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, Umair Haque, The Inquisitr, SarahLacy.com, All Facebook, Webomatica, I4U News, Adrants and Search Engine Journal
RELATED:
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, Between the Lines, Search Engine Journal, STARTUP CHATTER, Outside the Lines, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Search Engine Land, Tech Trader Daily, The Mac Observer, TechCrunch, Yahoo!, TECH.BLORGE.com, ReadWriteWeb, I'm Not Actually a Geek, Valleywag, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Electronista, BetaNews, WebProNews, Techdirt, The Register, metarand, CNET News.com, Los Angeles Times and The Inquisitr
Microsoft:
Microsoft Issues Statement Regarding Yahoo! — Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. — REDMOND, Wash. — May 18, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today issued the following statement:
Discussion:
DailyTech, Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Journal, BoomTown, Tech Trader Daily, Mercury News, Windows Connected, Contentinople, Searchviews, Guardian Unlimited, Microsoft News Tracker, Smalltalk Tidbits …, Tech Ticker, Profy.Com, Associated Press, Mashable!, Gear Diary, CNET News.com, All about Microsoft, GigaOM, TechRadar.com, Search Engine Land, Between the Lines, Web Worker Daily, SEO and Tech Daily, I4U News, Tech Beat, Tech Confidential, Epicenter, Download Squad, WebGuild, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, CenterNetworks and Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
Discussion:
GigaOM
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 …
RELATED:
Mariko Katsumura / Reuters:Facebook stresses independence amid Microsoft talk
Discussion:
Digital Daily
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
First public Firefox 3 candidate shoots out the door — Mozilla has pushed out the initial release candidate of Firefox 3 for download. — The new Firefox code of the firm's increasingly popular web browser is available in 45 languages as a public preview for developers …
RELATED:
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0: Why I called Mozilla's change to the Firefox install process “sneaky”
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 …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch Blog, Mashable! and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
RELATED:
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:
CNET News.com, Between the Lines, MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer, BoomTown, AppScout, TechCrunch, The Inquisitr and MarketingShift
RELATED:
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
Ars Technica acquired by Condé Nast: the low-down — In less than a month, Ars Technica will be 10 years old. In 10 years time we've accomplished much, but uncovered far more work we want to do. For the past six months, we've been obsessed internally with the question …
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 …
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:
CNET News.com, VentureBeat, paidContent.org, I4U News, AppleInsider, Electronista, iLounge, Macsimum News, Gizmodo and Insanely Great Mac
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 …
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
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.
Martin LaMonica / CNET News.com:
Zoho Writer search bug exposed private documents — A bug surfaced during development of a group-oriented search feature allowed me to view Zoho documents created by other people that were not intentionally shared with me. — Zoho fixed the bug on Sunday, after I reported it, and said its impact was limited.
