All Things Digital

Here is the full memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out to the troops about the big changes in the company's organization, including the departure of Platform and Services Division President Kevin Johnson, and in which he addresses Apple, Yahoo, Google and more. Read more »

Kevin Johnson, the point person for Microsoft's failed bid to buy Yahoo, is leaving the company to run Juniper Networks. As the president of its Platform and Services Division, the smooth Johnson has been trying, without much success, to beef up the software giant's efforts in the Web space, especially in the online advertising arena. Read more »

At its EconCeleb conference in Hollywood today, ContentNext released its list of the most influential and innovative of online celebrities today. It is an interesting and varied list, that includes every one from powerhouse Oprah (pictured here, of course!) to the bisexual sprite, Tila Tequila. Read more »

According to popular legend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once kept two versions of his business card in his wallet--one with the title CEO, the other with “I’M CEO . . . BITCH.†Seems that before Facebook became the de facto platform of the “attention economy,†it was a platform for the attention-starved. Read more »

QOTD

Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) shares have fallen steeply in after hours trading after the company announced a change in the way it does business that resulted in much lower than expected guidance for both Q3 and all of 2008. Read more »

On my recent trip to Seattle, I visited the offices of iLike, in the Capitol Hill section of that lovely Pacific Northwest city, to take a video gander at one of the more interesting start ups to emerge from the social networking arena. The music discovery site, unlike a lot of others in its sector, has been plugging away for several years with much less funding (about $16 million from the founding Partovi twin brothers, former AOL wunderkind Bob Pittman and a big slug from Ticket Master), but a lot more impact. Read more »

During the TechCrunch 40 conference last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the FB Fund, a $10 million fund he established with folks like Jim Breyer of Accel Partners and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman to issue grants to Facebook developers. Today the company announced the first developers to win grants. Read more »