Top Items:
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Venture Capital Blogs? They're About Anything But — BILLBURNHAM was having lunch with a fellow venture capitalist at a restaurant in Mountain View, Calif., two weeks ago when the topic turned to secrecy. His lunch mate had been describing a new Internet search start-up company he was investing in …
Discussion:
Mark Evans
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Chris Anderson / Wired News:
The New Boom … Be careful what you wish for, all of you with the "Please, God, just one more bubble!" bumper stickers. It's getting wild again in Silicon Valley. In recent months, the breathtaking ascent of Google has lit a fire under its competitors, which include practically everyone in the online world.
Jenstar / JenSense:
Google AdSense begins rich media beta test — Google AdSense is moving beyond the traditional text and graphical advertising to rich media, including interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads. AdSense began contacting publishers last week to be involved in the rich media limited beta test.
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Jenstar / JenSense:
AdSense silently adds a 90-day time limit on AdSense referrals — A thread over at DigitalPoint points out that Google AdSense has quietly added a new term to all AdSense referrals generated by a publisher. They have now instituted a 90-day time limit on that referral …
Fred / WeBreakStuff:
Subpoena: No personal data released — Privacy is a serious thing. That's what I thought when last week I heard about the subpoena on Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Last week I was also concerned about how all these players except Google had accepted the DOJs request to deliver what was previously announced …
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spaces.msn.com:
Change is good! — We have some great changes in MSN Spaces. — Have a picture that has a great story around it...you can now add a description to your photos. Your viewers can now add comment to photos as well as blogs. So make sure to go to someone's photo album and leave a comment on your favorite photo as well.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
No booze or jokes for Googlers in China — Google's new China search engine not only censors many Web sites that question the Chinese government, but it goes further than similar services from Microsoft and Yahoo by targeting teen pregnancy, homosexuality, dating, beer and jokes.
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Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Monitor:
MICROSOFT FISCAL 2006 Q2 RESULTS — This afternoon, Microsoft announced results for its fiscal 2006 second quarter, ended December 31. While the company's seven business units report separate P&Ls, the units are now contained within three larger business groups.
Discussion:
Don Dodge on The Next …
JIM / ENCYCLOPEDIA HANASIANA:
THE STORY DOESN'T CARE: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEAN STEWART — As I mentioned earlier in the week, I'm interested in alternate reality games, not just as an advertising journalist, but as a writer. While working on a recent story for Creativity, I did a long phone interview with sci-fi novelist …
Feld Thoughts:
The Coming Irrelevance Of My.Yahoo For Me — After reading Fooled By Randomness, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed by the information on My.Yahoo page. I've had My.Yahoo as my default home page since 1997 or so and probably have it refresh (deliberately or otherwise) …
Om Malik / Om Malik on Broadband:
When It comes to DSL, Speed Sells — As the parade of earnings of phone companies continues, interesting trends emerge. And some proof, that Bells don't need to muck around with the net much to make money. — BellSouth and SBC/AT&T reported weaker than expected DSL additions.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Torvalds: No GPL 3 for Linux — update Linus Torvalds said Wednesday that he won't convert Linux to version 3 of the General Public License, as he objects to digital rights management provisions in the proposed update. — The position is a significant—though not entirely unexpected …
Reuters:
Mobile phone boom set to continue in 2006: survey — LONDON (Reuters) - Global shipments of mobile phones soared in 2005 and will continue to grow in 2006 on the back of strong demand from emerging economies, which snapped up half of all handsets last year, a survey showed on Thursday.
Marc Perton / Engadget:
H&R Block puts tax software on USB thumbdrive — Yes, it's that time of year again. No, wedon't mean the post-holidays, post-CES, post-Macworld winter of discontent (well, we do, but that's another story).It's tax time! Or at least it's almost tax time.
Reuters:
Yahoo, Linksys offer link for digital music — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and wireless equipment maker Linksys on Thursday unveiled a new product to help consumers move digital music from computers to stereo sound systems in the home.
Discussion:
Engadget
Inquirer:
VNU Business Media Europe buys the INQUIRER — VNU Business Publications Ltd, the London-based publishing arm of VNU Business Media Europe (BME), has purchased The Inquirer, www.theinquirer.net, one of the leading technology news sites. The investment is part of VNU's ongoing strategy …
Discussion:
Tech news and insider stories …
Noahmax / Defense Tech:
JAPAN'S ROBO-COPTER BUST — What does a company with close ties to the Chinese military want with a robotic, crop-dusting, mini-helicopter? And why was Yamaha willing to sell nine of the things, in violation of export control laws? — Those are some of the questions being asked in Asia this week …
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
In Case About Google's Secrets, Yours Are Safe — The Justice Department went to court last week to try to force Google, by far the world's largest Internet search engine, to turn over an entire week's worth of searches. The move, which Google is fighting, has alarmed its users …
