Yahoo finally has a chief again

week in review Yahoo unveiled its new chief executive this week, naming PayPal President Scott Thompson to become its new leader and a board member starting on Monday.

Thompson said in a statement that he wants to "deliver Yahoo's next era of success" by dealing with both Yahoo advertisers and users. Thompson will also have the job of rebuilding Yahoo--potentially with some of its parts sold off.

Thompson previously served as senior vice president and chief technology officer at PayPal, eBay's online payment service. Before that, he was the executive vice president who ran technology development at Visa's Inovant subsidiary.

The Internet pioneer has been searching for a new CEO and future direction since Yahoo's board fired Carol Bartz last September. Bartz called the board "doofuses" afterward but also took home about $10 million in severance pay.
•  New CEO: Yahoo will reclaim its tech leadership
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•  Five big challenges for incoming Yahoo chief

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Awwwk-ward: Google Chrome pay-for-post promo misfires

An effort to get bloggers to plug Google's browser yields second-rate content and apparently at least one violation of Google's search-engine guidelines.
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Eight things I'm looking forward to seeing at CES

The annual Las Vegas tech extravaganza is nearly upon us. These products and services could help make it a winner.
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Google's acquisition of IBM patents may aid its Oracle case

The Web giant adds more than 200 patents and patents pending from IBM, some of which could be used to defend against Android infringement claims by Oracle.

Kindle Fire burned up some holiday iPad sales

Apple's tablet is seeing some feisty competition from Amazon.com's Kindle counterpart, an investment bank says.
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Worm steals more than 45,000 Facebook logins

Malware makes off with the usernames and passwords of more than 45,000 users of the social network, mostly in France and the United Kingdom.
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HBO forces Netflix to go elsewhere for its DVDs

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apparently touched a nerve over at Time Warner, parent company of HBO, as the premium cable service has stopped providing its shows on DVD to Netflix.
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Apple's iPad tallies up 3 billion app downloads

By contrast, app downloads for Android tablets are still just a fraction of iPad totals, according to ABI Research.
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Microsoft to pair DVR with next Xbox?

Software giant is granted a patent for "integrated gaming and media experience," in which content could be recorded on a gaming console.
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Nook spinoff could be next chapter for Barnes & Noble

The bookseller may have no choice but to spin off its Nook unit as its brick-and-mortar retail unit overshadows its digital content business.
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How Twitter made a hash of verifying Mrs. Murdoch

It was a comedy. It was a tragedy. There was carelessness. There was an unnoticed underscore. But now the real Wendi Deng Murdoch has frozen her real Twitter feed. And the fake is leaving too.
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Also of note
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•  Vint Cerf: Internet access isn't a human right