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.
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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:
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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 …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Needs To Do Something. But Combining Facebook With Yahoo Search Ain't It. — As Microsoft toys with Yahoo over the possibility of a resumed deal to buy only its search business, is it also thinking of throwing Facebook into the mix? That's the latest rumor making the rounds.
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
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Digital Daily
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
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Galeon: It's like Firefox for Spartans — A few weeks ago we looked at K-Meleon, a light-weight browser for Windows that uses the same rendering engine as Firefox 2. The result is a browser that loads any page you can open in Firefox, which uses significantly less RAM than Firefox.
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Open Source
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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0: Why I called Mozilla's change to the Firefox install process “sneaky”
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, Listening Post, VentureBeat, O'Grady's PowerPage, I4U News, AppleInsider, Electronista, iLounge, Macsimum News, Gizmodo and Insanely Great Mac
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Dianne See Morrison / paidContent.org: Apple Needs More Mobile Music; UMG Demanding Nokia-style Comes With Music Deal?
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 …
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 …
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Mark Evans:
Are Pro Bloggers Going Extinct Soon? — Louis Gray has an interesting post looking at Blogging 2.0 in which the content and conversation (C&C) are increasingly happening in places other than a blog. — He suggests this is “going to cause serious strain” on people who make a living from blogging given page views will likely decline.
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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 …
Daniel Terdiman / Geek Gestalt:
EA losing its credibility on Take-Two offer extensions — Electronic Arts said Monday that it is once again extending its $2 billion offer for ‘Grand Theft Auto’ publisher Take-Two. Take-Two retorted by rejecting the offer. — “If you don't clean up your room today, you're going to be in trouble,” yells Dad.
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 …
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.
