Top Items:

Powerset joins Live Search — We're excited to announce that we've reached an agreement to acquire Powerset, a San Francisco-based search and natural language company. — Powerset will join our core Search Relevance team, remaining intact in San Francisco.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog, ReadWriteWeb, The Semantic Web, Don Dodge on The Next …, GigaOM, The Inquisitr, All about Microsoft, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, TechCrunchIT, Outside the Lines, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Alexander van Elsas's Weblog …, Tech Confidential, Data Center Knowledge, Tech Tracks, The Mac Observer, WebProNews and AppScout
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Microsoft to Acquire Powerset 2 — We're excited to announce officially that Microsoft has signed an agreement to acquire Powerset. — Powerset has always been a small company with big dreams, with the ultimate goal of changing the way humans interact with computers through language.
Discussion:
CNET News.com


Microsoft's Plan B for Search — Moving past the Yahoo saga, the software giant is buying semantic search engine Powerset as a way of closing the gap with Google — Still smarting from a failed attempt to buy Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) is trying another tactic to gain on Google (GOOG) in Web search.

Gnip: Grand Central Station for the Social Web — Ping, ping, ping! That's the sound made day and night by the new social media technologies rapidly proliferating around the web... and the machines are getting tired. Polling for updates to user data streams, wishing they spoke the same language …
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Gnip Launches To Ease The Strain On Web Services — MyBlogLog founder Eric Marcoullier sold his company to Yahoo in January 2007 for an estimated $10 million. He left Yahoo in July 2007 with the seed of a new idea germinating in his head - “Make data portability suck less.”

Gnip launches and Plaxo's pulse is racing
Discussion:
VentureBeat

Google learns to crawl Flash — Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we've improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe's Flash Player technology.
Discussion:
Adobe, Google Webmaster Central Blog, Ajaxian, Silicon Alley Insider, Ars Technica, Search Engine Land, The Universal Desktop, Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog, Joe Duck, Ryan Stewart, Todd Watson, Digital Daily, CyberNet, The Blog Herald, NewTeeVee, Search Engine Watch Blog, Know It All, Contentinople, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Between the Lines and ReadWriteWeb
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Adobe makes Flash searchable, Flash designers rejoice
Discussion:
E-Commerce Times

A Cringing Quarter for Venture Capitalists — As I reported Saturday, venture capitalists experienced a very poor second quarter. The industry's trade association said Tuesday that for the first time since 1978, not a single venture-backed company went public in the quarter.
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AT&T announces iPhone 3G pricing plans — Finally, a piece of news we can actually do something with. AT&T today announced its pricing structure for the next iteration of Apple's iPhone. There's not much that's surprising here — new customers and those eligible for an upgrade will be able …
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AT&T offers new option of iPhone without contract
Discussion:
TechSpot


Understanding the Web browser threat: Examination of vulnerable online Web browser populations and the “insecurity iceberg” — Stefan Frei 1, Thomas Dübendorfer 2, Gunter Ollmann 3, Martin May 1 — Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (CSG), ETH Zurich — IBM Internet Security Systems, IBM ISS


Bag Helps Laptop Pass Air Security — For years at airport security checkpoints, passengers have heard the refrain, almost a dirge: “Laptops must be removed from their cases and placed on the belt.” — Get ready for a change. The Transportation Security Administration has given the go-ahead …


Engadget's Ryan Block and Peter Rojas To Team On New Startup — Engadget's editor-in-chief Ryan Block will be leaving parent company AOL shortly, sources say, to launch a new startup. Partnering with him on the new company will be Peter Rojas, Engadget's former editor-in-chief (pictured left below, next to Block).
Discussion:
Valleywag

Weave 0.2 Release Notes [edit] — As the Web continues to evolve and more of our lives move online, we believe that Web browsers like Firefox can and should do more to broker rich experiences while increasing user control over their data and personal information.
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Apple Spurns Intel, For Now — SAN FRANCISCO - — One of Intel's top technologists revealed Monday that the chip giant will not win a spot on Apple's iconic iPhone anytime soon, even as he outlined Intel's plans to keep growing as it turns 40 on July 18.
Discussion:
Macsimum News


Hulu: A Consumer Success But Still A Small Business — Since Hulu launched three months ago, it has become a consumer success, joining Nielsen's top-10 video sites, and serving more video in May than ABC.com. — What does that mean in terms of gross ad sales for the NBC U - News Corp. JV?


AOL For Sale (TWX)* — At a meeting with about a dozen senior members of AOL's staff yesterday, Jeff Bewkes left at least one member of managment with the impression that the company is for sale, a source close to the company says. — Another person who attended the same meeting says Jeff …
Discussion:
HipMojo.com


Crash Bandicoot Comes Racing to iPhone 2.0 — It looks like the iPhone gaming scene is getting more solid by the day: Crash Bandicoot is the latest famous franchise that is going to appear at the app store in the form of Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, a racing game that—looking at the demo video …


Xandros Acquires Linspire Assets in Secret Backroom Deal — Today, as a Linspire shareholder, I received the below “memorandum” from Linspire. I have confirmed with several other Linspire shareholders that they too received this same notice. — In classic Michael Robertson form …
Discussion:
Socialized Software, The Open Road, Practical Technology, DesktopLinux.com, CrunchGear, TG Daily and OStatic blogs