Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
$1 Billion Isn't Cool. You Know What's Cool? $50 Billion. Goldman And Facebook Agree.
Jan 03, 6:04AM
While everyone has been busy wondering when Facebook was going to IPO, most were looking past the first question: how is Facebook going to IPO? But not TechCrunch alum Evelyn Rusli and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Tonight the pair are reporting that Goldman Sachs has just led a major new investment in the social network. An investment that values it at a nice round $50 billion. And the likely reason is so Goldman can take Facebook public. More specifically, Goldman has invested $450 million in Facebook while Russian firm (and current large stakeholder) Digital Sky Technologies threw in another $50 million for a total of $500 million in this round. But the round is more complicated than that as apparently Goldman will be able to unload some of its stake to DST, according to the report.
The "Digital Newsstand" Race Becomes: Who Is More Willing To Trick Users, Apple Or Google?
Jan 03, 3:37AM
Breaking news: old school publishers seem hell-bent on insuring their content doesn't catch on in the red-hot tablet space. A story in the Wall Street Journal this evening details how Google, Apple, Amazon and others are all racing to try to do deals with major publishers in order to set up their "digital newsstands". Of course, all of this has been going on for months now as the publishers seem to be aware that tablets (okay, really just the iPad so far) are actually taking off this time and they'd be wise to get on board. The problem, naturally, is that they want to be on board on their terms. And those, naturally, are old school terms. In other words, out-of-date and somewhat sleazy terms.
Square Starts 2011 with A New Round At A Big Valuation
Jan 03, 12:47AM
While much of Silicon Valley spent the last two weeks skiing or otherwise reveling in all that money made this year from acquisitions, partial liquidations and secondary deals, Square founder Jack Dorsey was apparently hard at work. TechCrunch has learned that Square is in the process of closing a large round of funding. The company is being valued, we hear from multiple sources, at somewhere close to $200 million. We don't have confirmation on who did it, but we hear that Sequoia Capital was in the mix to lead this round, along with previous investor Khosla Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Our sources say Sequoia ended up on top and will lead the round. A strategic investor is also likely to invest, sources say. Someone like Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. 
Apple iPad And iPhone 4 Top eBay's Most Popular Searches For 2010
Jan 02, 11:42PM
With eBay handling more than 2 billion U.S. product searches a quarter, the marketplace can show what items are most desirable in a given time. We recently wrote about what was trending on eBay during the holiday shopping period, and today the market place is releasing its most popular product searches in 2010. Apple dominated the list, with the iPad and iPhone 4 taking the top two spots, respectively. These gadgets were followed by Victoria's Secret, Nintendo Wii Games, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Nikon d90, diamond ring, sunglasses and laptops. 
Like 'Twitter For iPad'? Check Out Its Facebook Counterpart, Facepad
Jan 02, 9:48PM
In what has become one of the not-so-great mysteries of technology, Facebook still hasn't launched a native iPad application nine months after the device made its debut, despite the fact that many thousands — perhaps even millions — of people search for it every day. Of course, that hasn't stopped some enterprising developers from launching Facebook applications of their own — 'Friendly for Facebook', which is made by a third-party, has become one of the App Store's most successful applications. But that application is hardly perfect, and now it has a new challenger: Facepad, a Facebook application that has clearly taken many design cues from Twitter's innovative iPad application, which was released in September. The similarities are obvious, but that isn't a bad thing. 
FriendFeed Traffic Is Actually Up Since The Facebook Deal; Thanks Largely To Turkey
Jan 02, 8:50PM
FriendFeed. You remember it, right? It was that awesome service that Facebook acquired in August 2009. It was a smart deal all around. Facebook got an awesome team of developers and product people, while FriendFeed got to translate some of what they were doing to a service with a reach as large as any on the web. Unfortunately, it was a somewhat raw deal for many of the people who actually used FriendFeed. While the team and Facebook said it would be staying up, many users left and for most it became a ghost town. Or did it? There's a hot thread on Quora right now talking about the demise of FriendFeed called: Does anyone still use Friendfeed? Why? So far, there are 29 answers, many from people in the tech community who still do use it to surface information (this is what I loved it for as well). But the best answer comes from Bret Taylor, one of the service's co-founders, who is now the CTO for Facebook.
Seven Technologies That Will Rock 2011
Jan 02, 6:32PM
So here we are in a new decade, and the technologies that are now available to us continue to engage (and enthrall) in fascinating ways. The rise and collision of several trends—social, mobile, touch computing, geo, cloud—keep spitting out new products and technologies which keep propelling us forward. Below I highlight seven technologies that are ready to tip into the mainstream 2011. Before I get into my predictions, let's see how I did last year, when I wrote "Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010." Some of my picks were spot on: the Tablet (hello, iPad), Geo (Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, mobile location-aware search, etc.), Realtime Search (it became an option on Google) and Android (now even bigger than the iPhone). Some are still playing out: HTML5 (it's made great strides, but isn't quite here yet), Augmented Reality (lots of cool apps have AR functionality, but for the most part it is still a parlor trick), Mobile Video (FaceTime and streaming video apps pushed it forward), Mobile Transactions (Square and other transaction processing options came onto the scene), and Social CRM (Salesforce pushed Chatter, and tons of social CRM startups pushed their wares, but enterprises are always slow to adopt). And one got pushed to 2011: Chrome OS (we are still waiting). What's in store for 2011? Some of these themes will continue to evolve, and some new ones will gain currency. Here are seven technologies poised to rock in the new year:
2011: The Enterprise Resets
Jan 02, 3:20PM
On a recent call, an analyst shared a story about a company whose IT infrastructure was completely wiped out in a natural disaster. Forced to start from scratch, the company reinvented the spirit and composition of its enterprise IT strategy, and the set of solutions that emerged from the rubble made their organization inherently more mobile and efficient. Which begs the question: what would enterprise IT look like if all companies were afforded the opportunity to "start over?" In 2011, we might just find out. Other less destructive but incredibly powerful drivers for change are at work, and the coming year will be one of massive transformation in the enterprise. The cloud has tipped for the enterprise IDC forecasts that worldwide IT spending will hit $1.6 trillion this year, with 13% growth coming from software and services, and public cloud solutions making up the largest growth area. Cloud services are no longer on the periphery. 2011 will make this undoubtedly clear, bringing a massive wave of adoption, innovation and transformation as the cloud crosses the chasm from the early adopters to larger, more pragmatic organizations.
TextWeight Tracks Your Weight Loss Progress, Bugs You Through SMS
Jan 02, 7:55AM
For me and many others "lose weight" isn't just a New Year's Day resolution, it's an every single morning one. But yeah, there's nothing like a crashing boozy halt to a December spent scarfing crappy chocolates and piling on the gravy to make you feel like you should hit the gym, especially after hitting the scales. A simple service created by Kevin Morrill, textWeight holds you to your New Year's weight loss resolutions by sending you a reminder text at 8am every morning, to which you reply (on the honor system) with your weight. textWeight then creates a graph of your weight loss progress, so you can measure every pound lost towards your goal over time.
AOL's Awkward Billboard Ad About Your Boss
Jan 02, 7:06AM
"Come work for AOL before your boss does." I still don't get why our parent company spells AOL in all caps but uses "Aol" in its logo. There's probably a memo around here somewhere that explains it. But that isn't what this post is about. This is a picture of a new billboard ad recently put up along highway 101 in Silicon Valley, visible to southbound traffic around the Whipple exit a few miles north of Palo Alto. We first heard about it from a tipster, who called it "odd." And I agree.
Streamonomics
Jan 02, 3:11AM
God bless 2010 as the year when everybody, including Twitter, caught up to Twitter. Now that we know the importance of streaming realtime, what are we going to do with it? I've been doing some thinking as I recover from a pinched nerve that has made it agony to do anything other than feel sorry for myself. Thanks to painkillers, acupuncture, and the iPad, I'm slowly regaining most everything but my sense of humor. Luckily, the world continues to provide comedy (Rose Parade announcer Bob Eubanks tagging a marching band version of I Want to Hold Your Hand by hoping Stevie Wonder was listening) as we struggle to graft new technologies onto old memories and habits. Twitter provided a running commentary on this effort, from the 3D version of the Yuletime burning logs channel to Yoko suggesting John would have loved Twitter and Facebook. It certainly would have shortened the Lost Weekend. Imagine (cough) his tweet stream: Crawled off to sleep in the bath, isn't it good @NorwegianWood. 
Facebook Close To Naming Sun Microsystems Campus As New Headquarters
Jan 02, 1:16AM
It's been less than two years since Facebook moved into its 150,000 square foot office space at 1601 South California Ave in Palo Alto, but the rapidly growing company is already itching for a new home. Now we're hearing from multiple sources that Facebook has chosen the site for its new headquarters: the former Sun Microsystems/Oracle campus in Menlo Park CA, just off the Bayfront Expressway at 1601 Willow Road (map). The campus is around six miles from Facebook's current home, and is bordered by Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. The move doesn't come as a surprise. Facebook had practically outgrown its current offices on S. California Ave before it even moved in, and it's already subleased additional space at 1050 Page Mill Road, just down the street from its current location (employees can take shuttles between the two buildings, but it's not very convenient). With over 2,000 employees and no signs of slowing, the company needs a lot more leg room.
California Bill Criminalizing Online Impersonations In Effect Starting Today
Jan 01, 10:29PM
California's SB 1411, which adds a layer of criminal and civil penalties for certain online impersonations, goes into effect starting today. The consequences include a fine of up to $1,000, and/ or up to a year in jail. So don't go and do something crazy like impersonate Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Facebook. There may be consequences. The full text and a summary of the bill are below. There's a good overview and analysis of it as well, on ZDNet. The state has created a new crime, and a new section is being added to the penal code.
Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google
Jan 01, 3:25PM
This semester, my students at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley researched the VC system from the perspective of company founders. We prepared a detailed survey; randomly selected 500 companies from a venture database; and set out to contact the founders. Thanks to Reid Hoffman, we were able to get premium access to LinkedIn—which provided a wealth of information. But some of the founders didn't have LinkedIn accounts, and others didn't respond to our LinkedIn "inmails". So I instructed my students to use Google searches to research each founder's work history, by year, and to track him or her down in that way. But it turns out that you can't easily do such searches in Google any more. Google has become a jungle: a tropical paradise for spammers and marketers. Almost every search takes you to websites that want you to click on links that make them money, or to sponsored sites that make Google money. There's no way to do a meaningful chronological search.
Why Is This News – Live NYE Spotify US Launch Countdown Edition!
Jan 01, 7:55AM
It's fair to say that, of all of the writers at TechCrunch, we're the ones who have been most skeptical about Swedish music startup (and newly-minted verb) Spotify. And for what reason? Because the company lied to us on multiple occasions? Because they routinely brief journalists with off the record half-truths, and then later deny those same reports? Because CEO Daniel Ek (pronounced "Eek" - he's Swedish) still refuses to go on the record with us? Sure, those are all good reasons. But really our most consistant beef with Spotify has been the company's inability to launch in the US, despite briefing reporters for the past TWO YEARS that such a launch is imminent.
A List Of The Best Of The Best Meme Lists Of 2010
Jan 01, 4:55AM
In this decade the Internet replaced television as our primary mode of disseminating culture. Many people are more familiar with Antoine Dodson's "Hide your kids/Hide your wife" than any catchphrase currently on television (Remember the days of being able to say stuff you heard on TV like "No soup for you" or "Don't have a cow, man" and have other people actually get what you mean?). There's only so many times you can write posts around the theme "Hey, the Internet is now important" without inciting commenter revolt or a punch in the face. But the sheer number of meme round-ups found online today is testament to the fact that the web has won. So instead of making a list of my favorites, I'll post some of the best lists of memes out there. Because I can and because it's the only way to win. And because, like any connoisseur of memes knows, you can't have viral culture without recursion. 
An iPhone Lover's Take On The Nexus S
Jan 01, 1:58AM
There's a scene in Iron Man 2 in which Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) shows off the mechanical soliders he has been working on — his would-be "Iron Man-killers". Unfortunately, while they may look somewhat impressive, his machines malfunction and the demo goes horribly awry. His knock-offs are junk. This scene reminds me a lot of what the first Android phone, the G1, was like when compared to the iPhone. Luckily for Google, things have improved substantially since then — and without the help of a Russian Mickey Rourke. Well, presumably anyway. We've already done a big, comprehensive review of the Nexus S, the latest and greatest Android device. But as I like to do (see: the bottom of this post), I'm going to look at it from the angle of an iPhone diehard. After all, this is widely considered to be the best Android device yet. So will it be enough to make any iPhone user jump ship? And since this is currently the only device running Android 2.3 "Gingerbread", what's the overall state of the OS? First of all, the Nexus S is a great smartphone. I've been using it for a little over two weeks now and I think I can safely say that in a world where there was no iPhone, this is the device I would use. While I like a number of fundamental things about Windows Phone more, Android is more mature. And more importantly, the ecosystem is far more built-out. Plus, the Google apps on the device are enough to entice anyone.
How Space Jam's Website Went Viral. Space Jam's 1996 Website, That Is.
Jan 01, 12:53AM
A couple of days ago Reddit user Jeff Ubelhor was talking to his friends about something or other and Space Jam, the movie starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan, came up (he swears they weren't stoned). They checked on the website and realized that it hadn't been touched since 1996. "From there I decided to post it on Reddit," says Ubelhor "Because I thought it was hilarious, not only the design, but just how different Internet marketing was 14 years ago."
My 23-Year-Old Self Was Wrong About Salon.com. Like, Really Wrong.
Jan 01, 12:12AM
A few hours to go until 2011, and I'm busy drawing up my list of New Year's resolutions. A major one: to stop writing about TechCrunch commenters. After all, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, it's like wrestling with a pig: you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it. Still, that leaves me just enough time - eight hours, and counting - to sneak in one last journey over to the dark side. And perhaps it's fitting that the final salvo in my war against trolls has a happy ending. A Christmas miracle, even.
OMG/JK: Shiny Hats And Crystal Balls
Dec 31, 11:35PM
It's time for a special New Years-themed edition of OMG/JK, and we've really gone all out with our costumes. From shiny hats to incredibly cheap kazoos, we're ready to ring in 2011 with a bang. Oh, and we've got some technology to talk about. Because there hasn't been much major news in the tech world this week, we decided to spend most of the show discussing some of the big trends that are inevitably going to make headlines throughout 2011. From Apple's likely push to the cloud to the consumer launch of ChromeOS and Android's arrival on tablets we've got a lot to look forward to — and we're not afraid to make some predictions.
A Look At Some Of The Biggest Tech Stories Of 2010
Dec 31, 10:17PM
It's New Year's Eve, and there's nothing that compliments a glass of celebratory champagne better than reflecting on the past year in technology news (really, it's a blast). One of the best roundups just went up over on Techmeme, which has posted its annual "quasi-objective" list of the top 50 stories based how many links and citations each post received. The top five stories shouldn't come as a surprise, but they're a good reminder of what's gone on this year (apparently people like to write about Google and Apple): 
Drunk TechCrunch Is Drunk. (Happy New Year!)
Dec 31, 7:53PM
It's New Year's Eve and you know what that means — an adult beverage or two might be had by many people around the world this evening. That includes many TechCrunch staffers. And while drunk blogging is generally frowned upon, it would be interesting to see what the site would look like if everyone wrote while intoxicated. (Yes, yes, insert the NOT THAT DIFFERENT joke here.) Luckily, Zaraguza Digital has created a web app to allow us to see such a site without any of the risk (or the hangover). Simply visit this link and start moving the slider along the bottom to set the blood alcohol level. Obviously, at 0.0, things look normal. At 0.5, things look fine for the most part with a few more typos. At about 1.5 to 2.0 things start getting fun. And clearly, our developers would be getting in on some hardcore drunk coding action as well.
How To Avoid Getting Fired From Your Own Company
Dec 31, 4:56PM
If you start a company, it will probably happen to you someday. Maybe it will be your VC or a board member. Maybe it will be your co-founder. Sooner or later, they'll try to fire you. I'm an investor in or advisor to dozens of startups, and at least once a quarter, I get the call: "Chris, they're trying to fire me." (The other urgent call I get is when they're negotiating a financing round, merger, or sale. I much prefer those calls!) Most entrepreneurs are surprised the first time their investors or co-founders try to fire them. They can't imagine being banished from the company that they created. Maybe they were the only employee of the company for years. Maybe they recruited and courted the very person who comes to carry out the execution. The sad fact is, founder firings are the rule, not the exception.
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Dec 31, 3:56PM
My advice for the new year: go East and South, young man and woman ... and investor. America, Europe, and Japan are stagnant and ponderous. More and more, in the coming years, the real moving and shaking will happen elsewhere. "2011 will be the year Android explodes!" cried a recent headline, citing a new Broadcom chipset that will reportedly make sub-$100 unsubsidized smartphones ubiquitous. Maybe so, but I second MG's skepticism: North American carriers will fight this tooth and nail, and even when they lose, we'll still have to wait for the three-year contracts that are status quo here to finally die. If that chipset is real, though, the headline's not wrong; Android will explode ... in the developing world, where virtually all phone service is pre-paid. (As, ahem, I predicted 20 months ago.) There's a larger trend here. Mobile phones and 3G service became ubiquitous in Africa so rapidly in part because they never had to compete with landlines. Kenyans flocked to mobile-phone money transfer services, because they had no consumer banks: now M-Pesa, the largest, handles money equal to a mindboggling 10% of Kenya's GDP every year. (The US equivalent would be $1.4 trillion/year. By contrast, PayPal handles less than $100 billion/year worldwide, of which mobile-phone payments are but a small fraction.) 
OpenFeint Sees 187% Spike In Downloads Of iOS Games Over Christmas Holiday
Dec 31, 3:55PM
The holiday season traditionally sees a spike in mobile app downloads as users receive new devices and have more free time to interact with their phones. Today mobile social gaming platform OpenFeint is reporting that it added over 450,000 new users on Christmas day, which is a 184% spike over its daily average and the largest single day in its history in terms of new users. And the network added nearly 1.4 million new users in the four days around the holiday, including Christmas. OpenFeint users downloaded more than 5 million OpenFeint enabled games during the 4-day stretch, with Android downloads growing by 73% and iOS downloads up by 187%. And it appears that activity is up from the same period last year; the network added 88% more users than a year ago.
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.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
