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November 27, 2012, 1:10 AM

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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

How PRWeb Helps Distribute Crap Into Google & News Sites — “What's the use of PRWeb?,” tweeted Megan McCarthy of Reuters, trying to digest how that service ended up circulating a fake Google acquisition story. Come along, Megan and others, and I'll explain one of the sorriest uses …

More: Current Editorials. Tweets: @megan, @percival, @mat and @ablaze

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Google Sources Say Company Didn't Buy ICOA Wireless — Sources at Google are denying reports that the search giant has acquired ICOA Wireless in a $400 million deal. — We have yet to hear from a Google rep on the record. But people within the company say that contrary to a press release posted …

Frank Strong / PRWeb:

PRWeb Statement on Fraudulent ICOA Press Release — PRWeb transmitted a press release for ICOA that we have since learned was fraudulent. The release was not issued or authorized by ICOA. Vocus reviews all press releases and follows an internal process designed to maintain the integrity of the releases we send out every day.

More: Digital Media Wire, CNET, The Next Web, AllThingsD, Business Insider and TechCrunch

Tweets: @megangarber and @dannysullivan

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

So Where Did That Fake Google Acquisition Press Release Come From? Aruba?

More: PandoDaily, BuzzFeed, Guardian, The Technology Chronicles and BetaNews

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

ICOA Says Google Didn't Acquire the Company

More: Associated Press, Hillicon Valley, Gizmodo, Marketing Land and TechnoBuffalo. Tweets: @pkafka

Don Reisinger / CNET:

Nintendo: 400K Wii U units sold, 1.2M devices total — The company's president of America Reggie Fils-Aime says that the Wii U is “essentially sold out of retail.” — Nintendo sold more than 1 million hardware units over the last week, the company has confirmed to CNET.

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Google reportedly gearing up to launch its own, 12.85-inch Chrome OS touch notebook in Q1 2013 — According to news outlets in Asia, Google is set to follow its rivals and launch an own-brand Chrome OS-powered 12.85-inch touch notebook in the first quarter of 2013.

More: Mashable!, TechCrunch, CNET, DigiTimes, SlashGear, GadgeTell, PC World, Geek.com, PC Magazine, Neowin, WebProNews, TechnoBuffalo and 9to5Google

Myriam Joire / Engadget:

Acer C7 Chromebook review: Chrome OS on the cheap, but at what cost? — It's been just over a month since Google unveiled its gorgeous and affordable $249 Samsung Chromebook only to surprise us days later with an even cheaper system, the $199 Acer C7 Chromebook.

More: OStatic blogs

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Apollo Plus: Microsoft's next Windows Phone update to include Wi-Fi, audio, and other fixes — Microsoft is currently preparing an update for Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo Plus. Sources have confirmed to The Verge that Apollo Plus will bring new features to Windows Phone 8 that weren't fully in scope for the initial release.

More: LiveSide.net, WMPoweruser, Winsyde, MobileSyrup.com, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, UnleashThePhones, Neowin, Gotta Be Mobile, ZDNet, PhoneArena and WinBeta

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Windows Phone 7.8: After Months Of Silence On WP7′s Last Ever Update, Microsoft Says …

More: LiveSide.net, UnleashThePhones, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, Gotta Be Mobile, PC Pro, SiliconANGLE and Business Insider

Y Combinator:

The YC VC Program — Two years ago Yuri Milner and Ron Conway formed an informal coalition to invest $150k in every startup we funded. Although we didn't organize this program, over the years we ended up de facto managing it, and it was awkward to manage something we hadn't started.

More: GigaOM, CNET, Forbes, Xconomy, PandoDaily and The Next Web

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Y Combinator's YC VC Will Replace The Start Fund; Includes Yuri Milner, Andreessen Horowitz But Offers Less Money

Farhad Manjoo / Fast Company:

Walmart's Evolution From Big Box Giant To E-Commerce Innovator — Walmart, the world's largest retailer, embraces social, mobile, and the startup spirit to compete against Amazon. Will it be enough? — Jeremy King was ignoring the largest retailer in the world.

More: Business Insider, Quartz and The Verge

Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Raises $3 Billion in a Rare Bond Offering — Amazon.com Inc. went beyond its usual Cyber Monday deals with a different type of offering: debt. — The Seattle-based Web giant on Monday tapped capital markets with its first bond offering in nearly 15 years, raising $3 billion for what it said were “general corporate purposes.”

More: Business Insider, bizjournals, Associated Press and AllThingsD

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Amazon's other Cyber Monday deal: $3B in debt

More: Bloomberg and Financial Times

Cade Metz / Wired:

Exclusive: Inside Google Spanner, the Largest Single Database on Earth — Each morning, when Andrew Fikes sat down at his desk inside Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, he turned on the “VC” link to New York. — VC is Google shorthand for video conference.

More: The Verge

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:

11 Apple iPads per hour vs. zero Microsoft Surface tablets — A survey compared sales at an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store in the Mall of America — FORTUNE — On Saturday we posted side-by-side videos showing Black Friday shopping activity at an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store in Lone Tree …

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:

Internal Apple video documents Apple Store philosophy — Washington Square Films (NYC) gave us a rare look at one of the internal videos that Apple has shown its retail store employees. This one is obviously over a year old, with Ron Johnson at the helm (the date says 7/7/2011).

More: CNET, TUAW, Macgasm, iDownloadBlog.com, TechCrunch and Patently Apple

John Cook / GeekWire:

Zillow continues acquisition spree, buys HotPads for $16M in cash — Zillow continues to bolster its position in the online real estate sector, announcing today yet another acquisition. — This time the deal happens to be in the consumer arena, with Zillow agreeing to pay $16 million …

More: Zillow MediaRoom, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Mashable!, HotPads Daily, The Seattle Times, Forbes and Tech Trader Daily. Thanks:@taylor_soper

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

The Social Commerce Attribution Problem: IBM Says Twitter Referred 0% Of Black Friday Traffic — Twitter and Facebook usually aren't the last click before an ecommerce buy, but that doesn't mean they didn't inspire or influence the purchase. Yet IBM's Black Friday report says Twitter delivered percent …

Thanks:@joshconstine

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Verizon Sued For Defending Alleged BitTorrent Pirates — The ongoing avalanche of mass-BitTorrent lawsuits reveal that IP-addresses can get people into a heap of trouble. — In many cases the person who pays for the account is not the person who shared the copyrighted material.

More: Ars Technica and The Next Web

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft's client-access licensing and pricing changes to hit December 1 — Summary: Business customers who purchase CALs from Microsoft for use with Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Windows Server, System Center and other products should be aware of licensing/pricing changes coming soon.

More: TechCrunch and Business Insider. Tweets: @davegirouard

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo: Users Can Download Their Entire Archive By Year-End; Now Sees 1B Tweets Every 2.5 Days — Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has once again promised that Twitter users will, indeed, be able to download a full archive of their tweets in just a matter of weeks.

More: BuzzFeed, Mashable!, digitaltrends.com, TPM IdeaLab and Gizmodo

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

Lanyrd Jumps Into The Space Left By LinkedIn's Events App Closure With New Features — As of today, LinkedIn is shutting down its LinkedIn Events application. As you can see, the events industry is gnashing its teeth over this move. The events side of the app has been long used …

More: The Next Web and PandoDaily

Jessica Guynn / Los Angeles Times:

Two consumer groups urge Facebook to back off privacy changes — Consumer groups are protesting Facebook's proposal to end its practice of letting users vote on changes to its privacy policies and wants to share more of their data with its affiliates such as Instagram. (Joerg Koch / Associated Press / November 26, 2012)

More: CNET, epic.org, Ars Technica, Reuters and The Next Web

Horace Dediu / asymco:

The Android engagement paradox — IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark reported US Black Friday sales and the news is reasonably good. Overall online sales grew by 17.4% while mobile grew to make up 24% of traffic. — The data goes further to show the split between device types.

More: IBM, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Zero Percent Idle, CITEworld, Internet2Go, GigaOM, Business Insider, Mashable!, TUAW, Mashable!, Ars Technica, TechPinions, Marketing Pilgrim and App Advice

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