Techmeme
September 12, 2019, 3:00 PM

Top News

Richard Gingras / The Keyword:
Google says it changed how it ranks stories and updated guidelines for evaluation of search results to help better identify and surface original news reporting  —  Google Search was built to provide everyone access to information on the web—and with tens of thousands of web pages …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Google Photos starts rolling out Memories, a tool that brings back old photos and videos on their anniversaries in an Instagram Stories-like format  —  A new feature to help you reminisce, plus same-day printing  —  Google Photos is adding features to encourage reminiscing …
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Sources: federal investigators, including the FBI, are probing the conduct and practices of Mithril Capital, the VC firm co-founded by Peter Thiel  —  Mithril Capital raised over $1 billion on the name of Thiel, one of Silicon Valley's biggest celebrities.  Now federal investigators are looking under the hood.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack launches a dark mode for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with dark mode variants of all existing sidebar themes and a new “Nocturne” dark mode theme  —  Updated dark mode themes are available today  —  Slack is introducing a new dark mode for desktop versions of its workplace chat app.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber says drivers will remain contractors under AB5, as they aren't core to its business which serves as a platform for several types of digital marketplaces  —  The ride-hail company shrugs off a new bill in California, but legal challenges loom  —  Uber won't be reclassifying its drivers …
New York Times:
Anthony Cuthbertson / The Independent:
French Economy and Finance Minister says the country will block the development of Facebook's Libra in the EU as it poses a threat to “monetary sovereignty”  —  French Finance Minister says: ‘We cannot authorise the development of Libra on European soil’
Jared Newman / Fast Company:
Amazon launches Alexa Answers, a crowdsourcing platform that lets any user answer questions asked by other users, in the US  —  The Alexa Answers crowdsourcing platform is now open to everyone in the United States.  Amazon says it has measures in place to prevent misuse.
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NLRB ordered Google to let employees speak out on political and workplace issues, as part of a settlement of complaints that it restricts free speech  —  National Labor Relations Board settles political-bias claims raised by former and current Google employees
Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:
Apple, Facebook, and Google did not sign a letter from 145 CEOs, including those of Lyft, Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber, urging Senate action on gun violence  —  “Doing nothing about America's gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable," the corporate chiefs urged senators in a letter.
April Glaser / Slate:
Kickstarter has fired two union organizers in eight days; sources: both were fired for what management said were performance-related issues  —  On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company.
Claudia Koerner / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook takes down fact-check of anti-abortion video following complaints from GOP senators alleging bias; Facebook's fact-checking partner is investigating  —  Facebook on Wednesday removed a fact-check conducted by doctors of an anti-abortion activist's video, which falsely claimed abortion …
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
Seattle-based Swiftly, which develops tech offerings for supermarkets to help compete with Amazon and Walmart, raises $15.6M seed round  —  Swiftly raised a $15.6 million seed round to help grocery stores and other retailers up their technology offerings to keep up with Amazon and Walmart.
More: Xconomy and GeekWire

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More News

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Earlier Picks

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