Three's Company Or Three's A Crowd? Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday
Don't they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we've heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs …
3G iPhone Preference Found in Beta 5 Firmware?
While we haven't been able to independently verify this ourselves, one blog post claims the latest Beta 5 iPhone Network.plist file contains 3G preferences, and that somehow can be activated. The cla...
Review: Summize Twitter Search
Summize, a company I am quite familiar with following my review of their review aggregator product, has substantially changed their company direction since I have last been in touch with them. They a...
Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops
Microsoft is launching a program to promote the use of its Windows OS in ultra low-cost PCs, one effect of which will be to limit the hardware capabilities of this type of device, IDG News Service has...
Spotplex Suffers Identity Crisis, Stumbles Into DeadPool
We introduced Spotplex in February 2007 as a potential Digg killer that served up popular stories by monitoring how many people read them. Somewhere along the way, it also turned into an Alexa-like a...
Three Reasons To Use Disqus
First, I'd like to be perfectly clear that our firm, Union Square Ventures, is an investor in Disqus. So I am clearly biased about what I am about to say. Second, I'd like to point out that the reas...
BlackBerry vs. iPhone
1: WHEREIN NEITHER ‘RIM’ NOR ‘BLACKBERRY’ ARE EVEN MENTIONED, BUT RATHER THE STAGE IS SET FOR SHOWING WHY THEY MIGHT BE SERIOUSLY SCREWED — Along the lines of can't-really-be-answered-but-gosh- they...
Powerset's Dilemma: Go For It, Or Sell
San Francisco based search startup Powerset will be launching shortly. For now, Powerset will query only Wikipedia and Freebase. But as I said when the product was demo'd to me a few weeks ago, it i...
Security flaw turns Gmail into open-relay server
A recently-discovered flaw in Gmail is capable of turning Google's e-mail service into a highly effective spam machine. According to the Information Security Research Team (INSERT), Gmail is suscepti...
Viewzi May Finally Have Won Me Over to Visual Search
Apparently, Viewzi had its private beta launch when I was in San Francisco for Web 2.0 Expo, because how I missed it, I have no idea. I've never been a big fan of visual search, but I'm always willin...
The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon
The platform wars are going mobile. Whether it's the iPhone, Blackberry,Android or Windows Mobile, the mobile platform that will win in the end will be the one with the best and broadest collection o...
The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam, And The Rationale For MicroPR
Gina Trapani, of Lifehacker, has created a prspammers wiki where she and others can publicly out PR firms that are spamming bloggers at their personal email addresses, or using other unsavory spammish...