Techmeme: Dear New York Times: The Pay Wall Was Only Half the Problem (Josh Catone/Read/WriteWeb)

1:25 AM ET, October 6, 2007

Top Items:

Terrence Russell / Epicenter:

Q&A: Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra on the Future of the Site — Blog ranking site Technorati has seen two new developments this week — new leadership, and a new competitor. But having both come just months after CEO Dave Sifry stepped down and announced staff cuts has some people atwitter.

Discussion: HipMojo.com

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Technorati CEO: Techmeme is "a great little site." — I was hoping that the changing of the guard at Technorati would mean that the company would learn to become somewhat humble. Early signs say that isn't the case. In a Wired interview, incoming CEO Richard Jalichandra did note …

Discussion: mathewingram.com/work

Microsoft:

Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship — Companies to forge new long-term relationship. — Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the "Halo®" franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company.

Peter Cohen / Macworld:
Bungie: When it comes to the Mac, never say never

Discussion: MacUser and The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Nancy Gohring / InfoWorld:
Microsoft spins off Bungie Studios

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and New York Times

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Five reasons why the Bungie-Microsoft split is a smart move for Microsoft

Discussion: paidContent.org and DigitalBattle

Ryan Tabone / Inside Google Desktop:

iGoogle meets Desktop gadgets — We've often asked ourselves why Google Desktop Gadgets are confined to just the desktop and sidebar. With Google Desktop 5.5 Beta, we've decided to change that. In addition to improved Outlook search functionality, Google Desktop now lets you run Desktop gadgets on your iGoogle homepage.

Discussion: Googling Google, Download Squad, Googlified and Official Google Blog

Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:

Hi5 is working on its own platform for developers, to take on Facebook — Facebook rival Hi5 says it is working on its own developer platform today, the latest social network to realize that it had better open up quickly or potentially lose customers to more active pastures.

Discussion: Profy.Com and Mashable!

Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:

Facebook Working On a Music Platform For Bands; Not iTunes Killer, But MySpace; Apple Tieup — Facebook is working on an artist platform to be launched later this year, which in essence is supposed to be better than what MySpace allows with its platform, according to multiple sources …

Discussion: CNET News.com and All Facebook

Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook to Launch iTunes Competitor

Discussion: Profy.Com, CNET News.com, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Download Squad, CyberNet, Valleywag, TECH.BLORGE.com, GigaOM, Facebook Observer and Mashable!

Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:

Good News, Bad News about Facebook Application Market: Long Tail Rules — My team at O'Reilly Research has been crunching the numbers on the rise of Facebook as application platform, and we've released a new report today, entitled simply The Facebook Application Platform.

Discussion: innonate, Boing Boing and Facebook Observer

Joel Spolsky / Joel on Software:

California — You get your brand new iPod home, in its shiny black box, which you open, and the first words you see are: — "Designed by Apple in California." — It's printed on the back of every iPod and iPhone, too: — Ah, the way these five words evoke a flurry of happy memories.

Discussion: GracefulFlavor and Business Communities …

Associated Press:

Kim Jong Il: I'm an Internet expert — SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called himself an "Internet expert" during summit talks with South Korea's president this week, a news report said Friday. — The reclusive leader made the remark after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun asked …

Discussion: DailyTech, Network World, Ars Technica, The Register, Epicenter and Engadget

Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:

Why Hannah Montana Should Sell $200 Tickets — The WSJ reports on the fascinating court battle between IAC's Ticketmaster and RMG Technologies, a Pittsburgh company that runs TicketBrokerTools.com, a scalping/reselling service. IAC says RMG has created bots that can outsmart Ticketmaster's …

Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:
Hannah Montana Battles the Bots

Discussion: Salon: Machinist

PrimeNewswire:

Virgin America and Boing Boing TV Announce Exclusive Inflight Entertainment Partnership Virgin America Flyers Will be Seeing Red With Boing Boing TV — PRIME NEWSWIRE) — Virgin America, the next-generation airline, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership …

Discussion: Boing Boing, Epicenter, Valleywag, Scripting News, Podcasting News, Boing Boing TV and NewTeeVee

Allen Stern / CenterNetworks: Virgin America is Smart

Josh Catone / Read/WriteWeb:

Dear New York Times: The Pay Wall Was Only Half the Problem — A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times removed the pay wall in front of its TimesSelect service, which controlled access to much of the paper's archives and its popular columnists like Thomas Friedman and Frank Rich.

Discussion: How To Split An Atom

WSB-TV:

iPod Sets Man's Pants On Fire — ATLANTA — The new iPod Nano is hot. But one Douglasville man said his old Nano got even hotter — hot enough to burst into flames. — "So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest," said Danny Williams. — Williams said the burn hole …

Discussion: CrunchGear, Engadget, CNET News.com, Infinite Loop, iLounge, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, MacSlash, Gizmodo and Digg

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Google Mines Mobile Queries, Finds Longer Strings, More Searches, And More Clicks — Gary Price at ResourceShelf points us to an intriguing article appearing in the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Magazine about mobile search at Google. In the piece, two researchers at Google dissect …

Discussion: ResourceShelf

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