Controversial European privacy rules that require websites to inform users about tracking cookies are finally hitting Britain this weekend. But the country’s startups seem to be taking no notice of the law, despite the fact they face up huge fines for non-compliance. Read more »
Whether they’re outraged, scrabbling in terror, or simply hoping it goes away, it’s the privacy rule that European startups can’t ignore. But what exactly is the European cookie directive? As the rules come into force in the U.K., we take a look at the details. Read more »
Cloud collaboration startup Huddle is gearing up for a significant push, with a $24 million round of funding that CEO Alastair Mitchell says can help turn the company into a billion dollar business. Read more »
Latvian startup Infogr.am has launched its suite of online tools for building beautiful — and shareable — infographics on the web. Can it cash in on a growing trend for easy data visualization, or not? Read more »
Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Wordpress and Automattic, said at paidContent 2012 that the service is preparing for a significant change of direction — by releasing a much simpler version designed to work on mobile. Read more at paidContent »
Ahead of receiving his knighthood from the Queen, Apple’s British design chief Jonathan Ive has given a rare interview to the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, outlining some of his thoughts and feelings on how the company’s products achieve a “sense of care.” Read more »
With European startups regularly complaining about a lack of seed funding, crowd investment platform Seedrs hopes to link the people to the companies who need it — and today it is inviting the first startups to join its service. Read more »
Smart energy startup AlertMe — which provides a cloud-based way to monitor your energy consumption — has struck a deal with British Gas, the U.K.’s largest domestic energy supplier. It’s the latest big break for the business, CEO Mary Turner explains. Read more »
There’s a lot happening across Europe this week, with conferences, hackdays and other happenings for every interest or level of expertise. Here’s our pick of some of the best events taking place across the continent. Read more »
Serial entrepreneur Ryan Carson says hack weekends are a blight on the landscape, cashing in on the ‘youth and optimism’ of coders to turn a quick buck. Adherents aren’t so sure. So who’s right? Read more »
Facebook’s rise has come on the back of astonishing international growth — but it needs to keep expanding everywhere, and in every way, to keep up with investors’ expectations. Where can it find the silver bullet? And how will it happen? Read more »
Ten years ago, Plastic Logic looked like it had all the elements in place to become a world-beating startup. Now it’s ditched its attempts to become a household name and decided to focus on licensing its technology instead. So where did it all go wrong? Read more »
Mounting evidence suggests Europe’s mobile operators are becoming increasingly censorious, thanks to haphazard adult content filters that are applied to millions of users. The result? De facto, unregulated censorship that screens out thousands of legitimate websites, including GigaOM. Read more »
The team behind London-based photo app developer Lightbox are joining Facebook. But it’s a long way from Instagram’s billion-dollar deal: in fact, while the company’s employees are rejoicing, users and investors appear to have been left out in the cold. Read more »
Swedish payments startup iZettle, which hopes to become the European equivalent of Square, is launching its first pilot in Britain. The move is the company’s largest rollout — and its biggest test — so far. Read more »
With the financial outlook gloomy across Europe, there’s constant chatter about how hard it is not being Silicon Valley. But a growing number of people are challenging entrepreneurs to stop complaining and start building. Can they light a fire under the continent’s startups? Read more »
After just three months of operation, France’s disruptive Free Mobile — which has upset the market with an innovative and controversial offering — has won 2.6 million subscribers, an unprecedented number for a new European launch. Read more »
Lots to get your teeth into across Europe this week — whether you’re a designer, developer, entrepreneur or investor. Here’s our pick of some of the best events taking place across the continent. Read more »
Under pressure because the new iPad’s 4G connectivity does not work outside North America, the company has started dropping its claims in some international markets — like the UK and Australia — but not in others. Read more »
Just days after France elected a new President, startups and entrepreneurs are lining up to decry François Hollande and saying they want to quit a hostile environment for business. At least they’re not threatening to go on strike. Read more »
Qype is Europe’s answer to Yelp, and it’s grown to more than 25 million users around the continent. But is a new publicity campaign touting its expansion a prelude to further investment — or is it shopping around for a sale? Read more »
Britain’s fourteen-year-old local information website UpMyStreet has changed hands again, bought by property website Zoopla in a small deal that appears to mark the end of the line for the veteran brand. Read more »
Neil Rimer of Index Ventures thinks one of the big problems for European startups — the lack of local exit opportunities — is all of its own making. But who has the guts to take up his challenge and go public in London? Read more »
Farmeron isn’t your typical software-as-a-service business — it’s based in a small town in Croatia, and its customers are dairy farmers, not tech-savvy startups. Still, founder Matija Kopic’s just raised another $1.4 million to help take its big data services to farms around the world. Read more »
New Dutch cloud service Silk, which is launching today, wants to fulfill the promise of the Semantic Web and make your documents, web pages and files more powerful — and with a few fixes, it could get there. Read more »
London’s increasingly competitive taxi app space has a new player launching officially on Thursday: Ubicabs, which wants to grab a slice of the British capital’s lucrative transport market. Investor Sean Phelan explains why he thinks it can succeed. Read more »
As e-commerce startup Fruugo closes its Helsinki office, its CEO takes a moment to attack the “deliberate negativity” from Finland’s press and entrepreneurs. But with $48m burned and no revenues, perhaps Fruugo should stop laying the blame elsewhere. Read more »
Russian investor Yuri Milner plans to sell $1.5 billion of Facebook stock when the company goes public later this month — making more than a billion in profit. But it’s Silicon Valley that should be thanking him, not the other way around. Read more »
With the summer approaching, Europe is a busy place with lots of events to enjoy. Here’s our pick of three this week that you may find interesting or useful. Read more »
Statistics suggest that a third of Draw Something‘s active users have deserted the game in just a month — bringing into question Zynga’s actions and judgment since deciding to purchase maker OMGPOP for $200 million. Read more »
New research from the BBC suggests that one of the web’s most common rules of thumb no longer applies — and that online engagement has risen dramatically in recent years. But is its surprising conclusion based on a dramatic misinterpretation of the rule itself? Read more »
Britain looks set to re-open the question of how adult internet content is regulated, as embattled Prime Minister David Cameron scrambles for ways to shore up support from the conservative heartland. Read more »
A year into its life, Passion Capital has established itself as one of London’s premier seed investors. Here’s what the trio behind the business have learned since making the change from entrepreneurs into serious investors. Read more »
Groupon might be suffering some financial turmoil, but Lightbank — the investment group formed by two of its backers — has decided to make UK accountancy cloud startup FreeAgent the target for its first foreign deal. Read more »
Without any fanfare, Rdio just launched its music streaming service in the U.K. and France — taking on major rival Spotify on its home turf for the first time. But is its offering enough to make users switch? Read more »
Online delivery service Just-Eat raised $64 million, and has its sights set on expansion. Surely it would target America, the home of fast food, right? Wrong. CEO Klaus Nyengaard tells us why he doesn’t want to roll out in the U.S any time soon. Read more »
Video portal DailyMotion is hoping to challenge YouTube woo more original content creators to its platform — by offering them the chance to raise funds directly through the site, in a new partnership with micropayments service Flattr. Read more »
The animated GIF has been given new life thanks to Tumblr’s obsession with quirky pictures of Ryan Gosling and kittens. But now German app Loopcam is uncovering a problem — what happens when creation happens on mobile, but consumption takes place on the web? Read more »
The quality of Europe’s internet access is right up there with Asia’s — but according to Akamai, if you want top quality continental broadband your best bet is to hit Holland or Romania, which boast the best speeds. Sweden is home to some of the fastest cities. Read more »
Europe’s buzzing this week, with a range of events that give everyone plenty to sink their teeth into. Here’s our pick of three that you may find interesting or useful. Read more »
