On Weds. the world got another major Apple announcement, capped by a new social network, Ping. It focuses on music, for now, but I see more there over time. To the links:

Ping: “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes” Except… (Searchblog) In which I opine on what I think may be a misstep in Apple’s new social network.

Everything Apple Announced Today In One Handy List (TNW) Thankfully.

Jobs: Hey Google, We’re Activating 230,000 NEW iOS Devices A Day (TC) Reminds me of the indexing wars back in the early days of Search. Mine is bigger! NO, MINE is bigger!

EBay To Ban Google’s Checkout Service From Its Sites (IBD) Point, meet Control.

Buick, Buitoni, and Others Embrace Social Media Branding on Food Sites (ClickZ) Watch this space, it’s about to get very interesting! After all, we do love to gather socially around food, don’t we?

blekko Explains Itself: Exclusive Video (Update: Exclusive Invite) (Searchblog) blekko is an interesting play, here’s an explainer and a chance to get a private beta invite.

Mind the Grid (NYT) Put another way, get off it from time to time.

Google’s Earth (William Gibson in NYT) I’ll read anything he writes. “Google is made of us, a sort of coral reef of human minds and their products.”

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The FM program of the day is taking a day or so off.

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