Both Bloomberg News and ABC News are hearing that President Obama is considering William Daley, a former commerce secretary under Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2000 — not to be confused with his brother Richard M. Daley, the current mayor of Chicago whom Rahm Emanuel is hoping to replace, or especially his father, Richard J. Daley, the former mayor of Chicago, since he is dead — to be his new chief of staff. It's a position that's been held on an interim basis by Pete Rouse since the departure of Emanuel in October. Rouse has said he prefers to stay in the role only until Obama can find a permanent replacement. Bringing on Daley would represent yet another olive branch to the hard-to-please business and financial communities, as he currently serves as an executive at JPMorgan Chase. The pick would also ensure Obama that the White House maintains a comfortable level of Chicagoness.

Obama Said to Consider William Daley for Top White House Post [Bloomberg]
President Obama Considering Bill Daley as White House Chief of Staff [Political Punch/ABC News]

If you spent the weekend recovering from a hangover (like some of us), you probably missed the latest rash of articles declaring that the end of Google is nigh. On Saturday, tech entrepreneur and academic Vivek Wadhwa ranted on TechCrunch that Google's spammy search results and a propensity to promote its own useless products have rendered it woefully inadequate as a search engine. On Sunday, Business Insider wondered if Google was the next Yahoo — you know, once dominant and seemingly indestructible and now on a collision course with its own obsolescence. But in the first of a series of interviews with Mediabistro's WebNewswer, Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of consumer products, confirmed some rumors that might help convince young companies it's safe to step into Google's hulking embrace. Now that Google's an aging, overly diversified company that outsources innovation to more nimble start-ups, the corporation took a big blow when Groupon shrugged off its $6 billion buyout offer. But Mayer assured WebNewser that being associated with Google doesn't have to hurt a start-up's cachet with consumers.

“I think that we have both a good structure for companies that get integrated into Google… and we also have a new construct called an autonomous unit where we basically will buy a company and leave it very independent.”

Hmmm, sounds an awful lot like Please come back! We swear it's not contagious!

Marissa Mayer on Google’s Failed Groupon Bid [WebNewser/Mediabistro]
Related: Google Doesn’t Sound Very Sorry It Pushed Down Competitors’ Search Results
Is Google’s Paying $6 Billion for Groupon Another Sign That the Tech Bubble Commeth?

There's been a lot of good stuff to come out of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables, but this one, for our money, is the best so far in terms of sheer entertainment value: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly got slapped by the Revolutionary Guard chief of staff in a meeting last January about opposition protests:

By the looks of our Facebook feed, most people spent their New Year's Eve digging into their Four Loko holiday stockpile, which meant a particularly brutal hangover weekend. Intel Nitasha spent her Saturday trying to replace depleted serotonin levels with Sentimental Romantic Independent Movies With a Strong Female Lead on Netflix. Like three of them. Consecutively. With a short break for tamales. Intel Chris had a Bloody Mary and watched the debut of the Oprah Winfrey Network "like, for hours." Intel Dan watched DVR'd episodes of "the ethical dilemma series" What Would You Do? either to feel morally superior or for a shared sense of misanthropy. And our friends at Vulture ate brunch, built a blanket fort, watched the entire fourth season of Skins, texted everyone they knew to drink leftover beers, passed out to Iron Man 2, and then got drunk again, although not collectively. Did you manage something more productive? Come on, people, let's get this shame spiral rolling.

Publishers who want to sell their magazine and newspaper apps to smartphone and tablet owners haven't been that thrilled with Apple's prudish ways. The iTunes store, which typically takes a 30 percent cut on sales, doesn't make it as easy for publishers to sell subscriptions, use their own payment systems, or get data about the buyers who download their app. In order to promote its own digital newsstand, however, Google might be willing to do what Apple isn't, possibly at a reduced price. Distribution slut! Although the e-newsstand hasn't been confirmed, sources told the Journal that Google has been promising execs from Time Inc., Condé Nast, and Hearst Corp. that it would be willing to take less than a 30 percent cut, give out personal data, and help publishers collect payments all for mobile devices that use its Android system. To stay competitive, Apple is rumored to have some changes in the works, including making it easier to sell subscriptions with discounts for long-term commitments and sharing data, if a user gives permission — both terms that have held media companies back from investing too heavily in apps. Right now, for example, iPad-only subscriptions (as opposed to one price that would get you print, smartphone, and tablet copies) can be sold only through iTunes, and Apple plans to keep it that way.