• Yahoo gets an NYT section cover story for, um, improving its ad program. Thrilling. [NYT]

"But enough about Web 2.0..."

• Lloyd Braun comes out swinging today with what the NY Times calls "the most extensive of his initiatives to get final approval:" Yahoo Tech. The top-story panel is sometimes overlaid with an interstitial ad. Should've stuck with puppet-anchored news, Lloyd. [Yahoo Tech and NYT]

It's a busy day in People with Two Monitors News.

Jim Ward was in a bind. The LucasArts president needed a gripping image to arrest the imaginations of the video game company's creative geniuses — a way to communicate his vision for the company.

The New York Times tries to get in on the viral action at video site YouTube. At the end of an article on recursive videos:

"...is like a Britney Spears hit without a dance remix."

The New York Times today touts Zunafish, the revolutionary sharing site that lets users swap books, CDs, and other media. It's like Mediachest or Delicious Monster or Peerflix or GameTZ or Lala — but with fewer options.

¬ Google's free San Fran wi-fi will track your location. Oh, don't worry, they have some clause about evil, right? [NYT]
¬ Silicon Valley, meanwhile, plans its own wi-fi coverage. It'll be like San Fran's, only with fewer homeless trustafarians using it. [GovTech]
¬ Soon you'll have wi-fi on the BART. Caveat: After a few days on those seats, your laptop will smell like urine. [MuniWireless]
¬ Boy in the Bubble: The sad story of David Winer. (Oh. David Vetter? Damn.) [Wired News]
¬ Magazine calls Osama bin Laden a "Venture Capitalist." Next week: in a new bin Laden tape, the terrorist decries the "vicious, unfounded insult." [Freezerbox]
¬ The New York Times' new reason to be dull: search engine optimization. Tomorrow's top headline: "Poker Viagra Antidisestablishmentarianism (and the Pope died)" [NYT]

Tech-heavy mutual fund manager Ryan Jacob (congratulated in the New York Times for doing better in the bubble, worse in the bust, and better again in the boom — so his claim to fame is that, well, his fund is tech-heavy) let the photog shoot him hard at work.

In the wonderfully titled piece "Digital Divide Closing as Blacks Turn to Internet," Michel Marriott says the Internet's not just for white people and Asians any more.

One word, young Ben Braddock: Ethanol.

Silicon Alley's feature coverage in this week's NYT Styles section (because it's too fun for the tech section) shows that the Alley is just like the Valley again — with all the requisite bubble signs:

Silicon Alley is back, decided the New York Times, and it's edgy. To prove it, the Times opens with the story of a dot-com poetry slam where one schlub fails to impress:

Yahoo may buy Odeo. Seems destined, no? [TWiT via Unofficial Yahoo Weblog]
Google may buy Friendster. Main difference between Friendster and Orkut? At least Orkut has Brazilians. [SiliconBeat]
The NYT already bought news aggregator/annotator BlogRunner. So now writing the Times will cost you too. [PaidContent]
Man and machine may merge. Give it 40 years. [KurzweilAI.net]
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is funding Tagworld, another pretty-faced Myspace wannabe. [TechCrunch]