AOL Ventures

NewsCred Raises $4 Million for Its Web-Based Newswire

Peter Kafka in Media on November 30, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

Expensive content on the cheap: A start-up that licenses stuff from the likes of Reuters, Bloomberg and Forbes.

Exclusive: AOL’s Tim Armstrong Says He Doesn’t Want a Yahoo Deal (Video)

Peter Kafka in Media on November 2, 2011 at 8:11 am PT

Meanwhile, his AOL turnaround is still a turnaround.

SoundTracking Gives Music Its Own Check-In App (Video)

Liz Gannes in Social on March 16, 2011 at 12:31 pm PT

SoundTracking, the recently launched iPhone app, is a social version of the ambient song recognition technology many are familiar with from apps like Shazam and SoundHound.

Goodbye (Crummy) CAPTCHAs. Hello Ad Dollars?

Peter Kafka in Media on September 20, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Solve Media can’t make captchas go away, but it says it can make them less unpleasant–by turning them into ads.

Big Name VCs Beg Start-ups: Please, Take Our Money!

Peter Kafka in Media on July 7, 2010 at 7:04 am PT

Can’t raise money for your start-up? Maybe you’re doing something wrong. Here’s a gaggle of prominent VCs and angels begging to fund you.

Sphere Leader Has Exited AOL–But Staying on as "Special" Venture Advisor

Kara Swisher in News on November 4, 2009 at 9:30 am PT

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-founder of Sphere–the contextually relevant content engine AOL bought in the spring of 2008 for upward of $25 million–left the Time Warner online unit last month, several sources have told BoomTown in recent weeks. But, in an effort by AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong to hold onto entrepreneurial talent, Conrad has agreed to become “Special Advisor” to its AOL Ventures Unit. Apparently, he is also mulling a new start-up and remains a VC too.

AOL’s Google Reunion Grows Yet Again: Former YouTube Ad Guy Shashi Seth Joins Up

Peter Kafka in Media on September 29, 2009 at 9:29 am PT

Of course, Time Warner’s AOL has hired yet another Google veteran. That’s what the company does under the Tim Armstrong regime. Today’s example: Shashi Seth, the one-time “monetization” boss at YouTube, who was most recently running sales at Cooliris. His new job: Senior vice president of global advertising products, reporting to Armstrong’s lieutenant (and Google vet, natch) Jeff Levick.

Dear Tim: Here's a Tour of the It-Takes-a-Licking-but-Keeps-on-Ticking AOL Brand

Kara Swisher in News on July 28, 2009 at 12:02 am PT

What’s next for AOL? Reviving the “You’ve Got Mail!” motto? Or: “The Future. Now Available.”–set to music from “The Jetsons”? What about: “So easy to use, no wonder it’s #1!” Or maybe, it should just use a nice loooooooong busy signal as its calling card again? Well, it could happen, now that new CEO Tim Armstrong has fallen prey to the siren call of the AOL brand name, after years of seeing the company wander in the anything-but-the-AOL wilderness. Thus, he’s decided to try to welcome the prodigal brand back home, even as he prepares to spin it off in November from Time Warner. Uh-oh.