“Recommendations are hotter than many people realize. Amazon says 35 percent of product sales result from recommendations.”

“If it were to duplicate a “good-enough” clone of Google search results and then add in its own data, Facebook could potentially provide a first class search engine that really rivals Google.”

“Any platform that makes ads a distraction or a cost is always going to fail compared to a site where the ads are a welcome part of the deal.”

Facebook now will give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages on its system that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product. Each user’s news feed will contain items like “Bobby Smith is now a fan of Toyota Prius.”

“Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.”

“…analysis of Radiohead’s innovative pay-what-you-like plan for latest album In Rainbows shows thirty-eight percent of those who downloaded the title indeed chose to pay something, while 62 percent kept their change in their pocket.”

“The Human Power Trainer and the Human Power Generator are the solution to energy education in the classroom, failsafe backup power, and productive exercise.”

“Many tools and appliances can be run directly with mechanical energy. With an old exercise bike, a generator, and a fan belt, human energy can be converted into Direct Current (DC) electricity.”

“Industry leaders hold conference call to discuss the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices, and the announcement of the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of more than 30 technology and mo

“So far, every time the Web has matched up against a proprietary alternative, the Web has prevailed.”

“Project Beacon” is an internal project that will allow Facebook to gather buying information about its users on third party ecommerce sites, in exchange for free advertising in the news feed from those third parties.

“Why couldn’t this all be based on microformats and other existing open standards?”

“The building blocks that are already in place and the ones to come are going to be remixed to create new web applications that were simply not possible before.”

“An open protocol to allow secure API authentication in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.”

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said Apple “destroyed the music business in terms of pricing” and will invariably do the same to the online video business.

“Two hedge funds from New York have apparently jumped into the Facebook deal.We’ve got our ear to the ground to figure out who it is but each put in about $250 million–for $500 million total–at the same valuation as Microsoft Corp.”

Nothing here yet, but looks like it will be where Google puts the open social API docs

n a nutshell, Open Social is an open web API that can be supported by two kinds of developers: “Containers” — social networking systems like Ning, Orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, and Friendster, and… “Apps” — applications that want to be embedded within contain

“Will Facebook now be forced to join OpenSocial? Google says they are talking to “everyone.” This is a major strategic decision for Facebook, and they may have little choice but to join this coalition.”

An updated list of tools for Del.icio.us

“For example, developers have access to store shared data right on Google’s servers — that means you can build scalable applications that require no infrastructure of your own. To me, this feature makes developing on Google a little more attractive.”

“Charlene Li is a senior analyst at Forrester Research … talks about some of the mistakes big brands are making on social network platforms such as Facebook, and the challenges they face.”

“Microsoft will now be able to provide targeted ads not only based on demographic data (location, age, gender, etc), but they will also know that the person visiting your site is interested in skiing and guitar.”