Top Items:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Facebook Fatigue? Visitors Level Off In the U.S. — The number of people who visit Facebook has been leveling off over the past few months in the U.S., and even dipped by about 800,000 individuals in January. According to the latest stats from comScore, Facebook attracted 33.9 million unique visitors …
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Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
Facebook's traffic may be plateauing. So what? — There's been a lot of buzz this week about Facebook's traffic leveling off or declining, and naturally, it's been accompanied by schadenfreude over the fact that the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley may soon be losing its laurels.
Discussion:
WebProNews
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC NEWS | dot.life:
Facebook - back to the kids? — Facebook - it's so over. That's been the tenor of most of the commentary since Thursday's figures showing a slight dip in Facebook's UK users. The general feeling is that the kids, with their minute attention spans, have already tired of the social networking site …
Microsoft:
Kevin Johnson E-mail to Employees of the Microsoft Platform & Services Division — Text of an e-mail sent by Kevin Johnson, president of the Microsoft Platforms & Services Division to provide employees of the Platforms & Services Division with an update on the Feb. 1 proposal to combine with Yahoo!
Discussion:
paidContent.org, All about Microsoft, TechCrunch, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog and Tech Tracks
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Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft's Johnson: “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction” — This afternoon, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, issued an email to Microsoft employees (that was released via its PR firm). The letter has a tone of confidence that assumes that a deal with Yahoo will ultimately take place.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:Microsoft Fishes in Silicon Valley for New Yahoo Board Members
Discussion:
CNET News.com, MediaFile, Techdirt, Silicon Alley Insider, Search Engine Land and Yahoo! Finance
Scott Gu / ScottGu's Blog:
First Look at Silverlight 2 — Last September we shipped Silverlight 1.0 for Mac and Windows, and announced our plans to deliver Silverlight on Linux. Silverlight 1.0 is focused on enabling rich media scenarios in a browser, and supports a JavaScript/AJAX programming model.
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Ryan Stewart / The Universal Desktop:Scott Guthrie gives us a first look at Silverlight 2
Discussion:
Bink.nu
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook Headhunter: The Quest for the Golden Geek! — If Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is serious about finding a true No. 2 to replace outgoing exec Owen Van Natta and more, then BoomTown has certainly at least two cents to add. — So here is our list of ideas, which include a number of women execs …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, HipMojo.com, CNET News.com, Fortune, Valleywag, FaceReviews and Silicon Alley Insider
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple's iPod Growth Curve: More, Cheaper iPods — Steve Jobs' recent price cut on his cheapest iPod — the iPod shuffle — could help the company accelerate unit sales growth for the first time in more than a year. But how about revenue? — iPod revenue growth doesn't move in lockstep with iPod unit growth.
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:Apple Hits Lowest Level Since June; New iPhone Worries
Discussion:
Paul Kedrosky's …
Nick Miller / The Age:
$10 chip puts Australia on the fast track — A new silicon chip developed in Melbourne is predicted to revolutionise the way household gadgets like televisions, phones and DVD players talk to each other. — The tiny five-millimetre-a-side chip can transmit data through a wireless connection …
Discussion:
IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, CrunchGear, GigaOM, The Pondering Primate, DSLreports and Slashdot
Mat Lu / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
iTunes Store adds 99 cent weekly movie rental specials — Along with the iTunes update we noted earlier, Apple has introduced a new weekly special movie rental for 99 cents. Macrumors reports that each Thursday Apple will make available a new movie at the special price, good until the following Monday.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, WebProNews, MacUser, MacRumors, NewTeeVee, CyberNet, The Boy Genius Report, Gadgetell and Zatz Not Funny!
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Optimus Maximus: at long last, we bring one home to test — It's the damndest thing: years after seeing the renders we're actually finally writing this post on our very own Optimus Maximus. We've had ours for a few weeks for testing, but we weren't able to do a whole lot with it until we got some later firmware updates.
Alma Whitten / Google Public Policy Blog:
Are IP addresses personal? — To protect privacy, you first have to identify what data is personal. That's why there has been a lot of discussion in recent months around the world to try to define “personal data” (as it is referred to in Europe), or “personally identifiable information” (as it's called in the U.S.).
Discussion:
Ars Technica
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Very Exposed to US Recession—Expert — A digital-ad industry insider thinks Google is far more exposed to a US recession than the market realizes. The insider also thinks that the next two quarters will be “rough.” — The insider is not a Google employee, but s/he has real …
Discussion:
Valleywag
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
SEO Shenanigans Pose a Clear and Present Danger to Social Media — As someone who reads a lot of blogs about search and social media (a term I am still not nuts about but has stuck), I have recently witnessed a disturbing trend. Some respected experts are advocating launching social media …
Discussion:
Web Strategy
Anthony LaFauce / All Facebook:
Facebook Adds Flash... Am I Excited? — With the usual fever that Facebook causes news of its flash application, via Facebook Pages, is all the buzz on the blogs and tech journals the past couple of days. Most of the blogs are preaching the praise of this move and I have to agree, for the most part.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
RIAA Shakedowns Similar To Big Retailers Shaking Down Suspected Shoplifters — We've talked in the past about how both DirecTV and the RIAA have used a borderline legal version of a shakedown to get people to pay them money, without them having a chance to defend themselves. The way the process works is simple.
