Continuing to flesh out its board of directors, LinkedIn just announced the appointment of a seventh member, investor Stan Meresman. In a statement, LinkedIn says it opted to expand its board for the third time this year as its membership and operations continue to scale globally, and better position itself for "long-term growth. "And readying a public offering in the next 12 months, I'd wager," writes TechCrunch's Robin Waters. "Last May, LinkedIn added Netflix CMO Leslie Kilgore to its board, and a month later expanded it again with the appointment of former Ask.com CEO George 'Skip' Battle." …

Google this week debuted "Place Search," which offers a new way to experience local search results, and, according to Search Engine Land, "There appear to be some fairly major SEO implications." Officially, Google says that its algorithm has been improved and refined for Place Search. "Now, fully fleshed out Place Pages will assume much greater importance, as will being present and reviewed in the various sites featured in the 'clustered' links," notes Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling. As a result, he says, local directories like Yelp, Citysearch, Insiderpages, and Urbanspoon will benefit greatly from the change. Visually, …

Alas, poor MySpace. I knew it, Horatio. Clear that it's no longer competing directly with Facebook, the once reigning social network on Wednesday debuted a new customizable, content-focused design. DailyFinance calls it "a radical departure from the format that made it the world's largest social network." As Mashable writes, "It marks not only the release of a completely overhauled design, but the start of a fundamental shift in focus." "The strategy hinges on drawing 13-to-35-year-olds seeking an entertainment-centric social network separate from parents and …

Who says Google doesn't treat journalism like a national treasure? The search giant -- accused now and then of undermining traditional media models -- is donating $5 million to encourage innovation in digital journalism. $2 million will go directly to the Knight Foundation, while the remaining $3 million will go to fund international news-innovation efforts, via a partnership with an as-yet-unannounced organization, the Nieman Journalism Lab reports. "Google has been pretty clear about the fact that we want to do our part to help fulfill the promise of journalism in the digital age," Chris Gaither, Google's senior …

Amid a boom in mobile applications, consumers still believe that Web browsers offer a superior experience in key categories, according to a new poll conducted by Keynote Systems on behalf of Adobe. In the words of eMarketer: "Games, music and social media were the only categories in which users would rather use a downloaded app than browse the mobile web" -- a statement that made us wonder what else consumers use their phones for. Well, ecommerce for one, where users still show a strong bias toward mobile browsers for accomplishing every mobile shopping task imaginable. "Whether it …

Amid rumors that Apple is flirting with a Spotify acquisition, a source tells TechCrunch that Google came close to buying the streaming music service last year. "Google was going to pay nearly $1 billion for the service," reports TechCrunch. "Ultimately the deal went sideways because Google was demanding that all label deals be grandfathered in ... And Spotify wanted a $800 million+ walk away fee if the deal faltered." This all happened last year, around the time that Apple acquired music service Lala, according to TechCrunch's source. After the deal fell through, Google and UK-based …

Yahoo has added several features to its Mail product, including the ability to post status updates to Facebook and tweets to Twitter. "Speed and spam have also been addressed in this build," writes eWeek. Despite its well-publicized corporate woes, Yahoo still boasts about 273 million Yahoo Mail users, 95 million of whom reside in the U.S, according to eWeek. The latest enhancements are geared to increase user engagement, which would make Mail an even more attractive platform for advertisers. According to eWeek, the product is now twice as fast as the previous version. Users may also view …

If staffing is any indication, Google is more confident about the future than Microsoft. Microsoft's worldwide workforce is down 2% year-over-year, to 88,414 people, according to the software giant. "Its brake-tapping contrasts with some of its counterparts in the tech industry, including Amazon.com and Google, whose latest employment numbers show that they're hitting the accelerator again," notes Seattle's TechFlash.com. Google -- which was reportedly faster than Microsoft to slow hiring during the recession -- expanded its workforce by 18% over the past year, to 23,331 employees. Showing even more faith in the future, Amazon's workforce has ballooned …

It seems like only yesterday that Digg founder Kevin Rose was smiling on the cover of Businessweek under the headline: "How This Kid Made $60 Million In 18 Months." Yet, after six years and $40 million in funding, the social news site is officially going back to the drawing board.       On the heels of smaller staff reductions, the company this week announced plans to layoff another 25 people -- or nearly 40% of its remaining workforce. The cuts come just as Digg's publisher and Chief Revenue Officer Chas Edwards is jumping ship for photo tagging …

Mike Murphy, Facebook's longtime VP of Global Sales, is on his way out, reports Boomtown. Murphy reportedly decided to step down to take some personal time off, which Murphy reiterated was the case in an interview with BoomTown. "For the last five years of hyper-growth here, I have been focused on Facebook," Murphy tells Boomtown. Meanwhile, both Murphy "and his boss David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations, have discounted any notion of tension between them, since Fischer came on board at Facebook in March." Murphy said there are no plans to replace him just yet, …