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.
Discussion:
eWeek, Mashable!, Irregular Enterprise, Between the Lines, PE Hub Blog, MYBLOG by Ouriel, BoomTown, ReadWriteWeb, the Econsultancy blog, Techgeist, Webomatica, @vanelsas, SEO and Tech Daily, louisgray.com, TechTicker, Search Engine Watch, Inside Facebook, The Register, Download Squad, Bizzia, PC World, Webmonkey, Technosailor.com, Style Council, This is going to be BIG., contentSutra, Gear Live, TheNextWeb.com, Sample the Web, Bits, TECH.BLORGE.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Regular Geek, VentureBeat, The Web Life, Obsessable and SiliconBeat, Thanks:atul
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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.”
Discussion:
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection, TechCrunch, All Facebook, The SiliconANGLE, Inside Facebook, Between the Lines and Techgeist, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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 …
Discussion:
Loic Le Meur Blog, BloggingStocks, Mashable!, Wall Street Journal, Inside Facebook, Bloomberg, eWeek, Reuters and VentureBeat, Thanks:thinkmantra
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:Now That There's FaceFeed, Does That Make Twoogle More Inevitable?
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Business Week
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal?
Discussion:
TechCrunch, AdAge, Gawker, Mashable!, Softpedia News, Life On the Wicked Stage, BoomTown, broadstuff, Macworld and NBC Bay Area
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
More info on the Caffeine Update — Google recently opened up a preview of our new Caffeine update, and I wanted to give a little more background on this change. At the Real-Time CrunchUp a few weeks ago, I joked that the half-life of code at Google is about six months.
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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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Digits, Mashable!, TechCrunch, paidContent, Search Engine Watch, CNET News, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, VentureBeat, Between the Lines and Pocket-lint.com, Thanks:rahulkumar
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IEBlog:
Engineering POV: IE6 — The topic of site support for IE6 has had a lot of discussion on the web recently as a result of a post on the Digg blog. Why would anyone run an eight-year old browser? Should sites continue to support it? What more can anyone do to get IE6 users to upgrade?
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Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:Microsoft: “dropping support for IE6 is not an option”
Discussion:
Mashable!
Xbox.com:
Dashboard Updates: Xbox LIVE Update — One of the amazing things about the Xbox LIVE experience is that it's always getting better. The latest Xbox LIVE Update truly cranks it up a notch - with features that improve your entertainment experience and give you new ways to express your individuality and connect with friends.
Discussion:
ITworld.com, Engadget, SlashGear, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, VG247, Kotaku, Softpedia News and Gizmodo
Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:
Tough times in the porn industry — The business, centered in the San Fernando Valley, is being undercut by a growing abundance of free content on the Internet. — On a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern earned $300 to hang out for seven hours at a party in Santa Monica wearing nothing but a feather boa.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Zune HD Prices Leaked: 16GB for $220, 32GB for $290 — It feels like we know everything about the Zune HD—except the price. Well, now we know, if Best Buy's inventory system is right: the 16GB model will go for $220, and the 32GB model will be $290. — It also backs up the previously rumored launch date, Sept. 8.
Discussion:
EveryJoe, SlipperyBrick.com, Ars Technica, OLED TV Display Lighting …, MobileContentToday, Neowin.net, Pocket-lint.com and OLED-Info
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Ross Miller / Engadget:Zune HD hits FCC in prolific photo shoot, 16GB and 32GB capacities
Discussion:
Crave, Ben Patterson, Electronista, BetaNews, ClipperHouse, WMPoweruser.com and Ubergizmo
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple again offers matte screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro — Confirming an AppleInsider exclusive tip from less than a month ago, Apple has restored the antiglare upgrade option — at a cost of $50 — for its 15-inch MacBook Pro line. — The change is a quiet concession by Apple …
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O'Grady's PowerPage
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Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:Apple working on software fix for MacBook Pro hard drives
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Computerworld, Softpedia News, Engadget, Electronista, Technologizer, SlashGear, MacNN, MacFixIt and TechSpot
Boy Genius Report:
More iTunes 9 details, Apple developing social networking application? — Our same source is back at it again and we have some further clarification on the iTunes 9 rumor we posted a couple days ago. We really have to take this information at face value, but again felt it was worthy enough to be published.
Erica Ogg / Crave: The gadget blog:
MLB beefs up Roku's rotation — In its bid to put together a roster of compelling content, Roku has just acquired an ace. — Starting Tuesday, the set-top box—known to many as “the Netflix box”—will begin streaming Major League Baseball games. As with the current Netflix arrangement …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Beet.TV, Macworld, Engadget, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Mercury News, Gearlog, San Francisco Chronicle, NewTeeVee, Contentinople, Gizmodo and paidContent
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.
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MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Delicious Creator Quietly Launches Threaded Twitter Conversations — Joshua Schachter is best known as the creator of Delicious. But a few years after he sold it to Yahoo in 2005, he left the company and joined Google. Since then, he's been known to speak his mind about Delicious' overall direction …
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Notice Those Ads on Blogs? Regulators Do, Too — BLOGGERS, be warned. Advertisers, you too. — Two of the National Advertising Review Council's investigative units plan to announce Tuesday their first decisions involving blogs. Their recommendations call for clear disclosure …
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Twitter CEO's wife tweets about labor, ongoing birth of first child — Sara Morishige Williams, Twitter CEO Ev Williams' wife, is certainly making use of the company product — for the birth of their first child. — She went old-school, using text messages rather than a fancy application to post the news.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Mahalo 2.0 Is Kicking Ass — Jason Calacanis continues to do what he does best: Innovate. — When the original concept for Mahalo didn't work as well as he thought it would, he did what all great entrepreneurs do: Try something different. — The second version of Mahalo …
Thanks:mrinaldesai
David Murphy / PC World:
GeekBargain: Microsoft Doubles Cashback Incentives for Bing Search — Microsoft kicked off a large Bing promotion today that's geared to attract the attention of the Internet's best bargain shoppers. The program itself is called Cashback, a function of the company's Bing search engine that …
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel, Micron develop flash chips for USB drives — On Tuesday, Intel and Micron Technology announced the development of high-data-capacity flash memory technology for flash cards and USB drives. — And in a related announcement, Intel said Monday that it has validated a fix …
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.
