For better or worse, there’s a new social network on the block dedicated exclusively to local neighborhoods. Named Nextdoor, the site lets neighbors within certain regions create private sites where they can exchange local information and events, while getting to know each other better. To be a member of Nextdoor, you must register with your real name and real physical address. “We were inspired by the early days of Facebook; when they launched, they required university-specific email addresses to allow people to access university-specific networks within Facebook,” Nextdoor founder Nirav Tolia tells GigaOm. “That creates a little friction up front …

Already a huge success online, I Can Has Cheezburger? is expanding its empire with Cheezburger Sites, which lets regular Joe’s create humor-oriented Web pages with their own personalized content, highlighting what they find funny from Cheezburger’s own library and beyond. “It’s a big deal,” writes GeekWire. “Think about it like a Facebook page -- just for humor. The significance of that was not lost on some Cheezburger loyalists.” The company’s chief revenue officer Todd Sawicki tweeted this week that the “future of @Cheezburger just launched,” while company CTO Scott Porad tweeted that he was “really, really excited” about the new …

Unlike other online platforms that can cannibalize TV viewers, The New York Times reports that Twitter has become TV execs’ best friend. “TV producers … who crave the immediate feedback they can get from Twitter, have given the Web site free promotion, helping it to gain more users who will give even more feedback,” NYT writes. For instance, as an alternative to calling or texting in a vote for a singer on “The X Factor,” Twitter soon plans to make it possible to vote with a message to the show’s account. Meanwhile, “the proliferation of Twitter logos and language on …

Mobile marketplace Zaarly just secured a $14 million funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. More significantly, perhaps, newly appointed Hewlett-Packard chief exec -- and Kleiner Perkins strategic adviser -- Meg Whitman is joining the start-up’s board of directors. Bo Fishback launched Zaarly just six months ago as the “mobile Craigslist.” As VentureBeat explains, “The service focuses on the buyer, allowing people with the Zaarly app to upload what they want, say how much they are willing to pay for it and give the amount of time they need it in.” As Fishback tells VentureBeat: “We’re at the …

Trying to stay one step ahead of their Republican rivals -- who are reportedly just now embracing Twitter -- Democrats are taking to Tumblr for the 2012 elections. On Monday, as The New York Times reports, “President Obama’s presidential committee started a Tumblr account for his 2012 campaign, which will be housed on the Web site barackobama.tumblr.com.” As campaign officials explained on the new site: “We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort -- a place for people across the country to share what’s going on in our respective corners of it.” As Republicans will likely be …

So far, Apple has had middling success revolutionizing the TV experience. Giving it another go, Bloomberg reports that Apple has tapped Jeff Robbin -- who helped create the iPod in addition to the iTunes media store -- to re-imagine the TV. “Robbin’s involvement is a sign of Apple’s commitment to extending its leadership in smartphones and tablets into the living room,” according to Bloomberg. Apparently, that’s what Steve Jobs would have wanted. Before his recent death, Bloomberg reports, the Apple co-founder told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV with a simple user …

Raising its assessment of Amazon’s debut tablet, J.P. Morgan now predicts that the ecommerce giant will sell 4.5 to 5 million Kindle Fires in the fourth quarter of the year. (Apple sold 11.1 million iPads during the most recent quarter ending Sept. 24.) “Based on checks with supply chain vendors, J.P. Morgan’s hardware team reports production momentum for the Fire has is up sharply of late, suggesting that the device is seeing a lot of pre-order demand,” GigaOm reports. “Several vendors, including Foundry partners, have experienced rush orders in the last two to three weeks, J.P. Morgan said Monday in …

  Owners of the new iPhone 4S might want to ask Siri, “What’s in store for Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant now that its co-creator is leaving the company?” As AllThingsD reports, Dag Kittlaus, the co-founder and CEO of the company that created the Siri (which was eventually acquired by Apple), is already out. Reportedly amicable and long in the works, word is that Kittlaus left to take time off to be with his family being in Chicago, and do some brainstorming for new entrepreneurial ideas. Siri’s CEO since 2007, Kittlaus led the speech recognition efforts for Apple since it acquired …

Based on some unconfirmed numbers, Michael Arrington expects Facebook to be more profitable than Amazon this year. “On a quarterly basis they’re already there,” Arrington writes on his still new Uncrunched blog. Amazon had $191 million operating income in the second quarter, and $322 million in the first quarter. “That’s $513 million vs. Facebook’s $800 million for the first half of the year,” according to Arrington. Amazon’s third quarter financials are coming out this week, and Citi analyst Mark Mahaney expects to see $298 million in operating income from Amazon for the quarter. Citing a source, Arrington reports that Facebook …

In Beijing, Chinese digital ad measurement firm Moment Systems has taken a $20 million second round investment led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, alongside China Broadband Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and, last but not least, WPP Digital. As paidContent reports, the 5-year-old company has some 140 employees, and is based in Beijing. “It offers budget planning, ad measurement and campaign value measurement tools,” it notes. Moment Systems reportedly raised its first round in the summer of 2010. Meanwhile, WPP is making its investment through Moment’s British Virgin Islands-based owner Leading Smart Holdings, according to paidContent. “WPP’s growth focus is on …