Top Items:
Tim Windsor / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Yet another reminder that users are in charge: the DiggBar backlash — If you needed any further proof that this is an age driven by users much more than publishers, look no further than what's happening right now with Digg.com, a site you probably think of as a stand-in for all that is user-generated, unedited and anarchic.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
How to Sell Your Soul on Twitter and Who's Buying — What are you doing? No what are you doing Apple, Skype, Flip, StubHub and Box.net?? These popular companies just couldn't resist paying off Twitter users to put advertisements into their Twitter streams using the new pay-per-tweet service Magpie.
Discussion:
CenterNetworks, /blog, BNET Media, Weblogsky, Shoemoney, Alec Saunders SquawkBox and The Noisy Channel, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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Erik Sherman / BNET Technology:
Apple, Skype, Adobe, Others Pay Twitterers for Promos — It was only back in January that we saw Belkin make itself look like a fool by advertising to pay consumers who would write glowing product reviews, whether they had used the products or now. Well, it seems that companies never learn …
Fred / A VC:
Selling The Company Back To The Founders — I read with interest the Brad Stone piece in the NY Times this morning suggesting that Niklas and Janus might buy Skype back from eBay. I think this is a wonderful idea and I hope it happens. — Back when eBay bought Skype in 2005, I was skeptical that eBay was the right home for Skype.
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Brad Stone / New York Times:
Skype Founders Seek to Buy Service Back — SAN FRANCISCO — The European duo who created Skype and sold it to eBay for billions may have another trick up their sleeve: buying it back. — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the original founders of Skype, have approached several private equity firms …
Discussion:
Mark Evans, Epicenter, CNET News, Reuters, Download Squad, Skype Journal, Silicon Alley Insider, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, TechCrunch, The SiliconANGLE, paidContent.org, ReadWriteWeb, HipMojo.com and AuctionBytes Blog, Thanks:atul
Jennifer / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Federal Authority Over the Internet? The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 — There's a new bill working its way through Congress that is cause for some alarm: the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF summary here), introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (D-ME).
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Data Security Podcast:
Will The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 Require IT Security Professionals To Get A License From The Feds? — The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 was just introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (D-ME). This bill, if passed, could result in sweeping changes in how IT professionals do their job.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
A Google Whiz Searches for His Place on Earth — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Where's Sanjay? — The question comes from one of dozens of engineers around a crowded conference table at Google. They have gathered to discuss how to build easy-to-use maps that could turn hundreds of millions …
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Steve Jobs Still Running The Apple Show — Here's a relief: Steve Jobs is still making product decisions at Apple, people familiar with the matter tell the Wall Street Journal. And at least some folks at the company still expect him to return in June. — Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook runs …
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PC World:
Netbooks and Linux: A Complicated Story — Over the past few days there's been a raft of stories about how the Linux netbook market share is not as healthy as it used to be. — Up until now it's been believed that the emerging netbook market (arguably the first new PC hardware platform for decades) …
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Starts Recommending Branded Public Profiles — Last night Facebook turned on a feature which will surely build some buzz: the recommendation of brands as friends. Previously Twitter launched a user recommendation system which generated a lot of controversy as recommended users …
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
iTunes Gift Code Hackers Turn Attention to iPhone App Developers — The all-too-easy-to-crack iTunes gift code has led to a flooded market, making the codes essentially unprofitable. So they've now turned their attention to the App Store to find new, underhanded ways to screw Apple.
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
IRS Increasing Oversight of Electronic Tax Filings — With more and more Americans using software to figure their taxes and the Web to file their annual returns, the Internal Revenue Service has decided it's time to beef up its oversight of the security and accuracy of such filings.
