mashable

If Grumpy Cat is the biggest news of all, is SXSW in trouble?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Talk to just about anyone who has been at South by Southwest this year, and there's really no doubt what was the biggest news of all: Grumpy Cat.

On the one hand a sweet little cat with a facial expression that looks annoyed, and on the other one, of the biggest Internet memes of the last year, Grumpy Cat has been the unquestioned biggest star of SXSW, thanks to Mashable, which managed to bring the famous kitty to the world's most important interactive conference so that tons of her biggest fans could meet her.

Never … Read more

The 404 1,166: Where we stoop to your level (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- OKCupid social experiment shows just how low some guys will go.

- The 10 most viral YouTube videos of 2012.

- Movie theater app rewards customers for not texting during film.

- 5-Hour Energy cited in 13 deaths over the last 4 years.

Bathroom break video: Hitstagram: an app that makes your music sound like complete garbage.… Read more

CNN to buy Mashable for around $200 million, report says

This could be the news of the 2012 South by Southwest: CNN is set to pay more than $200 million to buy social media blog Mashable, according to Reuters blogger Felix Salmon.

Salmon, who is attending this week's festival and conference in Austin, Texas, says that "a little bird" told him that CNN will announce the deal on Tuesday. If the deal goes through as rumored, it would be an amazing coup for Mashable founder Pete Cashmore, who founded the blog in July 2005. The site draws about 20 million monthly unique visitors

The New York Times confirmed … Read more

Tech news site ReadWriteWeb acquired by Say Media

ReadWriteWeb, a popular tech news site, has been acquired by San Francisco-based Say Media.

The site's editor, Richard MacManus, announced the deal this morning, explaining that RWW will join Say's Technology channel, giving it access to more than 75 million monthly readers:

ReadWriteWeb is going to get bigger and even better. Our plans include widening ReadWriteWeb's editorial scope and expanding our team. That starts from today, with the addition of SplatF's Dan Frommer to our team as an editor-at-large. We will also be doing a redesign, utilizing the sophisticated designers at SAY Media. With SAY's … Read more

Buzz Out Loud live at SXSWi

If you've been anywhere near Twitter in the last week, you know that the South by Southwest Interactive, Film, and Music festival (known lovingly as SXSW to just about everyone) starts this week. Last year was the first time that interactive registrants outnumbered even music festival attendees, so it's more than safe to say the Internet portion of the program has become the biggest part of the program (probably to the dismay of Austin's old-school music fans!). But hey, we can take a hint. If you're anyone at all online, you're at SXSW. So, we'… Read more

The 404 366: Where we kick off the Summer of Social Good or where something good actually came from social networking

Adam Hirsch, COO of Mashable, joins the show today to talk about something that we thought would never happen: social networking for doing actual good in the world.

Yeah, instead of flash mobs or sending NSFW pictures to your buddy, Adam has started the Summer of Social Good, which harnesses the power of social media to actually do some charity work in the world. You can donate a minimum of $10 to the organization, and it will split the donation evenly between The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America, and WWF--not the World Wrestling Federation. We also chat a bit about the future of social networks, especially given the election of Barack Obama and the on-going Iranian election controversy. There is even a city in America that now asks for your Facebook log-in when you apply for a job in its government!

Also today, the iPhone 3G S launched this morning. It wasn't nearly as mad crazy as it was last year or for the original iPhone launch. Mostly, we think it's because there aren't that many new great features aside from faster speed, bigger capacity, and a faster processor. Also, we think that AT&T might have been a little too harsh with its upgrade policy. But if you really, really want the new iPhone 3G S and you have an older iPhone, check out YouRenew.com. For this week, it will buy your old cell phone and give you back some hard cash. Owners of the iPhone 3G 8GB can get $200!

EPISODE 366 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video No video today! Technical difficulties.… Read more

Webware Radar: Microblog for celebrities

MogoTXT, a company that wants to become the place for celebrities and sports superstars to connect with each other, announced Tuesday that it has launched a new microblogging tool. According to the company, five players have already signed up for the service including Shane Battier, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jordan Farmar, Eric Gordon, and Spencer Hawes. The real attraction for celebrities, the company's CEO says, is that MogoTXT allows the stars to share in the revenues of their following. In other words, the more users they can attract to the service to follow their micro-blog updates, the more money they can … Read more

Video: Blog stars Lodwick, Cashmore rock out at Internet Week party

NEW YORK--If there were a meter of Internet "fameballing," as Gawker likes to dub those fine folks who get famous on the Internet for something and keep getting more and more notorious even though most people aren't really sure why, it would've been flying off the charts on Sunday night.

The reason? Two of the tech-gossip circuit's most popular poster boys, dapper Mashable exec Pete Cashmore and eccentric Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick took the stage together in a game of Rock Band.

The performance of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps," with Cashmore on … Read more

Exclusive! Mashable czar knows how to mosh

Because it's Monday, I figure you could all use a little amusement. Here's a blurry camera-phone video shot at Friday night's launch party for New York dot-com Dropio at the West Village nightclub Le Royale, in which the dance floor got a little bit rowdy.

Watch British import Pete Cashmore, founder of social-networking blog Mashable, bounce around like Silly Putty. (He's the guy in the Mashable T-shirt.) With him is entrepreneur and dance-floor buddy Michael Gruen (guy in the argyle sweater).

Happy Monday!

Latest unpopular Facebook move is apparently a glitch

If anyone's added you as a friend on Facebook recently, you may notice something different: previously, upon confirming a friend request, you were redirected to a separate page that asked you to check a few boxes and fill out a text field or two describing your relationship with the person in question. The options range from "Went to school together" to "In my family" to "We hooked up." The Facebook member on the other end of the "relationship" must then confirm the detail before it becomes visible to anyone who's … Read more