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AP – The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are discussing whether to team up with two major Asia companies in a bid to buy Yahoo for more than $25 billion.

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AP – Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Wednesday that it would be a mistake for Congress to approve Hollywood-backed legislation meant to combat online piracy because it would be ineffective and could fundamentally alter the way the Internet works.

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Reuters – The film industry came back swinging Wednesday, calling recent claims by tech companies including Google that online piracy legislation will destroy the internet “nonsense,” while also labeling those assertions as an effort to “gin people up.”

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Appolicious – Being a blogger may not be as difficult as being a firefighter or a doctor or even an accountant, but that doesn’t mean bloggers don’t need some help from time to time. Whether in need of inspiration for story ideas, or simply dying for ways to actually get their posts up, there were plenty of apps in 2011 that catered to the blogging crowd. Here are my picks for the five best apps for bloggers in 2011.

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Reuters – After the frenzy of “Cyber Monday,” members of Congress on Wednesday entered into a different scuffle over web shopping: states’ desire to collect sales taxes from Internet retailers.

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Reuters – Groupon Inc’s shares rose more than 9 percent on Wednesday after Chief Executive Andrew Mason emerged from the company’s post-IPO quiet period to share holiday sales numbers.

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AP – Online music provider Spotify is adding free apps to its service to broaden its reach and expand what people can do with its vast trove of digital tunes.

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Mashable – Twitter, as everyone and their tweeting dog knows, limits your status updates to 140 characters. But Facebook? Facebook laughs in the face of such limitations. On Facebook, 140 characters is barely clearing your throat.
In a blog post Wednesday, Facebook’s Journalist Program Manager (and Mashable alum) Vadim Lavrusik announced that the limit of Facebook status updates has now been upped to “more than 60,000 characters.” When Mashable asked, Lavrusik explained what that meant, exactly: You can now post a status update measuring 63,206 characters.

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Mashable – Spotify just announced its new app platform. Partnering with the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Billboard, Last.fm and The Guardian, the online music service aims to allow users to get more from their tunes.
As Mashable reader Cristian Parrino pointed out in the comments, the fact that an app has launched its own app platform is an intriguing move.

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Reuters – When bloggers posted what they said was a tape of the governor of this industrial region telling local employers to organize “compulsory voting” for Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, it caused a stir across Russia.

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NewsFactor – Twitter is showing its followers that it cares about security with its latest acquisition. The micro-blogging service just scooped up Whisper Systems, a small mobile-security software development start-up. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Reuters – Russian online shopping growth is being held back by poor infrastructure and slow delivery times, accountants PWC said on Wednesday, forcing retailers to spend more before they reap any benefit of rising Internet use.

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CitySearch Names New VP and GM ADOTAS ADOTAS – Citysearch, a CityGrid Media company, announced today Kimberly Salzer has been named vice president and general manager for the local online guide. In her new role, Salzer will be responsible for overseeing the site's products and marketing … Citysearch Hires New Vice President & General Manager, Kimberly SalzerPR Newswire (press release) Citysearch Names VP, GMsocalTech.com all 10 news articles »

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NewsFactor – In a move that may get a new audience signed up for Verizon’s FiOS Internet and TV services, the communications giant has announced a way for premium users of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to access 26 FiOS channels.

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AP – Online shoppers spent record amounts on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, making it the biggest online shopping day in history.

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AP – Government regulators are sharing some alarming information about Facebook: They believe the online social network has often misled its more than 800 million users about the sanctity of their personal information.

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Mashable – Among techies and fans of weird Internet news, it’s become a relatively familiar story: An Australian domestic flight lands in Sydney on Friday. Then a passenger’s iPhone 4 goes wild. There’s “a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow” from the phone, according to a press release from the airline operator, Regional Express.
The passengers and crew all escape unharmed after a flight attendant performs “recovery actions” and the red glow is extinguished. But a significant question remains…what happened?

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Mashable – As Spotify gears up for its first-ever U.S. press conference in New York City on Wednesday, speculation is heating up about exactly what the streaming music service will announce.
All Things Digital is reporting that the company is likely to announce that third-party developers can make Spotify’s music library available to their own users. These users would then in turn have to pay Spotify for privileges. However, Spotify declined to comment on whether the event will include news about the company expanding its application programming interface (API).

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Reuters – Cyber Monday online sales set a record, led by department stores and home goods retailers, according to U.S. data released on Tuesday.

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Mashable – Tumblr fashion director Rich Tong is leaving the company, Tumblr has confirmed.
Ahead of New York Fashion Week this fall, Tong came under public fire from individuals from several well-established fashion brands and their agencies. Their complaints? That Tumblr played favorites, building out custom products free of charge for some brands, and declining to return the emails of others who had been long-time supporters of the platform. The startup had also failed to deliver a much-requested analytics dashboard, instead sending out proposals asking for upwards of $10,000 for private events with bloggers on the platform — fees that one industry rep deemed “ridiculous.”

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Mashable – Dishing out punishment to would-be tacklers nearly as much as he takes it, Adrian Peterson has become one of the NFL’s most feared running backs since entering the league in 2007. Now, the Minnesota Vikings’ star ball-carrier is delivering hits off the field as well, partnering his All Day Foundation with a new browser app called the Giving Assistant to help connect online shoppers with charitable causes this holiday season.
Beyond just the gift of spreading holiday cheer, Giving Assistant users will also qualify to win an all-expense-paid trip for two to hang out with Peterson at this season’s Super Bowl. The Super Bowl trip is the first in a series of monthly prizes including Hollywood set visits, signed memorabilia, and more chances to hobnob with celebrities and athletes.

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Reuters – AOL Inc Chief Executive Tim Armstrong remains committed to keeping the company independent and is not looking at Yahoo’s assets even as AOL’s larger rivals seek to consolidate.

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Reuters – Zynga Inc embarks on a road show to promote its initial public offering next Monday, two sources familiar with the matter said, the latest dotcom name to try and whet investors’ appetites.

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AP – In recent weeks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com have each launched the missing puzzle piece in their wireless mobile music systems.

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AP – iTunes’ Official Music Charts for the week ending Nov. 28, 2011:

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AP – The newspaper coverage was troubling: London’s huge international showcase was beset by planning problems, local opposition and labor woes — and the transport was a mess.

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Reuters – Standing in long queues as Egyptians wait to cast their vote, many are tweeting, filming, and relaying their every observation, bringing a new dimension to election monitoring in the Arab world’s most populous nation.

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AP – An appeals court in southern Vietnam has reduced by more than half the sentence against a French-Vietnamese math professor convicted of belonging to a banned pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-communist blog, his lawyer said Tuesday.

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Appolicious – Just a few days after approving an iPad app that would allow users to pay a subscription fee to get access to dozens of games, Apple has pulled that app from the iTunes App Store.

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Reuters – Thomas H. Lee Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo Inc, breaking away from other bidders that are for now eyeing either a minority stake or teaming up with the Internet giant’s partners in Asia, sources familiar with the matter said.

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Reuters – Facebook, the world’s largest Internet social network, is preparing for a initial public stock offering next year, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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AP – The knockoff designer bags look close enough to the real thing that few would notice at a casual glance. Same goes for the imitation replica football jerseys or popular boots. And the online prices seem too good to pass up.

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NewsFactor – Amazon reported its best-ever Black Friday sales for the company’s Kindle family of e-readers and media tablets, the online retail giant said Monday. Unit sales quadrupled across the board in comparison with Kindle sales the same day last year.

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Reuters – Teen singing sensation Justin Bieber was named the most searched person this year on Internet search engine Bing on Monday, edging out reality TV star Kim Kardashian and “Friends” actress Jennifer Aniston.

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Reuters – “Cyber Monday” was on course to set another record for retail sales on Monday, as the strong start to the holiday shopping season continued online.

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Reuters – The top U.S. military officer said on Monday the United States was vulnerable to cyber attacks, and called for more aggressive action to bolster America’s online defenses.

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Appolicious – Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, is currently upon us.

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Appolicious – Last Friday might have been the biggest shopping day of the year – aptly named Black Friday – but if you’re looking for deals online, the Monday after Thanksgiving is the day for which you want to wait.

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AP – In recent weeks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com have each launched the missing puzzle piece in their wireless mobile music systems.

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Reuters – Outdoor advertising is proving surprisingly resilient amid Europe’s debt crisis, although many companies are still wavering before committing to ad budgets for next year, the head of the international arm of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc said.

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Appolicious – Black Friday is known for boosting retail through the remainder of the year, and the new tradition has certainly helped the Android smartphone market. IBM projected that 15 percent of Black Friday sales this year would transact via mobile, and it turns out their expectations were right on track. On Friday evening, IBM Smarter Commerce reported that about 10.3 percent of online sales came through mobile shoppers, and about 17 percent of all shoppers today are using mobile devices.

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Reuters – Online retail sales in the United States on the post-Thanksgiving shopping day known as “Black Friday” jumped 26 percent this year, led by Amazon.com Inc, comScore said on Sunday.

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Reuters – Online gaming firm Nexon Co said on Monday it would raise up to 98 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in an initial public offering this month, pushing ahead with its planned listing even as a massive hacking attack threatens to dampen excitement for the stock.

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Reuters – World No. 1 Internet search engine Google is seeking EU regulatory clearance of its planned purchase of handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings, the European Commission said on its website on Monday.

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Reuters – China’s largest search engine Baidu Inc said on Monday it will invest 3 billion yuan ($470.6 million) by the end of 2015 to help 2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises expand their businesses.

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Mashable – Instagram photos aren’t just for sharing online anymore.
You can turn them into photo books, frame them in four-inch bamboo shadowbox frames, create a collage with them on iPhone cases, turn them into iPad screensavers and now, print them on canvas for your wall.

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Mashable – This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
When small businesses contemplate a social media strategy, Facebook and Twitter get lots of attention. However, niche social networks and online communities offer additional opportunities for brands to connect with consumers in an environment that’s highly targeted and often less congested. Let’s look at how a different brands are using Instagram, Pinterest and Foodspotting to reach out to potential customers in novel ways.

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Mashable – Roughly 24 million photos were tweeted from English-language Twitter accounts for the week ending Nov. 24, according to real-time photo search engine Skylines.
Per usual, many of the most-retweeted photos were originally distributed by popular singers. A photo of Justin Bieber with his mother, grandmother and great grandmother nabbed the top spot, while UK boyband One Direction managed to lob five different photos into the top 10.

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Mashable – Thousands of online retailers will discount their stock for Cyber Monday — the online version of Black Friday — now in its sixth year.
Last year, Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion in the United States, making it the biggest day for online retail to date. Yet many businesses are increasingly discounting their goods on Black Friday as well — and consumers are responding. Online sales this past Friday were up 24.3% compared to last year, according to an IBM survey of 500 retailers.

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Reuters – Amazon.com Inc, eBay Inc and other e-commerce companies had a strong “Black Friday,” but the industry’s growth rate lagged last year’s surge in online buying on the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season.

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