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2:10 PM ET, April 1, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
InfoWorld:
Microsoft, Yahoo agree on buyout price  —  After much internal debate and industry speculation, Yahoo today agreed to be acquired by Microsoft, adding $2.6 billion to Redmond's original offer of $44.6 billion on Jan. 31.  —  The agreement was reached near midnight last night …
RELATED:
Matthew Karnitschnig / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Unlikely to Raise Yahoo Offer  —  Microsoft Corp. is preparing to lay a long siege.  —  Two months after Microsoft made its $44.6 billion offer to acquire Yahoo Inc., the software maker has no plans to raise its bid, people close to the company say.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
More on MicroHoo: Irritated Investors!  Angry Arbs!  Zen Microsoft?  —  So, I was making the rounds again of my sources at Yahoo's major institutional investors yesterday and here's the overall 411: Frustration.  Confusion.  Impatience.  —  And the bottom line from several of them-if Yahoo does …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft-Yahoo pace slows to a crawl
Discussion: CNET News.com
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:   Microsoft Stands Firm On Yahoo Offer: “There Is No Reason To Bid Against Ourselves.”
Paul Boutin / Valleywag:
YouTube kills rickrolling once and for all  —  April 1, 2008: The day a meme died.  Go to YouTube.  Click on any of the Featured Videos entries.  Every one of them redirects to the same Rick Astley clip.  The gag is called “rickrolling,” a variant of duckrolling.
Discussion: theory.isthereason
RELATED:
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Gullible journalists agree to prank their readers  —  Nate Westheimer, a New York entrepreneur best known for holding a Silicon Alley popularity contest, attempted to persuade Valleywag to participate in an April Fools' joke.  We said we'd cover it, so here's the story: Right about now …
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
‘Smart URL shortener’ Urlrurl rolls into beta
Discussion: Somewhat Frank and Download Squad
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Gmail April Fools Not Very Funny.  On the Upside, They Started A Wikipedia War  —  Right on schedule: Google is releasing their April Fools jokes onto us as the calendars hit April 1 on the east coast (here's last year's efforts).  Google Australia got a head start earlier today with the very funny Future Search.
RELATED:
Loren Baker / Search Engine Journal:   April Fools Day Spam Invades Google
John Leyden / The Register:
Storm Worms exploit April Fools
Microsoft:
Microsoft Unveils Smartphone Advancements to Improve Ability to Work and Play With One Phone  —  Company demonstrates new version of Internet Explorer Mobile with desktop-grade Web browsing, introduces updated Windows Mobile operating system.  —  Windows Mobile is improving smartphones …
RELATED:
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide:
Live Search for Mobile improvements announced at CTIA  —  This morning in Las Vegas, at the CTIA Wireless 2008 convention, Microsoft President - Entertainment & Devices Division Robbie Bach is announcing a set of new features for Windows Live Search for Mobile, available soon if you have WLS installed …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Analyst: Apple's U.S. consumer market share now 21 percent  —  The iPhone gets the most press and the iPod sells in the largest quantities, but it's the Macintosh that really drives Apple's growth, says Gene Munster.  —  In the second installment of a multipart report on Apple's …
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Sprint Instinct: Could this thing beat the iPhone?  —  When I first saw the Instinct a few weeks ago I said “Finally.”  Finally, someone, somewhere, has created an interface and a device that follows the spirit and ease-of-use of the iPhone without resorting to wholesale mimicry.
Discussion: Gizmodo, Reuters, I4U News and Electronista
Sir Richard Branson / Official Google Blog:
Announcing Project Virgle  —  In my life, I've had a lot of exciting adventures and launched a lot of ambitious business ventures.  I'm delighted today to announce Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google which qualifies on both counts.
RELATED:
Andrew Pederson / Google:
Google and Virgin announce Mars expedition and colony
Discussion: Gearlog
InfoWorld:
Source: Windows XP to get reprieve for low-cost laptops  —  San Francisco - Microsoft plans to extend the availability of Windows XP for low-cost laptops beyond June 30, with an announcement expected later this week, according to a source familiar with the situation.
RELATED:
Tony Smith / The Register:
Intel shows Atom-powered Eee PC clones
Discussion: DailyTech and Engadget
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Live, from New York, it's...Mark Zuckerberg?  —  In a surprise move that has shocked Silicon Valley, young Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will guest host an upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live, according to multiple sources.  —  The mild-mannered Zuckerberg, best-known …
Discussion: Technology Live and MediaShift
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
Scribd now offering free document scanning [Update: it's real!]  —  Update (10:06 AM): The submission process differs from the original plan.  If you have the address, please don't send anything there.  Please check the updated instructions below.  And yes—this is real.
Discussion: CyberNet and Mashable!
Microsoft:
Ecma Office Open XML Document Format Appears to Win Approval as an ISO/IEC Standard  —  Final vote appears overwhelmingly in favor; input from 87 national bodies contributed to an improved specification.  —  After more than 14 months of intensive review, a Joint Technical Committee …
Jimmy Hsu / DigiTimes:
Lite-On developing BD-ROM drives for Xbox 360, sources say  —  Lite-On IT is developing built-in Blu-ray Disc-(BD) ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console, according to industry sources.  Lite-On declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Blog Comments Still Matter  —  Over the weekend, this post on Paul Graham's blog got a lot of attention.  The title was “How to Disagree,” and it focused on the different types of negative, or disagreeing, blog comments.  As Matthew Greensmith of Geek News Central called it, it was “a true geek masterpiece.”
 
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 More Items: 
Matthew Aslett / 451 CAOS Theory:
VC funding for open source hits an all-time high
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Jana Consortium: CNET leadership has “presided over massive value destruction”
Discussion: BoomTown and paidContent.org
Jordan Golson / Valleywag:
It's April 1 and I don't know what my salary is
Paula Rooney / Open Source:
Gartner report forecasts bad news, good news for open source
Discussion: LinuxWorld.com
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Veeple uses Flash to make videos come alive with ad links
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Download Squad
Andy Space / 9 to 5 Mac:
ChangeWave confirms iPhone battles BlackBerry
Discussion: Electronista
Richard Koman / ZDNet Government:
OOXML: Unofficially yes, formal announcement Wed.
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Leaked new Ultimate Extras sound scheme
 Earlier Items: 
Pshapiro / Community Voices:
Google Seeks to Organize All of Human Ignorance
Discussion: ReporTwitters Blog
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
CBS Radio, Last.fm sing a streaming-audio duet
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google April Fool's Jokes Galore
Richard Thurston / The Register:
Google lets users take Apps files offline
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
An Online Game So Mysterious Its Famous Sponsor Is Hidden
Michael Learmonth / Silicon Alley Insider:
Nielsen: ABC Wins* Battle Of Network Web Sites
Discussion: MediaFlect
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Getting to know the FriendFeed team
InfoWorld:
Steve Jobs “miracle” in the valley