Monday, April 23, 2012

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Dropbox Sharing Gets Ridiculously Easy With Links Top
dropboxIn the words of Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, sharing documents and other files online is "bafflingly, still really difficult." You could argue that Dropbox has already done its part in making that process a little easier, but with a new feature launching today, Houston and his team have tried to make things as absolutely simple as possible. And it looks like they've succeeded. Houston and Product Manager Ivan Kirigin demonstrated the feature to TechCrunch Editor Eric Eldon and me last week, and it was one of those demos that went flew by — in a good way. Now, if you want to share a file in Dropbox, you just click on the file, then click on "Get Link", and Dropbox will automatically generate a custom URL. You can share that URL via email, social networks, or whatever, and whoever clicks on it will to view the file in their browser. Simple.
 
Google Ventures-Backed Copious Debuts A More Personalized, Social Marketplace For Fashion Top
copiouslLast year, we wrote about Copious, an eBay-like marketplace that leveraged your social graph on Facebook. The site aimed to use your social graph from Facebook to make the marketplace experience that you'd find on Amazon or eBay more social, allowing buyers and sellers to see if friends in common, previous purchases, social reviews and more. Today, the company is launching a new version of its marketplace, focused exclusively on fashion and with a number of new personalization features. Copious now asks shoppers who join the site to connect through Facebook or Twitter and to follow five trends that fit their style, everything from color-blocking and vintage wear. You'll also be suggested people to follow on the site that match your chosen trends. By following trends and people, shoppers will get a more socially curated experience every time they visit.
 
Wake Up, Sheeple: Samsung Hypes Next Galaxy S Smartphone Top
samsung iphoneThe best way to get someone to spread your dumb video is to include something controversial. That's day one material in Viral YouTube Marketing 101. And so, Samsung, clearly a graduate of said class tapped that knowledge and took a shot at iPhone users, somewhat calling them sheep for using the same phone as everyone else. Funny? Only in the sense that this lame jab is the high point of an otherwise humdrum video spot. Seriously, this might be the worst teaser in the history of teasers.
 
Obama Wants Sanctions On Those Using Technology In Human Rights Abuses Top
cui-sealMuch has been said about the role social media has come to play in the global landscape over the last few years. Whether one sees it as the tool of revolutions or not, Facebook, Twitter, and other media played an integral role in organizing the socio-political upheavals in Egypt, Libya, and across the Middle East and North Africa, allowing those oppressed and marginalized by despotic regimes to communicate and organize, and to expose human rights violations. Of course, social and other forms of digital media have just as much potential for ill as they do for use among democracy advocates -- something that has not gone unnoticed in the White House. According to a report from the Washington Post, President Obama today plans to issue an executive order that gives U.S. officials the ability to impose sanctions on foreign bodies that use these "new technologies" to carry out human rights violations.
 
Clicks Be Gone: AdTech Disrupter Moat Raises $12M Series B From Mayfield, Others Top
hanging miceAd-tech may not be the most obvious face of digital advertising, but in a world in which the role of big data is getting ever more essential to how things work, it is taking up an increasingly important role. One sign of that comes from the funding that ad-tech players are getting in this space: today, ad-tech startup Moat announced that it has picked up a $12 million investment led by the Mayfield Fund and including existing investors. The Series B investment takes the total amount invested in the company to $16.5 million with past investors including Ron Conway's SV Angel, Founders Fund, Vast Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Founder Collective, and First Round Capital; as well as the WGI Group, an investment vehicle from Moat's founders, Right Media ex-CEO Mike Walrath and brothers Jonah and Noah Goodhart.
 
Peter Chernin's Media Group Picks Up $200M From Providence, Others; Will Announce First Deals 'Within Weeks' [Yahoo Won't Be Among Them] Top
moneyA sign of more big money being poured into the tech sector, by way of a new development for the Chernin Group, the digital media company founded by ex-News Corp. executive Peter Chernin: it has sold a minority stake to a group of investors led by Providence Equity Partners, reportedly for $200 million. The Chernin Group, which has invested in a number of hot online properties including Tumblr and Flipboard, says that the deal gives it the financial muscle to go after "any deal of any size" anywhere in the world, according to a report in the FT. The deals will focus on media assets, and will span the range from incubator investments through to later-stage funding rounds. The first investments will be announced "within weeks."
 
Estonian Accelerator Startup Wise Guys Announces First Startups Top
wiseguys-cmyk-ruut-punaneThe new Estonian accelerator program Startup Wise Guys, backed by the Estonian government-owned Estonian Development Fund and some former engineers from Skype, has just announced the seven teams it will be working with. Two of them from Estonia and one from Croatia, Ukraine, Germany, The Netherlands and UK. Wise Guys received over 200 applications, and will provide the shortlisted projects with an extensive startup developing program. The projects will be supported by a squad of international mentors. The program starts on April 23 and includes three steps: shaping (3 weeks), building (4 weeks) and selling (3 weeks), supported by Wise Guys mentors. There will be an Investor Day in Tallinn on June 30th, followed by one in London on July 6th. Startup Wise Guys, launched few months ago, is a joint effort of the players in Estonian startup ecosystem to bring international mentors to Estonia and attract talent across Eastern Europe and CIS countries. The first members of the new Startup Wise Guys family are:
 
TA Associates Invests In Q&A Site Answers.com Top
answers1Q&A platform Answers.com is announcing a 'significant' minority investment from private equity firm TA Associates. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. Answers operates a community-generated Q&A site at Answers.com, and was acquired by AFCV Holdings, a portfolio company of Summit Partners, for $127 million in cash last year. AFCV then delisted Answers, which was a public company, from the NASDAQ and took the company private. Shareholders were very unhappy with the terms of the deal, claiming it tremendously undervalued Answers.com, and tried to block the sale. Answers was also hit with a round of layoffs in June 2011.
 
20M Users Strong, Lookout Partners With Deutsche Telekom To Bring Mobile Security Apps To Europe Top
deutsche-telekomLookout, a company that offers security services for a number of smartphone platforms, is continuing its international expansion to Europe with a strategic partnership with European telecommunications giant. Deutsche Telekom. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. For background, Lookout's web-based, cloud-connected applications for Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and iOS devices help users from losing their phones and identifies and block threats on a consumer's phone. Users simply download the software to a device, and it will act as a tracking application, data backup and a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer. People can also manage multiple mobile devices and locate a phone or tablet on a Google map. Lookout, which now has 20 million users, says it identified more than 1,000 instances of mobile malware in 2011, which is a significant increase since 2010.
 
Vodafone Buys Cable & Wireless For $1.7B, Gives Mobile Carrier Bigger Window On Enterprise, Broadband Top
Image (1) logotipo_vodafone.thumbnail.jpg for post 363518Big news from the UK this morning: Vodafone, one of Europe's biggest mobile operators, has made a formal offer to buy up the assets of Cable & Wireless Worldwide for £1 billion ($1.7 billion), a deal that catapults Vodafone into running its own fixed line network in the UK and specifically will give it a much bigger view to winning enterprise business -- a big challenge to BT and a mark of further consolidation in the space. Cable & Wireless, first founded in the nineteeth century and one of the biggest operators in Europe, has fallen on hard times more recently and has run through three chief executives since a restructuring in 2010. The deal will make Vodafone the UK's second-largest operator, with £7 billion ($10.5 billion) in annual revenue.
 
Read Offline: News.me Automatically Downloads Your News Whenever You Leave Home Top
Screen shot 2012-04-22 at 10.28.47 PMNews.me, the newsreader app hatched in The New York Times' R&D lab and incubated at betaworks, today added a nifty feature to its new iPhone app, which gives readers instant access to their news offline -- whenever they leave the house. The new feature, called Paper Boy, allows users to set their home location using their iPhone's GPS, and thereafter, every time they leave their digs with phone in tow, News.me automatically downloads their social news in the background so that it's ready to read offline as they go about their day.
 
Adobe Officially Unveils CS6 And Its $49/Month All-Inclusive Creative Cloud Subscription Service Top
creative_view_changesToday is a big day for Adobe. Not only is the company officially unveiling the next versions of virtually all of the applications in its Creative Suite 6, but Adobe is also launching its Creative Cloud online offerings. This launch marks a major change in how Adobe is selling and marketing its flagship product: while the company will continue to offer a shrink-wrapped version of CS6, it's also introducing a subscription service with this update. For $49/month with an annual subscription or $79/month for month-to-month memberships, users can now get full access to any CS6 tool, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and AfterEffects. The suite will also include Adobe's new HTML5 design and development tools Muse and Edge Preview and will be deeply integrated into the company's tablet apps. Users will be able to download and install these apps on up to two machines.
 
Google Makes Its Big Video Push With AdWords For Video Top
adwords for videoA couple of weeks ago, early participants in the new AdWords for Video program gathered at the YouTube offices. The ostensible justification for the meeting was a fancy photo shoot, but YouTube executives also gave a little pep talk, laying out their vision to make video advertising available to small businesses. They even let themselves get a little dreamy, imagining a day when video might become as lucrative for Google as search. So what is AdWords for Video? It integrates video campaigns into the AdWords dashboard, where Google's search and display advertisers are already bidding for and managing their campaign. So small businesses can treat video ads as just another campaign that they're running with Google, rather than something big and scary. It could be particularly useful for the ones that already have a big presence on YouTube that they'd like to promote. Specifically, AdWords for Video allows you to buy Google's TrueView ad units, which can appear in YouTube videos, alongside search results, and in the company's display network.
 
Andreessen Horowitz Made $78M Off $250,000 Investment in Instagram Top
instagram logoAndreessen Horowitz revealed that it made $78 million off its $250,000 seed investment in Instagram's billion-dollar acquisition in a post that was meant to quell criticism that it "fumbled" its involvement with the company. "Ordinarily, when someone criticizes me for only making 312 times my money, I let the logic of their statement speak for itself," wrote general partner Ben Horowitz. "However, in this case, the narrative that some critics put forth has the nasty side effect of casting two outstanding entrepreneurs—Kevin and Dalton Caldwell—in an unfair light and glosses over an important ethical issue that we faced." While Andreessen Horowitz was one of Instagram's very earlier investors, it said it didn't follow-on because of a conflict of interest with another company it funded. The firm had supported Picplz, another photo-sharing concept that didn't end up having as much momentum as Instagram. The company behind it eventually changed changed course and turned into App.net, which gives other mobile developers landing pages and other tools for acquiring users.
 
Web Video Sucks, But Here's How It Can Be Great Top
Button-Play-iconEditor's Note: Jordan Kurzweil is Co-CEO of Independent Content, an agency that helps media companies launch new digital products and businesses. Prior to starting Independent Content, Jordan worked at AOL running original programming, and News Corp, where he helped bring its traditional brands to digital. You can follow him on Twitter @jordankurzweil. I love movies. I love TV shows. I hate web videos. They suck. But let me qualify: An overwhelming number of professionally produced made-for-the-web videos are just not worth watching and barely hold a viewer's attention for their miniscule run-time. Largely, they're ill-conceived, poorly executed, poorly commercialized or downright boring.
 
The Billion Dollar Mind Trick Top
2961565820_3d59b7bdfbYin asked not to be identified by her real name. A young addict in her mid-twenties, she lives in Palo Alto and, despite her addiction, attends Stanford University. She has all the composure and polish you'd expect of a student at a prestigious school, yet she succombs to her habit throughout the day. She can't help it; she's compulsively hooked. Yin is an Instagram addict. The photo sharing social network, recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, captured the minds of Yin and 40 million others like her. The acquisition demonstrates the increasing importance -- and immense value created by -- habit-forming technologies
 
As Pinterest's Hype Peaks, Growth May Be Slowing Top
Screen shot 2012-04-22 at 23.47.44

Pinterest has been on a hot streak this year. Or should we say hype streak?

In February, comScore reported that the site had passed 10 million monthly unique users faster than any standalone site ever. Then we started to hear from sources on Sand Hill that the company has attracted interest at a $1 billion valuation. But numbers from third-party sources like Facebook app tracking service, AppData, are pinning a slightly different picture on the image and link-sharing site.

 
Sins Of The Cloud Top
bad-cloud-computingEditor's Note: Alexander Haislip is a marketing executive with cloud-based server automation startup ScaleXtreme and the author of Essentials of Venture Capital. Follow him on Twitter @ahaislip. In the beginning there was the cloud. And it was good. But over time it can also be surprisingly expensive. If you've ever said "Oh my god," at the end of your billing cycle, you're may be starting to think about putting boundaries on this virtual Eden. Yet you'll quickly find that public cloud vice is hard to stamp out. It's ingrained into human nature and finds its expression through self-service IaaS delivery and opaque billing processes. Here are a few of the sins we've seen.
 
Enterprise Open Source Usage Is Up, But Challenges Remain Top
sonatype-oss-policyI think we can all safely agree that open source software development is here to stay. Open, collaborative development has fundamentally changed not only how we code, but also the code we produce. It's easier than ever to build complex solutions by reusing existing components. A new report from Sonatype examines the current state of open source in the enterprise. Although heavily slanted toward open source Java consumption, the trends are interesting. It's also worth pointing out that Sonatype provides a solution for open source software management, so they have a stake in the game here. Their data is worth a look, though. Nearly 80% of the enterprises surveyed consume open source software. Most interest to me: two thirds of the companies surveyed are actively contributing code back to the upstream projects they consume. Also interesting to note is that just shy of half of all surveyed companies have a formal open source policy in place. And of those with formal policies, half of the respondents cite those policies as detrimental to the success of development.
 
Finally A Redesign!? Ugly Craigslist Hiring UI Designer To Become "Faster, Friendlier And Easier" Top
Craigslist Under ConstructionRecognizable, fast-loading, but outdated as hell website seeks Senior UI / Usability / Front End Engineer. Love it or hate it, Craigslist's design could provide a better experience, and apparently Craig thinks so too, as this weekend the site posted a job opening for someone to make it "faster, friendlier, and easier". It's hoping for a brave designer who can "develop new products and features that will have CL users swooning", "optimize internal team tools", and who has mobile app design and platform support skills. There's plenty of tweaks we'd appreciate like more consistent navigation controls and better use of whitespace. But don't expect Craigslist to ditch its famously minimal facade that's helped it climb to 50 million classified postings and 30 billion page views a month.
 

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