Technology posts

It became one of the top memes of 2010. And just like that, it’s gone. Wikipedia announced this morning that they had reached their goal of $16,000,000 to keep the site ad-free, more than double their results from a year ago. Perhaps more impressive is that they did it in less time than any of their previous fundraisers. As the world’s 5th largest website, Wikipedia is a darling for the search engines as the closest thing the Internet can produce to an Encyclopedia. Because of the sheer volume of accumulated world knowledge, the crowdsourced junction of data has become the “go to” for everyone from…

Skype has been outlawed in China. The popular Internet phone service is yet another Western web service that has been banned, leaving all other Internet phone calls to be made through the state-owned networks China Unicom and China Telecom. Already popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked, and Google abandoned the Chinese market last year due to intense government pressure. By making Skype illegal, the Chinese government is effectively making services like Skype unavailable in the country. Still, the government contests that it’s helping protect users…

The past year in technology was among the more surprising ones we’ve had. Even the most astute, insightful tech observers would have had trouble predicting some of the things that happened this year. The iPad and Kinect have become the fastest selling electronic devices in history. Android exploded at a rate few could have seen coming. Facebook and Twitter kept up their blistering expansion rates, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7… is actually good. But what about this coming year? What events and happenings will not only define 2011, but also cause tech-heads to look back in a year from now…

With Delicious in purgatory, can anything bring the trend-setting social bookmarking site back to (even half of) its former glory, pre-Yahoo? Some are showing interest in buying it. Sources say Yahoo is going to get around to considering how to unload it in January. In the meantime, it’s just sort of… there. News that it was on the chopping block really put a dent in the site’s ability to stay relevant. Users have scrambled looking for a new place to store their bookmarks. Former employees are speaking out. The founder is willing to “help” but not willing to buy it back. What do they need to do to stay…

Google couldn’t buy them and some believe this is a good thing. As more numbers start to get tossed out about valuation, profits, and potential, GroupOn’s filing to authorize up to $950 million in Series G funding comes as music to the ears of many in the venture capital world. At $31.59 a share, is it a good deal? Good deals are GroupOn’s specialty. This is no exception. The filing authorizes up to 250 million share. According to VC Experts, if all of them are issued, Groupon’s valuation could be as high as $7.8 billion. We knew there was a reason they would pass on Google’s $6 billion offer and why Groupon…

If you were to go by Hollywood’s logic, it is not uncommon to see the bad boy getting the girls, the notoriety, the fame, and everything else that comes with it. Transforming that from fantasy to reality, however, can be tricky, as there are plenty of good guys with great lives and have all of the aforementioned. But if you want to get noticed in social media, being an ass is most likely — at least statistically — the easiest way to make your way to the top. Pissing people off is almost as much an art as it is an annoyance. It’s all about emotion, and the easiest way to evoke emotions is through anger. So…

Meanwhile, in Russia… If Google translate is to be trusted, a Russian publication has claimed that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed an order to transition the technological “power structures and the federal budget to free software” starting in the second quarter of 2012. The 17-page document, “Transition Plan of the Federal Authorities and Federal Budgetary Institutions to Free Software,” covers the period from 2011 to 2015. According to Deputy Head of the Ministry of Communications Ilya Massuh, the document describes a complete transition of the federal government and state…

Every week, Techi takes a look at the week that was to highlight our favorite stories from the week. When we say, “Top Tech” that doesn’t necessarily mean the biggest stories. These are, in our opinion, the “best”. Check back every Sunday for the weekly recap and every day for the freshest news and tech opinions. 5 Ways to Save Google TV – Gigaom Google TV devices like Logitech’s Revue set top-box were supposed to be the iPhone of Internet TV devices. Instead, they became the G1. Shunned by critics and ignored by consumers, even Google… Hacked Sites Notifications Added to Google Search Results…

The SEC doesn’t get it. Most journalists don’t like it. It seems that everyone from Silicon Valley to Washington DC are down on Demand Media’s push to go public with a $125 million IPO. “From the very beginning, we set out to create an entirely different kind of media company,” reads Demand Media’s Manifesto. That, they’ve done, and as a result they’re mired in red tape as they try to make everyone understand that their “content farms” are not only potentially profitable but that the way they handle their accounting is exactly the way it should be. Demand has 17,000 freelancers supplying content…

It appears that Skype crushed itself under its own weight today with reports of up to 20 million users unable to sign in to the VoIP/Text/Video/Audio chat service. They have been the world up to date with a series of Tweets, but that didn’t last long as Twitter went down. Coincidence? Yes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stir up the tech conspiracy theorists out there. Twitter just received $200 million in funding. Skype is working towards a $100 million IPO. Facebook is trying to buy Yahoo! to… Okay, so we made the last one up. Skype’s most recent Tweet indicates that things are on their way back to…