Techmeme: Texas inquires on our approach to competition (Google Public Policy Blog)

1:10 AM ET, September 4, 2010

Top Items:

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours — Apple® today announced that in less than 48 hours since its launch on Wednesday, more than one million users have joined Ping, its new social network for music which lets users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover …

Discussion: AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, Voices on All Things Digital and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »

Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
The Seeds of Apple's Cloud

Discussion: TechCrunch, Velocity, MediaPost, App Advice, DailyFinance, CallingAllGeeks and TidBITS, Thanks:atul

Patrick Seitz / Investor's Business Daily:
Netflix Ends Its Social-Networking Experiment

Thanks:agoldfisher

Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:

Steve Jobs: iTunes 10 Icon Does Not ‘Suck’ — While winding down from Wednesday's iPod announcements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears to have taken some time to respond to an e-mail criticizing the new look of the iTunes icon. — Joshua Kopac, who oversees design work for advertising firm ValuLeads …

Discussion: Gizmodo, Macworld, Silicon Alley Insider, MacRumors, GeekSmack, Cult of Mac and Edible Apple, Thanks:chirag_mehta

Wade Roush / Xconomy:
The Leaning Tower of Ping: How iTunes Could Be Apple's Undoing

Discussion: TechCrunch, PC World, WebProNews, broadstuff, Chris Pirillo, GigaOM, Tech Check and hypebot

Chester Wisniewski / Chester Wisniewski's Blog:
Apple gets Ping'd with comment spam - They didn't see this coming?

Discussion: Computerworld, PC World, Gadgetwise, everythingiCafe, Mashable!, CNET News, Velocity, 9 to 5 Mac, Switched, Geek.com, eWeek, AppleInsider, TechEye, Fortune, Security Watch, VentureBeat, Between the Lines Blog, The Register, USA Today, TechCrunch, Inquirer and Phones Review

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Apple's Ping succumbs to the spammers

Discussion: Velocity, MediaPost, Help Net Security, Tech Trader Daily, Pulse2, ReadWriteWeb, Switched, Mashable!, The Apple Core Blog, Computerworld, MediaMemo and PE Hub Blog

Mike Yang / The Official Google Blog:

Trimming our privacy policies — Long, complicated and lawyerly—that's what most people think about privacy policies, and for good reason. Even taking into account that they're legal documents, most privacy policies are still too hard to understand. — So we're simplifying and updating Google's privacy policies.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Google, Reuters, PC World, CNET News, Dennis Fisher, Bits, WebProNews, Digits, V3.co.uk, Erictric, Tech Daily Dose and Search Engine Journal, Thanks:hornokplease

Agence France Presse:

Google to pay 8.5 million dollars to settle Buzz case — SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google has agreed to pay 8.5 million dollars (US) to settle a privacy lawsuit over a Buzz social networking tool added to free email service Gmail in February, according to court documents.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:

BREAKING: Facebook Now Displaying All Liked News Articles In Search Results — Another big upgrade from Facebook: the company is currently testing search results which display articles ranked by likes. Additionally, the results for searches now shows the results from all around the web based on two things …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Lifestream Blog, Search Engine Land, Startup Meme, The Next Web, CNET News, GigaOM, Lost Remote, Search Engine Watch, Silicon Alley Insider, WebProNews and paidContent, Thanks:atul

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google Announces Can't Be Missed Press Event On Search - What's Up? — Google's announced a special press event for next Wednesday on search that “you won't want to miss.” What big news could there be? Let's speculate — but I wouldn't get too excited. — Here's what the invite says:

Discussion: Electronista

Adam Dachis / Lifehacker:

iPhone 3G Speed Test: iOS 4.0 versus iOS 4.1 — iOS 4.0 was so slow on our 3G, we promptly downgraded after updating. Earlier this week, Apple announced, among other things, that iOS 4.1 fixed performance on the iPhone 3G. We put their claim to the test.

Discussion: AppleInsider, Redmond Pie, Computerworld, Startup Meme, Obsessable, App Advice and 9 to 5 Mac

Google Public Policy Blog:

Texas inquires on our approach to competition — We've always worked hard to ensure that our success is earned the right way — by building great products, not locking in our users or advertisers. That said, we recognize that as Google grows, we're going to face more questions about how our business works.

Discussion: New York Times, Financial Times, Computerworld, Bits, V3.co.uk, Tech Daily Dose and Tech Trader Daily

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Texas Attorney General Investigating Google & Antitrust Issues

Discussion: The Register and CNET News, Thanks:atul

Kamau High / Speakeasy:

Controversial ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ Will Finally Be Released … “Duke Nukem Forever,” a video game synonymous with never being released, is finally being released. — The first person shooter about a space marine with a penchant for off-color humor who battles aliens with increasingly destructive weapons …

Therese Poletti / Wall Street Journal:

New York's Tech Start-Up Scene Comes of Age — Just stop calling it ‘Silicon Alley’ — In the late 1990s, as Silicon Valley's tech industry headed into boom-land, so too did New York City. — A slew of startups formed, many focused on “new media,” or advertising on the Internet.

Seth Weintraub / Fortune:

Quantcast: Android continues to grow vs. iOS domination — The Android juggernaut continues to explode, now owning 25% of US mobile web browsing. — Quantcast data for August is in and the trends we've been seeing since the beginning of the year have continued.

Discussion: Quantcast, Computerworld, Search Engine Land, IntoMobile, GigaOM, CNET News, Android Phone Fans, TechCrunch, Electronista, dailywireless.org, I4U News and Softpedia News

Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
iOS browsing is bigger than Android (6x) and Linux says NetApps

Discussion: AppleInsider, TUAW, Computerworld, MacRumors, Startup Meme, IntoMobile, Pulse2, Boy Genius Report, App Advice and TiPb

Nick Saint / Silicon Alley Insider:

BUSTED: Anti-Google Privacy Group Consumer Watchdog Is Tracking Your Clicks With Google Analytics — How's this for a little hypocrisy? — Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit advocacy group and vocal Google critic, has been a promoting a video that lampoons Google's privacy practices by depicting …

Discussion: Search Engine Journal, Fortune, Consumer Watchdog and WebProNews

Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
In Defense of Google, Or Why Consumer Watchdog is Full of It

Discussion: GMSV, Thanks:rawmeet

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Digg's Decline, Illustrated — Why does Digg have a new design and a new CEO? Here's one answer, via a handy chart. — This one comes from Christopher Mascari, a Gawker Media marketing guy, and it illustrates the blog network's traffic from social media sites.

Discussion: GigaOM, msnbc.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Fast Company, watchmojo.com, MediaPost and The Next Web, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:atul

Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:

Facebook Prevents Users From Sending Suspicious Friend Requests To Strangers — Facebook has begun implementing new security measures to prevent friend request spamming. Some users are being shown a “This Request Can't Be Sent” pop-up if their request is deemed suspicious.

Discussion: All Facebook

Owen Thomas / VentureBeat:

Twitter: 300,000 apps, but none of them matter — Twitter CEO Ev Williams posted a blog entry Thursday with an update on the microblogging service's usage, which continues to grow sharply. More interesting than the numbers, though, was the message written between the lines …

Discussion: Brian Solis, VatorNews, eWeek, WebProNews and Twitter Blog, more at Mediagazer »

Matthew Moskovciak / CNET News:

Apple TV isn't 1080p and you shouldn't care — The refreshed Apple TV sports a new design, Netflix streaming, and low price, but like the old model, Apple's streaming video box is still limited to 720p content. While that means the Apple TV loses the spec war to competitors like the Xbox 360 and Vudu …

Bloomberg:

Coinstar Builds Apple Ties as It Seeks Online Partner — Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) — Coinstar Inc., owner of the Redbox DVD rental kiosks, is expanding ties with Apple Inc. as it searches for a partner to build an online viewing service. — The company added 1.8 million Internet users in the second quarter …

Discussion: TechCrunch

Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:

See, YouTube ads can be awesome: A hunter shoots a bear — Nice timing. Just a few hours after The New York Times reported that YouTube's ad revenues have grown to the point that the Google-owned video site will be profitable this year, I spotted a video that demonstrates some of YouTube's potential as an advertising platform.

Discussion: Fortune and SocialTimes.com

Erica Naone / Technology Review:

How Websites Make You Spill Your Secrets — People divulge more sensitive information on sites that look less safe. — Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that the appearance of website has a big effect on how honestly people answer personal questions put to them by the site.

Discussion: Future Tense

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