Automattic acquires spellchecking company After the Deadline
Fairly or not, the Internet has earned a reputation as the home for typos, incorrect spelling, and bad grammar. I’ve certainly been responsible for my share of cringeworthy mistakes. Automattic, the company that created the WordPress blogging platform (which powers VentureBeat and many other sites),… Continue Reading
Wordpress’s BuddyPress is the web’s social network in a box
Blogging platform company Automattic already has millions of people using WordPress, its simple and effective blogging software (we’ve been pretty happy using it so far).
Now it has opened up BuddyPress, its long-awaited social network for blogs. It’s an easy way to add social networking features… Continue Reading
Blog company Automattic buys Blo.gs
Automattic, the company that runs the popular Wordpress blogging software, has acquired the Blo.gs pinging and blog trackback technology from Yahoo.
Services like Blo.gs give bloggers a way to quickly “ping,” or alert search engines and RSS readers when their new content gets posted. Especially for… Continue Reading
Online poll site BuzzDash shutting after failing to raise round
BuzzDash is shutting down due to lack of funding. The online polling site was one of a number of sites that let users create their own polls. We used it frequently here on VentureBeat.
In a note to users sent Friday night, BuzzDash founder and chief… Continue Reading
JS-Kit nabs SezWho as blog comment services converge
Blog commenting services have been consolidating over the past year, thinning out a once crowded market. Most recently, JS-Kit, maker of blog widgets for polls, ratings and comments, acquired competing commenting company SezWho — which itself absorbed blog semantic search firm Tejit last May. And… Continue Reading
Automattic acquires Polldaddy to blend blogs with online polls
<a href =”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/999467/” >Is Automattic’s acquisition of PollDaddy a good move?</a> <br /> <span style=”font-size:9px;” mce_style=”font-size:9px;”> (<a href =”http://www.polldaddy.com”> surveys</a>)</span>
The folks at Automattic can’t spell. But they have figured out that reader polls are a good way to keep users engaged with a blog. And… Continue Reading
Automattic buys blog comment plugin Intense Debate
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… Continue Reading
Spurning purchase offers, Automattic raises round and partners with NYT
Automattic, the company that owns the popular Wordpress blogging software platform, has raised $29.5 million from existing investors and a new partner, the New York Times. Some companies had offered to buy it, founder Matt Mullenweg writes.
The San Francisco company started out as an open… Continue Reading
Roundup: Alibaba’s ads, Flying cars don’t fly, Google’s switches, more
updated
Here’s the latest action:
1. Alibaba launches its own ad platform
2. SpiralFrog losing money rapidly
3. Viddler launches way to advertise at “tagged’ points within video
4. Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader receives mixed reviews
5. Advertising technology startup Clickable raising $3 million more
6. Hope you can afford a helicopter —… Continue Reading
VCs love Obama, mapping merger, Gravatar, China rage, more
Here’s the latest action:
1) VCs love on Obama
2) Frappr-Platial merge to take on Google
3) Is China is blocking US search engines? Or is it just U.S. jingoism?
4) Wordpress buys avatar company
5) Internet giants agree on copyright protection online — um, except Google
6) Data reveals iLike’s… Continue Reading
Roundup: Six Apart’s memo, VCs and sex toys, WiMax in 2008, Newser.com & more
Here’s the latest (updated) action:
Six Apart’s headaches — The blogging software market is highly competitive, so small differences in quality can make a difference in user adoption. Six Apart, a Silicon Valley start-up that offers several blogging software platforms, including Movable Type, has released a product… Continue Reading
KnowNow and WordPress partner for enterprise blogging & RSS
KnowNow, a Sunnyvale company that has made early inroads selling RSS technology to companies, has agreed to help sell and support WordPress blogging software.
The deal is significant because KnowNow has quietly been selling nicely priced software systems — both hosted and server systems — to… Continue Reading
VentureBeat is back
We launched early yesterday morning, but an overwhelming spike in traffic, a subsequent server crash and no fallback combined to shut down the Web site for a whole day.
We’ve learned some lessons.
1) It is hard to launch a start-up. It is surreal to be… Continue Reading
Wireless company Trapeze raises $30M — stays on the trapeze
Trapeze Networks, the Pleasanton start-up that provides equipment to build WiFi local area networks, has raised $30 million in a fourth round of funding, apparently with the help of Juniper Networks.
This is signficant because Trapeze early last year looked like it had “fallen off the… Continue Reading
Roundup: 37Signals, MetroFi, CaliSolar & Duffield’s taxes…and more
37signals, the jazzy Web 2.0 company, takes funding from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — See the company’s announcement here about why. We last mentioned the company here. The company boasts: Since we launched Basecamp we’ve been contacted by nearly 30 different VC firms. We’ve never been… Continue Reading