will grow, but it will do so more slowly over the next few years. — That's the headline on a handy chart sent over by eMarketer this morning.
Discussion:
Valleywag
Mobile Jones:
Sam Sethi Shuts Down Blognation — Sam Sethi has thrown in the towel. There's no place to take Blognation given the reality of zero funding and mounting debt. No bills were paid and the train wreck has run over Sethi. He announced today that he will not continue and steps down from Blognation.
Joe Walnes / Official Google Mobile Blog:
Picasa Redefined for your iPhone — I was sitting in the pub recently (I'm a Brit, it's what I do), and I wanted to show my friend a photo of the sunset I saw on my honeymoon. I pulled out my phone and started typing in the URL for Picasa Web Albums. Before I could continue, he threw his shiny iPhone into my hand.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Report: 95 percent of all e-mail has that spammy smell — This news will come as a shock to none, but the volume of spam has continued to rise throughout 2007. So much so, in fact, that spam researchers say that electronic junk mail has long surpassed the volume of human-issued e-mail this year, despite efforts to thwart it.
Aseem Sood / Official Google Blog:
Google Toolbar: Take your tools with you — I've started to notice something peculiar about the Toolbar team, and that's this: we literally can't seem to stop carrying the Toolbar around with us. When we moved to a new space in our Mountain View campus, we brought along a hallway-sized printout of it.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Search Engine Journal, Google Blogoscoped, Mobility Site and TECH.BLORGE.com
alarm:clock:
Penthouse Seduces AdultFriendfinder With $500M Buyout — A few years back we worked out of a non-descript Palo Alto office. Our neighbor tenants went by Various Inc. and were a suspicious looking bunch. Word spread that they were making huge coin operating hook-up sites like AdultFriendfinder.
