Techmeme: Why is Chrome so important to Google? It's a ‘locked-in user’ (Larry Dignan/Between the Lines Blog)

7:40 AM ET, April 15, 2011

Top Items:

Google Announces First Quarter 2011 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. — “We had a great quarter with 27% year-over-year revenue growth,” said Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google. “These results demonstrate the value …

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

Why is Chrome so important to Google? It's a ‘locked-in user’ — Google's Chrome browser historically has looked like just another side project for the company. Sure Chrome is a speedy browser. Sure Google has garnered impressive market share in a short time. And yes Google gets to push browser development a bit.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Google: 3 Billion Android Apps Installed; Downloads Up 50 Percent From Last Quarter — On Google's earnings call today, Jeff Huber, Senior VP Commerce and Local, revealed that there have been over 3 billion Android apps installed. And downloads of Android apps are up 50 percent from Q4 2010.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Android and Me, Electronista and Inside Mobile Apps

Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Google's Profit Falls Short of Estimates as Employee Costs Rise

Discussion: Guardian, TechCrunch, Hillicon Valley, 24/7 Wall St., NewsGrange and Technology Questions

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Ditches YouTube, Goes Back To Relying On Nemesis Microsoft For Earnings Calls

Discussion: @dannysullivan

Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Google announces Q1 earnings: $8.58 billion gross revenue, $2.3 billion net income

Discussion: SAI, New York Times, Search Engine Watch, GeekWire, Mashable!, MediaFile, VentureBeat and Digits

David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:

The Tragic Death of the Flip — Day before yesterday, my jaw hit the floor, and I still haven't managed to get it back up again. Cisco is killing the Flip camcorder. Let's see if I can get this straight. Only two years ago, Cisco bought Pure Digital, the company that made the Flip, for $590 million.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, SlashGear, Off On A Tangent, UberMobile Blog, SAI, @loic, Technologizer and Electronista

Sean Hollister / Engadget:
Cisco's axing of Flip had an additional casualty: the unnannounced FlipLive streaming camera

Discussion: BetaNews

Biz Stone:

The Trouble Bubble — We founded Twitter, Inc. in March of 2007 and while we have long said it's about the users, not the service, we have nevertheless enjoyed favorable media coverage. What took so long for somebody to write the article that says we are falling apart?

Discussion: AllTwitter, Thanks:mdoeff

Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Twitter: Too many cooks could spoil this bird

Discussion: BoomTown, VentureBeat and Techie Buzz

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: Flipboard Confirms $50 Million Funding at $200 Million Valuation — Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard. — Today, its co-founder …

Discussion: Mobile Marketing Watch, Mashable!, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @john_frankel, Pulse2, Electronista, Social Markets, VentureBeat, paidContent, @loic, SAI, SocialTimes.com, PE Hub Blog and MacNN

Matthew Kato / gameinformer:

Multiple Sources Confirm New Nintendo HD Console — Gamers have been waiting years for Nintendo to finally release its Wii successor, and Game Informer has heard from multiple sources that the company will unveil it at E3 this summer if not sooner. — We have confirmed with multiple sources …

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Secret Tasty Labs Prototype Unleashed To A Select Few — Delicious founder Joshua Schachter always had a funny answer when we asked him what his new startup, Tasty Labs, would focus on. … But a few months have gone by, the company raised a nice store of cash and they're about to release …

Ashlee Vance / Business Week:

This Tech Bubble Is Different — Tech bubbles happen, but we usually gain from the innovation left behind. This one—driven by social networking—could leave us empty-handed — Phillip Toledano — As a 23-year-old math genius one year out of Harvard, Jeff Hammerbacher arrived at Facebook …

Nicholas Carlson / SAI:

These People Sold Twitter For Just $5 Million Back In 2006 — How would you feel if a company you sold for $5 million less than five years ago was now reportedly fetching offers as high as $10 billion? — That's almost exactly what's happening to the dozen or so original owners of Twitter.

Discussion: The Business Insider

Justin Case / Android Police:

[Updated] Exclusive: Vulnerability In Skype For Android Is Exposing Your Name, Phone Number, Chat Logs, And A Lot More — Update: Skype is investigating the issue, we've been told. — The safety of our personal information is often a concern of mine -who has my email address, my phone number, my date of birth?

Discussion: Engadget, SAI, SlashGear, Android Community, Electronista, Electricpig.co.uk, Android and Me, Techie Buzz, MobileWhack, TG Daily, IntoMobile and PalmAddicts

Ian Sherr / Digits:

Apple Says White iPhone 4 Is Coming This Spring — Customers who have waited nearly 10 months for the white version of the iPhone 4 won't have to wait much longer. … Apple said Thursday the white iPhone was would be released in the spring, reiterating a projection the company made in October.

Groklaw:

The Google-Microsoft Fight About FISMA Certification - Updated — If you were as puzzled as I was by the blog fight, as Geekwire calls it, between Google and Microsoft over whether or not Google was FISMA certified, then you will be glad to know I gathered up some of the documents from the case …

Discussion: Network World and Government Technology News

Tim O'Reilly / @timoreilly: Wow, per groklaw, it's Microsoft cloud services that aren't FISMA certified, despite $MS claims that Google's aren't! http://bit.ly/f4s8rv

Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:

Microsoft Data Center GM Timmons Heads to Apple — Microsoft data center executive Kevin Timmons speaks at a 2010 event in Quincy, Washington. — Kevin Timmons, who helped build the data centers that power Microsoft's global cloud computing operation, has left the company and is expected to take a leadership position at Apple.

Discussion: Computerworld, The Register, SlashGear, Digital Daily, Green (Low Carbon) …, ITProPortal, PC World, Edible Apple, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, MacStories, Electronista, Gizmodo, GeekWire, MacRumors, BGR, SAI and iLounge

Hugo Miller / Bloomberg:

RIM Chiefs Defend PlayBook Tablet Against Critics as Debut Approaches — Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said criticism of the company's PlayBook tablet computer, which goes on sale next week, are misguided because they ignore RIM's base of BlackBerry faithful.

Discussion: Computerworld, AppleInsider, CrunchGear, Electricpig.co.uk, Engadget and The Loop

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

mSpot offers Netflix-like movie club for new streaming movies — Netflix has made a big splash with its library of movies for low fixed monthly subscription fees. Now mSpot, which provides streaming movie services for a bunch of big carriers, is offering similar monthly deals …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Technologizer and MediaMemo

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Microsoft's latest WP7 chassis spec includes second-gen Snapdragon, optional gyroscope — The minimum specs for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS have taken a nice bump upwards, it has been revealed at this year's MIX. Current WP7 handsets are all running the Qualcomm MSM8x50 Snapdragon …

Discussion: SlashGear, MobileTechWorld, IntoMobile, BGR, Phones Review, Windows Phone Thoughts.com, Neowin.net and Electronista

Lance Whitney / Crave: The gadget blog:

Toshiba to launch self-erasing hard drives — Toshiba will soon debut a series of hard drives that can automatically erase or prevent access to their own data should the drives end up in the wrong hands. — The company's new self-encrypting drive family will include a new feature that detects …

Discussion: Geek News Central, Geek.com, Neowin.net, CNET News, PC World and Gadget Lab

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Blogging for HuffPo Is Like Writing Open-Source Software — There's been a lot of sturm und drang recently about the lawsuit that some bloggers have launched against The Huffington Post, arguing they deserve to be compensated for their writing, despite having agreed to provide their work knowing full well they wouldn't be paid.

Discussion: paidContent, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MediaVidea and Communications …, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:mathewi

Wall Street Journal:

Groupon to Pick Goldman, Morgan Stanley to Lead IPO — Groupon Inc. is expected to pick Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley as its two lead underwriters for a planned public offering later this year, people familiar with the matter said. — The IPO is expected to value the Chicago company …

Discussion: Reuters, VentureBeat, Pulse2, SAI and The Tech Trade

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