links for 2008-04-23

• Yahoo's profit bolsters takeover defenceFirst quarter results from Yahoo came in better than Wall Street expected last night, thanks in part to the internet company's international operations, but it is understood it will remain in talks with News Corp and AOL to see off the threat of a hostile
• Success of iPlayer doesn't mean BBC should pay for broadband rollout, MPs toldThe BBC should not be forced to help pay for the creation of next-generation superfast broadband networks the Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, told MPs today. Source: Guardian
• Video service BlinkBox goes publicBlinkBox, the UK start-up that lets users "mash" clips from TV shows and films as well as rent and buy movies, is officially launching today as a self-styled cross between iTunes and Facebook. Source: Guardian
• CBS hires Yeung to market Last.fmCBS has hired Orlena Yeung, the former Microsoft executive responsible for developing the Xbox brand globally, as the first chief marketer at music service Last.fm. Source: Guardian
• Online television: Channel surfingThe BBC iPlayer is just the start of a revolution in the way we watch TV. Tim Walker casts his eye over what the internet has in store. Source: Independent
• A breaking news social media search tool for journalistsUGC Finder uses Yahoo Pipes to aggregate and filter the results of keyword searches for tagged content and conversations in social networks and media sharing sites. Source: cybersoc
• Sony buys Gracenote: all your CD ripping are belong to usSony buys one of the first companies that saw just how the internet was enabling communities around music. Source: Guardian
• BBC joins the OpenID FoundationGetting identity right is key to our future plans and with that in mind we are looking very seriously at how the increasing number of data portability technologies could and should work for the BBC. Source: BBC Internet Blog
• iPhone to get chat app?At its iPhone SDK event last month, Apple touted an adaption of AOL's instant-messaging client for the iPhone and now comes news of Apple's own patent application for a chat feature. Source: CNET
• US private eye sues GoogleGoogle is being sued by an American private investigator who claims a glitch in the search giant's auction-based advertising programme is leading to customers being charged without their consent. Source: Guardian
• Craigslist brands eBay claims 'unethical'A slanging match is underway between two of the web's biggest companies after classifieds site Craigslist accused shareholder eBay of making "unethical assertions" and claimed it could be preparing for a hostile takeover. Source: Guardian
• Myners attacks advertising on BBC.comGuardian Media Group chairman Paul Myners today challenged the BBC's decision to allow advertising on its international website BBC.com. Source: Guardian
• Breaking the Digg codeSince the world cottoned on to the fact that search engine optimisation was all about linkbuilding, the world's greatest online marketers have been trying to develop Google-friendly, scalable, linkbuilding solutions. Source: E-consultancy.com
• Five million users and nearly five billion stumbles laterMost people think of StumbleUpon as a socially-powered discovery engine rather than a search engine, but personal discovery and search may be colliding. Source: TechCrunch
• Liveblogging Yahoo's resultsIt's the do or die earnings call. Source: TechCrunch
• Publisher plans printed version of WikipediaIn a move combining user-created online encyclopedias with the printed page, Germany's Bertelsmann AG will publish what could be the first in a series of annual yearbooks based on Wikipedia content. Source: Associated Press
• Microsoft's Ray Ozzie delivers with Live MeshWhat Mesh is today is mostly some end user functionality that looks like Plaxo Pulse done right, but if you stop right there and either get excited or dismiss it, you'll miss the point entirely. Source: Scobleizer
• Microsoft chief exec willing to walk away from Yahoo bidSteve Ballmer said Yahoo's better-than-expected first-quarter results, reported on Tuesday, have not changed Microsoft's view of Yahoo's value. Source: Reuters