Top Items:
BBC:
BMW given Google 'death penalty' — Search giant Google has "blacklisted" German car manufacturer BMW for breaching its guidelines. — Investigations by Google found that BMW's German website influenced search results to ensure top ranking when users searched for "used car".
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Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0:
Google Orwellian — Google is powerful — and we all learned from Orwell that power corrupts. As to search, Google has near total power — will total power totally corrupt Google? — Ask BMW, whose SEO strategy violated Google's "orthodoxy," leading Google to unceremoniously excommunicate …
The Consumerist:
Did Nvidia Hire Online Actors to Promote Their Products? — About a week ago, The Consumerist stumbled upon claims made by various gaming websites (specifically, Elite Bastards and [Update: a poster on the forums at] Beyond3D) that graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia, in cooperation …
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Dsifry / Sifry's Alerts:
State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth — It's been 4 months since last October's State of the Blogosphere report, so it's time to update the numbers! For historical perspective, you can see earlier State of the Blogosphere reports from July 2005, from March 2005, and from October 2004.
Discussion:
Anne 2.0, Things That, The Blackfriars Blog, One By One Media, The Social Software Weblog, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Alex Barnett blog, a shel of my former self, Connecting the Dots, Weblogs Work, hyku | blog, Mark Evans, @rgumente, Somewhat Frank, ben barren, The Blog Herald, Paul Mooney, BlogHer [beta], Boing Boing, Thomas Hawk's Digital …, Susan Mernit's Blog and Feld Thoughts
Ben / Inside Firefox:
Where Did Firefox Come From? — The story of Mozilla is long and rich in detail. There are many perspectives. This is mine. — Getting Involved — I got involved with Mozilla because I loved the idea of working on something that had the potential to make an impact on millions of people.
Discussion:
AlterSlash
sonyericsson.com:
M600 slim, compact and stylish UMTS messaging phone puts secure e-mail and Internet at your fingertips — London, 6th Feb 2006 - Sony Ericsson today announces the M600 phone and messaging device. This is a fully-specified email tool and mobile phone rolled into an extremely stylish …
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Microsoft's security product hits home stretch — Microsoft plans to release its subscription security program before the summer and to challenge its main rivals on pricing, CNET News.com has learned. — Windows OneCare Live marks Microsoft's long-anticipated entry into the consumer antivirus market …
Steve Stroh / Broadband Wireless Internet Access:
Bush Administration Proposes Tax On License-exempt Spectrum? — From the Dewayne-Net Mailing List run by Dewayne Hendricks. — http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms? newsId=25545 … (end RCR News excerpt) — Update 1 - This won't stand. By the time this proposal is quietly abandoned …
Robert Levine / New York Times:
Wave of Video Game Fatigue Afflicts Sales, Not Thumbs — In November, Activision released True Crime: New York City, a video game that seemed to have all the makings of a hit. It was the sequel to a well-received game, it had the violent aesthetic of the popular Grand Theft Auto series …
Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News:
Speakeasy Says No Deal with Fon — Speakeasy says that Fon claims a deal where none exists: I just received this missive and permission to share it from Lynn Brackpool, a spokesperson for Speakeasy Networks. Fon said in reports to some outlets yesterday that Speakeasy Networks was a partner …
ChipLog:
I present to you, VMware Server 1.0 beta 1 — Wow, what a ride. We just put out this morning (or late last night, depending on time zone) beta 1 of our new VMware Server product. Now you know why I've been saying "I'm really busy, can we discuss this later?"
Peter Coffee / eWEEK.com:
'Exotic' Programming Tools Go Mainstream — The January release of Franz's Allegro Common LISP 8.0 puts developers on notice that "exotic" programming tools, long relegated to research environments, are becoming more viable options for mainstream applications.
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Konomi / RFID in Japan:
RFID-driven Shopping Assistant Robot soon to be tested in a mall — NTT Communications and Tmsuk will test an RFID-driven shopping assistant robot at a shoping mall in Fukuoka. The robot reads RFID tags embedded in the floor and get information about its location (it doesn't use GPS or other location technologies).
Discussion:
Gizmodo
Mark Russinovich / Mark's Sysinternals Blog:
Using Rootkits To Defeat Digital Rights Management — The Sony rootkit debacle highlighted the use of rootkits to prevent pirates and authors of CD burning, ripping, and emulation utilities from circumventing Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions on access to copyrighted content.
Russ / Russell Beattie Notebook:
Back to Old School Blogging — I just took out the comments on my blog. All of the old ones, and no more new ones. All gone bye bye. — Yep, I'm going old school - just my thoughts on my site alone. I've had comments enabled for years now, so it's really a big change.
