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9:50 AM ET, December 29, 2006

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Dunbar / Associated Press:
AT&T compromise may get merger approved  —  WASHINGTON - AT&T Inc. has offered a new set of concessions that are expected to satisfy the two Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission and lead to approval of the company's $85 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp. Approval by the full commission could happen as soon as Friday.
RELATED:
Mike / Techdirt:
AT&T Agrees To Keep The Net Neutral For 30 Months To Get BellSouth  —  from the punting-until-later dept  —  With FCC chair Kevin Martin unable to push through an approval for the AT&T BellSouth merger due to an (no, seriously, don't laugh) ethical stance from a fellow commissioner …
Mike / Techdirt:
And By The Time Anyone Reads The Sneaky Fine Print On AT&T's Concessions, The Merger Will Be Done  —  from the fooled-ya dept  —  A few hours ago, we wrote about the concessions AT&T agreed to in order to get their merger with BellSouth approved — possibly today.
Bloomberg:
AT&T Offers New Concessions to FCC in BellSouth Deal (Update2)  —  Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. phone company, agreed to new concessions including some price controls to win regulatory approval for its $86 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp.
Scott Leith / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:   BellSouth-AT&T deal may be wrapping up
Ben Charny / MarketWatch:
Google's blog search engine takes over top slot  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Given Google Inc.'s dominance of the Internet search and advertising market, it's difficult to think of the company ever needing to pull off an underdog, "Rocky"-style comeback.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:   Google v. Technorati (and Hitwise v. Comscore)
Erick Schonfeld / The Next Net:
Google Eats Technorati For Lunch
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Gmail Disaster: Reports Of Mass Email Deletions  —  Just a week after I wrote "Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect" a number of users started complaining that all of their Gmail emails and contacts were auto deleted.  —  The first message, posted on the Google Groups forum on December 19, stated …
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Mom, Google Ate My GMail!
Discussion: Web Worker Daily
Artem Boytsov / Official Google Blog:
How we came up with year-end Zeitgeist data  —  The Zeitgeist is "the spirit of time."  This is why when we come up with the lists of top searches on Google.com for 2006, we do not simply retrieve the most frequently-searched terms for the period — the truth is, they don't change that much from year to year.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:   Google Top Searches: Based on Everything and Nothing
Liz Gannes / GigaOM:   Google Explains Wack Zeitgest Criteria
LeeAnn Prescott / Hitwise US:
Yahoo! Answers Captures 96% of Q and A Market Share  —  Search Engine Land had an interesting post about question and answer sites today that linked to a thorough reviewfrom MIT Technology Review of six of these sites.  Yahoo! Answers was the clear winner, which is can partly be attributed to its sheer volume of users.
Discussion: Screenwerk and Search Engine Land
RELATED:
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:   Yahoo Answers Dominates Q & A - No Wonder Google Gave Up
Walter S. Mossberg / Wall Street Journal:
The HDTV Dilemma: Pay for TiVo's Recorder Or Settle for Cable's?  —  If you just got a high-definition television, one of the best things you can buy to complement it is a digital video recorder, or DVR, the tapeless gadgets that save programs so you can watch them when you choose.
Discussion: digg
Arwen Hann / Stuff.co.nz:
World Wide Web-famous in Christchurch?  —  Start your search engines - a mysterious plane on the tarmac at Christchurch Airport may have ferried Google internet kings Sergey Brin and Larry Page to New Zealand.  —  A Boeing 767 reportedly linked to billionaire Google co-owners Brin and Page …
The Bad Astronomer / Bad Astronomy Blog:
The Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006  —  This past year has been — like most are — up and down for science in general and astronomy in particular.  We've had stunning successes and heartbreaking setbacks, all of which seem huge when dealing with them at the time.
Discussion: Slashdot and digg
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
Social Media is No Mo  —  As we conclude 2006 and head into the new year it is my conviction that the phrase "social media" is moot.  —  Social media, according to Wikipedia, includes "the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other."
New York Times:
Apple Filing to Tell All on Options  —  Apple Computer and its charismatic chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, are expected to make a big announcement about a new product at the Macworld conference next month.  Before that, however, the company has some other highly anticipated information to share.
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid:
Windows Vista Laptop on eBay, Proceeds Going To EFF  —  So regarding my infamous Acer Ferrari 1000 Windows Vista laptop (one of several sent to bloggers which are stirring up a quite a bit of controversy), I think the best thing to do at this point is auction it off on eBay and donate …
RELATED:
Joel Spolsky / Joel on Software:
Bribing Bloggers  —  There's an interesting debate …
Gamasutra:
Mars Sucks - Can Games Fly on Google Earth?  —  As part of an Intel team focused on pushing the limits of PC gaming, we decided to investigate whether Google* Earth could be used as the foundation of a video game.  Of course the best way to find out was to try it, which we did with a small prototype we call "Mars Sucks."
Discussion: Joystiq, reBang weblog and GameSetWatch
 
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 More Items: 
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Government may not need warrant to search your e-mail
CHINAdaily:
Google to invest in SZ video Website
Discussion: Download Squad and VentureBeat
Peter Pachal / SCI FI Tech:
Solar-powered GPS finds your place in the sun
Discussion: InstaGPS and Newlaunches.com
Dennis O'Reilly / Washington Post:
New UMPCs Hit Closer to the Mark
Carolyn Y. Johnson / Chicago Tribune:
Parents say texting kids improves communication
Discussion: Techdirt
Valleywag:
SILICON VALLEY USERS GUIDE: SVUG #14: How do I cash in on the 2007 bubble?
Los Angeles Times:
What will they think of next?
Discussion: Download Squad
Computerworld:
Five fantastic free phone tricks
Discussion: The Raw Feed
 Earlier Items: 
Seeking Alpha:
Yahoo: Progress On Social Media Products Flickr and Delicious
Om Malik / GigaOM:
AT&T U-Verse & Covad ADSL2+
Kate Kaye / ClickZ:
Marketers Flout Craigslist Rules to Promote Wares
Gerald Traufetter / Spiegel Online:
The Whole Planet on a Hard Drive
David Pogue / New York Times:
Brilliant Ideas That Found a Welcome
Louis Hau / Forbes:
Free Music—Next Year?
Wendy Tanaka / Red Herring:
Digg Raises $8.5 Million
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
HD DVD reportedly cracked, but difficult to verify
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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