Weekly Links #2

Here is the weekly list with a selection of significant news, insightful information bits and interesting analyses from the Internet and Technology sector as wells as related industries.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve I most likely won’t publish this list. The next edition will be published in January 2015.

• How Medium is using the mullet strategy to attract new users
  
  Intriguing analysis about how Medium solved the user acquisition problem.
• What if journalists had story writing tools as powerful as those used by coders
  
  Eventually that will happen.
• The Pirate Bay down, forever?
  
  Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, is not sad that the site has been closed down by the authorities.
• Kindle Unlimited Crushed My Sales
  
  Just an anecdote but nevertheless interesting: A writer detailing how the Kindle Unlimited e-book flatrate made her lose 75 percent of her income.
• Ridecoin combines Uber and bitcoin in the ultimate troll against government oversight
  
  Distributed blockchain based ridesharing!
• Newsreps wants to turn smartphone users into News reporters in less than a minute
  
  User Generated News as a service for media companies. Worth a try.
• Product Development in Shenzhen: Should You Move to Hong Kong?
  
  The Chinese city of Shenzhen is the place to be for hardware makers. That puts Hong Kong, which is connected to Shenzhen by subway, into a strategically important position.
• How to Understand the Google-Apple Smartphone War
  
  Walt Mossberg about the different games that Google and Apple play in the smartphone market.
• Books of the Year: Page turners
  
  The Economist’s list of this year’s best books.
• Rise of the Machines: Downfall of the Economy?
  
  Outstanding piece explaining the far-reaching changes to the economy caused by the rise of the Internet and IT. We have just seen the start of it.
• Hands-On With Facebook Post Search: Strong Recommendations, Yelp Should Worry
  
  Facebook is finally making progress in the field of social search.
• My Computer Language is Better than Yours
  
  The fact that IT giants like Google and Apple develop their own programming languages might be a reason for concern.
• The scale-up nation
  
  Israel is known for its successful and buzzing startup scene, but not for its big successful companies. Because there are few.
• EU tax change is about to hammer small digital service providers
  
  This is the problem with the E.U.: Bringing together dozens of countries that all keep their own pecularities (like different VAT rates) creates a bureaucratic monster.