Techmeme: Facebook boosts IPO size by 25 percent, could top $16 billion (Olivia Oran/Reuters)

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May 16, 2012, 5:20 AM

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Wall Street Journal:

GM to Stop Advertising on Facebook — General Motors Co. GM -1.04% plans to stop advertising on Facebook after the company's marketing executives determined their paid ads had little impact on consumers, people familiar with the matter said, a move that comes as more companies question …

Chris Dixon:

Facebook's business model — Startups usually succeed because of a single major product or business innovation. Google is unusual in that they succeeded because of two major innovations: their core search product, and their keyword advertising business model.

More: Slate. Tweets: @mattrosoff and @ajkeen

Pamela Parker / Marketing Land:

Ahead Of IPO, GM Drops Facebook Ads; Forrester Warns Other Companies May Follow — It couldn't have happened at a worse time for Facebook, which has its initial public offering of stock later this week. General Motors has decided to stop advertising on the social networking giant, citing concerns about the site's effectiveness.

More: VatorNews, Washington Post, Business Insider, The New Persuaders, Transmissions and Guardian. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Facebook Is Still Figuring It Out. Will Advertisers and Investors Wait Around?

More: Marketing Pilgrim, Business Insider, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, Washington Post and Neowin

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Google Changes Tack on Android — Google Inc. is shifting its strategy for its Android mobile operating system, in a bid to create a united front with smartphone and tablet makers to take on rivals like Apple Inc. and prevent wireless carriers from controlling the devices.

More: Redmond Pie, GigaOM, Computerworld, MobileSyrup.com, Pocketnow, PC Magazine, Android News, Rumours …, Wired, PhoneArena, Examiner, Geek.com, IntoMobile, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Liliputing, 9to5Google, Android Phone Fans and Softpedia News

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Google to sell flagship Nexus devices with multiple partners this fall, reports WSJ

More: CNET, Phones Review, Ausdroid and Gotta Be Mobile

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE indefinitely delayed at US Customs for investigation of Apple patent infringement — The HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE are a notable devices for many reasons, but today it becomes notorious: it's the first device to face an import delay at US Customs for potentially infringing an Apple patent.

More: Reuters, AllThingsD, Engadget, Pocketnow, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Google, The Daily Beast, IntoMobile, The Tech Trade, Android Phone Fans and CNET. Tweets: @inafried

Matt Galligan:

Socialcam's Shady Secret — I had a hunch that Socialcam was doing some really shady tactics to get more of a bump in engagement at the detriment of user experience. Looks like my hunch was right. The app has been on quite the tear lately with how much it's growing and getting insane engagement.

More: Matt Galligan, Gotta Be Mobile and Business Insider. Tweets: @percival. Thanks:@mulligan

Om Malik / GigaOM:

For Facebook-boosted video apps, reality checks in

More: TechCrunch

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:

Socialcam responds to questionable tactics by making YouTube videos more obvious

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:

How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet — Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art.

More: broadstuff, Thomas Hawk Digital Connection, PetaPixel, Forbes and VentureBeat. Thanks:@mat

Tony Werner / Comcast Voices:

The Facts about Xfinity TV and Xbox 360: Comcast is Not Prioritizing — As we previously announced, Xfinity TV customers are now able to watch Xfinity TV On Demand on the Xbox 360 — the latest new platform that we are using to bring more content to consumers.

More: The Verge, CNET, GigaOM, TechCrunch, The Verge, Light Reading, Engadget and Broadband Traffic Management

T.C. Sottek / The Verge:

Is Comcast prioritizing its Xfinity app over competitors like Netflix?

More: berg'd

Peter Sciretta / /Film:

Aaron Sorkin To Adapt ‘Steve Jobs’ for Sony — Last year we heard that Sony wanted Academy Award-winning The Social Network/The West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin to write the screenplay for a Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography. Sony had purchased the rights …

More: parislemon, TUAW, Gizmodo, Network World, Techland, MacRumors, CNET, AppleInsider, Mashable!, Variety, iPhone in Canada Blog, everythingiCafe, The Verge, 9to5Mac and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @fromedome, @mccarthyryanj, @levie and @cdixon

Emil Protalinski / ZDNet:

Avira Antivirus update cripples millions of Windows PCs — Summary: Avira has sent out a defective antivirus update that is causing paid versions of its product to block critical Windows processes and third-party software, effectively rendering millions of PCs unusable.

More: Softpedia News, Avira Support Forum Feed, PC Magazine, CNET, Computerworld, Help Net Security and Neowin

Shayndi Raice / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook's New R&D Machine — Fewer Half-Baked Products Without User Input; 'We've Gotten More Humble' — Mark Zuckerberg is taking a more measured approach for major features added to Facebook. Above, a stencil of Zuckerberg at headquarters. — For years, Facebook Inc. chief Mark Zuckerberg led …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Flipboard Expands: Adds Audio From NPR, Public Radio & SoundCloud; Introduces Japanese Version — “Social magazine” Flipboard may have to think up a new tagline for itself, as tonight the company is rolling out an update which greatly expands its focus beyond text-based content to also include audio.

More: VentureBeat, Flipboard, BBC, The Next Web, Mashable!, Flipboard, The Next Web, Techland and The Verge

Tweets: @scobleizer and @flipboard

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple also working on MacBook Airs and iMacs with Retina Displays — Mockup showing Retina Display 11 and 13 inch MacBook Airs — On Monday we broke the news that Apple is readying a brand-new 15-inch MacBook Pro with cornerstone features like an ultra-thin design and USB 3 ports for incredibly fast data transfers.

More: iPhone Hacks, Techie Buzz, Neowin, WebProNews, msnbc.com, The Tech Trade, Redmond Pie, Los Angeles Times, SlashGear, Ubergizmo and VentureBeat

Chris Kanaracus / PC World:

NetSuite Rolls out Commerce-as-a-service Platform — NetSuite is going up against vendors such as Demandware in the market for cloud-based e-commerce platforms, announcing a new product, SuiteCommerce, during the SuiteWorld conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

More: eWeek, Bloomberg, PandoDaily, internetretailer.com, VentureBeat, ZDNet and Bits

Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:

Please Don't Learn to Code — The whole “everyone should learn programming” meme has gotten so out of control that the mayor of New York City actually vowed to learn to code in 2012. — A noble gesture to garner the NYC tech community vote, for sure, but if the mayor of New York City actually needs …

More: Ilya Lichtenstein, Learn Code The Hard Way Blog, SachaGreif.com, rc3.org, MSDN Blogs, Smarterware and nyc.gov

Tweets: @getwired and @lessien

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

T-Mobile USA's Philipp Humm announces restructuring, ‘difficult decisions’ to staff — T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm had previously announced a round of layoffs with a net loss of some 1,000 jobs back in March, and the company's restructuring continues today with another memo sent to employees.

More: TmoNews, AllThingsD, PC Magazine, GigaOM, Tech Daily Dose, The Seattle Times, AndroidGuys, CNET, GeekWire, Dice Blog Network, PhoneArena, VentureBeat, SlashGear, BGR and Engadget

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Google Docs Research sidebar looks up terms, adds images, quotes, and citations — Google Docs has a lot going for it as an office or writing tool, and we imagine the Research sidebar, which appears to have recently launched on the suite, will help bolster its popularity.

More: CNET, Ars Technica, Dain Binder's Technology Blog, Google Operating System, Mashable!, Z-Blog, Softpedia News and Zotero

Joanna Stern / ABCNEWS:

How Does Gmail Work? Google's Story of Send Site Explains — Before you hit the “send” button on an e-mail, you might proofread your message. Or maybe you make sure you've included the right attachment. Or maybe, just maybe, you contemplate what is actually going to happen to that message once you hit …

More: msnbc.com, Engadget, Gmail Blog, The Next Web, The Verge, CNET, Softpedia News, Laughing Squid, Wired and VentureBeat

Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:

Kevin Ryan Asks Jetsetter CEO Drew Patterson to Step Down After ‘Mutiny’ From Staffers — Gilt Groupe founder Kevin Ryan and Gilt Groupe chairman Susan Lyne spent Monday in meetings at the offices of Jetsetter, an independent deals site for luxury travel bookings under the Gilt umbrella.

More: AllThingsD

Steven M. Davidoff / DealBook:

China Flexes Its Regulatory Muscle, Catching Google in Its Grip — In today's globalized world, you can't avoid China, or so goes the cliché. Google is discovering that it's actually true. — Following a dispute over censorship, Google largely abandoned mainland China two years ago …

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

Apple introduces the Steering Wheel Remote Control — The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-one newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The most surprising one of them all is one that snuck through the patent system until today.

More: Digital Trends, CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac and iPhone in Canada Blog

Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:

Bing's New Social-Friendly Search Interface Now Live — The new Bing interface, with a healthy dose of social connections and discovery, is now live for all users. — Bing's announcement today says that anyone can access the new interface at www.bing.com/new, but you should also see a new message atop …

More: Ubergizmo, LiveSide.net, The Next Web, TechCrunch, The Verge, AllThingsD, VentureBeat and Bing

Ricardo Bilton / VentureBeat:

Sweet music: Smule brings popular Songify app to Android — Mobile app development nowadays seems to be be following a fairly regular pattern: Create an infectious iOS app, wait until it gets insanely popular, then launch an almost identical version for Android.

More: TechCrunch, Mashable!, Appolicious Advisor, Bits, VatorNews and GigaOM

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Google finally adds ability to save home and work locations to Google Maps — Setting up a location for home and work and saving them in your address book is one of the most helpful mapping tips I can give anyone. Google apparently agrees, as it has now added the ability to save Home …

More: Engadget, WebProNews, PC Magazine, The Verge and Google LatLong

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