Kleiner Perkins today reasserted itself as a powerhouse and relevant venture capital firm by rounding up Facebook, Zynga and Amazon to announce a $250 million fund for social web startups, called the sFund. Kleiner partner John Doerr today won on-stage testimonials from Facebook, Amazon and Zynga.…
Read MoreLiz Gannes
What’s Next for Posterous: Geo, Groups, Premium
Posterous, the email-based blogging platform, aims to keep things simple and easy to use, but it can't resist adding new more advanced features such as increased support for groups, premium accounts for businesses, proximity-based geoblogs, and a better bookmarklet to bring in outside content.…
Read MoreEsther Dyson: Privacy Is a Marketing Problem
In light of recent outcry about social networking privacy lapses and potential misuse of users' personal information, long-time web thought leader Esther Dyson had this to say at the marketing conference Pivot in New York City today: online privacy a marketing problem.…
Read MoreCool Tools: Wanderfly Inspires Travel Getaways
Have a hankering to take a few days off and go somewhere? A new startup called Wanderfly, which launched today, wants to help inspire you. Type in your approximate travel dates, budget, duration and interests, and Wanderfly will serve up a set of glossy options.…
Read MoreSigns of Angel Investing Exuberance: A Tool and a Game
Now angel investing seems to be becoming an industry, complete with its own tools, services and even an iPhone game. Today comes the beta launch of CapLinked, a web-based tool for managing fundraising that helps startups and investors communicate with each other and share documents.…
Read MoreMy 9 Favorite Startup Lessons From Startup School
Today I attended Y Combinator's annual Startup School at Stanford University. From the 11 talks from startup founders and funders full of first-person lessons, these were some of the most resonant tips for other entrepreneurs about what to do and what not to do.…
Read MoreHow Can We Make Mobile Apps Suck Less Offline?
For the most part, as soon as I lose connectivity, my mobile apps are mostly broken. Musing over to my most-used apps -- Gmail, Facebook and Twitter -- only gets me error messages and frustration. And even Angry Birds and Word Warp are handicapped when they're offline.…
Read MoreGoogle Shows Thin Skin, Pushes Back on Criticism
Google today on its quarterly earnings call broke out some numbers that it doesn't historically give (and doesn't promise to give in the future): revenue and monetization rates for display, video and mobile advertising. The intent was to show that Google isn't just a search company.…
Read MoreMozilla Names Mobile Exec Gary Kovacs as New CEO
Mozilla Corporation, which makes the Firefox browser, has named its next CEO: Gary Kovacs. This was a planned transition -- current CEO John Lilly wants to become a VC at Greylock Partners -- but perhaps not an expected choice, given Kovacs comes from outside the Mozilla fold.…
Read MoreFacebook Credits Nearly Ready for Primetime
Facebook has done a remarkable job of getting developers to adopt its Credits virtual currency before the program was fully fledged. Today, the company announced a partnership with PlaySpan to add 20 additional ways for users to pay for credits and plans to accelerate rollout.…
Read MoreBing Launches Facebook Instant Personalization
Microsoft today launched social search features for Bing created in partnership with Facebook. The two companies are teaming up to take on their common enemy, Google. The implementations are basic, but significant because they will automatically show up to all users of both Bing and Facebook.…
Read Morei/o Ventures, the Hip Take on a Tech Incubator
i/o Ventures, the new San Francisco Mission District tech incubator, invited an audience over last night to see what its first class of startups have been working on. i/o has a friendly and non-pretentious vibe, in keeping with its founding partners.…
Read More