-
UK study quantifies Twitter’s misogyny problem
Online abuse remains the big hairy monster in the room for platforms powered by user-generated content. Twitter especially has had some very sizable and public problems with problem users. A UK thinktank has just published a new study quantifying the ongoing problem of misogynistic abuse on Twitter. Read More
-
Snapchat raised $1.8B in a Series F round; leaked deck reveals revenues, user numbers
Earlier this week, we reported that the messaging app startup Snapchat was raising more money. Now we have more updates for you. An SEC filing has been made today with information about Snapchat’s latest Series F round, in which it has raised $1.8 billion. Separately, we’ve also obtained a leaked pitch deck, revealing Snapchat’s revenue and forecasts. The Los… Read More
-
Reddit launches image uploads, ditching alliance with Imgur
Reddit never let you upload images, until now. That could dismantle Reddit’s informal alliance with image-sharing community Imgur. That’s where Redditors would typically post their images or GIFs and then share the links on Reddit. The image uploading feature begins rolling out today with 50 Reddit communities, including Art, Aww, Food, Funny, Gifs and EarthPorn (pretty nature pics). Read More
-
Reddit CTO Marty Weiner on building a home for the Internet’s wildest community
Critical to this major effort is Marty Weiner. Weiner joined the Reddit team this past summer as the company’s first-ever CTO, and he’s spent the past 10 months building out areas for improvement on a site infrastructure that is increasingly less MacGyver’d together. Reddit is the 9th most-visited website in the United States, but when Weiner was hired last August, the… Read More
-
Flipboard confirms it will get cut off from Instagram after the feed API ends this month
As Instagram continues to make moves to strengthen its platform with more features to keep users visiting it and staying longer, Instagram’s decision to kill off its feed API on June 1 has claimed another victim: Flipboard today confirmed that it will not be able to provide Instagram integration for the majority of its users after May 31. While Instagram has claimed that feed API… Read More
-
King Bach launches Bachify, a photo editing app for the social media obsessed
Andrew Bachelor (better known as King Bach on Vine, where he has more than 15 million followers) has just launched Bachify, his own iOS-based photo-editing app. The genesis of the app was an issue anyone who is a heavy social media user faces — there isn’t one app that provides a comprehensive photo-editing experience. Bach explained that he “always had to go to… Read More
-
24 more characters, for better and worse
Today Twitter redefined its laws of physics. But while it’s posed as a simplification of the 140-character rule, the change will reshape information density, conversation style and self-promotion in the app. If you want to know what’s happening and why, read TechCrunch’s detailed breakdown of the changes scooped by Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier. Here, we’re going… Read More
-
Twitter moves away from 140 characters, ditches confusing and restrictive rules
Partially confirming earlier reports, Twitter announced this morning plans that will begin to distance it from its strict adherence to the rule that tweets can only contain 140 characters. The company says that, among other changes designed to welcome new users to its service, it will no longer count media attachments and @names in select replies toward your 140 allowed characters. Read More
-
Snapchat is raising more money around $20 billion valuation
Snapchat may have first made its name in the crowded world of mobile apps with an ephemeral messaging service, but the startup and its wildly popular app are not disappearing anywhere soon. TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources that Snapchat is raising yet more financing at around a $20 billion valuation. Sources with knowledge of the deal say the social media giant is in the… Read More
-
Facebook denies bias in Trending Topics, but vows changes anyway
Facebook responded today to official queries regarding its Trending Topics feature, specifically allegations made over the last few weeks that the team responsible for it was deliberately suppressing conservative views and arbitrarily elevating stories with little oversight. It denied the accusations, but nevertheless announced changes it would make to the process. Read More
-
Facebook ditches Bing, 800M users now see its own AI text translations
Machine learning is accomplishing Facebook’s mission of connecting the world across language barriers. Facebook is now serving 2 billion text translations per day. Facebook can translate across 40 languages in 1,800 directions, like French to English. And 800 million users, almost half of all Facebook users, see translations each month. That’s all based on Facebook’s… Read More
-
Facebook enables Continuous Live Video to power puppycams and more
Live mobile video is evolving beyond selfie-stream rants and citizen journalism. Facebook will now allow non-stop, long-form broadcasting as long as the creators don’t mind that they won’t be able to permanently save and share the video. The new Continuous Live Video API enables persistent streams like nature feeds, 24-hour windows into major landmarks or cameras trained on a pit… Read More
-
Spice up your Snapchats with Stickers, not just emojis
Snapchat just rolled out an update that lets users decorate their Snaps with the 200+ stickers they released as part of Chat 2.0. The new feature works exactly like emojis — they even live inside the same button on the camera screen. Just like the emoji feature you can drag, resize and reposition any sticker on your photos or videos. The stickers even work with Snapchat’s new… Read More
-
Facebook Live lets you skip to the good part
Facebook’s newest feature could fundamentally change how you watch video. Until now, you either sat through a video until it got too boring, waited for the interesting part or fast-forwarded hoping to spy something worth seeing. But for clips that weren’t immediately exciting, especially monologues or selfie-streams where the action was in the audio, it was tough to tell if a… Read More
-
Instagram’s code hints at option to pay to boost posts
We’ve known for some time that Instagram will soon be introducing business profiles, analytics and features intended to improve the ad-buying experience on the Facebook-owned photo-sharing network. Now, a number of other undocumented, non-public features have been uncovered, following a decompiling of the latest Instagram application, including one that hints that Instagram plans to offer… Read More
-
Tencent reportedly eyes majority stake in Supercell, plans tie-ups with Publicis, LVMH
China’s Internet giant Tencent has been expanding its international reach in areas like games and advertising, and as part of that, the company is picking up its dealmaking in Europe. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the owner of the popular WeChat messaging platform is in early talks to buy a majority stake in Supercell — the mobile gaming phenomenon based out of… Read More
-
The Europas — It’s time for a different kind of tech conference
Let’s face it. Some tech conferences have lost their way. While TechCrunch Disrupt remains a firmly curated, media-driven, event, with hundreds of journalists attending, a couple of other conferences have really gone for scale. A minimum of 15,000 people, thousands of companies, echoing halls — and a lot of investors (and journalists) turning their badges around so they don’t… Read More
-
Now you can embed Reddit posts on other websites
Reddit posts are going to get the chance to live beyond Reddit itself, thanks to new embedding capabilities. If you’re an online writer or publisher, that means you can start including live Reddit content in your stories. If you’re a reader, that means you might start to see more Reddit posts on other sites, the same way you can see embedded tweets and YouTube videos. After… Read More
-
Zenly proves that location sharing isn’t dead
Now that you are giving up on check-ins and sharing your location with your friends, a French startup is coming up with better technology and new use cases to make location cool again. Zenly has been quietly working on location for years, and teenagers are now getting addicted to this app. SoLoMo is back. Zenly couldn’t be more straightforward. When you open the app, you see a giant map… Read More
Message Us