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.
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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 …
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:Facebook Across the Web
Discussion:
All Facebook, Gear Diary, Between the Lines, TECH.BLORGE.com, PC World, Industry Standard, Facebook Developers, Guardian and Webware.com
Mussie Shore / The Official Google Blog:Google Friend Connect: now available
Discussion:
Google Operating System, Profy, Google Webmaster Central Blog, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, L.A. Times Tech Blog, pluGGd.in, Epicenter, InformationWeek, Webware.com, David Harry, The Social Times, The Real McCrea, Pocket-lint.co.uk, WebProNews, TheNextWeb.com, TechCrunch, Google Watch, WinExtra, Lifehacker, mathewingram.com/work, Digital Inspiration and Google Blogoscoped
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:Oh No You Don't, Google! Facebook Connect Now Generally Available, Too
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:Facebook Connect vs. OpenID: Who Will Emerge Victorious?
Discussion:
All Facebook, Ars Technica, The Technology Chronicles, Silicon Alley Insider and WebProNews
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
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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:
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Bill Hankes / The Real Story:Layoffs at Real — This morning we told about 130 employees around …
Discussion:
Gawker, hypebot, MediaMemo, paidContent.org, Industry Standard, TechFlash, Between the Lines, Brier Dudley's blog, The Social and Xconomy
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 …
Discussion:
I4U News, mocoNews.net, Gadget Lab, MacDailyNews, The iPhone Blog and Boing Boing Gadgets
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Saul Hansell / Bits:
Microsoft's Google Envy (Part 396) — The choice of Qi Lu to run Microsoft's online services division offers the clearest picture yet about Steve Ballmer's vision for the company's online effort. Its colors are blue, red, yellow and green and it is spelled G-O-O-G-L-E.
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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) …
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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.
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.
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 …
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.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning — We promise to stop slobbering all over this handset in a month or eight, but the N97 is certainly the new hotness, so we hope you'll excuse us for returning for another go and getting some more in-depth hands-on-ness.
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 …
Discussion:
CNET News, Wall Street Journal, paidContent.org, Negative Approach, VentureBeat and All Facebook
Chris Coletta / Silicon Valley San Jose …:
Google opts out of grant for North Carolina data center — Google Inc. has opted not to take a $4.7 million state grant to build a data center in the town of Lenoir, N.C. - a sign the company may be slowing down its expansion in the state. — Google on Thursday formally withdrew its application …
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 …
