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 Register, Guardian, Gizmodo, Inquirer, ITProPortal, Lifehacker, memeburn, Friending Facebook Blog, Andy Beard, The New Persuaders, @parislemon, Computerworld, CNNMoney.com, Digits, AllThingsD, Marketing Land, L.A. Times Tech Blog, ITworld.com, parislemon, the Econsultancy blog, Network World, Forbes, TechCrunch, Mercury News, 9to5Google, GigaOM, Pulse2, TechWeekEurope UK, eWeek, Macworld, ReadWriteWeb, Techie Buzz, Slashdot and WebProNews, Thanks:@blakeross
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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:
@lukew, VentureBeat, Daring Fireball, The Huffington Post, The Next Web and CNET
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.)
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 …
Discussion:
The Register, Inquirer, Softpedia News, CNET, Mashable!, Epeus' epigone, BetaNews, The Next Web, SiliconFilter, TechCrunch, Electronista, Computerworld, Marketing Land, Neowin.net, SlashGear, PandoDaily, NBC Bay Area, GadgeTell, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, Business Insider, WebProNews, Ars Technica, Bits, ReadWriteWeb and Google+ Info
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Violet Blue / Pulp Tech Blog:
Pseudonyms on Google Plus? Wrong.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Gawker, Betabeat and The Next Web, Thanks:@violetblue
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Steve Jobs looked to reinvent Apple's iPhone photography with instant capture system, advanced light-field sensors — “He had three things that he wanted to reinvent: the television, textbooks and photography,” said biographer Walter Isaacson in an interview following the release of his biography on Steve Jobs.
Discussion:
Computerworld, MacRumors, Electronista, Appboy Blog, PhoneArena, PalmAddicts and 1001 Noisy Cameras
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:
The Verge, GeekWire, Geek.com, The Next Web, The Escapist, SlashGear, VG247, VentureBeat, Neowin.net, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, www.pocketgamer.biz, WMPoweruser, Electronista, Kotaku and MCV: Home Stream
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:
Bits, Mashable!, Computerworld, Business Insider, SecurityWeek, TechCrunch, CNET, TG Daily, Epicenter, Gizmodo, The Next Web, PandoDaily, Forbes and New Media Age
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:
Engadget, Threat Level, TechEye, Softpedia News, The Verge, The Register, TechCrunch, Electronista, Gizmodo, msnbc.com, PandoDaily and The Pondering Primate
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
I'ma Set It Straight, This Watergate — Ed Bott, “How Apple Is Sabotaging an Open Standard for Digital Books”: … I agree with Bott that Apple is being competitive here, but disagree that it's an example of embrace/extend/extinguish. Put another way, over the weekend Bott called the iBooks Author EULA …
Discussion:
The Ed Bott Report Blog, @lessien, SiliconANGLE, Education IT Blog and PadGadget
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Ed Bott / The Ed Bott Report Blog:
How Apple is sabotaging an open standard for digital books
Discussion:
Daring Fireball, ZDNet and GigaOM
Benny Evangelista / San Francisco Chronicle:
Sheryl Sandberg - Facebook's grown-up face — To the general public, the face of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg, the young computer whiz and Harvard dropout who co-founded the social-networking giant. — But since joining Facebook in 2008, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg …
Discussion:
JIMROMENESKO.COM
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Jennifer Van Grove / VentureBeat:
Facebook added $15.3B and 230k jobs to European economy in 2011
Discussion:
AllThingsD 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, PhoneArena, TechFlash and PandoDaily
Jake Smith / 9to5Mac:
A5 jailbreak 'Absinthe installed almost 1M times over the last 3 days — On Friday, the Chronic-Dev team (along with a few other contributors) released “Absinthe,” the long-awaited free unteathered jailbreak tool for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Today, the team updated us with a few interesting statistics.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, MobileSyrup.com, Dev-Team Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, PhoneArena, iDownloadBlog.com and MacStories
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Verizon rides iPhone 4S, LTE in Q4 at expense of profit margins — Summary: Verizon Wireless posted strong growth for the fourth quarter, but margins were hit in the short-term due to the iPhone. — Verizon's wireless unit rode an iPhone 4S upgrade cycle and Long-Term Evolution 4G devices to a strong fourth quarter.
Discussion:
New York Times, Bloomberg, Engadget, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, Verizon, Inc., AllThingsD, BGR and IntoMobile
Mike Orcutt / Technology Review:
Twitter Bots Create Surprising New Social Connections — Researchers show how simple programs posing as real people can shape interactions on Twitter. — You might have encountered a “Twitter bot” before: an automated program that perhaps retweeted something you wrote because it had particular keywords.
Discussion:
AllTwitter and Weblogsky
Gilbert Kreijger / Reuters:
Apple again loses Dutch bid for Samsung tablet ban — (Reuters) - Apple again lost a bid on Tuesday to have Samsung tablet computers banned in the Netherlands in a Dutch appeals case over infringing copyrights of its iPad tablet computer. — Apple, which has been locked in legal battles …
Discussion:
FOSS Patents, Engadget, Inquirer, VentureBeat, London Calling Blog, Softpedia News, Electronista and SlashGear
John Markoff / New York Times:
Google's Autonomous Vehicles Draw Skepticism at Legal Symposium — SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Even as Google tests its small fleet of self-driving vehicles on California highways, legal scholars and government officials are warning that society has only begun wrestling with the changes …
Discussion:
Brad Ideas
Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:
Why the Jones Supreme Court Ruling on GPS Tracking Is Worse Than It Sounds — While the justices unanimously agreed police cannot put a GPS device on your car, they split on whether the government can track you without one. — Last fall the Supreme Court heard a case concerning whether police …
Surur / WMPoweruser:
Nokia already nearly 50% of Second Generation Windows Phone market share — Using data available from OccasionalGamer's game collection, who has more than 1 million game installs, it is possible to estimate the relative share of the various Windows Phone 7 OEMs, and as can be reasonably expected …
Discussion:
PhoneArena, The Next Web, Neowin.net, IntoMobile and Electronista
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, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, Android Phone Fans, 9to5Google, Electronista and MacRumors
Scott M. Fulton, III / ReadWriteWeb:
Just in Time for “Anonymous” Attacks, U.S. NIST Drafts a New Readiness Plan — Two years ago, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security firmly decided (again) that a policy of responding to vulnerabilities in the nation's cybersecurity when they happen, is insufficient.
Ray Walters / ExtremeTech:
The Pirate Bay declares 3D printed “physibles” as the next frontier of piracy — While the subject of online piracy is certainly nothing new, the recent protests against SOPA and the federal raid on Megaupload have thrust the issue into mainstream media. More than ever, people are discussing …
Discussion:
Mashable!, The Pirate Bay, memeburn, eBookNewser and GigaOM
Hunter Walk / TechCrunch:
BlackoutSOPA: How 87,000 People Taught Us About The Future of Online Activism — [Editor's Note: The Stop Online Piracy Act, the House bill that wants to give content holders vast new powers to block web sites in the name of copyright protection, has been delayed despite an extensive lobbying campaign.
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:
Computerworld, Zero Day Blog, Help Net Security, The Official Microsoft Blog, Inquirer, TechFlash and Seattle Times
Reuters:
Analysis: Megaupload shutdown unlikely to deter piracy — (Reuters) - The crackdown on file-sharing site Megaupload is expected to do little to reduce overall piracy of music, software and Hollywood movies, while potentially stifling emerging means of distributing content online.
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Google Spent $951 Million on Data Centers in 4Q — Google invested nearly a billion dollars in its Internet infrastructure in the last quarter of 2011, recording capital expenditures (CapEx) of $951 million. Google's CapEx spending was about $271 million more than in the third quarter of 2011 …
