Top Items:
Google Blogoscoped:
Free Google SketchUp — What's the easiest way to crush competitors and make users happy? Release everything for free. Google recently bought 3D software SketchUp and is now doing exactly that - releasing a free version of it for personal use (SketchUp Pro 5, for commercial use, still needs to be purchased).
Discussion:
Official Google Blog, Google Earth Blog, InsideGoogle, Screenwerk and Search Engine Watch Blog
RELATED ITEMS:
sketchup.com:
PURCHASE — The person who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt the person who is doing it. —from the wall of the Mountain Rose Cafe in Winter Park, Colorado (Google Earth file) — OK, so Google bought SketchUp. We told you all about it in the last SketchUpdate, but that's old news now.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
Democrats lose House vote on Net neutrality — update A hotly contested Democratic bid to enshrine extensive Net neutrality regulations in the law books failed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives. — By a 34-22 vote, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected …
RELATED ITEMS:
Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
Can blogs affect politics and society? — As a lead-up to mesh in May, the Gang of Five — that is me, Rob Hyndman, Mark Evans, Mike McDerment and Stuart "call me Chairman Mao" MacDonald — have been talking a lot (not surprisingly) about the themes we want to look at, and crawling the blogosphere …
RELATED ITEMS:
Rob Hyndman / robhyndman.com:
The mesh Sessions: Can Blogs Influence Politics? — When we first talked about organizing mesh, one of the topics that most excited us was the role that blogs are playing in political journalism in Canada, and the broader role that blogs are beginning to assume in fostering political discussion …
Discussion:
Stuart MacDonald
Leslie Walker / Washington Post:
How to Juice Up a Site's Rank — If your Web site isn't getting the attention it deserves on the Internet, it may be running low on Google juice. — Google juice, for the uninitiated, refers to how high a Web site ranks in Google's search results — the higher the ranking, the more juice.
Discussion:
SEOmoz
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
I'm nuts about Southwest — Funny, I just got off of a Southwest airline from San Jose to Seattle and found out that Southwest now has a blog. There's more on Memeorandum. — It's a pretty cold blog so far. It's the kind of blog I think most corporations will start out with. Safe.
Discussion:
Naked Conversations
RELATED ITEMS:
Cph / Netcraft:
Apache Now the Leader in SSL Servers — Apache has overtaken Microsoft as the leading developer of secure web servers. Apache now runs on 44.0% of secure web sites, compared to 43.8% for Microsoft. — As the original developers of the SSL protocol, Netscape started out with a lead in the SSL server market.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Spins Out a Wallop — Microsoft IP Ventures program teams up with Silicon Valley entrepreneur to create a new social networking company. — SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 25, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the spinout of a new social networking technology …
Kate Kaye / ClickZ:
Survey Shows the Blogosphere is Breaking Out — The long tail is growing appendages. A new survey released today of over 36,000 readers of blogs shows different segments of blog readers have distinct characteristics. Conducted by the Blogads network, the study breaks out blog audiences …
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Microsoft Is Seen Near Ad Move — Microsoft is close to reaching a deal to buy Massive Incorporated, which makes technology that inserts advertisements into video games, a member of Massive's board said yesterday. — The board member, Douglas P. Miscoll, a partner with the venture capital …
open.bbc.co.uk:
Letting Berners-Lee do Baird a favour... Working for the BBC has hidden benefits. Even after working here for years, you still bump into astounding new people, ideas and content. — About six months ago a colleague, Julie Rowbotham, and I struck gold. Data gold.
Rafat / paidContent.org:
@ Milken: Chernin, Iger and Miller: The Shape Of Things And Things To Come — The last panel of the day at the Milken Institute conference was a heavy hitter one: Peter Chernin of News Corp, Bob Iger of Disney and Jonathan Miller of AOL (who told me today that he is a big fan of us, which made me happy).
Discussion:
MocoNews.net
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Is Google Search More Relevant Or Is There A Brand Factor? — The battle of which search engine is the most relevant has been going on for years. Yesterday at SES Toronto's Searcher Behavior Research Update panel we had two presenters talk about studies they have conducted to determine which search engine is the most relevant.
Discussion:
Search Engine Roundtable
Seth Sutel / Associated Press:
MediaNews Buys 4 Papers From McClatchy — MediaNews Buys Four Newspapers, Including the San Jose Mercury News, From McClatchy for $1B Cash — NEW YORK (AP) — MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of The Denver Post and other newspapers, is acquiring four newspapers from The McClatchy Co …
Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog:
GelaSkins Vinyl iPod Skins — Providing protective printed skins for iPods isn't exactly a new business model, and we've so far been immune to their charms as far as our own device is concerned, but we might just break down when it comes to these two particular skins from GelaSkins.
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The Season of Bad Laws, Part 3: Banning MP3 Streaming — The Washington Post reports that Senators Feinstein (D-Cal.) and Graham (R-S.C.) have introduced S. 2644, dubbed the PERFORM Act, that is aimed at punishing satellite radio for offering its subscribers devices capable of recording off the air.
