Top Items:

Rumor Mill: Acquisition Time? Is Google Going to the Opera? — I'm not one for spreading rumors but sometimes...? Feel like a hot one? OK, we've got one or should I say Dirson has one. What is it? Google is going to acquire Opera. That's right, the wonderful and powerful Opera browser from Norway …
RELATED ITEM:

Google Dressing Up For Opera — Update: Google spokesperson emailed and said, no comment and that this is just a rumor. Opera spokesperson was even more blunt and said: "This is just as new to me as it is to you. We do not know of any such plans." — Pierre Chappaz, former head of Yahoo Europe …

Internet encyclopaedias go head to head — Abstract — Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a Nature investigation finds. — One of the extraordinary stories of the Internet age is that of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit.
RELATED ITEM:

Online encyclopedias put to the test — IT HAS proved one of the most radical yet popular ideas of the internet age: a free online encyclopedia that anybody can contribute to and edit. But is Wikipedia a reliable source of information, or is it filled with inaccuracy and hoaxes?
Discussion:
digg

No action needed now on Net neutrality-FCC chief — WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - There is no immediate need for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules protecting consumers' ability to surf anywhere on the Internet, the agency's chairman Kevin Martin said on Wednesday.
RELATED ITEMS:

FCC chief backs Net phone taxes — WASHINGTON—Imposing new taxes on a wider swath of Internet phone users is likely to be one of the Federal Communications Commission's top priorities next year, Chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday. — The policy at issue is the thorny question …

Icons: It's still orange — My last post shared some of our conceptual designs of the feed icon and expressed some of the criteria that we are using to select the right icon. Several of the comments liked icon #4 simply because it looked liked the Firefox icon, and many (like this one) …

GUS Buys PriceGrabber.com for $485 Million — Retail and financial services company GUS PLC said Wednesday it has bought PriceGrabber.com, a U.S. company that offers online comparison prices for shoppers, for $485 million. — GUS is purchasing PriceGrabber, which provides information …
RELATED ITEM:

Three Technology Companies Join to Finance Research — BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 12 - With federal funds for basic computer science research at universities in decline, three of the industry's leading companies are joining to help fill the void. — University of California computer scientists plan …

Google whistles a new tune — Google was set to launch on Thursday a new service intended to give searchers fast links to song lyrics, musical artists and CD titles on the main search results page. — Google Music will allow a user to type in the name of a band, artist …
Discussion:
PaidContent.org

New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids' Behavior — Issue 41 •50 — NEW YORK— Electronic-entertainment giant Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Grand Theft Auto series creator Rockstar Games, released Stacker Tuesday, a first-person vertical-crate-arranger guaranteed …

Now that we've got your attention — I was in a conversation last night where the subject turned to Office and whether it's dead or not. You know, the good old Notes is Dead micromeme that I pushed out into the world way back when Ray Ozzie was not the Prince of Redmond.
Discussion:
Scobleizer

DVR Buyers Shift and Zap — NEW YORK Contrary to recent assertions by the major broadcast networks, new research on digital video recorders by WPP Group's Mindshare found that consumers buy the devices mainly to "time shift" (record programs for later viewing) and skip commercials.