Roundup: Windows 7 to ruin Christmas, Craigslist cleans up, Pandora’s troubles and more
Here’s the latest action:
Microsoft aiming Windows 7 for 2009 year end — Windows 7, the successor to Vista, should be out in time for Christmas next year.
Craigslist to curb “erotic services” — At some undefined point, Craigslist became the go-to place for hookers. But the online classifieds company has finally agreed, at the behest of 40 state attorneys general, to put a lid on it.
Pandora still has a struggle ahead — Despite a deal with the Digital Media Association to barter out rates for the songs online radio stations play, top startup Pandora will still have a tough time finding enough advertising to pay the bills, according to All Things D.
Sprint Nextel continues to deflate — The third-largest mobile provider posted a loss of 11 cents per share, helped along by the departure of 1.3 million customers.
Silicon Valley, look to Washington — “We’re moving into a much more regulated world where winners and losers are not chosen by who is best in the market,” according to a lawyer and former special assistant to the president. More at the San Jose Mercury News.
Search is all tail, no head — A study of search by an SEO expert found that the vast majority of searches, almost 90 percent, aren’t even in the top 1,000 searches used.
Amazon names Startup Challenge finalists — Six companies are finalists in the $100,000 competition: Encoding.com, Knewton, MedCommons, Sonian, Pixily, Yieldex and Zephyr.
MTV partners with Clearspring — Widget maker Clearspring will get a boost from its deal, which will allow it to distribute MTV content around the web.
Amazon building huge Oregon data center — Google was the first web pioneer to choose Oregon’s Columbia River for an outsized data center, but Amazon is now close on its heels.
Brash Entertainment lays off 20 — Movie-focused game developer Brash Entertainment is letting go of 20 people due to the recession.
Chinese hackers run rampant on White House network — An unnamed senior US official told the Financial Times that Chinese hackers have gained access to White House computers multiple times.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.