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8:40 PM ET, May 5, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
How Yahoo (YHOO) Blew The Microsoft (MSFT) Deal, Part 1  —  The most interesting story to emerge since Microsoft (MSFT) withdrew its bid for Yahoo (YHOO) is that the companies are disputing the circumstances of Microsoft's $33 offer.  This is important for three reasons:
RELATED:
Crayton Harrison / Bloomberg:
Yahoo Chief Yang Open to Bids, Even From Microsoft  —  Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang said he would be open to another bid from Microsoft Corp. or other companies at a price he considers appropriate.  —  Yahoo continues to speak with other companies about ways to increase its value …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Der ... Umm ... What $33-Per-Share Offer?  —  Get this.  Yahoo (YHOO) didn't accept Microsoft's (MSFT) offer of $33-per-share, because it didn't know Microsoft had offered $33-per-share.  This according to people close to Yahoo, who tell The Wall Street Journal that Yahoo only learned Microsoft …
Discussion: Tech Confidential and Reuters
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Facebook Search Box Is Low-Hanging Fruit For Microsoft  —  Now that the Microsoft play for Yahoo appears to be over (appears to be), everyone and their grandparents are speculating about what Microsoft and Yahoo are going to do now.  One quick thing that Microsoft could do to increase …
Discussion: Bits, CenterNetworks and CNET News.com
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Yahoo is Friendless On Wall Street  —  Jerry Yang, Yahoo's CEO, this morning posted what can be described as an emotional blog post about the Microsoft-Yahoo buyout saga.  He reinforces the points he has made all along: that Yahoo needs to execute, innovate and develop more focus.
Jerry Yang / Yodel Anecdotal:
Ok, so now what?  —  The last 13 weeks have been a remarkable time here at Yahoo!.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Citi's Mahaney Says Microsoft/Yahoo Merger Still 15% Likely
New York Times:
Yahoo Chief Says Microsoft Was the Stubborn One
Discussion: WebProNews and Deal Journal
Cynthia Brumfield / IP Democracy:
Google Accuses Verizon of Planning to Dodge 700 MHz Open Access Rules  —  (Update: Reaction from Verizon Wireless at end of post.)  —  On Friday, Google urged the FCC to block Verizon Wireless' $4.7 bil. successful bid for the C Block band of spectrum in the recently completed 700 MHz auction unless Verizon …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Jammed Shut: Google Is Worried What Verizon Might Have For Future …
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
Sprint Mulls Separating Nextel Unit  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. is seriously considering spinning off or selling its ailing Nextel unit, people familiar with the situation say, a dramatic acknowledgement that Sprint's $35 billion acquisition of Nextel Communications in 2005 has been a failure.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Techmeme: Where the A-Listers Party With the Long Tail.  —  One of the favorite bitchmeme's on Techmeme, the popular blog and news headline site that keeps track of the most talked-about tech stories on the Web, is that it is dominated by A-list blogs and news sites with full-time writing staffs.
Discussion: mathewingram.com/work
RELATED:
Yuvi / The StatBot:
One third of Techmeme's headlines come from the Long Tail: The Statbot
Discussion: louisgray.com
Jenna Bilotta / Official Google Reader Blog:
Share anything.  Anytime.  Anywhere.  —  Have you ever wanted to share something that you were reading, but you didn't want to go through the hassle of subscribing to a whole feed for a single interesting article?  And what about sharing content from sites with no feeds?
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Includes Chinese Handwriting Recognition in iPhone 2.0 Beta  —  Apple has quietly included handwriting recognition for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) into the latest iPhone Firmware 2.0 beta.  When you select Chinese input, you are given the option to use handwriting recognition allowing …
Mark Davis / Official Google Blog:
Moving to Unicode 5.1  —  Google has just begun supporting Unicode 5.1, less than one month after it was released.  It's now available in search, so people speaking languages such as Malayalam can now search for words containing the new characters in Unicode 5.1.
Glenn Derene / Popular Mechanics:
Digital Transition Looms, but Do Americans Have a Right to TV?  —  In his biweekly trends column, PM's tech editor crunches the numbers on just how much it costs to get everyone onboard the digital bandwagon.  —  Next February, somewhere in America,  —  someone out there is going to flip …
Josh Catone / ReadWriteWeb:
The Facebook Platform is Biased Toward “Fun” Apps  —  Over the weekend, a chart from the Flowing Data blog “revealed” that Facebook applications, on the whole, are silly.  Much of the discussion that followed was of the patronizing “see, we told you Facebook apps were dumb” variety.
Why The Lucky Stiff / hackety org:
Sneaking Ruby Through Google App Engine (and Other Strictly Python Places)  —  Despite all the clicking that has been done on a certain star.gif, I really don't think Ruby is coming to Google's App Engine.  Google doesn't have much of a toe in the Ruby scene and App Engine is clearly entrenched …
Discussion: The Tao of Mac
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Why Silicon Valley just won't shut up about FriendFeed  —  “Cathy Brooks is a typically unapologetic Silicon Valley Web addict,” writes Brad Stone in the New York Times.  “Last week alone, she produced more than 40 pithy updates on the text messaging service Twitter, uploaded two dozen videos …
Discussion: broadstuff
 
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 More Items: 
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
IAB Completes Industry Guidelines For Video Ads
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Mashable!
PC World:
Kensington Offers IPod, IPhone Battery Packs
Discussion: Gearlog, iLounge and Engadget
Jordan Golson / Gizmodo:
New Boston Apple Store Largest In the World
Discussion: MacUser and MacDailyNews
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
The Future of RSS  —  May 1st was RSS Awareness Day and while …
Darren Rowse / ProBlogger Blog Tips:
Where Bloggers Get Their Biggest Levels of Traffic
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Zune XNA games preview release aimed for May
Discussion: Gizmodo and TECH.BLORGE.com
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Blu-ray hits bumps in the road to HD market dominance
Discussion: Electronista
Serdar Yegulalp / InformationWeek:
Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared
Discussion: Slashdot
 Earlier Items: 
Alexander van Elsas / Alexander van Elsas's Weblog …:
Would you be willing to pay for a web 2.0 service that provides value?
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Lycos Cinema: “Needs more Battlestar”
Discussion: VentureBeat, Mashable! and 901am
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Andersen relentless in quest to nail the RIAA
Discussion: p2pnet
Shane McGlaun / DailyTech:
Sony Unveils Tiny Hybrid Fuel Cell System
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
“Fifth major” Merlin signs 12,000 indie labels, eyes MySpace
Discussion: Valleywag and Electronista
Seth Sutel / Associated Press:
AP launches news service geared for iPhone
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Hoping For Ungodly Returns: Christian Video Sharing Site GodTube …
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
What's happening at LinkedIn? Is it getting bought?
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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