Top Items:
The Official Google Blog:
Understanding the web to make search more relevant — Last year at our second Searchology event, we announced Google Squared and Rich Snippets, two approaches to improve search by better understanding the web. Today, we're kicking off the new year with two improvements based on those technologies.
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Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Google's Brin And Page To Sell Off Shares; Give Up Majority Voting Power Over Five Years — Google (NSDQ: GOOG) just put out an SEC filing indicating that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will soon begin to sell off some of their holdings in the company, as part of a predetermined trading plan.
Discussion:
CNET News, TechCrunch, Bits, The Register, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, Silicon Alley Insider, Digital Daily, Mashable! and Gizmodo, Thanks:atul
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple tablet seen nearing $3 billion business in first year — Selling an estimated 5 million units in its first year as a “base case” scenario, Apple's tablet would earn the company $2.8 billion in additional revenue and solidify it as more than a niche product, a prominent investment baking firm said Friday.
Discussion:
Kindle Review, CNET News, ITworld.com, The Awl, Macsimum News, EverythingiCafe, Network World and Fast Company
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Michael White / Bloomberg:YouTube Discussing Online Rentals With Film Studios, Artists
Discussion:
Mashable!
Royal Pingdom:
Internet 2009 in numbers — What happened with the Internet in 2009? — How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many more. Prepare for information overload, but in a good way.
Alexei Oreskovic / MediaFile:
Google's Nexus One muzzles the foul-mouthed — One of the most innovative features of Google's new Nexus One is the built-in voice recognition. But there's one major limitation that Reuters discovered while putting the smartphone through its paces: the phone is a bit of a prig.
Discussion:
Daring Fireball
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dave Morin Leaves Facebook, To Launch New Startup With Napster Creator Shawn Fanning — Long time Facebook employee Dave Morin (pictured left), an early member of the team that led the launch of Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect, is leaving the company today, we've confirmed.
Discussion:
Dave Morin, The Social, All Facebook, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:jasonkincaid
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft shakes up its Entertainment and Devices unit — Microsoft has made some major organizational changes to its Entertainment and Devices unit — the part of the company responsible for its mobile, Zune, Media Center and Mediaroom IPTV products. — Earlier this week, Microsoft reorg'd the TV …
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog, CNET News, paidContent, Electronista, TechFlash, WMPoweruser.com, The Seattle Times and Ars Technica
comScore, Inc.:
comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009 — Google Sites Accounts for Two-Thirds of 131 Billion Searches Conducted Worldwide in December while Introduction of Bing Helps Microsoft Post Significant Gains During the Year — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) …
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Journalists' Social Media Sideshow Will Prove Nothing — Why do so many journalists and traditional media outlets see social media services like Twitter and Facebook as a threat? Maybe it's a result of too many breathless headlines about how they're going to replace traditional journalism …
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Christopher Helman / Forbes:
Microsoft's Ballmer Calls Out Google Over China Stance — Christopher Helman is the Southwest Bureau Chief of Forbes, based in Houston — Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, in a speech to oil company executives in Houston on Thursday, criticized Google for its threats to leave China …
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Mac OS X 10.6.3 to enhance QuickTime, 64-bit Logic, printing — A third planned maintenance and security update to Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system will include significant enhancements to QuickTime X while also improving printing and Logic performance, AppleInsider has learned.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
A Big-Picture Look at Google, Microsoft, Apple And Yahoo — On Wednesday, I wrote about a battle looming between Apple and Google as discussions take place over the possibility of Apple making Microsoft's Bing the default search engine on the iPhone. — Stepping back further …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Starts Rolling Out Local Trends (Pictures) — As you can see in the picture, Twitter has started to roll out its new Local Trends feature which takes the standard Trending Topics data and uses Twitter's geolocation functionality to make it based on location.
Discussion:
Mashable!, Outspoken Media, The Next Web, Pocket-lint, The Huffington Post and Lost Remote
Nancy Gohring / Computerworld:
Judge reduces $2M music-sharing verdict to $54k — IDG News Service - A Minnesota judge reduced the $2 million in damages that a jury ordered file-sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay, calling the original verdict “monstrous and shocking.” — Thomas-Rasset was one of the first people …
John Cook / TechFlash:
Motricity files for $250 million IPO — Motricity, which moved its headquarters from Durham, North Carolina to Bellevue in 2008, has filed to raise up to $250 million through an initial public offering. The 6-year-old company, which has raised more than $400 million from Technology Crossover Ventures …
David Hornik / VentureBlog:
Facebook, Twitter and P&G — This afternoon I attended an event sponsored by Proctor & Gamble called the “Innovation Outreach Venturing Day.” The event was an effort by executives at P&G to connect with the investment community in the Bay Area to discuss how P&G might work more closely …
Alison Flood / Guardian:
Ursula Le Guin leads revolt against Google digital book settlement — As opt-out deadline approaches, writer launches petition asking for US to be exempt from controversial agreement — The family of John Steinbeck has reversed its decision to oppose Google's controversial plans …
Gordon Haff / CNET News:
Why cloud exchanges won't work — As cloud computing in its various forms increasingly happens rather than just being talked about, I'm starting to hear the idea of a cloud-computing exchange floated. There are certainly things to like about the concept but I don't see it playing …
Anil Dash / CNN:
Don't let Twitter, Facebook, Google be the only game in town — Editor's note: Anil Dash is the director of Expert Labs, an independent nonprofit that is part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and uses the web to let policy makers listen to the expertise of citizens.
Discussion:
Daily Patricia
Gavin Newsom / Mashable!:
Why Open Source is the New Software Policy in San Francisco — This guest post was written by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was elected to the position in 2003 and reelected in 2007. In this guest post, Mayor Newsom announces a new open source software policy for San Francisco …
Taimur Asad / Redmond Pie:
Enable Multitouch in Nexus One Web Browser — Like the Motorola Droid on Verizon, US version of Nexus One which was launched by Google earlier this month didn't ship with a multitouch capable web browser even though the hardware and Android 2.1 OS is fully capable of doing it.
Discussion:
TG Daily, Gadget Lab, WCCFtech.com, 901am, Mashable!, PC World, Obsessable, Erictric, Softpedia News, Android Central and jkOnTheRun
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter's Revamped SUL Has Greatly Crippled The SUL Advantage — As you probably heard, yesterday, Twitter rolled out its revamped suggested users list (SUL). The list was a source of much controversy because those on it (including the @TechCrunch account) were assured to gain thousands of followers a day.
