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 …
Discussion:
SAI, Digital Trends, Tech Check, DealBook, Tech Trader Daily, Digits, Deal Journal, dailywireless.org, Chicago Tribune, TechCrunch, Venture Capital Dispatch, broadstuff, Mashable!, Hillicon Valley, GMSV, Times of India, Softpedia News, Techland, Search Engine Land, Fast Company, NBC Bay Area, MarketBeat, P Morgan Brown, VatorNews, Googling Google Blog, Screenwerk, New York Times, Google Watch, TechEye and John Battelle's Searchblog
RELATED:
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
New Enterprise Associates Poised to Score Big on Groupon Thanks to Old Ties
Stephen Grocer / Deal Journal:
Analysts on Groupon Deal: Google Upping Its Fight with Facebook?
Discussion:
paidContent, SAI and Search Engine Land
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).
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch, TechFlash, Computerworld, eWeek, Bloomberg, BetaNews, paidContent, Adotas, PC Magazine, Post Tech, Internet Archive News, Financial Times, CNET News, SlashGear, Neowin.net, Tnooz, The Register and MacDailyNews
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, SAI, TechEye and BuzzMachine
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:
Associated Press, BBC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TechCrunch Europe, Reuters, Engadget, Telegraph, Network World, Search Engine Land, Guardian, Googling Google Blog, Computerworld, Fast Company, VentureBeat, GigaOM, The Next Web, Digital Trends, DailyTech, Fortune, Electronista and BGR
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.
Discussion:
VatorNews, Ars Technica, Erictric, Between the Lines Blog, Techie Buzz, Pulse2, Softpedia News and SAI
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:
eWeek, Yahoo! News, Computerworld, mygadgetnews.com, IntoMobile, Erictric, Channel News, BGR, Pulse2, Hardware 2.0 Blog, SlashGear, Fonehome.co.uk, Download Squad, MobileCrunch and Bink.nu
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 …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, CrackBerry.com blogs, p2pnet, Geekword, App Advice, IntoMobile, AndroidSPIN, Android Phone Fans, Droid Life and Geek.com
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 …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, PC World, DailyTech, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, Geek.com, Pulse2, O'Grady's PowerPage and THINQ.co.uk, Thanks:markgurman
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 …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Winamp Blog, Technologizer, SAI, IntoMobile, TechSpot, Newlaunches.com, Electronista and Android Phone Fans
Nick Denton / Lifehacker:
Why Gawker is moving beyond the blog — The 2011 template represents the most significant change in the Gawker model since the launch of Gizmodo and Gawker in 2002. One could go further: it represents an evolution of the very blog form that has transformed online media over the last eight years.
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
Discussion:
GigaOM, CNN, SAI, Digital Media Wire, Reuters, Comcast Voices, Tech Trader Daily, Inquirer, Engadget, savetheinternet.com/blog, dailywireless.org, Telecompetitor, Telecom Trends, Digital Trends, Yahoo! News, DailyTech, Geekosystem, Between the Lines Blog and The Register, more at Mediagazer »
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Are Those Yahoo Layoffs Starting To Roll Out Today? — After we reported on rumors that Yahoo plans to cut as much as 20 percent of its workforce a few weeks ago, Yahoo called that number “misleading.” But layoffs do seem to be brewing, judging by the increasing number of tips we've been getting.
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.
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.
Discussion:
DSLreports, P2P Dns, Business Wire, mygadgetnews.com, Computerworld, CircleID, Techie Buzz, Techdirt, Gizmodo, OSNews and DomainIncite.com
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
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 …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, MarketingVOX, Inside Social Games and SlashGear
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.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Steve Jobs: AirPlay Video Streaming Coming to Safari and Third-Party Apps in 2011 — One of the major new features deployed in iOS 4.2 last week was AirPlay, Apple's solution for streaming video, audio, and photos from portable iOS devices to the new Apple TV for display on users' televisions.
Discussion:
App Advice, Gadget Lab, TiPb, MacStories and Netputing
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...
Discussion:
CNET News, Computerworld, Engadget, GigaOM, GottaBeMobile and Fonehome.co.uk, more at Mediagazer »
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.
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:
Gawker, Search Engine Land, All Facebook, The Register and SlashGear
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:
Microsoft, Technologizer, The Huffington Post, CNET News, Newlaunches.com and Gearlog
Sharon Gaudin / Computerworld:
Microsoft exec says Google is ‘failing’ in the enterprise — In Q&A, Microsoft's Tom Rizzo says Google doesn't understand business needs — Computerworld - Raising the stakes in its war of words, Microsoft today said Google simply doesn't understand what businesses need, and is failing at pushing its way into the enterprise.
Discussion:
WinRumors, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:hornokplease
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.
Discussion:
MediaMemo, paidContent, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Pulse2 and SiliconANGLE
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.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Twitter Trusts, No Longer Verifies — On the Internet no one knows you're a dog. And on Twitter, no one knows if you're really Kim Kardashian. Unless Twitter says so, via its “verified account” badge. — But that system, introduced by Twitter back in June 2009, is going away.
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!
Discussion:
SAI, The Next Web, Techie Buzz and Digital Inspiration …
