Is Google about to gobble up Yelp?

Updated

Google is in the advanced stages of a bid to acquire Yelp for more than half a billion dollars, according to a report in TechCrunch. The acquisition of the popular review site would advance Google’s position in the local search marketplace considerably, given Yelp’s devoted following in metropolitan areas across the U.S. and deep review content on local businesses. Local search blogger Greg Sterling reports that Yelp is estimated to have 8.5 million reviews.… Continue Reading

Former Microsoft evangelist Don Dodge on Google vs. Microsoft (Q&A)

At Microsoft, Don Dodge was known as the software giant’s ambassador to an at-times skeptical startup community. When he was laid off in November, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington declared, “This is a huge mistake,” but Dodge quickly moved over to Google, where he’s taking on a similar role. (TechFlash has even nominated Dodge for best hire of the year.) Now that he’s starting to settle in, I interviewed Dodge about how Google compares to … Continue Reading

Game maker Take-Two Interactive says December sales are slow, discloses Icahn stake

Take-Two Interactive Software reported an expected fourth quarter loss that was consistent with its earlier warning that game sales were slow.

Meanwhile, investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he had purchased a stake in the New York-based video game publisher. Take-Two went through a takeover battle last year, when Electronic Arts made a run at the company and then withdrew its bid. With Icahn investing, it’s possible things may heat up again.

The company continued to … Continue Reading

Crispy Gamer Media buys gamer social network GamerDNA

Combining its gamer news site with a social network, Crispy Gamer Media said it has acquired GamerDNA for an undisclosed sum.

Cambridge, Mass.-based GamerDNA was founded in 2008, and it raised $3 million in venture capital from Flybridge Capital Partners. But it is probably better off under the wing of Crispy Gamer. GamerDNA was building a social network for gamers, allowing them to take their Xbox Live achievements and share them with the rest of … Continue Reading

A123Systems back on track with SAIC battery supply deal

Advanced battery maker A123Systems may not have missed the boat on major automotive contracts after all. The company, which went public in September, just announced that it is launching a joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) to supply battery components for hybrid and fully-electric vehicles.

Previously, A123′s biggest supply contract was with Chrysler, which has since all but shut down its green car programs. Yes, it had deals with the likes of … Continue Reading

India vies to climb wind power ranks with new subsidies

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has announced a new plan to subsidize wind energy, earmarking $81 million (3.8 billion rupees) to lower the price of each kilowatt-hour generated by wind turbines by half a rupee (about a penny), bringing down the average price of wind power in the country, which currently hovers around 3 rupees per kilowatt hour.

While this doesn’t sound like much, it could be a good start for India, which … Continue Reading

JooJoo responds to TechCrunch lawsuit over who owns touchscreen tablet

The JooJoo is the touchscreen tablet computer formerly known as the CrunchPad. It was conceived by TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington and built by startup Fusion Garage as a new category of device meant for what he called couch computing.

Last Friday, the JooJoo’s launch was tainted — skillfully, I must admit — by Arrington, who filed and published a Federal lawsuit charging Fusion Garage with stealing his invention and attempting to sell it themselves.

Moreover, … Continue Reading

Zulily will offer members-only sales to moms

Sites like the Gilt Groupe and Rue La La have made a splash by offering substantially discounted fashion to their members. Now a startup called Zulily wants to offer similar bargains to busy moms.

The deals won’t start until early 2010, but the site is accepting registrations now, and the Seattle company is announcing a $4.6 million first round of funding from Maveron.

Co-founder and chief executive Darrell Cravens tells me the site will sell … Continue Reading

Privacy groups petition FTC to restore old Facebook privacy settings

With a new set of default privacy settings rolled out this month, Facebook may or may not have meant to trick its users, as some have charged, into oversharing their personal information. But regardless of Facebook’s intent, the changes have continued to agitate many users.

Today, a group of privacy advocates led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The document claims that Facebook’s new settings expose its members’ … Continue Reading

Google netbook rumor seems credible

Rumors of a Google-branded PC of some sort have been around for years. In 2006, I blogged a Consumer Electronics Show press conference at which reporters goaded Eric Schmidt: “What about the Google PC?” and, “You’d be stupid not to do it, so you must be doing it, right?”

Schmidt’s deadpan answer: “We issued a statement that we have tremendous partners in the PC space, so we have no interest in doing it.  I guess … Continue Reading

Startup Apprenda brings Silverlight to large-scale business apps

Chances are you’ve never heard of upstate New York startup Apprenda and their product, SaaSGrid. The company’s clients aren’t home consumers, they’re other IT companies like UVision Consulting and Serenity Software that build large-scale business apps. But a couple of weeks ago, Apprenda landed a $5M investment from New Enterprise Associates, one of the early backers of Salesforce.com, to market and sell SaaSGrid.

NEA’s investment got almost no attention in the press or on the … Continue Reading

Intel readies launch of speedy, low-power new microprocessors

Intel said it is on schedule to deliver new chips for a wave of new desktop and laptop computers that will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

Clearly, the economic downturn hasn’t slowed Intel’s push to make cheaper, faster, and more power-efficient chips. Consumers are likely to benefit as new computers hit the market with these new features in January.

The new chips are the first built with Intel’s new 32-nanometer manufacturing … Continue Reading

Preview: BioWare aims for its "best game ever" with Mass Effect 2 (video)

The video game Mass Effect was a great leap forward in video game storytelling when it debuted on the Xbox 360 in the fall of 2007. Now BioWare, the company that made the game, is hoping to make another great leap with Mass Effect 2.

The sci-fi game is part two of an epic trilogy, and it debuts on Jan. 26, but Electronic Arts, which now owns Edmonton, Canada-based BioWare, gave a sneak peak of … Continue Reading

Report: Russia's DST raises stake in Facebook past 5 percent

Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment firm that has sunk its teeth into both Facebook and social gaming company Zynga, is reportedly raising its stake in the social network past 5 percent.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported today that DST raised its investment after buying $100 million in employee shares and a $200 million direct investment earlier this year. With this investment, DST’s holdings in Facebook would rise above $400 million, and the firm’s stake … Continue Reading

Multiverse's Remix makes it easy to create Avatar spinoff games

James Cameron’s high profile sci fi movie Avatar, which hits theaters tomorrow, will be accompanied by a ton of accompanying merchandise and spinoff products. And thanks to a small company called Multiverse, two big brands, Coca-Cola and McDonalds, were able to easily create some spinoff web games based on the themes in the film.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Multiverse has built a platform that can be used to pop out one virtual world after another. And … Continue Reading

Web ads served to iPhones draw 10-20 times more clicks

“The wall between online advertising and mobile advertising has cracked,” according to ad network executive Michael Chang. Chang’s company, Greystripe, has been testing a partnership with Web ad network Tribal Fusion. In the past six months, Tribal Fusion has passed along more than 500 ad campaigns to Greystripe, which re-encodes them to play inside games on iPhones.

The result may surprise even mobile-tech utopians: The mobile versions of the exact same ad performed 10 to … Continue Reading

Twitter launches in German, enjoys relatively easy sweep across Europe

A week after launching an Italian language version, Twitter has announced the availability of a German version – noted as one of the most widespread languages in Europe. German now brings the total language versions up to six, including English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Japanese.

It continues Twitter’s roll into foreign markets, which is proving to be surprisingly easy, compared to the tough trench warfare that other American social sites have had to engage … Continue Reading

SGN launches Skies of Glory and other iPhone games — showcasing new features

SGN, a company that is pushing the envelope on special effects for games on the iPhone, has launched three new iPhone games, including its flagship title Skies of Glory.

The Skies of Glory game is an aerial combat game set in World War II, and uses great 3-D graphics, much like the F.A.S.T. jet fighter game SGN released earlier this year. In Skies of Glory, however, SGN has built a new base platform for the … Continue Reading

EA to launch three big franchise games on the iPhone

Electronic Arts continues its offensive on the iPhone market today, announcing the impending launches of three major games for the device: Need for Speed Shift, Spore Creatures, and the Simpsons game.

All three titles could be called second-generation iPhone games. They reflect a lot of work that EA is putting into the iPhone platform, and the investment involved here suggests that the smaller titles from one-person shops are going to have a harder time competing … Continue Reading