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Google Disaster: Comscore Reports Awful January* — Comscore reported shockingly bad US paid click performance for Google in January: flat growth year-over-year versus a 25% increase in Q4. Even if Comscore is only half right, this is a disaster. — Flash note from analyst Bob Peck at Bear Stearns:
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Google Shares Slide On Weak Paid Click Data; Is The Crumbling Economy Dragging Down The Search Business? — Google (GOOG) shares are down sharply this morning after new data from comScore shows what appears to be a material weakening in the company's advertising business.


Google: Does Search Data Indicate a Recession? — The news is buzzing this morning, starting with a report from UBS that alleges that Google's paid clicks are down in January. Analysts from a number of firms have been speculating that this may be a sign that a slowing economy is affecting search.

The Web Economy Rejoices: Google IS Overrated and Due For BIGGER Fall!
Discussion:
CNET News.com

Microsoft's Live Poops Out … I got an IM from a source a few minutes ago asking if Hotmail and other Live services were down. Being signed into Windows Live Messenger, I assumed that he was wrong. — Not so. When I tried to sign into Windows Live Hotmail, during the Live ID authentication process …
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Outage hits Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger users
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Tech Tracks

Tracking Microsoft's Windows Live outage (Updated)
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InfoWorld

Live Services problems reported: LiveID, Messenger, Mail are down for some
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All about Microsoft

Apple Introduces New MacBook and MacBook Pro Models — Multi-Touch Trackpad Comes to MacBook Pro — Apple® today updated its popular MacBook® and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models.
Discussion:
bub.blicio.us, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Hardware 2.0, Infinite Loop, geeksugar, Mark Evans, CyberNet, TidBITS, Salon, Between the Lines, Insanely Great Mac, GigaOM, dailywireless.org, Gearlog, Todd Watson, Gadgetell, Podcasting News, The Apple Core, Digital Daily, Web Worker Daily, Apple Gazette and LAPTOP Magazine
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The new MacBook's battery life and power adapter (Updated) — When Steve Jobs un-enveloped the MacBook Air last month, Apple watchers were impressed by the “5 hours of wireless productivity” battery life. However, after putting the Air through its paces, only a few reviewers were able …


Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro get refreshed with faster CPUs, multi-touch — Aw snap. It finally, really happened... kind of. Apple has just dropped a nasty refresh on its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, knocking the processor speeds up, and giving the Pros that tasty multi-touch the MacBook Air has been sporting.


iPod/iPhone firmware update 1.1.4 released — Just connected my iPhone to iTunes. More details as they come in. — 1:30: I'm downloading the software now... To download directly, the direct links are iPhone and iPod. (Do let me know if I messed either of those up.)
Discussion:
Engadget, iPhone Atlas, InformationWeek Weblog, greg hughes, The Mobile Gadgeteer and PalmAddicts

Comcast Astroturfs the Old-Fashioned Way — How big are the stakes in the so-called network neutrality debate now raging before Congress and federal regulators? — Consider this: One side in the debate actually went to the trouble of hiring people off the street to pack …

iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US — iTunes Customers Top 50 Million — Apple® today announced that iTunes® (www.itunes.com) is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*.
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ACU first university in nation to provide iPhone or iPod Touch to all incoming freshmen — An Apple iPhone or iPod Touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University's innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices …

Social network downtime in 2008 — This is a list of 14 of the largest social networks in the world, and how much downtime they have had so far in 2008. … As we mentioned in a recent report, Bebo's downtime has increased significantly lately and has had by far the most downtime …


Refine by user ratings and neighborhoods — Ever since I moved to the New York City Google office I've had an agenda: exploring the best the city has to offer like so many other New Yorkers do. Sometimes this can be an overwhelming experience, since the city has more than 18,000 food vendors according to nycvisit.com!

Lance Ulanoff's death spiral has begun — I hate to pick on someone — unless they deserve it, of course — but I'm willing to make an exception in Lance Ulanoff's case. He's the PCMag editor whose piece on Facebook got picked up by Fox News, primarily (I'm assuming) because of the headline …

Life after page views: Web analytics 2.0 — Many agree that the page view is dead, but not about the next Web measurement metric — Computerworld) In a move that many said signaled the official death of the page view, Nielsen/NetRatings last July announced that it would no longer use page views …

Apple: More On New Macs, Higher Margins, Weak iPods and iPhones; Where Has Steve Jobs Been Flying? — The Street is feeling chatty today about Apple (AAPL) today, and there's lots to talk about. The analysts are musing on the announcement today of a refresh of the MacBook and MacBook Pro line …