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In the wake of a Web blackout protesting  the antipiracy bills SOPA and PIPA, lawmakers were calling for more discussion on the bills that have pitted Silicon Valley against the entertainment industry, which supports the bills that it says will protect against pirating movies and music. today. Wikipedia, Google and WordPress.com were just a few of the websites who tweaked their designs in protest.

Further reading:

• H.R. 3261 (SOPA) at the Library of Congress
•  S.968 (PIPA) at the Library of Congress

 

Nielsen reports that Google is still the top web brand in 2011, followed by Facebook, which is where Americans spend the most time online. According to Nielsen’s Q3 social media report,  Facebook users spent 53.5 billion minutes on the site in May 2011. (I bet I work with some of those Facebook enthusiasts.) It is also the top social networking site through mobile devices: 46,500,000 unique audience members.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) unveiled the Kindle Fire on Wednesday, a 7-inch tablet that The Wall Street Journal says could be Apple’s “biggest” challenger to the almighty iPad.  Much like iPad’s Android competitors, the Kindle Fire’s price is sure to compel consumers to give it a second look: It’s priced at an attractive $199; the cheapest iPad2 is $499.

The Kindle Fire was just part of Amazon’s growing Kindle family: Also announced were a lighter, cheaper Kindle ($79), the Kindle Touch ($99) and the Kindle Touch 3G ($149). Read the full news release about the Kindle family here.

The Amazon Kindle Fire at a glance:

• Weight: 14.6 ounces (413 grams)
• Size: 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm)
• 1024 x 600P resolution at 169PPI
• 8GB on-board memory
• Battery Life: Up to 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off.
• Full charge in approx. 4 hours
• Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
• Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers
• Wi-Fi: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or 802.1X standard
• USB 2.0 port (micro-B connector)
• Warranty and service: 1 year limited
• Supported formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8

EARLIER: Acer Iconia A500: A honey-sweet alternative to iPad? ~J’s Pages, May 26

EARLIER: A honey-sweet alternative to the Xoom? ~ J’s Pages, April 9

All of my friends who play FarmVille on Facebook (ALL. DAY. LONG!) will be interested to know the gamemaker Zynga has filed for a $1 billion IPO that The Wall Street Journal is calling a “test of investor appetite for social media companies.”

Zynga’s filing comes on the heels of LinkedIn‘s intial public offering in May, and Groupon’s filing June 2.

According to the Journal’s anonymous sources, the IPO, which will seek to raise $2 billion, could value the company as high as $20 billion.

Read the not-so-anonymous SEC filing here.

Does anyone smell a bubble? 

Can I cancel my Myspace account now?

I originally created one for a school research project.

Do I have to keep it?

News Corp. is closer to unloading Myspace, according to anonymous sources talking to The Wall Street Journal. Specific Media, an ad-targeting firm, is the most likely buyer, and as part of the deal — the sources said — half of the 500 Myspace staffers will lose their jobs. Negotiations are still underway, but the Journal saying the deal is valued at $30 million to $40 million, a far cry from the $580 million News Corp. dropped for the social network in 2006.

On that note, here’s a BusinessWeek article from 2006 that asks, Was Myspace sold on the cheap?

UPDATE: The WSJ just reported the deal will likely be announced today and layoffs have already started.

Digital intelligence outfit eMarketer reports that older Facebook users, 35 and older, are connecting with — or “liking” — more brands on the site. Considering these are the folks with the most discretionary income, it’s all the more reason not to put the brand in the hands of a child; marketing through social media is best left to the professionals — not the interns.

Click the eMarketer graphic to go to the post:

In the wake of LinkedIn’s high-profile IPO, deal-of-the-day site Groupon has filed to go public, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

A quick look at Groupon’s earnings from the story:

Groupon earned $644.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2011, up from $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2009 and $44.2 million in the first quarter of 2010. But it lost $102.7 million in the first quarter.

EARLIER: Groupon’s Super Bowl ad makes some people cry.

The Wall Street Journal says Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 is “compelling competition to Apple’s dominant iPad in one crucial area: price.”

At the time of this writing, the Wi-Fi-only A500 was priced at $449.

Full article is here.

The Iconia Tab A500 at a glance:

• Weight: 1.7 lbs.
• Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• 1.0GHz processing speed
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 16GB eMMC on-board memory
• 4G LTE connectivity
• 2MP front-facing camera
• 5MP rear camera
• HDMI
• Supports microSD up to 32GB
• High-speed USB 2.0 port

EARLIER: A honey-sweet alternative to the Xoom? ~ J’s Pages, April 9

The Walls Street Journal reports Amazon customers who bought Lady Gaga’s Born This Way for 99 cents were met with serious delays. A company spokesman told the WSJ that customers who ordered Born This Way on Monday would get the full album for the promotional price.

Good for them. Had these consumers been as stubborn stupid as I was, they could have wasted three and a half hours of their lives restarting the download.

EARLIER: Web 2.0 goes full force as Amazon offers Lady Gaga’s Born This Way album for 99 cents.

Attention Little Monsters: For one day only eCommerce giant Amazon is offering Lady Gaga’s new album Born this Way for 99 cents. The wheels of Web 2.0 were in full force for this promotion: I heard about it first on my iPhone, and then on Facebook and finally, Tumblr.

Get it while you can click it.

Hat tip to Erin K. at Ultra K for the heads-up.

RELATED: The Weird Al Yankovic parody, Perform This Way.