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12:45 PM ET, February 3, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Markoff / New York Times:
Yahoo Deal Is Big, but Is It the Next Big Thing?  —  SAN FRANCISCO — In moving to buy Yahoo, Microsoft may be firing the final shot of yesterday's war.  —  That one was over Internet search advertising, a booming category in which both Microsoft and Yahoo were humble and distant also-rans behind Google.
RELATED:
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Microsoft plus Yahoo! Strategic Assets in Email  —  So much of the chatter around Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo! revolves around competition with Google in the online advertising market.  While that is a huge market, one that Google now dominates, and one that Microsoft has a jones for …
Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0:
What Microsoft Buying Yahoo Really Means  —  Perhaps you don't need any more explanations of the significance of Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo, but I don't want to lose my media/tech blogger license, so here's mine.  —  Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo is akin to newspaper industry consolidation …
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Can Private Equity Save Yahoo From Microsoft? Unlikely
Discussion: HipMojo.com and ZDNet
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Yahoo Offer Is Strategy Shift for Microsoft
Discussion: Leigh's Blitherings and Slashdot
Nick / Rough Type:
Desperately seeking the “killer best way”  —  Was Facebook's misbegotten launch of its Beacon advertising service a case of youthful overreaching, or did it indicate a much deeper problem for the young company?  —  The answer to that question may have become a bit clearer last week when Google announced its quarterly results.
RELATED:
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The internet is the social network  —  Google has released a social-graph API, which in theory — though, unfortunately, not in practice — is what the internet is all about: relationships and connections.  —  I've said it before: … So with its social-graph API, is Google trying to become …
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
Do Super Bowl ads work?  —  Here's a take from an expert on branding on whether Super Bowl ads work.  I actually watch the SuperBowl on Tivo, looking only at the ads.  Yes, afraid so.  It's UnAmerican.  —  Super Bowl Branding - Do Super Bowl Ads Really Work?
Discussion: Ars Technica and Valleywag
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Why The Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Will Be a Disaster  —  We've poked fun at Yahoo's efforts to pretend that it's in control of this Microsoft process, and we've argued that the transaction is pretty much a done deal.  One thing we want to be clear about, however: Yahoo is smart to search for alternatives …
Discussion: HipMojo.com
confused of calcutta:
“Interesting, but of no commercial value”: The problem with emerging social media tools: A Saturday Evening Post  —  I can remember a time when people thought e-mail was a complete waste of time.  I can remember a time when spreadsheets and storyboarding software were similarly disdained.
Discussion: broadstuff
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Data Visualization Google Gadgets  —  Last year, Google acquired a data visualization technology from Gapminder, a Swedish non-profit organization.  Gapminder's technology, Trendalyzer, was used to visualize data from United Nations Common Database in an intuitive way.
The Technium:
Better Than Free  —  The internet is a copy machine.  At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it.  In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Tech issues a no-show at MTV-MySpace candidate event  —  NEW YORK—Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was the fourth and final presidential candidate to appear at the youth-focused “Closing Arguments” question-and-answer session, co-hosted by MySpace, MTV, and the Associated Press.
Discussion: Mashable!
Marc Andreessen / blog.pmarca.com:
Inaugurating the New York Times Deathwatch  —  [With apologies in advance to Martin Nisenholtz, who I believe is genuinely fighting the good fight, and who will no doubt end up with a great job at some fine Internet company.]  —  The hiring of Bill Kristol was the last straw.  —  I can't take it anymore.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
First look: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) alpha 4  —  Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 4 was officially released today and is now available for testing.  This alpha offers an early look at some of the features that will be included in the final 8.04 release, which is scheduled for April.
Skrentablog:
The peanut butter jar is empty  —  I was rooting for Jerry Yang.  Tech founder returns to helm to take over.  That's a story I have to get behind.  —  But it never seemed to me like he was fully in charge.  I wonder how many stakeholders Consensus had over there in the top suite.
 
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 More Items: 
Brian Clark Howard / thedailygreen.com:
Nigerian 5-Year-Olds Repair OLPCs in “Hospital”
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Weblogs, Inc. Co-Founder Brian Alvey To Launch Crowd Fusion
Michael Cieply / New York Times:
Deal to End Writers' Strike May Be Near
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Sweden Warns Kids Against The Pirate Bay
Discussion: CrunchGear and Digg
 Earlier Items: 
Anne Eisenberg / New York Times:
An Online Organizer That Helps Connect the Dots
Jason Harris / Download Squad:
BBC's iPlayer adds support for Firefox
Discussion: AfterDawn.com and Mashable!
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Miro, a nonprofit Web TV player with big ideals, launches co-branding service
Discussion: Mashable!
Darren Murph / Engadget:
WiFi trial comes to San Francisco's BART trains