Top Items:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why Microsoft will buy Facebook and keep it closed — It no longer is about Data Portability or Social Graph Portability, if you will. — I'm hearing these rumors too that John Furrier (my ex-boss) is reporting. That Microsoft will buy Yahoo's search and then buy Facebook for $15 to $20 billion.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, The Inquisitr, All Facebook, Umair Haque, Webomatica, I4U News, Adrants, GigaOM, Search Engine Land, Between the Lines, Tech Confidential, Search Engine Journal, Download Squad, Epicenter, WebGuild, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, CenterNetworks, VentureBeat, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Data Center Knowledge, Coop's Corner, Windows-Now.com, The Blogging Times, Microsoft Subnet's blog and ClickZ News Blog
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John Furrier / Furrier.org:
Silicon Valley Rumor: Microsoft to Buy Yahoo Search and Then Facebook — My sources say that the Yahoo and Microsoft teams are bunkered down in a Palo Alto hotel hammering out the final stages of a transaction that will have Microsoft picking up the Yahoo search business. Word is that this deal will be done this week.
Discussion:
Download Squad, DailyTech, Between the Lines, Search Engine Journal, STARTUP CHATTER, Outside the Lines, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Tech Trader Daily, Search Engine Land, Yahoo!, The Mac Observer, TechCrunch, TECH.BLORGE.com, Windows Connected, Contentinople, ReadWriteWeb, Searchviews, I'm Not Actually a Geek, Microsoft News Tracker, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Valleywag, Tech Ticker, Electronista, BetaNews, WebProNews, Techdirt, Profy.Com, The Register, metarand, BoomTown, All about Microsoft, CNET News.com, SEO and Tech Daily, Web Worker Daily, I4U News and Tech Beat
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Memo to Carl: MicroHooGooCahnFace — Will Microsoft really fork over more than $15 billion to buy Facebook? — Or will it come back to the fractured table with Yahoo to buy parts of it or perhaps partner with it? — And Yahoo, oh woefully punch-drunk Yahoo-must it make a deal with Microsoft …
Alexander van Elsas / Alexander van Elsas's Weblog …:Microsoft and Facebook will never succeed in locking down part of the web
Discussion:
mathewingram.com/work
InfoWorld:
Facebook CEO wants to talk with Google on Friend Connect — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to sit down with Google and work out the privacy issues that caused Facebook to block Google's Friend Connect last week, he said Monday. — “We want to talk to Google about this and see if there's …
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Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:
After Google calls Facebook's bluff, Zuckerberg says “let's see if there's a way to make it work” [data portability] — When Google announced its ‘Friend Connect’ product to deliver social networking features to the ‘long tail’ of the Web, the option “to see, invite, and interact with …
Mariko Katsumura / Reuters:Facebook stresses independence amid Microsoft talk
Discussion:
Digital Daily
Rajas Moonka / Official Google Blog:
Opening our content network to third parties — Today, we're announcing that Google is accepting third-party advertising tags on the Google content network in North America. This will empower advertisers to work with approved third parties to serve and track display ads, including rich media ads …
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Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
AOL-Bebo: $850M Deal Closes; AOL Combines Bebo, AIM, ICQ Into People Networks Headed By Shields — It's official—AOL (NYSE: TWX) now owns Bebo, closing the $850 million acquisition roughly two months after making it public. The social media network will not stand on its own; instead …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer, BoomTown, AppScout, TechCrunch, The Inquisitr and MarketingShift
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Saul Hansell / Bits:
Apple Wants More Mobile Music From Labels — As part of Apple's efforts to improve on the shortcomings of its popular iPhone, the company has approached some of the major music labels to try to expand the variety of ringtones and other musical features available on the device, several label executives said last week.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, I4U News, AppleInsider, Electronista, Macsimum News, iLounge, Gizmodo and Insanely Great Mac
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Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Will Gmail Get Themes? — A source is telling me that Gmail will get themes - custom layouts to personalize Google's web mail client. According to the source, the launch of this may happen within the next months. There will be 12 themes to pick from, according to this information …
Matthew Miller / The Mobile Gadgeteer:
Mobile software Monday: Opera Mobile 9.5 — One of the primary functions I perform on my mobile devices is web browsing, but until now there have always been limitations with these browsers. The iPhone had the best current browser for strictly browsing, but didn't allow you to do much else …
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Why I called Mozilla's change to the Firefox install process “sneaky” — Seems like some of you objected to my use of the term “sneaky” to describe the change made to the install routine of Firefox 3.0 RC1, while others thought I was being too easy on Mozilla. — Two emails from the Hardware 2.0 mailbag:
Mary Jane Irwin / Forbes:
Wii Gets Fitness — Like a late-night infomercial, Wii Fit sells itself as an all-in-one home fitness solution that will get the whole family exercising on a regular basis, no matter how lazy. With a menu of yoga, aerobics, strength training and balance games, it's hard to argue with the concept.
AMD:
AMD GAME! Enables Console-like Simplicity for Mainstream PCs — For the 263 million mainstream PC gamers worldwide, AMD GAME! stands for exhilarating HD gaming experiences with full PC functionality— From the company powering the visual experience of the two most popular gaming consoles …
Discussion:
DailyTech, The Core Truth, The Tech Report, Coolest Gadgets, I4U News, VentureBeat and Blue's News
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Best Buy: FCC has no power to fine us over analog TVs — The nation's biggest electronics retailer has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency lacks the authority to punish Best Buy for screwing up its digital transition TV selling rules.
