Happy Valentine’s, Google — see you in court
A British man has found some sympathy in the courts because Google did not delete false comments about him made on Blogger fast enough. Does his case open a backdoor to internet regulation? Read more »
Bobbie Johnson
Bobbie is a British journalist who has covered technology and society over a decade in London and San Francisco. He was technology correspondent at the Guardian for five years, and has written for outlets including the BBC, Technology Review and Wired UK.
Where’s the big money going in Europe? On money itself
The reasons that European entrepreneurs and investors are starting up financial technology companies are many — including opportunism, pragmatism and even fear. Read more »
Are times getting desperate for Lovefilm?
photo: Shutterstock/Ollyy
With Netflix on a roll, its big European rival — Amazon-owned Lovefilm — seems more and more desperate to staunch the flow of subscribers quitting the service and moving elsewhere. Read more »
How Facebook comments affect trolling for news websites
Lots of news sites believe that using the Facebook platform — or other smart systems — can help reduce the amount of trollish activity in their comments. But the truth could be much simpler, and much less palatable for them, than that. Read more »
A brief guide to tech lobbyists in Europe
photo: Mopic/Shutterstock
Internet companies spend a lot of money lobbying governments to try and get what they want — and nowhere is the picture more complex than Europe. Here’s a quick look at who pulls the strings at federal and national levels. Read more »
The difference between being a founder and a hired CEO
Being in charge of a company presents many challenges, whether you’re the founder or a senior employee. But there are a whole category of problems that you only discover when you start up yourself, says Doug Monro of UK classified search service Adzuna. Read more »
Who really wins if Rocket goes public?
Europe has been talking for weeks about the possibility that the Samwer brothers, Germany’s uber clonemeisters, may be taking some or all of their copycat empire public. Would it be a victory for Europe’s startups? Or confirmation that they lack imagination? Read more »
Why startups shouldn’t shoot from the hip
Speed is important when you’re building a new company. But don’t think it’s the only thing that matters, says Philipp Moehring, one of the faces behind leading European accelerator Seedcamp. Read more »
Music site This Is My Jam could spin out from Echo Nest
A year after it launched as a skunkworks project inside music data company The Echo Nest, trendy social music site This Is My Jam is “looking at options” for going independent — as well as getting ready to launch some fun new site exploration features. Read more »
Diversity at conferences won’t solve anyone’s problem
Britain’s tech community is fretting again over the dominance of young white men on the conference circuit. But events veteran Mel Kirk says that forcing diversity ignores the deep skews in the industry itself. Read more »
After a torrid 2012, Habbo changes CEO — but is it enough?
A child protection scandal and failure to innovate have left Habbo Hotel — once one of the most popular virtual worlds — reeling. Now with the departure of CEO Paul LaFontaine, it’s feeling increasingly like the Finnish company faces a do or die moment. Read more »
Can the French civilize Twitter? Should they try?
photo: Shutterstock/Vinicius Tupinamba
A string of offensive hashtag memes in France has spurred the government to announce a consultation on hate speech with Twitter. It could mark a watershed for the country’s approach to social media — but it’s not just Paris that has a problem. We all do. Read more »
Revenue is the new black
Startups have been insulated from the wider economic climate for years — but now they’re feeling the chill, and the focus is switching to revenue generating ideas rather than get-big-quick consumer services. That’s a good thing, says one serial entrepreneur. Read more »
No excuses: It’s your job to steer clear of the mob
The media made a terrible error in identifying Ryan Lanza as the Sandy Hook shooter — a mistake amplified by social media. But while we may not be able to prevent these blunders happening elsewhere, we have to take responsibility for our own actions. Read more »
How London’s Silicon Roundabout really got started
Four years ago developer Matt Biddulph jokingly coined ‘Silicon Roundabout’ as a description of East London’s small but growing startup scene — now it’s become the de facto term for the area around Old Street. Here he recounts how a moment of mirth turned into a meme. Read more »
Stop crowing, London: it’s time to step it up
The British government’s constant adulation of the London startup scene reached its culmination this week with the news of a huge new redevelopment project. But the reality is that many of Britain’s smartest innovators are locked inside government and the rest look increasingly like poseurs. Read more »
Britain’s press inquiry is a deathbed confession, not a solution
Lord Justice Leveson’s high-profile inquiry into phone hacking and unethical behavior by the British press never really tackled the big problems at the heart of the news industry. And what’s worse is that this huge error wasn’t a mistake — but the result of willful ignorance. Read more »
Music startups aren’t dead — they’re just changing
Rumors of the death of the digital music industry are greatly exaggerated, says former Last.fm executive Matthew Hawn. While there may not be much room for profiting from recorded music any more, an entire generation of companies are building a different, more exciting future. Read more »
Why European startups should be furious about Autonomy
photo: Shutterstock / drser
Meg Whitman’s claims that Autonomy executives deliberately misled HP over its $11 billion acquisition are under investigation by the authorities. But whatever the truth, the damage is already done, as the affair further erodes the fragile relationship between Silicon Valley and Europe’s brightest technology companies. Read more »
If data is the new oil, don’t end up being BP
The US presidential election was further proof that 2012 has been a good year to be a quant — and being a data scientist has never been sexier. But data is nothing without trust, says former Last.fm executive Matthew Hawn. Read more »
How to outrun a lie on the internet
Social media chatter claiming incorrectly that a British politician was a pedophile has proven a far-reaching scandal in the UK — and one of the rare times that the network has self-corrected a lie. Is this a new dawn? Don’t get your hopes up. Read more »
Three things Europe must do before it disappears into the sunset
Jobs in traditional industries have been streaming away from Europe for years — and startups now offer the best chance of future employment. But the situation still needs improvement, says the man in charge of Northern Europe’s most high profile accelerator. Read more »
Indiegogo: data proves German stereotypes are wrong
The explosive growth of crowdfunding projects is turning lots of assumptions about business and creativity upside down. But nowhere is that change more apparent than in Germany, where Indiegogo founder Danae Ringelmann says the huge popularity of crowdfunding is even challenging the country’s conception of itself. Read more »
‘We back people who want to be rich, not famous’
As investors go, Balderton’s Barry Maloney has one of the best hit rates in Europe. But in a rare interview he explains why he’s not optimistic about the future for tech companies on the continent who want find an exit locally. Read more »
Hardware is hard — but accelerators can make it easier
photo: The Arduino project
SpringboardIoT, a new accelerator program focused on startups working on hardware and the Internet of Things, has launched in the UK. The scheme’s founder joins forces with an experienced insider to explain why it’s a necessary and useful development. Read more »
Here’s what Europe needs to copy from Silicon Valley
Should the tech hubs of Europe — or anywhere else desperate to become a center of innovation, for that matter — ignore Silicon Valley or mimic it? There are good reasons to try and start over, but don’t throw everything that we’ve learned away, says Dan Crow. Read more »
Saving the world with tech? It’s getting easier all the time
“Social capital” has been around for a while, but now VCs and other investors are starting to see opportunities in socially-valuable areas such as health and education. Cue an explosion across the technology industry. Read more »
How can Europe find its own vision of the future?
You can’t beat Silicon Valley by trying to be Silicon Valley — so why does Europe spend so much time trying? If the continent’s entrepreneurs want to become true leaders, they need to shake off the past and stop playing a game that’s stacked against them. Read more »
What accelerators do best — and where they fall down
After leaving the accelerator world, Mikko Järvenpää decided to ask entrepreneurs what they really thought about their experiences inside the startup factories. After talking to more than 150 graduates he discovered that acceleration can work well, but programs don’t always provide the help startups really need. Read more »
Meet the man who’s beating Airbnb in Europe
European vacation rentals site HouseTrip has everything going for it right now: not least fast growth and a fresh new round of funding. Co-founder Arnaud Bertrand lays out why he thinks his site can carry on winning — and reveals the scale of his ambition. Read more »
Don’t worry, Europe: you’re about to get a new beginning
Europe has trailed America for decades, partly because of a tricky environment for entrepreneurs. But one investor thinks the continent’s young businesses could be about to see a new dawn. Read more »
Can ResearchGate really be the Facebook of science?
With 2m members, science startup ResearchGate isn’t just talking big when it says it wants to start a revolution: it’s actually changing the way scientists work. Co-founder Ijad Madisch explains his vision — and how he’d like to change Germany’s clone-heavy culture along the way. Read more »
Why journalists love Reddit for its brains, not just its beauty
For years Reddit has been used by journalists as a source of stories and ideas — but most outlets have preferred to keep their addiction quiet. Now, thanks in large part to President Obama, it doesn’t have to be their dirty little secret any more. Read more »
Wait a minute, are “sock puppets” really that bad for the book business?
photo: Stephen Leather
Readers and writers are revolting after it emerged that several leading crime authors have been posing as reviewers to puff up their own books. But is the outcry really just a distraction from all the other ways publishers — and people in general — try to game the system? Read more at paidContent »
French copyright police warn government over cutbacks
photo: Jbor/Shutterstock
Hadopi, the French body created by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to enforce copyright laws online, has rarely been popular for its three strikes disconnection policy. Now, after hints that the new government may cut its funding, the group’s leader has told politicians to stop meddling. Read more »
Estonia’s plan to get 6 year olds coding is a stroke of genius
When should children learn to code? Estonia’s Tiger Leap Foundation wants children as young as six to be enrolled in coding classes — all part of a national program that has already turned this tiny country into a technological powerhouse. Read more »
Does Hailo have Uber on the run in New York’s taxi wars?
Two of the biggest taxi service startups are preparing to go head-to-head as San Francisco’s Uber and London’s Hailo gear up for launch in New York. Who will win? Evidence so far suggests it’s a tough game, but the British company may just have the edge. Read more »
Meet the man who wants to satirize Silicon Valley
British arch-satirist Armando Iannucci – best known for his documentary-style dissections of the political classes — is getting ready to take on his next project: a black comedy based on Silicon Valley’s worst moments of excess. Fish, meet barrel. Read more »
What do future products look like? Personal, sensual, intimate
Huge technology trade shows like IFA are meant to parade the biggest products around. But what if the biggest isn’t the best? What if intimacy, personalization and customization are the things we crave? That’s what I argued at a fringe event in Berlin last week. Read more »
Can Berlin be a real startup hub without a real airport?
Berlin is making great strides towards becoming a serious home for startups and entrepreneurs in Europe. But while it’s getting support from businesses and even government, the biggest fly in the ointment could be the delayed, embarrassing shambles that is Brandenburg airport. Read more »
