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Zaarly went on to raise $14 million more later that year for a “reverse marketplace”: people would post requests for things they needed, like picking up Chinese food or walking a dog, and others would respond. But last September, Zaarly switched its focus to “storefronts,” web pages where individuals or small businesses could advertise their services. The goal is to put a human face on local businesses, compared to huge, faceless chain stores – to replicate the feel of a farmer’s market or indie bookstore, but online....

Twitter does break plenty of news. But the problem with everyone using Twitter is that most people are terrible. Random speculation, prejudice opinions, and straight-up trolling are common, and none of that should have any place in the media. Now a team of researchers from seven countries across the EU are doing something it fix that: Their tool, named Pheme after the Greek goddess of rumors, will monitor tweets and verify their accuracy....

Social media company Facebook has backed the latest conference to support women in tech, called Women in Product. Led by some of the most prominent women in the technology realm, Women in Product seeks support a more gender inclusive community – particularly in product management – with attendees expected from companies like Twitter, Uber, Apple and Google. Author and Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, will give the keynote address, with other notable speakers including Paypal’s vice president of consumer product Joanna Lambert, Facebook’s director of product Fidji Simo and YouTube’s director of product management Shimrit Ben-Yair....

The social network, which seems to perpetually lurch from crisis to crisis, hopes that the feature will make, “it easier to collect food, clothes and other necessities for people in need.” The feature is set to roll out in the US over the coming days while the rest of the world will have to give the old-fashioned way this festive season. Let’s take a look into Drives, how it works, and how it could help people in need....

Your MoneyThe simplest way to get cash to your business is to use your own money. You can do this in several ways: Bootstrapping, or running a company on the revenues generated, is by far the best way to get cash into your business. However, most emerging technology companies require some amount of investment before they can begin to generate revenue. Consider if your company can survive on some type of consulting revenues until your product can be launched or monetized....

OpenTable’s CEO Matt Roberts had to this to say about the acquisition: Alexa Andrzejewski, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Foodspotting, who will be joiningOpenTable as a lead user interface designer, shared her excitement in saying: Aside from the news of the acquisition, it also happens to be Foodspotting’s third birthday – happy birthday Foodspotting and congratulations on your new table home. Foodspotting demoed at Tech Cocktail’s SXSW 2010 event....

Martell is a well-regarded entrepreneur whose previous company, a social marketing startup called Flowtown, was acquired in 2011 by marketing SaaS company Demandforce. Prior to that he sold Spheric Technologies, Inc. (his first startup) in 2008. Needless to say: he knows a lot about starting businesses, and – as a 500 Startups mentor – willingly shares his knowledge and experience to those who need and want it. This open sharing of knowledge could not be conveyed any clearer than through Clarity, which connects startup founders with more than 50,000 experts over the phone (on a per-minute-fee basis), including the likes of Mark Cuban, Eric Ries, and Brad Feld....

In Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crushing It, he begins by talking about his eight-year-old daughter wanting to be a YouTube star. Whether she becomes a celebrity or not remains to be seen. More importantly, even at such a young age, she recognizes the value of online platforms when it comes to building a personal brand and ultimately getting paid for doing something you love. Today, there are millions of people using the Internet to build their influence, grow their business, and get paid while doing it....

Founder Adam Fridman started MeetAdvisors after meeting one such lawyer. The site connects entrepreneurs with mentors in fields like legal, marketing, and business development. Before choosing one of their 150 advisors – including the COO of SEOMoz, Sarah Bird – you can read reviews by other mentees to find the best fit. Once you find a mentor, you submit your request – which gets reviewed by the MeetAdvisors team – and the mentor chooses to accept or reject it....

HUNGRY, which publicly launched in the D.C metro area this past summer, aims to deliver a simple yet flavorful addition to any foodies’ day: It’s a sharing economy marketplace. HUNGRY chefs are independent contractors who work with the service, not for it. They create their own menus and choose their schedules and pricing, while HUNGRY takes care of packaging, delivery and marketing. It’s a model that lowers the barrier to entry for professional chefs who are looking to earn supplemental income and get their name out in a crowded industry....

As of now, advertisers running video action campaigns and app campaigns will see their ads automatically added to Shorts, with more shoppable options added later in the year. It’s a move that further aligns YouTube Shorts with TikTok, which has shoppable ads that let users see a product without clicking out of the app. YouTube Shorts Gets Ads YouTube launched its Shorts micro-video platform in 2020, but hasn’t included ads up until now....

Now Google’s modus operandi, details regarding what kind of popups, when they appeared, and even how much of a screen they can take over were hazy at best. The initial reaction was to simply shut mobile popups off, but many sites continued and still continue to use them. Perhaps better safe than sorry, a bit of data goes a long way. In an effort to better understand what factors may result in a site penalization, Blue Acorn and AddShoppers conducted an analysis across 20 sites known to be actively using various mobile popups....

Users who head to a Hangouts link will be redirected to the Google Chat homepage instead, effective as of November 1st, 2022. It’s just the latest shuffling of products and titles from the Alphabet-owned tech giant. But if your business relies on the Google Workplace, it’s worth paying attention. Here’s what to know. How to Save Your Hangouts History Before It’s Too Late Up until November 1st, the key data tied to Hangouts — user conversations and history — was technically still available....

Video chat has exploded in recent months due to the pandemic, and no one is surprised. With people stuck in their homes, quarantined away from friends and family, these apps have been a pleasant respite during these uncertain times, with companies offering more affordable services in turn. Now, however, it seems those uncertain times have run their course, as Google’s free video conferencing app is set to implement time limits at the end of the month....

It’s another step in Google’s move to boost privacy by phasing out the use of cookies, which track an internet user’s activity in granular detail. We examine how the new process might work. What is Google Topics? Topics is a new proposal for “interest-based advertising” out from Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, which is trying to replace third-party cookies with a more private alternative. Topics will track users’ interests, deciding what topics fit them and then serving ads aimed at those topics....

But when it comes to something as basic and foundational as how to spell the title of a joint founder, there is no consensus. I refer to, of course, co-founder (or is it cofounder?). Although the variance is a single character, to many, the words are a world apart. I asked a few entrepreneurs to weigh in… Cofounder Co-founder Indifference Let’s settle this debate once and for all. Which is it: co-founder or cofounder?...

Dropbox has released a statement about the hack, further clarifying what has happened: Earlier this week, a proactive password reset covered all the accounts affected by the Dropbox hack. However, given that the details have been stolen since 2012, a four-year gap remains in which millions of Dropbox users’ data was not as secure as they would have hoped. Side note: Dropbox had 100M total users in 2012. The Hack Probably Didn’t Do Any Damage There’s a silver lining: There’s no evidence of foul play tied to the use of the account data, just in the initial hack that stole it....

Update, November 1 at 12 pm: Details for this event, including date and location, are still in the works. It may be combined with other hackathons already planned. Stay tuned for more information. The New York City tech community is organizing a hackathon later this month that will focus on challenges related to Hurricane Sandy while raising money for relief efforts. The hackathon details are on NY Tech Responds, a blog created by Rob Underwood....

In this new age of technology, it’s certainly no surprise that programming skills are in high demand; however, it seems that some languages are in higher demand than others (and therefore pay more). Looking at the rankings provided by IEEE and Quartz, you’ll quickly notice some overlap in languages in the top spots; however, there is a huge disconnect particularly in the case of Ruby (which ranks eighth in IEEE’s ranking but first in Quartz’s)....

A Y Combinator alum, Homejoy was considered by many to be a top performing company. Earlier this year, Mattermark released a report that placed the company in the top spot of YC’s top series A stage portfolio companies. In another report, Mattermark ranked the company as one of the five fastest-growing Series A startups alongside the likes of ClassPass and Casper. Despite all of this, the company encountered significant difficulties raising funds for a Series C, which reportedly tied into the decision to close operations; the company had raised nearly $40 million in funding to date from the likes of First Round Capital, Google Ventures, and Paypal founder Max Levchin....