Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Google's Groupon Offer: $5.3 Billion, With $700 Million Earnout — According to sources close to the situation, Google has offered $5.3 billion for Groupon, in what will be its largest acquisition yet if completed. — Sources said the deal for the social buying site seemed likely to be struck …
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Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Forget Net Neutrality, Comcast Might Break the Web — The fight that erupted today between Level 3 and Comcast involves an esoteric agreement between two of the Internet's big players providers colliding with a series of equally arcane policy arguments, but at its core this fight is about money.
Discussion:
Post Tech
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Level 3 Communications:
Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast's Actions — Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Thomas Stortz, Chief Legal Officer of Level 3: — “On November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that …
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily, Engadget, SlashGear, CNET News, GigaOM, Fortune, Techdirt, DSLreports, Geek News Central, Data Center Knowledge, CircleID, DailyFinance, SAI and ITworld.com
Joe Waz / Comcast Voices:
Comcast Comments on Level 3 — Level 3 has inaccurately portrayed the commercial negotiations between it and Comcast. These discussions have nothing to do with Level 3's desire to distribute different types of network traffic. — Comcast has long established and mutually acceptable …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Kinect is Selling 2X as Fast as the iPad — The iPad was crowned the fastest-adopted consumer electronic device ever last month, stealing the title from the once-coveted DVD player. Records are made to be broken, though, and the Microsoft Kinect has already come out of the gate twice as fast.
Discussion:
TechFlash, Go Rumors and Deep Jive Interests
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Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Microsoft: Over 2.5M Kinect Sold
Discussion:
Inquirer, The Seattle Times, Softpedia News, Mashable!, BetaNews, Pulse2, Forbes, BGR, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Insights on the tech industry, Electronista, WinRumors and LiveSide.net
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Google's Secret Social Initiative Delayed Until Spring 2011 [EXCLUSIVE] — Google's big social initiative, once thought to be a full-fledged social network named “Google Me,” is experiencing delays that have pushed back the launch until spring 2011. — Mashable has learned …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, SlashGear, Pulse2 and SAI
Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
The Biggest iPad Subsidy Of All: Softbank Gives It Away - What's Behind It? — One more operator is offering a reduced price for the iPad if you take it on a two-year contract: Softbank in Japan is preparing to launch a deal that offers users a 16GB iPad for free.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, MacNN, Softpedia News, SlashGear, IntoMobile, App Advice, BlogsDNA, Go Rumors, msnbc.com, Pulse2, MacStories and Fortune
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes officially launches Jumo, social network for social activism — Status update from Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and the social media whiz kid behind Barack Obama's presidential campaign: On Tuesday he officially launched Jumo.
Discussion:
Mashable!, TechCrunch, New York Times and Neowin.net
Aoife White / Bloomberg:
Google Investigated by European Union Over Online Ads, Search — Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. is being investigated by European Union regulators for allegedly demoting rival services in its search results and for restrictions that may prevent websites accepting some competing ads.
Discussion:
BBC, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and TheStreet.com
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Now Worth $50 Billion In Secondary Trading — It was just a few weeks ago that Accel Partners sold off around half a billion dollars of Facebook shares at a company valuation of $35 billion. If you thought that was insane, and a lot of commenters did, then don't read the rest of this post.
Discussion:
VatorNews and All Facebook
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Wikileaks evades hackers with shift to Amazon — Website moves front page to Amazon server hire service but keeps US embassy cables out of reach — Wikileaks, the site that has infuriated the US government by releasing thousands of US diplomatic cables, is being hosted by one of the symbols …
Discussion:
Digits, Collaboration 2.0 Blog, SC Magazine US, iPhoneWorld.ca iPhone and ReadWriteWeb
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Mozilla rages at MS, Apple and Google's ‘trojan horse’ tactics — Shove your plug-ins where the sun don't shine — A well-respected Mozilla man has attacked Apple, Google and Microsoft for installing plug-ins without first asking for a web surfer's permission.
Discussion:
Asa Dotzler, Between the Lines Blog, InformationWeek, PC Pro and Which? News
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Microsoft in talks for new TV service: sources — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) has held talks with media companies to license TV networks for a new online pay-television subscription service through devices such as its Xbox video game console, two people familiar with the plans told Reuters.
Discussion:
Examiner, AppleInsider, SAI, Pulse2, Digital Trends, I4U News, PC Magazine, Engadget, VG247, Microsoft Watch, Techland, WebProNews, Reuters, Mashable!, DailyTech, Ars Technica, AfterDawn.com, The Seattle Times, Hacking NetFlix, Technologizer, Joystiq, dailywireless.org, ITworld.com, MTV Multiplayer, eHomeUpgrade, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Fast Company, FierceIPTV, The Microsoft Blog, BlogsDNA, TechFlash, iClarified, TechSpot, MediaMemo, GigaOM, DSLreports, Gizmodo, Electronista, paidContent, DigitalBattle.com, SlashGear, Erictric, Media Maverick, Reuters and WinRumors, more at Mediagazer »
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John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Microsoft TV: A Bold Move That May Blow Up Broadcast
Discussion:
broadstuff and Digital Trends
Danny Sullivan / Daggle:
How Facebook Connect Freaks Me Out — More and more sites I run into these days are offering a way for me to log-in using Facebook. That's cool, if it means I don't have to fill out yet another registration form. But the permission pages that come up sometimes are so scary that I decline the offer.
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog:
Over 500,000 Windows Live Spaces blogs migrated to WordPress.com — We're very excited to be working with WordPress.com to let customers connect the fantastic blogging capabilities of WordPress.com with the leading communications and sharing services of Windows Live.
Discussion:
WordPress.com News, Softpedia News, LiveSide.net, TechCrunch, Technologizer, The Blog Herald and Pulse2
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Instagram Captures Their First Big Brand Partner: National Geographic — There seems to be a common cycle for many startups. First, you capture users. Then, you capture brands/celebrities. Then you capture revenues. Most startups never make it past step one, let alone steps two and three.
Zach Epstein / BGR:
WP7 developers complain of missing payments, broken reporting tools — Microsoft is making good progress in its efforts to woo developers to the new Windows Phone 7 platform, but we hope the company is equally devoted to keeping devs on board once they arrive.
Discussion:
Inquirer, Nick's Rumbling, eWeek, Know Your Cell, SlashGear, AppleInsider, IntoMobile, Electronista, WPCentral.com and Ubergizmo
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Microsoft's Plan B to Make Money in Phones: Patents — Although Microsoft is still hoping that Windows Phone 7 proves to be a hit, the company doesn't see its success as the only way to make a profit from all those millions it has poured into mobile phone technology.
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Playboy Magazine releases every issue from 1953 to 2010 on a hard drive — Playboy Magazine is on magazine racks, on the Web, on iPad, and now it's also on a hard drive. — The iconic publication, which has struggled a bit as the world goes increasingly digital, is offering every issue of Playboy …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Pulse2, Neowin.net, TeleRead and Boing Boing
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Twitter Gets a Hollywood Guy: Omid Ashtari — Twitter has hired its first official liaison to the stars: Creative Artists Agency veteran Omid Ashtari. His first day at the microblogging service was today. — Ashtari told me he is “going to be Twitter's L.A. person” and will be dealing with media companies and celebrities.
Discussion:
Lost Remote
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Flock Social Browser Declares War on RockMelt with Version 3.5 — Flock, the self-described “social web browser,” is responding to the launch of RockMelt with the release of Flock 3.5, which boasts greater speed and added functionality. — The browser touts social integration …
Discussion:
Download Squad, GigaOM, Pulse2, The Next Web and Ubergizmo
Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:
How to Make Google Translate Beatbox — Not sure if this falls in the category of Easter Egg or clever manipulation, but either way, there go our afternoons: Redditor harrichr has devised a scheme for turning Google Translate into a makeshift beatbox machine. … For the lazy, just click this link and it'll be done for you.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Mac Slocum / O'Reilly Radar:
For social search, similarity could trump friendship — Just because I friend or follow someone doesn't mean we're alike. We might be colleagues or classmates. Maybe we're both fans of a baseball team or a certain twisty TV show. That's the extent of our overlap.
Wall Street Journal:
Makers of Firefox Browser Explore Do-Not-Track Tool After Scrapping Earlier Effort — Makers of Firefox Browser Explore Do-Not-Track Tool After Scrapping Earlier Effort — The makers of the popular Firefox Web browser are exploring ways to create a do-not-track mechanism that could offer Internet users …
Discussion:
AdExchanger.com
Daniel Rubino / WPCentral.com:
Rumor: January Windows Phone 7 update to be massive, catches up with iPhone — We've been covering the rumored software update for Windows Phone 7 for sometime now, even having our forum members add some info to the mix. So far, the update is suppose to have the following features:
Discussion:
BGR, Softpedia News, Fudzilla, BlogsDNA, IntoMobile, DailyTech, PhoneArena, Mobility Digest, Ubergizmo, pocketnow.com, WMPoweruser.com and Electronista
