Gist brings social email data into Gmail

Updated

Gist, one of a growing number of startups that provide social and real-time data about your email contacts, is expanding its reach by announcing new integration with Gmail. Now users can use Gist to view their contacts’ social network profiles and other relevant news directly in their Gmail inbox.

The Seattle-based startup is one of a number of companies announcing support today for Google’s “contextual gadgets”, a feature that the search giant first previewed … Continue Reading

Location platform SimpleGeo raises $8M: “We are building something revolutionary”

Boulder, Colo.-based location-platform company SimpleGeo has just announced a second round of funding, a mere five months after the company’s seed funding. The Series A round totals $8.14 million, and in addition to the capital, the company boasts five new hires—mostly former Digg employees.

The company started out with an augmented-reality game, where users could see an overlay of virtual data on views of the real world. It quickly scrapped that business and moved on … Continue Reading

Twitter's explosive Japanese growth fuels Softbank handset deal

If there’s one market where Twitter is pummeling Facebook, it’s Japan.

Unique users are up to 7.52 million compared to Facebook’s 1.4 million, Nielsen Online Japan told The New York Times. Even third-party Twitter developers are seeing some of the action; HootSuite’s chief executive Ryan Holmes told us that roughly 30 percent of his service’s month-over-month growth is coming from Japan.

So it made sense for the microblogging network to secure a mobile deal to … Continue Reading

GM teams with Google to make the Chevy Volt an Android car

General Motors, fresh off announcing its first profitable quarter in almost three years and with potential government funding, is keeping the good news rolling. The company is revealing today that it will integrate Google’s Android operating system into existing OnStar technology in its highly-anticipated plug-in Chevrolet Volt, due out this fall.

GM seems to be betting a lot of chips on the success of the Volt, which has so far been successfully marketed as the … Continue Reading

Zynga and Facebook step back from the brink of nuclear war

Defusing a tense equivalent of a nuclear standoff in social games, Facebook and Zynga announced today that they have entered into a five-year strategic relationship that ensures mutual support for social gaming on the world’s largest social network.

Under the agreement, Zynga will expand its use of Facebook’s virtual currency known as Facebook Credits. The companies were fighting about that because Facebook wants to make the currency a universal way to pay for virtual goods … Continue Reading

Lookout raises $11M for mobile security tech

As cyberthreats migrate from computers to smartphones, Lookout has raised $11 million in a second round of funding for its mobile security technology.

The round was led by Accel Partners, with Khosla Ventures and Trilogy Partnership also investing. The San Francisco company also added Joseph Ansanelli, former chief executive at Vontu, as its chairman.

“The smartphone market is exploding, and consumers are downloading third-party apps by the hundreds, making security an increasingly vital component of … Continue Reading

Titan Gaming raises $1M for game tournament platform

Titan Gaming has raised $1 million in funding for its white-label game tournament platform. The Los Angeles-based company has created a platform that makes it easy for game publishers to launch online game tournaments with any games.

The funding comes from a set of angel investors that includes William Quigley and Jill Armstrong, principals with Clearstone Venture Partners; Brock Pierce, virtual goods pioneer; Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com; Kamran Pourzanjani, cofounder of PriceGrabber.com; Carlos Bhola, … Continue Reading

Scoreloop enjoys fast growth on Android for social game platform

Scoreloop said today it has seen quick growth in users for its customers’ game on Android-based phones.

The Munich, Germany-based company provides a social platform for mobile games, allowing players to track each other’s achievements and share games with friends. Scoreloop started on the iPhone and expanded to the Android platform. The company says its platform is used in the top two games in the Android Marketplace: Toss it! and Jewels. Scoreloop said its Android … Continue Reading

Cloud9 Analytics lands $8M for business tracking software

Cloud9 Analytics, creator of cloud-based business intelligence software, announced today that it has raised $8 million in third-round funding. The company previously mentioned that it didn’t expect to seek out more funding after its second round, but clearly its plans have changed.

Cloud9′s flagship application, the Pipeline Management Suite, allows sales managers to track changes in their sales pipelines, and subsequently better manage their teams. The company designed the software with Salesforce.com users in mind, … Continue Reading

The new Hotmail — good for Microsoft services, not for mobile browsers

We’ve already discussed the new version of Hotmail that Microsoft demonstrated yesterday, with a focus on how it stacks up against Gmail. But one of the strongest impressions I took away from the presentation wasn’t just the ground that Hotmail might regain from Google and other competitors. If the new application, scheduled to launch this summer, does everything Microsoft hopes, it could also provide a real boost to the software giant’s other services and technologies.… Continue Reading

Data infrastructure startup NorthScale gets $10M and a new CEO

NorthScale, the recently-launched data infrastructure company whose first customers include social gaming giant Zynga, just raised a $10 million second round of funding. The round was led by Mayfield Fund, with participation from existing investors Accel Partners (which also helped bring the founding team together) and North Bridge Venture Partners.

The Mountain View, Calif. company also announced some changes to the executive lineup. It’s bringing on Bob Wiederhold, whose two decades of experience includes serving … Continue Reading

Germany's InnoGames raises "double digit millions" round for browser-based games

Germany’s InnoGames has raised a round of funding from Fidelity Growth Partners Europe to expand its business of making browser-based games. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but the company said it was in the “double digit millions.”

The Hamburg, Germany-based company was formed in 2007. It has since grown quickly to more than 50 million registered players worldwide on the strength of hits such as Tribal Wars, The West, and Grepolis. All … Continue Reading

Google acquires Global IP Solutions for $68.2M for real-time video and audio

Google said today it has agreed to buy Global IP Solutions Holding for the equivalent of $68.2 million in cash.

The acquisition, paid in Norwegian currency, is another move by Google into the real-time Internet as video and audio communication become more important for users, said Rian Liebenberg, engineering director at Google. The vision is to accelerate the shift to Web-based internet protocol communications, said Emerick Woods, chief executive of Global IP Solutions.

Global IP … Continue Reading

Roundup: Hollywood sinks The Pirate Bay, Amazon kicks Kindle into high gear, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Former Intel CEO funds entrepreneurial medical program — Andrew Grove, former chief executive officer of Intel, has funneled $1.5 million into a joint master’s program at UCSF and UC Berkeley to teach students how to turn medical and biological research into drugs and devices for treatment.

Hollywood bigwigs sink The Pirate Bay — The file sharing site that incidentally allows many people to download copyrighted media for free has shuttered (it … Continue Reading

New Hotmail takes aim at Gmail's top features

Microsoft presented a sneak peek to the press this morning of a massively overhauled Hotmail — Hotmail Wave 4 in Microsoft jargon — that will go into a public beta test this summer.

Hotmail Wave 4 adds several features that have until now been unique to Google’s Gmail, and in some cases pushes them further. Threaded conversations, an advanced search box for email, and massive cloud-based data storage for email and attachments seem deliberately designed … Continue Reading

Collaboration startup Huddle raises $10.2M, eyes US expansion

Business collaboration startup Huddle just announced a $10.2 million second round of funding. The money should help the company stay competitive in the crowded collaboration market, with particular focus on US expansion.

Cofounder and Vice President of Global Strategy Andy McLoughlin (pictured) just relocated from the company’s London headquarters to San Francisco, where he plans to build up the company’s sales and marketing presence. More than 50 percent of Huddle’s users are already in the … Continue Reading

OnLive announces service partner/investor in Belgium

OnLive hasn’t launched its games on demand service in the U.S. yet. But in a sign of growing momentum, the company announced today that it has a partner that will launch its service Belgium and Luxembourg.

Under the terms, the Belgacom Group will take a 2.6 percent stake in OnLive. It joins other investors including AT&T, Warner Bros., Autodesk, Maverick Capital, and BT.

The deal follows Palo Alto, Calif.-based OnLive’s announcement last week in a … Continue Reading

Virtual Zippo Lighter application looks to cash in on 10 million users

The Virtual Zippo Lighter, an iPhone and iPod application that mimics a working lighter including flame, today announced users can now buy branded virtual lighter skins. The announcement marks the first time the company has attempted to monetize a user base of over 10 million through a in-app virtual store.

The in-app purchase opportunity gives users the ability to place a branded image on the Zippo lighter, including including Bob Marley, Harley Davidson, Vans, The … Continue Reading

DuPont process could drop price tags on crisper, eco-friendly OLED TVs

Upscale television and computer screens are increasingly backlit by organic light-emitting diode cells. Not only do they make displays look brighter and more defined, they save energy and last longer. The hitch? They’re incredibly expensive — a cost that gets passed onto consumers.

But DuPont may have just come up with a solution to this problem. The company says it has devised a new manufacturing process that can churn out even very large television displays … Continue Reading