Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He writes and edits stories about lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a now-failed startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers.
Recent Posts
Ain’t no thang: Socialthing sort of becomes AIM Connect
This past April, AOL began testing out a social toolbar for web sites, under the name of a lifestreaming service called Socialthing, which it acquired in 2008. The toolbar is now going through a rough transition into something else, although it’s not totally clear what’s… Continue Reading
FriendFeed introduces real-time search
Lifestreaming service FriendFeed is introducing real-time search, so you can search for anything on the site and see it instantly. Real-time search is also live for advanced search options, including search terms that you can save and track through FriendFeed, and on its blog widget…. Continue Reading
Facebook to get simpler privacy, sharing features
Today, Facebook is announcing simpler ways for users to share information. I’m on a briefing call with a bunch of other reporters, listening to Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly and product manager Leah Pearlman walk us through a presentation about the specific changes the company… Continue Reading
Meebo launches toolbar ads today, ramping up revenue
Meebo is taking another big step towards making its instant messaging service profitable. It’s officially launching a new product that runs interactive pop-out ads within its IM toolbar available on partner sites. You might be on a racing site, for example, chatting with friends about… Continue Reading
Themes: Another way that FriendFeed is getting more like Gmail
Lifestreaming service FriendFeed is getting more and more like Gmail, the popular email service that the startup’s founders built back when they were at Google. Today, FriendFeed is getting themes so users can personalize the site interface — like what Gmail introduced last year. Last… Continue Reading
Facebook gets new CFO: Genentech veteran David Ebersman
Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company this spring, in somewhat strange circumstances, with Facebook saying it wanted a CFO with public company experience. Now it has one: former Genentech CFO David Ebersman.
While Ebersman worked at biotechnology company Genentech for 15 years,… Continue Reading
Googler Prashant Fuloria joins Facebook, working on monetization
Google product management director Prashant Fuloria quietly slipped across Highway 101 last month, from the Googleplex in Mountain View to Facebook’s new headquarters in Palo Alto, as Inside Facebook first reported today. He’s keeping the same title, and a somewhat similar focus.
At Facebook, he’ll… Continue Reading
WordSmyte: Find the right word to expose bad things
A single clever word or phrase can reshape how people think about an issue. A just-launched site called WordSmyte intends to take advantage of this phenomenon — and it’s focused on things that people hate.
So, maybe this site will help people articulate and spread… Continue Reading
Facebook gets an experienced European lobbyist
It was inevitable, given Facebook’s rapid growth around the world and especially in countries around Europe. The company has hired an experienced lobbyist, Richard Allen, to represent it to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, according to The Guardian.
Once a technology-focused member of the… Continue Reading
Twitter’s long-term traffic still growing
Twitter users, most of whom signed up for the site and then apparently stopped visiting, are actually coming back, new data from comScore suggests. There’s been a lot of evidence that Twitter’s growth is tapering off by several measurements: monthly unique visitors, searches, and mentions in… Continue Reading
ICANN has Rod Beckstrom as new president and CEO?
[Update: Beckstrom has been confirmed as the new ICANN president and CEO.]
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — the governing body for the rules regarding domain names, among other things — is about to announce a new president and chief executive. An… Continue Reading
Grou.ps comes together with funding, business models
There are a wide variety of create-your-own social networking companies out there, with the most prominent one being Ning. But a relatively young — and very scrappy — new competitor called Grou.ps is one the rise. It is seeing 25 percent growth in unique visitors… Continue Reading
Facebook to offer better sharing filters
Facebook wants people to share more information, because more sharing means more data to use in targeting ads, and more chances to serve up those ads. So today, it’s making sharing a little bit easier by allowing people to limit the information they want to… Continue Reading
Facebook looks for more international ad revenue
Facebook Ads, the social network’s advertising system, could start making more money soon. The company is letting people buy ads in 14 more currencies, including major ones like the euro — this is a big expansion from just having people purchase ads in US dollar… Continue Reading
With big cuts, what’s next for MySpace’s international efforts?
MySpace plans to lay off around 300 of its 450 international employees, and close at least four of its 15 international offices as the it tries to figure out how to survive falling traffic and revenue numbers. It laid off about the same number of… Continue Reading
Conduit toolbars to get more content
For those of you who love browser toolbars, expect more options soon. Conduit, a company that lets web sites make their own, customized toolbars is letting its clients add a couple more features now. Sites can both syndicate their content to other sites that have… Continue Reading
Super Rewards’ advertising offers come to Twitter games
As inevitable as spammy invites, advertising offers are now coming to games that use Twitter. Super Rewards, a leading provider of offers for games on Facebook and other social networks, is launching its service with 140 Mafia, a mafia-style Twitter role playing game.
Just like… Continue Reading
Engineering leader Kevin Marks leaves Google for the social web
Software engineer Kevin Marks has helped push Google’s social efforts for years, working on diverse products like the company’s Orkut social network, its user profile feature, and the OpenSocial social web standard. Now, he’s leaving to work on other projects, including opening technologies he has… Continue Reading
Six Apart bloggers get VideoEgg’s interactive ads
Here’s another way to make money from blogging — maybe. If you’re a blogger who uses Six Apart’s software and services, you can now start running VideoEgg’s interactive “AdFrame” format. These ads, like the toolbar-style “Twig” that VideoEgg introduced in April, contain more interactive elements… Continue Reading
Jaxtr acquisition part of Sabse’s plan to offer cheap global phone service
Two weeks ago, a quiet Silicon Valley-based voice company named Sabse bought Jaxtr, a “voice-over-internet-protocol” startup that lets you make cheap calls anywhere using your computer instead of a phone. It wasn’t totally clear why. While formative web voice companies like Skype have gone on… Continue Reading