Top Items:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google May Offer Buzz Independently From Gmail — Google says it may allow people to participate in Google Buzz without having it integrated within Gmail, in addition to offering a combined Gmail service. That may be a welcome move from users of both products, especially in light …
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Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Google says VP's comments misconstrued, not taking Buzz out of Gmail — In an update to an earlier post, Google says vice president of product marketing Bradley Horowitz' comments were misconstrued by SearchEngineLand. He had told the blog that Google was considering taking its brand-new social networking service Buzz out of Gmail.
Nick Saint / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Responds To Blogger's Outrage With Product Tweaks (GOOG) — Google (GOOG) is rolling out two more privacy tweaks for Google Buzz in response to a post by an outraged blogger who claimed that Google Buzz had given her abusive ex-husband and his friends access to personal information.
Harriet Jacobs / Fugitivus:
F**k you, Google — I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother. — There's a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts. — You know who my third most frequent contact is? — My abusive ex-husband. — Which is why it's SO EXCITING …
Discussion:
Sunlight Labs blog, CNET News, CircleID, Mashable!, /message, Silicon Alley Insider, Technology Liberation Front, Guardian and TechLifeWeb
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:Too Easy: How a Simple Hack Can Turn Your Numeric Google Profile URL …
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:5 Reasons Why Gmail Buzz Privacy Isn't All That Bad
Discussion:
Electronista, Internet Evolution, BetaNews, Mashable!, The Register, AppScout and Silicon Alley Insider
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:Watch Out Who You Reply To On Google Buzz, You Might Be Exposing Their Email Address
Discussion:
paidContent, Download Squad, Velocity, Tech Daily Dose, NBC Bay Area, The Hollywood Reporter, Technologizer and Lifehacker
Gmail Blog:Millions of Buzz users, and improvements based on your feedback
Discussion:
Computerworld, Technologizer, GigaOM, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Post Tech, PC World, Umair Haque, Fugitivus, Mashable!, Silicon Alley Insider, internetnews.com, CNET News, Seesmic Blog, TechStartups.com, Marketing.fm, InformationWeek, ITworld.com, MediaFile, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, InfoWorld, Search Engine Journal, GMSV, AccMan, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Shelly Palmer, Search Engine Watch, Boy Genius Report, Erictric, VatorNews, Scripting News, Lifehacker, eWeek, The Register, Electricpig, Between the Lines, Continuations, thinq.co.uk, Geekword, Softpedia News and The Huffington Post, Thanks:chrismessina
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon Wants To Give A Free Kindle To All Amazon Prime Subscribers — In January Amazon offered select customers a free Kindle of sorts - they had to pay for it, but if they didn't like it they could get a full refund and keep the device. It turns out that was just a test run for a much more ambitious program.
The Official Google Blog:
Google acquires Aardvark — When you need an answer to a very specific question, sometimes the information just isn't online in one simple place. For example, let's say you want to know if there's snow on Skyline Boulevard on a given day or the best time of year to plant beans in the Bay Area.
Discussion:
Google Labs, ReadWriteWeb, internetnews.com, Aardvark Blog, Between the Lines, VentureBeat, 901am, Silicon Alley Insider, Erictric, Neowin.net and AppScout
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Sam Dillon / New York Times:
Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall — VAIL, Ariz. — Students endure hundreds of hours on yellow buses each year getting to and from school in this desert exurb of Tucson, and stir-crazy teenagers break the monotony by teasing, texting, flirting, shouting, climbing (over seats) and sometimes punching (seats or seatmates).
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
New: Google Maps Labs — When Google wants to test new features, they call them Lab experiments, and make them opt-in. Now, following many other services, Google Maps received a Lab icon. Click the green flask at the top of Google Maps and you get a chance to enable features like the following:
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Bloomberg:
Microsoft Bets on Software Upgrade to Fight IPhone — Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Six years ago, Microsoft Corp.'s software ran about a quarter of all smartphones and was gaining ground. Then Apple Inc.'s iPhone and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. left the software giant in the dust.
Discussion:
BetaNews, All about Microsoft, mocoNews, 9 to 5 Mac, Pocket-lint, MacRumors, GigaOM, dailywireless.org, Silicon Alley Insider and EE Times
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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google's Sergey Brin Talking China At TED — At the TED conference in Southern California, host Chris Anderson held an impromptu Q&A with Google cofounder Sergey Brin on Google's decision to leave China. — Anderson started out asking Brin to recount what happened.
Peter Burrows / BusinessWeek:
Another Sign of An Apple-Bing Deal On iPhone — Since we broke the story that Apple and Microsoft were in talks to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone, I've been waiting for more evidence from other sources. It came this morning, from Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal …
Discussion:
TechFlash, Silicon Alley Insider, The Next Web, TechCrunch, MarketBeat, The Register, iLounge and O'Grady's PowerPage
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Picture of Google News New Home Page Test — A week ago today, we reported Google News was testing a new home page design. Since then, I have been begging those who have seen the test to post a picture so the rest of us can see what they see. Finally, yesterday, someone posted an image in the Google News Help forum.
Brian Barrett / Gizmodo:
Computer Engineer Barbie Has a PhD In FUN (And Breaking Down Stereotypes) — This is actually wonderful. Barbie's had 124 careers since 1959, ranging from Stewardess to Paratrooper. Today she gets her 125th: computer engineer. You can tell she's smart 'cause she's got glasses, and reads nothing but binary.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
The iPad that launched a thousand apps — Data gathered in January show a rush of new projects on the iPhone operating system — Click to enlarge. Source: Flurry Analytics — Measured by the number of new applications being written for each type of device, Google's (GOOG) …
Discussion:
PC World, CNET News, Mashable!, Silicon Alley Insider, Electronista, MacRumors, Digital Daily, AppleInsider, Fast Company, AppScout, TUAW, blog.flurry.com and MacDailyNews
Shelly Banjo / Digits:
Obama Is Hiring a Twitterer — Calling all job-seekers: President Barack Obama is looking for an official Twitterer. … The Democratic National Committee's “social networks manager” job description says the position entails maintaining the President's accounts on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
Skype Planning VoIP Over Verizon Wireless? — This just in: Skype tells mocoNews.net it will be hosting a joint news conference with Verizon Wireless at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. No word on what this announcement is about, but it will be the first time that a major mobile operator has stood up with Skype.
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, FierceWireless, internetnews.com, DSLreports, Verizon, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Android Phone Fans and IntoMobile
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
App Store Now Has 150,000 Apps. Great News For The iPad: Paid Books Rule. — During Apple's iPad event in January, CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple now had over 140,000 apps in the App Store (along with over 3 billion downloads). If the numbers by app analytics company Distimo are correct, that number is now past 150,000.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Do E-Readers Cause Eye Strain? — The admonition offered by legions of mothers — “Don't sit so close to the TV” — isn't really an option when it comes to e-reading devices. You have to get close to the screen to use it. — The act of reading is going through a number of radical transitions …
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
iPhone + Logo - Now a Registered Trademark of Apple Inc. — After years of jostling and wrangling in the press that Cisco and Canadian firm Comwave owned the iPhone trademark and therefore Apple would never prevail, the word from the USPTO is official: iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. - officially as of Feb 09, 2010.
Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
AT&T, Verizon May Have to Share Lines Under FCC Plan — Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. would be forced to lease fast Internet lines to rivals providing Web services to small businesses under a proposal being weighed by U.S. regulators.
