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Keen On… Zuck: The Five Business Secrets Of You-Know-Who
Feb 05, 7:34PM
Facebook is, of course, built around Mark Zuckerberg's ideal of a radically transparent world. Less transparent, however, is Zuckerberg's business genius, the secret behind his awesome success. But now Zuck's genius has been revealed by the Intel marketing executive, Ekaterina Walter, with a new Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook's Improbably Brilliant CEO.Apple Highlights Self-Published Authors, Frames iBooks As A Viable Kindle Direct Publishing Alternative
Feb 05, 7:09PM
Apple has collected a selection of self-published titles on the iBookstore under a new "Breakout Books" section. The section is intended to give special attention to "emerging talents," according to Apple, and each is both independently published and highly rated by users. Some are free, most are cheap, and the effort looks like an attempt to remind users that just like Amazon, Apple's digital bookstore is an opportunity for independent authors to find an audience.JIBE Raises $10M Series B To Make Even More Job Applications Mobile-Friendly
Feb 05, 6:45PM
The mobile job application mavens at JIBE have been keeping things quiet since talking up their most recent pivot back in July, but they've finally broken the silence to talk about something new. The New York-based company (which shouldn't be confused with other, similarly named outfits in the mobile space) has announced it that has raised a $10 million Series B round led by Longworth Venture Partners, with existing investors like Polaris Partners, Lerer Ventures and Thrive Capital joining in as well.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Bain Capital Ventures' Ajay Agarwal
Feb 05, 6:45PM
This week's Ask A VC show is kicking off with Bain Capital Ventures' managing director Ajay Agarwal who heads the firm's Palo Alto office. You can submit questions for Agarwal either in the comments or here and we'll ask them during the show.Cool Job Opening: White House Presidential Innovation Fellows
Feb 05, 6:35PM
If you're lost in the recession or are looking for a job with more social impact, one of the coolest jobs in tech has opened up a second round of hiring: the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows. First launched at TechCrunch's own Disrupt NYC conference, Fellows work to find creative technological solutions to ongoing federal problems, from theft in foreign aid money transfers to making government contracts more small business-friendly.Bitcasa Launches Its 'Infinite Storage' App To The Public To Take Down Traditional Hard Drives [TCTV]
Feb 05, 6:24PM
Today marks the official public debut of Bitcasa, the startup we first met at TechCrunch Disrupt back in September 2011 that promises to replace traditional hard drives with its own cloud-based "infinite drive" system. The company has been available in beta form for some months, but it's now launching to be available to the public across a number of devices and operating systems -- iOS, Android, Mac desktop, Windows desktop and RT, as well as the web.Google's Unintentionally Racist Ads Probably Have Awful Psychological Impacts
Feb 05, 6:16PM
According to Google, a woman named Latanya is probably a lot more likely to end up in jail than someone named Jill. A new study finds advertisements linked to commonly African-American names are far more likely to offer criminal services. Names “primarily to black babies, such as DeShawn, Darnell and Jermaine, generated ads suggestive of an arrest in 81 to 86 percent of name searches,” writes Harvard University’s Latanya Sweeney, in the open access journal, ArXiv. The unintentional effect of these ads probably has awful psychological impact on the thousands of black citizens, as well as their potential employers, who see their names next to unfortunately racist ads. Below is an actual advertisement reading, “Latanya Farrell, Arrested?” when the researcher googled her own name. A lot of headlines have implied that Google search, itself, is racist. This is, in fact, not the case. Google simply mines data and serves up ads automatically that are more likely to be clicked on. The research raises “questions as to whether Google’s advertising technology exposes racial bias in society and how ad and search technology can develop to assure racial fairness,” writes Sweeney. However, it is a well-known fact that the perception of racial inferiority causes devastating impact on the education and job performance of minorities. Black students who are reminded of their race’s social struggles perform far worse on IQ and standardized tests. So-called “Stereotype threat,” is a leading theory as to why some races are underrepresented in America’s universities. Black-sounding names are also a resume burden. One study found that applying to a job with a commonly black name resulted in 50 percent fewer callbacks. Imagine the impact of a job recruiter googling a potential employee and being confronted with all sorts of criminally laden advertisements for a black candidate, and not for a white candidate. It’s easy to see how, on average, more black men and women will be left out. Statistically speaking, a name like Darnell is more likely to be associated with an arrest than “Todd.” But, when society is confronted with this fact, the results trigger our latent sterotypes. In other words, in some cases, more information isn’t always better.Social Media Marketing Suite Viralheat Redesigns, Adds New Analytics Dashboard, Targeted Publishing And Smart Stream
Feb 05, 6:15PM
When it comes to social media management and marketing suites, most people think Hootsuite and move on, but there are quite a few smaller competitors that vie for a piece of this market, too. Viralheat, for example, just launched its redesigned service with a new analytics dashboard and a redesigned user interface to make managing multiple accounts, accessing analytics and engaging with their audiences easier for social media managers. Viralheat says it is currently being used by about 12,000 brands that subscribe to its plans, which range from free to $99 per month.Instagram Launches Full Image Feed For Web Browsers, Including Commenting And Liking Functions
Feb 05, 6:13PM
Instagram has just announced that its full feed has made its way to the web, meaning that users no longer have to access through the dedicated mobile apps to check out all of their content, and participate in the conversation around posted photos. The web-based feed comes in both desktop- and mobile-optimized flavors, meaning you're set if you're using something like BlackBerry not yet graced by an official app (minus the ability to post photos, of course).Errand App Exec Gets A Web Redesign, Goes Beyond Bay Area With New San Diego Cleaning Service
Feb 05, 6:10PM
Exec, the startup led by Justin.tv's Justin Kan that lets you hire people for errands and cleaning, is getting a new look today. It's also expanding beyond the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time by offering its cleaning service in San Diego. Kan told me that until now, Exec has been running on the same website since it launched a year ago. I think the old site looks just fine, but Kan argued that additions to the site fit in a bit awkwardly — most notably, the cleaning service just appears as a random tab at the top of the site, not a core part of the Exec offering. He added that he wanted the website (which accounts for about two-thirds of Exec orders) to incorporate some of the design improvements from the mobile app.Ribbon Raises $1.6M From Tim Draper & Others, Launches New Way To Take Payments Directly In The Facebook News Feed
Feb 05, 6:00PM
The recently launched, AngelPad-backed payments startup called Ribbon is today introducing new functionality that allows users to buy from merchants and other sellers directly in the Facebook News Feed. In addition, the company is confirming the close of its $1.6 million seed round, led by Tim Draper's Draper Associates. Participating in the round were Siemer Ventures, Emil Michael (Klout COO), Naguib Sawiris, Winston Ibrahim (Hydros) and MicroVentures.Google Introduces "Find Your Way To Oz" HTML5 Chrome Experiment In Collaboration With Disney And Unit9
Feb 05, 5:35PM
For a while now, Google has regularly worked with well-known brands like Cirque du Solei and others to launch advanced web-based experiences optimized for its Chrome browser. Today is Disney's turn. Google, in collaboration with UNIT9 and Disney, just launched Find Your Way to Oz, a new Chrome experiment based on Disney's upcoming movie Oz The Great and Powerful. The experience, Google writes, allows you "to take an interactive journey through a Kansas circus, which leads you to the land of Oz after you are swept up by a massive storm."Lulu Raises Another $2.5M From Yuri Milner And Angels For Its Girls-Only App To Rate Guys
Feb 05, 5:33PM
Way back in November 2011, a little startup called Luluvise raised $1 million to build a platform aimed only at young women networking privately. It was billed as 'girl time all the time' and riffed off the fact that Facebook had become too public and involved too many men for young women to shoot the breeze about the guys. Although a U.S. company, Luluvise got great PR in the UK, but essentially failed to get traction. Now, they think they have found the winning formulae: US college girls.Microsoft To Launch Five New Retail Stores By Summer
Feb 05, 5:24PM
Microsoft has been ramping up its retail presence in the past year, and has today announced that it will introduce five new stores to the U.S. over the course of 2013. The exact dates of the store openings have not been disclosed, but the company promises they'll be ready to go by summer. Here are the new locations where Microsoft will have a retail presence:Mophie's iPhone 5 Battery Case, The Juice Pack Helium, Now Available For $79.95
Feb 05, 5:13PM
Mophie is one of the most trusted names in iPhone and mobile backup batteries, and the company has finally debuted its battery case for iPhone 5. The Mophie Juice Pack Helium is around 13 percent thinner than the Air version released for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 (get it? Helium is lighter than air), and retails for $79.95 right now direct from the Mophie store. The cases should ship in time for Valentine's Day, the company says.OUYA To Launch Soon, But Where Are The Games?
Feb 05, 5:03PM
With less than two months before OUYA's launch, it's time to tell the truth -- its future doesn't look promising. The OUYA is starting to feel like a gaming console without the games. Publishers and developers aren't promoting OUYA games because there's nothing to promote -- nothing that was specifically developed for the launch line-up. Even worse, Final Fantasy III will be the flagship launch title, a game that has been available on countless gaming systems for years. OUYA isn't the gaming revolution that backers expected.A Private Photos App That's Growing? KeepSafe Crosses 1B Hidden Photos, 3M Active Users
Feb 05, 5:01PM
Usually, when an entrepreneur pitches me something about the need for a more “private” or “intimate” social network because Facebook has gotten too cavalier about privacy settings, I kind of roll my eyes. Not only have there been numerous casualties and acq-hires as a result of this strategy (like YC’s The Fridge, Drop.io or take a look at Path’s implied growth rate from its app rankings), products like these intentionally limit their viral spread in a consumer market that is already horribly competitive. Yet there are products from time to time that find a niche. KeepSafe might be one of them. It’s an app that creates a private photo vault on your phone, so that you can file away sensitive pictures from others. You can also share photos with others, or send them for a limited time like on Snapchat or Facebook’s Poke app. With just about $700,000 in funding, the app has grown to 3 million monthly active users who have hidden more than 1 billion pictures at a rate of 64 pictures per second. For those calculating, that’s at least 5 million photos saved per day. Snapchat does at least 50 million photos per day, while Instagram last said it was seeing 40 million photos posted per day. Why would you need another secret photo gallery on your phone? Why not just use a pass-lock? I couldn’t understand why at first. However, judging from the app’s reviews on Google Play, it seems like one popular use case is hiding naughty pictures so that when your children borrow your phone, they don’t see them. A classy example review: “Just perfect,might get better pics of my wife now !” Maybe it’s like Snapchat for adults. But like Snapchat, KeepSafe doesn’t want to be branded as a “sexting” or adultery app. The company pointed out that one person even used KeepSafe to get feedback from friends on potential engagement rings without his girlfriend finding out. Co-founder Zouhair Belkoura created the app as a way to separate work photos from personal ones. He had gotten into a habit of taking pictures of Post-It notes for save ideas. But when he wanted to walk others through his sketches, he would have to flip through random photos of his girlfriend’s lunch. So he started KeepSafe as an Android app (yes, Android-first), that would allow him to move pictures from the general photo gallery into aPew Study Finds One In Five U.S. Internet Users Has Ditched Facebook, While 27% Of Current Users Plan To Reduce Time In 2013
Feb 05, 5:00PM
Facebook is far and away the dominant social networking service in the U.S. -- used by two-thirds of online Americans, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But in a new research report Pew shines a light on a sense of dissatisfaction some Facebookers feel towards the network that has caused them to cut back the amount of time spend on the site or abandon it altogether.15 Million Users Strong, Box Debuts New Partner Network To Expand Cloud And Collaboration Service
Feb 05, 5:00PM
All things point to 2013 being a big year for cloud storage and collaboration startup Box. The company will be readying itself for an IPO and expanding its core product in a number of ways. Another strategy that Box has in its game plan is to become more of an ecosystem, and today, the company is debuting the Box Partner Network, which has been developed to bring together its channel, platform and other partners.Tony Conrad's About.me Spins Back Out From AOL After Raising $5.7M Capital, Led By True Ventures
Feb 05, 4:12PM
About.me, the personal profile page startup founded by Tony Conrad and acquired days after its public launch by AOL back in 2010, is going it alone again. The move was announced on about.me's blog. Conrad said AOL's acquisition strategy is "very focused on media" -- and there just weren't the product integration opportunities that had originally been envisaged between about.me and AOL.If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
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