Techmeme: The Landscape Around Google's Hiring Binge (Liz Gannes/NetworkEffect)

8:40 AM ET, November 20, 2010

Top Items:

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple to Offer Free MobileMe Service to Some iOS Users? — Earlier this month, we noted that the original golden master version of iOS 4.2 appeared to be preparing to allow users to sign in to MobileMe using their Apple IDs and even offer users the ability create a free Apple ID right from the MobileMe settings page in iOS.

Discussion: AppleInsider, Electronista, Newlaunches.com, I4U News, The Next Web, 9 to 5 Mac, Covering Web and iClarified

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Accel Sold Big Chunk Of Facebook Stock At $35 Billion Valuation — Sometime in the last week or so, we've heard from multiple sources, Accel Partners has sold very significant chunks of Facebook stock. So significant, in fact, that their ownership percentage has dropped to a point …

Discussion: Softpedia News, VentureBeat and SAI

Stephen C. Webster / Raw Story:

Oregon Senator Wyden effectively kills Internet censorship bill — It's too early to say for sure, but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden could very well go down in the history books as the man who saved the Internet. — A bill that critics say would have given the government power to censor …

Discussion: Ars Technica, ZeroPaid.com, ITworld.com, Techdirt and Tech Daily Dose

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

The 19 Senators Who Voted To Censor The Internet — This is hardly a surprise but, this morning (as previously announced), the lame duck Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to move forward with censoring the internet via the COICA bill — despite a bunch of law professors explaining …

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front and DSLreports

Rob Pegoraro / Faster Forward:
Congress's latest awful tech-policy idea: the Net-censorship bill

Discussion: PlagiarismToday and Music Ally

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Where Are the Android Killer Apps? — Every few weeks or so, I reiterate my wish for an Android analog to the iPod Touch — something more or less comparable to state-of-the-art Android phones in terms of performance, software, and quality, but costing, say, $250 (or less) with no contract.

Discussion: Gizmodo, displayblog, Joystiq and EngageDigital, Thanks:rawmeet

Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:

Facebook.com generates nearly 1 in 4 page views in the US — In March, we reported an important milestone when the market share of visits to Facebook.com* surpassed Google.com*. Since then, we have continued to watch the growth of Facebook.com, which increased 60% from the same week last year …

Discussion: Softpedia News, TechCrunch, Techie Buzz, All Facebook, ReadWriteWeb and Search Engine Land

Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:

webOS 2.0 will be released to “all devices” in coming months (Update: Video online) — We just heard a confirmation from Palm's Josh Marinacci that HP / Palm intends to get webOS 2.0 on all existing webOS devices in “the coming months.” That timeline is still vaguer that we'd like …

Discussion: SlashGear, GottaBeMobile, SAI, PhoneArena, PhoneDog.com, Gadgetell, TechSpot, BGR, Phones Review, Engadget, Electronista, MobileBurn.com, PhoneNews.com, Download Squad and Phone Scoop

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:

The Landscape Around Google's Hiring Binge — After a year or two of stagnancy, the Google employee count is growing rapidly again. But the growth spurt and retention efforts seem forced, and unlikely to be the perfect formula to keep the company at the top of the Web heap, despite its clout, market share and massive revenue.

Discussion: SAI, Softpedia News, Virtualeconomics, Don Dodge on The Next …, WebProNews, Geek.com, SiliconANGLE, Search Engine Watch and Reuters

James Cowie / Renesys Blog:

China's 18-Minute Mystery — When the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission released its report to Congress this week, something slightly unusual happened: people read it. And there, buried on pages 236-247, a mystery was revealed, and the media have greedily amplified it.

Discussion: Challenging Complexity and Computerworld

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
China Hijacks 15% Of Internet Traffic? More Like .015%

Discussion: Security Watch, eWeek, ReadWriteWeb, Computerworld and dailywireless.org, Thanks:forbestech

Bloomberg:

Groupon Said to Weigh Sale to Google vs. Raising More Funds — Groupon Inc. is weighing whether to sell itself to Google Inc. or to proceed with a round of fundraising that may value the daily coupon company at more than $3 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Local Media Watch, L.A. Times Tech Blog and SAI

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Google Turns Its Local Eyes to Groupon-But Who Else Could Enter Bidding?

Henry Blodget / SAI:
Hell, Yes, Google Should Buy Groupon. And Twitter. And Foursquare...

Discussion: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Andrew Sykes / Gizchina:

Genuine White iPhone 4 On the Grey Market in China! — This week it's all been about the iPhone 4, more specifically the elusive yet to be released (rumored to be axed) White iPhone 4. We've brought you pictures of a genuine white iPhone 4 complete with video and we've even managed to track …

Discussion: App Advice, Examiner, TUAW, SlashPhone, Electricpig, Fast Company, iThinkDifferent, Covering Web, MobileCrunch, SlashGear, Geek.com, MacStories, PhoneArena, everythingiCafe, iClarified, displayblog and gizchina.com

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Facebook Warns Debt Collectors About Using Its Service — A Florida debt collector contacted a St. Petersburg woman's Facebook friends in an effort to get her to repay a $362 car loan. The woman, Melanie Beacham, promptly hit the collector, MarkOne Financial, with a civil suit in Pinellas County circuit court.

Discussion: Inside Facebook, The Next Web, PC World and Switched

Tim Berners-Lee / Scientific American:

Long Live the Web — The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity—and even our liberty. Like democracy itself, it needs defending — The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990.

Discussion: The Register, Fortune, Podcasting News, Switched, GigaOM, Cult of Mac, open, Pulse2, displayblog and UMBC ebiquity, Thanks:mathewi

Doree Shafrir / Newsweek:

Pennies From Heaven — With cash for tech startups in shorter supply, angel investors are going where VCs fear to tread. Chris Dixon is sitting in his lofty office in New York's Silicon Alley, trying to persuade an 18-year-old to take his money. The young man is in town from California …

Ben Rooney / Wall Street Journal:

High-Tech Buzz: All of a Sudden Everyone Wants to Love a Eurogeek — Europe may be having a hard time of it at the moment, but there is one bright light on the horizon. — Across the continent there is a huge buzz in the tech sector. From the F.ounders conference in Dublin last month …

Discussion: Beet.TV, Thanks:beet_tv

Oliver Chiang / SelectStart:

‘The Office’ Spoofs Silicon Valley — While the fictional desk jockeys of Dunder Mifflin are usually pushing pencils and selling paper, Thursday night's episode of the The Office was unexpectedly technology-focused. (Warning: mild spoilers below.) — In the episode, titled “WUPHF.com …

Discussion: New York Observer, SAI and The Huffington Post

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

What's New At Tumblr: Funding, Hires, Office, Board Member, And A Focus On Fashion — For the past several weeks, there's been a lot of talk about a large new round of funding that the social startup Tumblr was raising. That culminated today with a report in Fortune with numbers on the round.

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