The battle for your address book: Will souped up contact apps monetize the data explosion?

The battle for your address book: Will souped up contact apps monetize the data explosion?

[Editor's Note: Below, MobileBeat advisory board member Jason Devitt explains why we should care about new innovative address books. Not only are they key to a much better user experience, but they may greatly impact the way we pay to use our phones. He also... Continue Reading

Path 101: Matching you to a new career by way of data

Path 101: Matching you to a new career by way of data

Right now is an especially tricky time to be looking for a job. And with more layoffs in just about every industry being announced daily, it can be terrifying to even think about. So it’s an opportune time for Path 101, a career guidance service,… Continue Reading

Roundup: Ashton’s new show, Woz’s new company and more

Roundup: Ashton’s new show, Woz’s new company and more

Here’s the latest action:
Pansonic lays off 15,000: The consumer electronics giant shed 5 percent of its work force. It joins NEC, Sony, Hitachi and other Japanese companies in announcing major layoffs.
Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media teams up with Slide on new series — The… Continue Reading

LinkedIn’s CEO departs, executive shuffle ensues

LinkedIn’s CEO departs, executive shuffle ensues

A familiar face is returning to the top spot at professional networking site LinkedIn. Chief executive Dan Nye is leaving the company, while founder Reid Hoffman (pictured) is taking his place.
The official line, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that the shuffle was… Continue Reading

Google exec Deep Nishar leaves for LinkedIn

Google exec Deep Nishar leaves for LinkedIn

Longtime Google executive Dipchand “Deep” Nishar is leaving the search giant for professional networking site LinkedIn, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Nishar, who is Google’s Asia-Pacific director of product management, will become LinkedIn’s vice president of product strategy. He’s taking over the lead product role… Continue Reading

Roundup: RPX takes on patent trolls, Facebook revamping Marketplace, and more

Roundup: RPX takes on patent trolls, Facebook revamping Marketplace, and more

Here’s the latest action:
RPX Corp takes on patent trolls — The company is buying patents to keep them from so-called “troll” companies that use patents for lawsuits or to collect licensing payments. Companies that pay a fixed yearly fee to RPX get licenses it… Continue Reading

LinkedIn launches event service to help you schmooze in person

LinkedIn launches event service to help you schmooze in person

Business networking site LinkedIn launched its developer platform last week with apps built by eight partner companies, but not including any sort of events listing service. The reason why is now clear: The company has introduced its own event service today, which relies on a… Continue Reading

LinkedIn lays off 10 percent of staff

LinkedIn lays off 10 percent of staff

Business networking site LinkedIn is joining the long list of companies that have announced cuts in the last few weeks — it has laid off 36 employees, or about 10 percent of its total staff.
Kay Luo, the Mountain View, Calif. company’s senior director of… Continue Reading

LinkedIn’s platform opens for business

LinkedIn’s platform opens for business

LinkedIn, the professional networking web site, has publicly launched its platform to third-party developers, with an emphasis on supporting business and “productivity” applications that have failed to gain traction on other social networks.
Called InApps, it looks pretty promising.
LinkedIn officially launched its application platform… Continue Reading

Business network LinkedIn starts improving its search interface

Business network LinkedIn starts improving its search interface

LinkedIn, a professional networking site, is starting to roll out a greatly revamped set of search features. Most significantly, the company is simplifying its interface so you can enter one search term and find the most relevant people from any network in LinkedIn. In the… Continue Reading

LinkedIn raises $22.7M from SAP, other strategic investors

LinkedIn raises $22.7M from SAP, other strategic investors

Updated
Professional networking site LinkedIn has raised another $22.7 million, bringing its total backing to slightly more than $100 million. The new funding is an addition to the round that LinkedIn raised in April at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Interestingly, the money… Continue Reading

Shaky economy drives users to LinkedIn

Shaky economy drives users to LinkedIn

When it comes to the current financial crisis, not everyone is suffering equally. In fact, professional networking site LinkedIn has gotten a boost from the bad times — unemployment, or the threat of unemployment, is sending many new users to the site.
Not surprisingly, a… Continue Reading

Roundup: MySpace to launch music service, Wall Street firms crumble and more

Roundup: MySpace to launch music service, Wall Street firms crumble and more

MySpace to launch free digital music service – MySpace Music sounds interesting, but it may not quite live up to Fortune’s declaration that it “promises to be the most significant roll-out of a digital music service since Apple’s iTunes.” Since you have to purchase songs… Continue Reading

Roundup: Intel launching six-core chip, Miasole raising big round, the making of Google’s Chrome and more

Roundup: Intel launching six-core chip, Miasole raising big round, the making of Google’s Chrome and more

Here’s the latest action:
Intel to launch six-core microprocessor – A chip code-named Dunnington is expected to debut on Sept. 15. Intel will put six cores, or computing brains, on a single chip. But this is really no big deal. I’ve got a 666-core chip… Continue Reading

LinkedIn launches an iPhone app, it’s simple but it means business

LinkedIn launches an iPhone app, it’s simple but it means business

If the iPhone wants to be taken serious as a business device it’s going to have to have applications other than More Cowbell (the app that lets you simulate playing a cowbell). A definite must-have for business users is LinkedIn, the professional online network. Today,… Continue Reading

More on the Facebook employee stock sale: “Dozens” selling, “investment firms” buying

More on the Facebook employee stock sale: “Dozens” selling, “investment firms” buying

At least nine Facebook employees are selling company stock — that private-company stock broker Laurence Albukerk personally knows of. In a recent BusinessWeek article, he estimates there are “dozens” of employees already going through various brokers. Facebook has previously confirmed that it’s letting employees sell… Continue Reading

Confirmed: Facebook to let employees sell some stock

Confirmed: Facebook to let employees sell some stock

Facebook has confirmed that its letting its employees sell some stock, specifically to provide a “financial cushion” as the company stays private and continues to grow. Here’s the text of what the company sent over.
“Facebook is committed to achieving its mission - to give… Continue Reading

LinkedIn, like Facebook, is letting employees sell some stock early

LinkedIn, like Facebook, is letting employees sell some stock early

LinkedIn is letting employees sell up to twenty percent of their vested stock options at a $500 million valuation, I’ve learned from a source. Another source tells me that the plan was announced at a recent company meeting, but they didn’t give me the details…. Continue Reading

Sarah Lacy claims New York Times book review unfairly slammed her Web 2.0 book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”

Sarah Lacy claims New York Times book review unfairly slammed her Web 2.0 book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”

A while back, I finished reading Sarah Lacy’s book on Web 2.0’s rise in Silicon Valley, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good.” I let my thoughts percolate on it until I saw the New York Times review of the book by tech journalist Katie Hafner…. Continue Reading

ComScore’s June US numbers: Facebook still gaining on MySpace while blog platforms, news aggregators, niche social networks also grow

ComScore’s June US numbers: Facebook still gaining on MySpace while blog platforms, news aggregators, niche social networks also grow

Facebook gained nearly two million new US users from May to June of this year, while MySpace lost about a million, according to the latest data from comScore. MySpace is still nearly twice the size, though, at 72.8 million national users versus Facebook’s 37.4 million…. Continue Reading