A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you everyday.
- Google released its “+1” social feature, which basically adds its own version of Facebook’s “Like” button to web search results and will eventually apply to ads, too. So when users search results with the feature enabled — right now, you have to opt in, but eventually it’ll roll out to everyone — they’ll see a small clickable “+1” button next to each result, indicating to friends within their Google social graph which stories, posts, videos, etc. they enjoy. When +1 hits advertising, expect those search ads to be even more targeted to your preferences. (Fortune)
- Twitter co-founder Biz Stone appeared on Howard Stern’s SIRIUS XM show and among other things, revealed details about Facebook’s failed acquisition of the social network. Apparently, that included an extremely awkward meeting with Mark Zuckerberg in which the Facebook creator “was prepared for every scenario,” and offered a mix of cash and stock. Eventually, Stone would shoot Zuckerberg a polite note of a refusal. Here’s the interview in its entirety. (TechCrunch and Howard Stern)
- More than 2.5 million Nook Color ereaders have reportedly been sold since its launch last November. (Digitimes)
- Zite, that just-introduced iPad news reader that adapts to your reading preferences, received a group-action cease-and-desist letter from media entities like The Washington Post, AP, Gannett, Getty Images, Time, and Dow Jones. CEO Ali Davar told AllThingsD that the reader will move from its conventional “reading” mode to the Web one, which will take readers to the publishers’ sites. (AllThingsD)
- Microsoft’s global marketing leader and two-decade company vet, Mich Mathews, is leaving this summer. Mathews, who oversees more than $1 billion in annual marketing on properties like Windows and Xbox, will help search for her replacement. (Ad Age)
- Apple may be on target to pass $100 billion in annual sales for the first time ever, something we’ll learn for sure later this year when it reports figures for the company’s fiscal year ending September 2011. If that ends up being the case, Apple’s lead over Microsoft would grow and approach IBM, though still lag behind HP. (Forbes)
- According to GigaOm, Zipcar priced its public offering at between $14 and $16 a share — its 8.3 million shares will net $89.2 million. Expect the car service, which claims 560,000 members so far, to make a run at the Nasdaq market on April 13. (GigaOm)
- Remember those heady Web 1.0 days when predators prowled AOL chat rooms, and Yahoo was too cool for school? If so, then you’ll appreciate this amusing clip from 1998 warning kids about the perils of the Web. (YouTube via Laughing Squid)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yo_24bC_cM]
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