Top Items:
useit.com:
Search Engines as Leeches on the Web … I worry that search engines are sucking out too much of the Web's value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source materials the search engines index. — We've known since AltaVista's launch in 1995 that search is one of the Web's most important services.
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Chris Sherman / Search Engine Watch:
The State of Search Engine Marketing — A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members discusses pricing trends revealed by the survey, including where search marketing budgets are coming from, keyword pricing trends and how search marketers plan to deal with financial challenges.
PRWeb Press Release Service …:
Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document. — Google and Yahoo! continue to dominate Internet advertising in North America. — Wakefield, MA (PRWEB) January 9, 2006 — Advertisers in the U.S. and Canada spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in 2005 …
Jeremy Mullman / Chicago Business:
Sun-Times nets Google ad deal — Web behemoth tests classifieds in print — Google Inc., the new-media giant, now has a decidedly old-media partner: the Chicago Sun-Times. — In a quiet and small-scale experiment, Google is running classified-like ads in the pages of the Sun-Times …
Paul Thurrott / winsupersite.com:
Hands on with Google Pack — During its first-ever appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2006 (see my show report), Internet search giant Google unveiled two initiatives, both of which are aimed, in part, to counter Microsoft, the company it considers a primary competitor.
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Jeremy Zawodny / Jeremy Zawodny's blog:
Feedster Will Die in 2006 — Is it just me, or has Feedster been completely useless for over 6 months now? I have no idea if it's related to the recent departure of Scott Rafer (former CEO) and Scott Johnson (former co-founder), but I'm amazed at how bad it is. And I should know.
Discussion:
Things That, rev2.org, PaidContent.org, ben barren, SiliconBeat, Scripting News, Om Malik on Broadband and The RSS Blog
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Jeremy Zawodny / Jeremy Zawodny's blog:
Slashdot is Going out of Style in 2006 — Okay, since I'm apparently in "2006 doom and gloom" mode here's another observation that I can re-brand as a 2006 prediction. … Unlike the death of Feedster, Slashdot will likely take years to really die. It has a loyal following and momentum.
Discussion:
Datamation IT News Blog
Grimwell / gamergod.com:
The 10 Most Interesting People in Gaming for 2005 — To begin GamerGod's look back at 2005, we stop and look at the people who made the headlines in gaming. We looked for the people and names in gaming that caught major attention and were a source of interesting news or high entertainment in the process of making these selections.
Voidstar:
Google become the latest to distribute TV... Tom Coates on Google become the latest to distribute TV... : The most interesting part of the whole enterprise is the debate about Google DRM. — The fly in this ointment is indeed DRM. A lot of us had this vague feeling that the tech industry …
Discussion:
Burningbird
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Jason / Signal vs. Noise:
Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs: Guy gets it right — Jason Jan 08 — Guy Kawasaki follows up his Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists with Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs. — I obviously don't get pitched for investment by other entrepreneurs, so I don't know what lies are being told …
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Colin Campbell / next-gen.biz:
Microsoft Abandons 90-Day Target — Microsoft now admits it will not meet its target of up to 3 million Xbox 360 sales within 90-days of the console's launch. — In a report in today's Financial Times, the company shifted its attention to the longer-term target outlined at CES last week.
Robert Levine / New York Times:
Buying Music From Anywhere and Selling It for Play on the Internet — Working in the media and entertainment group of the consultants McKinsey & Company, Greg Scholl got a firsthand look at the inefficiency in the music business: the major record labels focus on creating hits …
Nicholas Wapshott / Independent:
Get out of MySpace, bloggers rage at Murdoch — Angry members of MySpace, the personal file-sharing website for young adults, are accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation of censoring their postings and blocking their access to rival sites. — The 38 million subscribers to MySpace …
Discussion:
Ego Food
Associated Press:
Netflix thefts may involve ex-postal workers — LYONS - Postal investigators are looking into the theft of 503 movie DVDS from Netflix, the California-based internet company that delivers rental movies by mail. — The company mails about 1.2 million DVDS to its subscribers daily in bright red envelopes that make them easy to spot.
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
DRM keeps Spielberg's Munich out of award-voters' hands … On Patrick's advice, I called the BAFTA PR office and heard a recorded message apologizing for the "technical errors" with the Munich screener that "will not play in the UK machines" and a recent BAFTA PR email adds …
Lore Sjöberg / Wired News:
Game Year in Review: 2010 — Clive Thompson is on leave this week. He'll be back on Jan. 23. — Well, 2010 was quite a year. Sony's attempt to hang onto its thin lead in the gaming market by only selling the PlayStation 4 to six carefully chosen celebrities seemed like it might backfire, but the hype has never been hotter.
Discussion:
Kotaku
