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5:40 AM ET, March 21, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Google's Data Fetish Drives Away Its Top Designer  —  As we reported last week, Doug Bowman, Google's top designer, has confirmed that he's leaving (we hear to Twitter).  Bowman's reasons for quitting are fascinating — and they show why Google's losing its cool.
RELATED:
Adam Howell:
Google's “designer drain”  —  Doug Bowman left Google today for Twitter.  Kevin Fox, the talented fellow behind Gmail and Google Reader's first redesign, left in the beginning of last year to join FriendFeed.  Jeff Veen, and the rest of the original Measure Map team, left middle of last year to start Small Batch.
Douglas Bowman / Stopdesign:
Goodbye Google  —  Today is my last day at Google.  I started working in-house at Google almost three years ago.  I built a team from scratch.  I was fortunate to hire a team of a very talented designers.  We introduced Visual Design as a discipline to Google.  And we produced amazing work together.
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Even Facebook Employees Hate the Redesign  —  The feedback on Facebook's new look, which emphasizes a stream of Twitter-like status updates, is almost universally, howlingly negative.  Why isn't CEO Mark Zuckerberg listening to users?  Because he doesn't have to, he's told employees.
RELATED:
VentureBeat:
Facebook's redesign: Good concept, but not there yet  —  Has Facebook just destroyed its usefulness?  Is the design, introduced a week ago, killing the site's ability to help you share information with your real-life friends?  That's what a vocal and perhaps large group of people think.
Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:
Craigslist Top Search Term Last Week  —  For the first time in three years, searches for ‘craigslist’ surpassed ‘myspace,’ highlighting the increasing popularity of online classifieds during the economic downturn.U.S. searches on the term “craigslist” have increased 105 percent for the week ending March 14 …
PC World:
Firefox May Already Be Dead  —  This is an exciting time for Web browsers.  Google Chrome is now available in alpha for Linux, and I downloaded it for Ubuntu.  Despite the fact that I was running it on my rather underpowered Dell Mini 9, it started in the blink of an eye.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Next-Gen iPhone Rumor: Faster Internet Speeds  —  Most of the rumors we've seen about Apple's (AAPL) next-generation iPhone are around increased processing and graphics power.  But will the next iPhone also come with faster Internet access?  —  That's some scuttlebutt we've heard from a plugged-in source in the mobile industry.
RELATED:
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Apple's 2009 iPhone to support faster 3G networks - report
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
Electronista:
Next iPhone to carry faster 3G?
Discussion: I4U News
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Apple Leaks Announcement of 17-inch iMac at $899  —  Apple's own education site seems to have leaked news of a “new” 17-inch iMac, coming in at $899.  Apple's official store still only has 20s and 24s.  [Setteb.it via Apple Lounge]
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Source: Apple's next-gen iPhone has video camera  —  Apple this year will finally introduce video recording capabilities on at least one of its upcoming iPhone models, AppleInsider has been told.  —  An iPhone with a video cam  —  Details are few and far between, but the information comes …
Markcuban / blog maverick:
Why Do Internet People Think Content People Are Stupid ?  —  I was reading an article where the Boxee CEO said content would eventually be al a Carte.  Why does he, like so many other internet people think content producers are stupid ?  Has he, along with so many others pushing internet video …
RELATED:
Ryan Lawler / Contentinople:   Boxee CEO: Consumers Will Get a la Carte Online
Rebecca Buckman / Forbes:
Shake-Up At Sequoia  —  The VC firm has lost some key managers, raising questions about its expansion plans.  —  BURLINGAME, Calif.—Venture-capital star Sequoia Capital, the backer of companies like Google and Cisco, last year laid the groundwork for a big expansion.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Electronista:
Internet Explorer 8 launch fails to dent Firefox  —  The release of Internet Explorer 8 hasn't had any significant impact on Firefox or any other competing browser, data collected by StatsCounter shows.  While the final release of IE8 increased its market share slightly on launch day to 1.39 percent …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Bug Reveals Private Photos, Wall Posts  —  Earlier this evening we came across a privacy flaw on Facebook that allowed users to gain access to portions of their friends' profiles that they should not have been able to see.  We contacted Facebook about the issue over an hour ago …
Macworld:
Apple, AT&T sued for slow 3G speeds  — Apple and AT&T are being sued again for over-promising and under-delivering on their claims of fast Internet access of the iPhone 3G.  —  Filed in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, Damone Dickerson claims that Apple misrepresented the speed …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Chrome only browser left standing after day one of Pwn2Own  —  During a contest at the CanSecWest event, security researchers competed to exploit vulnerabilities in web browsers.  Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer were all successfully compromised, but Chrome was able to withstand the first day of the competition.
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Kaminsky: MS security assessment tool is a ‘game changer’  —  Crash, bang, analyze  —  Free whitepaper - Lower security risks and costs by minimizing the time to protection  —  CanSecWest Microsoft on Friday released an open-source program designed to streamline the labor-intensive process …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google Ventures Almost Ready To Launch, But It Is A Bad Idea  —  Yes, the rumors are true.  Google's Rich Miner is moving from the Android team to a new venture arm called Google Ventures.  Miner recently appeared at a conference identified with a Google Ventures name tag …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Reuters, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Steve Smith / MediaPost:
Google Watches Its Language  —  Last week I dipped my toe into the emerging world of consumer opt-in/opt-out through BlueKai's very attractive consumer-facing interface.  BlueKai is trying not only to simplify the process of managing one's online behavioral profile, but to incentivize consumers to opt-in.
Thanks:atul
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Quietube makes YouTube watching distraction-free  —  Quietube is a new tool to enhance the YouTube watching experience.  The idea is that you can watch just the video with none of the other YouTube page elements.  To do this you simply add its bookmarklet to your browser's bookmarks toolbar, and click it on any YouTube page.
David Stewart / YouTube Blog:
Watching Video on Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 Phones  —  Our goal is to provide you with a great YouTube experience wherever you want to watch videos — whether it's on your computer, on your television, or on your mobile phone.  While YouTube has been available for many mobile phones for over a year …
RELATED:
Jay Meattle / Compete Blog:
Guest Post: Can Digg Keep Up With Facebook's Growth?  So Far It Surprisingly Has  —  We welcome back Jay Meattle, a Compete.com original member, from HEPGURU for this guest post.  —  Below is a Digg and Facebook's monthly Unique Visitor chart going all the way back to the month they were launched.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
 
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 More Items: 
John Gaudiosi / VentureBeat:
GameStop's Bob McKenzie sees little recession impact on gamers
Discussion: Kotaku, VG247 and Joystiq
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Niagara 9630 hands on
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Welcome To The Team, Sarah Lacy
Discussion: SarahLacy.com, Silicon Alley Insider and Jobwire, Thanks:atul
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
Semantic search engine Evri cuts staff by 25 percent
Discussion: TechFlash, Xconomy and Beyond Search
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Is ABC's Jake Tapper blocking journalists who criticize his Twitter updates?
Discussion: Gawker
 Earlier Items: 
Marisa Taylor / Digits:
Hackers Target Basketball Fans With March Madness Malware
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
As Clouds Reach the Enterprise, Opportunities Are Clear
Discussion: Business Week
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
BBC given 27% increase in web budget
Discussion: paidContent and NewTeeVee
 

 
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

 
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