Top Items:
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
MySpace Joining Google's OpenSocial — We hear Google is planning to announce yet another partner to its anti-Facebook coalition today — News Corp.'s MySpace. [Haven't confirmed]. Look for an announcement by the end of the day. This makes a lot of sense for both sides …
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Checkmate? MySpace, Bebo and SixApart To Join Google OpenSocial (confirmed) — Google may have just come out of nowhere and checkmated Facebook in the social networking power struggle. — MySpace and Six Apart will announce that they are joining Google's OpenSocial initiative.
Discussion:
Telegraph Blogs, Tech Trader Daily, Epicenter, Business Week, The Social Web, Between the Lines, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, VentureBeat, Deep Jive Interests, Mashable!, Wired News, Master of 500 Hats, rexduffdixon.com, AppScout, TechBizMedia, ClickZ News Blog, Online Marketing Blog, All Facebook, Alexander van Elsas's Weblog …, Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life, Like It Matters and The Social Customer Manifesto
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Google's OpenSocial Is Not a Facebook Killer — For the last year, Sergey Brin has been campaigning at Google with the slogan "features not products" in an attempt to reduce the sprawl of the company's eccentric creativity. — This campaign may have gone too far, at least when it comes to Google's new OpenSocial initiative.
John Biggs / New York Times:
A Computer That Works With Google, Not Microsoft — Advocates of Linux, the free open-source operating system, like to say that buying a standard-issue computer involves a Microsoft Tax, because you have no choice but to pay for Windows. New versions of Linux and inexpensive hardware …
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Ryan Block / Engadget:
Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player: $100, this Friday, Wal-Mart — Still waiting to jump into the high def disc game? Or just wanted another weaker, cheaper player for the last-gen TV you phased out to your rumpus room? Well, whatever your reasons, some (not all!)
Discussion:
Christopher Null, Gizmodo, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, BetaNews, technabob, Gadget Lab and UNEASYsilence
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Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Updates MacBooks to Santa Rosa, GMA X3100; 2.6GHz MacBook Pro — As rumored, Apple has quietly updated the MacBook tonight to the Santa Rosa architecture with mild speed bumps and the GMA X3100 integrated video. — White 13.3" — $1099.00 2.0GHz/1GB RAM/80GB/Combo/GMA X3100
Discussion:
Gizmodo, The Tech Report, BetaNews, TechSpot News, O'Grady's PowerPage, UNEASYsilence, dailywireless.org and Digg
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Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro quietly updated — The rumors were rampant about the pending upgrade; now the deal is done. The Apple MacBook has finally moved to the Santa Rosa architecture with a healthy GMA X3100 video bump from the lethargic GMA 950 of yore.
Lev Grossman / Time:
Invention Of the Year: The iPhone — Stop. I mean, don't stop reading this, but stop thinking what you're about to think. Or, O.K., I'll think it for you:
Discussion:
CNET News.com, Infinite Loop, HipMojo.com, Associated Press, textually.org, Gadget Lab, Engadget, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, TechFold, PalmAddicts and IntoMobile
François Bancilhon / Mandriva Blog:
An open letter to Steve Ballmer — Hi, this is François, from Mandriva. — I'm sure we're way too small for you to know me. You know, we're one of these tiny Linux company working hard for our place on the market. We produce a Linux Distro, Mandriva Linux.
Discussion:
Between the Lines, The Register, Digital Daily, CNET News.com, Engadget, PC Magazine, p2pnet, BetaNews, Channel 9, Jeremy's Blog, The Open Road, WebProNews, Slashdot and Digg
Jon Swift:
Facebook Declares War on the Blogosphere — Just as in earlier times a man was only as good as his family name, today we are defined by the social networks we belong to. So imagine my horror when I learned that I have become a virtual bastard. Earlier this week I logged into Facebook …
Google Blogoscoped:
Google's Internal Tool to Check Search Results? — Just a note : I've photoshopped the screenshot, so the numbers are real but not for "www.ffp.asso.fr" ;-) — Tom, does that include all numbers displayed alongside www.ffp.asso.fr, or just the GG Score? — the bottom lines are real, but they are not related to the results.
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
More Ad Network Deals—Specific Media Raises $100 Million, AOL Close to Buying Quigo For $300 Million — The frenzy around online ad networks never stops (maybe because there are so many of them). This morning, Specific Media, announced a whopping $100 million investment by private equity firm Francisco Partners.
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Catherine Holahan / Business Week:
The Ad Network Spending Spree — Big Internet companies have been snapping up ad networks to boost ad revenue. Now Specific Media plans to join the M&A frenzy — The wave of dealmaking engulfing the online advertising sector isn't over yet. The most recent evidence came Nov. 1 …
Brendan / Brendan's Roadmap Updates:
Open letter to Chris Wilson — You seem to be repeating falsehoods in blogs since the Proposed ECMAScript 4th Edition Language Overview was published, claiming dissenters including Microsoft were ignored by me, or "shouted down" by the majority, in the ECMAScript standardization group.
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Rob Mead / Tech.co.uk:
Is Apple's Leopard still in beta? — Mac users are hitting problems galore in Mac OS X 10.5 — Even a casual glance across the Mac web in the last few days will reveal a litany of problems faced by users upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. — Problems range from application crashes to login problems …
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Chris Soghoian / CNET News.com:
A dangerous conflict of interest between Firefox and Google — The Firefox browser may not be as independent as previously thought. Mozilla essentially owns Firefox, and it proved so whenit flexed its muscles last year in forcing Debian to rename its browser IceWeasel.
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Don't track Internet surfers by default, says FTC official — A Federal Trade Commission official on Thursday issued a warning of sorts to Internet companies: Stop collecting information about your users by default, and give them shorter, more conspicuous details about what's going on with their data.
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Dan Farber / Between the Lines:
Is Facebook the next Netscape? — Marc Andreessen's Ning team has put together a screencast and screenshots of OpenSocial in action. He notes that the examples are a little light on social functionality at this point, but they are working on getting user's friends information and ctivities feed into the applications.
Traci / Burning Questions:
AdSense Integrated with FeedBurner Site Ads — There's really nothing spookier than hollow, empty ad spaces rattling around your blog and/or web site, putting no cash in your pocket nor any extra hob- in your goblin. Before you banish these underperforming idlers to some distant house upon a lonely hill …
