EBay Will Open Doors to Outside Programmers

Microsoft co-founder refiles suit after judge's dismissal

(NEWSER) - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has re-filed his mammoth patent lawsuit targeting a host of major web companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, eBay, Aol, and Yahoo. Allen’s original lawsuit, filed in August, was dismissed because it was too vague, failing to name specific products or services. The refiling, which you can see at the Seattle Times , rectifies that, in part by including 40 exhibits, most of which consist of website screenshots with the allegedly offending module highlighted. More»

It's now the web's third most valuable company

(NEWSER) - Facebook’s estimated market value has shot past eBay’s, making it the third most valuable web company. Shares of the privately held company are now trading at more than $16 on SecondMarket, sources tell Bloomberg , which would make the overall company worth $41 billion—behind only Amazon ($74.4 billion) and the big kid on the block, Google ($192.2 billion). More»

Paul Allen targets Apple, Google, Yahoo

(NEWSER) - Paul Allen’s licensing company is suing a who’s who of the biggest forces in tech—including Apple, Google, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo, and Aol—over a handful of patents filed by a now-defunct startup he funded during the Internet bubble. The four patents in question seem to encompass technology that is integral to pretty much any e-commerce site or search engine, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Founder delayed project he was working on to benefit his site

(NEWSER) - Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from the founders of a rival site and intentionally stalled that site's development so his would prosper. That's the takeaway from an analysis of instant messages Business Insider says it “believes” the Facebook CEO sent while his site was getting off the ground in 2003 and 2004—and he was stonewalling the founders of the site that later became ConnectU, fellow Harvard students who had hired him to to develop their site. Is that “too dick?” he asked a confidant. More»

(NEWSER) - Facebook has opened its user “feeds” to widget developers, paving the way to a new existence in the decentralized, cross-platform “AfterWeb,” Josh Quittner writes in Time. Though the move is seen by some as a counter to rival Twitter, which can already be accessed in myriad ways, Quittner sees a more radical rationale. Facebook is “blowing up the browser,” he writes. More»