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Buzz Out Loud 809: Best Buy, Napster. What, now?

Don Reisinger joins the cast today for a rousing discussion that goes something like this: "Best Buy bought Napster." "Really?" "Yeah, I know, right? Weird." "Huh. Yeah. Wonder why they did that." "Dunno." It's a great show. You'll love it. (No, seriously! Don rants more than I do!)

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 809

Best Buy nabs Napster for $121 million http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10041431-93.html http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-best-buy-eyes-apple-microsoft-with-napster-purchase.html

In-flight Internet: Web sites, but not phone calls http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=353… Read more

Google's ad quality changes imminent

Attention advertisers: a promised change to Google's AdWords quality-judging method will take effect in coming days.

The change adjusts Google's calculation of advertiser's quality score--a key factor in determining how much the advertiser must bid to ensure ads are placed next to search results. With the new system, quality is calculated at the time a Google user performs a search, though historical data such as an advertiser's click-through rate still factor into the equation, Google's Trevor Claiborne said on its AdWords blog on Monday.

Given the size of the industry that's grown up around … Read more

Could control be the key to Google's Android?

Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, reveals a great deal about Google's mobile strategy in a recent Reuters interview. One thing, in particular, caught my eye and suggests that Google's Android may succeed, and yet fail at the same time:

Rather than launch the new operating system with a range of devices from several handset makers and phone carriers, Rubin said Google chose to "put our blinders on" and make sure the first phones impress consumers....

Google has worked almost exclusively with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp and T-Mobile for the first Android phone, he said. "Google wanted to make sure that we had enough control over the hardware to make sure the software worked."...

This control - so important to Apple's iPhone in ensuring a seamless hardware-plus-software experience, may well mean that Android will work as advertised.

It does, however, also mean that Android's would-be open-source developers have far less flexibility than they might otherwise wish to exercise.… Read more

Google Chrome...is Windows inside, which may be a strategic error

In a fascinating post, Scott Hanselman pulls apart the Google Chrome browser to discover Windows inside or, rather, Windows Template Library (WTL). WTL was open sourced by Microsoft back in 2004 and went somewhat silent until now, when it popped up in Google's open-source browser.

Hanselman calls out the reason for WTL's inclusion:

Chrome uses abstraction libraries to draw the GUI on other non-Windows platforms, but for now, what sits underneath part of ChromeViews is good ol' WTL. Makes sense, too. Why not use a native library to get native speeds? They are using WTL 8.0 build 7161 from what I can see.

Speed matters, and getting top speeds on Windows may require using native Windows libraries, graciously offered by Microsoft back in 2004 as open source.

However, not everything came free of charge (and effort) from Microsoft, as Hanselman points out, and it appears from a recent PCWorld article by Neil McAllister that the effort to bring Chrome to the Mac and Linux will be even harder. Hanselman writes:… Read more

Chrome and Simon, separated at birth?

Scanning over the Cnet News page, I ran across this series of photos:

Was Google's Chrome logo inspired by some programmer's childhood memories of playing with Simon?

Sandy Litvack, a dogged trustbuster in pursuit of Google

Google and Yahoo are household names. But, Sandy Litvack? Not so much.

While Litvack may be obscure to the general public, he is well-known in antitrust circles as a sharp litigator--and one who Yahoo and Google may soon become acquainted with if the Department of Justice challenges the companies' controversial search advertising partnership.

For now, it's unclear whether the scope of the investigation will only focus on the Yahoo-Google deal. Some sources told CNET News that a federal investigation could broaden to examining Google's overall impact on the marketplace.

But there’s little question that bringing in Litvack … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Top TV manufacturers fight back

A year after being surprised by upstart budget brands like Vizio and Olevia, the big names in TV have fought back. Samsung showed it too could play their game, and developed its own line of budget model TVs, which have helped it return to dominance in the mid-size LCD market in North America. But what's next for Vizio? CNET home theater expert John Falcone joins us to talk TVs and holiday shopping prices.

Also in Friday's podcast, Apple releases the much needed software update for the iPhone, hackers find their way into one of the computers at CERN … Read more

Google narrows down your whereabouts with My Location

On Thursday Google announced an easier way for Windows Mobile users to find the nearest restaurant with the release of Search with My Location.

Previously, when you went to google.com from your phone and performed a local search, the results were tailored to the last location you entered. Now, taking advantage of the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your position using the same Cell ID technology used in Google Maps for Mobile.

So, say if you're on a hot date--or even not-so hot, OK the amount of hotness doesn't matter right now--and you've … Read more

Google buys Korean blog platform TNC

No price has been named, but Google has made a new purchase: the Korea-based blog platform TNC, co-founder Chang Kim wrote on his blog Thursday.

TNC, founded in 2004 by Kim and Chester Roh, has created a blog software product called Textcube. An earlier TNC platform, Tistory, was sold to Korean portal Daum.

Google already owns a blogging platform, Blogger, which it purchased in 2003. From a technological standpoint, it's not immediately clear why the company would want another one--although Kim likened his company to Blogger rival WordPress (and its parent company Automattic), the favorite of the open-source community, … Read more