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Google's taking on Wikipedia, with expert-written pages called knols. They're still in private beta, but are going to look like this. Gigaom says this shows Google's monopolist claws, TechCrunch says it may be a step too far.

Meanwhile fourth-place browser company Opera is trying to de-claw Microsoft, with an antitrust claim attacking Microsoft's bundling of IE with its OS. But if this makes the browser business impossible, why has Firefox grown explosively - especially in Europe?

Amazon - yes, Amazon - is getting into the database business. Their online database lets companies do away with major capital expenses, just like their online storage and computing power solutions.

Amazon's new database will do just fine if it sells as well as its sold-out Kindle.

Or the sold-out Wii - which is in such hot demand that Nintendo is able to peddle IOU's instead of the actual consoles for full price.

The pulled-down filmlets made of last week's Led Zeppelin reunion gig are back on YouTube. Turns out they were taken down by mistake.

Also up on the Web - Jackass 3. This latest thwack at the dead horse is premiering online rather than in theaters.

And finally, my last holiday gift idea from ThinkGeek - the LED Faucet Light. To get your discount, follow the link above and enter the promo code WEBBALERT at checkout to get $10 off any order over $50 and $5 off an order between $25 and $50. The code is valid until December 31st!