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Mena Trott Implodes Onstage. News at 11. — I've just returned from Paris after attending Les Blogs, a weblogging conference organized by our European office. I'm still a bit jet-lagged and, at this moment, I haven't the energy to write up a long post about the morning talk I gave (plus the heated Q&A).
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Six Apart chief's 'nice' speech ends in name-calling — Les Blogs The second LesBlogs geekfest in Paris saw Six Apart's oh-so-nice president, Mena Trott, taking bloggers to task for incivility. — Having let the genie out of the bottle by providing over ten million people with the tools to blog …

A Kinder, Gentler Blogosphere
Discussion:
Things That, cubicgarden.com, Blog Network Watch, Beth's Blog, Andrew Lark and Full Circle Online …

Feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse, eh eBay? — The ink on eBay's $2.6+ billion acquisition of Skype isn't even dry yet (see "Skype to eBay: No, we don't accept PayPal" and "Yes, but who in their right mind wants to talk to eBay bidders on the phone?") and already it's heading for a price war.
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Yahoo undercuts Skype on voice call rates — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. said on Wednesday the company plans to allow computer users to make and receive calls from phones at rates that undercut eBay-owned rival Skype and are significantly below traditional phone companies.
Discussion:
VoIP Watch

Google developing Google Earth for Mac OS X — Google Inc., the world's largest search engine, is developing a beta version of its fascinating Google Earth geographical satellite imagery and mapping application for Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system, sources tell AppleInsider.
Discussion:
SiliconBeat, Download Squad, InsideMicrosoft, The Map Room and The Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Windows Live Local — A beta version of Microsoft Corp.'s new online local search and mapping service goes live Thursday morning. Windows Live Local, powered by Microsoft's mapping and location platform, Virtual Earth, combines bird's-eye imagery with driving directions, Yellow Pages and other local search tools.

Online comparison shopping nabs Web market share — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comparison shopping Web sites have seen a surge in holiday visits this year, as more consumers look to the Internet to compare prices, a research company said on Wednesday. — Last week, top comparison shopping sites logged …

Xbox 360s in Short Supply — Low Supply Shaping Up as Big Problem — Dec. 8, 2005 — Almost immediately after Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console hit stores late last month, gaming Web sites were inundated with reports the machines were crashing, freezing up and simply not working.

A new addition to the Quality Score — In August, we introduced the Quality Score along with the launch of quality-based minimum bids, letting you know that we evaluate many factors, such as your ad text and clickthrough rate (CTR) to determine the minimum bid for your keyword.

Right tool, wrong fight — Freedom of Anonymous Speech: Ross Mayfield writes of the Wikipedia debate.... Ross is wrong when he says "Big Deal. It's a wiki...." The tools don't add value, the user does. If the content of a wiki is essentially different because of the the tool used to create and edit it …
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50% of HDTV Owners Don't Use HD - 25% think they are, but aren't — 25% think they are, but aren't — Apparently half of all HDTV owners don't actually use the HD capabilities of their set, and nearly a quarter think they're watching high definition video when they actually haven't set it up correctly.
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A cure for the common inbox — Ever get the feeling that your email experience is a little too predictable? I certainly have. Over the past few months, I've been working on Gmail Clips, a new feature that can help mix things up a bit. Starting this week, you can see headlines …

Imitation is Not Strategy, or Why Yahoo is Living in the Uncanny Valley — One of Yahoo's vital points - perhaps it's definitive vital point - is that it doesn't innovate; it imitates. Even hyperimitates, if you like; soaking up like a sponge more and more corporate versions of cool ideas floating around the Net.

US warns of fake net domain data — More than 5% of the net's most popular domains have been registered using "patently false" data, research shows. — A US congressional report into who owns .com, .net and .org domains found that many owners were hiding their true identity.
Discussion:
SearchViews

Unpatched Firefox 1.5 exploit made public — Exploit code for the latest version of open-source browser Firefox was published Wednesday, potentially putting users at risk of a denial-of-service attack. — The exploit code takes advantage of a bug in the recently released Firefox 1.5, running on Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Discussion:
OSNews.com