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4:10 PM ET, March 31, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Rafe Needleman / CNET News:
Wales giving up on Wikia Search  —  Wikia is announcing on Tuesday that it is closing the Wikia Search product.  The service was intended to be a user-generated search engine, through which users could influence the rankings of results for all other users.  —  Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikia …
RELATED:
Jimbo Wales / Jimmy Wales:
Update on Wikia - doing more of what's working  —  If there is one thing that I've learned in my career, it is to do more of what's working, and less of what's not.  —  In past 24 months, Wikia.com has seen tremendous expansion.  Nielsen recently recognized Wikia.com as the fifth fastest …
Discussion: Bits, TechCrunch, Download Squad, Pulse2 and ITworld.com, Thanks:atul
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Facebook CFO Gideon Yu Out  —  Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu is out after less than two years, the WSJ reports, via CNBC.  Facebook says it's looking for a CFO with “public company experience,” and that it expects sales to increase 70% this year.
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook CFO Gideon Yu Out; Fast-Growing Social Network Says It's …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Gawker, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Chris Davies / Android Community:
Android tethering apps pulled from Market  —  Google has reportedly pulled tethering apps from the Android Market.  According to at least one developer, who contributed to the WiFi Tether for Root Users app, Google are citing their distribution agreements with carriers as the prompt for removal:
RELATED:
The Official Google Blog:
Google's newest venture  —  Today we're excited to announce Google Ventures, Google's new venture capital fund.  This is Google's effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies.  By borrowing the best practices of top-tier …
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google's New VC Fund Lacks Domain Name
Discussion: Google Watch and Mark Evans
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
MySpace, Citysearch Partner To Create MySpace Local  —  MySpace and Citysearch are jointly announcing a new MySpace property this morning called MySpace Local.  The site combines Citysearch business listings (including address, photos, menus, videos, maps and hours of location) from a thousand cities with the MySpace community.
Rik Ferguson / Counter Measures:
Poisoned Downad/Conficker Removal Searches...  Reminder: For a FREE tool to remove Conficker (and every other malware in the current pattern file) use Trend Micro's SysClean available here.  —  As soon as the good news breaks that it is possible to use tools such as the network scanning tool nmap …
Discussion: Zero Day and The Register
RELATED:
Signal vs. Noise:
Get Satisfaction, Or Else...  Get Satisfaction, a third-party customer service app/community, allows customers to offer feedback, make suggestions, get their questions answered, and generally get help with a product or service.  —  A good idea  —  Building support/community infrastructure is a pain point for a lot of companies.
Thanks:ldersh
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Pirates Board Apple's iPhone App Store  —  The iPhone's App Store is becoming an increasingly juicy target for pirates, who have illegally cracked 20 percent of paid applications for free distribution.  —  Apple's App Store offers about 25,000 paid apps, and iPhone analytics company Medialets estimates …
Discussion: Technologizer, Apple 2.0 and iLounge, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:   iPhone Pirating App Attacks Rival Pirate App Store
Associated Press:
Unpaid bills?  Good luck starting future laptops  —  NEW YORK - As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they're faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?  —  The company can cut off the computer's wireless access …
Discussion: Ars Technica
Dan Reed / USA Today:
American to add Wi-Fi service to domestic flights  —  Being online while being airborne is fast becoming reality for U.S travelers.  —  American Airlines (AMR) is announcing on Tuesday that it's joining rival Delta Air Lines (DAL) in making Wi-Fi Internet connections available to most domestic passengers.
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News:
Analyst: 32GB iPhone could debut in June  —  Updated at 9:15 a.m. PDT with comments from analyst Daniel Amir.  —  Apple is expected to begin production on a high-end iPhone with 32GB of flash memory and a low-end 3G version this spring, according to a research report released Tuesday by Lazard Capital Markets analyst.
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
Hulu Attracts Crowds but Not Ads  —  News Corp.-NBC joint venture Hulu has surged in viewership, but advertisers are still leery, and content partners are pulling back  —  In the Super Bowl commercial calling Hulu “an evil plot to destroy the world,” 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin intones: “There's nothing you can do to stop it.”
Discussion: NewTeeVee, MediaPost and ChannelWeb, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Cory Doctorow / Guardian:
Authors have lost the plot in Kindle row  —  Amazon's Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature is not so much violating authors' copyright but rather basic consumer rights  —  The Amazon Kindle 2's release in February was attended by much fanfare and controversy: Kindle customers were delighted …
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Microsoft, the cash cow  —  The software giant may not be a high-powered growth machine anymore, but it offers financial strength and an attractive yield.  —  (Fortune Magazine) — With the stock market finally showing that it can go up as well as down, you might be wondering …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Troubled SeeqPod Files For Bankruptcy Protection  —  SeeqPod, the popular “playable media” search service that many music sites use as the foundation for their core offering, has filed a petition for Chapter 11 yesterday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California.
Discussion: Beet.TV
Patrick Oppmann / CNN:
Critics slam Microsoft bridge as waste of stimulus money  —  REDMOND, Washington (CNN) — Should a bridge that would connect two campuses at Microsoft's headquarters be funded with $11 million from the federal stimulus package?  —  Critics of using stimulus money for the bridge say it would give …
Discussion: CNET News
John Koller / PlayStation.Blog:
PlayStation 2 Will Be Available for Under $100  —  Hi everyone, the last time you heard from me, I talked about the huge milestone that PlayStation 2 achieved - reaching 50 million units sold in North America.  Today I'm excited to talk about another milestone in PlayStation 2's lifespan.
CBC News:
Skype app for iPhone to launch Tuesday, but not in Canada  —  Voice-over-internet phone service will also be available for BlackBerry in May  —  EBay Inc., is planning to launch its Skype voice-over-internet phone service for the iPhone on Tuesday and for Research in Motion's BlackBerry handheld devices …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Disney-Hulu Deal Done  —  A deal to bring Disney into the Hulu fold is “basically done,” a single source familiar with the discussions tells us.  —  PaidContent reported that if Disney were to do a deal, it would take a 30% stake in Hulu and become and equal partner to NBC Universal …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Fast Company
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Next up for Microsoft's ‘real life’ Windows star: 7-Eleven ads  —  After setting the tech world abuzz with her criticism of Apple's Mac prices, the star of Microsoft's latest Windows ad will be featured next in promotional videos for 7-Eleven, according to a public Web site where she chronicles her burgeoning acting career.
Discussion: Boing Boing Gadgets and CrunchGear
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Facebook flick moves ahead, but Facebook not thrilled  —  I won't believe it for sure until we see grainy paparazzi shots of actor Michael Cera walking around on a movie set in a North Face fleece and Adidas flip-flops, but it looks like things are moving forward on the film based on the early days of Facebook.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Heidi N. Moore / Deal Journal:
IBM-Sun: Do They Have a Deal?  Does it Matter?  —  On Monday, the markets started to question whether International Business Machines and Sun Microsystems will really get a deal done.  —  It was on March 19 that The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM was in talks to acquire Sun Micro.
Rory Maher / paidContent.org:
When Digital Media CEOs Lose It: Whose Portfolio Took The Biggest Hit In 2008  —  A couple of weeks ago, we ranked digital-media CEOs by the size of paychecks.  But many of these titans derive most of their wealth not from salary, bonus or options, but from their holdings in the companies they run.
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
New method for detecting Conficker discovered, debuted  —  With Conficker.C slowly counting down towards its April 1 launch date, Team White Hat may have had a breakthrough.  The new scanning tool developed by Dan Kaminsky, Felix Leder, and Tillman Werner may not actually remove the malware …
Reuters:
Firefox 3 becomes top browser in Europe -study  —  Microsoft last week lost European browser market leadership for the first time in years, when Mozilla's Firefox 3 took the top spot from Internet Explorer 7, Web analytics firm StatCounter said on Tuesday.  —  Mozilla Foundation's Firefox 3 …
Discussion: Download Squad
 
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 More Items: 
Steven Levy / Epicenter:
Who's Messing With the Google Book Settlement? …
Rory Maher / paidContent.org:
Google Shutters Video AdSense Program
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple almost ready with Nehalem-based Xserves
Discussion: eWeek and MacRumors
Om Malik / GigaOM:
In Market Cap, Google Now Bigger Than GE
Thanks:atul
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Postini: Spam up again following McColo takedown
Discussion: Bits
 Earlier Items: 
Eric Ward / Search Engine Land:
Twitter: Incredibly Valuable Or Utterly Useless As A Link Building Tool?
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Forbes Starts a Second Round of Layoffs; Who Else Will Join It?
Discussion: paidContent.org
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
The Twitting Point  —  Bill O'Reilly has the last word on Twitter for today.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Gains Support for Next Generation of Windows® Phones
Saul Hansell / Bits:
What's the Password? Only Your iPhone Knows
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

 
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