Top Items:
Varun Dubey / cooltechzone.com:
Microsoft Buys Out Opera — (Insider Report) - Here comes a surprise. In a recent conversation with one of our insiders at Microsoft, the source revealed that Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, has acquired Opera Software, makers of the Opera browser.
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Matt Loney / ZDNet:
Opera denies Microsoft takeover rumours … As the phones ring off the hook at Opera, the browser vendor insists rumours that Microsoft is buying it out are unfounded — Opera on Friday denied the latest takeover rumour spreading round the Internet, saying that it has not had any approaches from Microsoft or anyone else.
Discussion:
mathewingram.com/work, Mark Evans, Things That, The Jason Calacanis Weblog, Neowin.net, Microsoft Watch, digg and OpsanBlog
Michael Gartenberg:
Microsoft buys Opera - Here's Why (it would have made sense) — Update - The Opera folks are saying this isn't correct and there's no deal. I should have been more skeptical, it's something we would likely have been briefed on if it were true. — Thought it was going to be a quiet day, but it doesn't seem that way at all.
Discussion:
Microsoft Monitor
Jason McCabe Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
My Predictions for 2006 — Update: Marketwatch picked up my predictions; Jim talks about a prediction that mentions WIN; Many others folks have commented including: Incremental Blogger, Bloggers Blog, Randy Holloway Unfiltered 2.0, ben barren, Sean Bonner and Blogs4Biz. — My Predictions for 2006
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Loren / Incremental Blogger:
Predictions of a Tableteer — It's the end of the year so it's prediction time. After a bit of head scratching I think I have a few. Mine won't be as depressing as Jason Calacanis' though. — Here's what I see for 2006: — 1. 2006 will be the year of RSS mods.
MSNBC:
Microsoft, NBC restructure cable channel deal — Both sides remain committed to Internet news site MSNBC.com — NBC Universal will assume majority control of the 24-hour cable channel MSNBC under a restructuring of its 10-year-old joint venture agreement with software giant Microsoft, the two companies announced Friday.
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New York Times:
NBC Takes Control of MSNBC, Reducing Microsoft Role — NBC Universal announced today that it has reached a deal to acquire majority control of MSNBC, the 24-hour cable television news network, from Microsoft. — The transaction could be the first step in ending a nine-year partnership between …
Shelleyp / Burningbird:
Web2.0 — Jeneane Sessum is writing on Web 2.0 stuff. To her I say Blog! Oh, geez that felt so good! But I digress. — Jeneane writes about Web 1.0 and 2.0 terminology and says you can't have consensus on the web. That's an excellent point. We had agreement about the web.
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John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
GOOGLE CLARIFIES — On the AOL announcement. — I want to take this at face value. But that's not my inclination. Talking to Google in the next few days, and as usual, I am sure there will be clarity there. But for now, why am I skeptical? Because, well, I've negotiated with AOL.
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Scobleizer / Microsoft Geek Blogger:
MarkL loves 4 a.m. workers — Mark Lucovsky of Google came by Mini-Microsoft and bragged "I worked until 3 a.m. and guess what. … Keep in mind here that Mark is an industry leader that's paid many times my salary of less than $100,000 a year. His comment pisses me off.
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Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft:Comment Report - MarkL nee of Microsoft now of Google drops by
Discussion:
Smalltalk Tidbits …
CNET News.com:
Verizon plans to offer mobile music downloads — Verizon Wireless is expected to introduce a music download service next month that will let subscribers purchase music wirelessly over their mobile phones and transfer songs between their phones and Windows PCs, CNET News.com has learned.
Kenji Hall / Business Week:
Sony: Shooting from the Chip? — A top exec boasts that the new Cell processor is "as good as the Pentium, if not better." But topping Intel is a tall order — Nearly anyone who owns a PC is familiar with the "Intel Inside" sticker. The blue-and-white logo has been a potent symbol of Intel's …
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Watch out with metadata in Vista, analysts warn — Windows Vista will improve search functionality on a PC by letting users tag files with metadata, but those tags could cause unwanted and embarrassing information disclosure, Gartner analysts have warned. — Search and organization capabilities …
Discussion:
JD on
rexblog.com:
iTunes tip — Pre-Christmas morning iTunes tip: Long time readers of the rexblog know I'm a big user of Apple's iTunes service. However, my "power" usage and the length of time I've been using the iTunes store (since the day it was opened), means I know what I'm talking about when I say the following:
PR Newswire:
What Do President Bush, Lindsay Lohan and Star Wars Have in Common? They Topped Ask Jeeves Search Categories in 2005 — Current Events and Celebrities Dominate User Searches Overall — OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Ask Jeeves, Inc. today released the list of 2005's …
A Whole Lotta Nothing:
you learn something new everyday — Let's say you take a trip out to your mailbox a few hundred yards away, and you know there are big packages in the box, and it's a downpour. So you grab an umbrella (knowing that true Oregonians never use umbrellas, but you make an exception for the sake of dry christmas presents).
