Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
11:20 PM ET, August 10, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Bret Taylor / FriendFeed Blog:
FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request  —  We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed.  As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle...  The FriendFeed team is extremely excited to become a part of the talented Facebook team.
RELATED:
Facebook:
Facebook Agrees to Acquire Sharing Service FriendFeed  —  Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online.  As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed's four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Cost Of FriendFeed: Roughly $50 Million In Cash And Stock  —  Everyone is obviously talking about the Facebook/FriendFeed deal, but everyone wants to know one key detail: How much did Facebook pay?  Now we know: Facebook paid nearly $50 million when you add the $15 million it paid in cash …
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Oh, FriendFeed is now Facebook's “official” R&D department!  —  When I heard the news I was walking through San Antonio's Hard Rock Cafe looking at Kurt Cobain's high school photograph.  Wow.  FriendFeed was purchased by Facebook.  —  I quickly wrote a DM to Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor, co-founders and said “call me.”
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal?  —  Surprise!  Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, a Bay Area-based social-network feed aggregation start-up.  —  “Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor said in a release.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed  —  Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, we've learned.  We're gathering details now.  —  At this point details on the acquisition are still very sparse, but it's clearly a good match.  Over the last year or so, Facebook has “borrowed” quite a few of features …
Akhil Wable / Facebook Blog:
Facebook Search Improved for Everyone  —  Last month, we began testing new versions of Search with a small group of people on Facebook.  Based on the success of those tests, we're rolling out a new version of Search to everyone on the site beginning today.  —  You now will be able to search …
RELATED:
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Launches Real-Time Search for Everyone  —  On the same day in which Facebook acquired FriendFeed, the company has just rolled out its new real-time search engine for all users.  —  With the new Facebook Search, which is still accessed by entering search terms in the box on the top right …
Discussion: Mashable!
Vanessa Fox / Search Engine Land:
Caffeine: Google's New Search Index  —  Google has just unveiled a “secret project” of “next-generation architecture for Google's web search”.  This new architecture appears to include crawling, indexing, and ranking changes.  For the first time, Google isn't simply incorporating these changes …
RELATED:
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
An Elephant Leaves the Room at Yahoo  —  Doug Cutting, one of Yahoo's top search and infrastructure software experts, will leave the company later this month and join the Silicon Valley start-up Cloudera.  —  Mr. Cutting's exit from Yahoo follows on the heels of the company's recent search tie-up with Microsoft.
RELATED:
Doug Cutting / Free Search:
Joining Cloudera  —  I will be leaving Yahoo! at the end of this month to join Cloudera.
Discussion: Cloudera Hadoop & …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
VMware goes shopping: Buys SpringSource for $420 million; Can it keep the open source mojo?  —  VMware said Monday that it will pay $420 million for privately held SpringSource in a bid to become a bigger player in cloud computing application management and the open source community.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Nambu Wants $80K-$100K For Tr.im, Considers Shutting Down Its Twitter Client  —  Earlier today, we reported on Bit.ly offering Tr.im parent Nambu Network, a couple of ways to ensure all its links don't die when the service stop supporting them at the end of the year.  Nambu rejected those, as it is instead looking to sell.
RELATED:
Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:
Apple working on software fix for MacBook Pro hard drives  —  Owners of Apple MacBook Pro notebooks with 7200rpm 500GB hard drives have been complaining for months of clicking sounds followed by temporary stalling.  According to Apple, a fix is in the works.
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Zune HD hits FCC in prolific photo shoot, 16GB and 32GB capacities  —  Well, would you look at that.  Microsoft's Zune HD's overexposed — both in quantity of pics and in quality of photography — camera shoot with the FCC has been made public, showing off quite a bit of the device, its internals, and its dock.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
New products, possible Verizon deal expected to boost Apple stock  —  MacBook Pro and iPod refreshes, iPhone 3GS expansion, and a possible data-centric Verizon Wireless device are expected to increase Apple's stock in the short-term, according to a new analysis.
Discussion: eWeek, I4U News, PMP Today and IntoMobile
Ross Miller / Engadget:
SlingPlayer 1.1 for iPhone promises DISH integration for US, 3G streaming elsewhere (maybe)  —  As history tells us time and time again, iPhone apps / updates submitted to Apple aren't a sure deal for approval.  Still, we can't help but like where SlingPlayer Mobile is going with the recently-submitted version 1.1.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Don't Pre-Order Windows 7 Now  —  Microsoft's half-price deal for Windows 7 ran out a few weeks ago, bumping prices back to painful levels.  If you're thinking about pre-ordering anyway, wait.  There's a decent chance there'll be some new deals as we get closer to launch.
Discussion: Macworld and Windows 7 Center
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Bloglines On Life Support.  This Story Needs An Ending  —  If you were a Bloglines user, consider yourself old school.  Most people moved on to Google Reader long ago, and then bailed on RSS entirely for the Real Time Gang (Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc.).
Nielsen Wire:
When Choosing a Carrier, Does the iPhone Really Matter?  —  Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice  —  While public awareness of Apple's iPhone has been significant since its summer 2006 launch, its influence on consumer purchasing decisions remains up for debate.
Discussion: New York Times, Bits and Gearlog
Michael Sanserino / Wall Street Journal:
Lawsuits Question After-Hours Demands of Email and Cellphones  —  Two recent lawsuits raise a question that many employees and employers have deliberated: Should hourly workers be paid for time spent responding to work calls or emails while off the clock?  —  The federal suits highlight …
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:
Yahoo Buys OMG.com Domain Name for $80,000  —  Yahoo buys popular texting term.  —  Yahoo (YHOO) has purchased the domain name OMG.com for $80,000.  —  Domain Name Wire reported the sale last week on its weekly Sedo sales wrap, but we didn't know the buyer at the time.
Discussion: Pulse2, TechCrunch and paidContent
Steve Johnson / Mercury News:
‘Printed chips’ could be boon for consumers  —  Until now, creating the microchips that power all of our electronic gadgets has been a laborious, complex and time-consuming process costing billions of dollars.  —  But if a Milpitas-based startup succeeds, making them could be as easy as printing a piece of paper.
Thanks:ollirums
Timothy Prickett Morgan / The Register:
Sun's Rock is barefoot on Abbey Road  —  Rumors of its death not greatly exaggerated?  —  More rumors and some evidence has surfaced suggesting that Sun Microsystems has indeed killed off its “Rock” UltraSparc-RK, sometimes called the UltraSparc-AT10, high-end server processor.
Darrell Etherington / TheAppleBlog:
Textbooks Now On iPhone, iPod Touch  —  It appears that rumors of the death of the e-book on the iPhone platform were greatly exaggerated, at least that's what Apple has said in a recent statement.  Backing up Apple's official denial of plans to discontinue that side of app store business …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Now That There's FaceFeed, Does That Make Twoogle More Inevitable?  —  MicroHoo.  Check!  FaceFeed.  Check!  —  And Twoogle?  Let's check!  —  Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) have finally partnered.  Microsoft is already a big investor in Facebook.
Sean Michaels / Guardian:
Major labels preparing new digital album format  —  The four big record companies are to compete with Apple's forthcoming Cocktail project by developing their own format called CMX  —  Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A - major labels have something new in mind, and it's called CMX.
Discussion: TheAppleBlog
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Sixteen Reasons the Windows Vista Era Never Quite Happened  —  In a small way, this is a significant post: It's the first one in which I'm going to refer to Windows Vista in the past tense.  Which might be premature and/or unreasonable-Windows 7 won't reach consumers until October 22nd …
Discussion: CloudAve and Softpedia News
G. Pascal Zachary / Technology Review:
An Operating System for the Cloud  —  Google is developing a new computing platform equal to the Internet era.  Should Microsoft be worried?  —  From early in their company's history, Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wanted to develop a computer operating system and browser.
Discussion: OSNews
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 11:20 PM ET, August 10, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
How remote support can make your Christmas stress-free  —  As Christmas approaches, the air fills with the anticipation of joy, family gatherings, and gift-giving.  While the season brings immense happiness …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
US Government Reviewing OpenID For Login on .Gov Sites
Discussion: OpenID, Thanks:chrismessina
BBC:
Hacked blogger seeks Russia probe
Discussion: Los Angeles Times
Agence France Presse:
Pirate Bay to challenge Dutch ban
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft delivers test versions of SQL Server 2008 R2
Discussion: Ars Technica and The Register
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Guitar Hero 5 gets ready to rock
Discussion: Softpedia News
 Earlier Items: 
The Age:
Apple store set to gobble up art deco landmark
Discussion: The Mac Observer
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
An Old-Fashioned Web Site
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Microsoft's SharePoint Thrives in the Recession
Discussion: Global Nerdy and Techgeist, Thanks:mrinaldesai