Yahoo's (and Associated Content Founder) Luke Beatty Talks About Google's Content Farm Putsch

Yahoo’s Luke Beatty said he is not worried. “We welcome the change,” he insisted about Google taking aim last Friday at so-called “content farms,” producers of low-quality content that spam up the Web and the search giant’s results. “And we endorse what Google is doing 100 percent.” That’s ironic, given among those allegedly hit hardest by the tweaking of its famous algorithm–based on early, and perhaps questionable, surveys–is Yahoo’s Associated Content. Its founder talked to BoomTown about the impact.

I'm With the Band: Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks About Online Fan Collaboration Contest

It’s nice to hear enthusiasm on the part of Linkin Park band member Mike Shinoda about an innovative-for-the-music-industry effort to give fans a chance to be part of the iconic Grammy-winning rock band. While some artists or content creators cringe at the ongoing flood of user-generated material that has drastically changed the industry, Shinoda is hoping to find some real talent via a new online contest, called “Linkin Park, Featuring You,” that gives anyone an opportunity to collaborate with the band to produce an original song based on some of the tracks from the forthcoming single “The Catalyst.”

MySpace Should Be Glee-ful About Hit Series Online Auditions (Plus Celebrity Video!)

The television hit, “Glee,” is one of News Corp.’s crown jewels of late, while its MySpace social networking site has struggled painfully to regain its once-hot momentum. Now MySpace is getting the benefit of the heat “Glee” is generating, by hosting the online auditions for the Fox television network show, which returns tonight after a short hiatus, as well as from a massive ad takeover of the site today. Will “Glee”–an online phenom in its own right, with more than four million song downloads so far–give MySpace a boost?

Gawker’s Nick Denton: I Paid Big Money for “McSteamy” Sex Tape

Earlier this year, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton announced that he was going to start paying for salacious clips, tips and other submissions, but that he hadn’t worked out the details. Looks like he figured it out: Denton says he paid the source who provided his blog network with the so-called “McSteamy” sex tapes that have earned him both a lot of traffic and a lawsuit.
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1,394 New iPhone Apps Approved Last Friday, None of Them Google Voice

Last Friday was a particularly productive day for the Apple team that reviews submissions to the iTunes App Store. AppShopper reports that 1,394 new applications were approved that day. An impressive number when you consider that Apple employs only 40 full-time reviewers and requires at least two of them to scrutinize each app.
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Palm Pre Apps Catalog Hopefully a Bit Less Sparse by Fall

The drought of third-party mobile apps for Palm’s new Pre handset is almost over. Though the company had warned that its release would be delayed until late summer, Palm today opened its long-awaited Mojo Software Development Kit to the public.
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