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12:30 PM 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.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Memo to Carl: MicroHooGooCahnFace
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
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 …
RELATED:
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:   After Google calls Facebook's bluff, Zuckerberg says “let's …
Mariko Katsumura / Reuters:
Facebook stresses independence amid Microsoft talk
Discussion: Digital Daily
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Galeon: It's like Firefox for Spartans  —  A few weeks ago we looked at K-Meleon, a light-weight browser for Windows that uses the same rendering engine as Firefox 2.  The result is a browser that loads any page you can open in Firefox, which uses significantly less RAM than Firefox.
Discussion: Open Source
RELATED:
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:   First public Firefox 3 candidate shoots out the door
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:   Why I called Mozilla's change to the Firefox install process “sneaky”
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:
Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:   AOL closes Bebo deal
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
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.
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
Ars Technica acquired by Condé Nast: the low-down  —  In less than a month, Ars Technica will be 10 years old.  In 10 years time we've accomplished much, but uncovered far more work we want to do.  For the past six months, we've been obsessed internally with the question …
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 …
Mark Evans:
Are Pro Bloggers Going Extinct Soon?  —  Louis Gray has an interesting post looking at Blogging 2.0 in which the content and conversation (C&C) are increasingly happening in places other than a blog.  —  He suggests this is “going to cause serious strain” on people who make a living from blogging given page views will likely decline.
RELATED:
louisgray.com:
Blogging 2.0 Causing Friction With 1.0 Bloggers
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 …
AMD:
AMD GAME!  Enables Console-like Simplicity for Mainstream PCs  — For the 263 million mainstream PC gamers worldwide, AMD GAME! stands for exhilarating HD gaming experiences with full PC functionality—  From the company powering the visual experience of the two most popular gaming consoles …
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.
Martin LaMonica / CNET News.com:
Zoho Writer search bug exposed private documents  —  A bug surfaced during development of a group-oriented search feature allowed me to view Zoho documents created by other people that were not intentionally shared with me.  —  Zoho fixed the bug on Sunday, after I reported it, and said its impact was limited.
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.
 
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 More Items: 
Canada NewsWire Group:
Dell and Alienware First to Ship High-Performance Laptops Powered …
eWeek:
Timeline: Microsoft's Pursuit of Yahoo
Discussion: Valleywag
Jemima Kiss / PDA:
Gordon Brown's PMQs on YouTube
Discussion: BBC and WebProNews
John Ribeiro / IDG News Service:
Google Defends Helping Police Nab Defamer
Charles Babcock / InformationWeek:
PayPal Founder Peter Thiel Says Think Contrarily, Act Warily
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
YouTube Adds Search Suggestions, Demographic Stats, Google Contacts Import & More
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Report: Apple's market share of PCs over $1,000 hits 66%
Google LatLong:
Climate change in our world
 Earlier Items: 
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag
Alex Mindlin / New York Times:
IPhone's Hold on Users Not Exclusive
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
After Forays With ABC and HBO, a Video Blogger Returns to Video Blogging
Discussion: Gawker and Social Media
Alexis Madrigal / Wired News:
Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
The Real News of Wetpaint's $25 Million Funding: Fidelity Kicked In
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
Joost: New hires, lots of video, still no Web-based version
Eric A. Taub / New York Times:
Guessing the Online Customer's Next Want
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
ClearContext's Stab At Making Email More Manageable