Techmeme
February 11, 2019, 8:25 AM

Top News

David Pierce / Wall Street Journal:
Hands-on with AR navigation on Google Maps that the company is testing with Local Guides, a group of power users helping Google improve its Maps experience  —  The coming Google Maps augmented-reality navigation feature will look through your phone's camera to figure out where you are and show you where you are going.
Will Knight / MIT Technology Review:
Trump to sign American AI Initiative executive order that will prioritize federal funding for AI, create resources for AI researchers, establish standards, more  —  Artificial intelligence may have been invented in the United States, but other nations, including China, Canada, and France …
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
US Army starts deploying FLIR's Black Hornet nano-drones that measure 6.6" across, weigh less than 33 grams, and provide HD photos and live video for soldiers  —  Black Hornets are nano-drones able to perform reconnaissance during combat operations.  —  The US Army aims to give almost …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Q&A with Zynga's CEO on the once-beleaguered game company's turnaround, as key acquisitions and the shift to mobile overcome declining Facebook and web games  —  Zynga went public in 2011 and it grew quickly on the strength of social games like FarmVille.  But it hit the skids in 2013, and it began going downhill.
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
VCs raised $55B in 2018, similar to what was raised in 1999, but most of the increased funding went into growth rounds, which are effectively private IPOs  —  I've heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals.
Tim O'Reilly / Quartz:
Hoffman and Yeh's “Blitzscaling” offers practical advice for startups but presents a lot of revisionist history and ignores the perils of VC-fueled hypergrowth  —  The pursuit of monopoly has led Silicon Valley astray.  —  Look no further than the race between Lyft and Uber to dominate the online ride-hailing market.
Alana Semuels / The Atlantic:
A look at the challenges of online grocery shopping in US, where 22% of apparel sales and 30% of electronics sales happen online versus just 3% of grocery sales  —  We shop online for almost everything.  Why not food?  —  Nearly 30 years ago, when just 15 percent of Americans had a computer …

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Earlier Picks

Victor Luckerson / The Ringer:
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery: