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Posts Tagged ‘Headcount’

Microsoft’s Twitter chatter suggests Danger is up to something — Pink drawing near?

The other day, we happened to catch a tag on a tweet reading “from Danger.” No biggie, really — Sidekicks have had Twitter integration for a while now. Here’s the thing, though: tweeting from a Sidekick plugs a “from Sidekick” on the end, not Danger — and what’s more, the Danger text links to Microsoft’s home page rather than Sidekick’s. It’s starting to get juicy, right? Anyhow, these “from Danger” tweets have really picked up across dozens of accounts since December or so, to the point where we’ve got a constant cacophony of ‘em today — possibly a sign that these guys have a product in the works that’s nearing completion.

Danger… new product… Microsoft… ah, that’s right, Pink! We haven’t had any fresh intel on the alleged lovechild of Redmond’s acquisition in some time — it could be dead, for all we know — but there’s definitely something going on inside Microsoft’s labs that involves Danger’s legacy tech and headcount. Whatever it is, they’ve got a predisposition for the hashtag “#tmdp” (it used to be #tmd and changed at some point) — we’ve no idea what it stands for, but we’re curious to get your opinions. Anyhow, is this what we’re going to see next month at MWC? Is WinMo 7 going to take a back seat yet again? Will it be a one-two punch where they reveal a whole slew of Danger and WinMo stuff at once? Heck, are they the same frigging product? Who knows, but hopefully we’ll have it all sorted out within a few weeks’ time.

Microsoft’s Twitter chatter suggests Danger is up to something — Pink drawing near? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia launching only one Maemo device in 2010?
Better sit down Maemo fans. If you expected Nokia to just kick its waning S60 5th OS to the curb in 2010 after positive reaction to the Linux side of its dual-platform smartphone strategy, well, it ain’t gonna happen. At least that’s the word from a Reuters source with “direct knowledge of Nokia’s product roadmap.” Driving the point home is word from a Nokia spokesman who declined comment on future plans but did add, “We remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice.” While this might sound like bad news to N900 enthusiasts given the vast number of handsets the company produces, keep in mind that Nokia’s recent cuts in global R&D headcount (550 employees in total) was justified by Nokia’s attempt to streamline operations to be in line with its “focused portfolio of future products.” In other words, it sounds like we can expect less handsets from Espoo as they scale back the variety of models produced. And if anything can be learned from the boys in Cupertino: it only takes one handset to change the game.

Nokia launching only one Maemo device in 2010? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gnip Clips 60 Percent Of Staff

API aggregation platform Gnip is laying off 7 out of its 12 employees, or 60 percent of the startup’s staff, we’ve confirmed with CEO and co-founder Eric Marcoullier. He says that Gnip is planning to hire an engineer in the near future, which will bring the final count back up to six employees. We’ve added the cuts to our Layoff Tracker.

Gnip serves as an API hub, collecting data from services like Twitter, Facebook and Digg, and pushing it out to other data-consuming services and Websites. Data consuming sites using Gnip’s platform can get public data streams for over 30 social media networks and sites, including Twitter, Digg, Delicious, YouTube, WordPress, Flickr, Six Apart and others without ever visiting those sites or accessing their individual APIs.

Marcoullier says the reduction in headcount is necessary to streamline the business. Orginally, Gnip tried to build its own database, but it has seen a massive influx of data to the system, which Marcoullier estimates at around 150 million Tweets, status updates, Diggs and bookmarks pulled into the platform per day. Gnip has been forced to restart from the ground up when it comes to building a database that can be a central part of Gnip’s platform. It is abandoning its own effort and will move to an existing database that can be integrated into its service. This shift of focus and manpower has forced Gnip to re-structure its staff. But Marcoullier says that Gnip has a client base of “several dozen” companies that is still growing.

A few months ago, Gnip released its own Push API which lets any site patch together its own version of a Friendfeed or Twitter-like data stream. The new service lets companies filter and white-label the stream so the technology is fully integrated into the business’ infrastructure. Companies list out the most common data requests that are made on their APIs and websites and Gnip will collect the relevant data and deliver it in real-time to any approved third-party. For example, the service would let a travel site analyze real-time data, such as fluctuations in air fare, and syndicate changes in fare sales immediately. Gnip is also committed to help create 301works.org, a back-up directory for shortened links.

Gnip is trying to build fundamental infrastructure for the real-time Web, but finding the right technology and business model is happening in fits and starts.

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Simply Hired hits profitability with new $4.6M

Simply Hired, a job listing search engine based in the Silicon Valley, announced today that it has crossed into profitability with a new $4.6 million in fourth-round capital from IDG Ventures and Foundation Capital. The company is also marking four consecutive quarters of positive cash flow.

Simply Hired says it plans to use the funds to expand its global presence, making it one of the top job databanks in the business. It will also grow its headcount from 50 to 80. It’s main web site, SimplyHired.com, crawls the web and culls together 5 million listings. It also serves listings on other major sites, significantly LinkedIn, MySpace, WashingtonPost.com and CNNMoney.

Simply Hired distinguishes itself from competitors like CareerBuilder and Monster.com by using a pay-per-click model for advertising revenue. Basically, its advertisers only pay when visitors to the site are actually clicking on them. This is very similar to Google’s model for advertising. So far, it seems like this practice has popularized the site and not damaged its revenue flow.

Right now, Simply Hired operates in 13 countries and seven languages. It says it doesn’t expect to raise any more capital following this round. It has raised $22.3 million to date. Past backers include Fox Interactive Media and Garage Technology Ventures, in addition to a flock of notable individual investors: Rajeev Motwani, Guy Kawasaki and Ron Conway, to name a few.

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