Top Items:
Laurie J. Flynn / New York Times:
New Google Service to Blend the Gmail and Chat Features — SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 — Google, the search-engine giant, is expected on Tuesday to disclose that it will join its instant-messaging service with its popular Gmail program, the latest indication that the company has set its sights on the broader communications industry.
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Elinor Mills / CNET News.com:
Google merges Gmail with chat — Google on Monday was set to launch Gmail Chat, which will let users send instant messages with one click from their e-mail account, see when contacts are online and save the chat history like an e-mail message. — The application's Quick Contacts list …
Nathan Weinberg / InsideGoogle:
GOOGLE TALK AND GMAIL BECOME BUDDIES — Google is marrying Google Talk and Gmail together, and will let you chat from within your Gmail account. You will be able to talk with any Google Talk users, or with users of any service that works with Google Talk, from within the Gmail interface.
Arshad Mohammed / Washington Post:
Verizon Executive Calls for End to Google's 'Free Lunch' — A Verizon Communications Inc. executive yesterday accused Google Inc. of freeloading for gaining access to people's homes using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Like It Matters, IP Democracy, Microsoft News Tracker and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
Stuart Elliott / New York Times:
Can You TiVo to See Just the Ads? — SCIENTISTS work hard to determine the radioactive half-life of elements. Now, Madison Avenue is busy figuring out the Web-active afterlife of the more than 50 commercials that appeared during Super Bowl XL on Sunday. — In the past, Super Bowl spots …
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PR Newswire:
TiVo Super Bowl Data Shows Action on the Field Rivaled Interest in Commercials Between the Snaps for First Time in Years — Ameriquest Spots Land Top Two Slots on TiVo Top 10; Replay Activity Spikes Around Controversial Touchdown, 'Gadget Play' — ALVISO, Calif., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall …
Tuan Nguyen / dailytech.com:
PayPal Turns On Red Alert for Incoming Google's "GBuy" … Google's GBuy online payment system has its crosshairs directly on PayPal; eBay closely watches — Much like Microsoft and Windows, Google's platform is the Web. Not that Google owns the Web, but it's presence cannot be denied nor defined.
mobile jones:
Antisocial media — One day after Robert Scoble introduces us to a new comment repository service, Russell Beattie turns off his comments. Not only does he turn off comments, he deletes all of the contributions many people have made to his blog by deleting all previous comments.
Discussion:
Lunch over IP
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Chris Anderson / The Long Tail:
DEATH OF THE BLOCKBUSTER, PART IV — [UPDATE: I've revised the bottom chart, where the scale went funky for some reason, and responded to all the comments with some additional data and clarification here.] — First, apologies for the absence. For most of the past two weeks …
Alan Graham / The Story of Feedster:
New Feedster Site...New Features! — It has been a very interesting past couple of months. As a quick recap, just last month it was pontificated that Feedster was dead or at least on some serious form of life support. And regardless of our reassurances that, yes we were very much alive …
Modculture / Tech Digest:
Blueye music and mobile integration — It's not new, see our recent coverage of myTalker, but the idea of integrating your phone and music player to avoid missing a call is gaining popularity with manufacturers. The latest pitch is from Mavizen, who have introduced Blueye.
Newsweek:
Murdoch's New Groove — A conversation with the News Corp. chairman, who's emerged as a leader in digital media after some smart bets. — Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Keith Rupert Murdoch may be 74 years old, but the way he sees it, he's got a young man's fingertips for what's cool.
Yuki Noguchi / Washington Post:
PanAmSat to Carry Ethnic Programming — PanAmSat Holding Corp. is starting a new business that will sell and distribute ethnic programming for television in the United States, a move that the company hopes will pave the way for other new initiatives that get the satellite company …
Brier Dudley / Seattle Times:
Microsoft alums picture photo sharing made easy — A group of former high-ranking Microsoft executives has emerged from retirement to start an ambitious company that aims to simplify the sharing of digital photos and other media over the Internet. — Vizrea, their Seattle-based startup …
Kotaku, the Gamer's Guide:
WoW: Blizzard Gets Gay Rights Warning — On Friday we broke the news that Lambda Legal was getting involved in the whole gay rights in World of Warcraft issue. Today we learned that the legal firm has sent Blizzard an official letter questioning their policies.
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
AT&T/SBC PLAYS HARDBALL — All the recent talk about net neutrality and how the telcos are planning to leverage their pipes against the threats of Google et al reminded me of a story I heard recently about AT&T/SBC and our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle.
Discussion:
Techdirt
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News.com:
Without 'Net neutrality' will consumers pay twice? — The debate over whether broadband providers should be allowed to prioritize the traffic they carry and to charge companies to ship data via their networks is about to get its second airing in Washington.
Inside Google Sitemaps:
More stats and analysis of robots.txt files — Today, we released new features for Sitemaps. — robots.txt analysis — If the site has a robots.txt file, the new robots.txt tab provides Googlebot's view of that file, including when Googlebot last accessed it, the status it returns, and if it blocks access to your home page.
