For the week of November 7, 2005
Here are some of the most read stories and feeds on Rojo, as well as the most used story tags. For the latest stories, tags, and feeds, visit the Rojo Explore page.
Bill Gates turned 50 this week, then he and Ray Ozzie dropped 2 memos to Microsoft employees about the company's radical reshaping saying Microsoft needs to adapt to a new wave of money-making on the Internet. Within hours Dave Winer's Scripting News had the full text of the memos posted here. CNET News.com reported Gates told the staff to brace for a services wave and warned the company had to change with the times to stave off competition from leaner, hungrier companies . The memos pointed to missed opportunities like Skype, Salesforce.com and you-know-Whoogle. Scobelizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger had the insider's perspective and was still reeling from their significance. Scoble also digests some of the best post-memo analysis.
So how do the rest of us come to grips with the fear of Google ? AdAge reports that not since the Microsoft of the mid-'90s have we had so much angst over the ambitions of an evil empire. At the same time, more details emerged about GoogleBase and Google Automat on Buzzmachine and CNET News.com fueling talk of company's plans to conquer the Web by becoming a one-stop info shop . The other Google rumor of the week came from Techcrunch : A new Google game called free lunch.
In politics, Americans voted. Why do we bother? The Freaknomics Blog explains. In the fallout of this week's poll results, Daily Kos calls Bush radioactive. Salon reports on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's big flame-out killing onservatives' dreams of a hip GOP hero but says the irony is that California needs some of the Terminator's reforms. This was a Democratic rout any way you look at it says WSJ.com: Opinion and could happen again if the GOP learns the wrong lessons. A bad week for Republicans or a bad year? Evan Coyne Maloney has thoughts on Instapundit. And Hit and Run cheers that Judith Miller is leaving the New York Times .
While Paris burns, the NY Times Opinion rages about the flailing response of President Jacques Chirac and his ministers illustrate the deeper problems that underlie the unrest. The Washington Post reports the call to arms has been circulating on French blogs and text messages for days: "All the housing projects should rise. The wait is over. Friday, Nov. 11, a meeting under the Eiffel Tower." Boing Boing collected these links to stories about the detention of 2 bloggers, plus reports of Google ads that direct surfers to a petition supporter hard-liners.
Finally, on this week's grim news about the newspaper business, Chris Anderson's The Long Tail runs the numbers and declares a mainstream media meltdown.The bright spots: Banner ad revenues were up 10 percent this year and Google's revenue was up 96 percent.
