Without question, venture capital has helped insulate Web enterprises from national economic woes. Unfortunately, a new report from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association finds that 52 venture capital firms raised $1.72 billion during the third quarter, representing a 53% decrease in dollar commitments. “That’s the lowest level in eight years,” writes GeekWire.com. “The quarter’s low fundraising numbers are reflective of ongoing challenges within the venture capital exit markets,” Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA, stated. “Economic instability continues to impact the ability of venture-backed companies to go public which, in turn, has prevented many venture firms from delivering solid returns to …

Talk about scale! Facebook is working with Wal-Mart to help the mega-retailer’s nearly 9 million “fans” more closely connect with local stores. “The effort could perk up sales in a shaky economy,” suggests The Los Angeles Times. Wal-Mart is looking for ways to appeal to its low- to middle-income shoppers on tight budgets as they wrestle with higher gasoline and food prices, a housing slump, a turbulent stock market and stubbornly high unemployment.” Per the partnership, Wal-Mart is rolling out more than 3,500 Facebook pages that it says will let customers interact directly with their local store. Wal-Mart, according to LATimes.com, says …

Worldwide, the cellphone industry will go from 6 billion connections today to more than 12 billion by 2020, according to Mike O’Hara, head of marketing for GMSA, a cellphone industry trade group. What’s more, revenue for the industry could grow to $1.2 trillion, AllThingsD reports, citing a study done by Machina Research for GSMA. As if it needs pointing out, O’Hara remarks: “That’s a significant growth for our industry.” GSMA, which puts on an annual Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, just announced its study results in San Diego. On a panel at the event, AT&T emerging devices head Glenn …

In another sign that Apple could soon lose its iron grip on the tablet market, the Amazon Kindle Fire just became the number one "Most Wished For" electronics product on Amazon.com. “Granted, you'd expect Amazon's hardware to do well on Amazon's web site, but previous non-iPad tablets haven't generated high levels of excitement,” The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal writes. “I can't quite quantify my intuition yet, but the Fire looks like a holiday success to me. At $199, it's a perfectly priced electronics gift,” Madrigal adds. “More than a Blu-Ray player, about the same as a videogame system, less than a …

Along with a kaleidoscope of causes, the Occupy Wall Street movement is shedding light on Pastebin.com -- a site created for programmers about a decade ago as a way to save and share code. “The service could not be simpler,” The New York Times writes. “There is a “bin” (an empty input box) into which text is pasted. No registration is required.” Per the NYT, Pastebin has become the de facto open-source bible of the protests, which it attributes to the site’s simplicity, as well as its humble origins as a programmers’ site. “In a fashion, it is offering direct, …

Continuing its global expansion, The Huffington Post just invaded France. Doing so in good company, Huff Post has partnered with Le Monde, as well as Les Nouvelles Editions Independantes for the new site. Huffington Post became available in the UK earlier this year and in Canada before that, but, as Softpedia reports, the French version will be the first non-English edition. “Imaginatively titled Le Huffington Post, not that they had that many choices, the new site will go live sometime before the end of the year and is a joint venture with several big local players,” Softpedia writes. The new …

The latest report about Yahoo’s destiny has it considering a partnership with private equity firms to go private. “Such a deal would involve rolling over [co-founder Jerry] Yang's stake in Yahoo, which stood at 3.63% as of April 2,” Reuters reports. David Filo, Yahoo's other co-founder, would then likely roll over his stake, sources tell Reuters. Without detailing Yang's present role, Yahoo said in a statement: "The entire Board, including Jerry, is fully aligned and unanimous in support of the comprehensive scope of the ongoing strategic review. As always, Jerry's singular focus remains to serve the best interests of Yahoo …

Border by border, YouTube continues to roll out its movie rental business worldwide. Last year, it was the United States; last month, Canada came on-board. Marking the services latest invasion, YouTube is now officially offering UK citizens more than a thousand feature films from Hollywood blockbusters to British classics. "We've got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond," YouTube said on the news. "From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python's …

Having gone from zero to 140 million page views -- and 26 million monthly uniques -- in less than a year, TechCrunch just had to get a closer look at Scribol. What's the London-based start-up's secret? Essentially, inserting an interstitial page into a users' viewing experience, oftentimes when they don't expect it. Publisher sites, like Break.com, feature widgets beneath videos or articles, which offer a series of thumbnails of related stories. "But these related links have a catch: when you click on one, instead of being directed to the article you're expecting, you'll actually see a page hosted …

Does Apple finally have some competition in the tablet game? Relatively speaking, perhaps, considering the impressive rate at which Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablets are selling. Within the first 24 hours of availability, consumers put in an estimated 95,000 pre-orders. Now, over a week later, "Demand for the device shows no signs of slowing," reports AllThingsD. Indeed, sources tell AllThingD that Amazon has been selling upward of 25,000 Fires per day. "That number jibes roughly with the one reported by market research firm eDataSource, which tells me Amazon has been selling 20,000 Fires per day on average after …