Twitter Suffers Brief Link Service Outage

No more fail whale. Say hello to fail robot monkey.

News Byte

Twitter’s New Expanded Tweets Tease More In-Stream Content

As AllThingsD noted it would earlier this week, Twitter rolled out an update to individual tweets on Wednesday, allowing users to preview content like article text from embedded links, watch video and view pictures from within their streams. The update will apply to users of Twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com, and will soon come to iOS and Android.

Twitter Starts to Claim Credit for Sending Other People Traffic

In the last week, Twitter has dramatically ramped up its efforts to receive credit for helping send traffic to other people’s Web pages.

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Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics

Google Inc. has penalized Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant’s search engine.

HTC’s One-Button Facebook Phones Headed to ATT

Although they may not be the Salsa and Cha Cha models shown off on stage in Barcelona, AT&T said it will exclusively have HTC Android-based phones with a similar one-button access to Facebook.

Cisco Security Survey Finds Windows Vulnerabilities And Spam Decreasing

Still no rest for the weary computer security professional. Smartphones and tablets are coming to the office and creating new opportunities for trouble.

How to Steal Any Movie You Want on the Web: Wall Street Gets a How-To Guide

It’s easier than ever to download any movie or TV show you want on the Web, for free. Just ask Rich Greenfield. Or better yet, let the Wall Street analyst show you, via a helpful four-minute video .

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Delicious Red Sea Parted, Users Wander to Other Bookmarking Services

We might have assumed that users would flee Delicious after Yahoo announced it was shuttering the popular bookmarking service. What we didn’t know was how fast the lifeboats were filling. Until now.

Wi-Fi Hotspot Safety and Mac Viruses

Walt answers readers’ questions on just how safe are Wi-Fi hotspots and should Mac owners worry about computer viruses.

What to Do With Photos Piling Up in a Phone

A large number of photo apps have cropped up that allow you to tweak pictures, add filters, tag on information about subject and location, and post them on social-networking sites, writes Roger Cheng. Note: Walt Mossberg is on vacation and will return Dec. 16.

Pulse News App for iPad Gets Social