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News

• Google improves Gmail contacts manager

  Google will roll out on Tuesday enhancements to Gmail's contacts manager, which the company acknowledges has been traditionally the webmail service's weakest link.

• Google confirms Slide acquisition

  Google on Friday confirmed that it has acquired Slide, an online entertainment company focused on virtual communities.

• Intel bends to U.S., Google Wave washes up

  It's the end of an era: Intel can no longer offer computer makers perks for using its processors, according to an antitrust settlement that the chip maker reached with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, BlackBerry users in some countries may find their e-mail service terminated if governments are denied access to the network's secure data. Finally, employee paychecks may no longer be safe as hackers look for new revenue sources.

• Google said to buy social-games developer Slide

  Fueling the buzz that Google is pursuing social-networking opportunities, reports on Wednesday say the search giant has bought online entertainment company Slide.

• Google drops Google Wave

  A little more than a year after the service was launched, Google is pulling the plug on its Google Wave social-networking service, the company said Wednesday.

• Repetition breaks Google Audio CAPTCHA

  Google has fixed a flaw in its Audio CAPTCHA software that could have given scammers a way to automatically set up phoney accounts with the company's services.

• Japan user marks Twitter's 20 billionth 'tweet'

  Twitter, the social networking site that allows users to say something in 140 characters or less, passed another milestone on Saturday with the sending of tweet number 20 billion.

• The Facebook Data Torrent Debacle: Q&A

  Security concerns over Facebook have been raised yet again after a security consultant collected the names and profile URLs for 171 million Facebook accounts from publicly available information. The consultant, Ron Bowes, then uploaded the data as a torrent file allowing anyone with a computer connection to download the data.

• 100M Facebook Profiles Now Available For Download

  One hundred million Facebook user profiles containing personal information such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, are now available as a 2.8GB torrent download.

• CRM prominent on Google Apps marketplace

  CRM (customer relationship management) software has established a significant foothold on Google's Apps Marketplace since its launch in March, according to an official blog post this week.

• Twitter encounters more digital certificate problems

  Twitter is having trouble again with a digital certificate that secures communications to its Web site, which has been causing trouble for third-party applications that integrate with it, but the problem may have been fixed.

• Cloud SCM vendor iTradeNetwork being sold for $525 million

  Roper Industries said Monday it plans to buy on-demand SCM (supply chain management) software vendor iTradeNetwork from private equity firm Accel-KKR for US$525 million. The transaction is expected to close later this week.

• New Google Apps service targets gov't security needs

  Google on Monday unveiled a new version of Google Apps designed to meet the rigorous security needs of U.S. government agencies.

• IDC: SaaS momentum skyrocketing

  Interest in the SaaS (software as a service) delivery model is growing to the point that by 2012, almost 85 per cent of new vendors will be focused on SaaS services, according to new research from analyst firm IDC.

• Cisco may call home TelePresence 'UMI'

  Cisco Systems may be planning to give its consumer TelePresence system the friendly sounding name "UMI," according to a trademark application made last year.