As promised, here's the rumor tracker. This covers all rumors from all RCW's so far. I'll try to dig up some more info, and then make?a decision to either remove the rumor, as it's either come to pass or it's not going to, or I'll leave it on the list and revisit it the next time. For this one, I'll list out the rumors by issue. In the future, I'll only highlight the new rumors, and then just maintain one list from all the rest.

RCW #001?(05/22/05):

• Microsoft to buy Red Hat? I didn't see any validity to this when I wrote it, but it was out there. Given that Microsoft employees are not allowed to use any software released under the GPL, why would they buy a company who's sole existence is because of the GPL? I'm taking this one off.
• Bloglines to be a search engine by the middle of the summer. This came from the CEO of Bloglines, so there's definitely some validity to this rumor. Their site already has a blog search, but it's probably not exactly what they want. Their citations feature is pretty good, but lacks RSS feeds, which I would assume would be key to blog search - at least in my mind. And that's a little different than a true blog search engine. I'll leave this up until I'm either convinced their current search is what he was talking about, or an announcement is out about a new "true" search.

RCW #002?(05/30/05):

• Apple considering Intel Chips: This one came to pass. Apple will be switching over to Intel chips starting next summer. There have already been reports of OS X running on Intel machines now. It does sound like Apple will require some sort of proprietary hardware to run. Isn't this the reason that Apple remains a bit player in the computer world?

RCW #005 (06/19/05):

• Google to launch a PayPal competitor: See the RCW #017 section below for an update. Look for Google Wallet.

?RCW #007 (07/04/05):

• Yahoo is working on new version of their mail client: This is apparently going to happen. They are actively looking for users to sign up to be part of the beta. I'll remove this one, as it's no longer a rumor.

RCW #008 (07/11/05):

• Apple may release a Media Center device at the end of the summer: This rumor has been around for a while, and it's reportedly going to be called the iHome. There's actually pictures available, so I think there's some weight behind this one. Release date is supposedly slated for late summer/early fall, so we'll get some closure on this in the next few months hopefully. For now, it's still just a rumor, albeit a solid one.

RCW #010 (07/25/05):

• IceRocket to launch BlogScour: BlogScour redirects to blogs.icerocket.com, and it has for a while. If this is all that IceRocket was talking about, it's a little disappointing. I'm removing this, because I think it is.
• Apple launch iPod Video: No more news on this one, other than people saying this doesn't make sense. Given the recent proliferation of media devices lately, I don't see how it doesn't make sense. Let's add a rumor that goes with one above. I don't think you'll see an iPod Video until you see the Apple Media Center. Once you see that, an iPod Video makes much more sense. I'll combine it with the Apple Media Center rumor.

RCW #011 (08/01/05):

• Yahoo building a blog search engine: Given that both Microsoft and Google have entered the blog search space, Yahoo can't be far behind. At least I wouldn't think they could be. Given recent industry consolidation, will Yahoo take the buy or build philosophy? Technorati, maybe? They're having some growing pains and Yahoo could definitely help there. I'll keep this one up, because it just doesn't make sense for Yahoo not to be doing a blog search.

RCW #013 (08/15/05):

• Google bought Meetro: False. Given that Google recently released Google Talk, I think Google's out of the IM client market.
• Technorati close to being sold: No one knew who, but it was supposed to be a big search company. Yahoo, anyone? It makes sense. Of the big players, only Yahoo has yet to come out with a dedicated blogging search tool. I'll keep this one up because I personally think this is credible. There hasn't been much about it recently, but that doesn't mean anything. News Corp, who is buying internet companies like crazy lately, is another possibility.

RCW #014 (08/22/05):

• Google to offer iTunes clone: No new news that I can find. It's only been a few weeks, so I don't expect much. Google's been busy, so this may have slipped. The only thing that bothers me about this is that it doesn't fit with Google's typical model of making money on advertising. Will they offer songs for $0.99, and add in advertisements to make money? Would you use an ad infiltrated iTunes clonse from Google, or would you just use iTunes? Could it be a net-based solution so you don't have to install iTunes? I'll leave it in for now - there was lots of buzz around this one!
• GoogleNet: With the hiring of Vint Cerf and his recent comments on C|Net, this is getting more and more credible - as far fetched as that sounds. Listen to the September 4th edition of the Gillmor Gang?for a nice discussion of why a nation-wide wireless network would be both nice and impractical (especially if implemented by the government). Now, look at the arguments against the network, and instead of a government implementing it, imagine Google doing it. The argument that it undercuts existing Telco's goes away - it's just competition now. I'm still not sold on this one happening, but it's still possible. If you read about how the?Google?network currently works,?it sounds like they? have?many low powered machines across the country, so they're already a distributed?network. Adding in Wifi would only help them, wouldn't it? And with the addition of Google Talk, blanket Wifi helps that too.
• Yahoo will offer dedicated VoIP: I've seen no confirmation or denouncement of this one. I would find it hard to believe that after Google Talk's launch?that Yahoo would actively try to seperate their IM offering from their VoIP offering. My guess is that they're going to put their effort into improving their (pretty poor) VoIP quality.

RCW #017 (09/11/05):

• eBay to buy Skype: If you've been alive in the past week, you'll know the answer to this one. It's valid and it happened - eBay paid $1,300,000,000 in cash, $1,300,000,000 in stock, and the possibility of another $1,500,000,000 if certain performance numbers are hit.
• China to block Skype: I called the Chinese government and they told me it's true. They're blocking Skype. Just kidding.
• Vista to play XBox 360 games: I didn't believe this one when I found it, and with the week this week at PDC, and no announcements about this, I'm removing it. It would be a huge feature for Microsoft to advertise, and since they aren't, I doubt it's true.
• MCE 2005 to support podcasting: No updates on this, but here's my gut. This won't be a feature until the Vista version. Maybe what someone is seeing is actually a bug - that someone is testing an early version of Vista MCE and the user agent wasn't updated. Just a theory though. On the other hand, there's a post on Channel 9?that does talk about using extra bandwidth to download podcasts using BITS. BITS is the same technology?used to download windows updates. I'll leave this one up here until we get a better look at the Vista versions and what may be included in each. UPDATE: Here's a screen shot of Vista MCE. Could an updated version of Media Player that has podcasting support integrate with Vista MCE and provide playlists? Absolutely. Could this be pushed back to MCE 2005? Probably, but why? The latest rollup update doesn't have anything about podcasting support, by the way.
• Google Wallet heating up? Given the recent job listing, I think it has some cred. Not much more news about it, but I'll track it.
• Google to buy The Yell Group: This was just added - no new news on this one. I'll keep tracking it, but it definitely makes sense from a business stand point for Google.

So that's all of the rumors I've covered since the beginning of RCW. This won't be an every week thing - these types of things don't develop quickly enough - but I will put it out every now and then.

If you have any updates on any of the rumors that you think I'd be interested in, send them along to weekly at rosscode dot com.