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Twitter Updates Mac Client With Multiple Timelines, Cleaner Design, Auto-Complete And More
May 12, 2:37PM
Twitter for Mac, which launched earlier this year with the rollout of Apple's Mac App Store, is getting its first major update today. Besides a design update, you can now see multiple timelines at once and open more than one window in the client. You can click back to previous pages from the client and there is now a separate "New Tweet" button in the bottom left corner of the app. This feature is good news as one of our major pain points with the earlier version of the app was that there was no Tweet box. 
It Is Finished: The New Yorker iPad App Is The Beginning Of The End Of Print
May 12, 2:21PM
I'm a die-hard paper fan. I have a few shelves of books in almost every room of the house and I love taking a stack of magazines or newspapers on a plane - this is so ingrained in my psyche that I actually save magazines a few weeks before a long trip so I have something to read. But slowly, ever so slowly, this love of paper is leaving me. First I abandoned print journalism for the bare-knuckle punch-fest that is blogging and then I stopped reading print books and instead took up the Kindle then the iPad. I literally have not cracked a paperback or hardback for a full, long read in more than a year. I'm not writing this to prove my early adopter cred but because the thought amazes me. I still read the NY Times in dead-tree form and, although for a little while I thought The Daily would be the future of daily news, I think I'll stick with the paper version for a few more months, at least until I wrap my head around the psychological process of reading general daily news online. But the one thing I thought I'd never do was abandon my magazine habit. 
(Founder Stories) Meebo's Seth Sternberg On Hiring, Growth And Flying High.
May 12, 2:05PM
Like many start-ups, Meebo has been on a recent hiring spree. In this episode of Founder Stories, CEO Seth Sternberg tells Chris Dixon, "for 12 weeks we had to hire a salesperson a week and if we didn't we would have missed our revenue numbers later this year." But it's not just new salespeople populating Meebo's workstations. "We started this year at about 130 employees. I think we are at 175 now, and so for us that is really fast growth" says Sternberg. From CEO to engineer, Sternberg discusses how Meebo weeds out candidates by running them though, "the sim." This is a simulation of Meebo's real-world working environment. 
Vente-Privee And AmEx Team Up To Bring The European Flash Sales Site To The U.S.
May 12, 2:04PM
Vente-Privee, the European flash sales giant, has announced a joint venture with American Express to bring the site to the U.S. Vente-Privee, which was founded in France in 2001, is one of the pioneers of the flash sales model. Because of the site'e massive reach and scale, companies like Amazon and eBay have been rumored to be eying the company for an acquisition. 
Are Comcast And Other ISPs Now Actively Blocking ThePirateBay?
May 12, 1:35PM
Talk about sinking to a new low. It seems that Talk about sinking to a new low. It seems that Comcast and perhaps other ISPs are blocking access to the notorious torrent site, ThePirateBay.org. The word comes from TorrentFreak who also reached out to the TPB team who indicated that they can't confirm if an ISP is blocking the site but "there's a significant drop in visitors from the U.S." All I know is I, a Comcast subscriber, cannot access the site. Comcast isn't exactly known to be friendly with the downloaders or streamers. In the past they've limited and even blocked seeding of torrent files. The term throttling was synonymous with Comcast a few years back. The company eventually entered into a partnership with BitTorrent, Inc and was later asked by the FCC to stop the practices, but perhaps the company just moved to block specific sites in an effort to kill the bandwidth-sucking practice of torrenting. Update: Comcast responded.
Demandbase Raises $10 Million For B2B Marketing Software
May 12, 1:00PM
Demandbase, a company that develops B2B marketing software, has raised $10 million in funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with Sigma Partners, Altos Ventures, and Adobe Systems participating in the round. This brings the company's total funding to $18 million. Demanbase allows B2B marketers to improve marketing conversions and turn web traffic into sales. The company provides a B2B marketing performance-improvement software to deliver a more personalized web experiences and a higher ROI from sales and marketing programs. 
Search Contrarian Blekko's Next Move: Limiting Its User Data Retention To 48 Hours
May 12, 1:00PM
Search engine Blekko, ever eager to differentiate itself and make headlines with its countless product development advances, is announcing today that it will reduce its data retention period to 48 hours, retaining far less user personal information (like IP addresses) than the the dominant players in the space. For comparison, competitors Google and Yahoo are currently at 18 months of user data retention and Bing is at six months, which is the European standard. In fact, Yahoo recently extended its data retention policy from 90 days to 18 months because it needed it to "compete" with Google in offering personalized recommendations. Ha. With this move Blekko is essentially saying, "Unlike Yahoo, we don't need to compete." 
Score Media Plays Ball, Acquires Rival Mobile App SportsTap
May 12, 11:53AM
Score Media has acquired sports-focused mobile apps maker SportsTap, whose Android and iPhone apps compete with Score Media's multi-sport app ScoreMobile. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but SportsTap will be maintained as a stand-alone smartphone and mobile browser app.
Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google
May 12, 9:21AM
Facebook secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google, says Dan Lyons in a jaw dropping story at the Daily Beast. For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people's privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post. The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson's offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a "whisper campaign" about Google "on behalf of an unnamed client."Not good.
How TechCrunch Got Onto The Apprentice… Just.
May 12, 8:51AM
Well, TechCrunch readers, we thought we owed you an explanation as to why the hell we got onto the UK version of the TV show The Apprentice last night, and here is it. Back in September last year I was contacted by TalkBack Thames TV, the independent production company that makes The Apprentice for the BBC. They said they were going to make the creation of a smartphone app a task on the show and would I be a judge. "Why the hell not?" I thought, and a date was set for filming. 
WITN: Paul's New Book Published, Movie Option Sold On The Same Day [TCTV]
May 12, 8:30AM
There are two things we love to do on Why Is This News. The first is to break news about things that are happening outside Silicon Valley. The second is to find excuses to promote our respective books (about things that are happening outside Silicon Valley). Rare indeed though is the occasion when we're able to combine both of those things and break news about one of our respective books, from outside Silicon Valley. This week all of Paul's Christmases have come at once as he calls in from the UK to share some exciting news about his new book, The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations. Not only has the book finally gone on sale in most of the world but the movie rights have just been optioned by production company Neon Park. In the video below, we talk about the news, and also discuss why, in The Upgrade, Paul feels so comfortable sharing the most intimate details of his life with total strangers. Finally, we speculate on who might play the role of Mike Arrington if a movie version of the book ever makes it into production. (UK and European readers can buy The Upgrade from Amazon in paperback or Kindle formats. US and international readers can get it with free global shipping here. )
InsideDeal! WebMediaBrands Acquires Inside Network For $14 Million
May 12, 5:38AM
When it comes to in-depth news about Facebook, there has been no better site than Inside Facebook. In fact, the flagship site of Inside Network became so successful alongside the meteoric rise of Facebook that they launched several other vertical sites to bet big on their brand of news and analysis. And that bet just paid off. Big time. WebMediaBrands has acquired Inside Network for roughly $14 million, we've learned. The deal should be formally announced soon and is said to be a roughly half cash and stock deal. It's a big win for Inside Network, which was founded by Justin Smith in April 2006, and has taken no outside investment.
How Amazon Controls Ecommerce (Slides)
May 12, 4:49AM
When you think about ecommerce, you think about Amazon. But how did a company that started with online books come to dominate an estimated one third of ecommerce in the U.S.? In the 72 slides above, global consulting boutique faberNovel breaks down Amazon's business and strategy. The keys to Amazon's success are 1) the Internet imposes no limits on how much Amazon can sell; 2) its control of customer accounts and loyalty, and 3) and a growing ecosystem that is helping it cement its place in the world of digital goods as well. It's instructive to see how Amazon has expanded over the years and moved away from its reliance on books, music, and movies. You also forget that along the way, Amazon piled up $3 billion in losses between 1995 and 2003. Now it's got $34 billion in annual revenue, and is spitting out $1 billion a year on profits. Who says you can't spend your way to profitability?
Yahoo To Acquire Advertising Platform 5:1
May 12, 2:56AM
Yahoo is likely to acquire advertising platform 5:1 for around $30 million, we've heard from multiple sources. The company first launched at TechCrunch50 in September 2009, and had raised around $13 million in various rounds of funding. About half of that was raised in November as part of a reverse merger IPO. The company has deep ties with Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's EVP Americas and formerly the President of Fox Interactive Media. Levinsohn is actually a cofounder of the company and a former board member and shareholder (he divested himself after joining Yahoo). Cofounder and CEO Jim Heckman worked with Levinsohn at FIM. We first covered the company, including their management team, in June 2009. This is almost literally a case of "getting the band back together." This is the team that oversaw MySpace in the glory years, including their nearly $1 billion search deal with Google. CRO Peter Foster, CFO Mitchell Chun, EVP John Smelzer and COO Mark Stieglitz are all former FIM executives.
Behold: The Chromebook (Samsung Series 5)
May 12, 2:40AM
Here she is. Earlier today, Google unveiled the first notebooks running Chrome OS. Or as they're calling them, "Chromebooks". The first two partners producing them will be Samsung and Acer. And at an event tonight in San Francisco, we got some extensive hands-on time with the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. Initial reaction? That's still to come. For now, enjoy a bunch of pictures.
Defaceable Lets You Comment Anonymously On Facebook Comments
May 12, 12:57AM
If you miss being able to blather on about Android versus iPhone or express your irrational hatred of a certain author, startup or device without having to attach your name to it (and don't want to go through all the trouble of creating a dummy Yahoo/Aol account) you might be in luck with a new Chrome extension that lets you comment sans identity on Facebook Comments. Defaceable allows 
The Future Of Chrome: Synced Tabs, Profiles, Native Client, And Chrome OS On ARM
May 12, 12:11AM
Today at Google I/O there was a fireside chat with a number of Chrome team members. Their goal was simply to answer questions — both from the web and from the audience. Among those, there was a common theme: what's next? One question asked each panelist what features they were most excited about going forward? Some answers were general — excitement about pushing HTML and CSS work forward. But other answers were more specific. One member noted how excited he was about expanding the personalization aspects of Chrome. Whereas now you can sync much of your data across the browser on different machines, soon you'll be able to sync more things that will make the experience more personalized.
Another Oprah Moment At Google I/O: Game Developers Get Free Xperia PLAY Phones
May 11, 11:07PM
New product giveaways have become something of a tradition at Google I/O. Last year attendees to the developer-focused conference walked home with two new Android phones (an Evo 4G and a Nexus One or Droid, depending on where they live). This year, everyone was given a new Galaxy 10.1 Honeycomb tablet a month before its release. And a few minutes ago, several hundred Android developers were given the Xperia PLAY, the Android-powered 'PlayStation phone' that comes with a unique gamepad. The giveaway took place in the C++/Game Developer panel, which discussed the use of native code in Android applications (games, in particular, are likely to use the NDK as opposed to standard Dalvik). And aside from winning some karma points from developers, Sony's motivation for handing out the phones are pretty clear: give developers a phone that features the gamepad, and they're much more likely to make sure their games work flawlessly with it. Google also handed out the Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK), an Arduino-powered chipset that will help developers build Android accessories, at a panel yesterday.
GridGlo Raises $1.2 Million To Help Utilities Understand How Customers Use Electricity
May 11, 10:35PM
A New York research firm that turns massive amounts of data into streamlined information, CUBRC (pronounced "coo-brick") invested $1.2 million in seed finance, and established a strategic partnership with GridGlo — a smart grid technology startup from Delray Beach, Florida, the companies revealed today. GridGlo sells software and services that help utilities see how and why their customers, primarily homeowners, are using electricity in real-time. They also provide utilities with an Energy People Scoring Mechanism, or EPM score that the company hopes will become a standard like the FICO score is to credit card issuers and other financial institutions... 
Yelp Moves To Spain As International Traffic Doubles
May 11, 10:00PM
Yelp's international sites have been growing like crazy, with non-U.S. traffic doubling in the past year. Today, it is adding a fifth non-English international site, Spain, to its roster. (The other international Yelp sites are in France, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands). Yelp is now at 50 million unique visitors per month, mostly in the U.S., according to its internal stats. ComScore shows 87 percent growth in non-U.S. unique visitors over the past year (Yelp's internal stats show more than 100 percent growth). 
Twitter Rolls Out Slick Mobile Web App: It's Like Twitter For iPhone But Upside Down
May 11, 9:49PM
Finally. Twitter has just unveiled a much needed revamp of its Twitter for mobile page, turning what was a pretty clunky looking mobile page into a more dynamic web app with icons for @replies, messages, your stream and search (which was missing from the mobile app previously). But you know what the best thing about it is? Its landing page is exactly like the Twitter iPhone app interface (designed by Tweetie founder Loren Brichter), but turned upside down. The Twitter for Android app has this upright positioning, with a different assortment of icons. 
One (Small) Hidden Cost Of Chromebooks For Business: Google Apps Not Included
May 11, 9:34PM
If there was any question about Google's commitment to Chrome OS, you clearly haven't been following day two of Google I/O today. It's all Google is talking about. And in every way possible. But the biggest angle being talked about is probably the opportunity for businesses. And that makes sense. Getting Chromebooks into the business market solve two problems for Google: Microsoft and a new revenue stream. If Google's strategy works here, it could become a massive business for them. And it's one that directly threatens Microsoft more than ever. All of that sounds great, but there is one curiosity in the business strategy: they're not including Google Apps. 
MySpace Stabilizes Unique Visitors, But All Other Usage Stats Plummet
May 11, 8:45PM
Check out the graph in my March post about MySpace's free fall in usage. After a long decline you'd expect a site like MySpace to plateau and find some sort of stable group of users. Instead, all the data says their decline is actually accelerating. So I was surprised to see unique visitors level off over the last two months, according to Comscore. And by level off, I mean a straight line floor at about 62 million worldwide monthly visitors and 37 million U.S. visitors. Look at that chart. It's just weird. Uniques should have fallen another 8 million or so. Instead, MySpace held the line. Curious, I dug a little deeper into their stats. Not good. 
Sergey Brin On New Role: Beyond Chauffeur, Nothing To Show Yet — Hopefully Next Year
May 11, 8:12PM
Today during a press Q&A following the Chrome keynote at Google I/O, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined the panel to take questions about the announcements. Naturally, the questions strayed a bit. But Brin still did his best to answer them — sort of. One question asked Brin about his new role at the company. Google recently saw the triumvirate of power swap places, which co-founder Larry Page becoming CEO and Eric Schmidt becoming Executive Chairman. Brin's role has been talked about much less. And there's a reason for that: he's pretty secretive about it. 
Sergey Brin Guesses That Only 20% Of Googlers Still Use Windows Machines
May 11, 7:33PM
Today during the press Q&A after the Chrome OS/Chromebook keynote, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined the panel to share his thoughts on the new products and Google in general. Since the end goal of Chrome OS is clearly to end Windows dominance both in the workplace and the world in general, someone asked what percentage of Google employees still use Windows machines at work? "I'd probably guess 20 percent," Brin said in response. "But I'd have to get back to you," he quickly qualified noting that he doesn't have the exact numbers. Still, unless his guess is way off, that's equally surprising and impressive. Windows is, after all, still the OS that dominates the world — and businesses in particular. But apparently not Google — at all.
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