Top Items:
The Official Google Blog:
An update to Google Social Search — Today we're doing a little bit more to bring you all the goodness of Google, plus the opinions of the people you care about. As always, we want to help you find the most relevant answers among the billions of interconnected pages on the web.
Discussion:
Friending Facebook Blog, VentureBeat, Examiner, All Facebook, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, SAI, Epicenter, BetaNews, Search Engine Watch, NewsGrange, John Battelle's Searchblog, Fortune, Silicon Valley Watcher, Google Operating System, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Computerworld, Googling Google Blog, Softpedia News, New York Magazine, Adotas, Fast Company, NBC Bay Area, Pulse2, Local Media Watch, Webmonkey, Techie Buzz, Erictric, CNET News, GigaOM, MediaFile, Digital Trends, Bits, Lost Remote, Tnooz, Techland, Digits, paidContent, The Next Web, MarketingVOX and PC Pro
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Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google's Search Results Get More Social; Twitter As The New Facebook “Like” — Your friends' activity on Twitter, Flickr and elsewhere — but for now, not Facebook — will soon be a lot more visible in Google's search results, including having an impact on how pages rank.
Discussion:
Inside Facebook, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, WebProNews, Gizmodo, MediaPost, The Atlantic Online, Fortune, Neowin.net, NetworkEffect, Logic+Emotion, The Huffington Post, SAI and Electronista
Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
Confirmed: Apple To Build Biggest Store Yet In Grand Central Terminal [Exclusive] — Apple will be building a massive store in New York's Grand Central Terminal, we have independently confirmed. The store will open in the fall, likely early September — and it will be Apple's largest retail space in the world.
Discussion:
Epicenter, VentureBeat, MacStories, MacRumors, Pulse2, Geek.com, RazorianFly, The Next Web, CNET News, MacNN and The Huffington Post
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Official list of attendees at Obama tech meeting: CEOs of Twitter, Netflix, Oracle, Yahoo, others — Here's the official list of attendees of Thursday evening's meeting of technology industry chiefs with President Obama in San Francisco. It includes many of Silicon Valley's biggest names.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, Computerworld, The Oatmeal, Digital Daily, Bits, NBC Bay Area, @lexnfx, Pulse2 and SiliconANGLE
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Redesigned Bing Bar Toolbar More Like A “Dashboard” — Bing is introducing a totally redesigned version of its toolbar, called the “Bing Bar.” Apparently it has been “rebuilt from the ground up,” says Microsoft's Stefan Weitz. Indeed, it operates more like a kind of “dashboard” …
Discussion:
PC World, Bing, The Microsoft Blog, LiveSide.net, SAI, TechFlash, Download Squad, Friending Facebook Blog, TechCrunch, Mashable!, The Next Web, Adotas, Erictric, Pulse2 and WebProNews
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Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:
Microsoft Releases New Version of Bing Bar Toolbar With Facebook Integration
Discussion:
All Facebook, Search Engine Watch, CNET News, PC Magazine, WinRumors and LiveSide.net
Popular Mechanics:
Confessions of an Apple Store Employee — Apple is famous for its secrecy, with a code of silence that runs from top management all the way down to its retail employees. One Apple Store employee decided to throw protocol to the curb and tell us what it's really like working at the vaunted retail outlets.
Discussion:
MacRumors, MacNN, TUAW and MacStories
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
It's Not a Bubble, People; It's a Pyramid Scheme — Mark Cuban knows a thing or two about bubbles, having profited handsomely from an earlier Internet boom. But ask him if we're seeing Bubble 2.0 and he'll give you a different theory. — “It's almost the 2011 version of a private equity chain letter …
Discussion:
DealBook
Jennifer Lynch / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Newly Released Documents Detail FBI's Plan to Expand Federal Surveillance Laws — EFF just received documents in response to a 2-year old FOIA request for information on the FBI's “Going Dark” program, an initiative to increase the FBI's authority in response to problems the FBI …
Discussion:
paidContent
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Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
FBI: We're not demanding encryption backdoors
Discussion:
Computerworld, DSLreports and Techdirt
Jan Wildeboer:
Microsoft: Absolutely NO (GPLv3-or-compat-licensed) Free Software for Windows Phone and Xbox Apps. — This is rather uncool, IMHO, I stumbled upon this forum entry and was quite astonished. It points to the Microsoft Application Provider Agreement that governs the Windows Marketplace …
Discussion:
PC World, thinq_, The Register, Arktronic's blog, The Next Web, ForeverGeek, Hardware 2.0 Blog, Neowin.net and ThinkMobile
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple looking to increase battery life with dense lithium cells — Apple is investigating techniques to increase the energy capacity of rechargeable lithium battery cells without increasing the size of the battery, allowing longer battery life in future devices.
Discussion:
Electronista, TUAW, MacStories, RazorianFly and iPhone Alley
Ben Fritz / Company Town:
Redbox digital service will go toe-to-toe with Netflix — Redbox is gearing up to challenge Netflix head-on, the kiosk DVD rental company confirmed Wednesday. — At a meeting with analysts, Redbox President Mitch Lowe said his company's forthcoming digital option will be subscription-based …
Discussion:
PC World, Engadget, TechFlash, SAI, GigaOM, VentureBeat, MediaPost, ReadWriteWeb, Hollywood Reporter, SlashGear, Pulse2, TechCrunch, The Digital Home, eHomeUpgrade, Techland, Electronista, Digital Trends, TDW Geeks, DailyTech, Bloomberg, NBC Bay Area and Home Theater Blog
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Spotify Signs On EMI for U.S. Launch. At Least One More to Go... It's getting closer: Spotify has finalized a U.S. distribution deal with EMI Music, multiple sources tell me. — Both EMI and Spotify declined to comment. — Coupled with last month's Sony deal, Spotify now has the approval …
Discussion:
SAI, Erictric, hypebot, Electronista, Mashable! and The Next Web
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Nordstrom Acquires Flash Sales Site HauteLook For $270 Million — In one of the larger exits so far in the flash sales business, retail chain Nordstrom has acquired flash sales site HauteLookfor $180 million in Nordstrom stock and three-year earn-out of up to $90 million. HauteLook has raised $41 million in funding.
Discussion:
eMoney, SAI, Thomson IR, @cisco_mobile and Pulse2
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Mac Growth Outpaces Market for 19th Straight Quarter — The Mac has been on a growth tear for a few years now, outperforming the broader PC market in most every sector. Indeed, December 2010 marked the 19th consecutive quarter that it did so. Mac shipments grew 23.5 percent for the month …
Discussion:
SAI, MacStories, The Loop, TUAW, Ars Technica and everythingiCafe
Ben Rooney / Tech Europe:
Motorola Executive Defends Tablet Price Tag … Motorola mobility chief Sanjay Jha confirmed that the company's new Xoom tablet will go on sale in the U.S. at $800, a higher price tag than current market leader Apple's iPad. — And in what has been described as the worst kept secret in the tech world …
Ken Jennings / Slate:
Jeopardy! genius Ken Jennings on what it's like to play against a supercomputer. — When I was selected as one of the two human players to be pitted against IBM's “Watson” supercomputer in a special man-vs.-machine Jeopardy! exhibition match, I felt honored, even heroic.
Discussion:
New York Times, Switched, PC World, Tradigital, Geek.com, Know Your Meme Blog and Faster Forward
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Presenting Our National Broadband Map. It's a Start. — The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) unveiled a nationwide broadband map for the U.S. today, and said “between five and ten percent of Americans don't have broadband.”
Discussion:
NewEnterprise, CNET News, NTIA, Computerworld, internetnews.com, New York Times, Between the Lines Blog, Datamation, O'Reilly Radar, DSLreports, BetaNews and @gigastacey
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Claude Brodesser-Akner / New York Magazine:
YouTube Offering Millions for Celebrity-Created Content — In a move designed to vastly improve the quality of its content, Google's YouTube is undertaking what's understood to be a massive bid to attract Hollywood talent — one that has agents practically leaping out of their John Lobbs …
Discussion:
WebProNews, GigaOM and Techland
New York Times:
Apple Is Weighing a Cheaper iPhone — SAN FRANCISCO — Apple has been exploring ways to broaden the appeal of the iPhone by making the popular device less expensive and allowing users to control it with voice commands. — But contrary to published reports, Apple is not currently developing …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac and Gizmodo
Bianca Bosker / The Huffington Post:
Facebook Adds ‘Civil Union,’ ‘Domestic Partnership’ To Relationship Status Options — Facebook has added two new relationship status options users can include in their online profiles: “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership.” — The new fields are being rolled out in the U.S …
Discussion:
Digital Trends, Zero Day Blog, ReadWriteWeb, All Facebook, CNET News and Runnin' Scared
Wall Street Journal:
Accel Targets $2 Billion for New Venture Funds — Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Accel Partners is raising four new funds this year with an overall target of more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. — Accel is raising a growth-oriented fund …
Discussion:
SAI and PE Hub Blog
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
CHART OF THE DAY: The Death Of The Music Industry — Here is a stunning visualization of the collapse of the music industry from Bain. As you can see, the growth of digital sales is not doing enough to offset the death of the CD. — (Chart via Peter Kafka, who spotted it on Flickr.)
Discussion:
Evolver.fm
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Amazon Lets Users Buy Android Apps Before Their New Device Even Ships — As Amazon nears the launch of its Android Appstore, it has provided an update to developers that focuses on a seamless buying experience for the customer. — For developers interested in participating …
Discussion:
NBC Bay Area
