U.S. Venture Capital Has Its Biggest Quarter Since Dot-Com Days
U.S. venture capitalists put $8.1 billion into 812 deals in the second quarter of 2012, their single largest quarter in more than a decade, according to CB Insights.
It’s clear that factors like the greater American economy and the bumpy tech IPO market don’t necessarily have a direct and/or timely correlation with venture capital spending.
http://allthingsd.com/20120715/u-s-venture-capital-has-its-biggest-quarter-since-dot-com-days/
America’s new business model: Sharing
The nation is in a sharing mood — and start-ups are capitalizing on it.
Americans with heaps of stuff, skills and time are connecting online with tech-savvy and early adopters eager to share and rent homes, cars, tools and services in exchange for deep savings.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-07-15/social-sharing-economy/56243142/1
Google beefs up security for Chrome browser extensions
Google has moved to shore up security around its Chrome browser after the company added a setting to prevent extensions that are not hosted in the Chrome Web Store from installing in browsers automatically, while it has also begun monitoring submissions to the store.
http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/07/15/google-beefs-up-security-for-chrome-browser-extensions/
The Most Important Tech Company You’ve Never Heard Of
A Delaware-based company that didn’t exist 20 years ago has quietly become one of the major players in surveillance infrastructure — but they’ve been so under the radar that leading online privacy and security expert Chris Soghoian, a fellow at the Open Society Foundations, calls them the “Keyzer Söze of surveillance.” Meet Neustar, one of the most important companies you’ve never heard of.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/reyhan/the-most-important-tech-company-youve-never-heard
Tax Break Nears End For Online Shoppers
Republican governors, eager for new revenue to ease budget strains, are dropping their longtime opposition to imposing sales taxes on online purchases, a significant political shift that could soon bring an end to tax-free sales on the Internet.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303644004577525070594717752-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwNjExNDYyWj.html
Anonymous hackers target oil industry giants, more than 1,000 email credentials exposed
More than 1,000 email credentials from five multinational oil industry companies, including Shell and Exxon and BP, has been dumped online by hackers associated with the Anonymous movement.
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/07/16/anonymous-hackers-target-oil-industry-giants-more-than-1000-email-credentials-exposed/
Creamery is deal central for SF techies
Not long ago, while waiting for Caltrain, Ashley Mayer stopped at the Creamery to do some work.
Inside the airy SoMa hangout, amid a throng of tech types tapping away on laptops, a scruffy young hipster approached and asked Mayer if she was single. In another place, the man might have been preparing to ask Mayer out on a date. In San Francisco, there are more pressing concerns.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Creamery-is-deal-central-for-SF-techies-3707983.php
File-hosting firms ‘responsible for pirated content’, German court rules
Germany’s top court has ruled that file-hosting service Rapidshare must strengthen its anti-piracy measures after a pirated copy of the Atari title Alone in the Dark was found on its servers
http://www.zdnet.com/file-hosting-firms-responsible-for-pirated-content-german-court-rules-7000000950/
Steam store search shows categories for non-gaming apps
The Steam app for Android shows a number of new categories that have little to do with gaming, which could be a shred of evidence that Valve is considering different kinds of apps for its popular game distribution service. The “Genre” section of the app’s index lists genres like “accounting, education, software training,” and “photo editing,” with a total of ten additional categories over those shown in the Steam desktop client — though none of the categories contain any software.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/15/3161651/valve-steam-software
Microsoft and NBC Complete Web Divorce
On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself.
The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web. Early next year, MSNBC.com will be reborn as a stand-alone site for the cable channel MSNBC, ending the brand confusion that has plagued the site in the past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/business/media/msnbccom-renamed-nbcnewscom-as-microsoft-and-nbc-divorce.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Skype confirms ‘rare’ bug that sends messages to unintended contacts, promises fix soon
Only a handful of Skype users have reported this problem over at the support forum, but what they’re complaining about is pretty hair-raising. They say that, following an update in June, instant messages have repeatedly and unintentionally been forwarded to random people in their contact lists. In other words, third-parties are seeing stuff they were never meant to see, which constitutes a serious breach of privacy. Skype now tells us it’s aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Here’s the official response in full:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/16/skype-privacy-bug/
Here is why Facebook bought Spool
Over the weekend, news reports emerged that Facebook was buying Spool, a mobile-oriented social bookmarking service started by Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer. At the surface, this seems like yet another acqua-hire but scratch a little deeper and you start to understand Facebook’s motivation in buying this company.
http://gigaom.com/2012/07/15/why-did-facebook-buy-spool-what-did-twitter-miss/
