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4:50 AM ET, April 4, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Joshua Schachter / joshua's blog:
on url shorteners  —  URL shortening services have been around for a number of years.  Their original purpose was to prevent cumbersome URLs from getting fragmented by broken email clients that felt the need to wrap everything to an 80 column screen.  But it's 2009 now, and this problem no longer exists.
RELATED:
Jason Kottke / kottke.org:
URL shorteners suck
Discussion: Scripting News
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter Wouldn't Sell For $1 Billion, Says Source  —  Update to our post last night about Google/Twitter talks: New sources say that Google is interested in acquiring Twitter, and has had talks with the company about a deal.  Google's internal valuation, however, would value the company …
RELATED:
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Sometimes We Talk  —  My inbox is flooded this morning with requests for a response to the latest Internet speculation about where Twitter is headed.  It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.
Saul Hansell / Bits:
World's Fastest Broadband at $20 Per Home  —  If you get excited about the prospect of really, really fast broadband Internet service, here's a statistic that will make heart race.  Or your blood boil.  Or both.  —  Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world …
Discussion: Bleeding Edge and atmaspheric, Thanks:mrinaldesai
AppleInsider:
AT&T hurrying massive network update for new iPhone launch  —  AT&T is rushing to rollout a major upgrade to its 3G mobile data service in anticipation of a tenfold increase in network traffic from new iPhone hardware expected to go on sale in June, according to a vendor source.
Dirk Smillie / Forbes:
Murdoch Wants A Google Rebellion  —  The media mogul says Google is stealing from publishers.  It could be the call to arms that newsrooms need.  —  Rupert Murdoch threw down the gauntlet to Google Thursday, accusing the search giant of poaching content it doesn't own and urging media outlets to fight back.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Analysis: Which URL Shortening Service Should You Use?  —  URL shortening services are experiencing a renaissance in the age of Twitter.  When every character counts, these services reduce long URLs to tiny forms.  But which is the best to use, when so many are offered and new ones seem to appear each day?
Discussion: PC World, Thanks:atul
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Chrome marketshare for March 2009  —  Google Chrome continued its upward marketshare march in March.  I was looking at my browser breakdown tonight.  Here's what I've got from the last 30 days in Google Analytics:  —  Some different browser marketshare numbers:
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
AT&T retracts new terms of service, apologizes  —  Looks like the uproar over AT&T's recently-tweaked wireless terms of service banning video streaming and p2p activity caused some hasty rethinking in Dallas — the company just sent us this statement:
RELATED:
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
VLC 0.9.9: The best media player just got better  —  If you've ever struggled to play a file you downloaded from the hinterlands of the Web, you clearly didn't try opening it with VideoLan's VLC media player, a free, hugely popular, and open-source media player.
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
Wikia Death Proves Google Is Search-Startup Killer  —  Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' open source, human-powered Google killer died a quiet death Tuesday, making Wikia.com the latest object lesson in the futility of trying to unseat Google as the king of search engines.
Discussion: Threat Level
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
How the Conficker Problem Just Got Much Worse  —  On the surface, April 1 came and went without a peep from the dreaded Conficker megaworm.  But security experts see a frightening reality, one where Conficker is now more powerful and more dangerous than ever.
Discussion: digg.com, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Foremski / Silicon Valley Watcher:
No Backbone As Google Bows To Korean Government And Bans Users With Fake Names  —  On April 1 Google started banning South Korean users from posting videos or leaving comments on YouTube unless they use real names.  The move was done to comply with a law that South Korean web sites …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google: Forget Twitter, Pay A Big Div, Bernstein Says  —  A few weeks back, Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay wrote a provocative research piece asserting that Internet companies have a long and terrible track record of destroying shareholder cash by acquiring pre-business model start-ups.
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Google's Plan for Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The dusty stacks of the nation's great university and research libraries are full of orphans — books that the author and publisher have essentially abandoned.  They are out of print, and while they remain under copyright …
Cade Metz / The Register:
Google force feeds Web 2.0 to US gov  —  And it comes right back up...  Web 2.0 Expo When uber-Googler Andrew McLaughlin joined the Barack Obama Transition Team, charged with prepping the new administration for inauguration day, he had dreams of “bringing Web 2.0 to Washington.”
Discussion: CloudAve
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook wants you to give credit where credit is due  —  Facebook is testing out a way for people to show how much they appreciate friends' status updates, links and other items on the site — its a new feature called “credits.”  The idea is a more advanced form of commenting or liking …
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows on Netbook PCs: A Year in Review  —  It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first started to see netbook PCs running Windows come to market.  —  Little did we know that these devices would evolve so much in such a short time.  A year ago, they were Internet-centric devices defined mainly …
Discussion: Liliputing
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Digits:
Yahoo Music Soon Expected To Open Up  —  Yahoo Music, which has been shedding services in recent years, is about to add one.  —  The company in coming days plans to announce a feature that will pull together music content from companies like Amazon, iTunes and YouTube in an area …
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
Group Presses FCC to Back Skype  —  WASHINGTON - The open-Internet advocacy group Free Press asked the Federal Communications Commission Friday to investigate whether Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc. are violating federal rules by blocking the use of a new low-cost Skype voice service on Apple iPhones that use AT&T's 3G network.
RELATED:
Nicola Leske / Reuters:   Internet calling companies ask EU to ensure free access
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Wait: Could ‘Bing’ be the new name for Microsoft's Live Search?  —  Maybe Kumo won't be the final new name for Microsoft's “Live Search” after all.  “Bing” also still seems to be in the running.  —  It was almost a year ago that I received a tip that Microsoft was considering three new names for its Live Search engine.
Serkan Toto / TechCrunch:
Meeting24.tv Keeps Online Meetings Simple  —  Meeting24.tv is a new web conference system that lets up to 24 users simultaneously hold meetings online through an extra-simple UI.  The service is offered by WIT, a Tokyo-based research lab (meeting.24 is available in both English and Japanese).
Dan Rayburn / The Business Of Online Video:
Disney Says Hulu Getting Low On Cash  —  With all the rumors lately about Disney possibly cutting a deal with Hulu, various sources at Disney are talking to many on Wall Street about Hulu's financial situation saying the company is getting low on cash.  While Providence Equity Partners …
Phil Glockner / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Trends vs Market Reports: Which is More Accurate, Faster?  —  Google released a research paper yesterday that takes an in-depth look at Google Trends and Google Insights for Search and compares its trend results against more mainstream industry reports based on actual sales data …
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Image Search Preview Page Overhaul  —  We've revamped the Yahoo! Image Search preview page to make it a lot easier to use.  Now, when you click on an image from the image search results page, the top bar opens to reveal a richer and sleeker interface that displays a larger view of the image …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Land and TechCrunch, Thanks:atul
 
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 More Items: 
David Gelles / Financial Times:
Advertisers brace for online viral marketing curbs
Discussion: paidContent.org
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
France to Block The Pirate Bay, Disconnect File-Sharers
CBC News:
Private member's bill targets cyberbullying
Discussion: p2pnet
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Yet Another Copyright Lobbying Group Caught Infringing
LinuxDevices.com:
Linux game console ready to ship
Discussion: Obsessable, Engadget and digg.com
 Earlier Items: 
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
The DiggBar features sponsored links as well
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
Break Acquires HBOlab
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Microsoft Sells Franchise Gator To Landmark Interactive; Price Around $20 Million
Discussion: TechFlash
Chadwick Matlin / The Big Money:
The Anatomy of a Web Advertising Scam
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple stock is up 31 percent this year
Discussion: tinyComb and Macsimum News