city

Groupon’s Third (And Quieter) Co-Founder Brad Keywell Talks About Chicago Ideas Week (Video)

Kara Swisher in News on October 13, 2011 at 2:00 pm PT

Never heard of Chicago’s Brad Keywell? No longer!

Early Adopter: Think That Restaurant Looks Shady? Donteat.at Lets You Know for Sure

Drake Martinet, Associate Editor, All Things Digital in News on February 25, 2011 at 10:01 am PT

It’s happened to everyone—the terrible fallout from eating at that unfamiliar restaurant with the spoons that were a little too greasy, or the chicken that was served a little too rare. New York University junior Max Stoller feels your pain, and built donteat.at to keep his fellow New Yorkers out of unclean restaurants and the gastric turmoil that inevitably follows.

Got Broadband? Not Sure? There's a Map for That.

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 17, 2011 at 2:30 pm PT

It took two years and $350 million, but America now has a detailed map showing where all its broadband Internet connections are and where they are not.

Viral Video: Bedbugs Get Taiwanesed (And It's the Weirdest Ever)

Kara Swisher in News on January 10, 2011 at 4:12 am PT

It is saying a lot about this video that the CGI wizards at Next Media Animation have produced a doozy. It’s based on a report by Forbes.com, which asked the two largest pest exterminators, Orkin and Terminix, in the U.S. to pick the cities with the worst infestations of bedbugs.

CityVille Gets 290,000 Residents on First Day

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 6, 2010 at 3:03 pm PT

Cities are always more congested. Last week, Zynga proved that even more with the launch of CityVille, its latest social game, which follows other big–and more rural hits–like FrontierVille and FarmVille. In just 24 hours, more than 290,000 people moved over to the big city, besting Zynga’s biggest game launch–FrontierVille.

Zynga Chooses Facebook, Yet Again, for Exclusive Launch of Next Game: CityVille

Liz Gannes in Social on November 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm PT

Zynga may make “social games,” but they do not foster much in the way of complex or rewarding social interaction. The company is trying to change that, and today is announcing its next game, CityVille, which it calls its most social to date. CityVille (of course) is a cutesy simulation game in which users work to turn a small town into a big city.

Winklevii Vs. Zuck: Who'd You Rather?

Kara Swisher in News on October 5, 2010 at 11:18 am PT

The Facebook movie might have performed slightly below box office expectations last weekend for Sony movie unit Columbia Pictures, but it certainly has invaded the mainstream zeitgeist. Still, BoomTown was quite surprised to see a mention of “The Social Network” on one of my favorite celebrity sites, TMZ.com.

Cisco Does Doobies–So What's Next in the Consumer Space?

Kara Swisher in News on September 28, 2010 at 8:15 am PT

Yesterday, BoomTown made a brief stop at what felt like an underground bunker in a hotel in San Francisco to see the Doobie Brothers. Yes, the legendary band of indelible hit songs such as “Black Water” and “China Grove” and misspent youth way, way back in the day. Except the band, which was founded in San Jose, Calif., in 1970, was performing in a Cisco studio down south in Silicon Valley to telepresence-launch its first album in a decade, called “World Gone Crazy.”

In 25-City Expansion, LivingSocial Tries to Play Catch-Up With Groupon

Kara Swisher in News on September 16, 2010 at 6:00 am PT

Trying to keep up with the lightning-fast expansion of social buying leader Groupon, LivingSocial announced today that it has launched in 25 new cities in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. It is now in 89 cities, compared with 230 where the heavily funded Groupon is doing business.