Category Archive

 The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Twitter is the target of a class action lawsuit having to do with how private direct messages are treated on the service. While it’s quite obvious that there aren’t humans that work at Twitter reading your direct messages, an algorithm is sweeping over them, to swap out links with shortened T.co (the shortening service owned by Twitter) ones… Read More

 Snapchat is debuting its first in-app purchase. It’s a new way for it to make money by letting users purchase three extra Replays of Snaps they just watched for $0.99. The company is also adding a new feature called lenses that lets users add animated effects to their face. When in Selfie mode, Snapchat will detect their faces, and users can then tap and swipe to add little overlaid… Read More

 Though there are plenty of video-based social networks out there, few are focused more on the content than the following. But Panama, a new app launched from Ocho cofounder Jonathan Swerdlin, is looking to flip that model on its head. Panama, essentially, is a platform for short-form video that is based solely on location, with no identification for the creator of that video content.… Read More

 Europe’s refugee crisis has spilled over to Facebook. In Germany, where thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing conflict in their own country are being offered asylum, Facebook has found itself being pressured by the government to do more to combat hate speech against immigrants. Yesterday the WSJ reported that Facebook has agreed to work with the German Justice Ministry to fight xenophobic… Read More

 Moviepilot, a movie site targeting (you guessed it) millennials, is announcing that it has raised $16 million in Series B funding. The company started in Germany before launching in the United States, and raised $7 million in funding, about three years ago, according to CEO Tobi Bauckhage (pictured above with his co-founders Jon Handschin and Ben Kubota). Last year it sold the German business… Read More

 A big reason developers hate mobile websites is that they lack the push notifications which help re-engage people with native apps. That was a serious problem for Facebook. It sees a ton of users on its m.facebook.com site, especially in the developing world where data budgets are tight, but had trouble pulling them back in. So today Facebook announced that after working with Google on its… Read More

 If you’re the kind of person who shares TechCrunch articles on social media, a) thank you, and b) do you ever wonder how much traffic you’re bringing us?
Oren Barzilai, co-founder and CEO of Israeli startup Start A Fire, presented a more-or-less analogous situation to me. He said that when someone who has tens of thousands of Twitter followers, they may “generate huge… Read More

 VR chat platform AltspaceVR today announced that it is opening support for the Samsung Gear VR, making it the first social chat experience on a mobile VR platform. But rather than gather reporters in person, AltspaceVR CEO Eric Romo presented to a room full of hovering robots representing journalists inside AltspaceVR itself. Joining through an Oculus Rift in Redwood City, Romo addressed… Read More

 It doesn’t happen that often anymore (that’s the real story!), but Twitter.com is down. For the count. As of the time of publishing, it’s been down for about 45 minutes. We’ve checked Twitter’s status page on Tumblr, but there’s nothing there. We’ve also reached out to Twitter for comment and will update you once we hear back. Read More

 Social planning is a difficult space to tackle. Plenty of apps have tried and failed at creating a popular social planning app, and even Foursquare’s Swarm has shied away from being a utility to transform into a multi-layered game. But LivnList, an app that launched recently on the App Store, is hoping to get social planning right. After signing up for the service (and inviting… Read More