Top Items:
Greg Yardley / Greg Yardley's Internet Blog:
Google tests out Click-to-Call AdWords — Google is apparently testing out click-to-call AdWords - I can't see it myself, but Seth just searched for 'refinance' and spotted some phone icons alongside the AdWords listings. He entered his phone number and within five seconds received an automated phone call …
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Gary Price / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Google Begins Test of "Click-to-Call" Advertising Program — If you wondered when Google might begin offering pay-per-call ads it looks like the time is now. — In a very thorough blog post, Greg Yardley reports (nice work Greg, screen caps, too) that Google has started to test a pay-per-call advertising program.
Michael / michael parekh on IT:
ON GOOGLE TESTING "CLICK-TO-CALL" ADWORDS & eBAY/SKYPE — Looks like eBay and it's $4 billion plus acquisition Skype (via memeorandum)may soon have company in testing the emerging "Click-per-Call" market from Google. — Greg Yardley has a detailed post titled "Google tests out Click-to-Call AdWords" …
Discussion:
IP Democracy
Jack Shafer / Slate:
The Great Google Wipeout — Chronicle of a corporate death foretold. — It wasn't like it had never happened before in the tech world. At the beginning of the 1980s, an Apple computer was the only box a self-respecting user would own. Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, IBM PCs, CompuServe …
Discussion:
InsideGoogle, LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION, IP Democracy, Keep Trying, Got Ads?, David Card and Online News Squared
Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:
Microsoft opens up Office — Microsoft wants to make the file formats for its new Office 12 applications a standard. — The company said it would submit applications to the European standards body ECMA International next month, in a move to reassure customers that they will not be locked into proprietary file formats.
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Stefanie Olsen / CNET News.com:
Search technology comes to the camera phone — What do MP3s have in common with dairy? — Milk marketing. — By early next year, cartons of milk sold by a European dairy manufacturer will have images of CD art printed on them. Accompanying each image will be a message urging people …
Gary Gentile / Associated Press:
Hollywood Hopes to Reduce Movie Downloads — LOS ANGELES - Hollywood hopes that an agreement with the creator of BitTorrent software, popular for downloading pirated movies over the Internet, will reduce illegal traffic in online films. — The agreement negotiated Tuesday requires 30-year …
Discussion:
IP Democracy
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Ars Technica:
Xbox 360: shortages no joke — While some people insisted that the talk relating to Xbox 360 scarcity was just a veiled publicity stunt, I headed out this morning to see what the scene looked like on the ground. In a word: chaos. — The shortage is very real, and it has plenty of people angry and frustrated.
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Microsoft's Red-Ink Game — Redmond will sell every Xbox console at a big loss, says researcher iSuppli. Not to worry, the profit is in the associated software — Microsoft's newest gaming console marks an improvement on the earlier version in some decisive ways.
consortiuminfo.org:
Microsoft's Format Covenant Fails Comparison Test with Sun's — I was able to get an advance copy of Microsoft's covenant not to sue, so that I could provide an analysis of it as soon as it was posted by Microsoft at a public Web page. Here it is, with footnotes indicating where my comments apply …
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Lester Haines / The Register:
Heroes pull woman from Xbox blaze — An Anglesey woman was pulled unconscious from her house by two strangers after succumbing to smoke generated by a faulty Xbox. — Stuart Ward and Robert Johnson ran from a pub in Llanfairpwll to find the unnamed victim's house engulfed in thick …
Matt Loney / silicon.com:
iTunes.co.uk tug-of-war ends — So who gets to keep the Apple of its eye? — Ben Cohen, former teenage dot-com millionaire, has given up his fight to regain the iTunes.co.uk domain, according to dot-uk registry Nominet. — Nominet company solicitor Edward Phillips said on Monday that Cohen's company …
Discussion:
Techdirt
distroreviews.com:
Impressions: Fedora Core 5 Test 1 — Please rate this review 1 2 3 4 5 (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent) — Fedora Core 5 Test 1 was released to mirrors today. According to the release schedule, Test 1 should have been available a couple of days ago.
Discussion:
The Tao of Mac
Alexander Roy / Gizmodo:
World's Greatest... Radio Scanners — When was the last time you saw a trucker pulled over for speeding? — The question never occurred to me until the summer of 2003, as I was preparing for the Gumball Rally, one of the spiritual descendants of the infamous Cannonball Run.
Jennifer Granick / Wired News:
Dark Cloud Hovers Over Black Hat — Last week Black Hat, the Vegas security conference that was at the center of the Ciscogate controversy last summer, was purchased by CMP Media. The sale has the internet hens clucking about whether ownership by a larger, wealthier corporation …
Lorraine Woellert / Business Week:
Sony's Escalating "Spyware" Fiasco — Along with lawyers, prosecutors, and furious fans, artists are joining the backlash against the label for slipping a hidden, anti-theft program into users' computers — Van Zant's Get Right with the Man CD was released in May, but six months later …
Discussion:
Techdirt
