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9:20 AM ET, August 14, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Netscape Founder Backs New Browser  —  SAN FRANCISCO — It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet.  —  After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars …
Discussion: Mashable!, OSNews and WinBeta
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
RockMelt: Netscape's Andreessen Backing Stealth Facebook Browser  —  Netscape founder Marc Andreessen is backing a new browser dedicated to browsing Facebook, called RockMelt, according to rumors we've heard from reputable sources.  A semi-independent desktop client for Facebook?
Jackie / Qik:
Qik for iPhone 3GS - now live and free from the App Store!  —  You've been asking for it, and now it's here: Qik for the iPhone 3GS can now be downloaded - for free! - directly from the App Store.  —  If you already have Qik on your iPhone, you should know that this version is a little different.
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Here It Comes.  But What Is It, Exactly?  Apple Plans Keynote Event for September.  —  Time to get the rumor mill kicked into high gear: Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7.
RELATED:
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Sources confirm no Apple tablet at Sept. event, coming in 2010  —  Speculation of an Apple event in September broke earlier today, but The Loop has learned the event will not include the introduction of the rumored Apple tablet.  —  Very reliable sources familiar with the product …
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Project Retweet: Phase One  —  Some of Twitter's best features are emergent—people inventing simple but creative ways to share, discover, and communicate.  One such convention is retweeting.  When you want to call more attention to a particular tweet, you copy/paste it as your own …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Is Revamping Retweets, Launches A Retweet API
Discussion: Mashable! and digg.com, Thanks:sizzler_chetan
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:   Project Retweet: The End of RTs as We Know Them?
Jose Nazario / Arbor Networks Security:
Twitter-based Botnet Command Channel  —  While digging around I found a botnet that uses Twitter as its command and control structure.  Basically what it does is use the status messages to send out new links to contact, then these contain new commands or executables to download and run.
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Microsoft: Firefox's billion claim is ‘interesting math’  —  Internet Explorer chief ‘encourages people to be somewhat sceptical’ of claims by competitor  —  A senior Microsoft executive has called into question the claim by rival web browser Firefox that it has been downloaded a billion times.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
A Sad Day.  Goodbye, Riya  —  Facial recognition service Riya will shut down on August 21, 2009, says founder Munjal Shah in an email to users this morning.  We are adding it to the TechCrunch DeadPool.  —  This was one of the original services that defined the early Web 2.0 movement.
Brian Lam / Gizmodo:
An Insider On the Apple Tablet  —  I never fully believed the Apple tablet was real beyond dreams, until I heard these words over my phone: “Hey, it's [redacted].  I may or may not have sat in some Apple meetings for the tablet.”  —  I was driving, and swerved a little bit, even though both hands were on the wheel.
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Zune Apps  —  In my brief comments yesterday on the new touchscreen Zune HD that is set to debut September 15, I noted: … I mean, why not?  The software platform has quickly become a major driving force behind the sales growth of the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Microsoft is a software platform company.
Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
Google Chrome 4.0: Fastest OS X browser by 34 per cent  —  Safari, eat Google's dust — its Chrome Web browser — under its developmental title Chromium — has hit version 4.0 on the Mac, and our tests confirm it's the fastest browser in the world on both PC and now on Mac OS X.
Discussion: Gizmodo
The How-To Geek / Lifehacker:
Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money  —  The popular Digsby instant messenger client not only bundles half a dozen “optional” crapware applications, it's also using your computer to crawl the web, do stock market research, and more.  It's time to uninstall.
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel  —  Passes it's-not-crying-wolf test  —  Free whitepaper - Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance  —  Linux developers have issued a critical update for the open-source OS after researchers uncovered a vulnerability in its kernel …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Massive AOL Layoffs?  Not Imminent-But Top-to-Bottom Cost Exam Definitely in Process  —  After a while-in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché-if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer.  —  So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers …
Discussion: AdExchanger.com
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Facebook privacy: a guide  —  Everywhere you look (even here at Ars), there are articles about people making poor decisions about what kinds of info and how much to share on sites like Facebook.  The Internet is no longer a place where you can hide out easily—friends, family …
Discussion: Applicant and TECH.BLORGE.com
David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
YouTube to show Sony's “Ghostbusters” this week for film's 25th anniversary  —  YouTube and Sony are crossing the streams.  —  Starting tonight at 9 p.m. PDT, YouTube will host a weeklong showing of Sony's comedy classic “Ghostbusters” in honor of the film's 25th anniversary.
Discussion: MediaMemo
Michael Horowitz / Computerworld:
Consumer Reports at it again  —  Back in May, I criticized a review Consumer Reports magazine did of netbook computers (What Consumer Reports didn't tell you about netbooks).  It was a fairly long critique.  —  Many computer articles in the magazine strike me as amateurish.
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Video game sales in free fall  —  In a stark reversal of the trend on display just a few short months ago—when general retail sales were plummeting even as the video games industry was still showing growth—cautious optimism in retail is now being offset by many losing months in video games.
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Paul Sweeting / GigaOM:
With Sony's ePub Move, Adobe Wins  —  Sony's announcement today that it's throwing open the doors of its e-book store and reading devices to the ePub standard is certainly good news for consumers. ePub — and open standard developed by the International Digital Publishing Form …
Discussion: InformationWeek and Seeking Alpha
Robin Goad / Hitwise Intelligence:
Content driven websites receive 73% more traffic than transactional ones  —  The chart on this slide illustrates the percentage of all UK Internet visits accounted for by the largest and most significant online categories - and how this situation has changed over the last three years.
Discussion: WebProNews and paidContent
Google Book Search Blog:
Bringing the power of Creative Commons to Google Books  —  Posted by Xian Ke, Associate Product Manager, Google Books  —  Today, we're launching an initiative to help authors and publishers discover new audiences for books they've made available for free under Creative Commons (CC) licenses.
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Microblogging has become too important for one company to rule the field.  —  Twitter went down last week, and the world got very quiet.  People didn't know what do with themselves; they wanted to tweet the news that Twitter was down, but that was out of the question.
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Journalism Online Offers Up ‘Letters Of Intent’ From Possible Affiliates—But No Names  —  Journalism Online, the new make-journalism-pay venture from Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery, has letters of intent from newspaper publishers representing 506 newspapers, magazine and …
Discussion: Recovering Journalist
 
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 More Items: 
Joe McDonald / Associated Press:
China Unicom Denies It's Buying 5M iPhones
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Major Carriers Shun Broadband Stimulus
Harlan Yu / Freedom to Tinker:
Introducing RECAP: Turning PACER Around
Discussion: TechCrunch and recapthelaw.org
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YC-Funded GraffitiGeo: Foursquare Meets Yelp, With A Dash Of Augmented Reality
Corynne / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Snatching Rights On the Playa
Discussion: MediaPost, Techdirt and Boing Boing
Phil Sim / Squash:
Disney pops BubbleShare
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:philipsim
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Benchmark took “almost all equity” with FriendFeed sale to Facebook
Discussion: Pulse2
 Earlier Items: 
MediaShift:
Using the ‘Steal-O-Meter’ to Gauge if Stories Steal or Promote
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Twitter's New Director Of Search Hails From Yahoo, Inktomi …
Discussion: Softpedia News and The Noisy Channel, Thanks:geekychic
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
LOLcats Go Off-Broadway
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Facebook's Click-Through Rates Flourish ... for Wall Posts
Discussion: Softpedia News
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble …
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Social Network Site Accused Of ‘Harvesting’ Email Addresses