Web 2.0 Summit: Our photo gallery of the top moments

Here’s our collection of photos from the Web 2.0 Summit, which ran from Tuesday through Thursday in San Francisco. It’s also our 30-second summary of what you may have missed at the big digerati event. We’ll start with the last man who spoke at the conference, Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web. He never made any attempt to own his creation and gave it to the world for free, he said, because “that … Continue Reading

RedSeal takes $12M for security software

RedSeal Systems, developer of cybersecurity software that estimates and manages risk, has raised $12 million in a third round of venture funding led by OVP Venture Partners. Based in San Mateo, Calif., it is also backed by Venrock, Jafco Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Leapfrog Ventures. It has now raised over $43 million to date.… Continue Reading

Box.net wants to work with enterprise app companies, starting with Salesforce

Document collaboration company Box.net announced new integration with Salesforce.com today, which will allow users to access Box’s shared documents directly from Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) service.

This has been a big demand among Box customers, said chief executive Aaron Levie, many of whom are salespeople, and who previously had to jump back-and-forth between their Box and Salesforce accounts. It also reflects a broader strategy for his Palo Alto, Calif. company — Box already offers … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: Teens love Facebook and Apple, confused by Twitter

The old fogies at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today tried to figure out what those crazy kids are doing with technology by interviewing a group of five Bay Area teenagers. The session, moderated by former Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy, rambled and eventually degenerated to teenagers free associating on different companies (“Google?” “Simple!”), but the most compelling part for me was seeing their visceral dislike of Twitter.

Now, the “teens don’t tweet” … Continue Reading

5 O'Clock roundup: Net neutrality wins, Windows 7 sorta wins, New York Times still futzing around with the comments

100-word review: Windows 7 is a perfectly fine bootstrap program for Chrome – I’ve been running Microsoft’s new operating system for a couple of weeks now. With VentureBeat doing all its production work on either WordPress or Google Apps, I have to admit: Windows 7 is a powerful, sophisticated operating system that I basically use to run a browser these days. Am I ready to switch to a Linux operating system on my editor’s old … Continue Reading

Eric Schmidt gives intern-placement network InternInc a leg up

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has given an undisclosed amount to launch InternInc.com, a relatively new social networking site designed specifically to help students connect with companies, their universities, mentors and others that can help them find the internships they need to build their resumes and find employment after graduation.

As for what motivated the decision, Schmidt said only that he wants to support the educational experience students gain from interning.

The site is entering … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: Sean Parker on why Facebook will win, and Google will lose

Sean Parker, a managing partner at Founders Fund and an early president of Facebook, argued that a new breed of “network” companies will overshadow tech giants like Google over the next decade.

At just 10 years of age, Google will decline in importance relative to companies that effectively harness the power of networks like Apple and Facebook, he said during a talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today.

What’s a “networked” company? … Continue Reading

Web 2.0 Summit: Opening day Canaan Capital after-party (video)

The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco is where hundreds of the digerati are gathering this week. Here’s a video of the opening night after-party on Tuesday at the St. Regis Hotel, an event sponsored by Canaan Capital. One of the sponsors was VentureBeat. Blogger Paul Carr provided the running commentary. Video shot and produced by Alexa Lee.… Continue Reading

More Revenge of the South Bay: WiChorus acquired for $165

Not long after VMware paid $420 million for SprintSource, the Peninsula has another 9-digit exit by a company whose product description is probably unintelligible to the average Twitter user.

Network gear maker Tellabs has agreed to pay $165 million in net cash to buy WiChorus, maker of technology that connects mobile phones to the Internet in such a way that they seem like Internet Protocol, or IP devices.

Smart 4G Packet Core infrastructure technology, as … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: AOL's chief Tim Armstrong preps for life as a stand-alone company

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong is prepping his company for life after Time Warner, and he remains committed to a strategy of investing in web content.

Armstrong, a former Google executive who took the AOL job eight months ago, told the crowd at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that his division of Time Warner is on track for a spinoff from the media conglomerate in the next year.

He also said the company … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: Google's Sergey Brin admits Chrome for Mac delays are disappointing

Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a surprise appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today, where he was booster-ish on almost everything (Google, Bing, hardware, web advertising, more), but did admit to one disappointment: The delays in releasing a version of Google’s Chrome browser for Macs.

When asked by an audience member when we’ll be able to use a Mac version of Chrome, Brin first said, “I am using Chrome for Mac.” A … Continue Reading

Amazon earnings rocket to nearly $200M

Amazon.com’s third-quarter earnings spiked 68% higher than last year: $199 milli0n in earnings on $5.45 billion in sales.

CEO Jeff Bezos is laughing at those of us who made fun of  the Kindle, Amazon’s $250 e-book reader. The thing will bring in about $1.9 billion in annual revenue in 2012, up from $300 million this year, one analyst estimates.

Bloomberg reports:

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos has used price cuts, shipping promotions and a growing … Continue Reading

NEA rakes in $2.5B for new fund

New Enterprise Associates, which remains the largest venture firm in the business, announced that it is closing in on its $2.5 billion target for its new fund, its thirteenth, reports Dow Jones VentureWire. The firm says it will keep the fund open for a bit longer in case others want to contribute. To reach this total, NEA enlisted the help of placement agency Greenhill & Company for $1.2 million. Using placement agents has become a … Continue Reading

Microsoft: Windows 7 makes us cool again

Microsoft’s launch of its new Windows 7 operating system today caps a comeback year for the software giant, where it started to beat back the perception that it’s becoming stodgy and out-of-date. So said Microsoft’s Brian Hall when I interviewed him about the launch yesterday.

To be clear, Hall, who is the general manager of the Windows Live suite of online services, never used the words “stodgy” or “obsolete.” But he acknowledged that Microsoft’s public … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: News Corp.'s digital chief is serious about regaining momentum

Jonathan Miller had a tough job as chief executive of AOL, trying to fend off rival Internet businesses as its portal business shrank. Now he’s got a similar tough job as the chief digital officer and chairman of the Digital Media Group at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, Miller said his company is trying hard to aggressively expand and turnaround its various digital businesses. The challenge is having a consistent … Continue Reading

Web 2.0: Adobe CEO confident against Microsoft, vague on iPhone

Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today, focusing particularly on the company’s Flash platform. His overriding message: When it comes to providing the underlying technology for web video, games, and other applications, this is Adobe’s game to lose — and Adobe doesn’t plan to lose.

In this market, Narayen is going head-to-head with software giant Microsoft, and as interviewer John Battelle noted, “They’re not joking around.” (Microsoft’s … Continue Reading

Nokia files patent lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone

Nokia filed a patent lawsuit against Apple today, saying Apple infringed on 10 different patents. The technologies relate to fundamental cell phone features such as the use of the GSM radio network, UMTS (wireless data), security, encryption and local area network standards.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Delaware, is as clear a battle between the old established guard of mobile phones and the new guard as we’ve ever seen. It’s a sign of … Continue Reading

XOJet soars with $470M more for private jet time shares

XOJet, the San Carlos, Calif. company that capitalized on the economic downturn by offering a time sharing service for corporate jet travel, has continued its good fortune with a new $470 million round of debt and equity led by TPG Capital. The money, broken down into $100 million in equity and $370 million in debt will be used to buy new or used aircrafts for global trips, the company says, as many as 20 to … Continue Reading

Stanford moves to liquidate $1B in investments

Stanford Management Company, the corporate unit that invests money on behalf of Stanford University, announced that it will pursue a secondary sale of about $1 billion of its $6 billion in alternative equity investments and some of its unfunded liabilities.

Actually based in Stanford, Calif., the company says the sale is necessary to re-balance its portfolio in response to the tough economic conditions following last fall’s downturn. It says it will only be looking for … Continue Reading