Top Items:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Facebook Raises $1.5 Billion At $50 Billion Valuation — Facebook has officially announced that it has just raised $1.5 billion in funding at a $50 billion valuation, according to a release issued today (we've embedded the release below). — As stated in the release, the investment was broken into two parts.
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Clock Is Set For A Facebook IPO By April, 2012 — Today, Facebook announced that it raised a total of $1.5 billion in its latest round, giving the company a valuation of $50 billion. But it also disclosed something else: when it will likely go public.
Discussion:
Mashable and SelectStart
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Facebook confirms $1.5B funding, leaves $500M on the table
Discussion:
Communications … and The Huffington Post
Matt Cutts / The Official Google Blog:
Google search and search engine spam — January brought a spate of stories about Google's search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that according to the evaluation metrics that we've refined …
Discussion:
Techdirt, Technologizer, Digits, Computerworld, Fortune, Search Engine Land, New York Observer, The Atlantic Online, StepForth Web Marketing Inc., @codinghorror, SAI, Erictric, Trends in the Living Networks, Neowin.net, SmoothSpan Blog, ITworld.com, Techie Buzz, broadstuff, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Lifehacker, TechCrunch, NewsGrange, FT tech hub, The Domains, WebProNews, Network World, DomainIncite.com, 901am, The Huffington Post and PC World, more at Mediagazer »
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Did Google Just Declare War on Demand Media? — Over the past few months, there has been a growing chorus of criticism — much of it anecdotal, but coming from a number of respected technology observers — about Google's increasingly useless search results.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Mixed Media, SAI and WebProNews, Thanks:defrag
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Google ready for action against content farms — Google is ready to fire a shot across the bow of the so-called content farms, willing to acknowledge recent criticism of the quality of its search results but still not quite ready to detail specific remedies.
Discussion:
paidContent, more at Mediagazer »
Ken Auletta / New Yorker:
Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google? — Was Eric Schmidt pushed or did he jump? Both. According to close advisors, the Google C.E.O. was upset a year ago when co-founder Larry Page sided with his founding partner, Sergey Brin, to withdraw censored searches from China.
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog, MediaFile, kottke.org, WebProNews, VentureBeat, SAI, MediaPost, Epicenter, TechCrunch, MacDailyNews, SlashGear, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Socialnomics, DailyFinance, The Tech Report, Mashable, Geek.com, MediaFlect, The Atlantic Online, paidContent, Felix Salmon, New York Times, DealBook and Xconomy
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Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Google shuffle: why Schmidt had to be pushed from the top — After slipups with search, Street View and Android, it's clear that Google needs tighter control at the top - and Eric Schmidt is not the man for the job — Eric Schmidt's departure after nearly 10 years as chief executive of Google …
Discussion:
Computerworld, Gizmodo, Search Engine Land, NetworkEffect, ITworld.com, Apple Outsider, BetaNews, Know Your Cell, AOL News, Network World, TechCrunch, Disruptors, asymco, Tech Report and broadstuff
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch Interview With Eric Schmidt, Larry Page And Sergey Brin
Discussion:
paidContent, Search Engine Watch, Open IT Strategies, DailyFinance, All Facebook, SAI, Computerworld, Internet Evolution, E-Commerce Times, Startup Meme, NBC Bay Area, MarketingVOX, FM Blog, Mobile Marketing Watch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Wall Street Journal, The Business Insider, silicontap.com and PE Hub Blog
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad 2 will have the same cameras as the iPod touch — Oh, hello. We've done some digging in the latest SDK and it looks like Apple's much rumored second-generation iPad will not feature some fancy 5 megapixel camera, but will instead shoot your flicks and take your pics with something close to a 1 megapixels.
Discussion:
Macgasm, SlashGear, Erictric, Thoughts from the Sidelines, VentureBeat, MacStories, IntoMobile, Macworld, Gearlog, MacRumors, TUAW, iLounge, Engadget, MacNN, App Advice, everythingiCafe and iClarified
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Open Source Hack Unlocks Apple TV's Potential — Your Apple TV just got a lot less boring with the help of nifty new tools that override its restrictions and add powerful capabilities. — Launched Friday morning, the hack for Apple TV 2 expands the set-top box's multimedia playback …
Discussion:
Ars Technica
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Theuni / XBMC:
You asked for it: XBMC for AppleTV2, iPad, iPhone4.
Discussion:
Geek.com, TUAW, Engadget, SlashGear, TiPb, Zatz Not Funny!, AppleInsider, Pocket-lint, Download Squad, MacStories, Lifehacker, MacRumors, BlogsDNA, GeekTonic, eHomeUpgrade, everythingiCafe and iClarified
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
AT&T offering free MicroCells to top 7.5 percent of customers ‘likely to experience poor in-building coverage’ — We've known that AT&T has been test-marketing free 3G MicroCells to subscribers with particularly awful reception in certain parts of the country since the product launched last year …
Discussion:
PC World, IntoMobile, CrunchGear, VentureBeat, Techland, Thoughts from the Sidelines and Gizmodo
Ian Hickson / The WHATWG Blog:
HTML is the new HTML5 — In 2009 we announced that the HTML5 specification at the WHATWG was progressing to Last Call. The plan at the time was to finish the specification this year and publish a snapshot of “HTML5” in 2012. However, shortly after that we realised that the demand …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, All about Microsoft Blog, Adactio, Digital Trends, Webmonkey, ZDNet, TechSpot, ITProPortal, SAI, PC World, techno.blog, CNET News and ConceivablyTech
Jon Brodkin / Network World:
Ballmer to Hu: 90% of Microsoft customers in China using pirated software — Microsoft CEO raises concerns to Chinese president about intellectual property protection — While Chinese President Hu Jintao knew he'd face some tough questions when he came to the United States this week …
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog, Inquirer and WinRumors
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Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Creator Of Million Dollar Homepage Makes Do Nothing For 2 Minutes — PopJam CEO Alex Tew, the guy behind the internet phenomenon Million Dollar Homepage, has now gone the opposite extreme. Along with developer Ben Dowling, he has created Do Nothing For 2 Minutes, a site whose purpose is pretty self-explanatory.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog and GeekSugar
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft moves its Chatter-like OfficeTalk toward commercialization — OfficeTalk — Microsoft's enterprise-focused microblogging technology — may soon find a home among the company's product teams and become a shipping product and/or service. — OfficeTalk, one of the projects launched …
Discussion:
ReadWriteEnterprise, The Next Web, WinRumors, TechNet Blogs and MSDN Blogs
Horace Dediu / asymco:
65% of Apple's sales came from iOS powered devices — The iPhone and iPad generated $15 billion of revenue last quarter. In addition, iPod touch generated about $2.3 billion, implying that iOS based devices were responsible for sales of $17.3 billion. — To put that in perspective I drew …
Discussion:
Fortune, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW and The Next Web
Ed Burnette / Ed Burnette's Dev Connection Blog:
Oops: No copied Java code or weapons of mass destruction found in Android — Sometimes the sheer wrongness of what is posted on the web leaves us speechless. Especially when it's picked up and repeated as gospel by otherwise reputable sites like Engadget.
Discussion:
Engadget, Guardian, Geek.com, Daring Fireball, Electronista, PC World, CNET News, Hardware 2.0 Blog, Ars Technica, Android Central, Android Phone Fans and FOSS Patents
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google Replaces ‘Reader’ Link With ‘Photos’ In Gmail, Users In A Tizzy — More proof that RSS is on its way out, and the apocalypse is nigh: Google has seemingly replaced the top link to its RSS reader product, Google Reader, with a link to ‘Photos’ (Picasa) at the top of the Gmail web interface.
Discussion:
App Advice, Post Tech, Search Engine Land and Geek.com
Zach Epstein / BGR:
AT&T may implement speed and data tiers for 4G LTE service — BGR has learned that AT&T may have plans to offer tiered data services when it launches its Long Term Evolution network later this year. The carrier apparently plans to trial two separate types of tiers alongside its LTE service: speed tiers and data tiers.
Discussion:
PhoneArena, IntoMobile, Androinica, Electronista, Know Your Cell and MobileBurn.com
Romin Irani / ProgrammableWeb:
Wolfram Alpha API Now Free and Open to All — Computational knowledge engineWolfram Alpha has just become more accessible from a variety of applications. Wolfram Alpha has thrown open access to its API to all developers with version 2. of its Wolfram Alpha API, allowing you to integrate …
Discussion:
Wolfram and Download Squad
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Confirmed: Google Readies “Google Offers” Groupon Clone — Google is about to launch a Groupon clone according to Mashable. Called “Google Offers,” the blog showed some promotional collateral that presents a very Groupon-like daily deal offering: [Google Offers Image] As everyone reading this knows …
Discussion:
TechCrunch Europe, Yipit Blog, PSFK, BaltTech, ClickZ, Tnooz, NewsGrange, Switched, Techie Buzz, Black Web 2.0, TechEye, SAI, Understanding Google …, The Next Web, Fast Company, NBC Bay Area, VentureBeat, WebProNews, Search Engine Roundtable, Examiner, CNET News, Computerworld, @gaberivera, Screenwerk and Fortune
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Google Still Needs to Buy a Groupon Clone
Discussion:
Deal Journal and TechCrunch
