Techmeme: Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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December 26, 2013, 4:30 PM

Top News

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Christmas delayed: Amazon offers $20 gift cards, refunds shipping charges after UPS and FedEx problems — Didn't get what you expected under the tree? It's probably marooned in a package delivery center. — Following widespread complaints about absent packages, Amazon …

More: internetretailer.com, Business Insider, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, The Next Web, SlashGear, louisgray.com, TechnoBuffalo, Gotta Be Mobile and IntoMobile

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Surge of online orders causes fulfillment, delivery delays, frustrates customers on Christmas — Shipping Delays Left Many People With Little to Put Under Tree … Many shoppers are blaming online retailers for stealing Christmas. — Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Kohl's Corp …

More: UPS, BetaNews, BestTechie, NBCNews, VatorNews, Business Insider, The Verge, Corporate Intelligence and InvestorPlace

Tweets: @levie and @eholmeswsj

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Dogewallet announces Dogecoin theft, a dubious milestone for the new cryptocurrency that started as a joke — Millions Of Dogecoins Stolen In Apparent Heist — Much robbery, so anger, etc. Users of the functional joke currency are reporting emptied wallets.

More: doges.org, The Verge, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, TechCrunch, ReadWrite, Business Insider, Vacuum, VentureBeat, Mashable, Mediaite, Tech in Asia, Gizmodo, The Next Web and Electronista

Tweets: @daweiner, @cshirky, @samir, @tmfbiggles, @fmanjoo, @dcbigjohn and @russellbrandom

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Amazon's “best ever” season saw 1M new Prime members in one week, 426 items sold per second — Amazon Prime tops 20 million members as company touts its best holiday season ever — Amazon is exiting the 2013 holiday season with “tens of millions” of Amazon Prime members …

More: NYT Bits, Quartz, AllThingsD, CNET, Gigaom, The Verge, VatorNews, Businessweek, Tech Trader Daily, Gigaom, Benzinga and The Next Web

Tweets: @zseward and @zseward

Thanks:@belril. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Plain Vanilla Games, Maker Of Ultra-Hot Trivia App QuizUp, Raises Another $22 Million From Sequoia — Plain Vanilla Games, the company behind ultra-hot trivia app QuizUp, has raised a $22 million Series B Round of financing. The financing was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation …

More: VentureBeat, Betabeat, The Verge, AllThingsD and The Next Web

Tweets: @semil and @caseynewton

Thanks:@chrisvelazco

Farhad Manjoo / Wall Street Journal:

Snapchat's popularity shows we all may want a more erasable Internet — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever. Do we want it to be erasable? — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever, and Snapchat has proved it.

More: BGR and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @fmanjoo, @stevesi and @hunterwalk

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution — Google Destroys Rap Genius' Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress — Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results.

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Scores of Music Services Stream Into Crowded Field — Many of the New Models Will Focus on Genre — The number of music-streaming services is set to explode next year, as record labels have warmed up to the idea of renting consumers access to a vast collection of tunes, rather than selling them individual albums or songs.

Tweets: @zseward

Steve Dent / Engadget:

LG mum on smartwatch rumors but confirms that a wearable device is coming — Amidst rumors of 2K displays and octa-core CPUs for the LG G3, the Korea Herald has just added another: the upcoming smartphone will come with a G-Arch smartwatch and G-Health fitness band.

More: The Korea Heald, VentureBeat, WebProNews, TechnoBuffalo, TechnoBuffalo, Yahoo! News and Droid Life. Tweets: @liliputingnews

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Online retailers mine transaction data to discourage returns, a growing problem — Rampant Returns Plague E-Retailers — Sellers Suggest Sizes and Redirect Discounts to Break Bad Habits — Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost.

More: Intuitive Systems, SlashGear and Marketing Pilgrim. Tweets: @notaxation

Jenny W. Hsu / Wall Street Journal:

Taiwan fines Apple $667K for influencing carriers' iPhone pricing, can face additional $1.6m if it fails to comply — Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling — Island's fair-trade body says Apple told mobile-service providers how to charge for handsets

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

KakaoTalk is used by 93% of South Korean smartphone owners, expects $200M revenue in 2013 — With $200 Million in Revenue, South Korea's Top Messaging App Is All Smiley Faces — In South Korea, there's no escaping KakaoTalk. The country has a smartphone penetration rate of 73 percent …

Tweets: @papadimitriou. Thanks:@electricwaffles

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