TechCrunch

A year later, AOL is heading in the right direction

I have to hand it to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: after struggling with a flurry of departures and internal turmoil, he has steadied the ship and the markets have rewarded him as a result.

A year ago, the Internet media giant lost its CTO, its tech lead, its head of sales, TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld, and a slew of technology people in its West Coast office.

Activist investors were calling for a new board or directors, and some were even calling for a new CEO. This launched a three month internal battle that resulted in the AOL was going in the right direction, … Read more

The 404 1,178: Where we engineer great thoughts (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- From Peter Ha: What it was like launching The Daily.

- The importance of album track order in the Digital Age.

- Psy estimated to receive only $61,000 from Korean digital sales revenue for "Gangnam Style."

- Pizza Hut gives back with pizza-scented perfume.

- Verizon patents DVR box with camera in it.

- PA High School's "Gangnam Style" parody dubbed "Worst Video on the Entire Internet."… Read more

The evolution of Mark Zuckerberg as a leader

With Facebook's stock price crashing and employee morale sinking, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepped up and delivered a home run he would never have been able to hit even just a year ago.

As you may know, Zuckerberg has been under fire the last few months for Facebook's plummeting stock price. A darling of Wall Street before its IPO, Facebook fell to half its IPO price in just a few months. As a result, a growing chorus of critics have called for new leadership at Facebook. Some have even called for Zuckerberg himself to resign.

While I've … Read more

MindMeld voice and video app instantly anticipates your needs

SAN FRANCISCO--A new iPad app announced today aims to give users instant contextual information based on nothing more than what's being talked about during a voice conversation.

Launched out of stealth today, the eight-person San Francisco startup Expect Labs unveiled MindMeld, an app designed to interpret what people using it are discussing and instantly deliver sharable useful information about it.

For example, explained Expect Labs CEO Tim Tuttle -- who previously built and sold video search engine Truveo to AOL -- if several people using MindMeld were talking about going out to a Blue Bottle cafe in San Francisco, … Read more

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: 'We haven't won yet'

SAN FRANCISCO--AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he's happy with his oft-troubled company's progress -- including a tripling of its stock over the last year -- but said there's much more to do. "We haven't won yet," Armstrong said.

Speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt not long after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave his first live interview since the social networking giant's May IPO -- an event owned by AOL -- Armstrong told interviewer Michael Arrington that the company's comeback has been fueled by three main things: better internal operations; a focus on … Read more

An energized Mark Zuckerberg seeks to calm Wall Street

SAN FRANCISCO -- An energetic Mark Zuckerberg addressed a rapt crowd at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference here. The 28-year-old CEO wore his traditional gray T-shirt and sat on the edge of his chair as TechCrunch co-founder and angel investor Michael Arrington fired questions at him, starting with the botched IPO. Zuckerberg powered his way through the conversation, talking fast and confidently about the opportunities that lie ahead for Facebook and its investors.

While the hall was packed with techies and Zuckerberg had the hometown advantage, he clearly knew that he was talking to Wall Street -- and, by default, all … Read more

ZeroUI promises hands-free 3D model creation

SAN FRANCISCO--Building 3D models should be something everyone can do. That's the pitch from ZeroUI, a Silicon Valley startup that has created a technology platform designed to let anyone create their own digital models, whether a robot, drum, table, or anything else.

The Cupertino, Calif., company is relying on gestural input technologies such as Microsoft's Kinect, and soon, Leap Motion's Leap controller, as well as systems built into some computers, to allow users to create their models with nothing but their hands.

The company's name comes from the fact that its system has an extremely minimal user interface. Rather than requiring users to understand the mathematics and physics of a model they might want to build, the ZeroUI system simply allows them to stand in front of the input camera and use intuitive hand gestures to craft their 3D model (see the video below). … Read more

Zuckerberg wrote key IPO filing document on his mobile phone

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is so addicted to his smart phone that, he said today, he "wrote the founder's letter in the [company's IPO filing] on my mobile phone."

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt here (see CNET's live blog), Zuckerberg was speaking about how tied to his mobile he is, and how important mobile is to Facebook's developers and users.

"You check in more, seeing what's going on with friends around you," he told interviewer Michael Arrington. "A lot of the energy in the developer ecosystem is...going … Read more

Zuckerberg: 'Employees want to make a bunch of money'

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that in order to take his company where he wants it to go, he knows that he needs to help prospective -- and current -- employees "make a bunch of money."

Facebook's mission has been to build a great service and to put that mission in front of profit margins, Zuckerberg told a packed audience at TechCrunch Disrupt today (see CNET's live blog). The idea, he said, is that building a great service and a great company go hand in hand. And getting great employees to help with that mission … Read more

Kevin Rose says key for startups is to 'edit your team'

SAN FRANCISCO--As a serial entrepreneur, Digg founder Kevin Rose no doubt had a lot of people telling him how to grow his businesses. But the best advice he ever got was to get rid of employees that don't fit.

At TechCrunch Disrupt today, Rose -- who also co-founded Revision3, Pownce, and Milk, and who is now an investment partner at Google Ventures -- told interviewer Colleen Taylor that Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey gave him the best business suggestion he ever got: "Edit your team."

Dorsey told him, Rose said, "'You're just going to … Read more