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6:50 AM ET, December 15, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Official Google Blog:
Making URLs shorter for Google Toolbar and FeedBurner  —  This morning, we launched updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner that offer a new URL shortening service from Google called the Google URL Shortener.  We mentioned our URL shortener as a feature in both announcements …
RELATED:
bit.ly blog:
Announcing bit.ly Pro  —  Today we're pleased to announce a new service: bit.ly Pro.  The Pro service provides custom short URLs powered by bit.ly.  Publishers and bloggers will be able to use their own short domain names to point to pages on their sites.  —  As part of our initial beta program …
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Testing New URL Shortener, fb.me  —  URL shorteners, like bit.ly, have become a popular way for people to share links on Twitter while taking up as few of the allotted 140 characters as possible.  But saving space is just one of the benefits that shorteners provide.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Bit.ly Just Got Fu.kd: Facebook And Google Get Into The Short URL Game  —  Moments after we heard reports of Facebook's new URL shortener, Google launched its own service, aptly called goo.gl.  —  At the moment, its only being used for Google Toolbar and Feedburner.
New York Times:
Author Grants Exclusive E-Book Rights to Amazon  —  Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York's largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely.
Jesse Engle / CoTweet:
A Word About Twitter Commercial Accounts  —  Many people have asked us about Twitter's planned commercial account offering and what it means for CoTweet.  Twitter has been planning for commercial accounts for a long time.  Today Anamitra Banerji from Twitter's Product Team posted to their blog …
RELATED:
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Twitter Starts Testing Features for Businesses
Discussion: CloudAve
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Wall Opens A Bit More: Facebook To Publish User Updates To Twitter This Week  —  A lot has been said recently about Facebook's decision to re-write its privacy rulebook to encourage users to be more open about what they share.  Privacy implications aside, at least it appears that Facebook is eating its own dogfood.
Discussion: Inside Facebook
AdSense for Feeds:
Socializing your feed with Twitter  —  Sometimes you reach across the hedgerow to share with your nearby neighbors.  Other times, members of the household move away and yet you can't keep from calling to remind them to wear a hat and such because it's chilly out.
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook For Android Just Got A Big Upgrade, Is Catching Up To Its iPhone Cousin  —  For quite a while now now, one of the biggest problems with Android has been its app support.  In particular, the Facebook application has been quite limited: you could read your News Feed …
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
Is Facebook unethical, clueless or unlucky?  —  Sent this to my email newsletter earlier today... you can join the list at www.bit.ly/jasonslist  —  Title: Is Facebook unethical, clueless or unlucky?  —  Location: CalaCompound, Brentwood, CA  —  Subscribers: 18,463
Discussion: Enterprise Irregulars and The Equity Kicker, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
Sally Singer / Vogue.com:
The Bride Wore Snowflakes  —  Marissa Mayer, the gorgeous Google-ite who makes the world searchable for the likes of us, was married on Saturday on San Francisco's Treasure Island to the entrepreneur Zack Bogue.  Mayer, who in her office life favors sheaths and cardigans from Oscar de la Renta …
Reuters:
Google phone with T-Mobile contract in January: source  —  FRANKFURT/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc will sell a version of its own-branded cellphone for a reduced price to U.S. consumers who agree to a service contract from Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, a source familiar with the matter said.
RELATED:
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Toshiba announces 64GB NAND packages: Apple winks, gives a nudge  —  Outside of the occasional leaked roadmap, one of the best ways to predict the future of consumer electronics is by looking at the evolution of the components within.  Take this Toshiba NAND package for instance.
Esteban Kozak / The LinkedIn Blog:
Find people faster with LinkedIn's new faceted search  —  Here at LinkedIn, we believe that people search is one of the most valuable new areas of search technology.  Late last year, we announced the launch of the new people search platform, rebuilt from the ground up.
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft pulls China blog site amid code-theft charges  —  Microsoft said late Monday that is suspending access to an MSN China microblogging site amid allegations the service is based on code swiped from a rival.  —  Canadian start-up Plurk lashed out at Microsoft earlier on Monday …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
One Of The 32 Million With A RockYou Account?  You May Want To Change All Your Passwords.  Like Now.  —  It's no secret that most people use the same password over and over again for most of the services they sign up for.  While it's obviously convenient, this becomes a major problem if one of those services is compromised.
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, 11 more named in GPL lawsuit  —  Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse and JVC are among 14 consumer electronics companies named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed today in New York by the Software Freedom Law Center.  —  According to the complaint (.pdf) …
Sean Fallon / Gizmodo:
Boxee Beta Leaks on BitTorrent  —  Interested in trying out the latest version of Boxee with its fancy new UI?  Beta 0.9.20.9647 is now available for download from The Pirate Bay.  [TPB]
Discussion: TechSpot and Lifehacker
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
ZumoDrive Lands $1.5 Million For Cloud Storage And Syncing Application  —  File syncing and storage startup Zumodrive has raised $1.5 million in funding led by Sherpalo Ventures with Tandem Entrepreneurs and VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron participating.  We initially reviewed Zumodrive here.
Discussion: mocoNews, VentureBeat and VatorNews
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Unofficial Google Text-To-Speech API  —  Last month Google unveiled enhancements to Google Translate.  Among the new features was a simple text-to-speech function.  You can try it out, or watch this video to see how it works (skip to 0:45).  —  There's no official API for the text-to-speech service.
Discussion: Communications …, Ajaxian and Webmonkey, Thanks:bobcaswell
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Fuse: What Your Next Touch Phone Is Going to Feel Like  —  Fuse is what Synaptics—who probably made the trackpad you're swirling your finger on, and maybe your phone's touchscreen—says the next generation of touch phones will be like: You'll be squeezing, touching and stroking the phone, all over.
Google Code Blog:
Google Fusion Tables API  —  Today I'm excited to announce that Google Fusion Tables is releasing its own API.  —  What is Fusion Tables?  A product launched recently in Google Labs, Fusion Tables is a free service for sharing and visualizing data online.
Discussion: ProgrammableWeb and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
Alexis Madrigal / Wired Science:
Freaked-Out Tweets After Earthquakes Help Scientists  —  SAN FRANCISCO — A team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists have developed a web service that combines seismic data about an earthquake with Tweets of surprise and angst from the popular microblogging service's users.
Discussion: KCBS, TechRadar.com and KGO-TV
 
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 More Items: 
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Gamer population surges — consoles in 60% of households
John Cook / TechFlash:
Swype swipes new venture round
Discussion: VentureBeat and mocoNews
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Verizon Debuts Media Manager Tool
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek:
Neon Sues IBM Over Mainframe Business
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
MySpace and News Corp. Eye Flixster (But for What?)
Discussion: CNET News and Mashable!
 Earlier Items: 
Eric Slivka / MacRumors iPhone Blog:
Tesco Launches iPhone in UK Today
Discussion: IntoMobile and LOOPRumors
Jon Fortt / Brainstorm Tech:
How LG is getting teens to think before they text
Discussion: Between the Lines
Jessica Dolcourt / Crave: The gadget blog:
Seesmic Twitter app lands in BlackBerry store
Discussion: MobileCrunch and MobileContentToday, Thanks:loic
BetaNews:
The case in favor of the open source enterprise database
Discussion: eWeek, internetnews.com and WinBeta
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Hackers declare war on international forensics tool
Discussion: Threat Level and Pocket-lint.com
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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”

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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