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Mergers: Commission clears proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google — Mergers: Commission clears proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google … Google operates an Internet search engine that offers search capabilities for end users free of charge and provides online advertising space on its own websites.
Discussion:
Salon, VentureBeat, Google Watch, paidContent.org, WebProNews, Business Wire, Digital Destiny, Tech Trader Daily and Searchviews
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EU approves Google's DoubleClick acquisition; Here comes the display ad ripples — European regulators on Tuesday approved Google's purchase of DoubleClick setting up the search giant's big splash in the display advertising market. — According to the EU's competition committee …
Discussion:
Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Ars Technica, IDG News Service, The Register, Tech Beat, paidContent.org, Electronista and Mashable!

We've officially acquired DoubleClick — I'm pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it's been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination …

The EU Approves Google's DoubleClick Deal. Yahoo Needs To Pick a Partner Fast.

With Europe's OK, Google closes DoubleClick acquisition
Discussion:
eWeek


Searchme: A New Visual Search Engine — [Updated with correct funding of $31 million and note that Google has a similar effort in its labs.] — Today, Sequoia Capital, which has been a key investor of search giant Google (GOOG), as well as Yahoo, will unveil its latest investment in search, a visual search engine called: Searchme.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, CNET News.com, The Boy Genius Report, VoIP Blog, Screenwerk and VentureBeat
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SearchMe Launches New Search Engine With Heavy Backing From Sequoia — Mountain View based SearchMe has been around since 2005 and has raised $31 million from Sequoia, DAG Ventures and Lehman Brothers. But until last weekend when I met founders Randy Adams and John Holland I knew next to nothing about them.
Discussion:
Gizmodo

Testing Over, Hulu.com to Open Its TV and Film Offerings This Week — SAN FRANCISCO — Hulu.com, the long-gestating Internet joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox, emerges from limited testing on Wednesday to make its catalog of TV shows and video clips available to anyone on the Web.
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Hostility Has Its Rewards — MENLO PARK, Calif. — “It's crazy to say you will only grow through innovation,” Larry Ellison, the hard-charging chief executive of Oracle, was telling me last week. “It's bizarre that there's a stigma to buying something rather than building it yourself.”
Discussion:
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
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20% Of Valley Startups Can't Get To Their Cash
Discussion:
FOXBusiness.com

A WordPress 2.5 Upgrade Guide — As you might know, WordPress 2.5 is about to be released, and we wanted to encourage WordPress users to upgrade. To Movable Type. — The truth is, there are lots of good blogging tools out there, and they're all good at different things.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, STARTUP CHATTER, Bb's RealTech, David Dalka, Favorite {fvrit} Blog, Like It Matters, The Blog Herald and Changing Way


Google's drop in paid clicks: Part of the grand plan — After ComScore reported a recent decline in Google's paid clicks, the Net ratings service followed up, noting evidence that the drop was due to “Google's own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings and …
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CBSSports.com Opens March Madness On Demand Video For Easy Access From Any Site — Seeking more online viewers for games and ads, CBSSports.com and the NCAA are announcing a “developer platform” for March Madness on Demand. It's not the kind of developer concept where people are encouraged to build apps …


The “Nuclear Disaster” At SXSW Was Nothing More Than A Witch Burning — Based on the Twitter messages and blog posts I saw yesterday emerge real time from the SXSW conference, it sounded like Sarah Lacy's interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was, truly, a career ending, never seen before train wreck of epic proportions.
Discussion:
Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally, Profy.Com, WebProNews, broadstuff, Master of 500 Hats, Chip Griffin, 901am, Geek Gestalt, MYBLOG by Ouriel, BoomTown, VentureBeat, bub.blicio.us, Telegraph Blogs, IanSchafer.com, Smalltalk Tidbits …, ClickZ News Blog, techipedia, robhyndman.com, deal architect, Bb's RealTech and The Register


MacPro, Mac Book Air get software updates — While we slept last night, Apple released two updates for two of their less common hardware offerings: the MacBook Air and select Mac Pros. They aren't terribly exciting and, as always, the descriptions are fairly vague.
Discussion:
PC World, AppleInsider, MacUser, Apple Gazette, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Macsimum News


R.E.M. launching album on social networking site — NEW YORK (Billboard) - Forget the traditional radio premiere: R.E.M.'s new album, “Accelerate,” is set to debut on the social networking application iLike. — The roll-out, the first of its kind for a major act, will allow fans to stream and share …


Drop It Like It's DropBox — Personal file storage, sharing and syncing is one of those categories of technology problems that, despite all efforts, no one ever seems to get right. Most of the current offerings, even the better ones, leave something to be desired.


Sprint Phone to Get Speed Boost with EVDO Rev. A - It's About Time — Adoption of faster wireless speeds via the wireless specification EVDO Rev. A has been slow as molasses. But finally there is good news for Sprint customers who will be the first U.S. wireless customers …