Techmeme: Google Crowdsources Content Farm Detection With A Chrome Extension (Alexia Tsotsis/TechCrunch)

7:55 PM ET, February 14, 2011

Top Items:

New Chrome extension: block sites from Google's web search results — We've been exploring different algorithms to detect content farms, which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. One of the signals we're exploring is explicit feedback from users.

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Google Crowdsources Content Farm Detection With A Chrome Extension — After a weekend filled with more search drama - from a sting operation set up by the New York Times to catch SEO offender JC Penney, to The Content Farm satire blog, to Danny Sullivan's tongue in cheek “How to use Google to Search” …

Discussion: InfoWorld, ReadWriteWeb, BetaNews, ITworld.com, The Business Insider and Gizmodo

Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:

More Detail On Apple's iPhone Nano [Exclusive] — We have more detail on Apple's iPhone nano, which according to Sunday's Wall Street Journal is real and may be headed to market this year. — But what we have will blow your mind. — This week, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal …

Paul Miller / Engadget:
The iPhone nano to forgo local storage? Common sense says ‘no’

Discussion: The Loop, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Gizmodo and 9 to 5 Mac

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Apple rumored to be evaluating 3 new iPhone prototypes, one with slideout keyboard — A Taiwanese website that has been the source of numerous Apple hardware leaks now claims that Apple has built three hardware prototypes for its next-generation iPhone, including one model with a slide-out physical keyboard.

Discussion: tw.apple.pro, Examiner, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, Technologizer, Electronista, Redmond Pie, iPhone Download Blog, RazorianFly, MacStories, iClarified, iLounge, everythingiCafe and Gizmodo

Jackie Cohen / All Facebook:

First Facebook SIM Card Released — Every GSM cell phone will soon have Facebook built right in, as Gemalto has created the first SIM card including functions related to the social network. — A spokesperson for the social network confirmed the development in via email:

Discussion: The Register, Geek.com, Gizmodo, MarketingVOX, Pocket-lint, Redmond Pie, Pulse2 and The Next Web

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0 Blog:
Gemalto brings Facebook on a SIM, turning ‘dumbphones’ into smartphones

Discussion: ZDNet

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Netflix Finally Arrives On the Boxee Box — Can you hear that? That's the sound of relief coming from Boxee's offices in New York, as the startup is finally able to add a Netflix app to its Boxee Box today. Owners of the device can access the app by manually initiating a firmware update …

Discussion: Macworld and Gearlog

Avner Ronen / Boxee Blog:
Happy Valentine's Day: Netflix on the Boxee Box

Discussion: CNET News, The Toybox Blog, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, TechSpot, Gizmodo, eHomeUpgrade, The Next Web, Hacking NetFlix, Engadget, SlashGear and Reddit, Thanks:richdemuro

Aza Raskin / Co.Design:

The Untold Story of How My Dad Helped Invent the First Mac — Jef Raskin, my father, (below) helped develop the Macintosh, and I was recently looking at some of his old documents and came across his February 16, 1981 memo detailing the genesis of the Macintosh.

Discussion: MacStories, TUAW and Gizmodo

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year — Microsoft announced on Monday plans to fill in some of the key gaps from the initial Windows Phone 7 release with two updates due out this year. — The more interesting of the updates is the second one-a major release-due later this year.

Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Video: Microsoft shows Kinect and Windows Phone, together

Discussion: Engadget, BetaNews and CrunchGear, Thanks:johnhcook

Aron Kozak / The Qt Blog:

Update on Qt — Judging by the sheer volume of comments on Daniel's post on Saturday you are all feeling like we are. Not the finest time in the history of Qt for sure, but also not the death of Qt that some of you are predicting either. — I was unable to continue to reply to all the comments …

Discussion: Daring Fireball and The Register

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:

Apple's 2011 supplier report: child workers, bribes, “involuntary labor” — Apple discovered underage workers, “involuntary labor,” worker endangerment, and bribery at some of its supplier facilities over the course of 2010, the company revealed in its 2011 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report.

Discussion: Examiner, Macworld, Between the Lines Blog, Hardware 2.0 Blog, CNET News, 9 to 5 Mac, SAI, Digital Daily, TUAW, NBC Bay Area and MacStories

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Bill Gross' UberMedia Raises $17.5 Million From Accel, Index and Steve Case — UberMedia, which just bought TweetDeck for $30 million in equity last week, has raised $17.5 million, in a round led by Accel Partners. — The valuation for the Pasadena, Calif. start-up founded …

Discussion: MediaMemo, GigaOM, Pulse2, SAI, @loic and mocoNews

Scott Austin / Venture Capital Dispatch:

Kleiner Perkins Invests In Facebook At $52 Billion Valuation — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Facebook are together at last. — VentureWire reports today that Kleiner is taking a small stake in Facebook by buying as much as $38 million of stock from other shareholders at a valuation …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Computerworld, TUAW, EngageDigital, Mashable!, All Facebook, The Digital Home, GigaOM, Digital Trends, SiliconANGLE, paidContent and Pulse2

Ethan Bauley / Data Central:

HP research shows mainstream media drive Twitter ‘trends’ to a surprising degree — Who gets to determine the big topics of conversation on social media? And how do they do it? Looking to find out, HP researchers recently examined how popular subjects get to be listed among the top ‘trending’ topics on Twitter.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat and Fast Company

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

LG Optimus Pad first hands-on! (video) — We've just gotten back from playing around with LG's 8.9-inch, 3D-friendly Optimus Pad (known as the G-Slate in the US). This Android Honeycomb tablets sports a dual-core CPU inside and a dual-camera array outside, giving you both the optical and processing capabilities to produce 3D video.

Discussion: CrunchGear, Gadget Lab, Engadget, MobileCrunch, PC World, PhoneDog.com, eWeek, SlashGear, Crave, Liliputing, CrunchGear, Examiner, Gearlog, Pulse2, BGR, TmoNews, MobileWhack.com, IntoMobile and techeblog.com

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Intel Invests $26 Million In CloudMade, Kaltura and Others — Intel Capital, Intel's investment arm, has announced six new investments totaling $26 million in a number of startups developing technology for mobile platforms. The startups intel invested in include open source mobile software company Borqs …

Discussion: Business Wire, Market Wire, VatorNews, The Register, SiliconANGLE, GigaOM and Beet.TV, Thanks:beet_tv

Stephen Shankland / CNET News:

HTML5 spec set for 2014 completion — It's been a work in progress for years, but there are a few more years to go yet before the next version of Hypertext Markup Language is finalized. — Specifically, the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML Working Group is set to announce today that it expects …

Discussion: W3C, The Register, Neowin.net, Computerworld and ConceivablyTech

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Huge Vote Of Confidence: Uber Raises $11 million From Benchmark Capital — Uber, a young startup that let's people book a black car service on the fly via their mobile app, has closed an $11 million round valuing the company at $49 million pre-money valuation, $60 million post-money, we've confirmed from sources.

Discussion: Pulse2

Ars Technica:

Call it “3G” or “4G,” America's wireless networks are still slow — If you've followed broadband discussions in Washington, DC, then you've heard that wireless is the future of communications. The National Broadband Plan offers wireless as the competitive solution to the broadband duopoly dilemma …

Discussion: PE Hub Blog

Michael Hickins / Digits:

Google Cloud Boosting YouTube Upload Speeds — YouTube is leaning heavily on parent company Google's huge cloud computing infrastructure of data centers and Web servers to reduce the amount of time it takes for users to see their videos published online, Digits has learned.

Discussion: YouTube Blog

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Qualcomm enables instant streaming of Netflix movies on Android — Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon mobile processors will enable future Android devices to be able to instantly stream TV shows and movies from Netflix. — Instant streaming is the hottest new way to get movies into the hands of users.

Discussion: MSDN Blogs, Liliputing, MobileCrunch, eHomeUpgrade, CNET News, PC World, Internet Evolution, Zatz Not Funny!, V3.co.uk, Light Reading, Android Tapp, Notebooks.com, SlashGear, Mobilized, Electronista and DSLreports

Bloomberg:

Zynga Said to Be in Talks to Raise Cash From T. Rowe, Fidelity — Zynga Game Network Inc., the biggest maker of games on Facebook, is in talks to raise funding from T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Fidelity Investments at a valuation of close to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Research In Motion Acquires Professional Contact Manager Gist — We heard the rumors that Research In Motion (RIM) was involved in serious talks to buy professional contact manager Gist, and today it's official. RIM has bought Gist, we've confirmed with the company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Discussion: Gist Blog, Inside BlackBerry, ReadWriteWeb, Research in Motion, eWeek, SAI, BlackBerry Cool, CrackBerry.com blogs, Social Media & Technology, Mashable!, GigaOM, Between the Lines Blog, BerryReview.com, Erictric and Xconomy

Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:

The new nightmare of developers and brands — It used to be simple. You just needed a website. Whatever you do on the web today, it's now a nightmare if you want to optimize your presence. — Platforms — You need to be on all popular platforms. iPhone of course …

Thanks:loic

Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:

HTC Facebook Phones: First Press Shots [Update] — HTC is indeed preparing a pair of Android handsets with dedicated Facebook buttons, and they are pictured above and below. While no specs were available, it is clear from the images that one is a QWERTY candybar a la the Motorola Droid Pro …

Discussion: SAI, wirelessgoodness.com, Eurodroid, PhoneDog.com and PhoneArena

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Economics of Blogging and The Huffington Post — When The Huffington Post announced earlier this week that it was being acquired by AOL for $315 million in cash and stock, one group felt slighted: a set of unpaid bloggers for the site, identifying by the Twitter hashtag #huffpuff …

Discussion: broadstuff and GigaOM, more at Mediagazer »

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