Top Items:
Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
The rise and fall of MySpace — In summer 2005, having spent the best part of four decades building a newspaper, film and television empire, Rupert Murdoch decided that the time had come to get serious about the internet. As founder and chairman of News Corporation …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Officially Launching Chrome Extensions Next Week — A couple weeks ago, Google unveiled its Chrome Extensions site after clues began popping up that a full-on push for extension support in their browser was imminent. Unfortunately, that site was only meant for extension developers …
Matthew Rivera / Digits:
Spot 10 Balloons, Win $40,000 — If you look up and see red weather balloons this weekend, take note. You've unwittingly entered into a social experiment. … The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, launched 10 balloons, each eight feet wide …
Discussion:
PC World, CNET News, 10 Red Balloons, TechCrunch, Joe Duck, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, dailywireless.org and Technologizer
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Mininova Traffic Plummets After Going ‘Legal’ — After nearly five years of loyal service, Mininova deleted over a million torrent files when it partly shut down its website a week ago. What remains are a few thousand torrents that were uploaded though its content distribution platform, which only lists uploads by approved users.
Discussion:
ZDNET.com.au
CW31:
‘Accidental’ Download Sending Man To Prison — SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A local man is likely to go to prison for years after he says he accidentally downloaded child pornography onto his computer. — Matthew White, 22, said he was surfing for pornography two years ago on Limewire …
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Barnes & Noble's Nook gets a brief and early hands-on — Thanks to a very generous anonymous tipster, we've gotten a number of hands-on pics of Barnes & Noble's soon to be released (for some) Nook e-reader. The impressions we've been given, however, weave a tale of a laggy Android interface …
Stephen Baker / Business Week:
Beware Social Media Snake Oil — Hordes of marketing “experts” are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs. All the hype may obscure the real potential of these online tools — For business, the rising popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites presents a tantalizing opportunity.
Guardian:
Memories of a paywall pioneer — Scott Rosenberg, former managing editor of US website Salon.com, on the effects of its 2001 paywall experiment — Beginning in early 2001 we had a Salon Premium programme that involved gating off a very small amount of content on the site …
Discussion:
Techdirt
David Sasaki / MediaShift Idea Lab:
Democratizing the Geography of Information — As little as a year ago Google Maps had no geographic information about San Javier La Loma, a small working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Medellín where the ConVerGentes group of the HiperBarrio citizen journalism project is based.
Google Public Policy Blog:
When sources disagree: borders and place names in Google Earth and Maps — Collecting and sharing the most accurate information about place names and borders is a tough task that every map maker faces. The first sources are the nations themselves, but when neighboring countries claim overlapping territories …
David / TmoNews:
Google Phone To T-Mobile? — Let me just preface this post with a total rumor disclaimer, to be read only with serious grains of salt. — That being said, information has been passed along to me in a very James Bond type way from a trusty ninja who has yet to lead me astray.
Rita Chang / AdAge:
Don't Create an IPhone App for the Online Buzz Factor — App Chatter Doesn't Build Brands, Long-term Engagement Does — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — For all the love that marketers show iPhone apps, these micro-utilities and tools actually generate surprisingly little buzz in return.
