Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
10:05 PM ET, May 20, 2007

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Iain Dey / Telegraph:
Yahoo may net Bebo owners $1bn  —  Yahoo is rumoured to be working on an attempted takeover of Bebo, Britain's most popular social networking site, which could turn its British-born founder into the next internet billionaire.  —  Michael Birch founded the site with his American wife, Xochi, in 2005.
Discussion: Vecosys, paidContent.org and Valleywag
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo's Rumored $1 billion Talks With Bebo
Discussion: Screenwerk
Froosh / HipMojo.com:   Bebo/YHOO: My Rumor's Bigger Than Yours
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
Yahoo In Talks To Buy Bebo for $1 Billion (Rumor)
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:   Rumor from across the pond: Yahoo wants Bebo
MG Siegler / parislemon:
Yahoo: When You Can't Buy Facebook, You Buy Bebo
Discussion: TechCrunch and Joe Duck
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Bright Ideas: Reaping Results: Data-Mining Goes Mainstream  —  RODNEY MONROE, the police chief in Richmond, Va., describes himself as a lifelong cop whose expertise is in fighting street crime, not in software.  His own Web browsing, he says, mostly involves checking golf scores.
Discussion: WebMetricsGuru and Zenrob
RELATED:
Between the Lines:   Putting data mining in perspective
Nick / Rough Type:
Long player  —  I started reading David Weinberger's new book, Everything Is Miscellaneous, this weekend.  I'd been looking forward to it.  Weinberger has a supple, curious mind and an easy way with words.  Even though I rarely agree with his conclusions, he gets the old brain moving - and that's what matters.
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Optimus Maximus: 113 keys, ready to pre-order  —  Ready to move around some funds in your accounts?  Take out that loan from your mom?  Tell your wife you just don't know why the account's a grand light?  The Optimus Maximus is up for pre-order for $1564.37.
Discussion: Zoli's Blog, Slashdot and digg
Kevin Kelleher / GigaOM:
Did Microsoft go lose its head over aQuantive?  —  I've been trying to find a way to illustrate just how screwy Microsoft's $6 billion bid for aQuantive is, and here it is: For $6 billion in cash, Microsoft could have hired, in a single day, 60,000 engineers and salespeople …
Discussion: InsideMicrosoft
Mark Evans:
The Chronicle's 25% Solution  —  Everyone knows newspapers are struggling to deal with lower circulation and advertising revenue but the San Francisco Chronicle's decision to slash 25% of its staff within a few months is eye-opening news.  While this move will likely incite more concerns …
RELATED:
Mark Potts / Recovering Journalist:
Betting on the Future  —  There's a lot of good reason for gloom …
Discussion: HipMojo.com and Associated Press
Margaret Webb Pressler / Washington Post:
For Texting Teens, an OMG Moment When the Phone Bill Arrives  —  Sofia Rubenstein, 17, got in trouble the way a lot of teens do these days.  —  Her incessant text-messaging racked up a huge phone bill on the family's wireless plan.  —  "It's whatever pops into my head.  There's no stopping it," she said.
Discussion: cruel to be kind and Slashdot
Bob Tedeschi / New York Times:
E-Commerce Report: Bad Hair Days Lead Pair to Web Incubator and Venture Capital  —  FOR many entrepreneurs in the first dot-com boom, the name of the game was "portal-matic."  Spin a wheel, pick a niche interest group, build a comprehensive Web portal aimed at that group's needs and cash a venture capitalist's check.
Discussion: Jeffrey McManus
Ilana DeBare / San Francisco Chronicle:
Narrowing Online Market Focus  —  Keywords are key: Small businesses find pay-per-click ads can be economical tool  —  Howard Mora started buying pay-per-click Internet ads two years ago for his Fremont pet-sitting business, the Animal Nanny.  Today he gets about 40 new clients per year …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
MyMiniLife: Your Embeddable Virtual World  —  MyMiniLife is a Flash based virtual world/social network.  Users create and customize a character and then build out a virtual space, adding walls, floors, doors, windows, etc.  Users can then add customized goods ranging from lamps to cannons to the space …
Michael Fitzgerald / New York Times:
Prototype: Why Work Is Looking More Like a Video Game  —  WORK is not play.  But maybe it should be.  —  In fact, Paul Johnston has remade his company on the idea that business software will work better if it feels like a game.  Mr. Johnston is not some awkward adolescent …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Geni: Earning That $100 million Valuation  —  When genealogy site Geni announced that it had raised a venture round from Charles River Ventures valuing the two month old startup at $100 million, more than a few eyebrows were raised.  For the last couple of months, people have referred to …
Computerworld:
New and 'improved' Gozi Trojan version on the loose  —  Stealthier Russian Trojan on the loose since April  —  Jaikumar Vijayan Today's Top Stories or Other Security Stories  —  A new, stealthier version of a previously known Russian Trojan horse program called Gozi has been circulating …
Mark Helprin / New York Times:
A Great Idea Lives Forever.  Shouldn't Its Copyright?  —  WHAT if, after you had paid the taxes on earnings with which you built a house, sales taxes on the materials, real estate taxes during your life, and inheritance taxes at your death, the government would eventually commandeer it entirely?
Gizmodo:
Gallery: Giz Hearts Maker's Faire  —  That's Lisa and yours truly at the Flickr/Yahoo! booth, where they'd take a polaroid and scan it using some custom ware on a Sharp photocopier directly to Flickr.  —  And here's my photo stream of 90 photos from the amazing and completely overwhelming Maker's Faire.
Discussion: Gadget Lab and I4U News
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 10:05 PM ET, May 20, 2007.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Emily / textually.org:
NEW MEN'S UNDERWEAR PROTECTS FROM HARMFUL CELL PHONE RAYS
Discussion: Engadget and The Raw Feed
Shoemoney:
Adsense Arbitrage - Just The Facts
Charles Duhigg / New York Times:
DATA ON THE ELDERLY, MARKETED TO THIEVES
 Earlier Items: 
broadbandreports.com:
Citywide Wi-Fi: Boon or Bust?
Clay Shirky / Many-to-Many:
The (Bayesian) Advantage of Youth
Discussion: robhyndman.com and A VC
Mark Wallace / 3pointD.com:
Anshe to Launch Inter-World Financial Market
Discussion: The Other Here and Metaversed
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD's board says it will “carefully review and consider” Paramount's revised offer, which includes a full backstop personally guaranteed by Larry Ellison

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page