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11:25 AM ET, May 19, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why Microsoft will buy Facebook and keep it closed  —  It no longer is about Data Portability or Social Graph Portability, if you will.  —  I'm hearing these rumors too that John Furrier (my ex-boss) is reporting.  That Microsoft will buy Yahoo's search and then buy Facebook for $15 to $20 billion.
RELATED:
John Furrier / Furrier.org:
Silicon Valley Rumor: Microsoft to Buy Yahoo Search and Then Facebook  —  My sources say that the Yahoo and Microsoft teams are bunkered down in a Palo Alto hotel hammering out the final stages of a transaction that will have Microsoft picking up the Yahoo search business.  Word is that this deal will be done this week.
Alexander van Elsas / Alexander van Elsas's Weblog …:
Microsoft and Facebook will never succeed in locking down part of the web
Discussion: mathewingram.com/work
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Memo to Carl: MicroHooGooCahnFace
Discussion: GigaOM and Tech Tracks
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
AOL-Bebo: $850M Deal Closes; AOL Combines Bebo, AIM, ICQ Into People Networks Headed By Shields  —  It's official—AOL (NYSE: TWX) now owns Bebo, closing the $850 million acquisition roughly two months after making it public.  The social media network will not stand on its own; instead …
RELATED:
Business Wire:
AOL Completes Acquisition Of Global Social Media Network Bebo
Discussion: GigaOM
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:   AOL Bebo-tizes its social properties; Forms People Networks unit
Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:   AOL closes Bebo deal
Financial Times:
Yahoo could lose Bebo ads deal
Discussion: Mashable! and TechCrunch
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Apple Wants More Mobile Music From Labels  —  As part of Apple's efforts to improve on the shortcomings of its popular iPhone, the company has approached some of the major music labels to try to expand the variety of ringtones and other musical features available on the device, several label executives said last week.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:   Mobile music to play a key role in the 3G iPhone?
Arn / MacRumors:   Apple in Mobile Music Negotiations... for WWDC?
Rajas Moonka / Official Google Blog:
Opening our content network to third parties  —  Today, we're announcing that Google is accepting third-party advertising tags on the Google content network in North America.  This will empower advertisers to work with approved third parties to serve and track display ads, including rich media ads …
RELATED:
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:   Google opens ad network to outsiders
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:   Google Enables Third Party Tracking For Content Network
InfoWorld:
Facebook CEO wants to talk with Google on Friend Connect  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to sit down with Google and work out the privacy issues that caused Facebook to block Google's Friend Connect last week, he said Monday.  —  “We want to talk to Google about this and see if there's …
Discussion: eWeek, CNET News.com and My Blog Posts
RELATED:
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:   After Google calls Facebook's bluff, Zuckerberg says “let's …
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Will Gmail Get Themes?  —  A source is telling me that Gmail will get themes - custom layouts to personalize Google's web mail client.  According to the source, the launch of this may happen within the next months.  There will be 12 themes to pick from, according to this information …
RELATED:
Duncan Riley / The Inquisitr:
Blogging 2.0: It's All About The User
Discussion: Changing Way and TechTicker
Matthew Miller / The Mobile Gadgeteer:
Mobile software Monday: Opera Mobile 9.5  —  One of the primary functions I perform on my mobile devices is web browsing, but until now there have always been limitations with these browsers.  The iPhone had the best current browser for strictly browsing, but didn't allow you to do much else …
Mary Jane Irwin / Forbes:
Wii Gets Fitness  —  Like a late-night infomercial, Wii Fit sells itself as an all-in-one home fitness solution that will get the whole family exercising on a regular basis, no matter how lazy.  With a menu of yoga, aerobics, strength training and balance games, it's hard to argue with the concept.
Discussion: TG Daily and Engadget
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
Joost: New hires, lots of video, still no Web-based version  —  Some critics declared video service Joost kaput when big-network rival Hulu debuted last spring, far exceeding expectations.  —  But Joost, founded by the team behind Skype and Kazaa, wants you to know it's still going strong.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Best Buy: FCC has no power to fine us over analog TVs  —  The nation's biggest electronics retailer has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency lacks the authority to punish Best Buy for screwing up its digital transition TV selling rules.
Scott Moritz / Techland:
Dell deepens executive bench  —  Dell (DELL) named former GE Plastics chief Brian Gladden as its new CFO replacing Don Carty.  —  The move makes Gladden the No.2 executive under CEO and founder Michael Dell and a likely successor to the top job should Dell vacate the position again.
Discussion: eWeek and CNET News.com
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Why I called Mozilla's change to the Firefox install process “sneaky”  —  Seems like some of you objected to my use of the term “sneaky” to describe the change made to the install routine of Firefox 3.0 RC1, while others thought I was being too easy on Mozilla.  —  Two emails from the Hardware 2.0 mailbag:
 
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 More Items: 
Alex Mindlin / New York Times:
IPhone's Hold on Users Not Exclusive
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Galeon: It's like Firefox for Spartans
Discussion: The Register
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
After Forays With ABC and HBO, a Video Blogger Returns to Video Blogging
Discussion: Social Media
Alexis Madrigal / Wired News:
Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies
Discussion: Digg
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Can Microsoft ‘do’ open source by 2015?
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
The Real News of Wetpaint's $25 Million Funding: Fidelity Kicked In
GamesIndustry.biz:
EA: Activision, Vivendi ESA exit shows “lack of leadership”
Discussion: Joystiq and Kotaku
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Rohati Launches Security Appliance for Compliance
 Earlier Items: 
BBC:
PM launching online question time
Discussion: PDA
Eric A. Taub / New York Times:
Guessing the Online Customer's Next Want
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
Jupiter's Bobby Tulsiani: How Web Video Drives Broadcast Views
Ben Drawbaugh / Engadget HD:
Hands-on with the Motorola Tuning Adapter MTR700
InfoWorld:
Mass SQL injection attack targets Chinese Web sites
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
ClearContext's Stab At Making Email More Manageable
Jon Stokes / Ars Technica:
RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era
New York Times:
Online Search Ads Faring Better Than Expensive Displays