Top Items:
Adam L. Penenberg / Fast Company:
Ning's Infinite Ambition — Brain Trust: Ning chairman Marc Andreessen (he built Netscape back in the day), with Bianchini, at the company's HQ in Palo Alto. | It isn't just a site where users can build their own social networks — Ning is a model of how to create a perpetual growth machine.
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Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Social network creator Ning raises $60M at $500M valuation — Make-your-own-social-network company Ning has raised a $60 million fourth round of funding. — Co-founded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, Ning already raised a hefty third round of $44 million back in July.
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
Exclusive: Gillmor Gang joins TechCrunch — Here's some exclusive news: after being offline for over a year in a legal dispute (can't get into details) the Gillmor Gang is back and is part of TechCrunch! Steve Gillmor is one of the most insightful minds in the technology space, and his …
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Gillmor Gang Now Part Of TechCrunch Network — Journalist Steve Gillmor was a podcasting pioneer - In 2004 he began recording conversations with leading tech pundits about the issues of the day and posting them on IT Conversations. The show, which he called the Gillmor Gang …
Andrew Donoghue / CNET News.com:
AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010 — U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T has claimed that, without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010. — Speaking at a Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 this week in London, Jim Cicconi …
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Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
Meet The Mac-Clone Mystery Man — How's this for a deal. At a fraction of the cost of a comparably equipped machine from Apple, a Web-based company dubbed Psystar is offering a computer you can have loaded up with just about any operating system you choose, including Apple's OS X Leopard.
InfoWorld:
5 IT skills that won't boost your salary — Technical skills may never die, but areas of expertise wane in importance as technology advances force companies to evolve and IT staff to forsake yesterday's craft in favor of tomorrow's must-have talent. — “There is less need for system-side knowledge.
Discussion:
The Chronicle
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary — Ebay will consider selling off its Skype internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to find ways to use the fast-growing service to support its core e-commerce business, according to the company's chief executive.
Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Gaming appearing recession proof as Wii, DS dominate sales — Gas prices are up and consumer confidence is down, which apparently means that Americans are looking to gaming to save them from their woes. Console sales are up 27 percent year to date, according to the latest figures released by NPD Group …
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Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
It's official: Venture investment declined in Q1 — Venture investment fell 8.5 percent during the first three months of 2008 compared to the final quarter of 2007, according to the new MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
Bloomberg:
Managers Among 4,650 Losing AT&T Jobs — AT&T said Friday that it would eliminate the jobs of about 4,650 workers, trimming the managerial ranks in its fading home phone business after more than $100 billion in acquisitions. — The decision covers about 1.5 percent of the work force …
Discussion:
VoIP Watch
Larry Dignan / Zero Day:
Apple should call PayPal's bluff — PayPal is in another stand-off with Apple over EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer) certificates, but Steve Jobs & Co. may call the transaction service's bluff. — According to Ryan Naraine, PayPal is about to launch a whitepaper …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
German Startup Community Makes Us Proud Once Again: Freundefeed — You haven't arrived until your web application has a German clone, it seems. Web innovation in that country too often distills down to “copy/paste innovation.” — And now, Freundfeed, which doesn't appear to be a joke.
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:
Google shares capture largest one-day gain — Update at 1:15 p.m. PDT April 18: Google ends trading day up 20 percent, capturing largest one-day gain — Update at 10 a.m. PDT April 18: Google's gains have now reached 21 percent. — Google's shares closed with a 20 percent gain Friday …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Forbes, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, paidContent.org, Bloomberg, Valleywag and Googlified
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Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL (TWX) Firing 100+ Platform A-ers Today — AOL's new Platform-A boss Lynda Clarizio is following through on her plan for a streamlined Platform A. The plan makes sense. Unfortunately, it also involves firings. — A source says today is the day, puts the number of layoffs at “less than 500.”
Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support Blog:
Microsoft Announces Changes for Accessing Hotmail with Outlook Express — A change is coming for users that access Hotmail with Outlook Express. Outlook Express uses a protocol called DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol) to access a Windows Live™ Hotmail® e-mail account.
Andrew Chen / Futuristic Play:
Viral coefficient: What it does and does NOT measure — It's easy to overemphasize viral user acquisition — I've recently been receiving a deluge of e-mail related to viral marketing - in particular, people sometimes represent it as a “magic bullet” to solving their startup's problems.
