Portland

Viral Video: Let the Hipster Games Begin!

Kara Swisher in Media on April 9 at 12:16 am PT

May the arugula be ever in your favor.

Google Offers Holding Its Own Against Groupon in Portland

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on June 22, 2011 at 1:27 pm PT

After Groupon turned down Google’s $6 billion offer, the online search giant boldly decided to start from scratch and build its own daily deals service. Twenty-two days after launching in Portland, Ore., it looks like it may have a chance — especially after yesterday’s stellar performance.

With Goopon Stealing the Spotlight, Tippr Says Don't Forget About No. 3 (Or Its Patents)

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 2, 2010 at 7:00 am PT

Tippr CEO Martin Tobias hopes that between Google’s potential big-ticket purchase of Groupon and Amazon’s rumored investment in LivingSocial, consolidation in the group-buying space will accelerate as others scramble for a partner.

Jive CEO Zingale and Kleiner Moneybags Schlein Talk About Socializing Business

Kara Swisher in News on August 20, 2010 at 12:54 pm PT

In my ongoing quest to follow the money, BoomTown showed up at the Palo Alto, Calif., offices of Jive Software last week to talk about its recent $30 million funding. That brings the grand total of dough from big Silicon Valley venture firms to $57 million, all dedicated to making Jive the leader in bringing social tools to the enterprise. It’s probably too lazy to say Jive’s goal is to be the Facebook for businesses, but that just about sums it up.

Social E-Commerce Goes Into Overdrive: LivingSocial Raises Another $14 Million

Kara Swisher in News on April 29, 2010 at 4:30 am PT

Could the social group-buying space get any frothier? Well, yes, it could. After the recent $135 million funding of Groupon that valued the Chicago start-up at upwards of an eye-popping $1 billion, rival LivingSocial announced to today that it had raised a more modest $14 million in a Series C round. That gives the Washington, D.C. start-up almost $50 million in venture funding since 2008 and an estimated valuation of several hundred million dollars now. The newest round for LivingSocial was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; Earlier investors U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution are also participating.

Voices

Tweets, Google Maps Help Solve Mystery of Portland Explosion

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 31, 2010 at 12:00 am PT

On Sunday night, a loud boom shook parts of Portland, Ore.–and drove residents onto Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet to figure out the cause. On Twitter, people used the hashtag #pdxboom to relay news about the noise. And in a sign of the potential for using social media in emergencies, one resident soon set up a Google map that residents could use to indicate how loud the sound was in their area.

Viral Video: The Muppets Do "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Kara Swisher in News on November 25, 2009 at 12:51 am PT

While BoomTown is trapped on, oops, fully enjoying, an overnight train trip to Portland for the holidays (and just beginning to sweat from not enough broadband), here’s a very funny video of the Muppets doing Queen. The puppets–part of Disney’s Muppets Studio–just got themselves a channel on YouTube and this is one of their most popular posts so far.

Voices

Almost Famous: Elemental Technologies' Sam Blackman

Drake Martinet, Intern, All Things Digital in News on November 20, 2009 at 3:01 pm PT

This week: We caught up with Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies at the San Francisco NewTeeVee Live conference. Elemental Technologies hopes to become a major player in the future of online and over-the-air video through its high-performance encoding technology.