Techmeme: Wikipedia's Next Big Thing: Wikidata, A Machine-Readable, User-Editable Database Funded By Google, Paul Allen And Others (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

March 30, 2012, 7:35 PM

Top News

Breach Hits Card Processor Global Payments — Global Payments Inc., which processes credit cards and debit cards for banks and merchants, has been hit by a security breach that has put some 50,000 cardholders at risk, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

More: Bloomberg, Global Payments Inc., Pulse2 Technology …, Between the Lines Blog, Gartner, Zero Day Blog and SecurityWeek. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

MasterCard, VISA Warn of Processor Breach — VISA and MasterCard are alerting banks across the country about a recent major breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor. Sources in the financial sector are calling the breach “massive,” and say it may involve more than 10 million compromised card numbers.

John Brownlee / Cult of Mac:

This Creepy App Isn't Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It's A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy — This app is meant to all be in good fun, but it's potentially a weapon in the hands of stalkers. — “Boy, you sure have a lot of apps on your phone.” — “Well, it's my job.”

More: TechCrunch, Pulp Tech Blog, Bits, VentureBeat, The Tech Report and Gawker

Harrison Weber / The Next Web:

Foursquare shuts down location API access to creepy Girls Around Me app — As first covered by Cult of Mac, Girls Around Me is an incredibly creepy app that allows anyone to locate nearby girls based on public Foursquare checkins and Facebook data. Now the app has been officially banned …

Bits:

With Tablet Plan, Google Goes After Apple and Amazon — Google's long-awaited tablet might finally be on the way to becoming a reality. For at least two years, there have been reports that the search giant was working on something that could compete with Apple's iPad.

More: Wired, Digits, PC World, Tecca, Computerworld, InvestorPlace, Mobile Marketing Watch, internetretailer.com, App Advice, OStatic blogs, parislemon, FierceWireless, Appolicious Advisor, TechSpot, Tech Trader Daily, Pocket-lint and Mobile Entertainment

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Layoffs Set to Begin Next Week, Followed by Restructuring the Week After — Yahoo is preparing to begin layoffs of what could be thousands of employees starting next week, according to multiple sources, and is then expected to announce a new restructuring of the company the week after.

More: Search Engine Land, Reuters, TechFlash, SlashGear, Digits, Tech Trader Daily, The Verge, Tech and China and bizjournals

Reuters:

Apple supplier Foxconn cuts working hours, workers ask why — (Reuters) - When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation. — Wu, 23, is one of tens of thousands …

Adi Avidor / Inside Search:

Graphing on Google.com - Now in 3D — A few months ago we launched a graphing functionality right in search to help students and math lovers plot functions in an easy, simple way. In addition to calculating something simple like dividing up a restaurant bill or graphing more difficult math functions using …

More: Mashable!, WebProNews and Search Engine Land

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

SOPA is all fun and games until NBC rips off Apple's artwork — Reality TV is a harsh business. One minute everyone is glued to Jersey Shore, the next you're looking at a canceled series and a backlog of ‘GTL’ shirts cluttering up the company store. One of the perennial favorites …

More: Pulse2 Technology …, WebProNews, MacDailyNews and Softpedia News

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Twitter Takes Tweetdeck Offline After Apparent Bug Opens Access To Accounts — Twitter has taken Tweetdeck offline after an apparent bug has possibly given some Tweetdeck users access to others' accounts. — A Tweetdeck user in Australia, Geoff Evanson, says he discovered today …

More: CNNMoney.com, The Verge, CNET, msnbc.com, The Next Web, Mashable!, Ubergizmo, LaptopMemo and Lifehacker

Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:

Confirmed: Netflix buys DVD.com — Netflix buys DVD.com domain name. — [Update: Netflix has confirmed its purchase of DVD.com. A spokesperson tells Domain Name Wire “Netflix cares about keeping DVD healthy, and this is just one small investment in keeping DVD healthy."]

More: AllThingsD, Gizmodo, GigaOM, The Verge, Engadget, The Next Web and SlashGear. See also Mediagazer

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Senator Al Franken: ‘privacy is a casualty’ of Google and Facebook's success — Senator Al Franken gave a rousing speech to the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section last night, calling for greater antitrust oversight of large media and tech companies as a way to ensure greater privacy protections for Americans.

More: CNET, Marketing Land and Interactioned

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Sega shutting down games, laying off people — Sega said today that it will restructure its Western operations as it deals with the transformation from a maker of retail games to digital distribution. The restructuring will result in an unspecified number of job losses and game cancellations.

More: PC Magazine and IntoMobile

Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:

RIM: We are not withdrawing from consumer market — EXCLUSIVE: RIM speaks to Pocket-lint — RIM has denied reports that it is pulling out of the consumer market following poor q4 financial results on Thursday. — “The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market …

More: ITProPortal, Telegraph, The Register, Techland, Gotta Be Mobile, The Verge, Neowin.net, Digital Trends, Engadget, The Next Web, Electricpig.co.uk, Know Your Mobile, The Verge, London Calling Blog, parislemon, Inquirer and Between the Lines Blog. Thanks:@pdtechhd

Ari Levy / Bloomberg:

Groupon Discloses ‘Material Weakness,’ Lower Quarterly Revenue — Groupon Inc. (GRPN), the largest provider of daily deals online, reported a “material weakness” in its financial controls and said fourth-quarter results were worse than previously stated because of higher refunds to merchants.

More: GigaOM, AllThingsD, The Tech Trade, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal and Tech Trader Daily

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:

Ahead of I.P.O., Mark Zuckerberg's Lawyers Expedite Disclosures — Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is rushing to clear all his paperwork, ahead of the social network's highly anticipated initial public offering. — The Federal and Trade Commission disclosed in a notice on Friday …

More: Friending Facebook Blog, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times and The Next Web

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Violin Memory Raises $50 Million at $800 Million Valuation, May IPO This Year — Violin Memory, the company that builds storage arrays based on flash memory technology, will on Monday announce that it has raised a $50 million Series D round of funding at an implied valuation of $800 million.

More: GigaOM, Digits, Fortune, The Register and SeekingAlpha.com. Thanks:@ahess247

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Wikipedia's Next Big Thing: Wikidata, A Machine-Readable, User-Editable Database Funded By Google, Paul Allen And Others — Wikidata, the first new project to emerge from the Wikimedia Foundation since 2006, is now beginning development. The organization, known best for its user-edited encyclopedia …

More: Business Insider, CNET, Digits, TechFlash, Wikimedia blog, The Seattle Times and UMBC ebiquity. Thanks:@sparkcatalyst

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Appstore Generates More Revenue Per Daily User Than Google Play — According to new data released today by mobile analytics firm Flurry, Amazon's Appstore for Android is generating more revenue per daily user than the Google Android Market, which was recently rebranded as the Google Play store.

More: PC Magazine, MediaPost, VatorNews, BGR, GigaOM, PadGadget, The Digital Reader, Flurry Blog, MacNN, MacDailyNews and Fortune

Tweets: @yoda_2little and @christoff

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Workers Put Tim Cook Atop List of Most Beloved CEOs — Tim Cook, the man Apple co-founder Steve Jobs hand-picked to be his successor, may never surpass Jobs in panache or vision, but as a leader, he's picking up right where Jobs left off. — Indeed, after just 10 months …

More: DailyFinance.com, GigaOM, Glassdoor Blog, iPhone, Computer Business Review, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, PC World, TUAW, CNET, IntoMobile, PhoneArena and MacNN

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Apple named Japan's top consumer brand for the first time — With more than half of all US households reportedly owning at least one of its products, Apple is a company that is continually topping satisfaction surveys in America and the world over. Today, the company has been named …

More: CNET, Nikkei.com, AllThingsD, The Loop, Tech Trader Daily, App Advice, Macgasm, MacNN, Techie Buzz, iDownloadBlog.com, TechPinions and VentureBeat

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Expedia files Google complaint to EU regulators — (Reuters) - Online travel agency Expedia on Friday accused Google of breaching EU rules with a formal complaint to EU antitrust regulators as it joined a dozen other firms that have taken their case to the European Commission in the last two years.

More: Bloomberg and SeekingAlpha.com

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