Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
7:30 PM ET, November 20, 2007

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Betsy Schiffman / Epicenter:
Status Update: Facebook Is Letting Users Drop the "Is"  —  Facebook has caved into popular demand and will make the "is" in status updates optional, effective tonight, according to allfacebook.com.  —  The much despised "is" has been a mandatory component of the status update …
RELATED:
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Removing "Is" From Status Updates?  —  Well it looks like it has finally happened.  The dreaded "is" present in status updates that people have complained about for the past few months is now finally being removed.  Well, it appears that it will become optional.  According to Facebook's platform status feed:
Discussion: WebProNews, Valleywag and ParisLemon
Josh Catone / Read/WriteWeb:
Facebook To Drop 'Is' From Status Updates
Discussion: Download Squad
Beltzner / Mozilla Developer News:
Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available for download  —  Please note: We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 Beta 1 milestone release.  It is intended for testing purposes only.  —  Firefox 3 Beta 1 is now available for download.
RELATED:
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Mozilla's Firefox 3 beta: Improved but imperfect  —  A few months later than had been planned, Mozilla released on Monday night the first beta version of an overhauled Firefox, the widely used open-source Web browser.  —  Firefox 3 beta 1 includes a number of significant features that Mozilla …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Firefox 3 Beta 1: The Memory Use Says It All  —  I've been a long time Firefox fanboy.  I was one of the 10,000 people who contributed, and had their name featured in the NY Times back in 2004.  I've long preached to anyone who would listen that Firefox is a better alternative to Internet Explorer …
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?  —  Today I want to ponder the question: what if Microsoft, not Google, had created Gmail?  What would be the differences in that web mail client for users today?  What if we apply some of the same design rules that brought us Hotmail, for instance?
Discussion: Valleywag and ParisLemon
Inside CRM:
The 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Time  —  Catastrophic collapses and classic crashes in the high-tech business world.  —  Some things were just never meant to be, but that doesn't mean that investors won't pile millions of dollars upon a bad idea — or even a good idea gone bad.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Google Set-Top Box (Think Android For TV)  —  Deep in the Googleplex there is an engineering team thinking about how to extend Google's reach into your TV.  Its work goes way beyond the Google TV ads currently being tested by EchoStar (and targeted with help from Nielsen).
Jaron Lanier / New York Times:
Pay Me for My Content  —  INTERNET idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop whining and figure out how to join the party!
RELATED:
Nick / Rough Type:   Against free  —  "Pay me for my content," says Jaron Lanier …
Tameka Kee / MediaPost Publications:
Former AOL Chair Backs New Search Tech Startup 'Clickable'  —  NEW YORK-BASED CLICKABLE ANNOUNCED THAT former AOL Chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller has joined the company's Board of Directors.  —  The announcement comes on the heels of the search tech startup's naming of Nielsen BuzzMetrics vet Max Kalehoff …
Discussion: Screenwerk and Mashable!
RELATED:
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
MoveOn.org takes on Facebook's 'Beacon' ads  —  Online activist group MoveOn.org is poised to announce a campaign targeting Facebook's "Beacon" advertisements, which post information about users' activity on partner sites (movie rentals, purchases from online retailers) onto their friends' News Feeds.
heise Security:
Apple Mail in Leopard with the same old error  —  In March 2006 Apple defused a security problem in Apple Mail that made it possible to inject disguised malignant code.  In Leopard, the patch was apparently forgotten.  This means that you can inadvertently start an executable by double-clicking …
Discussion: eWEEK.com
RELATED:
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Leopard security bug puts Mail users at risk
Discussion: heise Security
Michael Krigsman / IT Project Failures:
IT security failure causes UK Revenue & Customs (HMRC) chairman to resign  —  Two weeks ago, I raised serious questions about IT governance in the UK at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).  At that time, the agency lost a CD containing private information belonging to 15,000 people in the UK.
Discussion: The Register and AccMan Pro
RELATED:
P2P Blog:
Mediadefender hack costs company 825,000 USD  —  Those 6000 Mediadefender emails that leaked onto the web in September cost the anti-piracy outlet dearly: A recent SEC filing of Mediadefender parent ArtistDirect reveals that the company lost at least 825,000 dollars due to the hack …
Discussion: Slyck, TorrentFreak, p2pnet and Mashable!
ResourceShelf:
Google Transfers A LOT of Domains to Google Name Servers; Is A Google Tax Prep Service in the Works and What Might GoogleSecret Be All About?  —  All of these domains were transferred to Google name servers in the past week or so.  They are also all registered to Google Inc. You'll see lots …
Discussion: WebProNews, InsideGoogle and ParisLemon
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 7:30 PM ET, November 20, 2007.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
Authy killed their desktop apps.  Time to switch to a reliable authenticator.  Time to switch to Zoho OneAuth.  —  Twilio's Authy recently announced end of life (EOL) for their desktop apps on March 19, 2024—five months ahead of schedule.
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
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: 
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
RedLasso: Cool News Vid Tools, but No Content Deals on Which to Use Them
Discussion: paidContent.org
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Broken DRM scheme: $45 million; trampling fair use: priceless
Discussion: Gizmodo
Ann Bednarz / Network World:
AT&T calls teleworkers back to cubicle life
Discussion: DSLreports and VoIP Watch
Lori Grunin / Crave: The gadget blog:
Good vibes for Nikon's 18-55mm lens
Discussion: Gizmodo
Alec Saunders .LOG:
Some VoIP applications ARE failing on Facebook!
Discussion: Jon Arnold's Blog
diego's weblog:
Kindle!  —  So yesterday morning I ordered a Kindle …
Discussion: Mike Rowehl
Roy Mark / eWEEK.com:
Report Cites China's Cyber-Warfare Plans
Loren Baker / Search Engine Journal:
20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To
 Earlier Items: 
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
The Gizmodo Ultimate Black Friday Deal Guide [Black Friday Plan]
Edward Wyatt / New York Times:
Webisodes of 'Lost': Model Deal for Writers?
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo Acquisitions Compared
Discussion: Read/WriteWeb and Ted's Take
Damian Koh / Crave: The gadget blog:
A phone that knows when it's upside-down
Verizon:
Verizon Continues to Dramatically Raise Broadband Upload Speeds …
Jonathan Mulholland:
What Google has planned for Jaiku?
Susan Stellin / New York Times:
On the Job, Everywhere  —  One challenge of the work-anywhere lifestyle …
Discussion: jkOnTheRun and Hightouch
 

 
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

 
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