Top Items:
John Markoff / New York Times:
Venture for Sharing Wi-Fi Draws Big-Name Backers — SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5 — A telecommunications executive said on Sunday that he had received $21.7 million for what he called "a global network of shared Wi-Fi connections" from backers, including Google, the Internet phone service provider Skype …
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Om Malik / Om Malik on Broadband:
Google, Skype Fund FON — [Updated with comments from Martin Varsavsky and Glenn Fleishman]. FON a wireless services company started by maverick entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky has just raised $21.7 million from Google, Skype, and Sequoia Capital. The cash infusion has been led by Index Ventures …
Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
Google, Skype in Startup to Link Hotspots — NEW YORK - Google Inc. and eBay Inc.'s Skype are investing in a startup that plans to help hotspot owners charge for Wi-Fi access, a plan that could face significant opposition from Internet service providers. — The Internet heavyweights …
Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News:
Google, Skype, Others Invest in Fon — I have noticeably ridiculed Fon since its hapless announcement and subsequent hype fest two months ago (Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune): Today, news broke that instead of a bottom-up, grassroots-driven effort …
Martin Varsavsky:
A dream come true — As you know, FON is a global community of people who share WiFi connections. We call these people "Foneros", as a tribute to our heritage as a Spanish company. In order to become a Fonero, you go to FON, to download software that you install in your router …
Ethan / ...My heart's in Accra:
FON, and why sharing WiFi's a cool technology for Africa — My friend Martin Varsavsky just announced some amazing news: his new company, FON, has just accepted €18 million in investment from an all-star list of partners and investors: Skype, Google, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.
Dsifry / Sifry's Alerts:
State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth — It's been 4 months since last October's State of the Blogosphere report, so it's time to update the numbers! For historical perspective, you can see earlier State of the Blogosphere reports from July 2005, from March 2005, and from October 2004.
Mylene Mangalindan / Wall Street Journal:
PayPal Prepares For a Challenge From Google — When Jeff Jordan learned last May that Web-search leader Google Inc. was building its own Internet-payment service, he reacted swiftly. — Mr. Jordan, who is president of eBay Inc.'s PayPal online-payments unit, immediately asked employees …
Paul Montgomery / Tinfinger:
Scoops of vanilla perception — The latest Gillmor Gang podcast features Gabe Rivera from Memeorandum as its guest. I've listened to more than half a dozen of these Gang editions now, and several things are clear: — There are some very intelligent people on it with fascinating things to say …
USA Today:
AOL to charge fee as way to cut spam — SAN FRANCISCO — America Online will begin charging businesses to send commercial e-mail to its users in the first wide-scale use of authenticated e-mail to reduce spam. But some marketers affected by the plan, set to start in several weeks …
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Leander Kahney / Wired News:
Vaporware: Better Late Than Never — Ladies and gents, welcome to the 2005 Vaporware Awards — the prize that celebrates the tech products that were promised last year but never delivered. — We have a few surprises this year — wait 'til you find out the winner; you'll never guess what it is.
Michael Bazeley / SiliconBeat:
Catching up with Peerflix — Journalists too often fall into the hit-and-run reporting trap, where we write about a start-up and then rarely, if ever, check back on its progress. So when the Peerflix guys invited us in for a chat last week - nearly a year after our first posting on them - we accepted.
Steve Gillmor / Steve Gillmor's InfoRouter:
The Dog told me — I wrote this a few weeks ago before a trip to New York. While getting in and out of cabs or walking down the street, I lost or was relieved of my EVDO card, plunging me back into the darkness that preceded it. I sent this post, along with several additional paragraphs designed …
Discussion:
Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
CoComment Screen Shots and Clarifications — The CoComment guys were nice enough to send me an invitation to try the service after my post yesterday. I am now able to answer some of the questions I had in that post. — They support six big blogging platforms currently: Blogger, MSN Spaces, MySpace, TypePad, Wordpress and Xanga.
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blogs.sun.com:
The Death of the Cold Call — I started my technology career at a startup, running sales. Now "running" is probably generous, given that I was the only sales guy (my partners were busy creating products). But every morning, I'd get up, roll out of bed to my desk (which was in my bedroom …
Discussion:
Smalltalk Tidbits …
Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0:
Focus on the User, Not the Technology — There are two prevailing views of the evolution of online information flow — one focuses on the arc of technology, the other on what the user wants and needs. The technology-centric view focuses on issues like RSS adoption rates and RSS vs. email.
Discussion:
Smalltalk Tidbits …, Trial By Fire, The Blackfriars Blog, Between Lawyers and web2.wsj2.com
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Prosper Launches - Social Lending — San Francisco-based Prosper launched today (Prosper was called Circleone during its stealth stage). — Like London-based (and Benchmark funded) Zopa, Prosper is a marketplace for borrowers and lenders. — Individual borrowers say how much they need to borrow …
