Google is introducing new ways for users to verify information on Search, the company announced on Tuesday. The search giant is launching new features called “Perspectives” and “About this author,” while also expanding some of its current tools, including “About this result.” The new Perspectives feature is a carousel that will appear below Top Stories…
What’s it like to be a startup founder? Not the hype, not the spin. What’s it really like? That’s the thesis behind the TechCrunch podcast Found. Each episode features an interview with an early-stage founder to tell the story behind the startup. We can’t think of a better place to broadcast a live Found podcast…
Concrete. Ubiquitous. A mainstay of the construction industry — over 10 billion cubic meters of concrete are used every year. And also responsible for up to 8% of CO2 emissions — one ton of ordinary Portland cement creates somewhere between 800 and 900 kilograms of CO2 emissions. Finnish startup Carbonaide has just raised €1.8 million (~$1.9…
Tesla is bringing back its referral program to Europe, a strategy that taps into the brand loyalty of customers as it seeks to preserve market share and boost sales before the first quarter of 2023 closes. The referral program follows Tesla’s move to reduce prices in a variety of markets, including Europe, China and North…
The concept of “shoppable videos” has been around for at least a decade, with some big companies, like Showroom, Firework, Vimeo, YouTube and Klarna getting in on the action. There have also been startups embracing this space that have received some attention from investors in the past, like Cinematique, which gave it a go in…
Apple has quietly acquired a Mountain View-based startup, WaveOne, that was developing AI algorithms for compressing video. Apple wouldn’t confirm the sale when asked for comment. But WaveOne’s website was shut down around January, and several former employees, including one of WaveOne’s co-founders, now work within Apple’s various machine learning groups. In a LinkedIn post…
First Citizens has agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank, the California lender that served as lifeblood to thousands of startups before its collapse sent shockwaves through the financial sector, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Monday. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank is estimated to incur a loss of about $20 billion to…
Pinterest announced today that it’s testing ways to integrate Shuffles collage content into Pinterest, starting with shopping. Shuffles, which is Pinterest’s collage-making app, launched to general public last November. To use Shuffles, users build collages using Pinterest’s own photo library or by snapping photos of objects they want to include with their iPhone’s camera. The…
One of my most joyous technology memories concerns Project Origami. The effort from Microsoft, Intel and others launched ultra-mobile PCs, or UMPCs. The devices, akin to squeezing a full Windows machine into something about the size of an midrange iPad often complete with a physical keyboard, utterly fascinated me back around 2006. At that time…
Since the start of 2023, more than 150,000 people have been laid off at tech companies, large and small. That’s a staggering number of people who have been put out of work. When you think about how Meta, Amazon and Salesforce have handled these layoffs, the situation becomes even more grim. Salesforce announced in January…
