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:
The New Persuaders, Digits, AllThingsD, parislemon, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Andy Beard, Computerworld, Marketing Land, @parislemon, ITworld.com, Webmonkey, Lifehacker, the Econsultancy blog, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, GigaOM, Pulse2, Forbes and Network World, Thanks:@blakeross
RELATED:
Chris Dixon:
What's not evil: ranking content fairly *and* letting public content get indexed — Most websites spend massive amounts of time and money to get any of their pages index and ranked by Google's search engine. Indeed, there is a entire billion dollar industry (SEO) devoted to helping companies get their content indexed and ranked.
Discussion:
reDesign, parislemon, @mathewi and Business Insider
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:
Search Engine Land, @twittercomms, Daring Fireball, Marketing Pilgrim and Business Insider
MG Siegler / PandoDaily:
Evil, Greed, And Antitrust Aren't Google's Real Problems, Relevancy Is — It seemed like this week could finally be the week when Google didn't make headlines for their decision to inject Google+ results right into Search. That hope lasted until Monday. Now the story is back — with a vengeance.
Discussion:
Daring Fireball
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.
Pseudonyms on Google Plus? Wrong.
Discussion:
Betabeat, The Next Web and Gawker, Thanks:@violetblue
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:
TechCrunch, PandoDaily, The Register, Electronista and msnbc.com
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, The Escapist, Neowin.net, Gamasutra and Electronista
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:
Computerworld, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, CNET, Epicenter 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:
Forbes and PandoDaily
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, iPhone Savior, PadGadget, NBC Bay Area, NBC Bay Area and MacNN
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:
iDownloadBlog.com, Android Phone Fans, Electronista, MacRumors, PhoneArena, CNET and 9to5Google
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:
Examiner, Computerworld, VentureBeat, Geek.com, eBookNewser, Appolicious Advisor, SiliconANGLE, Techie Buzz, iPhone, Technology Review, Redmond Pie, TUAW, ITworld.com, HotHardware.com News, Mercury News, Macgasm, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, Mashable!, DVICE, Electronista, Pocket-lint, App Advice and DailyTech, more at Mediagazer »
Paul Graham / Y Combinator Posterous:
Welcome Garry and Aaron — Y Combinator is pleased to announce two new venture partners, Garry Tan and Aaron Iba. They're both YC alumni, both formidable hackers, and both really nice people. — Garry was one of the founders of Posterous, which we funded in 2008.
Discussion:
PandoDaily
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
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:
CNET, TechFlash, Seattle Times, The Official Microsoft Blog, Neowin.net and WinBeta
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, 9to5Google, WebProNews, PhoneArena, Redmond Pie, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors and Electronista, Thanks:@mikebutcher
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, Jims-Empire, Gotta Be Mobile, Redmond Pie, WebProNews and PhoneArena
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:
PandoDaily, Betabeat, Business Insider, VentureBeat and Local Onliner
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:
eWeek, BGR, CNET, VentureBeat, GigaOM, paidContent, IntoMobile, MobileSyrup.com, GeekWire, I4U News, The Next Web, Business Insider, MobileBurn.com, Neowin.net, AllThingsD and Electronista
Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:
Nokia Siemens reaches for a $1.6 billion lifeline — With no more money from its corporate parents forthcoming and few remaining businesses to sell, Nokia Siemens Networks has gone to European and U.S. banks for the funding it needs to restructure and survive.
Discussion:
Electronista, Bloomberg and Reuters
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:
eWeek, PandoDaily, Shiny Objects, CNET, GeekWire, Gotta Be Mobile, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and parislemon
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Polyvore, the Fashion Site, Gets More Money and a New C.E.O. — On Polyvore, the do-it-yourself online fashion magazine, the trendiest clothing and accessories today are Givenchy bags, mini skirts and anything from H&M. — That information is helpful enough to advertisers …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
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:
Associated Press, PandoDaily, GeekWire, Marketing Land, Softpedia News and Neowin.net
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:
Wall Street Journal, BGR, AppleInsider, BetaNews, PhoneArena, Fudzilla, The Verge, IntoMobile, FierceWireless, Electronista and Engadget
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Apple appoints Sony Ericsson Americas President Anderson Teixeira to Head of Apple Latin America — Apple has plucked a high ranking executive from the folding Sony Ericsson Joint Venture 9to5Mac has learned. President of Sony Ericsson US and Head of Region North America Anderson Teixeira …
Discussion:
Electronista