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4:23 AM ET, December 19, 2006

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Inside AdSense:
Ad and image placement: a policy clarification  —  We've recently received a number of emails from publishers asking how we feel about the placement of images near Google ad units.  There's been some confusion on this issue, and so we turned to our policy team to set the record straight.
RELATED:
Google Blogoscoped:   Don't Place Images Next to Google Ads
Kevin Rose / Digg the Blog:
New Digg Features O' Plenty  —  Big update today.  Tons of new features to share with you - many inspired by feedback you've given us over the last few months (thanks!).  Check out this video for a quick overview, or read below for more details.  —  Interface Design, Digg Goes Widescreen
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Digg Breaks Away From All News Focus
Jon Murchinson / nasa.gov:
NASA and Google to Bring Space Exploration Down to Earth  —  MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a Space Act Agreement that formally establishes a relationship to work together on a variety of challenging technical problems ranging from large-scale data management …
RELATED:
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
NASA-Google partnership ready for liftoff  —  The NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a formal agreement to collaborate on projects ranging from studying scientific-data search technology to using Google Earth flyovers for the moon and Mars.  —  The R&D partnership was announced …
Discussion: Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog
BBC:
iPhone surprises technology world  —  A net phone called the iPhone has been launched by Linksys just weeks before analysts were expecting Apple to release a similarly-named device.  —  The wireless iPhone allows users to make free or low-cost internet phone calls using the Skype service.
RELATED:
Nancy Gohring / Macworld:
The iPhone is launched ... by Linksys, not Apple
Discussion: Techdirt, MacUser and Gizmodo
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
PixSense, offering auto-storage of mobile photos & video, raises $5.4M  —  PixSense, a service that lets you automatically save and store your mobile phone photos — without the pain of syncing with a PC — has just raised $5.4 million in a first round of funding.
Discussion: michael parekh on IT
RELATED:
Ilene Adler / beta.pixsense.com:
PixSense Secures $5.4 Million in Series A Funding for Mobile Photo …
Discussion: Mashable!
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Australian court rules against MP3 link site  —  update Linking to copyright music posted elsewhere online without permission can be illegal, an Australian appeals court ruled Monday.  —  The issue before a three-judge panel at the Federal Court of Australia was whether Stephen Cooper …
RELATED:
Mike / Techdirt:
Allowing Linking To MP3s Still Illegal In Australia; Ruling …
Discussion: Weatherall's Law
Brady Forrest / O'Reilly Radar:
Google Deprecates Their SOAP Search API  —  In an odd move Google has quietly deprecated their Search SOAP API, will no longer be issuing keys, and have removed the SDK from their site.  They did not even issue a blog post about it.  They will continue (for how long?) to support existing users, but will not do any bug fixes.
RELATED:
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Suburbs against the U(ni)verse: the battle over AT&T's fiber rollout  —  Introduction  —  It wasn't supposed to happen like this.  AT&T's IPTV-based U-verse service was being tested with great fanfare in San Antonio, and the company was ready to start in on the real deployments.
Discussion: digg and Slashdot
Cingular:
The rich feature set for MySpace Mobile on Cingular includes:  —  Uploading Photos  —  Available on select Cingular handsets, MySpace Mobile allows Cingular customers to select photos stored on their mobile device and upload them to their MySpace profile.  The same terms of service for MySpace …
RELATED:
Katie Fehrenbacher / GigaOM:   MySpace Hooks up with Cingular
Rcade / Workbench:
My Battle with MGM Over Wargames.Com  —  For the past three months I've been privately engaged in a time-consuming dispute with Nathan J. Hole, a lawyer representing MGM Studios who claims that Wargames.Com, a domain that I've owned since April 16, 1998, is the rightful property of the film company …
Kate Kaye / ClickZ:
Edelman and NewsGator Team to Offer Conversational Ads  —  Despite some hiccups, Edelman has been in the forefront of brand and social media convergence this year, and a new joint offering with NewsGator Technologies is no exception.  The PR firm has linked with the RSS feed platform provider …
Discussion: Monkey Bites and Amyloo
RELATED:
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
Edelman, Newsgator to Create Branded Communities, Conversational Advertising
Discussion: Strumpette and media landscaping
Ben Charny / MarketWatch:
Google's radio ad tests hit snag — analyst  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Google Inc.'s nascent radio advertisement business, known as Google Audio, has run into an unexpected snag: it seems Google doesn't have access to enough radio airtime for would-be advertisers to thoroughly test out the initiative, an analyst said Monday.
Discussion: TechCrunch and Hear 2.0
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Digg continues to battle phony stories  —  Digg continues to crack down on users who plant phony stories on behalf of marketers, recently deleting a user who posted a story about a company that offered to compensate him.  —  The news aggregate site, which allows users to play editor and decide …
Discussion: digg
Jeremy Kirk / InfoWorld:
Malware: Quality drops but quantity rises  —  Kaspersky: Ever-increasing amounts of malware are taxing the resources of security companies  —  They just don't make malware like they used to.  Or at least like they did earlier this year.  Even low-quality malware, however …
Discussion: Techdirt
New York Times:
EBay Is Expected to Close Its Auction Site in China  —  Acknowledging that the online auction market in China is enticingly fast-growing but frustratingly tough to crack, eBay will shut its main Web site in China and enter into a joint venture with a Chinese company instead, a person briefed on the plans of the companies said yesterday.
Discussion: PaidContent and VentureBeat
Andrew McAfee:
The Person of the Year at Work  —  You've probably heard by now that Time has declared "You" to be the Person of the Year, due entirely to Web 2.0.  The introduction to the cover story makes some interesting points:  —  "Sure, it's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary.
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
The Shrinking Long Tail - Top 10 Web Domains Increasing in Reach  —  Last week I was following the De-Portalization of the Internet thread, started by Fred Wilson and then extended by Keith Teare.  I was struck by one observation in particular by Fred:
 
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 More Items: 
John Dempsey / Variety:
Comcast, Endemol pair in video search
Discussion: Mashable!
Staci D. Kramer / PaidContent:
SI Continues Interest In Social Networks; $25 Million On 40 percent …
Discussion: Mashable! and alarm:clock
Seeking Alpha:
Oracle F2Q07 (Qtr End 11/30/06) Earnings Call Transcript
Eli Hoffmann / Seeking Alpha:
Google Q4 Earnings Will Take a Hit — WSJ
Rory / Channel 9:
The Best XNA Movie in the UNIVERSE
Discussion: Brandon Live!
Associated Press:
FCC chief says cities block cable competition
Rick LePage / Macworld:
Remembering Bruce Fraser
Discussion: MacUser and John Nack on Adobe
Adam Lasnik / Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:
Deftly dealing with duplicate content
 Earlier Items: 
Wagner James Au / GigaGamez:
Second Life: Hype vs. Anti-Hype vs. Anti-Anti-Hype
Mike / CrunchNotes:
Natali Leaves TechCrunch
Chris Boggs / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Google Officially Says "No" to Reciprocal Linking?
Robert Lemos / Wired News:
Goodbye TV, Hello Broadband
Associated Press:
Retailers profit from unused gift cards
Geraldine Fabrikant / New York Times:
On Demand and on DVD at the Same Time
useit.com:
Usability in the Movies — Top 10 Bloopers
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Ryan Grim / Drop Site News:
An investigation finds that OCCRP, which works with major newspapers on scoops like the Panama Papers, is primarily bankrolled by the US and its Western allies

Kat Tenbarge / NBC News:
Some reporters say they are finding more readers and less hate on Bluesky, as Elon Musk turns X into an increasingly difficult place for journalists

John Jurgensen / Wall Street Journal:
Paramount co-CEO Chris McCarthy aims to revitalize Showtime by using successful formulas like Yellowstone from Paramount+ and investing in high-profile projects

 
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