Techmeme: After first original TV series fall flat, Amazon leans away from data-driven creative approach (Emily Steel/New York Times)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

August 17, 2014, 1:15 PM

Top News

Miguel Helft / Fortune:

Inside ATAP, Google's mobile development group led by former DARPA director Regina Dugan — Google goes DARPA — Regina Dugan loves to tell the story of how she got her current job. It was a little over two years ago, and Dugan, a mechanical engineer by training and an expert in counterterrorism …

More: Navy Times, Business Insider and Tech Times

Tweets: @rcalo, @malbonnington, @erictopol and @dbfarber

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Twitter's latest experiment turns favorites into retweets (and it's annoying lots of people) — Twitter is back in experimental mode, but its latest test is annoying people. A sizable number of users are seeing tweets favorited by others in their timeline, just like retweets.

Tweets: @001010110, @jonrussell, @hunterwalk, @semil, @pkafka and @benedictevans

Jeff Minich / Business Insider:

Ex-employee defends Yahoo: Mayer is ignoring legacy ad business to focus on potential growth — A Former Yahoo Employee Defends Marissa Mayer From Her Biggest Critic — Eric Jackson has had a lot to say about Marissa Mayer and Yahoo lately. He's a smart guy, I read his column and think he's generally an astute investor.

Tweets: @jaudrius, @kimbatronic, @aaronklein, @anildash and @karaswisher

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Investor Eric Jackson pesters Yahoo and its CEO, hoping to attract activist investor or buyer — A Yahoo Fanboy Turns Critic: “I Am Committed to Remaining a Pest” — What exactly is investor and Forbes columnist Eric Jackson up to with his now month-old blog attack on Yahoo and, most pointedly, its CEO, Marissa Mayer?

Ethan Zuckerman / The Atlantic Online:

Ad-supported web led to targeting and surveillance as a default; let's try again, with fees for service — The Internet's Original Sin — Ron Carlson's short story “What We Wanted To Do” takes the form of an apology from a villager who failed to protect his comrades from marauding Visigoths.

More: SlashGear, BuzzMachine, Forbes, The Verge, Digital Trends, CNET, BGR, Engadget, MacDailyNews, Gizmodo, NEWS.com.au, Gizmodo UK, RT, TechSpot, Tech Times, Business Insider, Joho the Blog, Yahoo Tech and The Register

Tweets: @bpm140, @startupljackson, @theatlantic, @rianvdm, @adriennelaf, @csoghoian, @jayrosen_nyu, @anildash, @niemanlab, @sanatanamishra, @evgenymorozov, @zeynep, @ftrain, @pinboard, @ashk4n and @ashk4n

Thanks:@nethistorypod

Dan Primack / Fortune:

We lack the data needed to show whether venture capital is performing as an asset class — VCs suck (but there's a way you could prove me wrong) — There has been a bunch of Twitter conversation this week about venture capital economics and performance, stemming from an HBR post titled Venture Capitalists …

More: HBR.org. Tweets: @trengriffin, @pmarca, @jimprosser, @felixsalmon, @trengriffin, @felixsalmon, @pmarca and @danprimack

Emily Steel / New York Times:

After first original TV series fall flat, Amazon leans away from data-driven creative approach — For Its New Shows, Amazon Adds Art to Its Data — LOS ANGELES — Joe Lewis, a television executive at Amazon, lies on his stomach on a rumpled bed. Jill Soloway, the Emmy-nominated writer and director …

Tweets: @carr2n, @ronmwangaguhung, @sriramk, @karaswisher and @emilysteel

Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:

With free licensing and new device makers on board, it's too early to write off Windows Phone — It's Too Early to Write Off the Third Smartphone Ecosystem — Thanks to a single smart phone quarterly market share report from IDC, many are suddenly writing off Windows Phone and declaring …

More: Gigaom and BGR. Tweets: @ihnatko

Paul Carr / PandoDaily:

Bezos-owned Washington Post now inserting gross Amazon affiliate links into news articles — There's something creepy in this Washington Post piece about Penguin's new “adult” cover for the 50th anniversary edition of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Well, something else creepy, beyond the weirdly over-sexualized cover itself.

More: Washington Post and The Digital Reader. Tweets: @mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Internet Explorer team AMA: no plans for iOS & Android release, rebranding has been considered — Internet Explorer on Android or iOS? Not in Microsoft's current plans — Summary: The cross-platform push may be on at ‘cloud first/mobile first’ Microsoft, but for now …

Peter Bright / Ars Technica:

Chrome drops Microsoft's “Pointer Events” touch input spec in favor of Apple's “Touch Events” — Google to drop Microsoft-designed touch Web spec, stick with Apple tech — Developers on the Blink browser engine, the core component that powers both Google's Chrome browser …

Heise:

GCHQ's “HACIENDA” program completed full port scans targeting 27 countries — NSA/GCHQ: The HACIENDA Program for Internet Colonization — Translations of this article are available in German, French, Italian and Spanish. — Since the early days of TCP …

More: Gizmodo UK, The Hacker News, Engadget, IETF Datatracker, tum.de, Gigaom, PC World and The Register

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @kashhill, @fredericjacobs, @ashk4n, @cyberwar and @ioerror

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

The best time to become a Zoho Partner — The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt. Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:15 PM ET, August 17, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.