Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Very Exposed to US Recession—Expert  —  A digital-ad industry insider thinks Google is far more exposed to a US recession than the market realizes.  The insider also thinks that the next two quarters will be “rough.”  —  The insider is not a Google employee, but s/he has real […]

Chris Wilson / Slate:
The Wisdom of the Chaperones  —  DIGG, WIKIPEDIA, AND THE MYTH OF WEB 2.0 DEMOCRACY.  —  It’s getting harder to be a Wikipedia-hater.  The user-generated and -edited online encyclopedia—which doesn’t even require contributors to register—somehow holds its own against the Encyclopedia Britannica …

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Targets FriendFeed; Opening Up The News Feed  —  Facebook is planning on allowing users to add activities from third party social networking site directly into their Facebook news feed, we’ve confirmed.  The goal is to centralize all that activity in one place.

Saul Hansell / Bits:
Buying Movies on Flash Drives: Nice Idea That Doesn’t Work  —  Over the last few months, we’ve had quite a debate in the comments here about the relative merits of Blu-ray, HD DVD and standard DVD discs.  Some argue we don’t need discs at all because we’ll all be able to […]

Benjamin Pimentel / MarketWatch:
Yahoo sued again for saying ‘no’ to Microsoft  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - With Microsoft Corp.’s bold bid to gobble up Yahoo Inc. in limbo, another group of Yahoo shareholders has sued the Internet company for the way it responded to the proposed marriage.

Anthony LaFauce / All Facebook:
Facebook Adds Flash… Am I Excited?  —  With the usual fever that Facebook causes news of its flash application, via Facebook Pages, is all the buzz on the blogs and tech journals the past couple of days.  Most of the blogs are preaching the praise of this move and I […]

Alma Whitten / Google Public Policy Blog:
Are IP addresses personal?  —  To protect privacy, you first have to identify what data is personal.  That’s why there has been a lot of discussion in recent months around the world to try to define “personal data” (as it is referred to in Europe), or “personally identifiable […]

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft’s Johnson: “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction”  —  This afternoon, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, issued an email to Microsoft employees (that was released via its PR firm).  The letter has a tone of confidence that assumes that a deal with Yahoo […]

Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
Facebook’s traffic may be plateauing.  So what?  —  There’s been a lot of buzz this week about Facebook’s traffic leveling off or declining, and naturally, it’s been accompanied by schadenfreude over the fact that the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley may soon be losing its laurels.

Microsoft:
Kevin Johnson E-mail to Employees of the Microsoft Platform & Services Division  —  Text of an e-mail sent by Kevin Johnson, president of the Microsoft Platforms & Services Division to provide employees of the Platforms & Services Division with an update on the Feb. 1 proposal to combine with Yahoo!