links for 2007-07-21

More on the possible changes to Germany’s pioneering online newspaper, Netzeitug, since it was purchased by David Montgomery’s investment vehicle.

First Facebook acquisition: a startup run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, co-founders of the Mozilla Firefox open-source web browser. Ross and Hewitt will join Facebook’s development team.

“Blogs are now the organizing principle for newspapers’ original online content. … The word ‘blog’ has way too much baggage — it’s too often equated with opinion. But a blog is just a content management system …

According to Vincent Dureau, Google’s head of TV technology, “audience fragmentation is a good thing for advertising, if you apply Google thinking to the problem.”

US newspapers are phasing out television critics (via Jeff Jarvis).

“The endgame for Dow Jones begins on Monday, when the controlling shareholders of the company, the Bancroft family, will receive a briefing on the outline of a $5 billion deal that Dow Jones’ board signed off on Tuesday evening.”

“TVNewser Brian Stelter has posted his final post, 15,470 entries in. It’s the end of an era … “

De Volkskrant has accidentally published the real names of bloggers on its site … as a result of a technical error as it launced two new sites…

Why should Google buy Yahoo? With the exception of search, Yahoo’s strengths map to Google’s weaknesses, almost precisely.

“Ask.com announced Friday that it will allow search users to control how and whether their searches are recorded, marking the first time a major search company has modified their data retention policy to make it user controllable.”

“A new book in the Gonzo journalism vein tries to explain to coastal elites what they’ve never understood about the working-class small towns in the middle of the country.”

“Chicagotribune.com relaunched today with a bright, new look and additional features that enhance the user experience. The site is built on a new platform that is designed to better serve users in the broadband environment.”