Google really, really wants us to like Google+. Google is embedding Google+ into each of its products, making it increasingly difficult to use its services without embracing the Google+ borg, whether you want to or not. Judging by Google+’s still stagnant market share, you generally do not want to use the social service, or whatever it [...]

If we needed an event to wake people up to the power of native advertising, it’s surely Yahoo’s $1.1-billion purchase of Tumblr. We’ll be talking about this a lot at AdNatively, a one-day conference I’m emceeing in New York on Thursday, May 23. So what is native advertising? A quick, simple definition: It’s an ad [...]

In a pure case of closing the barn doors after the horses have come home (and so many corporate Twitter accounts have been hacked), Twitter has announced today the option to implement two-factor authentication. If users opt-in, any sign-on from a new computer will require a code texted to their phone.  The feature hasn’t been [...]

Hey, developers! Do you feel like you’re in demand? Apparently you should. HubSpot, a Cambridge-based marketing software-as-a-service venture, has started a new initiative to handsomely compensate anyone who can refer a developer friend. “If you do, and we end up hiring them, we’ll thank you with a big, fat check for $30,000,” its Refer A Dev program [...]

Aligning itself aesthetically more along the lines of social networks like Facebook and Google+, LinkedIn has introduced a new navigation bar to its website. The aim is in line with the company’s simplification efforts, which so far have included redesigns of the homepage and profile pages and as an overhaul of its mobile apps and [...]

Browser maker Opera just released a new version for Android with a slew of new features, an upgraded design and better performance. And, for the first time for Opera, it is not running on its own Presto rendering engine. Opera for Android is running WebKit. In February, Opera said that it was ditching Presto in [...]

According to the 2013 BrandZ Top 100 report, tech companies hold the top three slots in this year’s list of top global brands — Apple, Google and IBM leading the pack in that order. Microsoft rolls in at number 7 on the list. There’s big money in them thar brands, too. The ClickZ report pegs Apple’s [...]

On Monday, Yahoo announced it was buying Tumblr, the blog network, for $1.1 billion. And then the tweets started, with people declaring that Tumblr founder David Karp was now a billionaire. The conflation of Tumblr’s purchase price with Karp’s net worth assumed that Karp got nearly all of the Yahoo payday. And that’s simply not how [...]

It’s not every day one of the big three gaming powerhouses announces a new console. In fact, we’ve been waiting a solid eight years. In an event on its Redmond, Washington home turf today, Microsoft announced the Xbox One, its next generation Xbox gaming console — and more. In fact, the Xbox One is pretty [...]

Today in Redmond, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One, its vision for the future of home entertainment. The Xbox One will expand Microsoft’s Xbox agenda well beyond gaming, blurring the boundaries of gaming and interactive TV further than ever. Let’s take a look. The Xbox One isn’t much of a departure when it comes to design [...]

Getting called out by the Obama administration wasn’t enough of a deterrent for Unit 61398, the cyberattack unit of the People’s Liberation Army of China, because apparently they’re at it again, working to pilfer information from private company and public government data stores. The New York Times is reporting that Unit 61398 has resumed operations [...]

The Tumblr acquisition may give Yahoo the young, hip audience it’s always wanted — assuming it can keep them. Because Tumblr users aren’t happy, and they’re letting it all out.  “Yahoo is buying Tumblr guys THIS IS NOT OKAY THEY’LL RUIN OUR HOME,” blogged one user in a sentiment repeatedly echoed on the #yahoo, #tumblr, [...]