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8:25 PM ET, September 8, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Marissa Mayer / The Official Google Blog:
Google just got ZAGAT Rated!  —  “Did you know there's a place in Menlo Park near the Safeway that has a 27 food rating?” one of my friends asked me that about two years ago, and I was struck because I immediately knew what it meant.  Food rating... 30 point scale... Zagat.  And the place... had to be good.
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Zagat's Price: Under $66 Million  —  A few years ago, Zagat was trying to shop itself around for $200 million.  Today, Google bought it for less than $66 million.  The price wasn't disclosed, but there was no FTC antitrust review, which is automatically triggered by any deal worth $66 million or more.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Google buys Zagat to add people power to its algorithms
Discussion: Internet Evolution and @semilshah
Patricia Sellers / Fortune:
Carol Bartz exclusive: Yahoo “f—ed me over”  —  Here is what Carol Bartz thinks of the Yahoo (YHOO) board that fired her: “These people f**ked me over,” she says, in her first interview since her dismissal from the CEO role late Tuesday.  —  Last evening, barely 24 hours …
RELATED:
Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:
How Not to Run Yahoo  —  I seem to be writing a lot of these What the heck was that? columns explaining recent news events.  This time it is the firing of Carol Bartz as CEO of Yahoo.  I'm not here to defend Bartz, whom I would have fired long ago (or more probably not hired in the first place) …
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Yes, Carol Bartz had a non-disparagement clause  —  Did ex-Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz just forfeit $10 million by calling fellow board members “doofuses”?  —  FORTUNE — Fortune today published an explosive interview with Carol Bartz, who on Tuesday was fired as Yahoo CEO after 32 months on the job.
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Jerry Yang Is Trying To Buy Yahoo  —  Yahoo cofounder and one-time (failed) CEO Jerry Yang is trying to take control of the company again.  —  He's trying to buy it.  —  There is a feud going on between Yang and Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock.  —  “Bostock is trying to keep Yang out,” says a source close to the situation.
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
BLAMMO! Huge Yahoo Stakeholder Calls For Chairman Roy Bostock's Head
Discussion: AllThingsD
Twitter Blog:
One hundred million voices  —  Five years ago, Twitter came to life when @jack sent the first Tweet to his seven followers.  Now, 100 million active users around the globe turn to Twitter to share their thoughts and find out what's happening in the world right now.
RELATED:
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Twitter closes massive funding round  —  Late last month, All Things D reported that Twitter's recent $800 million funding round was actually two funding rounds: A $400 million direct investment led by DST (already closed), and a $400 million secondary offering for existing Twitter shareholders (in process).
Discussion: VentureBeat and The Next Web
Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:
What's coming next for Twitter: fewer fail whales, more users, more ads  —  In a press conference at Twitter this morning, CEO Dick Costolo laid out the present growth of the company and what its 100 million users can expect in the near future.  —  Costolo touched on three main points …
Discussion: Digits, Macworld and NEWS.com.au
Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:
Twitter Has A “Truckload” Of Money And No Interest In Going Public
Discussion: PE Hub Blog
Rebecca Greenfield / The Atlantic Wire:
After Arrington: Anarchy at TechCrunch  —  Michael Arrington is out at AOL.  For Real.  After presenting his ultimatum, AOL has fired the TechCrunch editor, reports Fortune's Dan Primack.  “Not TechCrunch editor.  Not AOL Ventures employee.  Michael Arrington is on his own.”
RELATED:
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
Yes, Of Course I'll Resign Unless Mike Arrington Chooses His Successor  —  Oh boy.  At this point, even the s**t-show is becoming a s**t-show.  According to Dan Primack at Fortune, Mike Arrington has been fired by AOL.  My inbox is full of emails from journalists, friends and total strangers …
Discussion: Scott Yates, Gawker and Business Insider, Thanks:dannycabrera
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
After AOL Rules Out TechCrunch Sale to Arrington, Tense Severance Negotiations Taking Place
Discussion: Time
Fred / A VC:
Whither TechCrunch?  —  The media has had a lot of fun …
Discussion: PE Hub Blog and MediaPost
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Launches A Slick Music Beta App For iOS — Web, Not Native  —  Now that Google Music Beta has been out there for a few months, it's time to focus on how to get people to use it.  One key: mobile.  —  While Google launched an Android app for Music Beta alongside the initial unveiling at I/O this year …
Adam / Nokia Conversations:
Microsoft Apps are coming to Symbian  —  GLOBAL - Today, Nokia and Microsoft announced that they would deliver Symbian software updates called Microsoft Apps.  These updates will add some serious business productivity tools for anyone buying a new Symbian Belle device, as well as anybody looking …
Sebastian Anthony / ExtremeTech:
Google announces Dart programming language  —  A few days after Google was caught registering a bunch of Dart-related domain names, and the inevitable storm of speculation, it has now emerged that Dart is a new programming language for “structured web programming.”
Discussion: SiliconFilter
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Institutes New Charitable Matching Program for Employees  —  Apple has launched a new charitable matching program for its employees, with the company offering to match employees' personal charitable contributions up to $10,000 per year.  The program is currently limited to full-time U.S. employees …
Los Angeles Times:
Amazon cuts deal on California sales taxes  —  Legislative leaders agree to let the online retailer delay collecting taxes for a year, while it would drop its battle to overturn the state law.  Gov. Jerry Brown has not said if he will support the plan.  —  “It's a safe harbor for up to a year …
Chang Kim / Blogger Buzz:
Announcing the Blogger app for iOS  —  Today we're excited to announce the new Blogger app for iOS.  With the Blogger app, you can write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device.  You can also open a blog post you've been working …
Yahoo! News:
Samsung, Microsoft tie up for new tablet  —  South Korea's Samsung Electronics has teamed up with Microsoft to make a new tablet computer powered by the US software giant's latest operating system, according to a report.  —  The Korea Economic Daily, citing an industry source …
Jeferson Valadares / Flurry Blog:
Mobile Freemium Games: Gen Y Plays, but Gen X Pays  —  Freemium games on iOS and Android continue to dominate the app economy, now accounting for over 65% of all revenue generated among the Top 100 grossing apps in the App Store alone.  In a series of recent pieces on free-to-play mobile games …
Discussion: Inside Mobile Apps, GigaOM and TUAW
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple: iTunes U tops 600 million downloads  —  In researching my recent story, iTunes U: Educating the world, Apple provided me with some updated figures for its free education portal on iTunes.  —  According to Apple, iTunes U has had more than 600 million downloads since it first launched in 2007.
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Exclusive: Viewsonic pulls the plug on Boxee TV  —  Viewsonic has abandoned its efforts to bring a Boxee-powered TV set to market, citing high costs and insufficient interest from consumers in so-called smart TVs.  —  The company had shown off a 46" TV set running Boxee's media center software at CES …
Discussion: VentureBeat, Gadget Lab and SlashGear
James Glanz / New York Times:
Google Details Electricity Usage of Its Data Centers  —  Google released what was once among its most closely guarded secrets on Thursday: how much electricity its enormous computing facilities consume.  —  The company said that its data centers continuously drew almost 260 million watts …
Mike Rosenberg / Contra Costa Times:
Newest iProduct coming to Cupertino: Apple Campus 2  —  mrosenberg@mercurynews.com  —  Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once called the humongous campus a spaceship.  So you might think the forthcoming circle-shaped Cupertino headquarters would carry a grandiose name befitting a potential signature Silicon Valley landmark.
 
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 More Items: 
Reuters:
SAP says reaches plea deal in Oracle criminal case
Roger Cheng / CNET News:
Android to overtake Apple in app downloads
Discussion: Guardian and The Tech Trade
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Exclusive: Backupify Closes $5 Million in Round Led by Avalon Ventures
Discussion: VentureBeat and VatorNews
Alex Fowler / Mozilla Privacy Blog:
Mozilla Publishes Developer Guide on DNT; Releases DNT Adoption Numbers
Discussion: Computerworld
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Reveals More Details on their Portable Point-of-Sale System
Discussion: iDownloadBlog.com
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
eBay Bets on Social Commerce With Acquisition of the Gifts Project
Discussion: VC Cafe
 Earlier Items: 
Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
IDC: Q2 Is The First Time Smartphones Outstripped Feature Phone Shipments
Discussion: Electronista
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Andreessen Horowitz Leads $5.7M Round In Analytics Platform For Hadoop Data Platfora
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
YouTube's Content-ID Piracy Filter Wreaks Havoc
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Watch Out Amazon: GetJar Launches A Full Catalog Of Premium Android Apps For Free
Reuters:
Apple sues Samsung in Japan over patents: report
 

 
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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