Content and publishing

It's been nibbling around the edges, but Flickr plans to improve a central part of the photo-sharing site today by showing photos larger -- potentially a lot larger.

Using what it calls a "liquid layout" that adapts to the size of the browser window, the Yahoo site will show high-resolution images as large as possible on its main photo pages. The traditional accompanying information will show alongside -- maps, thumbnails of other photos in the photostream, camera information, and the like.

Here's a before-and-after comparison for a person using a larger monitor.

Flickr launched with photos … Read more

Facebook has more 900 million users as it prepares to launch a new IPO this week. But a fair number of people aren't too excited about the popular social network.

Half of the 1,000 people polled by the Associated Press and CNBC called Facebook a passing fad. A majority of those surveyed (51 percent) have a favorable impression of the company, while 23 percent have an unfavorable opinion.

But in light of the upcoming IPO, the survey focused more on Facebook's value as an investment.

Half of those polled believe the initial asking price is too high, … Read more

Yahoo's global media leader, Ross Levinsohn, took over today as Yahoo's interim chief executive, replacing Scott Thompson in a shake-up that also will put activist investor Daniel Loeb on the Internet pioneer's board.

Yahoo announced the change along with another big one: Fred Amoroso is now chairman of the board, replacing Roy Bostock. Bostock, along with Patti Hart, VJ Joshi, Arthur Kern, and Gary Wilson, resigned from the board.

Thompson left after Loeb's hedge fund, Third Point, discovered that Thompson's resume falsely claimed he had a computer science degree. Third Point, which owns 5.8 … Read more

Nokia Lumia owners in Europe will soon be able to pick up and read some of their favorite books through their smartphones.

Like other online bookstores, Nokia Reading is part app and part service. Lumia users will be able to find, browse, buy, and download books written their own native languages along with a host of English-language titles. And thousands of familiar classics will be available for free, according to Nokia.

Owners of the Lumia 900, 800, 710, and 610 are eligible to use the new book service. The initial rollout is slated for users in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, … Read more

Do you feel your Facebook posts sometimes get lost in the crowd? The social network is testing a new feature that could help them stand out more.

A Facebook user in New Zealand apparently stumbled upon the feature, according to news site Stuff.co.nz. After logging into his Facebook account, the user reportedly received a message asking if he wanted to pay 1.80 in New Zealand dollars ($1.42) to highlight an important post to make sure his friends would see it.

The message gave him a choice of paying via credit card or PayPal. The user initially … Read more

You can now build and view a Silk Web site that combines lots of information into one single spot, sparing you and others from searching different places for all that data.

Moving from private to public beta today, Silk is an online application that tries to tap into the "semantic" Web by collecting and displaying information from the Internet, from your own documents, and from other sources. As the folks at Silk describe it, the idea is to let people select "the data they want from the mass of information available, and to view and arrange it … Read more

Google seems to be eking out a major new tweak to its search results.

Reportedly spotted by several users, the search pages are now displaying semantic data nestled to the right of the regular results. Such information tries to tie in relevant facts related to the subject of your search rather than just providing links to external Web sites.

For example, run a search for "Howard Carter," the archaeologist who discovered the tomb of King Tut and is the focus of today's Google Doodle. In return, you'll see an entry on the right displaying key facts and a photo … Read more

Apple took home a 5-point jump in customer satisfaction, according to the E-Retail Satisfaction Index published today by customer analytics site ForeSee.

The iPhone maker's retail Web site scored 85 out of 100 in this year's index, compared with 80 last year. Only one other retailer, RueLaLa.com, managed a 5-point gain though that site grabbed an overall grade of only 75.

Despite Apple's ascent, it could only rise to second place, having achieved the same grade as QVC. On top as usual was Amazon.com, which captured a score of 89, up from 86 last year.… Read more

Do Google and other search engines have a constitutional right to control their own search results?

The answer is yes, at least in the opinion of UCLA law professor and First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh.

In a report commissioned by the search giant (PDF), Volokh asserts that search results are a type of "opinion" based on what information the search engines believe would be most relevant to their users, according to news site PaidContent. Therefore, the results are protected by the First Amendment.

"Google, Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo Search and other search engine companies are rightly seen … Read more