Top Items:
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:
Digits, Techdirt, InformationWeek, Trends in the Living Networks, Neowin.net, Erictric, Digital Trends, StepForth Web Marketing Inc., Technologizer, Deal Journal, broadstuff, New York Observer, @codinghorror, PC World, ITworld.com, Techie Buzz, SAI, WebProNews, Search Engine Land, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, V3.co.uk, Lifehacker, The Atlantic Online, Network World, The Domains, NewsGrange, Search Engine Land, Fortune, FT tech hub, 901am, TechCrunch, DomainIncite.com, PC Magazine and The Huffington Post, 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:
Mixed Media and SAI, Thanks:defrag
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Google ready for action against content farms
Discussion:
paidContent, more at Mediagazer »
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:
L.A. Times Tech Blog and Communications …
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 …
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Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Google Said to Grant $100 Million in Equity to CEO Eric Schmidt — Google Inc. is granting an equity award package of $100 million to Eric Schmidt, who will be succeeded as chief executive officer by co-founder Larry Page in April, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog
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:
WebProNews, MediaFile, VentureBeat, SAI, Fortune, kottke.org, Epicenter, The Register, PC World, The Microsoft Blog, TechCrunch, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Geek.com, Socialnomics, SlashGear, MacDailyNews, Search Engine Watch, MediaFlect, The Tech Report, Mashable, paidContent, The Atlantic Online, SAI and Techland
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Android source code, Java, and copyright infringement: what's going on? — So it's been a fun day of armchair code forensics and legal analysis on the web after Florian Mueller published a piece this morning alleging Google directly copied somewhere between 37 and 44 Java source files in Android.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Ars Technica, Electronista, ZDNet, Geek.com, Guardian, parislemon, Network World, PC Magazine, Digital Trends and WPCentral.com
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Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Take That, Cupertino! Toshiba Flashes Insults at Apple in Teaser Site for Its Android Tablet. — Toshiba is taking it straight to the iPad in a new Web site that teases the coming arrival of its Android tablet. — On the site, Toshiba touts the features its tablet has that the iPad lacks …
Discussion:
Android Police, Apple Headlines, Electronista and Androinica
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Marin Perez / IntoMobile:
Toshiba teases Android Honeycomb tablet
Discussion:
Engadget, Electronista, Android Phone Fans, The Next Web and Phones Review
Phil Nickinson / Android Central:
Minimum advertised prices set for Motorola Xoom ($799) and HTC Thunderbolt ($249) — We just got hit with the news of the minimum advertised price for the Motorola Xoom Android tablet and HTC ThunderBolt LTE smartphone on Verizon. Looks like the Xoom will be going for $799 — we have to assume that's unsubsidized.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Droid Life, AppleInsider, Engadget, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Android Phone Fans, SAI, The Next Web, Electronista and PhoneArena
Deborah Gage / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Why Andreessen Horowitz Models Itself After A Hollywood Talent Agency — Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have raised nearly a billion dollars in the 18 months since they founded their Silicon Valley venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz, even though they've never been venture capitalists before.
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, CrunchGear, IntoMobile, WPCentral.com, Techland, Gadgetell, VentureBeat, 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, Gizmodo, The Register, Webmonkey, All about Microsoft Blog, Adactio, TechSpot, Digital Trends, ITProPortal, ZDNet, PC World, SAI and techno.blog
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:
Reuters and The Microsoft Blog
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:
ReadWriteWeb, Neowin.net, WinRumors and The Next Web
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
PostUp Acquires UberTwitter, Renames Itself (Again) To UberMedia — Bill Gross is up to something. The CEO of PostUp, who previously founded (and sold) Overture, answers.com, and a number of other companies, has just acquired his second Twitter client in as many weeks.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, UberMedia and The Blog Herald
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
The Crunchies Awards Livestream [Video] — It's the most wonderful time of the year! We're live at The Crunchies Awards at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once again we've partnered with fellow blogs VentureBeat and GigaOm to celebrate the best technology achievements of 2010.
Discussion:
@techcrunch, The Web Life Blog and VentureBeat
Anil Dash:
How should a White House Quora Work? — Summary: The White House is looking to build a web community to get its questions answered, sort of their own Quora, and they're trying to do it the right way. They're asking those who would participate to help shape how the community itself works.
