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The Danger And Opportunity Of The Intermediate Metric
Sep 29, 4:00AM
Are social media companies overvalued? The question is not just a matter of revenue multiples (low or high), but rather whether that revenue is actually generating new sales for advertisers. Google convinced the world to believe in the click, Facebook has done the same with the Like, Twitter with the follower, and Pinterest is planning on unveiling the same with the Pin.The Science Behind Using Online Communities To Change Behavior
Sep 29, 1:00AM
Is it just me, or is it impossible to talk to technology entrepreneurs without mentioning user engagement and behavior? I'm a behavioral psychologist, so that might be why I keep having conversations about engagement, but I don't think that's the only reason. I think it's because entrepreneurs have realized that behavior change and engagement is critical to technology development (and to everything else in our lives). Whether we're trying to get people to download or keep playing our fantasy sports applications, convince ourselves to avoid that extra scoop of ice cream, or get our neighbor to stop hitting her snooze button at 5:00, 5:10, and 5:20 a.m., we understand how difficult it can be to engage people and change behavior.NSA's Targeting Prowess Doesn't Extend To Ads
Sep 28, 11:01PM
If the NSA only invited TechCrunch to its birthday party, it'd have to eat its cake alone. While we aren't big fans of the NSA, it appears to fancy our readers, as it consistently advertises on our site. This makes me slightly uncomfortable, as I have spent a good portion of my time these past few months excoriating and blasting the NSA for what I view as unconstitutional abrogation of our Fourth Amendment rights. And here is the NSA, spending dollars to reach our audience, through those very posts. I suppose it is vaguely democratic to grant them part of our space to make their case, but as this is a financial relationship (they pay us, either directly or through a third-party), it’s not a question of free speech. I’ve never felt a conflict of interest with an advertisement before, due in no small part to the fact that I tune them out like the rest of you. But to have the NSA directly hawking its wares on pages that sport my name doesn’t sit right with me. Here’s the NSA advertising its career listings on our Microsoft subject page: My name appended to a page that sports bright (lurid?) NSA branding. Please, no. Today brought fresh revelations on how the NSA collects data on United States citizens. Here’s the New York Times reporting the tracking of our social graph, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden: Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information [...] Because of concerns about infringing on the privacy of American citizens, the computer analysis of such data had previously been permitted only for foreigners. Because of my distaste for the NSA and its surveillance programs, I don’t want it making payments (again, either directly or through some third-party targeting or retargeting) to any group that I have a financial relationship with. And as TechCrunch pays the rent, some NSA dollars have likely leaked into my own bank account. That’s revolting. Also revealed recently is the fact that the Justice Department targeted Edward Snowden’s email provider the day right after he went public. That ended poorly. And the Senate just admitted what we already knew, that the NSA directly taps the core fiber cables of theCrunchWeek: Microsoft's New Surface 2, BlackBerry's $4.7B Buyout, Big Changes In Fundraising
Sep 28, 10:00PM
Happy Saturday! It's time once again for a new episode of CrunchWeek, the show that brings a few of us writers together to chat it up about some of the most interesting stories from the past week in tech news. This time around, Leena Rao, Alex "Warhorse" Wilhelm (I didn't know that was his nickname until I saw it on his TechCrunch author page, but I dig it) and I spouted off our opinions onAdvertising's Logged-In User Revolution Is Brewing
Sep 28, 9:00PM
Native advertising may be the buzzword stealing the attention of the advertising technology landscape, though a much quieter revolution is brewing around the space: the fight for the logged-in user overtaking cookie-based advertising. You see it manifesting itself from all corners: Google's relentless investment in Google+, Facebook releasing Custom Audiences, and most recently Twitter's acquisition of MoPub. Data management companies like Datalogix and Catalina Marketing are creeping up, matching what takes place online into offline purchases.Good News: We're Not Axing Net Neutrality. Bad News: US Gov Probably Shutting Down
Sep 28, 7:42PM
The intersection of fiscal politics, national crisis, and technology regulation is a silly place, as there should be no overlapping space between the three issues. And yet. Good news: We’re not ending net neutrality. The bad news, depending on your politics, is that we’re likely going to shut down the United States government. That said, the current Washington dynamic has offered up a new fact: Technology policy and regulation is game for political football. That’s a damn shame. Long gone now, it seems, are the days in which technology managed to steer mostly clear of politics. Perhaps there never was such a time, and we have merely invented it. But whether it did or did not exist before, it is certainly gone now. Let’s review. A House bill that would fund the government, but remove funding for the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), was slapped down in the Senate. The House began to compile a bill to replace its first effort that contained a grab-bag of conservative wishes. One of those wishes was the ‘blocking’ of net neutrality. So, tech policy was lashed aside fiscal policy as a gimme to House members who think that the regulation is somehow anti-Internet, and likely accept large donations from telco firms that are opposed to it. Happily, that idea is dead. Instead, according to Politico and nearly every other political outlet, House Republicans will strap a one year delay of ObamaCare to their bill to fund the government. Senate Democrats and the President have flatly stated that any such bill is dead on arrival. So, net neutrality managed to dodge whatever might have come its way, but the government itself is still hosed. I don’t see a way that we avoid shutdown. But Verizon won’t be able to charge Netflix exorbitant fees to send its content to its subscribers. That’s good. And other ISPs won’t be able to slow the content of rival companies, which is also a pretty decent outcome. Anyway, that’s where we are at. It’ll be an interesting week. Top Image Credit: House GOP LeaderNSA Uses Facebook And GPS Data To Identify Suspects In Networks Of Americans
Sep 28, 7:14PM
The National Security Agency has slowly been mapping it's own massive network of suspects with associations to US citizens. The New York Times obtained documents that reveals how the NSA is utilizing social data to map intelligence connections.Should Facebook Start Its Own Version Of Google Ventures?
Sep 28, 6:00PM
Over the past year, Facebook has seen its fair share of departures from employees and executives who are either starting a VC fund or camping out at a firm to figure out what their next startup or company will be. In the past two weeks, product manager Justin Shaffer left, and rumor has it he is starting a VC fund. Facebook engineering and product lead Greg Badros announced his departure, and it sounds like he'll be focusing on investing. Former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya has been collecting technical talent from Facebook into his EIR program. And there are many more examples of Facebookers going to VC firms or starting to invest of late. Our question is, why doesn't Facebook just form its own venture group so some of these employees could stay connected to the company?Gillmor Gang: Sensorship
Sep 28, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — new iPhone + new OS = continued Apple domination. Twitter vacillates between NYSE and NASDAQ. Age of Context The Book ships as publishing gestation shrinks from 9 months to 2 weeks. It is only toward the end of the show that someone in the chat notices @scobleizer isn't wearing Google Glass. Apple keeps on piling up yardage, reminding us not only of Steve Jobs' prophetic vision of the future, but his persistent hammerlock on our wallets.The Genius Of Twitter: A Paean
Sep 28, 1:00PM
It's the first app I launch in the morning, and the first I install on a new phone, and my most-visited web site. Which is strange, because I don't much like most social media. I'm on Facebook only reluctantly; 90% of my posts there are automatic reposts from my tweet stream. I want to like Google+, but I keep failing. Twitter, though, is the hub of my online life. Now that Twitter is officially on track to IPO it's being lavished with praise, which irks me.Bizness Apps Launches DIY Website Builder, Looks To Become A Full-Service Digital Marketing Suite For SMBs
Sep 28, 11:46AM
Once upon a time, if you wanted your own website, you either had to speak fluent Internet, or write a large check to someone who did. However, thanks to the laundry list of companies and services that have sprouted over the last five years — like Weebly, Wix and Squarespace, to name a few — the barriers to building a snappy website have vanished. Today, website creators are free, and the only technical skill required is the ability to locate the Internet. Today, as smartphones flood the market, a similar story is unfolding in app development. With their customers going mobile, businesses are eager to do the same. A bevy of services emerged to meet the growing demand, offering businesses a quick and easy way to create their apps for iOS, Android and beyond. Bizness Apps launched in 2010 to do just that, providing companies with a low-cost way to build their own mobile apps and website without needing to know how to code. But with so many options for DIY site builders, both mobile and desktop, these services have to differentiate themselves from the competition if they’re going to stand out — and survive. As a result, many choose to specialize, offering the same basic features as everyone else, while focusing on adding more features and value around, say, social networking, flier creation or shopping. Like SnapPages, to differentiate itself in this crowded market, Bizness Apps developed a white-label program to allow both companies and businesses to build mobile apps for their existing clients or SMBs in their local area. Shortly thereafter, the startup added a CRM platform to help its white-label resellers sell apps and websites to startups and other SMBs, and today Bizness Apps is adding the last piece of the puzzle. In a platform play that aims to round out its self-service development suite and sees it moving into the realm of the Weeblys, Wixes and Squarespaces of the world, the startup is today launching its own drag-and-drop, DIY website builder, called Bizness Web. The website creation service will allow SMBs to quickly design and publish a fully-functional website for desktop, smartphones and tablets in under 10 minutes, says founder and CEO Andrew Gazdecki — regardless of technical skill. In an effort to provide businesses with a feature set that’s comparable to its competitors, the website builder will offer a library of hundreds of templates, designedIt's Official, The Nirvanix Cloud Storage Service Is Shutting Down
Sep 28, 6:55AM
It's official, Nirvanix is shutting down its business. The cloud storage company has scrapped its web site, replacing it with a statement and how to get in touch with customer support.Software For Auto Repair: With New Funding In Tow, Estify Sees Big Opportunity In An Unsexy Market
Sep 28, 6:43AM
The collision industry probably doesn't rank at the top of the "Sexy Markets" list for startups, but sometimes the most obscure, fragmented and pulchritudinously challenged industries can offer the most opportunity to those willing to grit their teeth and immerse themselves in the mess. Estify, a graduate of Amplify LA's business accelerator, is doing just that. Co-founders Jordan Furniss, Derek Carr and Taylor Moss went looking for the most unsexy market they could find, with bonus points awarded for both size and level of inefficiency. They quickly found their Shangri-La: The collision and auto repair market.Where Webvan Failed And How Home Delivery 2.0 Could Succeed
Sep 28, 4:00AM
Webvan is well-known as the poster child of the dot-com "excess" bubble that led to the tech market crash in 2000. Business schools study Webvan's overly ambitious rush to the biggest IPO to date in Silicon Valley, as a prime example of what to avoid doing while scaling. Are those mistakes being repeated a dozen years later in the slew of activity -- even excitement -- in the home-delivery space?Chasefuture's Platform Coaches Mainland Chinese Students On University Admissions
Sep 28, 3:19AM
The allure of top-tier Western universities isn’t lessening anytime soon for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese high school graduates emerging out of the country’s best schools. That’s why a host of different startups helping mainland high school students with admissions like InitialView have cropped up in the last year or two. Chasefuture, a one-year-old startup from serial entrepreneur Greg Nance and Han Shao, is looking to be the go-to place for students across mainland China to study abroad in the U.S. or Europe. They are a platform that connects alums and admissions officers from top-tier Western universities to serve as mentors for students across China. “We basically bootstrapped our way to a top position in the study abroad consultation market,” said Nance, who moved to Shanghai a year ago after finishing up at Cambridge University’s business school. Chasefuture, which has 450 paid clients, is aiming to 10X that year to more than 4,000. They connect applying high school students to real admissions experts and mentors who are alums of their desired schools. Two-thirds of the company’s clients are in China, while the rest are mainly international students in the U.S. aiming for masters or Ph.D’s. So far, they’re sending 17 students to USC, 16 to Columbia University, 16 to Imperial College in the U.K., 11 to the London School of Economics, three to Cambridge’s business school for a master of finance. They have basic products that help with admissions essays and choosing schools, then higher-tier packages that can cost several thousand dollars depending on how much hands-on help a client wants. But they’re also particularly picky about who gets to join the program, with a 10 percent acceptance rate. (One could argue, of course, that they’re cherry-picking the candidates with the best chances anyway.) Nance says the company’s addressable market in China is maybe a quarter million students, who are looking to study abroad. To attract mentors, they look for alums or existing admissions experts who they pay about $40 an hour as a base. Nance says this is more than double what other competing platforms pay. If they are able to refer other quality mentors, they get a bonus as well.JustFab's Checkout Tactics Are JustShady
Sep 28, 2:53AM
This Hacker News complaint about JustFab scamming a user's girlfriend -- which gets resubmitted whenever JustFab raises money -- is a little off, because JustFab is not a scam in the traditional sense. The company is, however, abusing a tricky UI, loaded with dark pattern design gimmicks like forced continuity and sneak into basket -- all in the name of getting customers to sign up for a JustFab VIP membership they may not have wanted.Palantir Is Raising $197M In Growth Capital, SEC Filing Shows
Sep 28, 1:13AM
Palantir, the big data company that has counted the NSA, the FBI and the CIA among its clientele, is raising up to $196.5 million in growth capital, according to an SEC filing. The company declined to say who the new funding was from, according to Lisa Gordon, who handles media and government relations for the company. Another source close to the company says the round is also not finalized yet. Morgan Stanley is managing the deal, according to the filing. Forbes reported last month that a round could value the company at between $5 and 8 billion. Founded back in 2004, the company was the brainchild of Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, who believed that the payments company’s anti-fraud technologies could be used to fight terrorism. Current CEO Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale (who went on to found Asia and Silicon Valley-focused investment firm Formation 8), Stephen Cohen and chief technology officer Nathan Gettings put together an initial product. It’s now become an analysis platform that government agencies use to manage the war against terrorism and drug trafficking. Palantir’s platform pulls disparate reams of data and puts them together in a way that makes otherwise hard-to-detect patterns and connections much more visible to users. It’s since grown into a business that Karp says may do $1 billion in contracts next year. It is not yet profitable, however. The company’s earlier investors include Founders Fund, Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman and Ben Ling among others.Wish, The App For Logging What You Want, Launches A Complementary Gifting Feature
Sep 27, 11:39PM
Well, folks, it’s September. The holiday gift giving season is ON! Wish, the mobile shopping app that lets users create lists of items they would like to purchase later, has launched Gifting, a feature that enables others to purchase and ship products to their friends. It draws from users’ existing wishlists and uses them to predict other items they would like. It’s a frazzled gift giver’s dream. Gifting has been part of the plan since the inception of the app, Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski said, which makes every bit of sense, since it’s the natural other half to wishlist creation. At this point, Wish is seeing half a million people on the app daily, at an average session length of 29 minutes. According to Szulczewski, sending presents was already a use case among Wish users prior to the feature’s launch this week. In looking at transactions, the team realized that people were requesting different shipping addresses for their purchases in order to send items to their friends. In addition to allowing users to create and share targeted wishlists (the easiest way to get it right), Gifting also predicts items that friends most want and uses social integration to notify users on their friends’ birthdays. “We use collaborative filtering in the same way that Amazon.com uses it,” Szulczewski said. “People that buy this will also buy these items.” As Szulczewski explained, the Wish demographic skews toward the young and female. Gifting is a way to access an older demographic, like fathers who don’t really know what to buy their daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. While there are a slew of gifting apps out there — like Giftly for gift cards, the locally-focused Yiftee, Karma, and Wrapp — the fact that Wish draws on pre-existing knowledge of the recipient’s likes ups the giver’s odds of nailing it. Wish has been bulking out its features this summer, having launched Wish Closet in late July to provide users a platform to resell their clothing. The plan is to grow internationally. Currently 55% of usage comes from North America, although there are growing communities in Europe and Latin America, which Szulczewski said present huge opportunities to grow the brand.Microsoft Extends Its Trade-In Program: $200+ For Your "Gently Used" iPhone 4S, 5
Sep 27, 11:32PM
Microsoft wants to take your Apple product off your hands, today expanding its trade-in programs to allow owners of dated iPhone hardware to cash in their now-passĂ© electronics. If you own an iPhone 4S or 5 that is “gently used” and not much worse, Microsoft will offer you no less than $200 for it. The kicker? The funds come in the form of Microsoft Store credit, so you are trading in your Apple hardware for the chance to buy Microsoft goods. What does Microsoft want? That you drop that iPhone off with them and wander out with a Surface 2 pre-order or a Lumia Windows Phone handset. Microsoft has cash and wants market share; this is a natural outgrowth of those two facts. Microsoft also has in place a deal that will grant store credit for iPads. In short, if you have an Apple device that Microsoft competes with – recall that Microsoft doesn’t build PCs that are not tablet-based, through its Surface line – it wants to buy it from you and get you onto its own hardware. In a way the move is ballsy: Microsoft is betting its own money that you will be content with its wares after a long stint on Apple silicon. And it is paying to make the wager. Precisely what Microsoft intends to do with all its accumulated Apple hardware remains opaque. Microsoft is in the process of purchasing Nokia’s handset business, and recently announced new Surface hardware that replaces its first-generation attempts at OEM supremacy. Expect more moves like this to support Microsoft’s yet-nascent devices business. Top Image Credit: brett jordanFormer Microsoftie And Googler Lucovsky Leaves VMware For New Project, No Word On Chairs Thrown
Sep 27, 11:11PM
VMware VP of Engineering Mark Lucovsky is leaving the virtualization giant for a ‘new chapter’ he’s referring to as ‘#nine’ on Twitter. Lucovsky has been with VMware for around four years and before that held positions at Google and Microsoft. VMware told GigaOm that “during his more than four years at VMware, Mark Lucovsky has been an important contributor to the company's developer efforts as a Vice President of Engineering, including his work to help establish VMware's Cloud Foundry which is now part of Pivotal. We thank Mark for his contributions and wish him well.” At Google, Lucovsky served as an engineering director working on its API strategies. Since he went there from Microsoft, where he worked on Windows NT, a lot of people read into his hiring as a harbinger of a ‘Google OS’. Lucovsky spent 16 years at Microsoft working on a variety of projects including the ‘open web’ project HailStorm, which never quite materialized. He was awarded the title of ‘Distinguished Engineer’. Though he worked on many projects during his Microsoft tenure, the most memorable anecdote of his career there undoubtedly came when he told CEO Steve Ballmer that he was going to leave for Google. A statement given in a corporate poaching case between Microsoft and Google back in 2004 paints a vivid picture: Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure….At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google. At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." …. Thereafter, Mr. Ballmer resumed trying to persuade me to stay….Among other things, Mr. Ballmer told me that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards." Lucovsky only used the cryptic hashtag to indicate what he might be up to next, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for more. It is doubtful any chairs were thrown when Lucovsky turned in his notice after 5 years with VMware.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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