research

A Look at Walmart’s Plans for Making Commerce High-Tech (Video)

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 3 at 6:00 am PT

Walmart is typically associated with its everyday low prices, not with technology. But the mega-retailer is trying to change that by building a tech center just south of San Francisco.

On Facebook, We Get More Love Than We Give

Liz Gannes in Social on February 2 at 9:01 pm PT

We receive significantly more “Likes,” messages, tags and friend requests from our Facebook friends than we send out ourselves, according to a new Pew Internet report.

Report: Internet Economy Set to Nearly Double to $4.2T by 2016

Liz Gannes in News on January 27 at 4:45 am PT

The Internet economy of G-20 nations will nearly double in value to $4.2 trillion by 2016, according to a new projection by the Boston Consulting Group.

Pew: Nearly One-Fifth of U.S. Adults Own Tablets or E-Readers

Lauren Goode in Commerce on January 23 at 7:45 am PT

Back-to-school season may not have spurred a ton of tablet and e-reader purchases, but the holidays were a different story, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

Facebook Is Totally Not an Echo Chamber, Says Facebook

Peter Kafka in Social on January 17 at 9:38 am PT

All those posts, updates, likes, etc., from people you don’t really know? Really helpful, says the social network with 800 million users and counting.

eBay Is the Most Recent Bay Area Transplant to Seek Access to Seattle’s Talent Pool

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 12 at 6:00 am PT

The e-commerce giant has joined a growing list of companies willing to brave the rain in order to gain access to a deep pool of technology engineers in Seattle.

News Byte

Spark Capital Funds Academia.edu to Make Research Social

Liz Gannes in Social on November 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm PT

Academic research operates on an entirely different calendar than the rest of the world, but maybe the pace would be sped up if researchers could more easily follow and share with one another. That’s the premise of Academia.edu, a social network that has three million monthly visitors and gets 3,000 new academic papers per day. It has now raised $4.5 million in funding, led by Bijan Sabet at Spark Capital. Competitors include the Benchmark-funded ResearchGate.

Social Networking Users Say They Want More Control Over Their Info

Liz Gannes in Social on November 30, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

Online privacy is not just for wonks any more. Lots of people say it’s important to them — especially when researchers come asking.

The Distance From You to Almost Anyone Is 4.74 Facebook Friends

Liz Gannes in Social on November 22, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

The average number of individuals that separate any two people on Facebook — what’s commonly referred to as “degrees of separation” — is 4.74, according to Facebook.

Huawei’s John Roese on the Telecom Giant That Wants to Roar: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher in AsiaD on November 21, 2011 at 1:08 pm PT

The Chinese company is the world’s second-largest maker of telecommunications and networking gear — and you’re about to hear a lot more from it going forward.