Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Bebo: By the (Not So Big) Numbers — What's AOL getting for its $850 million in cash to purchase of social-networking site, Bebo? — A very attractive social-networking service and a very experienced exec who has been running it. — But, perhaps more importantly for those who focus on pesky numbers …
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Business Wire:
AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network …
Discussion:
Good Morning Silicon Valley, GigaOM, The Social Web, NewTeeVee, BuzzMachine, CenterNetworks, VentureBeat, STARTUP CHATTER, Between the Lines, paidContent.org, Technological Winter, mocoNews.net, Balderton Capital, Susan Mernit's Blog, Mashable!, TechRadar.com, BBC NEWS, Hitwise Intelligence, David Galbraith, BetaNews, Todd Watson and Bloggers Blog
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Buys Bebo For $850 Million — I'm not going to say that we told you so, but we told you so. — AOL has acquired social networking site Bebo for $850 million in cash. AOL CEO Randy Falco (left in picture) sent an email to all AOL employees this morning. Allen Stern's press call notes are here.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Let's Justify Facebook's $300-Per-User Valuation — Some quick math makes Facebook's $15 billion valuation look even crazier. Apparently the guys over at Silicon Valley Insider also bothered to crunch the numbers. — Bebo sold to AOL this morning for $850 million and have about 40 million users, costing $21.25 per user.
AOL News:AOL to Acquire Social Media Network Bebo
Discussion:
Reuters, paidContent.org, Tech Tracks, Enterprise 2.0 Blog, TECH.BLORGE.com and Digital Trends
Saul Hansell / Bits:Bebo: Randy Falco's $850 Million Rescue Plan for AIM
Discussion:
Techdirt, BBC, Associated Press, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, /Message, paidContent.org and Searchviews
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web - Expect The Internet To Organize Itself In A Hurry — Yahoo's embrace of all things open continues today - expect an announcement in an hour or so that they are expanding their Open Search Platform that we wrote about last month.
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Yahoo! Search Blog:
The Yahoo! Search Open Ecosystem — A few weeks ago, we began talking about the new Yahoo! Search open platform. Today, we're releasing more details about two important components of the initiative — the developer platform as well as our support of a number of semantic web standards.
Discussion:
WebProNews, VentureBeat, Search Engine Watch Blog, Webware.com, Bb's RealTech and The Social Times
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:And Nerds Became Kings: Yahoo! to Announce Semantic Web Support
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
AppleInsider:
Apple TV DVR interface revealed in patent filings — A series of Apple patent filings published this week reveal a version of the Apple TV media device capable of browsing and recording live television programming in addition to serving up pre-aired content from the company's iTunes Store.
Discussion:
Crave, Infinite Loop, Tech Trader Daily, Electronista, Engadget, VentureBeat, Webomatica, Gizmodo, Zatz Not Funny! and CrunchGear
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
OpenSocial Beta Apps Go Live on MySpace — If you've been wondering how the OpenSocial platform will look in MySpace, its biggest implementation, today's the day you can take a first look. Right on schedule the first batch of apps go live today, one month after the platform was opened to all developers democratically.
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Adam Ostrow / Mashable!:
Initial Applications Launch on MySpace Developer Platform — MySpace has just launched an application gallery, marking the first opportunity users will have to use some of the new apps that have been built on the MySpace Developer Platform. For now, most of these applications take the form …
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Senior MSN Exec Joanne Bradford to Spot Runner — Senior MSN exec Joanne Bradford is jumping to highly hyped TV-ad facilitator Spot Runner (run by entrepreneur Nick Grouf and backed by Pilot Group and others). Here's the email circulated within Microsoft (MSFT): — Subject: MSN Leadership Annoucement
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Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:MSN exec Bradford leaving for ad company
Discussion:
LiveSide
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
iPhone 2.0 “sneak peek” — There has been a lot of talk about the new iPhone firmware and its enterprise capabilities. Well, the iPhoneDevTeam has cracked the 2.0 (actually 1.2) firmware and created a version of the firmware that works with any GSM SIM card without difficult incantations and installations.
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Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:
Source: Yahoo in informal talks with Microsoft — Microsoft and Yahoo are holding informal merger discussions, marking a shift from the “radio silence” that previously existed between the two companies, according to a source familiar with the talks. — A lot has changed over the past two weeks …
Dan Nystedt / IDG News Service:
Windows Eee PC Will Outsell Linux Version, Says Asus — Asus predicts its Windows XP Eee PC will outsell its Linux-based version by a ratio of 6:4, despite its price. — Asustek Computer (Asus) predicts the Eee PC it has started selling with Microsoft Windows XP Home edition on board …
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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0: Windows-based Eee PC to outsell Linux version - Another blow for Linux
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
The Lost Features of Google — Google created tons of products in the past. And some of them, they removed again after finding that they didn't work, required too many resources, didn't take off, or were overshadowed by legal concerns. Here are some of the “lost” Google services and features.
Rohit Dhawan / Official Google Blog:
Our solutions for ad serving — Earlier this week, we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick. Together, we're now focused on building a full suite of products and tools that help publishers of all sizes improve productivity, manage their inventory, generate additional revenue opportunities …
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Marius Oiaga / Softpedia News:
Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 for 2010 - No Word on Windows 7 M2 — Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is right on track for release in 2010. Concomitantly with the leaked details associated with Windows 7 Milestone 1 dropped by the Redmond company to select partners in January 2008 …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, DailyTech, Download Squad, Engadget, TechBlog, Computerworld, Gadgetell and The Tech Report
news.harvard.edu:
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences hacking incident — A Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Web server that contained summaries of GSAS applicant data for entry to the Fall 2007 academic year, summaries of GSAS housing applicant data for the 2007-08 and 2006-07 academic years …
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Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Nerve-tapping neckband allows ‘telepathic’ chat — A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time. — With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound.
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Vishesh Kumar / Wall Street Journal:
DirecTV to Start On-Demand — In its yearslong battle with cable-TV operators, DirecTV Group Inc.'s Achilles' heel has been its inability to offer any sort of video-on-demand service. The company intends to change that. — The No. 1 satellite-TV provider by subscribers is testing …
