Byte Into It blog

Twittersphere hit by storm over whether political blogger had a right to anonymity | The Australian

[link to original | source: www.theaustralian.com.au | shared via: feedly]

Faster Forward - Craigslist controversy follow-up: Backpage.com targeted, Post drops massage-parlor ads

[link to original | source: voices.washingtonpost.com | shared via: feedly]

Xmarks Bookmark Syncing Service Shutting Down in January 2011

Xmarks, the bookmark syncing service formerly known as Foxmarks, announced today it will close its doors and delete its users' data on January 10, 2011. The always-free, cross-browser syncing service couldn't find a business model, it seems, especially among newer auto-syncing browsers. More »

[link to original | source: Lifehacker: Firefox | published: 13 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Google Voice App May Be Approved for iPhone Release

TechCrunch is reporting, from sources including one "close to Google," that an official Google Voice application received an App Store approval, allowing a full-featured Voice client to run on iPhones. If their report is correct, the app is already approved in its current form, but Google is working to implement multi-tasking and other iOS 4 features. Apple's initial rejection of the Google Voice app spurred our rather harsh take on the drawbacks of iPhones, and this is a nicely curative step. Let's just hope it's true. [TechCrunch] More »

[link to original | source: Lifehacker: Google | published: 3 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Microsoft to Close Its Blogging Platform - Migrates Users to WordPress.com

Microsoft and WordPress just announced that WordPress.com will become the default blogging platform for Windows Live. Live Spaces' 30 million users will have six months to migrate their blogs over to WordPress.com and the two companies will offer a number of tools that should make this migration very easy. This announcement, which was made at TechCrunch Disrupt, comes as a bit of a surprise and will surely upset some of Windows Live Spaces' most active users. It does, however, fit into Microsoft's vision for its Live.com brand.

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Six Months to "Upgrade"

Starting today, Windows Live users will be able to "upgrade" their blogs to WordPress.com, and new Windows Live users will be able to create their new blogs on WordPress.com. As a Microsoft spokesperson just told us, existing users will have six months to either migrate to WordPress.com or export their data. If they don't do anything, they will likely lose their content, though Microsoft may offer them the ability to export their data at a later point as well.

For Windows Live, It's All About the Partnerships

It's interesting that Microsoft has basically given up on hosting its own blogging platform, but this move fits into the bigger picture of the company's plans for the Live.com platform. We hinted at this last week when Microsoft announced its partnership with LinkedIn. As Microsoft's director of product management for Windows Live Dharmesh Mehta told us last week, the company aims to integrate the best products instead of reinventing them. As Mehta notes in a blog post today, rather than invest in a competing blogging platform, Microsoft decided "the best thing we could do for our customers was to give them a great blogging solution through WordPress.com."

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