Around the Web 1.8.09: In the land that CES forgot

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-- Happy new year, and welcome back to the daily bogus Yahoo rumors. Boomtown

-- Google is tightening its belt; will it pull back on all these products that don’t make money? Google Blogoscoped

-- No technology venture is immune to the economic maelstrom. One Laptop Per Child

-- Never fear, Obama’s new technology czar is almost here. Daily Beast

-- Dilbert for technology czar! The Internet will transform our economy. Scott Adams

-- Renkoo reinvents itself -- again? GigaOm

-- Blimey, Yelp expands to London. Financial Times

-- The recession can’t take the bite -- or the bark -- out of Dogster. VentureBeat

-- Microsoft gives us something to sing about in the shower. ReadWriteWeb

-- And there will still be parody videos to watch: JibJab raises $7.5 million (thank Sony and Will Smith). TechCrunch

-- A Google search guru paints us a picture of his ideal conference badge. Matt Cutts

-- So don’t let all the belt tightening get you down: Now is your moment of belt-expanding Zen. SkyMall

-- Jessica Guynn