Do Facebook’s efforts to make money come at the cost of the user experience? Company executives David Fischer (vice president of marketing and business partnerships) and Sam Lessin (who heads the Identity Product Group) said today that they don’t see it that way. Instead, Fischer argued that the Facebook team thinks about user experience and advertising as “either side of the same coin.” → Read More
This afternoon’s media-focused discussion at the Techonomy conference concluded with moderator Dave Morgan of Simulmedia asking panelists to predict the world’s most powerful media company in 2020. Two of the four speakers came up with the same answer — Apple.
The company was barely mentioned in the preceding discussion, but Tom Bedecarré, chairman of digital agency AKQA (which was recently… → Read More
When Twitter struck a deal to move to San Francisco’s mid-Market neighborhood, the tradeoff seemed pretty straightforward: In exchange for relocating to an economically challenged area, the company would get significant tax breaks. But Jack Dorsey said at the Techonomy Detroit conference today that there’s another benefit.
Dorsey, who is product lead at Twitter and founder and CEO at Square… → Read More
Some of the speakers at today’s Techonomy Detroit conference talked about how entrepreneurship and technology can help Detroit diversify its economy beyond automobile manufacturing. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up on the car companies.
Ford, for example, seems to be in the middle of a reinvention. At the conference, I had a chance to interview Paul Mascarenas, the company’s CTO and… → Read More
Detroit might seem like an odd place to hold a tech conference, but when Steve Case, CEO of Revolution and founder of AOL (TechCrunch’s parent company), took the stage this morning at Techonomy Detroit, he said the event was not just a good idea. It was a great one.
For one thing, Case said it’s part of the “awesome story of Detroit fighting its way back and not giving up.” More broadly… → Read More
Steve Case, CEO of Revolution and founder of TechCrunch-owner AOL, was a key player in advocating for the JOBS Act, which will allow for a much broader range of crowdfunding (specifically, equity crowdfunding). When he spoke at the Techonomy Detroit conference today, Case elaborated on why the JOBS Act is going to be a big deal.
In Silicon Valley, Case said, crowdfunding probably won’t be… → Read More
We are not nearly as innovative as we think we are. That, at least, is the view of Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason university and the author of The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better, a book which argues that we are failing to invent technology (like flushing toilets) that radically changes… → Read More
Appsfire, the startup behind the eponymous mobile app discovery and sharing platform, is today launching a totally new website and iPhone app, vastly improving its usefulness. Because Apple’s iTunes ratings and Genius recommendations only travel so far, really.
The company, which has recently raised a seed round from a number of French angel investors, makes it a lot easier for iPhone owners to… → Read More
Apparently musician Yoni Bloch is, besides a really nice guy, something of a celebrity here in Israel. He’s also very much a geek, and the combination of both passions led to a startup called Interlude. The central part of the business can be essentially summarized as ‘choose your own adventure’ technology for online videos.
During an interview I had with Bloch and his partner yesterday, and… → Read More
Fiddme, publicly launching in beta today, is a social network for foodies that love to share their ‘food experiences’ with the world, which I think is code for notably good or bad dishes. The service, which comes in the form of both a Web and an iPhone application, lets people share their favorite dishes in restaurants or other places by taking a picture of said food and adding a short caption… → Read More
Questions about the meaning of life? Stuck with an overweight dilemma? Sure, you could reach out to the masses who are following you on Twitter or Facebook, but what are the chances of getting answers only from the few people whose opinions you actually care about? And what if it concerns a private matter?
Emailing a specific group of people could do the trick … but then again, it could make… → Read More
Such a silly name for such an amazing product. Those were my thoughts after interviewing the founder and CEO of Zbang, an Israeli startup that is building the communication platform I’ve been genuinely longing for. Think of it as a universal social media inbox, like Threadsy, Inbox2 or MailSuite but an inch closer to perfection.
Zbang is a desktop application that enables users to aggregate… → Read More
Israeli entrepreneurs and VCs, I’ll be happy to meet as many of you as humanly possible in the span of 3-4 days while I’m spending some time in Tel Aviv in a few weeks. I’ll be heading down there – first time ever – on the 3rd of May and stick around until the 6th of May around noon.
I’m traveling to Israel for Techonomy 2010, a must-attend event for anyone professionally involved with the Web… → Read More
Israeli entrepreneurs and VCs, I’ll be happy to meet as many of you as humanly possible in the span of 3-4 days while I’m spending some time in Tel Aviv in a few weeks. I’ll be heading down there – first time ever – on the 3rd of May and stick around until the 6th of May around noon.
I’m traveling to Israel for Techonomy 2010, a must-attend event for anyone professionally involved with the Web… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
