Google execs say they're hiring and spendinghighlighted as the key quote: "We never stopped hiring, but we told our team internally and again, we’ve said to many other people that we are increasing our hiring rate and our investment rate in anticipation of a recovery."
Rumors of an $11,000 blogging fine have been greatly exaggerated -- At least, that's what the Federal Trade Commission says. There were reports earlier this week that the FTC could fine bloggers who didn't disclose in a review when they received a product for free, but a commission spokesman says the reports aren't quite right:
That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law.
Even here, however, the FTC doesn't say it can't levy a steep fine against bloggers, just that it doesn't want to, and can't on the first offense. Google Maps expands with more data -- The easiest change for users to spot is probably the all the new park land shown on the maps, Google says. You should also see improved representation of water bodies, college campuses, and bike trails. And with this new data, Google says it even plans to add biking directions.
Ciena bids for Nortel -- Network company Ciena offered $521 million to acquire some of Nortel's business units. This is just the opening bid of the bankrupt telecom company's auction of its assets. If this deal goes through, Ciena has promised to offer jobs to at least 2,00 Nortel employees.
Designing the homes of San Francisco's tech titansValleywag has a summary, as well as a few images of the Fulk's work.
Debate continues over VC regulation -- Venture capital lobbyists seem to be making headway in convincing Congress to exempt them from proposed, stricter rules over hedge funds and private equity. VCs were actually exempt from these rules in a recent draft of the bill. The Private Equity Council, however, has taken the opposite stance, and "threw [the National Venture Capital Association] under a bus" with a statement endorsing the regulation of private equity, hedge funds, and, yes, venture capital, according to The Deal.
Scribd releases a co-branded reader for publishers -- So if The New York Times (one of the launch partners) decides to share documents using Scribd technology, the document will be surrounded by an NYT logo on, rather than just Scribd's. The reader is free for publishers, though Scribd says it hopes to eventually strike ad-sharing deals with those companies.
Yes, I really did just publish the "5 O'Clock Roundup" at midnight. Punctuality is hard.