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2:45 PM ET, November 30, 2010

Techmeme

 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 …
RELATED:
Stephen Grocer / Deal Journal:
Analysts on Groupon Deal: Google Upping Its Fight with Facebook?
Discussion: SAI
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.
RELATED:
EU Press Room:
Antitrust: Commission probes allegations of antitrust violations by Google  —  The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google Inc. has abused a dominant position in online search, in violation of European Union rules (Article 102 TFEU).
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
The Incredible Stupidity Of Investigating Google For Acting Like A Search Engine  —  I did a search at Google today for “cars” and was shocked.  Rather than list links allowing me to search for “cars” on Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Voila, Naver and Yandex, Google instead favored its own search results.
European Public Policy Blog:
Our thoughts on the European Commission review  —  At Google, we've always focused on putting the user first by providing the best possible answers as quickly as possible - and our product innovation and engineering talent have delivered results that users seem to like, in a world where the competition is only one click away.
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:
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Verizon sucks at Photoshop: confuses the Droid X for an iPhone  —  Man, Motorola's not going to be pleased about this!  The Droid X is justifiably one of Verizon's marquee devices for this holiday season and takes pride of place on the carrier's Cyber Monday offers page, but wait …
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple makes PhotoFast stop production of speedy 256 GB MacBook Air SSDs  —  Back in late October we reported that PhotoFast began producing 256GB SSD upgrade kits for Apple's latest MacBook Air lineup.  PhotoFast's third-party SSD upgrade for the new MacBook Airs read and write at 250MB/s …
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 colliding with a series of equally arcane policy arguments, but at its core this fight is about money.
RELATED:
Level 3 Communications:
Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast's Actions
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.
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.
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 …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Winamp Wants To Be The iTunes Of Android; Now Out Of Beta With Wireless Sync  —  Today Winamp for Android is coming out of beta, a month after its initial launch and more than 500,000 downloads later.  The public Android release lets you manage your music downloads on your Android and will offer …
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.
Rob Pegoraro / Faster Forward:
Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books  —  Kindle readers, take note: You may have been paying for books you could legally download for free—in nearly identical editions—elsewhere.  The titles in question aren't just public-domain books that have long been freely available at such sites as Project Gutenberg.
Discussion: TeleRead
Lev Grossman / Time:
The Men Who Stole the World  —  A decade ago, four young men changed the way the world works.  They did this not with laws or guns or money but with software: they had radical, disruptive ideas, which they turned into code, which they released on the Internet for free.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Enterprise Social Networking Platform Yammer Grabs $25 Million In New Funding  —  Enterprise social networking platform Yammer, has just raised $25 million in new funding led by U.S. Venture Partners with Emergence Capital, Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund also participating.
Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:
First Look: Branson's Virgin iPad Project Frustrates With Complexity  —  The future of publishing, if Virgin's new iPad-only magazine is anything to go by, is messy - Project is a decent-enough male lifestyle title, beset by horrid UI and frustrating Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) delivery...
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.
Orkut Blog:
Badges on orkut!  Can you collect them all?  —  You might have noticed something new in orkut.  Some of your friends may have little icons on their profile pages, and you may start seeing some updates from friends as well.  These are our new orkut badges!
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Zynga links FarmVille and other games with American Express rewards  —  Membership has its privileges — even in the virtual worlds of social games.  Zynga, the maker of FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other social games, is announcing today that you can use your rewards from American Express credit cards …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple Exec Schiller Steps Out On Twitter A Bit More; Answers Questions, Troubleshoots  —  A week ago, it was revealed that Apple executive Phil Schiller was using Twitter.  Actually, he had been on the service for about two years, but he wasn't active, nor was he verified, so no one was sure it was him.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
BitTorrent Based DNS To Counter US Domain Seizures  —  The domain seizures by the United States authorities in recent days and upcoming legislation that could make similar takeovers even easier in the future, have inspired a group of enthusiasts to come up with a new, decentralized and BitTorrent-powered DNS system.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Founder Institute Publishes Blacklist Of “Unsavory Characters”  —  The Founder Institute, a very early stage startup accelerator and entrepreneur training program, was launched in 2009 by Adeo Ressi.  The company now has programs in a variety of cities in the U.S. and around the world - ten cities at the last count.
Discussion: MobHappy
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 …
 
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 More Items: 
Nick Denton / Lifehacker:
Why Gawker is moving beyond the blog
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Facebook Sued For Having Privacy Controls In Place. Yes, Seriously.
Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:
FCC proposes rules to reallocate spectrum from TV broadcasters
Discussion: Reuters
Sue Zeidler / Reuters:
Disney TV chief says talking with Google
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
LinkedIn joins the article-sharing party
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Y Combinator And Yodlee Team Up To Give Startups Access To Financial Data
Discussion: PR Newswire
 Earlier Items: 
Julie Zhuo / New York Times:
Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sandisk, Sony, and Nikon propose 500MBps memory card with more than 2TB capacity
John Rennie / IEEE Spectrum:
Ray Kurzweil's Slippery Futurism
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Microsoft's Plan B to Make Money in Phones: Patents
Discussion: SAI, GMSV and FierceWireless
Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:
How to Make Google Translate Beatbox
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Now Worth $50 Billion In Secondary Trading
 

 
From Mediagazer:

New York Times:
Court docs detail a smear campaign against actor Blake Lively via media articles and social media posts after she accused director Justin Baldoni of misconduct

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK
 
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