Trifacta Aims to Make Big Data Useful, Lands $4.3 Million From Accel Partners

The biggest of big-data problems lies not in computing, but with a shortage of people who can interpret what the data says.
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Voices

Facebook, Google, and the Mirage of “Engagement”

Social should be an important part of Google’s strategy, but it should focus on making social data more useful.

Time on Site: A Terrible Metric?

What’s sad to me is that Google used to pride itself on the speed with which it helped you find the information you want, and then get out of the way. “Time on site” is a terrible metric for an information utility!

Exclusive: LinkedIn Has Bought Contact Management Start-Up Connected

LinkedIn has acquired Connected, a small contact management start-up that unifies and dynamically updates users’ connections on email, social networks, calendars and phones.

False Alarm: Google Circles Not Coming Now–and Probably Not Ever

When a report emerged this morning of a new social network focused on nuanced sharing called Google Circles, the search giant said it was not launching anything this week at the high-profile South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. But such a product is not actually under development, according to the people supposedly developing it.

Why Robert Scoble Is Wronger About "2010 Web": A BoomTown Translation!

Oh, Scooby-Don’t… You could not be more wrong in your post last week–titled, “Why Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are wrong about naming Web 3.0 ‘Web 3.0′”–about Walt and I being wrong about naming Web 3.0 “Web 3.0” in an essay we posted at the start of our D: All Things Digital conference, which took place last week. I know writing “Kara Swisher,” “Walt Mossberg” and “Wrong” is well-nigh irresistible, but your solution of calling the digital era we are in the “2010 Web” is equally confusing and incorrect.

Federated Media Will Search for New Leader Says Founder and CEO Battelle (Plus a Web Squared and Double-D Video!)

John Battelle, the founder, chairman and CEO of Federated Media Publishing, told his staff this morning that he will begin a search for a new top exec to take the company into its next stage of growth. In a post on the FM Web site, Battelle said that he was not leaving the San Francisco-based company and wrote that the new exec–whose title could be CEO–would report to him.

Microsoft's Stephen Elop Speaks!

In BoomTown’s ongoing series, “Microsofties on Parade,” I spent some time earlier this week with Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s Business division. Reporting directly to CEO Steve Ballmer, Elop is a newbie, having gotten to Microsoft only a year ago. Which is why he is enthusiastic in his determination to tell the world that the software giant has gotten the open religion and is becoming “the most interoperable company in the world.” Yes, he really said that.

The "Billionaires' Dinner" at TED: Readjusted for the 2009 Econalyspe

Many years ago in the midst of the Web 1.0 boom, when working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, BoomTown redubbed an annual dinner that book agent John Brockman threw at the TED conference. It was jokingly called the “Millionaires’ Dinner,” but I renamed it the “Billionaires’ Dinner.” That was due to the frothy fortunes that had been made at the time by the Internet pioneers, from Amazon to AOL to eBay. Get it?!? Well, despite the economic meltdown, there were still a lot of billionaires in attendance at Brockman’s most recent dinner last Thursday in Long Beach. But he recounted to me that the proceedings were a lot more focused on the serious times we are in, as was the whole digerati-packed conference held last week.

The Video I Forgot to Post From the Web 2.0 Summit Last Week

I blame post-election exhaustion for rendering me comatose after Tuesday, which is how this video I did at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week got stuck in my to-do-later pile. Well, it has since been fished out, including interviews with conference organizers, John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly, as well as Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt (who is apparently scared of me, which is just the way I like it) and Microsoft’s man-in-Silicon-Valley Dan’l Lewin.

Web 2.0 Dinner and Schmoozefest

Air Larry

Foo Camp: Alpha-Geeks Gone Wild