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To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn "Facebook"
Feb 20, 6:58AM
Cultural relativity is an amazing thing. While American parents worry about their kids being on Facebook, Egyptian parents are naming their kids "Facebook" to commemorate the events surrounding the #Jan25 revolution. According to Al-Ahram (one of the most popular newspapers in Egypt) a man in his twenties has named his first born daughter "Facebook" in tribute to the role the social media service played in organizing the protests in Tahrir Square and beyond. Helmed by now-famous Googler Wael Ghonim, the "We Are Khaled Said" Facebook page showed up within 5 days of Said's death in June and served as a hub for dissidence against Egyptian police brutality as well as a way to disseminate logistical information about the escalating anti-government protests until Mubarak's resignation. Other activist pages like one actually called "Tahrir Square" cropped up shortly afterward.
Paul Miller And The Five Rules Of Stunt Resignation
Feb 20, 1:18AM
On Friday afternoon, Paul J. Miller caused what passes for a kerfuffle inside the technology journalism meta-bubble. Miller, as you know, is "Senior Associate Editor" at our estranged sister site Engadget - or at least he was until yesterday when he posted a resignation note on his blog. The reason for his leaving? The Aol Way. You've already read the document: Tim Armstong and David Eun's 58-page death warrant for journalists and the practice of journalism at Aol. Hyperbole? Hardly. Here are a few choice quotes...
This Is Business, Not Personal.
Feb 19, 10:39PM
In Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film The Godfather, there's a scene between Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sonny Corleone (James Caan) that plays out like this: Tom: Your father wouldn't want to hear this, Sonny. This is business not personal. Sonny: They shoot my father and it's business, my ass! Tom: Even shooting your father was business not personal, Sonny!Events the past few days in the tech ecosystem have reminded me of this scene. As we've all heard by now, yesterday, Twitter made what seemed to be a quick and drastic decision to block a number of popular Twitter third-party clients, namely, UberTwitter and Twidroyd. Both of those, of course, are owned and operated by UberMedia, a company which is quickly buying up a significant part of the Twitter ecosystem — presumably to figure out a way to monetize it.
(Founder Stories) Fred Wilson, The Full Interview
Feb 19, 9:30PM
What was the best business decision VC Fred Wilson ever made? What was the worst? What part of his job does he dislike the most? The answers might surprise you. In the video above, Wilson answers some rapid fire questions (delivered in a not-so-rapid fashion) from Founder Stories host Chris Dixon. The clip is an outtake from the interviews segments we ran a week ago, in which Wilson talks about frothy valuations, his investment philosophy, the relationship between VCs and startups, and the VC business in general. We cut up the interview into four separate clips, which you can find in the links above, but they were so popular I am putting the entire unedited 17-minute interview below, for those of you who missed it the first time around or want to watch it all the way through.
Steve Jobs Doesn't Want to Kill Publishers, But Apple's Subscription Strategy Will
Feb 19, 7:30PM
Publishers have been struggling for years. Now local newspapers, magazines and even the New York Times, that Grey Lady, are being treated like old ladies by Apple, stealing their pocketbooks while they're trying to stay on a fixed income. This week, Apple announced what the publishing industry has been clamoring for, subscriptions, in exchange for a whopping 30% cut. Clearly, paid subscriptions are a part of the future of all online media, whether tied to a print version or not. That's what The Daily is all about and even AOL might one day go down that path (Tim Armstrong admitted as much on CNN). It's part of the shift to the Subscription Economy that's happening across not just media, but software, cloud computing, communications, consumer services, entertainment, you name it. This guest post is by Tien Tzuo, founder of Zuora, a subscription billing company. Previously, he was chief strategy officer and employee No. 11 at Salesforce.com.
Gillmor Gang 2.19.11 (TCTV)
Feb 19, 6:00PM
The Gillmor Gang conflated two major stories this week into one: Apple's terms of service for app store approval, and Twitter's actions regarding UberMedia. The noise regarding Apple being hauled in front of the DOJ illustrates just how powerful Apple's strategy continues to be. As many point out, Android's market share makes it virtually impossible to tar iOS with monopoly status. It's almost as though Erick and Steve planned it that way, right down to Google following up with its 90% scenario as if to validate Apple's 70% model. Stephen Elop also made that point with his decision to let Microsoft acquire Nokia, reminiscent of Yahoo's failure to notice the ballgame was over when Ballmer pulled the trigger on them a few years ago. Then it was a seat at the search table; today it's a seat at the mobile one.
For Mobile Apps, It's 1996 All Over Again
Feb 19, 5:00PM
1996 was a great year in the life of the web. Netscape had launched two years earlier, Excite@home was going to wire all of our homes with unthinkably fast megabit connections, Webvan was going to deliver farm fresh fruits and veggies to everyone's house (without delivery charges) and Flooz was going to make wallets (as well as the cash they contained) obsolete. In terms of ground breaking innovative thinking, 1996 was a very good year. For me, I was in primary school when all of this was happening, and I hoped that one day I could be part of something like this. I've always dreamed of changing the world with innovative technology and from my perspective 1996 was the time when an explosion of some of the most innovative thinking the world had ever seen became visible to the public in such a life-altering way. When most people talk about the dot-com boom and bust they talk about the money that was made and lost in the process. What they don't talk about so much is the innovation that created completely new and world changing technologies. From my perspective the money is interesting but the real conversation needs to be about the rate at which a new technology is adopted, the speed with which new companies are gaining market share and the disruptions that are happening as new technologies and companies supplant the prior generation's most popular products. This guest post is by Ben Keighran, CEO & Co-Founder of Chomp, a search engine for mobile apps.
What I Want in My New Google
Feb 19, 3:00PM
I sent my first e-mail message in 1995, to a member of my development team. That was the only person I knew who had an e-mail address in those days. I also did my first web search around that time. I think I used Lycos for this. I entered some keywords into a text box, separated by Boolean operators, and received a list of web pages that I could click on that referenced these words. Sixteen years has passed. I receive about 400 e-mails a day now from people all over the world. E-mail has become part of my life and has changed the way I communicate and the way I work. I don't know anyone anywhere who doesn't have an e-mail address. When I went to Sikkim, India, last year, a Buddhist monk in a remote Himalayan monastery even gave me his e-mail address. The web has also evolved in a similar fashion—it seems to be everywhere and connects everyone, for everything. Internet technologies are now toppling dictatorships in the Middle East.
Facebook Valued At $67.5 Billion In SecondMarket's 10th Auction
Feb 19, 2:39AM
Last time we checked in with SecondMarket in late January, Facebook shares had declined from the auction's high point at $28.26 a share (a $70 billion + valuation) to $26.25 a share which means a $65.5 billion valuation going by its 2.5 billion shares outstanding. While at the time we had speculated about a peak and signs of a decline, shares are up 2.85% this week, at $27.00 a share and a $67.5 billion valuation. 
Socialcam: A Look At Justin.tv's Upcoming 'Instagram for Video'
Feb 19, 12:56AM
Between the likes of picplz and Instagram, image-sharing sites are making plenty of headlines these days. And there's one obvious offshoot that seems ripe for similar services: video. Granted, Path offers support for video, but it's semi-private and there could still be an opportunity for a more public service to tap into this trend.That's where Justin.tv's upcoming app Socialcam comes in. The app, which remains in a very limited beta, is looking to to offer a straightforward way for people to capture and share their videos with friends — and yes, it's doing that in a way that is very similar to Instagram and picplz, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I sat down with Justin.tv founder Justin Kan and VP of marketing Matthew DiPietro to get a tour of the app, and have also gotten the chance to play around with the Android version myself. Kan says that it's frustratingly difficult to share video taken on your phone with friends: email attachments are a pain because of size issues, and MMS leads to heavily degraded video quality. YouTube makes it easy to upload directly from your phone, but the focus there doesn't seem to be on sharing your clips with a network of friends.
TechCrunch Giveaway: Tickets to Sarah Lacy's SF Book Launch Party, PLUS A Free Signed Copy Of Her New Book
Feb 19, 12:20AM
Want to come celebrate Sarah Lacy's new book with us in San Francisco? Here's your chance. We are giving away 10 free tickets to her launch party, all of which include a free signed copy of her critically acclaimed new book, Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How The Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit From Global Chaos. As Paul Carr noted, Sarah's new book has been called "a fascinating new gem of a book" by USA Today, and "an outstanding piece of journalism" by Fortune. 
Voyurl Is Climbing In Your Browser Window, Snatching Your Surfing History Up
Feb 18, 11:59PM
It was back in July of last year that we first wrote about a service called Voyurl with the headline: It's Hard To Tell If Voyurl Or Their Ads Are Creepier. You see, at the time, the still-in-stealth startup was targeting angel investors via Google ads get their attention to hopefully talk about their product. That's actually pretty smart. So we had to give the edge to the product itself being creepier. You see, its aim was to be a service that made your entire browsing history public. At the time, we said the best way to think of this was as a sort of "Blippy but with more potential porn". Of course, Blippy has since been tweaking its service to be less about public sharing of your purchases and more about the social dynamics of purchases and recommendations. But fear not, Voyurl is gladly picking up the creepy mantle!
Libya Follows Egypt's Lead, Starts Shutting Off Internet Services
Feb 18, 11:57PM
Both the BBC and the AFP are reporting that Muammar Gaddafi's government in Libya has began to block user access to Facebook in the country's capital of Tripoli and are shutting down access to Internet connections in the rest of the country in response to anti-govermental protests. Twitter user Ramy Raoof says that sources in Libya have confirmed the Facebook blocks, but that Twitter.com is not blocked and Internet access is not yet down. Al Jazeera is also reporting access to its sites being cut off as well as access to Facebook.
Fly Or Die: Apple's New Subscription Rules (With Rhapsody President Jon Irwin)
Feb 18, 10:48PM
The media world is in a tizzy over Apple's new subscription billing rules for iPad and iPhone apps. Basically, Apple will now take a 30 percent cut of all in-app subscription revenues and own all the customer data. As written, the rules apply to everything from iPad magazines and newspapers to subscription music services and even subscription movie services like Netflix. We've debated these rules up and down. In this special episode of Fly or Die, Rhapsody president Jon Irwin joins us to explain how online subscription media businesses work from his perspective. Irwin is one of the few executives brave enough to speak out against the new rules.
Have Work, Will Travel: LiquidSpace Aims To Test Their 'AirBnb For Workspaces' At SXSW
Feb 18, 10:43PM
I don't know how many times I've been visiting a city, looking for a place to work, and have just ended up in a Starbucks. I hate working in Starbucks. But I know they have WiFi, so I go there anyway. Time and time again. But what if a service existed that showed you other options for getting work done when you're on the go? That's exactly what LiquidSpace is going to be. The service, which hasn't launched yet, can most easily be thought of an Airbnb for workplaces. Their aim is to find the best spots around a city to work from and show them to you via a location-based mobile application. But these aren't Starbucks locations, instead they'll be offices, business centers, lounges, and all sorts of other places that people have set up with things like WiFi, but are under-utilized at various times. LiquidSpace will help these places maximize their potential.
Sarah Lacy's SF Book Launch Party Is ON! Tickets Available… Now
Feb 18, 9:43PM
Last week, Mike promised that, if Sarah Lacy's new book, Brilliant Crazy, Cocky, reached the number one slot in Amazon's Entrepreneurship category, we'd host a big launch party in San Francisco. At TechCrunch, we keep our promises. The party in on! Update: Tickets to the event are now completely sold out. If you'd still like to attend, you can try to win a ticket here.
Last Tweets Users See On Banned Client Twidroyd Pushed By Twitter
Feb 18, 9:30PM
This morning Twitter shut down UberMedia clients UberTwitter and Twitdroyd because of privacy violations for tweets more than 140 characters, monetization violations (concerning affiliate links) as well as trademark infringement. While Ubermedia creator Bill Gross tells us that UberMedia is doing what ever it takes to get the apps back up, currently the final (and only tweet for some users) tweets you can see on the Twitdroyd app are the following from Twitter's @support account.
The Missing Native/Web App Link: Google Says Native Client Almost Ready To Go
Feb 18, 8:34PM
We've written a number of things about the contrast between native apps and web apps. The common consensus these days is that the two will eventually converge — but that has been happening more slowly than some have been hoping, particularly in the mobile space where native apps dominate. On the more traditional side of things, the transition is happening faster, but something Google has been working on could be the real missing link: Native Client. And according to Google, it's getting close to being ready for primetime. As a quick primer, Native Client allows developers to build web apps that execute native code inside the browser. This means that on top of traditional web-based languages like JavaScript, the browser will be able to execute things written in languages like C and C++. More importantly, it will make porting desktop apps to the web much easier.
UberMedia CEO Bill Gross: Twitter Turn-Off "Took Us By Surprise," But "We Will Change"
Feb 18, 8:20PM
I just got off the phone with UberMedia CEO and Idealab founder Bill Gross on the heels of Twitter's suspension of two of UberMedia's products, UberTwitter and Twidroyd, for violating Twitter's API rules. The violations in question concern trademark, privacy, and monetization. Gross tells me, "We just talked to Twitter and discussed the various issues they raise. It took us by surprise because they didn't raise them before. We started making the changes"
Groupme And Foursquare Allow You To Create Texting Groups With Friends Nearby
Feb 18, 7:49PM
TechCrunch Disrupt finalist Groupme has launched a cool new feature today, in advance of tomorrow's Foursquare hackday. People who link their Foursquare accounts to Groupme here can pull up an interface of all friends in the vicinity of their last checkin. You can then select which friends you want to be a part of a group, and the app will notify those selected with a text and the group's number. This is first group texting app I've seen to incorporate geo-location and the feature is perfect for the use cases of Coachella-like music festivals, sprawling tech conferences like SXSW or any other place where tons of smartphone wielding individuals tend to congregate in large groups. 
Twitter Suspends UberMedia Clients For Privacy And Monetization Violations, Trademark Infringement
Feb 18, 7:02PM
Well this is interesting. According to this post, Twitter has suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd for violating its policies. The action is even more fascinating considering that UberMedia, which operates UberTwitter and Twidroyd, is building an army of third-party Twitter clients, including Tweetdeck, that compete directly with Twitter's web and mobile clients. 
Radiohead's Day Early Online Release Of 'The King Of Limbs' Goes Viral
Feb 18, 6:59PM
It's as if Radiohead got the lion's share of Internet awareness, leaving the rest of the music industry completely clueless. Pretty much all anyone can talk about right now is Radiohead's The King of Limbs, for a number of reasons (not least of which is because it's amazing) but primarily because Radiohead mirrored the patterns of digital album leaks, generating major buzz. On the Internet everyone expects everything a day early. 
TechCrunch Giveaway: A Boxee Box #TechCrunch
Feb 18, 6:30PM
We have given away an Apple iPad, Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebooks, a Dell Vostro V130 laptop, a Google Nexus S, and many other prizes over the last few months. We didn't want to disappoint this time around either, so we are offering a Boxee Box for today's giveaway. The Boxee Box is a device that finds all of your favorite shows and movies available on the Internet and puts them onto your TV. Not only that, but just this past Valentine's Day, it was announced that you can browse the Netflix streaming catalog right from the box.
Facebook Shares Are Worth Almost Three Times More Than Tweets For E-Commerce
Feb 18, 4:50PM
White label daily deals platform and TC Disrupt finalist ChompOn is releasing some interesting data today comparing the value of shares, Tweets, likes and follows in the context of e-commerce. Using data from the sites that it powers daily deals for, ChompOn examined the conversion rate and action for deals shared on Facebook and Twitter. According to the startup, the value of a Facebook share is $14 and the value of a Tweet is $5. For shares and tweets, ChompOn was able to directly attribute sales to the original action and took the total revenue attributed to each action and divided it by the total number of shares/Tweets. ChompOn is working with 50 partners including Blackbook Magazine, JDeal and the wine vertical of flash sales site Beyondtherack, to power Groupon-like crowdsourced coupons. 
What Are President Obama, Zuck, Jobs And Other Silicon Valley Tech Stars Toasting To?
Feb 18, 3:59PM
The White House has just posted several photos from President Obama's dinner with a number of Silicon Valley's technology CEOs and leaders yesterday evening. As you can see from the photos, the star studded invitee list included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, Cisco's CEO John Chambers, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Genentech Chairman Art Levinson; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; former state controller and venture capitalist Steve Westly Doerr, and Stanford University President John Hennessy. The event was held at Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr's home. The "cheers" photo above is a little cheesy, but as you can see, both Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg got the prime seats at the table, both seated next to President Obama. And the candid of picture of the President engaged in conversation with Zuckerberg is also a priceless shot. It's interesting that the White House chose to release that particular photo to the public. 
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