Google’s Marissa Mayer: Social search is the future  —  At an event in August, Marissa Mayer, Google’s leading VP in search, said social search hasn’t shown much promise, but if it does, Google would be in a good position to incorporate it.  I wrote about that here.

Source:   VentureBeat
Author:   Doug Sherrets
Link:   http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/31/googles-marissa…

‘Facebook fatigue’ kicks in as people tire of social networks  —  Shhh!  Can you hear a hiss?  That’s the sound of naughty facts deflating the social networking balloon a tad.  —  Whisper it, but numbers from web analytics outfit comScore have confirmed what the chatter in bars and cafes …

Source:   The Register
Author:   Chris […]

Spectrum Auction: C Block Hits Reserve Price  —  A bid of $4.7 billion this morning for the most valuable group of wireless licenses in the Federal Communications Commission auction for 700Mhz spectrum pushed the price over the minimum price the government set.

Source:   Bits
Author:   Saul Hansell
Link:   http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/spectrum…

The internet rewards the lazy and punishes the intrepid  —  As GPS transceivers become common accessories in cars, the benefits have been manifold.  Millions of us have been relieved of the nuisance of getting lost or, even worse, the shame of having to ask a passerby for directions.

Source:   Guardian
Author:   Nicholas Carr
Link:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/31…

Pirate Bay Admins Charged with Assisting Copyright Infringement  —  “The operation of The Pirate Bay is financed through advertising revenues.  In that way it commercially exploits copyright-protected work and performances,” said prosecutor Hakan Roswall in a statement.

Source:   TorrentFreak
Author:   Ernesto
Link:   http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-team-charged…

India, Mideast Suffer Internet Disruption  —  Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — India and countries across the Middle East experienced slow Internet connections and disruption to international calls to the U.S. and Europe after two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea were cut.

Source:   Bloomberg
Link:   http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid…

Amazon.com to Acquire Audible.com  —  Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBL).  —  Audible.com is the leading online provider of premium digital spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of books …

Source:   Amazon.com
Link:   http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p…

MacBook Air’s custom-built CPU going PC?  —  That special Intel processor found in the MacBook Air could be getting a lot less special.  PC Advisor, citing “a source familiar with Intel’s plans,” claims that a pair of PC makers will use the MBA processor.  Not that this would be unexpected.

Source:   Engadget
Author:   Thomas Ricker
Link: […]

In memory of chicagocrime.org  —  It’s with mixed feelings that I announce the end of one of my projects, chicagocrime.org.  This site has been serving Chicago residents since May 2005.  I hope you’ll indulge me in a brief retrospective.  —  Chicagocrime.org was one of the original map mashups …

Source:   Holovaty.com
Link:   http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2008/01/31/0102

Pirate Bay hit with legal action  —  Four men who run one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in Sweden.  —  The Pirate Bay’s servers do not store copyrighted material but offer links to the download location of films, TV programmes, albums and […]