Top Items:
Bruce Horovitz / USA Today:
Starbucks offers new flavor: Free Wi-Fi — Thirsty for more business during the worst slump in its history, Starbucks will try to lure more customers by offering two hours of free AT&T Wi-Fi a day. — The Wi-Fi freebie will be available starting Tuesday to customers who purchase …
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Dave McClure / Master of 500 Hats:
StarF*#ked. (or, how not to handle forgotten password recovery flow during a massive promotion) — to whomever can promise i never have to enter forgotten password flow ever again: — PLEASE ENSLAVE ME NOW. — (screen capture while trying to register my acct/card to get free wifi @ Starbucks)
Catherine Holahan / Business Week:
Auctions on eBay: A Dying Breed — As consumers opt for fixed-price purchases, what happens to the company that perfected the art of online bidding—and the scores of e-auctioneers? — Bruce Hershenson, who auctions vintage posters online, is hanging up his eBay gavel.
Discussion:
Sramana Mitra on Strategy, Portfolio.com, rand($thoughts);, broadstuff and Paul McNamara's blog
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Nick / Rough Type:Was eBay a fad? — We already know that the famously cute story …
Discussion:
The Open Road
Rafe Needleman / CNET News.com:
Wikia Search launches the hackable search engine — This morning, Wikia is rolling out cool features on the controversial Wikia Search engine (previous review). — Starting today, if you do a search on the engine and don't like the results, you'll be able to change them.
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Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales Reboots His ‘Google-Killer’ — Last January, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launched a search engine called Wikia Search, a purported “Google-killer” that aimed to edit and refine search results with the same methods that have made Wikipedia a Web phenomenon—the contributions of thousands of volunteers.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog, Mashable!, TechCrunch, Open Source, The Inquisitr, CenterNetworks, VentureBeat and Valleywag
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Gates' last act: frees IE 8 and Silverlight second betas — TechEd 2008 Bill Gates has announced the next betas of Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 2 while outlining plans from Microsoft on development, services. He also took the opportunity in his valedictory keynote at TechEd in Orlando …
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StephH / Live Search:
Customize your 404 error pages with the Web Page Error Toolkit — For large web sites with extensive amounts of content, 2 to 10 percent of traffic is looking for pages that either don't exist or have been moved. Most web servers return a generic 404 error page or a sitemap when a user's desired page cannot be found.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
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Joanna Stern / LaptopMag.com:
MSI Wind (Windows XP) — This 10-inch mini-notebook has good computing punch and impressive endurance. — Price as Reviewed: $499.00 — Review Contents: — In order to achieve their diminutive size, weight, and price, most mini-notebooks come with compromises: the screen or keyboard is too small …
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Susan Panico / PlayStation.Blog:
Introducing Qore: Taking you behind the curtain with PlayStation — Today we are announcing that Qore: Presented by the PLAYSTATION Network, a highly interactive, monthly lifestyle gaming program covering the world inside PLAYSTATION is on its way to PS3. Qore has been developed …
Discussion:
Mashable!, Silicon Alley Insider, last100, NewTeeVee, Veronica Belmont, Joystiq, Opposable Thumbs, PS3 Fanboy, Things That, GamePro.com and videogaming247
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Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
All-encompassing iPhone patent filing hints at GPS, video chat — Apple has filed for a patent that addresses virtually every aspect of the iPhone, including potential additions such as GPS mapping, media messaging, video calls, and voice commands. — While Apple has filed …
Eric Auchard / eWeek:
Yahoo Opposed Google Deal Before Microsoft Bid — Execs dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google due to antitrust concerns, one day before Microsoft made its takeover offer. — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc executives dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google due to antitrust concerns …
24/7 Wall St.:
The Newspapers: Rating The Top 25 Newspaper Websites — The struggle for large daily metropolitan newspapers to stay profitable and survive is based on the race between the drop in their print advertising and the improvement of their online sales. Newspaper industry costs are rising along with fuel and commodities prices.
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Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Goosh: a retro Web app with cutting-edge interface — If ever something was neither fish nor fowl, it's Goosh, a Web-based command-line interface for Google. — On the one hand, Goosh creator Stefan Grothkopp shows off the power of Web 2. applications, with the browser becoming …
Tristan Louis / The TNL.net weblog:
Is Techmeme myopic? — I'm a big fan of TechMeme, a web aggregation service that provides, at a glance, a few of what's being discussed in the technology-focused part of the blogosphere. It has allowed me to unsubscribe from a large number of RSS feeds that were providing me with redundant information …
Discussion:
vanderwal.net Off the Top
Nick Farrell / Inquirer:
Nearly all returned gadgets still work — Users only think they are broken — A STAGGERING 95 PER CENT of electronic goods which are taken back to the shop are not actually broken, according to consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture. — Apparently, when punters return their electronic gear …
Ggaren / Surfin' Safari:
Announcing SquirrelFish — “Hello, Internet!” — WebKit's core JavaScript engine just got a new interpreter, code-named SquirrelFish. — SquirrelFish is fast—much faster than WebKit's previous interpreter. Check out the numbers. On the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark …
