Top Items:
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:
An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg — It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online. — To make this possible …
Discussion:
GigaOM, The Social, Pocket-lint.com, Inside Facebook, All Facebook, VentureBeat, The Next Web Appetite, ITWorld Canada, paidContent, Mashable! and Neowin.net
RELATED:
Christopher Soghoian / slight paranoia:
8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight — Disclaimer: The information presented here has been gathered and analyzed in my capacity as a graduate student at Indiana University. This data was gathered and analyzed on my own time, without using federal government resources.
RELATED:
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Yahoo, Verizon: Our Spy Capabilities Would ‘Shock’, ‘Confuse’ Consumers — Want to know how much phone companies and internet service providers charge to funnel your private communications or records to U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies? — That's the question muckraker …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Jack Dorsey's Square Is (Almost) Open For Business — We've been tracking Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Square since May when we first got the details on the new mobile phone payment service. — Today the company unveiled its website for the first time, and they continue to test the product in private beta.
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Not All Of Square's “Advisors” Are Hollywood Sexpots — Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey today unveiled his new startup, Square, which lets any iPhone-owning merchant accept credit cards. — Square also announced its “advisors.” Among them: Alyssa Milano, of “Who's The Boss?” fame.
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Steve Jobs intervenes, approves Knocking streaming video app — A persuasive e-mail from an iPhone developer to Steve Jobs helped Pointy Heads Software get its Knocking Live Video—the first official iPhone app capable of streaming live video over 3G and WiFi connections—approved for sale in the App Store.
Discussion:
MacNN, Business Week, iLounge, Edible Apple, TheAppleBlog, 9 to 5 Mac, Silicon Alley Insider, EverythingiCafe and MacDailyNews
Katherine Boehret / Wall Street Journal:
Videos on TV With a Flip of a Channel — Remember when families used to gather around the television to watch home videos? The process sounds old fashioned now that we spend so much time watching videos on our computer screens. The company that introduced the popular Flip hand-held video cameras …
Discussion:
Engadget, Bits, CrunchGear, SlashGear, Macworld, NewTeeVee, Gizmodo, Forever Geek and Electronista
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
AT&T Ranked Last in Consumer Reports' Best Cellphone Service Survey — The annual survey of wireless customer satisfaction from Consumer Reports hits the streets this week and it doesn't have much good to say about AT&T. In a canvass of more than 50,000 readers spanning 26 U.S. cities …
Discussion:
Mashable!, 9 to 5 Mac, Bits, Computerworld, Pulse2, Macworld, EverythingiCafe, PR Newswire, Webomatica, DailyTech, Electronista, PC World, The iPhone Blog, MacRumors iPhone Blog, TUAW, Maximum PC, TmoNews, AppleInsider, mocoNews, FierceWireless, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, DSLreports and DisplayBlog
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Huffington To Murdoch: Stop ‘Pointing Fingers’ — Arianna Huffington used her 25 minutes at the FTC's ‘How Will Journalism Survive The Internet Age?’ conference to take News Corp (NYSE: NWS). CEO Rupert Murdoch and his executives to task for their remarks comparing news aggregators to …
RELATED:
Alex Petcherski / The Official Google Blog:
Show me the pictures: better format for image results — I love when I get images back in my Google search results. There's no better way to quickly understand the difference between an ocelot and a clouded leopard. But sometimes I want to see more images to really make sure I've identified the right jungle cat.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Startup diaries:
Don't be evil, Craigslist — Yesterday (Nov 30th 2009), at approximately 2pm PST, Craigslist effectively killed all Yahoo Pipes projects that use Craigslist as a data source. For those unfamiliar with Yahoo Pipes, it's a nifty tool that allows you to take data from anywhere on the net …
David Faber / CNBC.com:
GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source — The deal between General Electric and Comcast over a majority stake in NBC Universal is complete, and there is nothing left to do but process paper, a source close to the merger told CNBC Tuesday. — A deal is expected to be completed …
Discussion:
Mashable!, Between the Lines, CNET News, Hollywood Reporter, Electronista, Gearlog and Blue's News
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
One of Google Chrome OS's hardest tasks? Printing — Many challenges will have to be solved before Google is ready to release Chrome OS, it's browser-based operating system for Netbooks. One of the biggest ones could be something as far offline as it gets.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Web-based toy maker Smith & Tinker lays off 30 percent of staff — Smith & Tinker had a high-profile launch of its Nanovor toy and accompanying game web site this fall. It was billed as a marriage of toys and online games. — But yesterday the company laid off about 30 percent of its staff …
Asher Moses / Sydney Morning Herald:
Aussie Googler hits the world stage for climate change — A Google Map lets users drill down to view votes by country, city and even postcode. — An online platform developed by an Australian Googler in his “20 per cent time” has been adopted by the United Nations to show world leaders …
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Charlie Wolf: How the Mac roared back — Needham & Co.'s senior analyst explains how Apple outgrew the PC market seven fold — Click to enlarge. — Needham's Charlie Wolf was as surprised as anyone when Apple (AAPL) reported that it had sold a record 3.05 million Macintosh computers …
Discussion:
The Register
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Groupon Gets A Hefty $30 Million From Accel For Local Offers Service — Chicago based Groupon, which was formerly known as ThePoint, has raised a hefty Series B financing - $30 million - from new investor Accel Partners and existing investor New Enterprise Associates.
Douglas Quenqua / ClickZ:
Geo-Targeted Display Ads Set for Growth — The market for geo-targeted display ads is poised for aggressive growth over the next few years, from $897 million in 2008 to more than $1.9 billion in 2013, according to digital media consulting firm BIA/Kelsey. — Geo-targeted ads …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft exec: Quitting Google as tough as stopping smoking — There were some great insights at last night's Xconomy Forum on the Future of Search and Information Discovery, and we'll get to those in a moment. But first, the primary challenge facing any company thinking about getting …
Discussion:
Xconomy
James Temple / San Francisco Chronicle:
Tech ‘incubators’ moving to Chronicle building — (12-01) 13:49 PST — Three technology companies have agreed to lease the lower floors of The Chronicle building, the first steps in a broader plan to create what the developers and city are portraying as an “innovation incubation hub” in the Mid-Market district.
Peter Pae / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Northrop and U.S. universities launch group to fight hackers — Northrop Grumman, maker of fighter jets and nuclear submarines, is teaming up with U.S. universities to research ways to defend against computer hackers. Credit: Wong Maye-E/Associated Press.
Discussion:
GigaLaw.com Daily News
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Another e-tailer named in probe changes course — Another e-tailer criticized by federal lawmakers two weeks ago for participating in “misleading” and “deceptive” marketing practices appears to be rethinking its position. — VistaPrint, an online printing company, announced Monday it has …
Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Under Threat, Nielsen Accelerates Plan to Measure Online Video — Tells Networks, Agencies It Will Link TV and Web Watching to Offer ‘Single Source’ Viewer Data by Late 2010 — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Facing a client insurgency that could threaten its TV-ratings franchise …
Discussion:
New York Times
Nathania Johnson / Search Engine Watch:
Ask.com's Top Questions of 2009: Refreshing, Existential and Disturbing — Ask.com gets a lot of their search queries in the form of a question - more so than any other search engine. So, it makes sense that their end-of-the-year list features questions instead of keywords.
Nick Eaton / The Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft says black screens not caused by security updates — Updated 3:09 p.m.: Prevx posts response to Microsoft's statement. — Contrary to reports earlier this week, Microsoft said Tuesday the “black screens of death” some people have attributed to recent Windows security patches are not caused by those updates.
Discussion:
PC World, BetaNews, InformationWeek, Hardware 2.0, Computerworld, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, The Next Web, MSRC, Security Watch and Engadget
Chris Kanaracus / Computerworld:
SAP readying potential Google Wave rival — IDG News Service - SAP is planning to release a “virtual war room” decision-making tool dubbed Constellation, which could be a potential rival to Google's heralded Wave collaboration platform. — Constellation will consist of a cloud-based tool accessible via …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Seeking Alpha Raises $7 Million Second Round — Interesting news from Seeking Alpha: the financial commentary and info site has raised $7 million in a second round led by new investor DAG Ventures with “full participation” from existing investors Benchmark & Accel.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Office Web Apps access comes to Windows Mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry and more (with some caveats) — For the past year, Microsoft officials have said repeatedly — without offering any specifics — that Office Web Apps will work on mobile phones. But now that the public beta of Office Web Apps is available …
Discussion:
The Register, ReadWriteWeb, internetnews.com, The Microsoft Blog, jkOnTheRun, CIO.com, eWeek, Microsoft News Tracker, GottaBeMobile.com and Gadgetell
