Top Items:
Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
The rise and fall of MySpace — In summer 2005, having spent the best part of four decades building a newspaper, film and television empire, Rupert Murdoch decided that the time had come to get serious about the internet. As founder and chairman of News Corporation …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Officially Launching Chrome Extensions Next Week — A couple weeks ago, Google unveiled its Chrome Extensions site after clues began popping up that a full-on push for extension support in their browser was imminent. Unfortunately, that site was only meant for extension developers …
Matthew Rivera / Digits:
Spot 10 Balloons, Win $40,000 — If you look up and see red weather balloons this weekend, take note. You've unwittingly entered into a social experiment. … The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, launched 10 balloons, each eight feet wide …
Discussion:
10 Red Balloons, CNET News, PC World, TechCrunch, Joe Duck, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, dailywireless.org and Technologizer
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Apple's Game Changer, Downloading Now — IAN LYNCH SMITH, a shaggy-haired ball of energy in his late 30s, beams as he ticks off some of the games that Freeverse, his little Brooklyn software company, has landed on the iPhone App Store's coveted (and ever-changing) list of best-selling downloads …
RELATED:
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Mininova Traffic Plummets After Going ‘Legal’ — After nearly five years of loyal service, Mininova deleted over a million torrent files when it partly shut down its website a week ago. What remains are a few thousand torrents that were uploaded though its content distribution platform, which only lists uploads by approved users.
Discussion:
ZDNET.com.au
Guardian:
Memories of a paywall pioneer — Scott Rosenberg, former managing editor of US website Salon.com, on the effects of its 2001 paywall experiment — Beginning in early 2001 we had a Salon Premium programme that involved gating off a very small amount of content on the site …
Discussion:
Techdirt
Stephen Baker / Business Week:
Beware Social Media Snake Oil — Hordes of marketing “experts” are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs. All the hype may obscure the real potential of these online tools — For business, the rising popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites presents a tantalizing opportunity.
David Sasaki / MediaShift Idea Lab:
Democratizing the Geography of Information — As little as a year ago Google Maps had no geographic information about San Javier La Loma, a small working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Medellín where the ConVerGentes group of the HiperBarrio citizen journalism project is based.
CW31:
‘Accidental’ Download Sending Man To Prison — SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A local man is likely to go to prison for years after he says he accidentally downloaded child pornography onto his computer. — Matthew White, 22, said he was surfing for pornography two years ago on Limewire …
Google Public Policy Blog:
When sources disagree: borders and place names in Google Earth and Maps — Collecting and sharing the most accurate information about place names and borders is a tough task that every map maker faces. The first sources are the nations themselves, but when neighboring countries claim overlapping territories …
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Barnes & Noble's Nook gets a brief and early hands-on — Thanks to a very generous anonymous tipster, we've gotten a number of hands-on pics of Barnes & Noble's soon to be released (for some) Nook e-reader. The impressions we've been given, however, weave a tale of a laggy Android interface …
Rita Chang / AdAge:
Don't Create an IPhone App for the Online Buzz Factor — App Chatter Doesn't Build Brands, Long-term Engagement Does — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — For all the love that marketers show iPhone apps, these micro-utilities and tools actually generate surprisingly little buzz in return.
