What's next for "geo-social" leader Foursquare? Dominating "what happens after the check in," said co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley at ad:tech this week. "We talk a lot about what's after the check in," Crowley said, according to Mashable. "What's after, in the first version at least, [is] 'ok, let's do tips.'" From there, Mashable said to expect Foursquare to become ever more personalized, judging by Crowley's comments. In particular, "Crowley discussed the possibility of a smarter algorithm that would make customized recommendations based on a user's checkin history," according to Mashable. "Every checkin should mean something," Crowley …

Thanks to aggressive cost cutting and asset sales, AOL on Wednesday said third-quarter earnings more than doubled. Still, that couldn't mask the fact that ad revenue fell a whopping 27% year-over-year. Despite forceful rhetoric, "AOL had shown few signs of progress in the first half of the year," the Associated Press concluded. "The latest report underscores the work that still lies ahead for the company."CNet called the ad revenue decline "disconcerting."Sounds like they partially couldn't sell ads, and partially are removing ads from their sites," Business Insider said of AOL. Adding insult to injury, AP noted: AOL …

Turns out Jason Calacanis isn't going to sit idly by as his friend-turned-foe Michael Arrington sells TechCrunch to AOL for millions of dollars. (Or at least not quite so idly by considering that Calacanis first responded to the news in September with tweets like: "Even though @arrington screwed me out of TC50 I'm happy for him. He can get therapy, lose 80 pounds & start treating people with respect now.") Going beyond childish chiding and ad hominem slights, Calacanis is now threatening to sue TechCrunch for part of the proceeds from the AOL sale, Arrington reveals in a tell-all

As part of a broader effort to reshape the music biz, Apple has hired Elliott Peters, Warner Music Group's senior VP and head of digital legal affairs, reports Billboard. Next month, Peters will take on the role of corporate attorney director for iTunes Europe and Internet services, based in Luxembourg, where he'll be expected to manage the European legal team for iTunes and MobileMe services, according to an internal memo obtained by Billboard. Despite the unrivaled success of its iTunes music store, Apple is still trying to crack the streaming media code. Music labels have reportedly resisted Apple's attempts …

Premium ad network-cum-marketing company Federated Media has acquired BigTent -- a maker of social networking and community tools for parents. By MediaBeat's reckoning, "That's a surprising choice for Federated company's first purchase, since I usually think of the company in a tech news context." Founded by blogger and tech entrepreneur John Battelle, Federated sells advertising, with a particular focus on "conversational" campaigns. President and chief operating officer Deanna Brown tells MediaBeat that the company also focuses on business, the real-time Web, and "lifestyle media." Said Brown: "I care less about platform, if you will, and I care more about …

In the wake of Election Day, there are questions about whether Google's polling place locator misdirected potential mid-term voters. Fast Company is citing data by Aristotle -- a private company that provides political technology and data for campaigns -- which found that the Google polling place finder may have had locations wrong for as many as 727,000 households in the 12 states they sampled. "In other words, as many as a million or more people who Googled where to vote this morning may have been sent to the wrong place," Fast Company writes. "In states such as New York, …

It's hardly an exodus, but, as The New York Times reports, a growing number of Facebook's first employees are venturing out on their own. "Many of them are leaving as wealthy, either on paper or after cashing in their ownership stakes to do what they say they like best: start companies," The Times reports. Dustin Moskovitz, credited with co-founding Facebook, left the nest to start work collaboration software maker Asana. Another co-founder, Chris Hughes has left to launch a social network for "people who want to change the world," named Jumo. Meanwhile, Facebook's old senior platform manager Dave Mortin …

How should you interpret Oracle's $1 billion planned purchase of ecommerce software maker Art Technology Group? Chiefly, as a bold endorsement for the future of mobile ecommerce, suggests GigaOm. It "underscores the software giant's desire to bulk up its e-commerce and customer relationship management business, especially as transactions increasingly expand to mobile devices," the blog writes. "It's no secret that the next revolution in computing will be delivered on-the-go for both consumers and enterprises, and buying things via handsets or other mobile devices is still an awkward proposition." Oracle is expected to combine ATG's ecommerce platform, applications …

Sure to trouble publishers far and wide, The (UK) Times has so far convinced just 0.5% of its readership to pay for premium content. As paidContent notes, "Many observers cite five percent as an industry benchmark for proportion of paying customers against free users in a freemium service environment." Worse still, only half of that those 105,000 paying readers actually subscribe -- as opposed to pay per day -- so a mere 0.25% of The Times' online audience have become regular customers. But, don't expect The Times to reconsider its new four-month-old business model anytime soon. According …

Expanding its Promoted Tweets ad program, Twitter this week began dropping ads into the timelines of some members -- specifically, those who use the third-party social media client HootSuite. "Although still experimental, Promoted Tweets is a major component of the company's plans to capitalize on its growing reach," writes Seattlepi.com. Virgin, Starbucks and Red Bull have reportedly signed on to try the new ads, short Twitter messages that appear with the label "promoted by." At present, Twitter has over 175 million registered users worldwide. Hesitant to alienate even one of those users, however, Twitter is treading lightly …