Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft, Yahoo Talks Intensify In Push to Reach a Friendly Deal — Talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. intensified Friday as the two sides explored the possibility of a last-ditch friendly deal, according to people familiar with the matter. — Though the talks have intensified …
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DealBook:
Finally, Microsoft and Yahoo in Merger Talks — After a months-long standoff, Microsoft and Yahoo are in active merger talks, a person involved in the discussions said. — Microsoft, which had threatened to abandon its bid, has increased its offer “by several dollars,” this person said.
Discussion:
WebProNews, All about Microsoft, Between the Lines, Valleywag, Bits, Gizmodo, GigaOM, Adrants, Tech Tracks, Epicenter, Beyond Binary, MarketingVOX, MacDailyNews and Pocket PC Thoughts.com
Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo-Google Pact May Be Close — Yahoo Inc. could announce an agreement to carry search advertisements from Google Inc. within a week, as it braces for Microsoft Corp. to go hostile or abandon its unsolicited acquisition offer for Yahoo, say people familiar with the matter.
Dan Farber / Outside the Lines:
The Silicon Valley triangle: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft — It's Friday night and still no word from the Microsoft or Yahoo bunkers. The headlines for today tell the story (see Techmeme). — The Wall Street Journal, which appears to be a conduit for the negotiations, has a story …
New York Times:
Higher Offer by Microsoft Brings Yahoo to Table — After a three-month standoff, Microsoft was in active merger talks with Yahoo on Friday, several people involved in the discussions said. — Microsoft, which had threatened to abandon its bid or initiate an attempt to oust Yahoo's board …
Discussion:
WinBeta
Steve / The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
The problem with Facebook — This chart says it all. A new study discovers that the vast majority of Facebook apps are an utter waste of time. But oh yeah — Facebook is worth $9 billion, or $15 billion. And Slide is worth half a billion because it makes that super important FunWall application.
Discussion:
Capitol Valley
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Nathan / FlowingData:
Chart of the Day: A Breakdown of Facebook Applications — Of the 23,160 Facebook applications, I use about 5, but I probably wouldn't notice if someone randomly removed all of them from my profile in the middle of the night. Kids these days. I used to play BlockStar …
Caroline McCarthy / The Social: Study reveals shocking truth: Most Facebook apps are silly, pointless
Ben Lorica / O'Reilly Radar:Facebook App Categories Ranked By Usage
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Sarah Lacy:
Larry Highest Paid CEO? Damn Right. — It's not everyday you find yourself defending a guy that everyone else hates. Oh wait. Actually, I tend to do that a lot. I even found myself doing that last night! But most of them, I defend because I've gotten to know them well enough …
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Elizabeth Corcoran / Forbes:Tech's Top-Paid CEOs
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, HipMojo.com, Valleywag, Insanely Great Mac, The Mac Observer, Silicon Alley Insider and Macsimum News
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Iron Man — There was a game we used to play in the office, years ago, casting a movie of our own lives. What well-known actor or actress would play you? Who would play your friends? The game eventually faded, as games always do, but at the time it was great fun.
Andy Serwer / Fortune:
Larry Page on how to change the world — Breakthrough ideas are around the corner, says the Google co-founder. But most of us are failing to take a chance on them. — (Fortune Magazine) — As president of Google, Larry Page has pushed his people to take risks that have led to hot new applications like Gmail and Google Maps.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
New York's “Amazon Tax” called “unconstitutional” by retailer — Amazon is fighting back against a newly-enacted New York state law that requires the online retailer to collect sales tax for the state of New York even though it has no physical presence there.
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Saul Hansell / New York Times:Amazon Sues Over State Law on Collection of Sales Tax
Discussion:
Andy Beard, TechCrunch, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Techdirt, ZDNet Government, Digital Daily, VoIP Blog, Valleywag, TeleRead, CNET News.com, Digital Trends and Mashable!
Jake / THIRD RAIL:
Thursday at Noon is the best time post and be noticed (PST) — It's happened to me a few times; I stay up late working on a great post and finish at 1am EST. In a rush of excitement I decide to submit it to reddit or del.icio.us and goto bed fully expecting to see it on the front page of their sites the next morning.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:Want That Post to Go Popular? Here's The Best and Worst Times to Post It
Discussion:
WebProNews
The Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry KickStart: T-Mobile launch and a whole bunch of specs! — You didn't think we'd actually leave you hangin', did you? To follow up on on yesterday's post of the BlackBerry KickStart photos, we've got here a couple more images of the phone with T-Mobile branding and some interesting details on the physical design attributes.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Mark Evans, Crave, Unwired View, TmoNews, CrackBerry.com blogs, Electronista, CrunchGear, BB Geeks, Gizmodo and Engadget
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Microsoft's PopFly makes it easy to create your own arcade games — Microsoft is announcing today that it has created a easy-to-use Popfly Game Creator, a software tool that makes it easy for anyone to create their own arcade-like video games. — The tool is based on Microsoft's popular mashup tool Popfly …
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John Markoff / New York Times:
Pursuing the Next Level of Artificial Intelligence — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Like a good gambler, Daphne Koller, a researcher at Stanford whose work has led to advances in artificial intelligence, sees the world as a web of probabilities. — There is, however, nothing uncertain about her impact.
DealBook:
Feeling Oppressed at eBay — Vote, sell or sue. — These are the limited options available to shareholders in a publicly traded company when they are unhappy or otherwise in conflict with corporate management or other shareholders. Shareholders in a private, sometimes called “close” …
John Cook / John Cook's Venture Blog:
Old media needs to wake up, or die — Traditional media companies that refuse to invest in the Internet and withdraw into old business models are destined to fade away, opening the door for entrepreneurs to take advantage of the lack of innovation. — That was the message from Merrill Brown …
Discussion:
Serious about Business
