Ning, a company that lets anyone create a social network, is integrating with OpenSocial, the standards platform that makes it easier for any developer to write applications for Ning.
Other social networks, including MySpace, hi5, Bebo and Friendster, already use OpenSocial. This means that a developer can build an application on a single standard — OpenSocial [...]
Posts by Eric Eldon
Silicon Valley has been trying to digest news of a secret meeting held by top venture firm Sequoia Capital earlier this week. At the meeting, leading Sequoia partners laid out bleak short and long-term scenarios for the world economy — and strong medicine for the firm’s portfolio companies.
Notes from the presentation have since been leaking [...]
Google-owned social network Orkut has come out with an iPhone-customized app site, months after larger rivals like Facebook and MySpace built their own apps. Why the delay in iPhone customization? Well, Orkut dominates Brazil far more than any other country, as Google Trends indicates. And the iPhone only became available in Brazil last week. Orkut [...]
Updated
Sequoia Capital, a premier Silicon Valley venture firm, held a meeting on Tuesday during which it told its portfolio companies to cut costs and prepare for an economic downturn that could last many years.
The presentation, one attendee tells me, was like the global warming wake-up call movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” But instead of Al Gore [...]
Leading Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia held an emergency meeting yesterday to tell its portfolio companies to get ready for the worst, GigaOm is reporting and which we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. To drive the point home, startups were greeted at the gathering with a grave stone that said “RIP: Good Times.”
Many Silicon Valley companies [...]
Updated
Facebook is so serious about making the world a better place it launched a contest on the subject today, in German. The contest “invites people to pay tribute to those who have used Facebook to influence social change and contribute to a more open and connected world,” the company says.
First, the rules: You submit a [...]
VentureBeat’s previously mentioned syndication deal with the New York Times went live today. Take a look at the screenshot. The Gray Lady is featuring our stories in a mini-section in the homepage of its Technology section. Click on one of our story links and you’ll be taken to the full version, hosted on the Times’ [...]
Updated
Facebook has released a way to search the web through the toolbar on its site, using Microsoft’s Live search engine. See screenshots. The two companies announced the feature in July, although details weren’t clear at the time. Now that the feature’s working, it’s interesting to see that the results on the Facebook page aren’t quite [...]
Ever hear a catchy tune but not know the name of the song or the artist? Midomi, a web site and mobile service, lets you play a recorded song or sing a snippet of it yourself, and then it matches that information to its library of more than 17 million song samples. Then, you can [...]
Facebook has hired Washington, D.C. lawyer Ted Ullyot to be its new general counsel. Ullyot previously held senior legal positions at AOL and was chief of staff for departed U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in 2005. Most recently, he has been working as a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis.
I spoke with Ullyot on [...]
Uber, an also-ran social network turned microblog platform, closes down — Investors included Universal Music Group and Sterling Stamos Co-Investors fund. The company claimed that it closed down due to economic issues, as you can read on its site. More on PaidContent.
Mobile payment company Transaction Wireless raises $2.25 million — Funding comes from Mission Ventures [...]
Some new social networking stats are in from respected analytics firm Hitwise, and as with any limited data set, there are all sorts of interesting possibilities one could draw.
For example, Is Facebook’s redesign slowing its growth? The firm is reporting that Facebook’s pageviews have grown 50 percent year-over-year from August of 2007 to August 2008, [...]
U.S. senators can now more easily officially share what they want with the public via popular web services, per a new protocol rule change. The changes may also be implemented by the House of Representatives, says Technosailor’s Aaron Brazell.
This should end a larger and long-running debate we’ve previously covered in detail, about how members of [...]
Hi5 is releasing a way for its users to translate third party applications on its site into other languages. This means developers can reach new users — and use the translated application on any other social network that also uses the OpenSocial code specification. See the always-funny Chuck Norris quote application as it goes through [...]
One of the biggest complaints about the soon-to-launch G1 phone for T-Mobile is that users will receive markedly slower service after they use up one gigabyte worth of data each month.
Moving fast to stop such criticism, T-Mobile is now saying that it has removed that limit while it reviews its plans and decides on new [...]
Updated
We’re still at the TechStars demo day in Mountain View, Calif. One of the incubator’s companies, blog article-sharing widget maker Madkast, has just said it has been purchased by article-sharing widget company ShareThis for an undisclosed sum [Update: Madkast is about to be purchased. It wasn't clear from the presentation, but the deal's slated to [...]
We’re live at the TechStars demo day in Mountain View, Calif., where companies from the incubator are showing off what they’re up to. Just announced: Intense Debate, a blog commenting plugin system that grew out of Tech Stars, has been bought by Automattic, parent company of blog platform WordPress, for an undisclosed sum.
The Intense Debate [...]
The first phone to use the Android operating system is here. And the rumors were mostly true. It’s officially called G1 (not “Dream”), it’s made by HTC, and it will be offered by T-Mobile. It will be available to T-Mobile’s 30 million US subscribers on October 22nd — there’s been a slight delay from the [...]
Top Stories
- How badly could a recession hurt cleantech? ...
- Google prepping special iPhone ads?
- Stock market swings wildly -- plunges, then ...
- Orkut on the iPhone — a Brazilian ...
- Will Condé Nast close Portfolio? Magazines stay ...
Recent Guest Columnists
- William Quigley
Remaining objective when fear is in the air - Todd Kimmel
What to expect from cleantech in the downturn - Lee Hower
Platforms and developers, part three: What platforms like Facebook can do to expand the developer ecosystem
Job Board
- Product Manager
at True Knowledge (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK) - Interactive Production Designer
at EyeWonder, Inc (233 Peachtree Street Atlanta, GA 30303) - Alliance Marketing Consultant BP
at Sun Microsystems (MENLO PARK, CA) - More Jobs » | Post a Job »
Links
Venturebeat Writers
- Matt Marshall, Editor-in-Chief
- Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, DigitalMedia
- Eric Eldon, Editor, DigitalMedia
- MG Siegler, Writer, DigitalMedia
- Anthony Ha, Writer, VentureBeat
- Chris Morrison, Writer, CleanTech
- For advertising, contact .
- Log in
Font Size
© 2004-2008(c) Matt Marshall. All rights reserved.Site produced by RubyRed Labs, Evan Levelle
powered by Wordpress