Top Items:
Facebook:
What's on your mind? — People use status updates to share what's on their minds, to tell others what they're doing, and to gather feedback from friends. The different ways people use status updates form some interesting patterns. In this study, we looked at the usage of words in different “word categories” in status updates.
Discussion:
VatorNews, Mashable! and FlowingData
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
On Facebook, Angry People Are More Popular (Plus Other Fascinating Statistical Correlations) — Facebook's data team proved once again today that when you analyze a large set of anonymous user data from the world's biggest social network, you can learn some very interesting things about the state of humanity.
Tony Bates / The Big Blog:
Another update: Skype stabilized — I wanted to continue to update you on the status of the outage. We've been able to successfully stabilize Skype due to the dedicated supernodes deployed by Skype's engineering team. We're at roughly 90 percent of normal user volumes. — Audio, video and IM are running normally.
Discussion:
GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, Neowin.net, Computerworld, Erictric, VentureBeat, Skype Journal, USA Today, Pocket-lint, Disruptive Telephony and Techi.com
RELATED:
Abby Sewell / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Skype CEO says company may offer credit vouchers to paying customers — Skype CEO Tony Bates told users in a video message posted on the company's website Thursday that the online calling service is considering giving credit vouchers to paying customers who have been affected by the major service outage that began Wednesday morning.
Discussion:
The Big Blog, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Business Wire and Electronista
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google And NORAD Team Up Once Again To Track Santa — Needed any more sign that Christmas is upon us? The annual Google and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) partnership to track Jolly Saint Nick is back in action, starting tomorrow at 2:00 am EST despite the fact …
Discussion:
Google LatLong, Erictric, Network World, SocialTimes.com, PC World, WebProNews and Faster Forward
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
An iPhone Lover's Take On Windows Phone — Back in October, after the official launch of Windows Phone 7, I wrote up some initial thoughts after having played with a few prototype devices in the months leading up to the launch. Many seemed surprised by my mostly positive reactions.
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:
Netflix: We're Working On HTML5 Standard to Bring Streaming Video to All Devices — Remember a couple months back, when we were all waiting breathlessly for Netflix to release an app for the iOS, so we could finally watch streaming movies on the go? Well, iPhone and iPad users finally got their wish …
RELATED:
Christian Kaiser / The Netflix Tech Blog:
HTML5 and Video Streaming
Discussion:
PC Magazine and GigaOM
Bradford Cross / Measuring Measures:
Why is Groupon so Important? — The Economics of AdWords, AdSense, and Groupon — Google understands the importance because of AdWords and AdSense - a model in which ads are priced at auction relative to the present value of the cash flow streams resulting from new customer acquisition.
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Ex-Google exec's venture firm to raise $100 million: source — (Reuters) - Merus Capital, the venture capital firm co-founded by Google Inc's former head of mergers and acquisitions, is preparing to raise a new $100 million fund, according to a limited partner of the fund.
Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:
New evidence raises questions about how long Mark Hurd knew of Jodie Fisher — Former HP CEO Mark Hurd's assistant has said she alone discovered and hired the former actress as an HP contractor in 2007. But it turns out Hurd asked about Fisher years earlier.
Discussion:
SAI
Cecilia Kang / Post Tech:
FCC chair to approve Comcast-NBC merger with conditions for program sharing — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission issued a draft order approving Comcast's proposed merger with NBC Universal on Thursday, putting the deal up for vote before the agency's other members.
Discussion:
AdAge, VentureBeat, IEEE Spectrum and Between the Lines Blog, more at Mediagazer »
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Karl Bode / DSLreports:
FCC Releases Full Neutrality Rules …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, NewEnterprise, Electronista and Gadgetsteria
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Apple Trademarks ‘VoicePass’, And I Just Nicknamed My iPhone For Them — In the spirit of my trademark watch this morning: — Earlier this week, Apple filed a U.S. trademark for ‘VOICEPASS’, in the ‘Construction and Repair Services’ category. Bloomberg casually mentioned …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Patently Apple, iSmashPhone, MacNN and TUAW
Kit Dotson / SiliconANGLE:
Kinect Hacked to Aid Learning American Sign Language — Didn't I just predict this? Although, I see the merit for a computer being capable of reading American Sign Language simply for interface purposes, as a somatic and tactile language, it can be quite difficult for some people to pick …
Reuters:
Samsung to make system chips for Toshiba: report — (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp will outsource fabrication of system chips to South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co, freeing up resources for its mainstay memory chip operations, the Nikkei business daily reported.
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Arik Hesseldahl / NewEnterprise:
What Tech Companies Are Spending in Washington — It's no big surprise that big companies spend a lot of money in Washington to try to influence the outcome of pending legislation and to try to talk lawmakers and agency officials out of regulating one thing or another.
Discussion:
SAI, Electronista, MediaPost and The Atlantic Online
Joe Mullin / paidContent:
Firefox Designer: New Feature Will Expose Sites With Weak Privacy Policies — Another sign that browser companies are toying with new ideas for beefing up privacy protection: Mozilla has released a set of icons that are intended to communicate to users, in a simple and straightforward way, how their data can be used.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Webmonkey and Aza on Design
Ann Zimmerman / Wall Street Journal:
Gift Shoppers Flocked to the Web — Online Christmas Sales Rose 15.4% as Retailers Offered Free Shipping and Internet-Only Bargains — Web retailers rang up a very merry Christmas this year, with Americans going online to buy electronics, jewelry and even clothing in record amounts this season, according to several new reports.
Discussion:
Bloomberg and New York Times
Rebecca Harper / Hulu Blog:
Introducing Playlists and a New Way to Browse — Just in time for the holidays, we've unwrapped some new goodies to share with our users on Hulu.com: playlists and a new way to browse the site. — We're always looking for new ways to make watching TV on Hulu more fun …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Google Woos Local Advertisers — Google Inc., which helped popularize the idea of automated ad sales on the Web, has been quietly turning to an old-fashioned tool—phone calls—to compete in the hot market for local business advertising. — The Internet-search giant this year …
