Good news for anyone who owns CDs — Amazon is now selling music on a two-for-one basis that gives every customer a digital and a physical version of an album. The company just raised the stakes in its fight with Google and Apple over “music lockers.” Read more »
Websites show you ads based on other sites you visited. Now, online radio stations will start playing you songs based on the same information. This could spike growth in the radio ad industry and mean it won’t be weird to hear a tofu ad after a country song. Read more »
Aereo, the disruptive TV-everywhere service that lets people watch shows on mobile devices thanks to remote miniature antennas, announced it is expanding — even as legal questions remain unresolved Read more at GigaOM »
Damn You Auto Correct, which collects embarrassing text messages, has been popular with users but not with its new owners who accuse the previous owners of inflating traffic and submitting fake messages. A court says that didn’t happen. Read more »
A new deal means Netflix will be able to replenish its content library with past seasons from eight shows, including the West Wing. Meanwhile, many other content goodies will stay out of its reach. Read more »
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is leaving the company along with CTO Rich Tom. The two will stay on in the next months to manage the transition. Read more »
A new Facebook prank making the rounds lets you turn someone’s account into a memorial page by sending along an email address and a fake obituary. Read more at GigaOM »
After a two-year investigation into Google’s search business, the feds finally issued a decision. The outcome is a clear win for Google — here’s an easy Q&A about what happened and what it means. Read more at GigaOM »
The FTC finally concluded its two-year investigation into whether Google’s treatment of its competitors broke antitrust laws. The result is a minor change to the way Google uses patents but that does little to change the company’s search listings. Read more at GigaOM »
Harvard law school is inviting 500 people to take a free 12-week copyright course — complete with small discussions, a 3 hour exam and a certificate at the end. Read more at GigaOM »
Time to find a new name for all those folks on Twitter. “Twitterverse” joined “whatever” and “just sayin” on a list of terms that people find most annoying in conversation. Read more at GigaOM »
Netflix has been lobbying to change a law that prevents it from using Facebook to reveal what movies people are watching. It has finally won in Congress but, by this point, doubts about the value of frictionless sharing mean the victory may not be worth much. Read more at GigaOM »
A law firm is trying to capitalize on recent outrage over Instagram’s changes to its terms of services. Despite media hype, the lawsuit has been described as “frivolous” and “flimsy” by social media law experts. Read more at GigaOM »
It’s official: you can now download all your old tweets. What does mean? In the short, a trip down memory lane but, in the long term, a rich cultural treasure. Read more at GigaOM »
In an acknowledgement of the growing importance of the “second screen” for TV watchers, Nielsen is unveiling a new set of ratings that will measure a given show’s popularity on Twitter. Read more at GigaOM »
Aereo, which lets consumers in New York watch live TV on their phones and online, now has a cable channel. The deal shows viewers it can get more content — and also gives it a small PR boost in its legal fight with broadcasters. Read more at GigaOM »
Retailers are trying to use blogs and other content to drive sales. Meanwhile, publishers are hoping their stories can lead to commerce opportunities. Handcraft site Etsy appears to have figured out both sides of the equation. Read more at GigaOM »
Viral site BuzzFeed is under criticism for publishing a malicious attack on a cartoonist that contained major factual errors. Editor-in-chief Ben Smith has responded but the site may need to do more in the future if it wants to play in the media big leagues. Read more at GigaOM »
The SEC says Netflix is in trouble for sharing news on Facebook rather than through a more traditional method like a press release. The incident shows how regulators can fail to recognize transformations in our communications infrastructure. Read more at GigaOM »
Aereo, a TV-on-the-go service that relies on small antennas, is getting a lot of legal attention. The bigger story should be how it is using economic breakthroughs in computing to offer a new form of TV. Read more at GigaOM »
Companies are offering up social media and “web footprint” rankings on everything from celebrities to Supreme Court Justices. Some recent examples make one wonder if there’s a point to all this. Read more at GigaOM »
The growth of the mobile advertising industry has been hampered by a lack of marketing data about smartphone users. Adelphic, a company that says it uses 30 signals to collect customer information, announced a major new investment on Tuesday. Read more at GigaOM »
Who has the right to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter? On Thursday, a federal judge emphatically sided with Facebook against an adware company that wanted to use the site for its own ends. Read more at GigaOM »
Gabe Rivera has been at the vanguard of technology driven journalism through sites like Techmeme and Mediagazer. At a recent event, he discussed the limits of algorithms and the need for human curation. Read more at GigaOM »
A study of Black Friday cyber-shopping said that social media advertising was a big bust with few people buying things in response to an ad from Facebook. The story is very different if you use other metrics to define “responded.” Read more at GigaOM »
The Monday after Thanksgiving means online discounts for many people. To the federal government, it is a day to parade captured websites. Read more at GigaOM »
An old hoax has resurfaced that suggests Facebook users can tell the company what to do by posting a legal notice on their profile. Alas, it’s not true — your interactions with the company are governed by law and licenses, not your wishes. Read more at GigaOM »
An alarming story about a Senate plan to let federal agencies read your email turns out to have been a false alarm. Unfortunately, fears over online privacy mean such stories travel quickly — and that we’re likely to see the media crying wolf in the future. Read more at GigaOM »
In the latest GigaOM Book, Jeff John Roberts provides an in-depth look at the twists and turns behind Google’s attempt to digitize the world’s books. This excerpt examines why the company took on the project, which promised minimal financial benefit but plenty of legal headaches. Read more at GigaOM »
It’s a phone booth like you’ve never seen before. New York City is today launching hundreds of public smart screens to replace existing pay phones. The new platforms can do everything from provide directions to offer coupons to coordinate a disaster. Read more at GigaOM »
Being falsely accused of a crime like child abuse is a traumatic experience that has become worse with social media. Two recent incidents in the US and UK highlight the problems — and show America’s approach to libel works better in the age of Twitter. Read more at GigaOM »
The fragmentation of the mobile environment into proprietary development platforms threatens the overall app economy by straining the labor market, says Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire. He argues Facebook’s move away from HTML5 is driven by self-interest. Read more at GigaOM »
Google has released its sixth semi-annual report on government information and takedown requests. The trend is not encouraging but there may be a bright spot in that more and more companies are following Google’s attempt to shine light on censorship. Read more at GigaOM »
Better connection speeds and more content means media companies are turning to video as an important revenue source. But to succeed, they must reach viewers fast. Here are some facts and graphics from a new study that shows how long viewers will wait. Read more at GigaOM »
Tumblr is enjoying explosive traffic growth and jaw-dropping valuations. But so did a similar community site, GeoCities, a decade ago before it quickly imploded. Investor Fred Wilson says this time is different. Read more at GigaOM »
Fake Twitter accounts for Nate Silver, Diane Sawyer and Mitt Romney offered humorous moments on election night — but one day they may also be important sources for political historians. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter has changed the way it responds to DMCA copyright notices. Rather than removing tweets, it is “withdrawing” them instead. This helps show when and why tweets go missing, and also brings new transparency to the DMCA process. Read more at GigaOM »
Services like Instagram provide a huge trove of photos for traditional news outlets to enrich their coverage of major events like the election or Hurricane Sandy. A novel approach by NBC shows the opportunities and challenges of user photos. Read more at GigaOM »
HuffPost Live’s new app could help usher in an era where content producers seek to dominate not just our TV but our tablet devices — at the same time. Read more at GigaOM »
A New York man who used Twitter to send fake news reports during Hurricane Sandy is one of the city’s biggest jerks. But should he also face criminal charges? Read more at GigaOM »
