Curated Stories September 29, 2010

We brought 4INFO founder and CEO Zaw Thet, VP of Groupon Mihir Shah and Brand In Hand founder John Hadl together to talk about their experiences in mobile marketing here at TechCrunch Disrupt, on a panel mode…

Groupon and its CEO, Andrew Mason, are well known for doing and saying things that are a little eccentric to amuse its users and attract attention.
Users who unsubscribe from the service get to see a video of A…

by Shantanu Nundy, MD“You know, what Mr. HD really needs is for his mom or somebody to chain herself to him …” [the ICU team laughs] … “But seriously, he needs to be watched over, he needs to be tal…

The once-dominant Internet service provider bought three dot-com startups—TechCrunch among them—in a bid to restore its relevance

Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes, saying that $0.99 TV rentals could “jeopardize” the entire medium, is now the third content giant to give Apple’s rental model a big media middle finger. And he’s n…

Of the companies that presented at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference, one of the more interesting ones to me was Storify, one of a number of “curation” services that are trying to make it easier for blogge…

Seven years ago (2003), I posted my first Blog post here. The day would have slipped by had someone not sent me a note about it.

After tweeting about my Blogaversary, Jay Fleischman, replied: @mitchjoel 6.18 p…

Last month, we noted that PayPal would soon launch a new version of their iPhone app that would be more check-friendly. That app should be released in the next day or so, PayPal’s Laura Chambers revealed on…

Image via Wikipedia

I loved word search puzzles as a kid. So did my grandmother. We could easily sit for an hour or two together, going through the cheap PennyPress word search booklets. I also adored do…

I’m on Twitter all day long, and Facebook nearly as often–not just because they’re fun, but because they’re useful research tools. LinkedIn? I find it handy when I want to look up vital facts about a pa…

Mashable staffers aren’t everywhere — but our readers are.That’s why we’re crowdsourcing tips for our Foursquare page. Help Mashable readers explore the social and tech scene in your city by submitting…

We know that companies can create competitive advantage through collaborative platforms—from internal, project-specific wikis all the way to Twitter, Facebook, and beyond. But how are platforms actually being…

On stage today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures, recalled a story from the days when he backed Excite, one of the original Internet portals. S…

Sysomos, maker of social media analysis tools, looked at 1.2 billion tweets over a two-month period to analyze what happens after we publish our tweets to Twitter. Its research shows that 71% of all tweets prod…

A few weeks back, I gave some tips for how to speed up WordPress on a VPS. Several readers suggested using WP-SuperCache. This is a good suggestion, but in my case, it didn’t work.

After a bit of investigation…

Cnet’s Tom Krazit thinks that Google CEO Eric Schmidt should be careful with his visions of a profoundly computer-augmented future:
It’s not that Schmidt is wrong or misguided in making these predictions: t…

Nine times out of 10, if you’re walking down the street and you search for “coffee” on your smartphone, it’s because you’re in serious need of a cup of joe. You don’t want a Wikipedia article or a website for c…

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of the firm Spark Media Solutions, which gives voice to companies by building their media network. Spark appeared on the last episode of Cranky Geeks…

Daily deals site Groupon has chosen TCDisrupt to launch Grouspawn, their latest publicity stunt and exercise in strange company culture. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has decided that as the company expands, there…

With 80 million members, LinkedIn is steadily growing as the go-to professional social network. And as the company reportedly readies for an IPO within the next year, all eyes are on LinkedIn to see if the comp…

Does your business standout to local consumers through local business listings? Is your business dependent upon the local geography for your revenue? If you’re not using local business listings as an a…

Backlink research and link building are the two most tedious (yet unavoidable) tasks in website promotion process. Link Research Tools is one the most powerful link research assistants you should definitely tr…

Most people dread meetings because they seem to drag on forever and end up cluttered with complaints, side conversations, and handout reviews. Schedule meeting…

The world of social media still has a credibility problem in business.
Many people watching this from the outside in don’t understand what we’re doing. Some want to understand, but what they see often in ou…

Geomium, a new location-based social network, gets its official launch today, in London first but with other UK cites and then Europe and the U.S. to follow.

As with other such services, it lets users connect…

I’ve long been a fan of Robert Krulwich‘s unique form of journalism which typically involves his attempt to translate a seemingly complex concept into something understandable by those of us who are curiou…

The Smart Decisions series is supported by Mercedes-Benz.

On Monday Google celebrated its 12th birthday. And what a twelve years it’s been.
Despite occasional blunders, Google has taken over the wo…

PayPal has offered buyer protection on its parent company eBay‘s properties since October 2003. Last year, the electronic payments juggernaut began offering purchase protection on merchant sites for select p…

When it comes to tech news coverage, sometimes it seems like Apple is the biggest phone manufacturer in the world. While it is true that the iPhone is a very popular smartphone, Apple’s overall share in the m…

Struggling companies all share something in common. Their sales and marketing efforts are at odds. Sometimes, they are even at war. The marketing team lectures the sales department, saying that if only the sale…

Earlier this week, we wrote about the overnight success of Orabrush, a product with a silly video that received 24MM YouTube hits.
So, we did a little research. Surely other brands have had unexpected viral suc…

Sharon Pian Chan / Seattle Times:
QA with Steve Ballmer on mobile, search and Facebook — Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sat down with The Seattle Times for a Q and A on the eve of the annual com…

“What’s the biggest mistake you see aspiring bloggers making?”
This is a question I’m asked a fair bit on panels or in interviews, and it’s one that I suspect the people asking the question would like…

In the early days of newspapers, success and advertising was measured by total circulation. The ability to measure how many people were reading just the business section, lifestyle section, or sports section…

From Pythagoras to Darren Aronofsky, the Golden Ratio — an irrational mathematical constant found in everything from art to architecture — has come pretty far. Lately, it was apparently the basis of the des…

When Wired hyperbolically declared that “The Web is Dead,” it didn’t challenge my worldview but rather surfaced what I knew subconsciously. The browser is not always (and increasingly less so) the best…

Do you “eat to live” or “live to eat?” Regardless of your munching motto, in this day and age, there are endless food options available, and those that were once considered unusual and exotic are now ma…

Steve Jobs is one of those entrepreneurs who seems universally either loved or hated, but not many will argue with his ability to innovate in the technology product arena over the years.
He was instrumental in…

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking to the audience at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco this week, said that his company expects mobile to dominate search at some point in the future. “Eventuall…

See a photo of Larry his bio, Part 1 of this QA, and Part 2.

QA with Larry, Questions 4 and 5

Q: What indications did you have that SMITH would succeed? Did you conduct significant research? How do you m…

Yes, yes, entrepreneurship is all about execution. But having an idea is what really motivates people to quit their jobs, blow all their savings, and start a company.
One great idea can make anything seem p…

Back in June we previewed a new product by social media search engine Kosmix called TweetBeat. Essentially, it’s a way to follow news being discussed on Twitter in realtime. Today during our TechCrunch Disrup…

“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts the moment you get up and doesn’t stop until you get into the office.” ~ Robert Frost
It’s a myth that only highly intelligent people are cre…

Gmail updated today with a new option that allows users to turn off its trademark threaded conversation view for a more traditional email inbox. More »…

LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner has just unveiled LinkedIn Signal at TechCrunch Disrupt, a new feature that neatly marries the worlds of LinkedIn and Twitter and allows users to apply the professional social netwo…

One of the accepted holy grails of building an organization is that you should fill a need. Fill people’s needs, they say, and the rest will take care of itself.
But… someone might know that they need to los…

[from IFTF 2010 Map of the Decade]

The rate at which organizations and individuals are experiencing social interaction — online and off line — is game-like. One that is testing the stories of brands,…

This post is one of a series of liveblogs from the 2010 MIMA Summit.
Web Analytics is an excellent way to ensure your marketing efforts are not in vain. However, looking at Analytics without understanding user…

Facebook and Skype are working on a deal that would integrate Facebook Connect with Skype accounts, AllThingsD has learned, citing sources familiar with the situation.ATD has managed to get a hold of a screensh…

Brian Solis is the author of Engage, and a leading authority in digital branding and marketing. Connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.According to a recent report, while upwards of 70% of businesses are said…

The TechCrunch Disrupt show has filled a sizable San Francisco conference center to the brim with tech startups. They aren’t all, um, winners. (If I see one more Foursquare variant predicated on the idea that…

Eric Schmidt took the stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt.

What he said seems striking, considering the pace of change we observe in our daily work. Schmidt said Moore’s Law gave us a guide for the speed to expe…

By now you must have heard the news that AOL has acquired us. Here are videos of the on stage signing of the agreement and an interview with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong immediately afterwards.
So how did all this hap…

For any small business trying to thrive online, there are few questions more critical or often, confounding: How can we increase traffic to our business’s Website on a budget? And then, once they’re there, ho…

What’s a Geospatial PDF map? It’s a single compressed file that contains layers of editable, measurable, geo accurate, location data. The format, which is easy to create using visual editing software from Ado…

If navigating the murky waters of credit scores and debt leaves you scratching your head and wishing someone would just tell you what to do, you’re in luck. Credit Sesame is a new startup launching in private…

I absolutely hate carrying around both my phone and my wallet in my pocket. What if I could just carry around my phone and my driver’s license? That would be awesome. If MobilePay USA takes off, my wish will…

A great read – Useful tips on marketing within social games – http://bit.ly/9dPIfb (via @Sq1Agency)

Earlier this year, we noted that the Journal of Medical Ethics was recommending doctors stay off Facebook entirely. I thought that was kind of silly, so long as doctors were aware of what they were doing on so…

I’ve been reading about a lot of the challenges facing Windows Live Spaces bloggers transitioning to WordPress.com. I feel for you all. You’ve done great work on your Windows Live Spaces blogs and now Micro…

I was shopping at the Costco warehouse—on a Saturday. I must have lost my mind because there were gobs of people in there.I quickly grabbed the things I’d come for, then navigated my way toward the cash…

The FBI’s hopes to “wiretap” the Internet show that federal officials and the Obama administration have little understanding of its implications and further almost no understanding of the technology and the way…

You know all those mobile applications you use? There’s important data behind where and when you use it. With Titanium+Geo, that data becomes accessible. The new platform for location analytics is a partnersh…

An old cartoon shows a group of agents sitting around a table, and one of them is saying: “We’ve got to figure out a way to keep these damn writers from getting ninety percent of our income.
In the early ei…

Greg David does a nice job highlighting one reason why so many “traditional” journalism offerings are in trouble these days, in discussing why no news reporters seemed willing to point out that Jeff Zucker woul…

Dunkin’ Donuts, no stranger to grandiose social media campaigns, is at it again with a new social media endeavor: The coffee and donut chain is seeking its number one coffee fan via Facebook.With the Ultimate…

A hypothetical (but not that foreign) situation:
Bill is the greatest potter in the world. He uses magic power to mold the clay into whatever shape he wants just by staring at it. So, not only…

I’m listening to a half dozen people have a long and rambling meeting about their local parent teacher organization (PTO). I’m supposed to be blogging, but I find eavesdropping on this train wreck to be m…

Dave McClure points out what is obvious to everyone but Google: Google needs to buy Twitter immediately. “Is there a scenario where you think you don’t have to buy Twitter in the near future? I don’t see…

Influence is bliss…
The socialization of media is as transformative as it is empowering. As individuals, we’re tweeting, updating, blogging, commenting, curating, liking and friending our way toward varyin…

Since 2007, Forrester has tracked the growth of social behaviors. For years we’ve seen increases in more complex social behaviors such as Creators–those who generate social content including YouTube videos an…

Seth Quillin (the EVP of innovation in GSWs digital lab) and I are in Philadephia for ePatient 2010 – a conference that brings together lots of people like us who are dedicated to reaching, engaging and educat…

Whats a conference without great turns of phrase and new buzz words that you can totally make you own?
Here are some of the sticky little maxims that I know Ill be borrowing:

Mobile has a multiplier effect – S…

I’m about to make a prediction that surprises even me.
Social media management will not be absorbed into most company marketing departments and instead will emerge as a stand-alone professional discipline.
I…