Clean.io raises $2.5M to fight malicious advertising
Existing approaches to blocking malicious advertising aren’t working — at least according to digital ad veteran Seth Demsey. That should resonate with anyone who’s ever encountered an ad that immediately redirected them to a website filled with annoying gift card offers. And it’s the issue that the startup Demsey co-founded, clean.io, is working to address. Today, […]
Facebook VR VP Hugo Barra is being replaced
Facebook’s VP of VR product Hugo Barra is out after some leadership changes at the top of the Oculus organization. He’ll be stepping down into a new role leading global AR/VR partnerships, while Eric Tseng, Facebook’s director of product management, will be replacing Barra with a new title as head of VR product management. Barra […]
Netflix acquires kids’ educational content co., StoryBots
Netflix is further investing in its children’s programming ahead of the launch of a highly anticipated rival: Disney+. The company announced today it has acquired StoryBots — a children’s media company and brand created by JibJab’s founders, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. The streaming service isn’t disclosing the acquisition price, but CNBC says the price was […]
Daily Crunch: Google Play rethinks app ratings
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Google Play is changing how app ratings work Specifically, Google says it will start giving more weight to reviews that discuss […]
Instagram will block hashtag pages full of vaccine misinfo
Instagram will begin blocking vaccine-related hashtag pages when content surfaced on a hashtag page features a large proportion of verifiably false content about vaccines. If there is some violating content but under that threshold, Instagram will lock a hashtag into a “Top-only” post where Recent posts won’t show up to decrease visibility of problematic content. […]
Docpack offers a simple, enterprise-friendly way to share documents
Docpack is offering businesses a simple way to share their documents — particularly with customers at large enterprises that may block services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Founder and CEO Rurik Bradbury said he encountered this issue while serving as the head of conversational strategy at LivePerson (he’s also been as an executive and/or co-founder […]
Jeff Bezos reportedly set to unveil moon plans today
Blue Origin is hosting a media later today in Washington, D.C. TechCrunch will be on the ground, reporting live, though details around precisely what will be announced are still pretty minimal. According to new reporting from Reuters, however, boss man Jeff Bezos is set to unveil his plans to help the U.S. government establish a […]
Verified Expert Brand Designer: Base
Base coined the term “blanding,” but the international branding agency is anything but boring. With clients ranging from AI startup Rival Theory to e-commerce company Kidbox, Base leverages its broad portfolio of clients and designers from all around the world to help startups develop their individual personas. As they celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, […]
Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, calls for Facebook to be broken up
The latest call to break up Facebook looks to be the most uncomfortably close to home yet for supreme leader, Mark Zuckerberg. “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” writes Chris Hughes, in an explosive op-ed published in the New York Times. “It is time to break up Facebook.” It’s a long read but worth indulging […]
Robotics startups won’t win without also incorporating AI, as Karakuri’s fundraise shows
The constant refrain in the tech world is that the world is about to be rocked by the combination of AI and robots. Therefore you’d think that startups that build either AI or robots would be onto a winner. However, there’s a serious misunderstanding going on. What is becoming clear is that the closer companies […]
