Top Items:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
“Don't Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Gets Them Into Google's “Search Plus Your World” — I've written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Discussion:
Forbes, AllThingsD, Digits, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Computerworld, Andy Beard, parislemon, TechCrunch, the Econsultancy blog, GigaOM, Marketing Land, @parislemon, ITworld.com, Webmonkey, Lifehacker, Pulse2 and 9to5Google, Thanks:@blakeross
RELATED:
John Battelle / John Battelle's Search Blog:
Facebook Coalition To Google: Don't Be Evil, Focus On The User — Last week I spent an afternoon down at Facebook, as I mentioned here. While at Facebook I met with Blake Ross, Direct of Product (and well known in web circles as one of the creators of Firefox).
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
Google: Do Yourself a Favor and Just Come Clean Already — The issue over whether Google is giving preferential treatment to its own products is back in the news, and this time the evidence is pretty damning. — I'm not sure how Google will tap dance around it. (See Trevor's reporting about another Google+ tapdance here.)
Discussion:
Forbes and @twittercomms
Bradley Horowitz / Google+:
Toward a more inclusive naming policy for Google+ — With Google+, we aspire to make online sharing more like sharing in the real world. And during the Google+ signup process, we've asked users to select the name they commonly use in real life. — Since launch we've listened closely …
RELATED:
Violet Blue / Pulp Tech Blog:
Pseudonyms on Google Plus? Wrong.
Discussion:
Betabeat, Gawker and The Next Web, Thanks:@violetblue
Kathleen De Vere / Inside Mobile Apps:
Exclusive: Microsoft to discontinue its virtual currency system Microsoft Points — Microsoft's proprietary virtual currency system, Microsoft Points, will be phased out by the end of the year, according to a source with knowledge of the company's decision.
Discussion:
GeekWire, TechCrunch, Gamasutra, Electronista and Kotaku
Declan McCullagh / CNET:
Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops — American citizens can be ordered to decrypt their PGP-scrambled hard drives for police to peruse for incriminating files, a federal judge in Colorado ruled today in what could become a precedent-setting case.
Discussion:
The Register and msnbc.com
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
350,000 Textbooks Downloaded From Apple's iBooks in Three Days — Though nascent and unproven, Apple's new textbook initiative appears to be gaining lots of momentum — and quickly, too. Within days of its debut, Apple's iBooks textbook store had already racked up a significant number of downloads.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, DVICE, iPhone, Geek.com, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, eBookNewser, Mercury News, Appolicious Advisor, SiliconANGLE, Techie Buzz, Technology Review, Macgasm, Redmond Pie, TUAW, HotHardware.com News, DailyTech, Mashable!, Electronista, Pocket-lint and PadGadget, more at Mediagazer »
Dan Lyons / Real Dan Lyons Web Site:
Rumor: Apple spent $100 million in its first case against HTC — and got almost nothing — As I reported in this week's Newsweek, Apple's “thermonuclear war” on Android smartphone makers has been fizzling out lately. Most of Apple's legal claims have been tossed out, and the two minor victories Apple …
Discussion:
CNET, 9to5Google, iDownloadBlog.com, Android Phone Fans, Electronista, MacRumors and PhoneArena
Bloomberg:
Nokia Lumia Sales Seen Topping 1 Million — Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)'s first phones running Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) software may have sold enough units last year to help rebuild investor confidence in the Finnish company, which lost $19 billion in market value in 2011.
Discussion:
BGR, mocoNews, CNET, GigaOM, Business Insider, VentureBeat, The Next Web, AllThingsD, IntoMobile, eWeek, MobileSyrup.com, GeekWire, MobileBurn.com, I4U News, Electronista and Seattle Times
Jordan Golson / MacRumors:
Virgin America Names Jet After Steve Jobs — Virgin America has named one of its fleet after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, emblazoning a popular Jobs quote “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” on the side of this Airbus A320. — Steve mentioned the phrase in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University …
Discussion:
CNET, NBC Bay Area, NBC Bay Area, MacNN and 9to5Mac
Neil Daswani / Dasient Blog:
Dasient Has Been Acquired by Twitter — The Dasient team is excited to announce that we have been acquired by Twitter! Effective immediately, we will be bringing our technology, tools, and team to the revenue engineering team at Twitter. — Since its inception, Dasient has been focused …
Discussion:
TechCrunch and The Next Web
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
Average Silicon Valley Tech Salary Passes $100,000 — Average annual salaries for Silicon Valley technology workers surpassed the $100,000 mark last year, according to a new survey, pushed higher by the strength of the region's latest boom. — Tech-jobs website operator Dice Holdings Inc …
Discussion:
TechFlash
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Search, Punctuation Marks and Other Symbols — Google usually ignores punctuation and mathematical symbols from a query because it doesn't index them. They rarely change the meaning of a query and Google's index would have to grow a lot bigger, without improving the results too much.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land
Lee Rainie / Pew Internet:
Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period — The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, eWeek, AllThingsD, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, WebProNews, SlashGear, mocoNews, Consumer Reports News, App Advice, PadGadget, dailywireless.org, Computerworld, PC World, TechCrunch, GigaOM, The Seattle Times, CNN, MacRumors, Techland, AppleInsider, Reuters, MediaShift Idea Lab, TechSpot and Mixed Media, more at Mediagazer »
Tom Loftus / Digits:
T-Mobile, AT&T File For FCC Approval Of Spectrum Transfer — T-Mobile USA and AT&T filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission for approval of the transfer of $1 billion in wireless airwaves AT&T promised as a result of the failure of its $39 billion bid to take over its smaller rival.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, BetaNews, BGR, Fudzilla, IntoMobile, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, FierceWireless, Engadget and Electronista
Tom Krazit / mocoNews:
Denial Is Not A Turnaround Strategy: Why RIM's New CEO Needs To Get Real — If you took the statements of new Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) CEO Thorsten Heins this morning at face value, you might walk away thinking the company's many problems stem from confused marketing and poor execution.
Discussion:
Toronto Standard
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Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action — While the shutdown last week of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder and management team was certainly dramatic, a situation of perhaps even greater gravity is beginning to emerge. — Over the past 48 to 72 hours …
Discussion:
Bits, Digits, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Techland, CNET, Geekosystem, PC Magazine, Techie Buzz, Plagiarism Today, TechWeekEurope UK, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, Reuters and Between the Lines Blog
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Our Apple whisper numbers — Averaging the Q1 2012 estimates of the six analysts with the best track records — Whisper numbers, according to Wikipedia, emerge from widening cracks in the spreadsheets maintained by Wall Street analysts. Quoting an article by Daniel Svensson, the entry explains:
Discussion:
Shiny Objects, CNET, parislemon, Gotta Be Mobile, GeekWire, MacRumors and 9to5Mac
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
64GB iPhone 4S takes 21% of sales, 36% of iPhone buyers come from another platform — A new survey of recent iPhone customers found that 21 percent of iPhone 4S buyers chose Apple's highest capacity 64-gigabyte model, while 36 percent of users migrated from another platform like Android, BlackBerry or Palm.
Discussion:
Electronista, Redmond Pie, BGR, Gotta Be Mobile, WebProNews and PhoneArena
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Evi arrives in town to go toe-to-toe with Siri — When Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S I thought to myself, who else could do this? It would need to be a search engine with natural language processing, but also behave in the manner of artificial intelligence and respond to voice recognition.
Discussion:
SlashGear, Android Market, Electronista, 9to5Google, WebProNews, PhoneArena, Redmond Pie, iPhone Hacks and MacRumors, Thanks:@mikebutcher
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Gilt Groupe Cuts Include 10 Percent of Employees and Two Executives — Gilt Groupe, a luxury e-commerce and flash sales site, has trimmed roughly 10 percent — as many as 90 — of its employees, including some of its management team. — Earlier this month, Gilt Groupe CEO Kevin Ryan downplayed rumors …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Local Onliner, Betabeat and Business Insider
Danny Sullivan / Daggle:
Dear Rupert Murdoch: Let's Talk Piracy & “The Simpsons” — Rupert, my son had a simple request. “Daddy, can we watch last week's episode of The Simpsons?” No, son, we can't. You can blame Rupert Murdoch for that. — Rupert, I know you're all upset about all those SOPA & PIPA protests last week.
Discussion:
ReelSEO Online Video …
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Exclusive: YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views — (Reuters) - YouTube, Google Inc's video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company. — The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond …
Jay Greene / CNET:
Google nearly doubles lobbying spending in 2011, tops Microsoft — Google nearly doubled its federal lobbying expenditures last year, surpassing rival Microsoft in dollars doled out to persuade legislators to consider its policy positions. — The Web giant spent $9.68 million in 2011 on federal lobbying …
Discussion:
Marketing Land, GeekWire, Neowin.net and Softpedia News
Akky Akimoto / Asiajin:
Japan's #2 Carrier KDDI Pushing Ads On Android Notification Bar — KDDI, Japan's second largest cellphone carrier is being blamed by users on Twitter [J] by displaying advertising on Android “as a system notification”. — Here is a sample screenshot informs from KDDI to you “Diet by an App”,
Discussion:
Engadget, netbooknews.com, Pocketables, Android Phone Fans and Electronista
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft says botnet kingpin worked for antivirus vendor — Four months after dismantling the nasty Kelihos botnet, Microsoft says it has tracked down the central figure behind it- naming Russian citizen Andrey N. Sabelnikov as a new defendant in its civil case over the botnet.
Discussion:
The Official Microsoft Blog, TechFlash, Seattle Times, Neowin.net and WinBeta
