FTC unanimously gives Google go-ahead to buy AdMob for $750 million

The Federal Trade Commission gave the green light for Google to buy mobile advertising network AdMob after the deal had been held up for six months in a competitive review. The search giant agreed to buy the San Mateo company in November for $750 million, but the inquiry stalled the two companies from finishing the acquisition.

Apple’s acquisition of competing mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in January and its forthcoming iAd service seems to have … Continue Reading

Apple's iPad still hard to find in U.S. stores

Even weeks after its early April launch, the Apple iPad is still pretty scarce in U.S. retail stores.

As Apple prepares for its international launch, it still hasn’t succeeded in completely stocking the shelves of its stores, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. He checked in with 50 U.S. Apple stores and found the iPad to be sold out or in limited supply.

“74 percent of the stores we checked were completely sold out … Continue Reading

HP on WebOS devices: Tablet coming before October, no plans for netbooks

We’ve written previously that HP’s acquisition of Palm will also mean a great deal for the company’s future tablet and netbook plans, particularly since Palm’s WebOS software is well-suited for those types of devices. Now we have even further details on those plans. HP is planning to bring out a WebOS-equipped version of its Slate tablet before the end of the fiscal year in October, and it appears to have given up on the idea … Continue Reading

Facebook, MySpace referring URLs not much of a privacy breach

Overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported what sounds like yet another breach of privacy at Facebook. The Journal cited MySpace as an offender, too.

What you need to know is that while the leaked info has indeed been leaked, no one has been found to have put it to use. Facebook has already fixed its offending code, which accidentally submitted user account information to advertising networks when users clicked on ads. MySpace will probably do … Continue Reading

Klout revamps itself in bid to become the "credit report" of social media

Klout, a San Francisco startup that wants to provide definitive metrics for influence in social media, has revamped its offerings to attract a more professional crowd of big brand clients and enterprise-focused third-party apps.

The service, which started as a fun little way of measuring your reach on Twitter, is growing up; it recently raised $1.5 million in angel funding and has six employees.

“We want to be the best place to understand how influential … Continue Reading

Can entrepreneurs be made?

The nature vs. nurture debate is a common one in just about any field, but in the world of startups, it’s hotly contested. Some say you need inherent skills to stand any sort of chance at succeeding, while others believe it’s possible to learn the ropes academically and successfully launch your own company. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, GRP Partners’ Mark Suster, New Enterprises Associates’ Patrick Chung and Vivek Wadhwa of Harvard Law School debated the … Continue Reading

What you missed at Google's developer conference

Google I/O, the company’s two-day developer conference in San Francisco, is wrapping up right now. It has been a real barrage of news from the search giant and related companies, so I’ll recap in case you haven’t been keeping up.

The biggest announcement was the unveiling of Google TV, a previously-rumored service for accessing the Internet and also Android applications on your television. For one thing, this means you’ll be able to watch the entire … Continue Reading

More reports of Acer's Chrome OS devices — namely, tablets

Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer plans to show off devices using Chrome OS, Google’s operating system for netbooks and other devices, before the end of the month, according to a report in Taiwan Economic News.

This might sound a little familiar. That’s because we ran a report last week that Acer planned to launch Chrome OS devices at the Computex conference from June 1 to 5. But then Acer denied the story.

So what the heck … Continue Reading

Logitech's big plans for Google TV

Kevin Simon, a product management director at Logitech, gave me more details this afternoon about what the company is building around Google TV, the just-announced system for accessing the Web on your television. Logitech’s “companion box” (the company isn’t sharing its official name yet) will be much more than an Internet connection for your TV, he said. And Logitech isn’t stopping with a single device.

The box basically uses Google TV as its operating system, … Continue Reading

Questions answered: Live-blogging the Tesla-Toyota press conference

We’re here at Tesla’s new headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. live-blogging the announcement of a strategic partnership between Tesla Motors and Toyota. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, Toyota President and CEO Akio Toyoda and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are on stage.

Elon Musk: This is one of the most exciting days in Tesla history as we are announcing this historic partnership. This consists of three major areas: Toyota is making a major investment in Tesla, … Continue Reading

Google evangelist Vic Gundotra is the company's new star

Google-watchers, add this name next to Sergey and Larry: Vic Gundotra is one of several Googlers with the meaningless title Vice President of Engineering. What the guy really does is evangelize Google’s technology and worldview to the people whom the company hopes will build their businesses with it, or on top of it. His job is to drive adoption of, and build momentum for, Google’s specific vision of future technologies and businesses built atop Google’s … Continue Reading

ChatVille is ChatRoulette meets Facebook and game mechanics

As 18-year-old Russian wunderkind Andrey Ternovskiy wrestles with making his random video chat service ChatRoulette more tasteful, several competitors have barged in within the last two months.

Today, the developers behind instant messaging client Digsby unveiled their own addition to the field called ChatVille. It’s a Facebook app that randomly pairs you with strangers for a video chat and brings in viral mechanics common to social games like those made by Zynga and Playdom. You … Continue Reading

Confirmed: Tesla to build electric vehicles with Toyota at NUMMI plant

Governor Arnold Scharzenegger leaked earlier today that Tesla Motors will be partnering with Toyota to build a new electric vehicle. Now, chief executive Elon Musk confirms that this is true — but that Tesla will also be acquiring the recently-closed NUMMI automotive manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif., potentially bringing back thousands of jobs lost when that facility closed last month.

The company’s deal with Toyota has three facets:

1. The joint development  of a brand … Continue Reading

Android inventor Andy Rubin: Nexus One store "didn't pan out"

Google’s Andy Rubin, one of the Android operating system’s inventors, talked about the pluses and minuses of Google’s experiment with the Nexus One phone on-stage today. The Nexus One was a success in a number of ways, but Rubin acknowledged that initiative to sell phones directly to consumers via the Web “didn’t pan out.”

The Nexus One Web store was one of the most discussed aspects of the phone’s launch, because it represented Google’s first … Continue Reading

Google execs: Google TV's killer feature is openness

At a session with journalists this morning, Google executives responded directly to questions about why they think Google TV will succeed against competing services and devices from companies like Yahoo and Apple.

Rishi Chandra, a senior product manager at Google, highlighted a few key points. First, he noted that there was a wide range of partner companies on-stage with Google, showing that the “TV ecosystem” is on-board with Google’s plans — Sony will be selling … Continue Reading

Foursquare CEO: We're adding 15,000 users a day

As rumors of VC funding and acquisition offers persist, blazing hot location startup Foursquare continues to grow. At Business Insider’s Startup 2010 event in New York, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley revealed that the service is adding 15,000 users a day.

In an on-stage interview with Business Insider editor Henry Blodget, Crowley explained how Foursquare will evolve beyond a simple check-in service which announces users’ physical location to their friends.

“What we’re trying to do is … Continue Reading

Boxee sees Google TV as complementary in bringing Web to your TV

Now that Google has officially announced its plans to revolutionize the way we watch TV, it’s time for potential competitors to react. One of the most promising TV-Web players is the New York-based Boxee, which has been working on software that lets users bring Web content to their televisions for the past few years. According to a recent tweet by the company’s founder, Avner Ronen, he sees Google TV as more complementary than competitive, and … Continue Reading

Google gives a sneak peek at what could be an iTunes competitor

Google gave a brief glimpse of what appears to be a Web-based competitor to Apple’s iTunes Store during the company’s keynote session at the I/O developer conference in San Francisco. The service would let users find, purchase and download songs they like in a Web-based store. Google didn’t offer any details on pricing or what record labels the company would work with.

It appears that a recently acquired company called Simplify Media is helping Google … Continue Reading

Mark Zuckerberg's personal mission: Convince the world to share

“The mission of the company is to make the world more open,” 26-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Time magazine for a report this week titled “How Facebook is Redefining Privacy.“

Here’s the 100-word version of journalist Dan Fletcher’s report:

“Zuckerberg believes that most people want to share more about themselves online. He’s almost paternalistic in describing the trend.

“‘The way that people think about privacy is changing a bit,’ he says. ‘What people want … Continue Reading

ReachLocal IPO raises $54 million for local business-ad service

Who said IPOs are dead? They’re just boring. Los Angeles-based ReachLocal went out the door at $12.49, fell to $12.25, and peaked just over $14.50.

That’s $54 million for the company, which sells an online ad platform for small-to-medium size local businesses that want to advertise to local customers. The offering was underwritten by JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Unfortunately, that’s nowhere near a Netscape or VA Linux-sized return on the $68 million … Continue Reading