I lead VentureBeat’s coverage on social media news, but also cover news and industry trends in e-commerce and mobile.

Previously, I was a senior reporter at Mashable. I also have experience in broadcast television and introduced social media reporting to the NBC San Diego newsroom.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English from UCLA.

You can find me pretty much anywhere on the web under the handle “jbruin.” I often tweet, instagram, facebook, and path on tech and the world at large. Sometimes I get a little NSFW on these channels, so consider yourself warned.

I also abide by VentureBeat’s Ethics Statement. I don’t hold stock in any company that I cover and I don’t accept gifts of any kind for coverage (though I do possess some startup swag collected from parties and such over the years). On occasion, companies send me samples and test products, but I disclose these details in stories whenever applicable. I do have a Bruin-bred bias against USC, a fact that causes more conflict in my personal life than it does in my reporting.

stories by Jennifer Van Grove

Investors spend $2M on Wanelo, a social store that looks a lot like Pinterest

Shopping for the next e-commerce hit, investors have spent $2 million on budding startup Wanelo, an online shopping community where regular people share their uncommon finds.

Wanelo, a blend of the words “want, need, love,” is a combination of product-inspiration …

Last-minute travel app HotelTonight books $23M in funding

Last-minute hotel booking is proving to be big business for HotelTonight, a one year-old San Francisco-based startup that just closed $23 million in additional funding.

Launched in 2011, HotelTonight makes elegant and easy mobile-booking applications for the iPhone, iPad, and …

Facebook puts privacy changes up for member vote

Facebook’s newest proposed governing documents — its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy — are now in the hands in of the nearly one-billion-member Facebook public who use the social network.

Today, the company announced that its …

Groupon shares tumble to new low after lock-up expires

Deal or not, plenty of Groupon insiders are opting to unload shares in their first opportunity since the company’s public debut, and they’re helping send Groupon’s share price tumbling to new lows Friday.

Groupon, which debuted on the NASDAQ in …

Facebook-amplified version of Bing now live for all in U.S.

The socially-augmented, Facebook-laden version of Bing’s search engine is now live for all people in the U.S., Microsoft announced today.

The new Bing, first revealed in early May, features a three column design with search results on the left; a …

Foursquare and Starbucks fight AIDS with largest non-profit check-in campaign

Fighting AIDS through Foursquare check-ins and lattes, non-profit (RED), Starbucks, and the location-based startup have partnered up for a 10-day fundraising and AIDS awareness campaign.

From June 1 to 10, Starbucks will donate $1 to the Global Fund, the recipient …

Google product search results get a commercial bias

Google Shopping, a revamp of Google’s Product Search, promises online consumers a digital shopping trip with a little more convenience and context, but introduces commercial bias into the experience.

Google announced today that it would be trading out its former …

Welcome to Generation Tweet: 31 percent of online 18 to 24-year-olds use Twitter

It’s a new generation — of young 20-somethings who tweet from their smartphones.

From May 2011 to February 2012, the overall percentage of online adults who use Twitter barely moved the needle, growing by a measly 2 percent to 15 …

Instagram picked up 78 percent more uniques in April — thank you, Facebook

A billion dollars will buy you a lot of things, and, in the case of Instagram, one of those things happens to be exposure to millions.

In April, Instagram’s website saw a 78 percent uptick in unique visitors in the …

Facebook games now playing in News Feed and Timeline

Leave it to Facebook to invent yet another way to keep us all glued to the site. The social network has made the status update stickier with the addition of embedded games that people can play as they skim the …

Facebook’s next big buy could be browser maker Opera

Facebook may be looking to buy browser maker Opera Software, according to a new report.

A source told Pocket-lint that the social network wants to expand into the browser space and is looking to acquire Opera to do so. VentureBeat …

Facebook acqui-hires usability experts behind Bolt Peters to bolster design team

Could Facebook improve the experience of its web and mobile applications? Most certainly, and now they’ll have the usability, user experience, and interaction design expertise of Bolt Peters to do just that.

The social network picked up some of the …

Not dead yet, Flickr adds life to its 1.5M groups

Trying to prove that its not dead yet, Yahoo owned-Flickr is releasing yet another batch of updates, but this time with the emphasis on improving its Groups.

Thursday, Groups on Flickr, the site’s community-shared photo pools, have been gifted with …

Congress to probe Facebook, underwriters for answers

Add the House and the Senate to the growing list of parties with serious questions and concerns about how Facebook, its underwriters, and the NASDAQ handled the most anticipated initial public offering in recent history.

Both the Senate Banking Committee …

NYSE pokes Facebook to switch its listing

The bungled handling of Facebook’s initial public offering by NASDAQ may have left the door open for a rival suitor to win over the newest technology company on the market.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is using Facebook’s NASDAQ …

The severe Facebook revenue revisions that sent investors running

In the convoluted case of the botched Facebook IPO, the story goes that the social network’s underwriters, with guidance from a Facebook executive, reduced their 2012 earnings estimates, shared that material information with a few, preferred investors, and let institutional …

Qwiki takes its multimedia presentation technology to the newsroom

Startup Qwiki wants to change the way we experience information, and today it’s releasing a news reporting tool that brings its technology to publishers.

Qwiki Creator, launched today in partnership with ABC News, merges web video and content for interactive …

Facebook testing Timeline tweak with better member snapshots

Facebook Timeline, the company’s most recent take on the profile page that attempts to capture and highlight a person’s significant life events, is having a life-altering moment of its own.

The social network is testing a tweaked Timeline design, first …

Can you buy good Karma? Facebook just did

Buying its way into social commerce, Facebook has acquired mobile gifting app Karma for an undisclosed sum.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook. The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force,” …

The road to IPO: Here’s how Facebook grew from $3.50 to $38 a share

It’s official: Facebook is a public company.

With all the hype around Facebook’s big day and the obsession with who’s-getting-rich numbers, its easy to forget to that we’ve had a front row view of Facebook’s ascendance to $38 a share, …