Techmeme: Launching @obviouscorp with @ev and @biz. I was eating chicken wings when @ev pushed our new site at obvious.com. Good omen. (Jason Goldman/@goldman)

4:30 PM ET, June 28, 2011

Top Items:

Vic Gundotra / The Official Google Blog:

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web — Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day. — Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online.

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google's Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives — Google's long expected second shot at taking on Facebook in the social networking space has arrived in the form of the Google+ Project. It has some interesting twists on the social networking model but is far from a Facebook-killer.

Discussion: Screenwerk, Technologizer, Steve Rubel, @stammy, @marshallk, MediaFile, @rustybrick, Daring Fireball and @elatable

Steven Levy / Epicenter:

Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social — Today, Google, the world's largest search company, is formally making its pitch to become a major force in social networking. The product it's announcing is called Google +, and observers might wonder whether it's simply …

Discussion: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, The Business Insider, MediaFile and @jkottke

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Google+ Project: It's Social, It's Bold, It's Fun, And It Looks Good — Now For The Hard Part — Last night, you may have heard talk of a mysterious black bar appearing on the top of Google.com. Or you may have even seen it yourself. No, you weren't hallucinating. It was a sign of something about to show itself.

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

Google Yawn — I've been to so many big earth-shaking events from BigTechCo's — today's Google thing is making me yawn, while my eyes glaze over in boredom. — Here's how products like this are conceived: — 1. We need to kill Facebook. — 2. What will we do. — 3. It can't just be Facebook.

Discussion: The Business Insider, @dozba, Mark Sigal's Blog, @fromedome, @carnage4life and @anildash

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Myspace Sale Nearing End Today With Low $30M Price and Buyer You Never Heard Of — It was just supposed to be a three-hour tour, um, quick sale process! — But, like a storm-tossed ship looking for any safe harbor, the Myspace sale is still chugging along …

Discussion: PC Magazine, The Tech Trade, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Fortune, Inquirer, The Business Insider, VentureBeat, SlashGear, @alexia, Betabeat, Gawker, CNET News, @emilysteel, TechEye, @percival and @garyvee

Woody Leonhard / InfoWorld:

Office 365 vs. Google Apps: The InfoWorld review — With Office 365 now available in final form, here's what you need to know to decide if Office 365 or Google Apps (or neither) is right for your organization — Everything's going to the cloud, but only the hopelessly naïve would believe it's a stairway to heaven.

Discussion: The Register, eWeek, All about Microsoft Blog, TechEye, BGR, Webscopia, Tim Anderson's ITWriting and Mashable!

Microsoft:
Microsoft Launches Office 365 Globally

Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Microsoft Office 365 debuts with small-biz focus

Discussion: Googling Google Blog, Guardian and Consumer Reports News

Greg Bensinger / Bloomberg:

Sprint's Hesse Pushes to Stop T-Mobile/AT&T — Dan Hesse's White Room is closely guarded even within Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) The chief executive officer carries the only key and draws black curtains over his scribblings before leaving. This is where Hesse retreats to map out “nukes” in red …

Discussion: BGR, VentureBeat, PC World, GeekWire, TmoNews, DailyTech, Mobile Marketing Watch, AppleInsider, iFans, 9to5 Google and Deal Journal

Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
FCC Report on Wireless Market Offers Few Clues on AT&T Bid for T-Mobile

Discussion: CNET News, IntoMobile and FierceWireless

Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
FCC competition report says nothing with a lot of data

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog

Biz Stone:

It's So Obvious — My career in developing large scale systems that allow people to express themselves and communicate started in 1999 with Xanga. I left after a couple years and got more academic about the democratization of information on the web. Ironically, I wrote two books about blogging.

Discussion: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, @ev, @jason, @markmilian and @biz

Jason Goldman / @goldman: Launching @obviouscorp with @ev and @biz. I was eating chicken wings when @ev pushed our new site at obvious.com. Good omen.

Kate Kelly / The Strategy Sesion Blog:

Morgan Stanley to Lead Zynga IPO: Sources — Zynga is planning to file its initial public offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as Wednesday, and wants to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: paidContent, The Tech Trade, TechCrunch, VatorNews, Fortune, Deal Journal, Reuters and Reuters

Kate Kelly / @katekellycnbc:
Zynga to file S-1 as early as tomorrow. Deal would be $1.5b to $2b in size. Morgan Stanley leading. More shortly on cnbc.com

Discussion: Inside Social Games, The Business Insider, Games.com The Blog … and PE Hub Blog

EOSHD:

Apple refunding pros for Final Cut Pro X — Apple have been processing refunds for Final Cut Pro X as complaints flood in from grumpy pros - and it seems they are taking a lenient approach. — Although the iTunes / App Store terms and conditions state that ‘all sales are final’ …

Discussion: Digital Trends, CNET News, The Next Web, Gizmodo, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, CrunchGear, Boing Boing, RazorianFly and Tools

Staci Pies / The Big Blog:

Skype is in 'Da House — Being a Member of Congress means juggling a schedule that would be unthinkable for most of us. Members travel back and forth between Washington, D.C. and their home districts several times a month. This travel schedule has become more important as Members …

Discussion: Digitizor, ExtremeTech and VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Skype, ooVoo videoconferencing finally makes its way to Congress

Discussion: Hillicon Valley and Skype Journal

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Amazon Starts an Ad Network, Powered by Your Data — You can buy just about anything on Amazon.com, including advertising. Now Amazon is selling ads on other people's sites, too. — The e-commerce giant has started what is effectively an ad network*, where it buys Web advertising inventory and resells it to marketers at a premium.

Discussion: TechFlash, Techland, 9to5 Google, The Equity Kicker and Triggit

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Google Quietly Rolls Out WDYL.com: A Range Of Google Product Results On One Page — This morning, we got tipped to check out wdyl.com. The tipster noted that it was apparently a new Google site attempting to “create a unified UI to search in multiple channels”.

Discussion: PC World, VentureBeat, Techland, Gadgetwise, Search Engine Land, TechSpot, Joho the Blog, It's All Tech, TechnoRocket.net, PSFK, PC Magazine, ITProPortal, textually.org, Ubergizmo, @megan and NBC Bay Area

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Google now activates 500,000 Android devices every day — Google's Android chief Andy Rubin tweeted this morning to announce that Google is now activating 500,000 devices each day, a 100,000 increase since it's last announcement at Google I/O in May. — Rubin's tweet also states …

Joe Brockmeier / Network World:

Facebook bans KDE application, deletes user photos — KDE users have gotten a rather unpleasant surprise from Facebook: Not only is the site blocking KDE apps like Gwenview from uploading, the social media giant has also taken down photos uploaded with the KDE plugins.

Discussion: Friending Facebook Blog

Jenna Wortham / Bits:

The Gaga Effect Spreads to Tumblr — Is there any technology platform that Lady Gaga, the eccentric and entertaining pop songstress, can't dominate? She's already appeared in a commercial for Google Chrome, debuted her own game on Farmville, crashed Amazon's servers and partnered with companies …

Discussion: Betabeat

Miguel Helft / Bits:

LeapFrog Unveils Tablet Computer for Children — All parents who own an iPad know this: Their kids want to play with the iPad as much as they do, and that means they have to share. — Now LeapFrog, the educational toy maker, may provide some relief. The company on Tuesday unveiled …

Discussion: Engadget and Electronista

Alyson Shontell / The Wire:

Tech-Obsessed Ashton Kutcher Joins SB Nation's Advisory Board — Jim Bankoff, chairman/CEO of SB Nation, just announced via Twitter that Ashton Kutcher has joined the sports site's board of advisors. — He writes: — “Proud to welcome @aplusk as our latest @sbnation advisor.

Angela Watercutter / Epicenter:

All-You-Can-Watch MoviePass Brings Netflix Model to Theaters — Updated: Information on 3-D and Imax pricing and a comment from an analyst were added to this story June 27, 2011, at 11:20 a.m. Pacific. — MoviePass, a new $50-per-month service for film fans, will let subscribers watch unlimited movies …

Discussion: Digital Trends, PC Magazine, Pulse2, Mashable! and GottaBeMobile

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Ifeelgoods Raises $6.5 Million To Ride The Facebook Credits Wave — In a couple of days, Facebook will require game developers to implement its Facebook Credits currency, as announced in January 2011 (much to the dismay of some developers, although we should also note that several juggernauts …

Discussion: All Facebook, AllThingsD, VatorNews and San Francisco Chronicle

Horace Dediu / asymco:

The iPhone at four; growing up or just growing? — Ever since the iPhone launched four years ago (to the day), the question on everyone's mind has been: When will Apple expand the portfolio to reach into all market segments? I remember thinking in 2007 whether it would be in six months …

Discussion: Fast Company, App Advice, Guardian, iPhone Download Blog, 9 to 5 Mac and iPhone

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Google launches ‘Swiffy’ tool to convert Flash animations into HTML5 — Google is famously fond of the brave new world that is HTML5. So, it's little surprise to see a new tool emerge from its labs that converts Flash right into the latest version of the Web markup standard.

Discussion: Daring Fireball, Computerworld, Google Code Blog, ReadWriteMobile, 9to5 Google, 9 to 5 Mac and WebProNews

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