Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Bebo: By the (Not So Big) Numbers — What's AOL getting for its $850 million in cash to purchase of social-networking site, Bebo? — A very attractive social-networking service and a very experienced exec who has been running it. — But, perhaps more importantly for those who focus on pesky numbers …
Discussion:
HipMojo.com, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent.org, InformationWeek Weblog, Valleywag and MediaVidea
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Business Wire:
AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Buys Bebo For $850 Million — I'm not going to say that we told you so, but we told you so. — AOL has acquired social networking site Bebo for $850 million in cash. AOL CEO Randy Falco (left in picture) sent an email to all AOL employees this morning. Allen Stern's press call notes are here.
Discussion:
Fortune, PE Hub Blog, Silicon Alley Insider, CenterNetworks, Patricia Handschiegel and broadstuff
AOL News:
AOL to Acquire Social Media Network Bebo — AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a leading global social media network. Founded in 2005, Bebo now has 40 million members worldwide. Together with AIM and ICQ, AOL will have a social network of approximately 80 million unique users worldwide …
Discussion:
Reuters, paidContent.org, Digital Daily, Download Squad, Enterprise 2.0 Blog, TECH.BLORGE.com, Tech Tracks, Digital Trends and Creative Capital
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million
Discussion:
CenterNetworks, paidContent.org, Los Angeles Times, CNET News.com, E-Commerce Times, Outside the Lines, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, Search Engine Watch Blog, PDA, Balderton Capital, Valleywag, The Boy Genius Report, Inquirer, Kelsey Group Blogs, bub.blicio.us and Electronista
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:Bebo To AOL for $850 Million
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, eWeek, paidContent.org, Valleywag, Fred Destin, Between the Lines and The Drama 2.0 Show
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web - Expect The Internet To Organize Itself In A Hurry — Yahoo's embrace of all things open continues today - expect an announcement in an hour or so that they are expanding their Open Search Platform that we wrote about last month.
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Yahoo! Search Blog:
The Yahoo! Search Open Ecosystem — A few weeks ago, we began talking about the new Yahoo! Search open platform. Today, we're releasing more details about two important components of the initiative — the developer platform as well as our support of a number of semantic web standards.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:And Nerds Became Kings: Yahoo! to Announce Semantic Web Support
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
AppleInsider:
Apple TV DVR interface revealed in patent filings — A series of Apple patent filings published this week reveal a version of the Apple TV media device capable of browsing and recording live television programming in addition to serving up pre-aired content from the company's iTunes Store.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Crave, Electronista, VentureBeat, Engadget, CrunchGear, Webomatica and Gizmodo
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Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:
Source: Yahoo in informal talks with Microsoft — Microsoft and Yahoo are holding informal merger discussions, marking a shift from the “radio silence” that previously existed between the two companies, according to a source familiar with the talks. — A lot has changed over the past two weeks …
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
iPhone 2.0 “sneak peek” — There has been a lot of talk about the new iPhone firmware and its enterprise capabilities. Well, the iPhoneDevTeam has cracked the 2.0 (actually 1.2) firmware and created a version of the firmware that works with any GSM SIM card without difficult incantations and installations.
Mark Evans:
“A Listers” Are Beta Junkies — I know Louis Gray is a huge fan of FriendFeed but with all due respect, his enthusiastic post today on how a bunch of “elite bloggers” (aka A-Listers) have flocked to FriendFeed strikes me as, well, promotional. — A more accurate assessment may be that FriendFeed …
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
OpenSocial Beta Apps Go Live on MySpace — If you've been wondering how the OpenSocial platform will look in MySpace, its biggest implementation, today's the day you can take a first look. Right on schedule the first batch of apps go live today, one month after the platform was opened to all developers democratically.
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Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
The Lost Features of Google — Google created tons of products in the past. And some of them, they removed again after finding that they didn't work, required too many resources, didn't take off, or were overshadowed by legal concerns. Here are some of the “lost” Google services and features.
Marius Oiaga / Softpedia News:
Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 for 2010 - No Word on Windows 7 M2 — Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is right on track for release in 2010. Concomitantly with the leaked details associated with Windows 7 Milestone 1 dropped by the Redmond company to select partners in January 2008 …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, DailyTech, Download Squad, Engadget, TechBlog, Computerworld and The Tech Report
Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:
MSN exec Bradford leaving for ad company — Microsoft executive Joanne Bradford, who has been a key player in the company's MSN and online advertising units, is leaving to join Spot Runner Inc., according to a news release issued this morning by the Los Angeles-based advertising technology company: PDF, 2 pages.
Discussion:
All about Microsoft
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Vishesh Kumar / Wall Street Journal:
DirecTV to Start On-Demand — In its yearslong battle with cable-TV operators, DirecTV Group Inc.'s Achilles' heel has been its inability to offer any sort of video-on-demand service. The company intends to change that. — The No. 1 satellite-TV provider by subscribers is testing …
Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Nerve-tapping neckband allows ‘telepathic’ chat — A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time. — With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Crave, Today @ PC World, Gizmodo, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Engadget, Switched, Boing Boing Gadgets, Coolest Gadgets and Virtual Economics
news.harvard.edu:
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences hacking incident — A Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Web server that contained summaries of GSAS applicant data for entry to the Fall 2007 academic year, summaries of GSAS housing applicant data for the 2007-08 and 2006-07 academic years …
