• Fern Siegel, Dec 29, 2011, 9:29 AM
  • Groupon Acquires Campfire Labs All Things D Groupon has acquired the pre-launch social communication start-up Campfire Labs, the companies confirmed. Word of the deal had first been reported on TechCrunch. Campfire CEO and co-founder Naveen Koorakula said his company’s full team an estimated seven people would join Groupon to head up its social efforts. No financial terms were disclosed. Groupon had been actively trying to buy other social start-ups such as Gowalla, sources had said in recent weeks. That particular deal went to Facebook.  Campfire, which had named its early product Slice, was kind of like a dynamic version of Beluga — the group messaging start-up Facebook bought. Campfire was Web-based, with chat, calendar and media-sharing tools. The company is still a ways away from launching, and working on testing the product on campuses like Kenyon College first.  Read the whole story...
  • Go Daddy Rivals Capitalize On SOPA Controversy PCWorld.com Go Daddy rivals, including Hover, Name.com, and Namecheap, are looking to capitalize on the world's largest domain registrar's initial decision to support the Stop Online Piracy Act. All four firms offer discounted transfer costs and other enticements to convince site owners to transfer their business away from Go Daddy. A potential Go Daddy exodus could hit its climax Thursday, which has been proclaimed Move Your Domain Day by Namecheap. Recently, Go Daddy was roundly criticized for its public support of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill currently making its way through Congress and widely derided by the tech community. Then, Go Daddy pulled its support after several high-profile clients threatened to leave the company. Read the whole story...
  • Samsung May Give Galaxy Taste Of Ice Cream Sandwich CNET Will they or won't they? That's the question Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab customers are asking with respect to whether Samsung will offer them the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update. Samsung will likely not update those devices to ICS, but older Galaxy owners may not be entirely out of luck. There is a chance the company will offer a "value pack" with ICS features, just scaled for less robust hardware. Creating a "Value Pack" that includes multitasking, increased Web-surfing speeds, new widget sets and camera tweaks, could be a good middle ground for Samsung. So far, Samsung remained tight-lipped on the subject. Read the whole story...
  • Occupy Wall Street Activists Developing Social Network Mashable Occupy Wall Street activists are developing a social network called The Global Square for the generation of protesters. The site is expected to launch in January. “We don’t want to trust Facebook with private messages among activists,” developer Ed Knutson noted Wired. Knutson is helping build the network, which will unite members of Occupy movements across the globe. As the physical camps suffer evictions across the U.S., digital meetings take on extra importance. explains a November RoarMag blog post. The Global Square will include an interactive map of uprisings around the world, an easy search option to find movements near you, a Facebook-style news feed, calendars, debate forums, collaboration space, messaging and more. Access isn't like joining Facebook; to become a member, you will need a sponsor to vouch you are trustworthy. Read the whole story...