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8:20 AM ET, December 5, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Juan Carlos Perez / PC World:
Facebook, Google Launch Data Portability Programs to All  —  Google and Facebook separately announced the general availability of their respective data portability programs on Thursday.  —  Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect are generally designed to extend social-networking capabilities broadly across the Web.
Discussion: Economist, Ars Technica and VentureBeat
RELATED:
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:
Facebook Across the Web  —  Over the summer we announced an extension of Facebook Platform called Facebook Connect.  Facebook Connect makes it easier for you to take your online identity with you all over the Web, share what you do online with your friends and stay updated on what they're doing.
Mussie Shore / The Official Google Blog:
Google Friend Connect: now available  —  We're pleased to share that Google Friend Connect is now available in beta to any webmaster looking to add a “dash of social” to his or her site.  This service lets webmasters add social features to their sites by simply copying and pasting a few snippets of code …
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Soon it will be time to start over, again  —  Here's how the tech industry cycle goes.  —  A new generation of young techies comes along, takes a look at the current stack, finds it too daunting (rightly so) and decides to start over from scratch.  They find that they can make things happen …
Marc Canter / Marc's Voice:   Facebook officially tries to take over the Web
Scott Cleland / The Precursor Blog:
Google uses 21 times more bandwidth than it pays for — per first-ever research study  —  The 27 page research study can be accessed at this link:  —  Contact: Scott Cleland 703-217-2407  —  First-Ever Study of U.S. Consumer Internet Usage and Cost Finds  —  Google Uses 21 Times More Bandwidth than it Pays For
RELATED:
Richard Whitt / Google Public Policy Blog:
Response to phone companies' “Google bandwidth” report
Discussion: DSLreports and Tech Daily Dose
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:   Google lashes out at D.C. critic over ‘payola punditry’
David Pogue / New York Times:
Readers React to David Pogue's Review of the BlackBerry Storm  —  I learned something last week.  —  In my Times print column, I reviewed the BlackBerry Storm, by far the worst product Research in Motion has ever produced.  I had problems with its concept, problems with its clicky touch screen …
RELATED:
Jeff Ventura / GracefulFlavor:
From Apple to RIM, With Love
Discussion: Edible Apple
Suzanne Choney / MSNBC:
A cloud hangs over BlackBerry Storm
Discussion: Boing Boing Gadgets
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
RealDepressing: The Entire RealNetworks Layoff Memo  —  Earlier this afternoon, Peter Kafka reported in Media Memo that RealNetworks (RNWK) was “next up in today's layoff parade.”  Here's the official internal memo from RealNetworks founder, chairman and CEO, Rob Glaser:
RELATED:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Appoints Dr. Qi Lu to Run Online Services Group  —  Yahoo! veteran to oversee Internet offerings for consumers, advertisers and publishers.  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced that Dr. Qi Lu will join the company as president of the Online Services Group.
RELATED:
Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Square is the new round.  —  On the Reader team, we know that the old adage “change is good” isn't always true.  Sometimes, change is just change.  In this case, we hope that these decisions both improve your Reader experience today, and pave the way for additional improvements down the line.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Facebook cancels employee stock sale  —  So much for Silicon Valley's latest get-rich-quick scheme.  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cancelled a plan to let employees cash out their shares early.  —  In August, before the markets started to melt down and with Facebook worth $15 billion on paper …
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook delays employee stock sale, citing recession
Stephen Myers / Cygnet Engineering:
Iphone as a Universe Controller: Part 1  —  Why have a universal remote control when you can have a universe controller?  I was fortunate enough to get to beta test some of ioBridge's forthcoming hardware.  Their hardware lets you connect just about anything to the internet.
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
‘Koobface’ virus spreading fast on Facebook  —  Reports circulated today about a virulent piece of malware making its way around Facebook, a major hub of the social Web with 120 million users.  Because of its walled-off internal e-mail system, Facebook has long been a tough target for spammers …
Paul Graham:
Could VC be a Casualty of the Recesssion?  —  (I originally wrote this at the request of a company producing a report about entrepreneurship.  Unfortunately after reading it they decided it was too controversial to include.)  —  VC funding will probably dry up somewhat during the present recession, like it usually does in bad times.
Stephen Lawson / Macworld:
AT&T hopes for single smart phone OS  —  AT&T hopes to standardize on a single operating system for AT&T-branded smart phones as part of a “dramatic consolidation” of its mobile platforms over the next few years, a company executive said Thursday.  —  The mobile operator believes smart phones …
Discussion: TeleRead and Engadget Mobile
RELATED:
Nick / Rough Type:
The trailer park is the computer  —  Microsoft is about to take trailer park computing, or, as The Register memorably dubbed it, white trash computing, to its logical and necessary conclusion.  The company's next generation of utility data centers will take the form of - you guessed it …
Discussion: InfoWorld, Beyond Search and Voices
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
New Samsung webcam sensor does 720p and more  —  Seeing that PC users on desktop and laptop are embracing both HD video and built-in webcams, Samsung has decided to put the two together in the obvious form of a HD webcam.  Until now, webcams have been pretty much limited to VGA (640×480) …
Discussion: Gizmodo, Electronista and Engadget
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Does Amazon's iPhone app go too far?  —  Now that the official Amazon Mobile iPhone app is here, it's easier than every to check prices from anywhere, even while shopping in retail stores.  And the company's clever new “Amazon Remembers” service will use humans to identify product pics snapped …
Discussion: Music Ally, PC World and TechFlash
 
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 More Items: 
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
What Exactly Is Adult Content?  Google Forces Ning Onto A Slippery Slope.
Discussion: Ning Blog
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
AT&T Defies Slump With IPhone, Coaxes People to Spend
Discussion: BloggingStocks and TheAppleBlog
Chris Salmon / Guardian:
Click to download: Bono red-faced over charity website
AppleInsider:
More big names downsizing, pulling out of Macworld Expo
Discussion: Apple Gazette
 Earlier Items: 
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Mozilla to pull antiphishing feature from Firefox 2.0 at Google's request
Discussion: The Register and LinuxWorld.com
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Condé Nast Suspends New Website Launches Indefinitely …
Discussion: TechFlash, HipMojo.com and CNET News
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Warner Music Pitches Music Tax To Universities: You Pay, We Stop Suing
Discussion: hypebot
Nick Gonzalez / TechCrunch:
With 850K Users In 2 Months, Circle Of Moms Comes Out Of Nowhere
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
FBI: widespread copper theft puts US infrastructure at risk
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
“You Could Go To Google,” Says Yahoo — But Why Not Stay Here?
Discussion: WebProNews