If spinning is an intense political skill, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is doing her very best at trying to create a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

As Om Malik reports on GigaOm, Whitman–who is trying to nab the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California–told a radio interviewer recently that “actually I think Skype will prove to be a good acquisition for eBay.”

Well, good if you mean the $2.6 billion purchase of the Interent telephony that didn’t ever work as Whitman had effusively promised in 2005. Or the ugly lawsuits over it. Or the successful shakedown by its co-founders to get a big chunk back.

You get the idea.

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Ben Ling–the high-profile Facebook platform exec who came from Google less than a year ago and then up and left the social-networking site earlier this week–is heading back to Google, this time taking a job leading monetization efforts at YouTube, according to sources.

On Tuesday, it was reported here that Ling was leaving his job at Facebook, where he has been director of platform product marketing.

It is a move that will surely spur many to rev up the Facebook-versus-Google stories, given that several Google execs have been recruited by Facebook over the last year.

Apparently, the Empire does strike back.

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We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

Here’s Part 4 of 4 of an interview Walt Mossberg did with Amazon.com’s President, CEO, Chairman and, oh yes, Founder, Jeff Bezos.

The e-commerce giant seems to be firing on all cylinders of late, along with making some innovative moves, such as the recent introduction of its e-book reader, the Kindle.

In this video, Bezos takes questions from the audience about digital rights management and other issues related to the Kindle, and about streaming videos.

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We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

Here’s Part 3 of 4 of an interview Walt Mossberg did with Amazon.com’s President, CEO, Chairman and, oh yes, Founder, Jeff Bezos.

The e-commerce giant seems of be firing on all cylinders of late, along with making some innovative moves, such as the recent introduction of its e-book reader, the Kindle.

In this video, Bezos talks about the consumer digital download business, including competition with Apple’s iTunes, Amazon.com’s Web services business and the impact of the economic slowdown on the online retailer.

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We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

Here’s Part 2 of 4 of an interview Walt Mossberg did with Amazon President, CEO, Chairman and, oh yes, Founder, of Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos.

The e-commerce giant seems of be firing on all cylinders of late, along with making some innovative moves, such as the recent introduction of its e-book reader, the Kindle.

In this video, Bezos talks more about the Kindle and its features, including what it takes to make a great digital book reading experience, as well the the future of the music and video download business.

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We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

Here’s Part 1 of 4 of an interview Walt Mossberg did with Amazon President, CEO, Chairman and, oh yes, Founder, of Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos.

The e-commerce giant seems of be firing on all cylinders of late, along with making some innovative moves, such as the recent introduction of the e-book reader, the Kindle.

In this video, Bezos talks about why he has moved the company beyond the online retail business and the development of the Kindle and e-books.

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Recently, Julie Wainwright came to visit AllThingsD HQ (also known as BoomTown’s abode) to talk about her newest venture. SmartNow.com, focused on women, 35 to 55.

Wainwright, as most people know, was the former CEO of Web 1.0’s most memorable flameout–Pets.com.

Nonetheless, the longtime Web exec has just launched SmartNow.com.

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