The future of workplace equality and support for people to pursue families and careers obviously matters, Anne-Marie Slaughter said at SXSW. And in many ways that future rests with men? Read more »
Facebook took a step back on Thursday in unveiling the updated News Feed, focusing on the simpler design the company has historically championed and trying to surface more interesting content through changes to the feed. Read more »
Starting at 10am PT, we’ll be live-blogging Facebook’s News Feed announcement from Menlo Park. Stay tuned for updates on how Facebook has rethought one of its most important features. Read more »
Path has tried to get more users for its relatively private social network, and hopes that the addition of richer messaging features will help do the trick — along with its usual focus on design. Read more »
Despite the Facebook hate that exists out there, the social network still has some key advantages to how it presents information. When it rolls out its updated newsfeed on Thursday, here are the three things it should highlight. Read more »
What’s the latest from Quora? The site is launching formal reviews for content like books, movies, and technology, allowing users to provide specific feedback on these popular topics in a more structured format. Read more »
Matter, one of San Francisco’s newest accelerators, has announced the six companies that will make up its first class looking to apply technology to issues in media, publishing, and broadcast. Read more »
Exitround is a new venture by an entrepreneur looking to facilitate communication between companies and potential buyers, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to explore the acquisition market in a private way. Read more »
While Twitter is increasingly encouraging us to look at measures like tweets per minute to measure reactions to national events, data from the Pew center comparing Twitter opinions with overall public opinion serves as a reminder that tweets aren’t yet a perfect measure. Read more »
Twitter announced that it’s shutting down its Tweetdeck apps for iPhone and Android, encouraging users to take advantage of the Tweetdeck web app instead. Read more »
Facebook responded to criticisms of its newsfeed algorithms on Monday, arguing that it’s constantly tweaking the formula but working to make sure posts in the feed are relevant to all users. Read more »
How to answer women’s questions about digital health, pregnancy, and parenthood on mobile? One entrepreneurial couple decided to tackle these issues with a social approach in Pink Pad, Baby Bump and Kidfolio. Read more »
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason will be leaving the company he announced Thursday after a disastrous company earnings call on Wednesday. Read more »
Facebook has announced the purchase of Atlas Solutions, with CNBC reporting the deal went for around $100 million. The deal had been rumored for a while now, as Facebook is looking to improve its ad platform and Atlas Solutions would give them additional advertising info. Read more »
Group photo-sharing is a problem that people have been trying to solve for a while now. But two fresh new apps that are launching before SXSW look to re-invent the concept and make it easier than ever to share. Read more »
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin has launched a new payments startup called Affirm, coming out of his new lab venture meant to foster startups around the concept of data. Read more »
Instagram announced Tuesday that it’s now hit 100 million monthly active users, a stat that puts it just behind Google+ and Twitter and shows that it hasn’t lost momentum even after a terms of service debate that left some people threatening to quit. Read more »
Former Square COO Keith Rabois plans to announce Tuesday morning that he’s joining Silicon Valley venture firm Khosla Ventures beginning in March as an investor. Rabois left Square after allegations of sexual harassment that surfaced in January. Read more »
Google+ is rolling out a sign-in feature for developers to integrate with apps, finally giving Google a feature like Facebook’s Connect that is now ubiquitous in usernames and sign-ins across the web. Read more »
Spark Capital has closed an oversubscribed fourth fund of $450 million. The venture capital firm was an early investor in companies like Twitter and Tumblr, and said it plans to continue its strategy of investing in companies early on, with the potential for follow-ons. Read more »
App.net is opening its doors for free to new users starting Monday who gain an invitation through current users. Some will say that adding a free tier invalidates founder Dalton Caldwell’s vision, but he argues that it’s just another step forward. Read more »
Facebook released an update on Friday that will allow users to place calls through the app as long as both parties have the most recently updated version. The function previously existed in the Messenger app, but will now be available to everyone. Read more »
Facebook wrote in an engineering blog post Friday that it has uncovered an engineering bug related to Page Insights that might have affected how stats are reported to Page managers trying to measure their traffic and impressions. Read more »
Snapchat has rolled out its video product on Android on Thursday, adding a popular feature to a booming app. The company that allows users to send short-lived photos and videos just raised a Series A funding round led by Benchmark. Read more »
Rock Health, the startup accelerator that works with digital health companies, presented its fourth batch on Wednesday in San Francisco. The group of companies look to target different ways of improving health through technology. Read more »
Pinterest has raised a new funding round of $200 million, putting the company’s valuation at $2.5 billion. The company has exploded in the last few years as users have flocked to collect images across the web and pin them to virtual boards. Read more »
Twitter rolled out its advertising API on Wednesday, giving brands a larger opportunity to target tweets specifically at users through a limited set of partners in the beginning. Read more »
Square introduced on Wednesday a new combination of products it calls “Business in a Box,” including Square Readers, and iPad holder, a cash drawer and a receipt printer. The hardware combination will work together and allow businesses to easily get up and running. Read more »
Twitter released updates to Tweetdeck on Tuesday allowing users greater flexibility in how they display content and media within Tweetdeck columns on web apps, demonstrating Twitter’s continued commitment to keeping Tweetdeck up and running. Read more »
With $50 million in the bank this summer and co-founder Adam D’Angelo saying the company wants to grow to 100 times its current size, Quora is clearly on a quest for new users. But the company needs to weigh carefully what it’s worth to get there. Read more »
Want to hunt for a specific term or re-live an event on Twitter? The company has expanded its search capabilities, but you still won’t find all tweets ever on the service — Twitter is developing its own algorithm to surface tweets based on interest and engagement. Read more »
A good number of companies are trying to create the best social reader for news and information, but no one’s really emerged a clear winner yet. Thirst is moving from a Twitter client to news reader in an attempt to capture part of the market. Read more »
Nextdoor wants to pick up on the community surrounding a neighborhood and create a high-tech combo of Craigslist, police tips, local messaging, and safety information. With more than $21 million in new funding, they’re on track to keep growing. Read more »
Fingerprint is moving forward in building a strong platform for educational kids games on mobile, launching a new multiplayer game that will allow kids and parents to play together on mobile, just as the parents might already do in Words with Friends or Letterpress. Read more »
Looking to buy a new Kindle Fire or Xbox product? How about making your purchase through a hashtag? Twitter has teamed up with American Express to allow purchases on the site, raising questions about the company’s future in e-commerce. Read more »
Snapchat, the popular app that lets you send sort-of-disappearing photos, has raised a $13.5 million Series A led by Benchmark Capital and looks to dominate the photo and video messaging arena Read more »
Could one startup convince local businesses to get on board with online booking? A Silicon Valley entrepreneur is going to see if local businesses want to get on board with his new company called MyTime. Read more »
Had trouble accessing sites across the internet for a few minutes on Thursday? It’s a good reminder of just how many websites now take advantage of Facebook’s third-party login options when the site experienced a short glitch Thursday evening. Read more »
LinkedIn posted strong earnings for the fourth quarter, coming in above analyst expectations and demonstrating growth in international markets and investment in the company’s influencer program. Read more »
Uber rolled out a product called Uber perks on Thursday that will allow companies to give credits to employees on a month by month basis, potentially hooking employees on the service that allows them to summon cars via their smartphones. Read more »
