Techmeme: Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate (Darren Murph/Engadget)

3:05 PM ET, March 7, 2011

Top Items:

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

The Real “Authenticity Killer” (and an aside about how bad the Yahoo brand has gotten) — Steve Cheney has never written something that so pissed me off than the blog he wrote today stating that Techcrunch's switch to Facebook comments has killed authenticity. — Here's the rub. He used his real name.

Discussion: Adam Sherk

Steve Cheney / steve's blog:

How Facebook is Killing Your Authenticity — We all know that the delineation between public and private was eroded by Facebook a long time ago. Over. Done. But now Facebook's sheer scale is pushing it in a new direction, one that encroaches on your authenticity. — Facebook is no longer a social network.

Discussion: Technologizer, InfoWorld, zenroll.com, @alexia, Howard Lindzon, The Blog Herald, broadstuff, @stevecheney and @loic

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook Comments Have Silenced The Trolls — But Is It Too Quiet?

Discussion: @sbmiller5, @parislemon, The Next Web, @ed, @mattcutts, @loic and @stevecheney, more at Mediagazer »

Doug Bewsher / The Big Blog:

Advertising in Skype — Today we announce something new - the launch of advertising in Skype, which will appear in the Home tab in Skype starting this week. — The Skype experience is our first priority, which is why we we've taken a lot of time working through and testing what kind …

Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews: Skype Launches In-App Advertising, Limited To Windows For Now

Lucas Atkins / N4BB:

Exclusive: BlackBerry 2011 Software Roadmap - OS 7, BIS 4.1, and more! — In the beginning of the year we learned the 2011 BlackBerry lineup through various leaks and roadmaps surfacing. It looks like an exciting year to see RIM release the Dakota/Montana, Malibu, Apollo/Sedona, Monaco …

Discussion: PhoneArena, Geek.com, iGeneration Blog, Softpedia News, TechEye, IntoMobile, GottaBeMobile, Life On My Mobile, Electronista, BlackBerry Cool and MobileWhack

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Google buys UK comparison website BeatThatQuote.com for £37.7 million — Google has bought UK price comparison website BeatThatQuote.com, acquiring the web property for £37.7 million earlier today. — John Paleomylites, Managing Director of the newly acquired company, took to the website to announce the deal, posting:

Discussion: TechCrunch, money.co.uk, Search Engine Land, TechSpot, @ashleyjfletcher and Blogstorm

Aaron Wall / SEO Book.com:
Google Buys BeatThatQuote, a UK Comparison Site Violating Google's Guidelines

Thanks:aaronwall

Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:

Feature: Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom — Motorola's Xoom tablet is the first device to ship with Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, a highly anticipated new version of Google's mobile operating system. Honeycomb introduces a sophisticated new user interface that was designed for the tablet form factor …

Discussion: GottaBeMobile, Edible Apple and MacDailyNews

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Google's Navigation App Now Able to Steer Android Users Away From Traffic — Google said on Monday that it is adding a feature to its Android-based navigation app that will allow the turn-by-turn program to automatically reroute users around traffic jams. — “You don't have to do anything …

Discussion: Technologizer, ReadWriteWeb, The Official Google Blog, Electronista and silicontap.com

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

TV's Next Wave: Tuning In to You — The television is channeling you. — Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people's TV-viewing behavior with other personal data—in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers—and using …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Technology Liberation Front, The Atlantic Online, Digits, ReelSEO Online Video … and Company Town, more at Mediagazer »

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate — Yow. Western Digital — the company responsible for shipping the planet's first 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive way back in 2009 — just announced a monstrous deal to acquire one of its primary competitors, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Nemesis / The Local:

Text messages to replace stamps in Sweden — Double click on a word to get a translation — The Swedish postal service plans to give customers' tongues a rest by allowing them to pay their postage via mobile phone text message instead of stamps. — A similar system is set for launch …

Discussion: p2pnet

Jonathan I Ezor / PreCentral.net:

HP lists TouchPad on Amazon (but not for preorder) — HP has taken one more step toward actually selling the TouchPad to customers: it has listed it on Amazon.com. Although the TouchPad shows as “currently not available,” and there's no pricing either, the page allows Amazon customers …

Discussion: Engadget, Unwired View, TechSpot, ZDNet, MobileBurn.com, Liliputing and Gadgetell

Chris Ziegler / Engadget:

Sprint's Nexus website is ‘coming soon’ — Just to throw a little more fuel on the fire, it turns out that directing your browser to now.sprint.com/nexus takes you to an landing site where you're told that “this page will be ready soon.” Certainly sounds more likely than ever that Sprint's preparing …

Fred / A VC:

The Always Logged In Experience — Last week I blogged about mobile notifications which I think is a big game changer. There are a few other aspects of the mobile experience that I think present great opportunity. Another one is the always logged in experience.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Mobile Messaging Startup Kik Raises $8M; Launches Group Chat And Photo Sharing — Mobile messaging startup Kik Interactive has raised $8 million in Series A funding from RRE Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures. Kik also announced that Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, A VC, VatorNews, VentureBeat, alarm:clock, CrackBerry.com blogs and bijan sabet

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:

Justin.tv Launches Socialcam Mobile Video-Sharing App — Justin.tv, the live video service, today launched an application called Socialcam to help users share video taken on their iPhone and Android devices. — The service uses Justin.tv's mobile live-streaming infrastructure …

Discussion: GigaOM, AppScout, The Next Web and Mashable!

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Google Controls 97 Percent Of Mobile Paid Search: Report — Almost 5 percent of paid search spending in the US is now in mobile, according to a report released last week from banking and investment firm Macquarie Group, using Efficient Frontier data. That mobile search spend could double …

Discussion: MediaMemo, Softpedia News and FierceMobileContent

Zach Epstein / BGR:

Samsung denies Galaxy Tab 10.1 overhaul, says tablet will ship as scheduled — Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported last week that Samsung was considering making changes to its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet following the unveiling of Apple's iPad 2. “We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate …

Discussion: BetaNews, AppleInsider, SlashGear, english.yonhapnews.co.kr, Fonehome, Android Community and FierceWireless

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Security experts decipher malware that attacked Android phones — Lookout Mobile Security has deciphered the DroidDream malware that managed to infect numerous apps on the Android Market. Google has taken action to deal with DroidDream, but the risk of infection is still there given the wide diversity of the Android ecosystem.

Discussion: PC World, The Official Lookout Blog, PC World, Macworld, ReadWriteWeb, Android Tapp, Inquirer and Computerworld

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

AOL-HuffPo Deal Officially Closes Today-More Big Media Hires Signal New Content Direction Under Arianna — AOL will officially close its $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post today, according to several sources close to the situation. — The culmination of the deal-which has already …

Discussion: TechCrunch, BW: GUEST HOME, VatorNews, MediaPost, DealBook, Poynter, Black Web 2.0, GMSV, Softpedia News, Fortune and SAI, more at Mediagazer »

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Skype Revenue Up 20 Percent To $860M In 2010; Paid Users Up 19 Percent — As the company prepares for a public offering in the next year, Skype released an updated S-1 filing that includes several new revenue, income and usage numbers. As you may have heard, Skype initially filed …

Discussion: Techie Buzz

Surur / WMPoweruser.com:

More pictures of the Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 prototype — More pictures of the supposed Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 prototype handset has popped up on a Chinese blog, clearly taken at the same session as the first leaked picture. These show a device clearly labelled as a prototype not for sale …

Discussion: Engadget, SlashGear, GottaBeMobile, Esato, Techie Buzz, Pocket-lint, Fonehome, Phones Review, Electricpig.co.uk, Softpedia News, SlashPhone, Gadgetell, Windows 8 Beta, Neowin.net and WinRumors

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