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AllThingsD contains an archive of columns by Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret from The Wall Street Journal dating back to 2005.
Search: superpoke
The Price Is Right: Facebook Closes Near Opening Price
Not the big opening day investors were expecting.
Law Firm Won’t Pursue SuperPoke Pets Shutdown Class Action Suit Against Google
Avid users of Slide’s SuperPoke Pets yelled, begged and left angry blog comments, but so far no law firm wants to represent them in a class action lawsuit.
SuperPoke Pets Saga: What’s the Long-Term Value of a Virtual Good?
Does an item purchased with virtual currency inside an online game have long-term value? Or is it more like a Halloween costume, relevant and exciting for the moment but unlikely to be reused?
Exclusive: Max Levchin to Leave Google as Slide Is Shut Down
Slide, the social apps company that Google bought just over a year ago for about $200 million, will be dissolved; its well-regarded leader Max Levchin will depart Google.
Start-Up iSwifter Brings Flash Games and More to the iPad (Video)
By streaming Web sessions to the iPad, iSwifter allows users to reach destinations they couldn’t reach on the iPad. Particularly important to one member of the Mobilized household, iSwifter’s technology means Facebook’s Flash-based games now work on Apple’s tablet.
Adobe to Release Next Flash for Android on March 18
The latest version of Flash is nearly ready for Gingerbread and Froyo-based devices; however, the release for Honeycomb-based tablets will come only in beta form as Adobe works with Google to finalize several new features. Given that Flash is one of the key selling points of Android, as compared to the iPhone and iPad, improved performance is critically important for the Android camp.
Superpoke! Facebook Chooses N.C. for $450M Data Center
Add Facebook to the list of tech titans building data centers in North Carolina. The social networking phenom today said it plans to build a $450 million data center in Rutherford County, N.C.–about 65 miles west of Charlotte.
Slide's Max Levchin Talks About Web 2.0, Redux!
Almost two years ago, just as Web 2.0 was heating up, BoomTown did a video interview with Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin. Soon after, the popular maker of widgets and other social networking applications grabbed a big pile of cash from new investors, which put the value of the company at $550 million. But that was before the recession hit, as well as a generally more sober outlook for a lot of high-flying Silicon Valley darlings like Slide, which have had to wise up a little and get down to business. So, it was time for another chat with Levchin to find out what’s what.
BoomTown's Top 10 List of Fact-Challenged Revelations That Should Be in the Facebook Tell-All Book
How much is BoomTown and everyone else in Silicon Valley trying to nab a copy of Ben Mezrich’s likely-to-be-entirely-made-up-but-who-cares tale of dirty doings at Facebook? Muchety-much! But, so far I have come up peanuts in grabbing an early copy of the work of “fact”-ion–titled “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal”–which is set to come out July 14, along with a movie later. Facebook is not pleased, of course, and will likely be challenging Mezrich’s work as specious dreck, but here’s my own list of 10 completely made-up, utterly fabricated, just-call-me-Jayson-Blair facts that should be in the book.
Facebook Stream: It's Stream, as in Revenue Stream
Its proposed acquisition of Twitter now little more than an unrequited Superpoke, Facebook is tweaking its own service to mimic the microblogging outfit. The social network on Wednesday unveiled a new homepage that, in a nod to Twitter’s real-time message broadcasting system, now features “Streams”–Facebook’s “News Feed” revamped to update in real-time.
Cat Fight, Internet-Style: Perez Hilton Slaps the Face(book) of Not-BFF Mark Zuckerberg
In a BoomTown post last night noting that users should just get used to not having much control of their privacy and posted content online, in the wake of the controversy over Facebook’s Terms of Service changes, how could one leave out this gem of a digital diatribe on the issue by gossipmonger supreme, Perez Hilton? In an item yesterday, Hilton–who has gotten into a lot of copyright infringement legal trouble himself–asked his fans to boycott the fast-growing social-networking site anyway in one of my favorite pot-calling-kettle-black cyber-tussles yet.
Slide Sidles Up to Old Media in Search of New Revenue (Apparently, Max Cannot Live by SuperPoking Alone!)
You almost have to admire the shape-shifting–if not a wee bit slippery–stylings of Slide CEO Max Levchin. The serial entrepreneur and widget king has signed distribution deals with media giants, such as Time Warner’s Warner Bros. unit, CBS and Comcast’s E! Entertainment channel, to allow users of its FunSpace video service to look at clips from shows. To make money, Slide will get a cut of ads sold by its media partners. Oh my, how incredibly traditional of Levchin. But it should probably come as no surprise that Levchin is now singing a bit of a different tune these days, as the daunting task of actually building a sustainable business model and attracting long-term advertisers has dawned on him and probably many other Web 2.0 wunderkinds.
f8: How Do You Say “Superpoke” in Hindi?
Facebook said this afternoon that it is opening its Translation Application to any developer using Facebook Platform. Beginning today, all Facebook developers can make their applications available in any of the 20 languages currently available on Facebook.
f8: How Do You Say "Superpoke" in Hindi?
Facebook said this afternoon that it is opening its Translation Application to any developer using Facebook Platform. Beginning today, all Facebook developers can make their applications available in any of the 20 languages currently available on Facebook.
Superpoke! Mark Zuckerberg Has Thrown a Board Seat at You
BoomTown was right, Facebook has scored itself a “golden geek.” TechCrunch reports that Netscape/Opsware/Ning founder Marc Andreessen will join Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer, Founders Fund’s Peter Thiel and, of course, founder Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s board of directors.
Slide-ing into the Big Apple
In its ongoing bid to prove there is a robust and sustainable ad business in the social networking space, widgetmaker Slide opened a New York office and hired a big deal online ad exec. Of course, because it has to be hip, the office is in the always trendy West Village, instead of uptown on Madison Avenue.
Sharing Information and Ourselves: Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg
Because Mark Zuckerberg is barely in his mid-20s, his résumé is a bit thinner than others here. Well, except for his first job as founder and CEO of Facebook, perhaps the most explosively popular social-networking company ever and the most high-profile Web 2.0 start-up. The Harvard undergrad brought the company to Silicon Valley before he had a chance to graduate from college, but managed to get a $15 billion valuation for the company anyway. Sheryl Sandberg was Facebook’s first high-profile hire, coming to the social-networking site from Google earlier this year. At Facebook, she manages a wide swath of the company’s business operations, including sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, privacy and communications.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer and Windows 7 Preview
With Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates soon relinquishing his daily role at the software company he co-founded as it grapples with Google, European regulators, Yahoo and Windows Vista critics, tonight’s conversation with Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be a memorable one.
Stampede! Facebook Opens Its Profile Doors
This morning, Facebook is planning on showing a little leg to the press, throwing a “casual Open Door session… to learn more about the upcoming New Profile Design.” You know, the long expected renovation of main Facebook pages consumers use daily, which has third-party developers in a hubbub and is likely to cause an even bigger one among users no matter how good it is?
BoomTown Decodes Carl Icahn's Letter to Yahoo!
BoomTown’s most favorite part of the Yahoo takeover circus? The dueling letters, of course! How the lovely practice of missives has fallen out of favor, as soulless emails have grown in use. Well, not in the land of hostile takeovers! So here’s our decoding of billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s thankfully brief letter to Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock, informing Yahoo that he begins bombing in five minutes.
