Google takes a bite out of spam with new web search tool

"Disavow links" sounds like a D&D spell, but it's actually a way for search engines and webmasters to seek out and destroy spam sites.

Twitter buys company to help third-party app developers

It seems like birds don't fly the nest at Twitter, they just keep making the nest bigger. The social network acquired Cabana today hoping the team will serve its third party developers.

Airtag releasing NFC mobile payments developer kit, wishes Apple would help simplify the ecosystem

Tomorrow, the Paris-based company that built MasterCard's PayPass API and counts McDonalds and Reeboks as its mobile commerce clients will release the Airtag Kit: a full collection of everything developers need to start building mobile payment apps.

AppDirect acquires jBilling to refine its app-markets-for-everyone biz

Cloud app marketplace startup AppDirect has acquired leading open-source billing provider jBilling, the two companies announced Tuesday.

Perfecto Mobile lands $15M to test apps on real phones over the web

Perfecto Mobile clearly wants to cement its position as the premiere way for developers to easily test mobile apps across a variety of phones.

Enterprises are being infiltrated by ‘zombie’ apps, survey reveals

IT departments are hoarding thousands of abandoned and little-used applications, often referred to as "Zombie applications."

Cyborg anthropologist Amber Case ‘sells out’ to Esri

Geoloqi, the location-focused startup co-founded by “cyborg anthropologist” Amber Case, has been acquired by Esri.

Esri’s a longtime player in the mapping, geographic information systems (GIS) and geolocation arena — it was actually founded way the heck back in 1969 …

Here’s who won Facebook’s global hackathon

Facebook has announced the winners of its around-the-world hackathon: Three teams from a diverse smattering of countries around the globe.

GitHub’s second annual dodgeball invitational gets even bigger for 2012

Another year, another chance to throw a rubber sphere at the Twilio guys' heads. For a good cause, of course.

Firefox gets its first Facebook-flavored taste of Mozilla’s big plan for social

Firefox is getting a new social sidebar, and the first service to use it will be Facebook Messenger.

Twitter open-sources Clutch.io so developers can easily add A/B testing to iOS and Android apps

When Twitter bought mobile A/B testing creator Clutch.io just two months ago, the team behind Clutch promised to open source the components behind both their A/B testing tool, and the company's mobile development framework.

Facebook let two interns build its first mobile ad product

Facebook has been taking heat for eons over its mobile strategy, and this news is likely to send certain analysts through the roof: The social network's first-ever interface for mobile ads, which launched October 3, was the work of a couple interns.

Get to hardware hacking from the comfort of your web browser with Circuits.io

Two academically inclined tinkerers made this cool tool for hardware hackers to collaborate and share their designs free of charge.

Updated: Apple subsidiary has patched security software that left Dell, Samsung, Lenovo PCs vulnerable

In addition, VentureBeat has discovered, Authentec has discontinued both the original security software and its replacement ... and deleted the evidence from its website (though not from Google's cache).

Android developers can now offer fun, free little app samples

As of today, Google is allowing developers to build free trial periods into their subscription apps.

Box partners with Oracle, Eloqua, Jive, Zendesk, & more on HTML5 framework

Enterprise cloud storage business Box has announced a new HTML5 embeddable framework called “Box Embed” that will let more people access Box’s service through other applications, the company said today.