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.
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, The Inquisitr, Silicon Alley Insider, Tech Trader Daily, Search Engine Land, The 463, SarahLacy.com, Windows Connected, Searchviews, TECH.BLORGE.com, ReadWriteWeb, Contentinople, Yahoo!, I'm Not Actually a Geek, Valleywag, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Microsoft News Tracker, Electronista, Tech Ticker, WebProNews, BetaNews, The Register, metarand, All about Microsoft, I4U News, CNET News.com, Tech Confidential, Tech Beat, Los Angeles Times and Epicenter
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 …
Umair Haque:
The Microsoft vs Google Endgame — Today, something really interesting happened. Both Google and Microsoft are making fairly dramatic strategic moves. But the moves they're making are polar, extreme opposites: the contrast between them couldn't be sharper or starker.
Mariko Katsumura / Reuters:Facebook stresses independence amid Microsoft talk
Discussion:
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
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, AppleInsider, I4U News, Electronista, iLounge, Gizmodo, Macsimum News and Insanely Great Mac
RELATED:
Dianne See Morrison / paidContent.org: Apple Needs More Mobile Music; UMG Demanding Nokia-style Comes With Music Deal?
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:
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 …
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 …
RELATED:
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.
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 …
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Live: Google Health Launching At Factory Tour of Search — Google has invited the press to its headquarters in Mountain View today for some presentations on a variety of search-related projects. — The so-called “Factory Tour of Search” event will proceed until about 1pm PT today.
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 …
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.
Discussion:
Open Source
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.
