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2:50 PM ET, November 20, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Randall C. Kennedy / InfoWorld:
Why Chrome OS will fail — big time  —  A lack of flexibility will doom Google's latest ego trip to the dustbin of history  —  The Chrome OS is here — sort of.  This week, Google was kind of enough to give the world a sneak peek at its nascent desktop operating system.
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Want To Try Out Google Chrome OS For Yourself?  Here's How.  —  The public debut of Google Chrome OS today has the press abuzz over the potential of the new web-based operating system.  And now that it's open sourced, you have the chance to try it out for yourself.
Vladislav Savov / Engadget:
Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download (update: first impressions)  —  Seriously, how awesome have the past few hours been?  Engadget turns the design stakes up to 11, Google finally dishes the dirt on Chrome OS, and now you can even download the forthcoming software to have a fiddle with yourself.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Brizzly Opens To All.  And Snatches Someone From Facebook.  —  Brizzly was first unveiled in private beta at our first CrunchUp event in July, so it's only appropriate that today, the day of our next CrunchUp, it's being opened to the public.  Now, to be clear, the product is still technically in beta …
Discussion: CNET News, bub.blicio.us and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Twitter to turn on advertising “you will love” (here's how: SuperTweet)  —  Twitter's COO, Dick Costolo, today, at the TechCrunch Real Time Crunchup (live video of the conference is live now on building43, there will be lots of news all day long from this event), told the audience that Twitter is …
Discussion: TechCrunch
RELATED:
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Live Images of the New 3G BlackBerry Pearl 9100!!  —  First Live Photos of the new BlackBerry Pearl 9100!!  —  OoohHHH BaBy!!  Any BlackBerry Pearl fans out there?  I know there are.  And I know so many of you have been waiting for Research in Motion to release an updated version …
Brad Stone / Bits:
Barnes & Noble's Nook Sold Out for the Holidays  —  It's shaping up to a be very merry holiday season for Amazon.com's Kindle e-reader.  —  Earlier this week, we reported that Sony could not guarantee that its new Daily Edition Reader would reach online buyers in time for Christmas.
CBC News:
Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos  —  A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer's insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook.  —  Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job …
Kenji Hall / Business Week:
Sony Unveils Its Answer to Apple's iTunes  —  The tech giant will launch an online store selling music, movies, books, and other downloadable applications for mobile products  —  Sony (SNE) is taking a page from Apple's playbook (AAPL).  On Nov. 19, Sony said it plans to launch …
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Gameloft says it, others reining in Android plans  —  BARCELONA (Reuters) - French mobile phone games company Gameloft said it and other software developers were cutting back investment in developing games and other applications for Google's Android platform.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Mozilla: Still too dependent on Google for revenue; Can it diversify?  —  Mozilla reported its 2008 audited financials and the organization behind the Firefox browser delivered consolidated revenue of $78.6 million, up 5 percent from 2007.  And the revenue picture looks even better if you exclude …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Tackles Its “UI Jazz” Problem, Tests Streamlining Search Options Feature  —  Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google's Search Options feature.  If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
What Twitter's New Geolocation Makes Possible  —  Twitter turned on its long-awaited Geolocation API today, meaning that users can opt-in to having their messages annotated with their exact locations.  The significance of this is made clear by comparing it with last week's release of 500 million …
Carolyn Duffy Marsan / Network World:
Google adding IPv6 to YouTube  —  Internet search giant says it's easier to design, operate an IPv6 network  —  Google plans to upgrade its YouTube video streaming Web site to provide support for IPv6, a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Verizon's Samsung Omnia II launching December 2 for $200  —  It may no longer be the first to launch in North America (that distinct honor now belongs to Bell), but we can finally say with some confidence that Verizon's version of the Samsung Omnia II isn't that far off.
Daniel Brusilovsky / CrunchGear:
Jobs to The Little App Factory: Name change “Not that big of a deal”  —  The Little App Factory seems to have a big problem on their hands.  The company received a letter from Baker & McKenzie, representing Apple, asking that The Little App Factory change the name of one of their most successful applications.
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google Builds Out A National Real Estate Search Engine  —  While the National Association of REALTORS® is planning to launch its own national property database sometime next year, Google seems to have just stolen the NAR's thunder.  How?  By rolling out individual “place pages” for every property that's listed in Google Maps.
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Microsoft denies it built ‘backdoor’ in Windows 7  —  Don't worry, company tells users; NSA involved only in security compliance standards  —  Computerworld - Microsoft today denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency …
Sharon Gaudin / Computerworld:
Intel: Chips in brains will control computers by 2020  —  Brain waves will replace keyboard and mouse, dial phones and change TV channels  —  Computerworld - By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers.
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Sends Cease And Desist To USocial  —  USocial, a company which sells Facebook friends and fans, has received a cease and desist from Facebook for violating the company's terms of service.  The BBC claims that the issue at hand is that the company is “letting people profit from their profile” …
Discussion: BBC
John Leyden / The Register:
MS discovers flaw in Google plug-in for IE  —  Google whacked  —  Microsoft has helped discover a flaw in the Google Chome Frame plug-in for Internet Explorer users.  —  The plug-in allows suitably coded web pages to be displayed in Internet Explorer using the Google Chrome rendering engine.
Discussion: Ars Technica and Ryan Naraine
Mark Hattersley / Computerworld:
CloudMade pushing open-source alternative to Google Maps  —  Macworld caught up with Nick Black, founder of CloudMade to talk about the upcoming Mapzen product and how open source mapping may be better for both customers and developers.  —  CloudMade is gearing up to release a set of tools …
 
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 More Items: 
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
Report: How risky is cloud computing?
Discussion: enisa.europa.eu and PC World
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Infoaxe Launches Real-Time Search Engine Based On Web History Platform
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Online Marketing/Media Firm Quinstreet Files for $250 Million IPO
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Most Mobile Users Indifferent To Or Don't Want Ads
Discussion: MediaMemo and FierceMobileContent
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google's News Experiments & The Quest To Solve The “Read State” Issue
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Remains Of Streamzy Picked Up, Reborn As Web Radio Service Listen.fm
 Earlier Items: 
Aaron Ricadela / Business Week:
Can Adobe Beat Back the Hackers?
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Feds Charge 3 With Comcast.net Hijacking
Google Mobile Blog:
New Google News for mobile