I’m a reporter for VentureBeat. I report on business and technology with a special focus on and web development and design. I spend a lot of time covering Google, Facebook, and Twitter — not just their consumer-facing web products, but their inner workings as large and rapidly growing tech companies.

If you email me a pitch about your company, please copy tips@venturebeat.com. I get a lot of email and don’t have time to reply to every message I receive.

Before coming to VentureBeat, I worked at Mashable. Before that, I was a daily reporter at ReadWriteWeb. And before that, I did print journalism at magazines and newspapers.

I wholeheartedly support VentureBeat’s ethics statement. I don’t own shares of any company in the tech sector or any company that I’d have occasion to write about. Aside from one small stuffed fox from Mozilla, I don’t generally accept gifts, including trips or other such experiences, from the companies I cover. I have done only a few gadget reviews in my career, and I do not keep the hardware that is sent to me for review.

When I’m not doing journalism about technology, I’m either riding my bike around Golden Gate Park or baking something.

stories by Jolie O'Dell

Judge puts text-happy juror in jail for being SO FREAKING AWKWARD

I do not give a flying fig, and Judge Dennis Graves does not give a flying fig, about how much you freaking love to text with your girlfriend. You have 361 days out of the freaking year to text your girlfriend, and this week is NOT, I freaking repeat NOT ONE OF THEM.

LulzSec hacker gets a year behind bars for Sony data breach

Kretsinger was known online as "recursion" and was part of the LulzSec hacktivist protests against the arrest of Bradley Manning and Playstation hacker George Hotz, alias "geohot."

Blackstone just backed out of its proposed Dell buyout

For some time now, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell (pictured above) has sought to take his company private in a huge $24.4 billion deal. But Blackstone and investor Carl Icahn opposed the deal, saying it undervalued the company, and were preparing to counter it.

_why resurfaces, posts a programmer’s ‘House of Leaves,’ disappears again

Essays, both typed and handwritten, drawings, explanations, photo-copied book pages, manifestos, scribbled side notes -- It's not an easy read, and it's even a bit unsettling in places, but it's worth reading.

Google CEO explains why Glass is important, even though it’s still a financial loss

Today, Google put a bow on the first quarter of 2013 with $14.0 billion in revenue, a 31 percent year-over-year increase. But that revenue, largely from ads, seems totally unrelated to the company’s most innovative products.

Google’s Q1 in News

Yahoo’s future is mobile, wearable, & gorgeous, execs say

Get ready for a resurrection: Mayer has brought Yahoo back from the dead, this time with gorgeous apps, cutting-edge devices, and a bright outlook for the future.

Yahoo exec: We’d be crazy not to make a Google Glass app

When Yahoo talks about mobile, it's not just referring to tablets and smartphones. It's also talking about the smartwatches, visors, and God knows what else you'll be using next year and the year after that.

Here’s a real-time view of what your Facebook clicks are doing to the environment

Every like and comment and photo shared on Facebook has some ecological cost. The machines that process and store them use power, which still mostly comes from coal; and they need to be cooled.

Google+ comments are now part of Blogger

Google+ comments on Blogger posts can be public or privately shared. Readers can choose to view top comments, all comments, or comments only from people in their own Circles.

Yahoo starts delivering on its mobile promises with 2 gorgeous apps

High-gloss aesthetics, full-page photos -- the result is amazingly fresh and very much in stride with the apps mobile-first companies are releasing right now.

Facebook goes mobile-first with its latest developer tools

The new tools should, the company says, make it easier for mobile developers to play around with Open Graph features on smartphones and tablets. The SDKs also bring better tools for implementing Facebook Login.

LinkedIn is launching brand new mobile apps; here’s a sneak peek

To keep pace with its mobile traffic growth and with new features, the LinkedIn mobile team has had to rethink a lot of its apps: How do you fit such a wealth of information on such a small screen?

Why LinkedIn dumped HTML5 & went native for its mobile apps

"There are a few things that are critically missing. One is tooling support. The second is operability. Because those two things don't exist, people are falling back to native. It's not that HTML5 isn't ready; it's that the ecosystem doesn't support it."

About the rumored Microsoft smartwatch prototype: It might have a Surface-like mag connector. Or not.

New rumors (read: totally unsubstantiated fuel for gadget blogs) are swirling today about the mythical Microsoft smartwatch:

Amazon is bringing Android apps to 200 more countries

Why choose the Appstore? First, Kindles are still selling like hotcakes. Second, everyone with an Amazon account can buy apps in a single click. Third, globalization is now a relatively easy option.

Twilio is turning Japanese with its latest API

This launch gives developers the full Twilio bag of tricks, now with full integration with Japanese carriers. And yes, all the documentation has been translated into Japanese, too.

How Yahoo delivered — or didn’t — on its promise to focus on mobile

Late last year, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told techsters her big game plan for the company: Making Yahoo accessible and relevant to a mobile-first culture. So, did she deliver?

Nitrous.io closes a quick $1M round for a seriously cool web-based IDE

"They wanted a way for anyone on the team to be able to jump into the codebase immediately without having to wrestle with updating software packages or installing new libraries."

SocialFlow grabs $10M for — what else? — social media marketing

Like so many other social media products available to businesses and brands, SocialFlow wants to help those high-dollar customers manage their online presences.

Facebook’s iOS apps get a taste of Home with Chat Heads

Chat Heads is part of the latest iPhone and iPad Facebook app update. Stickers are another element of the new apps. You can add Stickers to any message just by tapping the smiley icon; you can also get more Stickers from the Sticker Store.