Josh Constine
Josh Constine is a technology journalist who specializes in deep analysis of social products. He is currently a writer for TechCrunch.
Previously, Constine was the Lead Writer of Inside Facebook, where he covered Facebook product changes, privacy, ads, ecommerce, games, and music technology.
Constine graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a Master's degree in Cybersociology, examining the influence of technology on social interaction. He researched the impact of privacy controls on the socialization of children, meme popularity cycles, and what influences the click through rate of links posted to Twitter.
Constine also received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Stanford University in 2007, with a concentration in Social Psychology & Interpersonal Processes.
Josh Constine is an experienced public speaker, and has done on-stage inteviews with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AOL CEO Tim Cook, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung, and Senator Cory Booker. He's been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, The Atlantic, BBC World Magazine, Slate, and more, plus has been featured on television on NBC and Fox News. Constine is available for speaking gigs.
[Disclosures: Josh Constine advises a college friend's social location-sharing startup codenamed 'Signal' that is based in San Francisco. This advising role has been cleared with AOL and TechCrunch's editors. Constine's cousin Darren Lachtman is the founder of Niche, which connects social media stars to sponsorships from brands.]
CrunchBase profile →Featured Picks from Josh Constine
Latest from Josh Constine
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Meerkat Is The Livestreaming App Twitter Should Have Built
Everything’s more interesting if it’s happening right now. Jokes seem funnier when you hear them in person. A dense political debate becomes captivating when watched live on TV. Real-time performances carry a peculiar vividness and urgency you can’t get from something that already happened, even if it was just minutes or seconds ago. Dick Costolo should know this well. Read More
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Storify Founders Leave For Open Source, Baby
They’ve got new tales to tell. After five years running Storify, which lets you collect social media updates into narrative timelines, co-founders Burt Herman and Xavier Damman are leaving the startup which was acquired by Livefyre in 2013. They’re passing the reins to several original Storify members, who will keep the service running. Herman’s plan is to focus on raising… Read More
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Vurb Is Crazy Enough To Fight Google
Google Search was not built for mobile. It’s all about lists of web pages, but the small screen is ruled by apps. That’s why if Google launched today, it might look a lot like Vurb…which did launch today. Vurb is a mobile search engine that pulls info from partnered apps like Yelp and Rotten Tomatoes, and deep-links you out to apps like Uber and Google Maps. Rather than send… Read More
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Designers Ditch Perfectionism For Instant Feedback With Wake
“How does this look?” That was a surprisingly difficult question to get an answer to until now. Today, Wake launches the private beta of its tool that lets design teams privately share their works in progress. Wake’s web and iOS interfaces make it super quick to post an image to a team’s Wake feed and get comments. Built by a former Facebook designer, Wake already… Read More
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Yo Tries To Make Itself Useful With Photo And Link Alerts From 150 Sources
“It was just a way to annoy your friends” Yo co-founder Or Arbel tells me. His minimalist messenger hit 3.5 million users at its peak thanks to the mainstream press’ sudden fascination with an app that only let you send people the word “Yo”. Most of those users quickly evaporated because Yo wasn’t very useful. Yet. But today Yo launches what Arbel says was… Read More
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First Look At Beatport’s Free Dance Music Streaming Service
Beatport is where the world’s DJs buy their music, but they could only listen to two-minute samples. Now Beatport hopes that by giving away free unlimited streaming, it can drum up more sales. Today Beatport sent out private beta invites for its new dance music streaming service, and we’ve got the first look. Founded way back in 2003, Beatport’s store provides… Read More
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A Rant About The Smartest Thing Yahoo’s Done In Years
I call it a “PlAdform Strategy”. By dangling a free development platform for building better apps, top ad sellers can lure in developers who then buy their app install ads. Facebook did it with Parse and Audience Network to create its “Build-Grow-Monetize” loop. Twitter did it with Crashlytics and MoPub to launch its Fabric development platform. Now after years of… Read More
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CrunchWeek: YikYak Vs. Spam, VCs Funding Coffee, Big Steps For Science Tech
Another week in tech has come and gone, bringing a fresh crop of stories for us to talk about on CrunchWeek, the show that brings a few TechCrunch writers together to talk about some of the most interesting news of the past seven days. This time, Sarah Buhr, Josh Constine and I gathered around the big white table to talk about Josh’s big story on YikYak’s controversial methods… Read More
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A Year Later, $19 Billion For WhatsApp Doesn’t Sound So Crazy
Messaging is the center of mobile. Snapchat is raising at around a $20 billion valuation. And no one cares who owns apps. On February 19, 2014, we didn’t know any of these things for sure. So when Facebook announced it would pay $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp — an app most American pundits had never used — it seemed ludicrous. Zuck had to be crazy, right? Wrong. Read More
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New Yahoo Mobile Development Suite Seduces App Makers With Analytics, Search, Ads
Today at Yahoo’s first mobile developer conference, the tech giant unveiled its new Yahoo Mobile Development Suite that combines Yahoo App Publishing for monetization, Search In Apps, and App Marketing with its Flurry Analytics acquisition made last year. This is Yahoo’s “ads in dev’s clothing” strategy to convince app makers to buy and host its ads. Flurry now… Read More
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Snapchat Now Lets You Shoot Video And Play Music At The Same Time
Snapchat has solved one of the most annoying problems with mobile video so you can finally record your dance parties, even if you’re the DJ. The startup been experimenting for some time with ways to better integrate music into its application. Today it’s launching a new feature that allows you to record video while playing music from your phone, rather than the music pausing. You… Read More
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Yik Yak Systematically Downvotes Mentions Of Competitors
You can say anything on Yik Yak, as long as it’s not a competing app’s name. The anonymous app has quietly built a system that downvotes any mentions of several other apps for college kids including Fade, Sneek, and Unseen until no one can see them. By adding one downvote per minute, Yik Yak makes it look like other anonymous users dislike these posts. But tests in isolation… Read More
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Facebook’s New Ads Automatically Show A Business’ Products That You’ll Want Most
You’ve probably seen plenty of products advertised on Facebook, but today the company is announcing a new unit called product ads, with features aimed specifically at helping businesses sell their products. The big difference is that the ads are dynamically optimized, meaning that the products you see will be tailored based on your activity and interests. Basically, they adapt to… Read More
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Facebook Patents Clever Way To Advertise Just To Important People
Celebrities aren’t like you and me. They’re better. Or at least Facebook thinks they’re worth more money. Convince experts and influencers to like something, and everyone will follow their lead. The question is how to identify who these special people are, and Facebook’s just patented one of the trickiest ways yet. The idea is that Facebook could watch the rate at which… Read More
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Rise Of The Micro-Tinders
Different strokes for different folks. But what about different apps? Tinder brought ruthless efficiency to online dating. Yet the same way people gravitate to distinct nightlife spots depending on their style, we’re seeing an explosion of niche dating apps all based on Tinder’s familiar swipes. No matter how special you are, they’ll help you find your special someone. This… Read More
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Snapchat Tries Our Stories For Locals Only
Snapchat’s newest feature could turn Our Stories into hip, visual back channels by locals for locals only. The company is currently experimenting with a version of its normally public, big event Our Stories that feature Snaps from a certain location that can only be seen by people nearby. Today it’s running one called “TGIF” that only pulls in Snaps from, and shows them… Read More
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Meeting Someone On ‘The Catch’ App Means Going Out, Not Chatting
You know what’s more fun than swiping right on Tinder? Actually hooking up. That’s why new dating game The Catch tries to by-pass the chat phase and get you and your prospective bae to meet up. The Catch is like a digital version of the old 60’s TV show The Dating Game. It goes like this: Women set age and location preferences, browse guys’ profiles on The Catch… Read More
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Facebook’s App Now Makes Addictive/Annoying Little *POP* Sounds
*Zing* *Shring* *Bloop* No, these aren’t comic book fight sounds. They’re the new noises Facebook’s app makes as you navigate. The idea seems to be that these little tones will make browsing Facebook more fun and subtly convince you to use the app more. After discovering the sounds in the Facebook for iOS app, I asked Facebook and it confirmed the news to me, saying… Read More
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You’re Going To Die. First, Choose Someone To Manage Your Facebook Profile
Now you can give someone power of attorney over your digital life. Today Facebook began letting users select a “legacy contact” who can partially control their Facebook profile after they die. Legacy Contact_ChoosePreviously when you bit the dust, your friends could notify Facebook to lock your profile into a memorial page. But now if you’ve set a legacy contact, that person… Read More
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Ranku Finds International Students The Perfect US School
America isn’t the land of opportunity unless you can get a job after college to earn a visa. That makes picking a city in which to attend a university a critical decision for international students. Some services can charge families thousands of dollars to guide them through the U.S. college selection process. Read More
