Techmeme: Google Is Winding Down Wildfire, The Social Media Platform It Bought For $350 Million (Jim Edwards/Business Insider)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

March 14, 2014, 3:40 PM

Top News

Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny!:

Leaked photos allegedly show Amazon's bluetooth gaming controller — Amazon Streamer To Feature Bluetooth Gaming Controller — By way of an overseas regulatory agency, similar to our very own FCC, we continue to hone in on the elusive Amazon media streamer.

More: The Verge, PC World, Gigaom, Engadget, CNET, TechSpot, Forbes, GeekWire, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, Gamasutra, Joystiq, MobileSyrup.com, The News Ledge, Kotaku, Gotta Be Mobile, Phandroid, WebProNews, 9to5Google, Geek.com, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, VG247, SlashGear, Android Central, AndroidGuys, Droid Life, TechCrunch, BGR, Electronista, destructoid and Develop Feed

Tweets: @davezatz and @wjrothman

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

iOS 8: Apple considers simpler Notifications Center, inter-app communication, auto-deletion of Messages threads, removal of Game Center, CarPlay over WiFi — iOS 8: Apple considers Notification Center + Messages tweaks, removing Game Center app — Besides adding new Maps, Healthbook …

Jeff Goodell / Rolling Stone:

Bill Gates on technology, surveillance, the future of the planet and God — Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview — The richest man in the world explains how to save the planet — At 58, Bill Gates is not only the richest man in the world, with a fortune that now exceeds $76 billion, but he may also be the most optimistic.

Wall Street Journal:

Asus may drop dual-OS Android-Windows device after facing pressure from Google and Microsoft — Asustek's Dual-OS Devices Hit a Wall — Shelves Plans For Transformer Book Duet TD300 — Plans for a new breed of mobile devices running operating systems from both Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Anonymous Social App Secret Confirms $8.6 Million In New Funding — Secret, the anonymous social sharing app popular among the Silicon Valley and tech industry crowd, officially announced today it has raised $8.6 million in outside investment. The round included participation from Garry Tan …

More: Medium, VentureBeat, The Technology Chronicles, Gigaom, Re/code, Wall Street Journal and Valleywag

Tweets: @500startups and @ryanlawler

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

Google Is Winding Down Wildfire, The Social Media Platform It Bought For $350 Million — In 2012, Google made a huge splash when it bought Wildfire, a social media marketing company that helps advertisers manage their pages on Facebook, for $350 million. The acquisition came after a flurry …

More: Wildfire Social Media …, Marketing Land, Pulse 2.0 and WebProNews

Nathaniel Mott / PandoDaily:

Uber and Lyft expand insurance coverage after controversy — Uber and Lyft have announced increased insurance coverage for their drivers that will reportedly cover incidents that occur whenever their respective apps are open, not just when drivers have passengers in their cars.

More: Uber Blog, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Re/code, Ars Technica, Forbes, Re/code, VatorNews, Gigaom, TechCrunch, The Verge, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, The Next Web, Mashable, SlashGear and GeekWire. Tweets: @joshconstine

Bloomberg:

Alibaba Said to Plan to File for U.S. IPO as Soon as April — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is preparing to file for an initial public offering in the U.S. as soon as April, according to people with knowledge of the matter. — China's largest e-commerce company is working …

More: VentureBeat, Business Insider and New York Times

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

General Colin Powell Joins Salesforce Board Of Directors, As CRM Giant Zeros In On Public Sector — Salesforce today announced an interesting development in its leadership ranks: General Colin Powell is joining its board of directors. He brings the total number of members of the board up to 11.

More: Thomson IR, ZDNet, Re/code and PE Hub Blog

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Samsung's new smartphone case uses ultrasound to detect people and objects — Samsung's Galaxy S5 may be getting lots of smart new accessories, but the Korean smartphone maker is also making sure its lower-powered phones get some love too. After including various software usability functions …

More: Samsung Mobile Press, The Next Web, Digital Trends, Ars Technica and Greenbot

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Sprint launches more prepaid options, including smartphones with no data plans — Prepaid has been very good for Sprint, so good that it runs multiple no-contract services from the Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile brands as well as the Sprint As You Go plans launched last year.

More: Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Electronista, CNET, Re/code and IntoMobile. Thanks:@srikardr

Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat:

Castlight Health prices IPO at $16, above earlier estimates — Castlight Health has priced its impending IPO shares even higher than its recently revised upward estimate. — The health software company priced itself at $16 per share, so it raised $178 million after unloading 11.1 million shares to investors.

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Re/code, PE Hub Blog, Castlight Health, Fortune and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @recode

Adam Tanner / Forbes:

mSpy sells iPhone 5s and Android smartphones pre-loaded with spyware, ostensibly for use by parents and employers — Starting Today, Jealous Lovers Can Buy NSA-Like Monitoring Powers — Imagine this happy occasion. On his girlfriend's birthday a man announces he has a special gift.

More: BGR, Business Insider, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Betabeat, VentureBeat and Computerworld

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's Secret New “Business Manager” Could Compete With Developer Partners For Marketing Dollars — TechCrunch has discovered a big, unannounced marketing tool from Facebook called Business Manager that lets teams at enterprises and agencies manage multiple ad campaigns and Pages in one interface.

Thanks:@joshconstine

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites — Russia's government has escalated its use of its Internet censorship law to target news sites, bloggers, and politicians under the slimmest excuse of preventing unauthorized protests and enforcing house arrest regulations.

Sharif Sakr / Engadget:

Nokia's Refocus camera app is now available to all Lumia owners on WP8 — You'd be forgiven for thinking that Nokia's “shoot now, focus later” photography app, Refocus, required PureView hardware to run, because until now it's only been available on PureView-branded phones.

More: Nokia Conversations, ITworld.com, Gigaom, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, Pocketnow, techshout.com, UnleashThePhones, WMPoweruser and BetaNews

Alex Hern / Guardian:

Phone call metadata does betray sensitive details about your life - study — Identities of cannabis grower, woman seeking an abortion and MS sufferer inferred in study that confirms danger of widespread access to metadata — Warnings that phone call “metadata” can betray detailed information …

More: Web Policy, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Stanford News, The Daily Caller, Gizmodo, Network World and Threatpost

Tweets: @jonathanmayer, @stanford and @cdixon

Mike Beasley / 9to5Mac:

Apple launches new featured App Store section dedicated to taking selfies — Apple has added a new section to the iOS App Store today promoting apps used to share selfies (via MacStories' Federico Viticci). Among the apps included are classics like Snapchat and the Justin Bieber-backed Shots …

More: CNET, PC Magazine, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Engadget, AppleInsider, SlashGear, VentureBreak, iMore, MacDailyNews, App Advice, Ubergizmo, Los Angeles Times, Digital Trends, iDownloadBlog.com and Cult of Mac. Tweets: @spencerchen

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

Social Analytics Platform Synthesio Secures $20M Series B From Idinvest Partners — Synthesio, the global social ‘listening and analysis’ platform, has announced it's secured a Series B funding round of $20 million in funding from a European private equity firm, Idinvest Partners.

More: VentureBeat, Adotas, PE Hub Blog and Synthesio

Toby Melville / Reuters:

Vodafone close to buying Spain's Ono for $10B as Ono's shareholders approve IPO plans — Vodafone close to deal to buy Spain's Ono - sources — (Reuters) - Shareholders of cable company Ono are close to reaching a deal with Britain's Vodafone on an offer to buy the Spanish group …

More: Bloomberg, Gigaom, Life Style Extra, Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Telecoms.com and VentureBreak

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Is Adding Promoted Account Tweets, With Follow Buttons, To Desktop Timelines — Twitter will soon add another feature to its Timeline on the desktop to generate revenue: Promoted Accounts, with the option for people to follow them directly with a button embedded in the Tweet.

More: Tnooz, Marketing Land and AdExchanger

Seth Rosenblatt / CNET:

Pwn2Own 2014: Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, Adobe Flash and Reader already hacked — All hacking eyes on the prize money at CanSecWest — VANCOUVER, Canada — When it comes to hacking, it turns out that greed really is good. — All four of the major desktop browsers …

More: Threatpost, Fortune, PWN2OWN, Computerworld, h30499.www3.hp.com, Naked Security, 9to5Mac, The Loop, ZDNet, MacRumors and Google Chrome Developers

Tweets: @sethr and @thezdi

MediaNama:

Rdio acquires shuttered Indian music streaming service Dhingana — Exclusive: Rdio buys Dhingana to Enter India — US-based music streaming website Rdio has acquired Indian music streaming website Dhingana, Dhingana has confirmed to MediaNama. MediaNama had heard about the development from multiple industry sources.

More: The Next Web, PC World, Techcircle.in, VatorNews, Tech in Asia and NextBigWhat

Tweets: @soumitra_sharma, @jonsonbill, @nixxin and @nixxin

Thanks:@tsuvik. See also Mediagazer

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

iOS 7.1 Includes Warning Message About 15-Minute In-App Purchase Window — Along with several visual tweaks, CarPlay support, and Touch ID enhancements, iOS 7.1 also brought some changes to the way in-app purchases work. When making an in-app purchase for the first time after updating …

More: Cult of Mac, Engadget, Trusted Reviews and Inquirer

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Fundable Acquires LaunchRock To Combine Crowdfunding And User Acquisition — Fundable.com, an equity crowdfunding platform for businesses (including startups), just announced that it has acquired LaunchRock. — LaunchRock, as the name implies, was initially focused on helping startups create launch pages …

More: PE Hub Blog, Crowdfund Insider, Digital Journal, Columbus Business First and LaunchRock. Thanks:@grg

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Cloudflare:

Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.

Zoho:

Step into smarter meetings: Zoho Cliq Rooms is now available on Neat devices — The meeting landscape has completely transformed over the last few years, moving from conference rooms to people joining across locations and time zones.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce 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

Acquired:

Home Depot

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Big Technology Podcast:

Special Report: Will AI Wipe Out Humanity? (And Who Profits)

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

The Atlantic's CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator

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.

Sources:

Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet

Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

Subscribe to Sources.

Lenny's Podcast:

How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Invest Like the Best:

Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:40 PM ET, March 14, 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.