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Help Desk Software Developer Zendesk Raises $19 Million
Dec 07, 4:57AM
Customer support startup Zendesk has raised $19 million in Series C funding led by Matrix Partners with existing investors Benchmark Capital and Charles River Ventures participating in the round. This brings Zendesk's total funding to over $25.5 million. Launched in 2008, Zendesk offers a web-based, SaaS-delivered help desk / support ticketing application that gives companies a simple way to manage incoming support requests from end customers.
Andy Rubin At Dive Into Mobile: The Consumers Have Spoken
Dec 07, 4:13AM
Speaking at the Dive Into Mobile conference today, Google's Andy Rubin (besides showing off Honeycomb) had a few interesting, but not too controversial, things to say about Android and its competitors. The primary message he seemed to be pushing was that the consumers were being allowed more than ever to shape the market, and that Google is subject to their whims as much as anyone else, though perhaps (in his opinion) more willing to accommodate. Although Android is a runaway success by many measures, it has its weaknesses, a couple of which were probed by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, who were conducting the interview. First on their minds seemed to be the small impact, not to say failure, of the Nexus One, and the efforts of carriers to "personalize" Android. Rubin then weighed in on a few other issues of medium weight.
Andy Rubin Shows Off Android 3.0 On Prototype Motorola Tablet
Dec 07, 3:51AM
Andy Rubin is, as I type this, in the middle of a demo of Android 3.0 (AKA Honeycomb) at Dive Into Mobile. The rest of his talk I've got written up elsewhere, but this was too cool to pass up. The software is running on a prototype tablet from Motorola that looks really slick, though it was only out for a moment and there are but few pictures at the moment. I'll be updating this post as more information breaks. First thing he showed off was a new lock screen and then what appeared to be a brand new "desktop" with widgets and buttons in the corners. Different UI aesthetic than earlier versions of Android. He then launched the new, 3D-and-vector-based version of Google Maps that should be coming to your phone in just a couple days.
Android Map App Will Get 3D Buildings, Compass Orientation, And Offline Capabilities
Dec 07, 3:32AM
The Google Map App on Android phones will soon get a major upgrade which will allow it to render map images a lot faster, incorporate 3D buildings, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map. In a talk this evening at the D Mobile conference, Android chief Andy Rubin gave a sneak peak of the new app. At the heart of the new app is a dynamic map rendering engine which draws maps as you use them, and offers smoother transitions when zooming in and out of different levels. The dynamic rendering will also make it possible to start to show 3D buildings as you zoom into the street-level view. The touch screen will allow you to tilt and rotate the map and buildings. 
Choose Your Own Adventure: If Groupon Were Acquired By …
Dec 07, 1:44AM
If Groupon's rebuke of Google last Friday taught us anything, it's that sometimes the coolness conferred by just saying no is worth more than any amount money no matter how astronomical. But still, you can't help but think of what might have been if Groopon, Groogle or whatever you chose to call it had actually come to fruition.
Tumblr Finally Starts Recovering After 24 Hours Of Downtime
Dec 07, 1:37AM
Popular blogging service Tumblr is finally recovering from its seemingly endless downtime. The final tally: over 24 hours, based on the tweet Tumblr sent out around 4PM PST yesterday announcing that it was "working quickly to recover from a major issue in one of our database clusters." Tumblr followed that up over the ensuing day with some intermittent (and overly optimistic) status updates, and tweeted an hour ago that "All blogs are online and we're incrementally restoring access to the Dashboard." Note that Tumbr isn't fully functional yet, as only some users can add content to their sites now. But at least visitors aren't getting an error message any more. 
Gmail: Priority Inbox Is Working; Users Spending 15 Percent Less Time Reading Email
Dec 07, 1:27AM
Back in August, when Google launched Priority Inbox for Gmail, we praised it. And rightfully so. It took many of our nightmare inboxes and turned them into dreams. Well, okay, let's not get crazy. But it did make them more manageable. And now Google has so stats to share to prove it. When looking at the median numbers, Google has found that Gmail Priority Inbox users spend 43 percent more time reading "important" emails versus "unimportant" ones. But even more impressive is the overall stat: Priority Inbox users spend 15 percent less time reading email than Gmail users who don't have it turned on. That's actually pretty staggering.
Pearltrees Dives Into Social Curating With Pearltrees Team
Dec 07, 1:22AM
Content curation and mapping service Pearltrees has decided to focus on the fact that people want to do things in groups and has as of today upgraded its core product with a groups functionality, called Pearltrees Team. Now accesible just by logging in, Pearltrees Team allows you to hook up with other people in order to create a Pearltree collaboratively in realtime.
WITN: Rambling Hotel Complaint Edition (Plus Some Ideas For Travel Businesses)
Dec 07, 12:53AM
Not satisfied with upsetting the entire London web sector, Paul is apparently determined to take on the city's hospitality industry too. For the first three minutes of this week's Why Is This News he abuses his TechCrunch power to vent at the St Martins Lane Hotel for banning him from doing press interviews in his hotel room. Which we're sure viewers will agree is the most egregious corporate abuse of power since Steve Jobs was forced to wait for a table at Flour + Water. Still, the self-interested preamble eventually gives way to the main topics of the show: how un-disruptive the hotel industry still is, and Sarah and Paul's ideas for businesses that might make travel less painful. How much would you pay for a pack that gives you everything you need to survive in a strange new city? Video below. (Contains swearing about how much Paul hates the St Martins Lane Hotel)
SunTech Power Forecasts Brighter 2011
Dec 07, 12:24AM
SunTech Power Holdings Co. (NYSE: STP) — the largest solar panel maker in the world— delivered an optimistic 2011 forecast to investor analysts on Monday. The Wuxi, China-based company with significant market share and operations in the U.S. expects its sales next year to grow by a minimum of one-fifth, and its revenue to reach $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion. ...The company's forecasts for technological developments were also reasonably rosy. 
Zynga's CityVille Springs To A Metropolis Overnight (Surprised?)
Dec 06, 11:01PM
Late last week, Zynga launched CityVille, its latest flagship title that's sure to draw millions of rabid fans. The game represents Zynga's entry into the very popular (and already-crowded) city-building genre, which also includes Digital Chocolate's Millionaire City, and competing titles from Playfish, Crowdstar, and Playdom. But Zynga's got this down to a science, and its late start hasn't kept CityVille from quickly gaining a ton of users. Zynga reports that in the game's first 24 hours, over 290,000 people played CityVille. That's more than double the 116,000 that Zynga's last title, FrontierVille, saw in its first 24 hours. And FrontierVille is no slouch — it's now at 6.5 million players a day, with 29,872,423 monthly active users. Zynga says CityVille is its biggest launch to date. 
InfoHubble Secures Seed Funding To Link Geo-data To Local Search
Dec 06, 10:45PM
We know that a lot of mobile search is increasingly driven by local search. According to research from Google and the Kelsey Group last year, as much as 35%. Heck, isn't this the future we keep hearing about? Delivering information about things around you, direct to your mobile phone? However, good geographic data is not normally attached to mobile search. So real-time local data is going to be incredibly important going forward. Sunstone Capital has made something of a name for itself as an investor in geo-related startups with positions in trailblazers like Layar and Cloudmade, and today it is adding to that with a seed investment in InfoHubble (terms were undisclosed) alongside angel investor Tommy Ahlers. Ahlers is best known for exiting Zyb to Vodafone for €31.5m. 
Help The Children, And Win A Ticket To The Crunchies
Dec 06, 10:38PM
As the holiday season approaches, Silicon Valley companies are partnering to make social media history in support of an amazing cause: UCSF Challenge for the Children. As we covered before, the team that gets the highest number of contributors (with a minimum donation of only $10), will be able to gift and name "The Link," a children's activity space for learning play and discovery in this new hospital. To really get this competition moving, HP is launching a mini-challenge that kicks off today. HP will match every single donation made between now and midnight Dec. 12th PST. Any donation up to $10,000 will be matched! Meaning, HP has offered to support all levels of contribution to the children's hospital, whether it's $10 or $1,000. Not only will HP be matching all donations made up to $10,000, our own Michael Arrington will be personally matching the first $10,000 in donations through TechCrunch. 
The Google Nexus "S": Because Samsung Doesn't Like Being No. 2
Dec 06, 9:24PM
When rumors first broke about Google's second Nexus phone it was referred to as the Nexus Two. That's because even people inside Google called it that. And that was supposed to be the launch name. Google launched the phone formally today, which is built by Samsung. Except they didn't announce the "Nexus Two," they announced the "Nexus S." Our review of the Nexus S is here. Why the change? When Google suggested "Nexus Two," since it is the second Nexus phone, Samsung's response was, according to a source, "We don't like being number two."
Whoomp! There It Is… The Crunchies Awards 2010!
Dec 06, 9:05PM
Many of you have been searching high and low for news, and here it is! We're happy to announce the Crunchies are here once again and we're taking nominations! The Crunchies Awards celebrate the best technology achievements of 2010 and we are pleased to have GigaOm and VentureBeat co-hosts the event with us once again. We may compete fiercely for scoops every day, but once a year we all come together as a community to celebrate startups and the year's great technology accomplishments. And you, our readers, help determine who can vie for, and ultimately win, the various prizes. To make the Crunchies possible, we need you! Since our readers help determine the ultimate winner of the coveted gorilla award, we need you to get out there and nominate the best startups, apps, entrepreneurs, and investors in 20 different categories. Nominations open today and will close Friday night, December 24 at midnight PST. Self-nominations are welcome. 
Does Wikileaks Represent The End Of Internet History?
Dec 06, 8:38PM
Look at Matt Drudge, freaking out over Wikileaks' so-called "insurance policy" against Julian Assange's arrest. READY TO LAUNCH "DOOMSDAY FILES," Drudge screams. (Red font, too. All we need is a siren.gif and we're in full meltdown mode.) And Doomsday for whom, exactly? I mean, as of today, all Wikileaks has done is to make available a number of documents that were already available to some 3 million Americans. So if this information is already available to 3 million of our fellow citizens, why not us? Is it wrong for the citizens of a republic to know what's being done in their name around the world, or does the demand for transparency stop at your ability to stream Netflix movies?
TCTV Video Review: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. The BMW M3 Killer.
Dec 06, 8:17PM
It's not easy to get over the fact that the Germans have dominated the high-performance luxury car segment year after year. So, when I got hold of the Cadillac CTS-V coupe, I knew that it would be hard to be a fair judge. This car would really have to blow my socks off if it had any shot of taking out the M3. My experiences with GM vehicles haven't always been positive. But, I got it through my head that I would get over my ego and give it a fair and balanced review. Shouldn't be too hard. 
Reading A Google eBook On My iPad
Dec 06, 7:34PM
Earlier today, Google launched its eBook store with 3 million books, many of them free. I've been playing around with it on my iPad even though there is no iPad app yet. That is because you can read the books in your browser. iPad and Android apps are available, but if Google can make the browser reading experience just as compelling, people won't need those apps. So far, however, the in-browser reader is a disappointment. My big problem with the browser version of Google's eBook reader is that it doesn't take advantage of the Web, or even HTML5.
MoPub, The DoubleClick For Mobile, Gets Seed Funding From Accel & Harrison Metal
Dec 06, 6:53PM
It's no secret that everyone believes the mobile advertising space is going to be huge. Massively, massively huge. If you need any proof of this, just look to Android. That's essentially the entire reason it exists. In fact, it could be a $3 billion business by 2014, MoPub CEO Jim Payne believes. Not surprisingly, the investors are right there with him in that belief. MoPub, a service which can most easily be thought of as "DoubleClick for mobile", has just received a seed round of funding from Accel Partners and Harrison Metal Capital. The ad-serving platform for mobile apps and websites is an obvious bet as both Rich Wong of Accel and Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal have been heavily involved in the mobile space, with companies like GetJar and AdMob.
WikiLeaks' One True Home Is Twitter, But For How Long?
Dec 06, 6:34PM
With Amazon, Paypal and EveryDNS.net dissolving their relationships to WikiLeaks, leaving it without a stable home and a way to make money, Twitter currently serves as the only solid ground the Internet whistleblower has to stand on. This has left many wondering whether or not Twitter will eventually take down the @wikileaks account if put under enough pressure, from lawmakers or otherwise. In fact it's pretty interesting that the account is still up. Twitter has co-operated with the government before, postponing performing maintenance so Iranians could tweet in the aftermath of the Iran 2009 presidential election. The company even recently hired a DC liaison to deepen its relationship to Washington.
ESPN: Only 0.11 Percent Of Households Have Cut The Cord (And These Aren't Hipster Households Either)
Dec 06, 6:25PM
ESPN has just released a study that sheds some light on people's cord cutting habits—or lack thereof. Using Nielsen data, ESPN has determined that a paltry 0.11 percent of U.S. households have dropped cable and/or satellite TV over the past three months. That rounds down to essentially nobody in my estimation. Even more interesting is exactly who these cord cutters are, and they're not who you'd most likely suspect. It turns out that, of the 0.11 percent of people who cut the cord, they're "mainly middle-aged, middle-income households and persons who are light or non-streamers. In short, cord cutters are more likely to be recession-challenged householders making hard choices about their expenses." In other words, everything you thought you knew about cord cutting is probably wrong.
U.S. Online Advertising Expected to Grow 14 Percent in 2010
Dec 06, 5:08PM
Online ad spending is expected to grow nearly 14 percent this year in the U.S. to $25.8 billion, according to a revised forecast by eMarketer. Its last forecast in May projected about 11 percent growth to $25.1 billion. The market research firm also expects U.S. online advertising to keep growing at double-digit rates through 2014, when it estimates the total will reach $40.5 billion. Obviously, these estimates are moving targets, and will be revised again, but they do give a sense of where expectations lie today. eMarketer arrives at its numbers by looking at other research estimates and coming up with its own meta-estimate. As a percentage of total media spending, the online component will grow from 15.3 percent in 2010 to 21.5 percent in 2014 (based on total media spending of $168.5 billion in 2010 and $188.5 billion in 2014)
Loopt 4.0: Redesigned, Facebook-Heavy, And Location-Based Texting
Dec 06, 5:02PM
Much has already been written about how Loopt was perhaps a bit too early to the location game for their own good. But that doesn't mean they're not out there still trying new things to keep their over 4 million users and entice new ones to join. The latest such effort is Loopt 4.0, their latest mobile app. The first thing you'll notice about Loopt 4.0 is that it has been entirely redesigned. More importantly, the app has been significantly simplified, to clean up the user experience. On the main screen you can now quickly jump to five areas: Me, Settings, Places, Friends, and Map. The last three are the most important because that's where you will check-in and see where your friends are.
Now Is The Time In Sprockets When We Cut A Hole In An iPad
Dec 06, 4:37PM
This appears to be a "viral video" for SayHiToSpace with whois records pointing to a server in Russia. While the Waterjet they use is pretty incredible, I love the guy who who steps right up to Steve at the end and asks "Where is the camera!" In a few years he'll be an excellent I AM DISSAPOINT stand-in.
Can It Be A Huge Bubble If Only A Few People Are Blowing It?
Dec 06, 4:26PM
"You wanna know what the mother of all bubbles was? Us. The human race." That's Gordon Gekko in the distinctly-mediocre Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. This weekend brought a rush of stories about a "bubble" that may or may not be re-inflating in Silicon Valley. The New York Times kicked it off, venture capitalist Fred Wilson (who is featured prominently in the story) quickly responded, and then Newsweek weighed in just to make sure the "Bubble 2.0" moniker was secure. Uh oh, right? Not so fast.
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