The latest from TechCrunch
- Former Digg VP Of Engineering Lands At Gilt Groupe
- From The North Face To Vegas: A Facebook Deals Roundup
- Our Favorite Singer/Songwriter Launches A Mad Libs-esque iPhone Song App
| Former Digg VP Of Engineering Lands At Gilt Groupe | Top |
| Well there’s at least one former Digg engineer out there that had a happier Thanksgiving. We’ve gotten word that John Quinn , former Digg VP of Engineering, will be joining luxury discount marketplace Gilt Groupe as VP of Engineering come next Monday. Quinn will be working out of the Gilt Groupe New York office under CIO Steve Jacobs. Prior to Gilt Groupe, Quinn had spent three years at Digg and before that was VP of Engineering at Squaretrade. According to our sources , Quinn was instrumental in the Digg v4 redesign and its problematic move over to a Cassandra versus MySQL database. Judging by the Digg team page Digg has not yet replaced Quinn as VP. Gilt Groupe CIO Steve Jacobs tells TechCrunch that the new hire will be focusing on scaling and that the company is growing rapidly, “Gilt is expanding into new businesses all the time and we’re making sure that we have the right people in place. People do not think of Gilt as a technology company and we are a technology company.” When asked about concerns that Quinn bore responsibility for some of Digg’s infrastructure stumbles, Jacobs said, “ I’m not worried about that for Gilt.” Gilt Groupe, which has $83 million in funding led by Matrix Partners, recently launched Gilt City, a local deals network that aims to be a more high end niche Groupon. CrunchBase Information Gilt Groupe John Quinn Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| From The North Face To Vegas: A Facebook Deals Roundup | Top |
| It’s been less than one month since Facebook launched its new deals service on top of its still-nascent Places platform. But that hasn’t stopped it from lining up some of the US’s biggest brands in time for the holiday season. A few minutes ago, the social network posted a note that shows just how many companies have already climbed on board to offer deals over the holidays. Note that some of these have already been announced (including the charitable Southwest Deal that donates $1 per check-in to the Make-a-Wish Foundation), but seeing them in one place makes it easier to gauge how much traction the feature is getting. So why is this important? As we’ve discussed before , these location services are in a race to snap up deals with as many national brands as possible, in addition to the longtail of local businesses. Some of these brands want exclusivity (they don’t want to be on the same location service as a competitor), and brands will probably work with one or two location services instead of taking a shotgun approach so as to minimize shopper confusion. And many people are just trying out location apps for the first time — if they start associating deals with Facebook (or Foursquare or SCVNGR or Gowalla) then that might the app they turn to first in the future. Of course, Facebook isn’t the only service with big brands on board. Foursquare is currently doing some very interesting things , with Safeway and Pepsi, and had plenty of deals lined up with national brands for Black Friday today, with offers from the likes of Toys R Us and RadioShack. And SCVNGR recently signed up Coca Cola for a big holiday promotion. Here’s the Facebook overview, via the note posted to Facebook’s Places page : Southwest Airlines: Donating $1 per check in towards air travel to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Hard Rock Café: Donating $1 to WhyHunger to fight childhood hunger and poverty worldwide. Through December 31 (or up to $100,000). JC Penney: Check in to receive $10.00 off $50.00 purchase towards an assortment of merchandise and services. H&M: The first 2000 check-ins will receive 20% off any item of your choice. Starbucks: Donating $1.00 per check in to Conservation Intl to help protect 5,000 acres of forest. 24 Hour Fitness: Donating $1.00 to KaBOOM! for every person who checks in using Facebook Places. The North Face: Donate $1.00 to the National Park Foundation for every individual who checks in at one of America's nearly 400 national parks or visits a The North Face retail location. REI: Supporting local conservation efforts, each time you check in at an REI store, REI will donate $1 to a local nonprofit. The Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas: Check in to receive an offer to extend your stay for one extra night at no cost. If you can't stay the extra night, receive a room upgrade. TAO and LAVO, Las Vegas: Check in at TAO Las Vegas or LAVO Las Vegas and receive complimentary admission for you and one guest on your next visit. Harrah’s: Offering a number of Deals at its various properties for people who check in at each location. Bally's: buy one Jubilee! ticket and get one free. Paris Las Vegas: buy one Eiffel Tower Ride pass and get one free. Rio: get free admission to the VooDoo Lounge. The Flamingo Las Vegas: buy one Paradise Garden Buffet and get one free. O'Sheas Las Vegas: buy one drink at the Dublin Up Bar and get one free. Harrah's Las Vegas: buy one Flavors Buffet and get one free. The Imperial Palace: buy one Emperor's Buffet and get one free. Caesars Palace: buy one Lago Buffet and get one free. Planet Hollywood: buy one Spice Market Buffet and get one free. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Our Favorite Singer/Songwriter Launches A Mad Libs-esque iPhone Song App | Top |
| Just in case you’re unaware of our affection for singer/songwriter Jonathan Mann, see here , here , here , here , or here . But the relationship didn’t start out so friendly. Initially, we ripped him for the Bing jingle song he wrote to win a competition. And Mann responded by writing a song about me. But it’s all good. We’re BFF now. And Mann keeps cranking out the hits. Now he’s trying to see if his song-a-day success can transfer to an iPhone app. Songatron is an app that Mann and developer Iliya Yordanov dreamed up so that anyone could have fun with the songs Mann writes on a daily basis. Essentially, it’s a lot like Mab Libs, but for music. You load up the app, say a word, and pick a song you want to apply it to. The song then plays (complete with Mann singing and playing the music) with your word inserted in key points. Sure, it sounds a bit simple. Maybe even dumb. But it’s actually pretty funny. And as Mann notes, it’s great if you want to let someone know that you admire them — or if you want to mock them. I mean, just listen to this and this and especially this . Yep, awesome. Once you pick the version of the song you like you can easily share it via email, Twitter, Facebook for all to enjoy. And while the app costs $1.99, Mann has included 10 different songs, and promises to add 5 new songs a month from his collection (many for free, but some via in-app purchase). Plus, as a Thanksgiving Special, the app is 50 percent off, so it’s only $0.99 now. Good fun for the holiday times. Meanwhile, the regular music career keeps progressing for Mann. Besides the Bing jingle, he got quite a bit of publicity when Apple played his iPhone 4 Antenna song before their “Antennagate” press conference over the Summer. Likely as a result, Mann will now be speaking and performing at MacWorld 2011 in January. He’s promised me that “I’m MG Siegler” will be played on stage. And he sent me along a clip of him and his band performing the song live recently. They’ve converted it into more of a punk rock song. It’s actually pretty awesome. Watch Mann describe his new app below. The app works on the iPhone, iPod touch, and the iPad. Find it here . | |
CREATE MORE ALERTS:
Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted
Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope
Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more
News - Only the news you want, delivered!
Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more
Weather - Get today's weather conditions
| You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. |
No comments:
Post a Comment