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The City By The Meh: Thoughts On Falling Out Of Love With The Valley
Mar 14, 6:58AM
Three short years ago, almost to the day, I arrived in San Francisco and instantly fell in love. As a former technology columnist for the Guardian (and, unbeknownst to me, about to become one again), I had more than a passing familiarity with Silicon Valley. But unlike most tech writers, I'd never had more than a fleeting desire to come here. London was my town - profane, drunken, debauched, wonderful London. Sure, our tech startups might never amount to shit on the Valley's shoe, but by God we knew how to party. And I loved it; literally writing the book on the capital's entrepreneurs and the fun we all had during the first three-quarter decade of the 2000s. Fittingly, given what I'm going to say in a few lines' time, it took a chance encounter at South By Southwest to change my mind. An enthusiastic girl called Eris who jumped on my shoulders at a party, under the misapprehension that we'd met once before.
Social Is Too Important For Google To Screw Up With A Big Launch Circus
Mar 14, 6:13AM
Google will launch a "major new social network" imminently at the SXSW conference, said Read/Write Web early this morning. They were stupendously wrong on timing - Google told us and others that there was absolutely nothing launching in the next few days at the event. The product details they got were fairly correct, though, from what I've heard from sources who've seen Google's product iterations over the last few months. Google will focus a lot on groups of friends and how you share with them, and try to differentiate themselves from Facebook in this and other ways. But that's beside the point. Google doesn't appear to want to have a big launch announcement around the product, now or down the road. They keep releasing (or dealing with leaks) new social features in drips and drabs: toolbar stuff, profile stuff, video stuff. 
John Montorio Joins HuffPo: Journalism vs Churnalism Battle Rages On
Mar 14, 5:59AM
TechCrunch has learned that John Montorio has been named Culture and Entertainment Editor for Aol's Huffington Post Media Group content division. Montorio is a 30-year veteran of two of the country's biggest newspapers - the New York Times and LA Times - but that's not why his hiring is news-worthy. It's news-worthy because it represents a dramatic shift in favour of real journalism within Aol.
StumbleUpon Unveils Paid Discovery, Its New "No Click" Ad Platform
Mar 14, 3:59AM
Content discovery engine StumbleUpon, which most recently received 17 million in Series B funding, is unveiling a new ad platform today, StumbleUpon Paid Discovery. Whereas the old Stumble ad model was primarily targeted to getting traffic for publishers, StumbleUpon CEO Garrett Camp tells me that Paid Discovery is setting its sights on bigger brands, like movie studios promoting a movie or stuff like NFL teams promoting their sites.
LaunchRock And Vencorps Want To Give $30K To The "Best" Startups #SXSW
Mar 14, 1:25AM
LaunchRock, the startup that wants to help companies launch by setting them up with viral launch pages, is also launching a "Battle of the Startups" contest during SXSW. Companies that use LaunchRock pages to get beta signups will now have the chance to win $30K ($25K as a standard angel investment from collective VC firm Vencorps). The contest is sponsored by LaunchRock, CloudSponge, HootSuite, Posterous, Rapleaf and VenCorps and consists of two parts: The first part is how many signups a startup is able to generate using the LaunchRock, up to $5K. The second consists of the VenCorps' contribution, where LaunchRock startups who generate the most "social proof" via @ mentions in tweets and votes on Vencorps.com (from March 15th onwards) win 25K . Technically two different startups could win each contest.
5 Years Later, Jack Dorsey Tweets About Twitter's Beginning
Mar 13, 10:49PM
Did you know it was exactly five years ago today that Jack Dorsey and a few other team members working at Odeo first started to work on what would become Twitter? How do I know? Dorsey is tweeting about it right now. While programming began five years ago, it wasn't until eight days later, on March 21, 2006, that Dorsey sent the famous first (non-automated) tweet: "inviting coworkers".
Swimming in the Appstream
Mar 13, 6:14PM
Moving from iPad 1 to iPad 2 has been an exercise in confusion followed by fear followed by despair and now acceptance. I have no idea what I'll be left with, given that I've attempted to move from one Mac Book Pro to another, back up iTunes to DVD, upgrade to 4.3 of iOS on 2 iPhones and the old iPad 1, and finally move everything that's left to the new iPad 2. At this point I really don't care what happens, just that it does. Apple haters can jump in anytime with comments (oh, wait, they can't anymore on the new Facebook Connect what-is-your-real-name gateway) about how iTunes should go away. Maybe, but who can say if this insanity would be improved by making it wireless. So while I'm waiting to be dismayed by the elimination of music, Mad Men 4th season files, family photos, contacts, my grandfathered unlimited AT&T account, and other arcana I don't realize I'm going to miss, I'll talk about something else.
Hungover At SXSW? Use Zaarly To Get Your Gatorade And Advil
Mar 13, 5:35PM
If you're like most people at SXSW the time change today and the drinking last night has hit you like a iron hammer. Well luckily Zaarly, the much buzzed about HTML 5 mobile app that connects buyers and sellers in a localized market place, is now live today in Austin. So if you're stuck in bed needing Gatorade and Advil (or a change of clothes, or an iPhone charger, or ...) you can now hit up Zaarly.com on your phone and put in your order. 
Grilled Cheese, Beer, And Other Awesome Stuff: An Interview With GroupMe At SXSW
Mar 13, 4:20PM
There are few things better than free beer. Mix that with melted cheese and toasted bread, and you have a combination that satisfies even the deepest of human desires. And they're available just outside the main convention center at SXSW, both free of charge. The food is being provided by GroupMe, the group messaging app that, along with competitors like Beluga and Fast Society, has received plenty of buzz in the buildup to SXSW. We swung by their food stand for an interview with cofounders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci (and to grab some food for ourselves). Tune in to learn how things have gone for GroupMe so far in Austin, why they chose to give away grilled cheese sandwiches, and adventures in Phish concert parking lots. Oh, and sorry for calling it "South by". I hate when people do that.
Following Earthquake, Japanese Officials Fear Partial Nuclear Meltdown Underway
Mar 13, 4:19PM
A massive earthquake that struck off Japan's northeastern coast on Friday— taking 1,200 lives, with thousands still unaccounted for and ten thousand feared dead by police — also damaged multiple nuclear power plants there. On Sunday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said a partial meltdown at the Fukushiman Dai-ichi nuclear complex, was likely under way. The partial meltdown follows a blast on Saturday at one unit of the complex, where operators are working to cool the reactor core by injecting seawater and boron into its containment vessel. Also on Sunday, according to the International Atomic Energy Association Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported a state of emergency at a another facility, the Onagawa nuclear power plant; while its three reactors remained under control, the emergency alert was related to radioactivity readings in the area that exceeded allowable levels.
(Founder Stories) Joel Spolsky On Startups: "Have A Co-Founder Otherwise You'll Go Insane"
Mar 13, 3:46PM
All this week on Founder Stories, we've shown segments from Chris Dixon's interview with Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky, who also writes the Joel on Software blog. In the final rapid-fire Q&A video above, Spolsky doles out some advice to other startup founders, primarily "have a co-founder" to share the load, "otherwise you'll go insane." And "make sure you figure out who wons what," he adds, and do that up front. As Dixon points out, the last thing you want is to have to explain to later investors why some guy named Frank who was only around for 3 weeks owns 30 percent of the company. (Disclosure: Host Chris Dixon is an angel investor in Stack Exchange). Spolsky also explains why he admires Bill Gates more than Steve Jobs, why his favorite charity is DonorsChoose (crowdsourced funding FTW), why he finds it easier to hire people in New York City, and dishes on the group think in Silicon Valley.
Video: Foursquare's Naveen Selvadurai Gives "One Year Update" At SXSW 2011
Mar 13, 3:45PM
At last year's SXSW I caught a moment of Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai's time to briefly chat about the company and their plans for the upcoming year. We were able to speak again this year and Naveen gave me the update on what has changed for the company since our last conversation. The short answer is that both the company and user-base have grown significantly. When I last spoke with him there were around 300,000 people using Foursquare to check-in and now there are over 7 million users. That, coupled with their recent loyalty deal with American Express, means we should be on the lookout for expanded services and features in 2011. Check out the video below for the update.
Join Us For The TechCrunch/TUAW Reader Meet-Up At SXSW Sponsored By Peel
Mar 13, 12:25PM
It's that time again: time to revel in Web 2.0! We're teaming up with TUAW and Peel for our first annual SXSW Interactive reader meet-up in Austin. Meet the TC crew. Enjoy some TC chew (quantities limited). All this - and more - will be made available to you.
Lightbox Photos Wants To Be Your New Android Camera App (SXSW)
Mar 12, 11:21PM
Although Android adoption is growing at a huge clip compared to the iPhone (not hard, since there are so many more devices and plans), iPhone apps still remain the benchmark for the smartphone app experience. In part this is down to the fact that many companies build an iPhone app first and an Android version some time later, which is often inferior in user experience. Part of the reason is that little things like the pull-down-to-refresh features that are often in Phone apps come default with the iOS platform. But to make that kind of feature work in an Android app you have to build it from the ground up. That means there is a space for a creator of ridiculously good Android apps. Step forward Thai Tran and Nilesh Patel with Lightbox, their new startup which has taken a $1.1 million seed round from some of the top VCs and Angels in the UK and US. A private beta launches this week at SXSW, with the founders in attendance handing out invitation codes to the private beta. The app will be presented at the Team Android Choice Awards. You can sign up here to get on the invite list for the app here. 
>From "Businesses" To "Tools": The Twitter API ToS Changes
Mar 12, 11:12PM
Yesterday, Twitter made a swift and sweeping move to alter their ecosystem. In an email to developers, Twitter laid out the new rules. Essentially, third-party developers should no longer try to compete with Twitter on clients; instead they should focus on things like data and specific verticals for tweets. Not surprisingly, there's quite a bit of backlash against this maneuver. In making these changes, Twitter also had to chance their API Terms of Service. And we thought it would be interesting to compare the old ToS to the new one. We can do that thanks to the magic of Google, which has a cached copy of the ToS dated January 3, 2011.
SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch: The Game Layer Is Coming (SXSW)
Mar 12, 10:17PM
Today's SXSW keynote speaker is Seth Priebatsch, founder and CEO of location-based gaming startup SCVNGR. SCVNGR has had a big week — on Thursday the site launched a spinoff service called LevelUp that combines some of the retention mechanics seen in location-based games with the steep deals offered by sites like Groupon. Priebatsch, who maintained an apparently super-human energy level throughout his talk, discussed how many of the gaming mechanics seen in the virtual world will be applied in the physical world to create a so-called "Game Layer". "It's brand new and has not been built," Priebatsch says. "The last decade was the decade of social — it took connections between friends, family, and coworkers and put them online. It's called Facebook. The social layer traffics in connections." Conversely, Priebatsch says that the Game layer traffics in influence — "It will influence where we go, what we do, and how we do it."
Ask a VC: Mike Maples Defends Digg's Honor and the Kno (TCTV)
Mar 12, 9:38PM
Mike Maples, my guest on Ask a VC this week, is known for backing some of the best Web 2.0 entrepreneurs early on and hunting down "Thunder Lizards" or the 15 truly disruptive companies that hatch each year. But some of his most celebrated investments have turned controversial. In this video he defends Digg's honor against some tough reader questions and defends Chegg's co-founder and chairman Osman Rashid's decision to get into hardware. For non-haters, he answers some general questions on why he doesn't back more middle-aged entrepreneurs and how much of a stake he needs to do a deal. Enjoy! And check out our earlier interview with Maples and his three companies that got away here.
Jake Gyllenhaal Movie 'The Source Code' Markets Itself To Techies
Mar 12, 9:34PM
Between movies being funded on Kickstarter, a critically acclaimed movie about Facebook, and Twitter basically serving as a backchannel for the Oscars, Hollywood increasingly has to reconcile itself with the Internet's influence on storytelling as well it's power as a distribution mechanism. Directed by Duncan Jones, The Source Code is a movie about a soldier who finds himself as part of a strange military project. The source code is literally a computer program which allows him to take over another man's identity during the last few minutes of his life, in order to um, not blow up a train.
There Is No SXSW. The Perfect Extension For Those Not Here.
Mar 12, 9:11PM
By now, even if you're not at SXSW, you're likely sick of SXSW. Why? Because every other damn tweet is about SXSW. I'm here, and tweeting about it, and I'm sick of it. But luckily Lanyrd has created the perfect extension. Not at SXSW is an extension for both Chrome and Firefox that alters Twitter.com to remove all tweets that reference the conference. But that's not good enough. So the extension also blocks tweets from all those Twitter users known to be attending SXSW!
How To "Win" SXSW: Hint – It's The Same Answer Every Year
Mar 12, 7:36PM
Speculation as to which app will be the most used at SXSW this year is already well under way. No doubt, this is a question that is dominating any number of conversations among reporters, investors and start-ups, and is certainly a subject of increasing speculation here in Austin. Let's be clear: we do this every year before SXSW. But, this time the question would seem to hold an even greater level of importance. The difference this year is not which app or technology SXSW will help surface above the start-up noise, but rather which app will help SXSW take back control of the chaos it has unleashed.
This Post Has Nothing to do with #SXSW
Mar 12, 6:38PM
For the next four days if you're in the tech industry you're going to hear a non-stop stream of information about SXSW. It's the time of year when many new startups are struggling to rise above all the noise and be heard. And when everybody is shouting it becomes overwhelming. I'm actually in Austin at the moment. It turns out this is "the year of group messaging" and since I'm a shareholder in the largest player in the space, TextPlus (7.7m monthly actives), I thought I should come here to represent. With all these companies vying for attention and others just here to soak up the vibe I thought I'd write a much broader piece on how startups with a 10-point plan on how startups can make the most of their attendance at conferences and events. Read on ...
The Walled Garden Has Won
Mar 12, 5:40PM
Ten days ago Google discovered that apparently innocuous Android apps were in fact infested with "DroidDream" malware that included an Android rootkit, with the apparent intent of creating a smartphone botnet. It infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened. The thriller writer in me immediately began to wonder what would happen if black hats built a wildly popular game that doubled as a botnet beachhead. Imagine if Angry Birds was secretly the world's biggest botnet: even without root access to its install base, those hypothetical black hats could grab private data from tens millions of people, and/or probably DDoS every wireless network in the developed world, especially if it ran as a background service with location access. That will never happen, of course: it's what security guru Bruce Schneier calls a "movie-plot threat." But it does illustrate that you couldn't stop a Trojan app like that in advance. Android Market security is based on permission requests when an app is installed: such requests are routinely ignored, since nowadays almost every app asks for full Internet and SD card access. Ah, you might say, if only Android apps were vetted in advance, like Apple's! In which case you should really stop kidding yourself. Most apps seem to be reviewed in an hour or less (after days in the queue.) Apple appears to check the libraries they link against, and maybe they can decompile to the original source code, too - though I doubt it - but iOS apps are written in Objective-C, which includes support for C itself, a language for which labyrinthine obfuscation has become an art form. Any developer worth his/her salt could write an iOS app that includes code whose use only becomes apparent when the app receives a secret signal.
(Founder Stories) Stack Exchange CEO: "Nobody Wants To Find Yahoo Answers In Their Search Results"
Mar 12, 3:10PM
There sure are a lot of Q&A sites on the Internet, but not all Q&A sites are the same. In the Founder Stories video above, Stack Exchange CEO Joel Spolsky talks about the origins of Q&A sites and his competition. Stack Exchange operates Stack Overflow and other peer-reviewed knowledge sites. Spolsky minces no words in his contempt for the Big Daddy of Q&A sites, Yahoo Answers. "Yahoo Answers is Teenage chat," says Spolsky. "Nobody wants to find Yahoo Answers in their search results. It is one-sentence gibberish." Stack Overflow, in contrast, goes deep. Stack Overflow users gain reputation by giving the best answers, and answers are peer-reviewed. It doesn't cover every topic under the sun, either, just programming.
DIY Music Management Platform Nimbit Raises $1.25 million
Mar 12, 4:47AM
Nimbit, a direct-to-fan marketing, sales and distribution platform for musicians, announced today that it has closed a $1.25 million series A investment round. The round was led by Common Angels and Hub Angels and, according to VP of Marketing Carl Jacobson, will be used to ramp up the company's hiring efforts. Nimbit adds to the cumulative $3.5 million of seed funding it raised during three prior seed rounds beginning in May of 2006. The seed rounds were also led by Common Angels and Hub Angels, with LaunchCapital and Rose Tech Ventures contributing. Founded in 2002, the Massachusetts-based Nimbit is a one-stop shop for musicians looking to manage their own direct-to-fan marketing and commercial music efforts. And though Jacobson said that Nimbit may have been "a little early to the party", there has been quite a bit of buzz in the last few years concerning shifts in music marketing and distribution -- like the success of Radiohead's releasing "In Rainbows" direct to fans via their website, for example -- and it now seems that the market may be ready to adopt the direct-to-fan model. 
Zynga Enables Donations To Tsunami Relief Through In-Game Purchases
Mar 12, 4:41AM
Social gaming giant Zynga has joined the Internet's efforts at donating to Japanese Tsunami relief tonight, by enabling in-game donations through virtual good buying in Zynga games like FrontierVille, FarmVille and CityVille as of 7pm PST. 100% of the virtual goods purchase prices will be donated to Tsunami relief. 
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