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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 …
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Be civil, asshole — "The reason the battles are so bitter," someone once said about academia, "is because the stakes are so low." It was hard not to be reminded of that famous quote when reading about Currygate and the attendant controversy over who played what role in the invention of podcasting.

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).
Discussion:
Scobleizer, Silicon Valley Watcher, Om Malik on Broadband, Full Circle Online …, iBLOGthere4iM and Beth's Blog

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

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.
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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.

Windows Live Local Beta is Now Online
Discussion:
Google Blogoscoped, InsideMicrosoft, The Kelsey Group, ResourceShelf and Alex Barnett blog

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.
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VoIP Watch

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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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Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese — FUZHOU, China - One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.

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.

Video Placebo: Is that Really HDTV You Are Watching? — News of the video bizarre: According to a just-released survey by Scientific-Atlanta, millions of people who have HDTV sets apparently think they are watching high definition television, but aren't. The survey was spurred …
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