Along With Flickr, Mail and Homepage, Yahoo’s Board Will Also Get a Refresh (and SuperPoke Dude!)

Director merry-go-round on the ever-changing Yahoo board.

Voices

Say It Loud: ATD Relaunches the “Voices” Section

Today, we relaunch a fresh, new “Voices” section to bring you even more writing and information from outside sources. Offering six regular features, Voices will be run by senior editor Beth Callaghan.

W3C Wants to Invalidate Apple’s Widget Patents

The World Wide Web Consortium is taking Apple to the mat over its refusal to allow some of its intellectual property to be included in the W3C’s widget standard.

100 Percent Fresh Exclusive!: Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes in Acquisition Talks With Yahoo and Others

Flixster–the popular social movie site whose brands include the Rotten Tomatoes premium reviews site, as well as BuddyTV–is in early acquisition talks with several suitors, including Yahoo, said sources close to the situation. The price being discussed for the San Francisco-based start-up is between $60 million and $90 million, said several sources, in talks that are “substantive.”

Password Manager LastPass Acquires Xmarks

LastPass, a cross-platform password manager and form filler, has acquired the social bookmarking and browser synchronization service Xmarks. The San Francisco-based Xmarks has been in the midst of some tumult of late, as it closed down in September and then quickly opened back up again in an effort to keep its service running for a large group of active users and to find a new home.

Index, Union Square Like SoundCloud's Web-Based Tune

Here’s another bet on Web-based music: SoundCloud, a start-up that makes it easy to share streaming music, is about to land a funding round from high-profile investors.

The Long Goodbye: Xmarks Tried to Sell Twice, Before Closing Down With Class

Yesterday marked the end for Xmarks, the Mitch Kapor-backed social bookmarking start-up that was founded in 2006. What was most remarkable to BoomTown was the classiness and honesty of the goodbye, especially in Silicon Valley, which is loath to call a failure just that. Read on.

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.”

Xmarks the Spot? Kapor Says Start-Up Can Find Buried Treasure in Bookmarks for Advertisers.

Social bookmarking start-up Xmarks, which has been growing its user base and bookmarked Web addresses strongly, launched a new advertising product today called SearchBoost, which it hopes will finally give it a viable business model. Using a tool that displays user ranking and review information from the free syncing service, Xmarks Chairman Mitch Kapor said in an interview with BoomTown that the ad offering essentially “decorates” a paid search ad, thereby boosting click-through rates by 15 percent.

New TiVo Mixes TV and Internet, but Falls Short

The latest TiVo model aims to seamlessly blend programming from conventional TV and the Internet, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough in tapping the Internet.

MSN Debuts Online Health Service