Google has kicked off the week by posting a six-minute video clip that gives a fast-paced overview of its history as a search company, from its earliest days of Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s PageRank algorithm to its more recent feature launches, like Google Instant. The video features interviews from key members who have worked on Google Search, including Google Fellows Ben Gomes and Amit Singhal, and Google VP Marissa Mayer, who led Search for a decade before taking the helm of Google’s local products.
The video revolves around Google’s mission to surface the information people are looking for as quickly as possible, but the most interesting bits focus on the problems and stumbles that Google has had along the way.
→ Read More
Online retail always peaks around the holidays, and with the frantic purchasing of gifts come the inevitable deluge of email receipts. It’s all too easy for them to slip unnoticed into the recesses of your inbox, but a new service called OneReceipt aims to aggregate and track those receipts so users will be able to see exactly what their money is being spent on. → Read More
If you’ve been having trouble getting your Windows Phone 7 handset to connect with your Mac (I’m sure the hybrid Mac/WP7-owner exists out there somewhere, right?), it’s time to give it another spin — after you’ve taken a trip to the Mac App Store for an update, that is.
Microsoft’s latest release of the Windows Phone 7 Connector is said to fix a number of bugs, including the spotty connectivity that a number of users have reported. → Read More
French business media are reporting that Viadeo, the professional social network challenging LinkedIn in a number of countries, has acquired Soocial, a Dutch contact management, syncing and backup service provider (via Journal Du Net).
The service basically lets users sync all their contacts across their smartphones, email accounts and computers, and lets them manage, clean up and share contacts from their digital address books. → Read More
The U.S. comScore Video Metrix stats are out now for October, revealing that 184 million U.S. Internet users watched online videos last month, with an average of 21.1 hours per viewers. The total U.S. audience viewed 42.6 billion videos, an all-time high, says the measurement firm. Meanwhile, “Google sites,” led by YouTube, retained its number one ranking. However, in October, Facebook staged a comeback by moving up into the number two slot from its previous position of fifth place.
→ Read More
With all the talk of iPhone vs. Android these days, it’s easy to forget how the majority of the world’s mobile users still make calls and access data: via feature phones. A recently released report from mobile strategy firm VisionMobile takes a look at today’s mobile marketplace finding that, despite the sharp rise in smartphone shipments over 2010 and 2011, global smartphone penetration (by OS) is at just 27%.
→ Read More
We’re still waiting for our chance to nab a Galaxy Nexus on this side of the pond, but it seems European users haven’t exactly been having the best luck with their first-run devices. Fortunately, it looks like the folks at MoDaCo have a (quasi-official) fix for one of the Galaxy Nexus’s most irritating issues: the dreaded volume bug.
If you haven’t seen the volume bug strike before, do yourself a favor and check it out below. When the Nexus hops onto the 900MHz 2G band (or is even placed near another device that is), the volume level can be seen jumping around wildly. → Read More
We’ve heard rumors of a sort of MacBook Pro/MacBook Air convergence for the past few months and it seems Digitimes may be confirming the arrival of a larger, ultrabook-like 15-inch MacBook Air.
The source believes that Apple is working on updated 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch and 15-inch models. This will be distinct from the Pro line. → Read More
Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine who was interested in doing product management at a startup. He was working as a consultant, but wanted to join a company like foursquare as a PM. However, he wasn’t getting any return calls and was becoming frustrated, and wanted my advice on why. I told him this:Guess what? Everyone thinks they are the next Steve Jobs, but they aren’t. The odds are you aren’t God’s gift to product design. And even if you are, no one will be inclined to believe it, because you have no evidence: you’ve never 1) started a startup, 2) worked at a startup, 3) worked in product management, 4) designed products as side projects. All your experience is in another irrelevant field; why should a successful startup give you a chance? → Read More
You know, I’m becoming something of a fan of Brandon Harris (the latest face of Wikipedia’s fundraising efforts, which you should absolutely donate to.)
First, he’s a programmer on Wikipedia, which is pretty much the most world-bettering programming gig you could ever have. Second, he stopped in for hugs even as we were sort of poking fun at him. Third, he’s taken the time to answer the question we’ve been asking for over a week now: what’s up with the crazy confusing/hilarious donation plea portrait placement?*
The answer: They do it intentionally. Because it works. → Read More
While Apple’s engineers toil away deep in the heart of their Cupertino headquarters, developers have taken it upon themselves to make Siri even more impressive than usual. Forget about setting reminders and checking the weather — with a little bit of know-how (and a homebrew proxy server), Siri can start your car for you.
→ Read More
We’ve been posting quite a few products over the past few weeks, starting with our exciting and inviting Bag Week, and now our nefarious mission has become clear: welcome to TechCrunch Gadgets’ 2011 Gift Guide, a series of posts dedicated to how to shop for folks you love/like this holiday season.
→ Read More
The Black Friday madness has finally come to a close. Well, almost. We all still need to live through Cyber Monday — a much safer version of our public displays of consumerism — but for the most part Black Friday is behind us. People camped out all night, were pepper-sprayed, and hopefully walked away with some new gear for a cheap price.
Apple, which seemed to have the weakest discounts of almost any gadgets retailer, posted some strong numbers from its Black Friday one-day sale. → Read More
The sheer number of new startups forming and getting funded these days is dizzying. It’s never been easier to start a company to harness new technologies and turn them into products. Traditional venture capital may not even be able to keep up with it. We are at the beginnings of what may very well become a Cambrian Explosion of startups, which will have implications well beyond the technology industry to the entire economy.
We’ve spent the last 15 years building out the tethered Web. The next 15 years will be about connecting the Web to the physical world. And mobile is just the start. → Read More
Back in early 2009, I wrote about an Italian startup called BeeTV, which showcased some impressive TV recommendation technology. The goal was to sell that technology to telcos and cable operators, but this proved to be a very difficult task for a small, scrappy upstart. This led to BeeTV changing course and trying its hand at making consumer-focused products, like an iPad app for watching and sharing TV experiences with friends. They also secured more funding, bringing its total raised to over $10 million.
Alas, this morning CEO Yaniv Solnik informed me that they’ve failed to gain significant traction with the new strategy, and that they’ve subsequently ran out of cash. The company will be ceasing operations soon. → Read More
Matrix Partners and WI Harper Group, a Chinese VC, this morning announced that they’ve pumped $12.5 million into SNS Plus, an international publisher and distributor of games with a focus on the Asian market. As of June 2011, the company has published more than 60 games on Facebook, and more than 15 games on other platforms such as Zingme, iOS, Friendster and more. → Read More
We’re one step closer to the Robocalypse: Japan-based Kawada Industries has developed a humanoid robot that’s specifically designed to work alongside human beings. The so-called Nextage is certainly not the first robot of its kind, but his specs are pretty impressive, and he’s already commercialized, too.
Nextage is equipped with a high-speed stereo-camera and two arms that have 12 joints each and can be positioned within 30 microns. When a human worker gets near, the robot stops working immediately for safety reasons. → Read More
Amazon this morning pounded itself on the chest once more for selling Kindle devices as if they were hotcakes, particularly during last (Black) Friday. According to the company, it was the “best Black Friday ever” for the Kindle family, with Kindle sales “increasing 4x over last year”. As usual, don’t expect Amazon to share hard sales numbers, because they never do.
We’ll have to do with analyst estimates, which I’m sure will be rolling in during the course of this week (today is Cyber Monday and will likely result in another sales spike for Kindle devices). The number does run in the millions, of course. → Read More
Last week, Erick posted a video in which the founders of a stealth, San Francisco-based startup called Undrip spit some rhymes in an effort to raise seed funding for their new venture. Undrip, which is building a service to better filter your social networking streams (like Twitter) and let people consume media content without the noise, hoped to use their creative plea as a way to attract attention from top investors. They even created custom videos that they sent to individual investors, like Ron Conway. (See the video here.)
And today, we’ve been pointed to this response created by Detroit-based venture capital firm, Ludlow Ventures, which seems to prove that some investors are not only listening, they may just want in. You may (or may not) know the Detroit firm as an investor in startups like Hipster, Graphic.ly, Fundly, and FLUD, to name a few. Jonathon Triest, the Co-founder of Ludlow Ventures is the moonwalking, rhyme-dropping emcee above. → Read More
Last week, Yandex, one of biggest search and advertising companies in Russia, announced that it would be teaming up with Microsoft, Nokia, HTC and Samsung to become the default search engine on both new and upcoming Windows Phones in Russia. This followed the news last month that Yandex is also set to become the search provider for bada-powered smartphones in Russia and the CIS. It’s been a good last few months for Yandex, as Robin pointed out last week, the company has steadily grown its share of the Russian search market to a point where it now owns 62.7 percent of the market in Q3 2011 — ahead of Google.
Today, the Russian search giant has announced another strategic move in its mobile strategy, as it has acquired SPB Software, a developer of mobile software that makes its home in Russia, Taiwan, and Thailand. As for the price, sources close to the deal say that it was set at approximately $38 million. → Read More
