• Yahoo's Identity Crisis
    The New York Times’ David Carr asks the same question Yahoo’s board and newly-named CEO, Marissa Mayer, are likely asking each other: What is Yahoo? “That straightforward question has so far baffled the people who run the company,” according to Carr -- adding that Mayer’s tenure will be a “pass/fail test based on answering that single question.” Carr, for his part, still thinks Yahoo is a media company, which is potentially problematic for Mayer, considering her intense product-focus.   
  • How Much Yahoo Is Paying Mayer?
    In what seem like a fitting note on which to close out a week of Marissa Mayer-crazy news coverage, we’ve just learned how much Yahoo could pay its latest CEO. Best-case scenario, Mayer’s “pay package” could total $129 million over five years -- if she is able to actually jump-start the troubled brand. Yahoo disclosed details of its new CEO’s compensation package in a regulatory filing on Thursday. “It is larger than the pay package of the average chief executive in Silicon Valley, but not the largest among chiefs of publicly held technology companies,” The New York Times’ Bits blog …
  • Mayer Boosts Yahoo Morale
    In a scoop that should surprise no one, AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher got a hold of Marissa Mayer’s first internal memo as CEO of Yahoo. “You are doing important work -- please don’t stop,” the former Google exec wrote to her new employees, this week. “Yes, keep moving!” The letter is fairly boilerplate, yet Mayer does open up a bit about her perceptions of Yahoo, and her plans for the company. For one, she at least claims to have always been a fan of the portal.  
  • Facebook Tests "Sponsored Results"
    Facebook reportedly is testing a new format of search ads dubbed “Sponsored Results,” which let advertisers show ads in the Facebook search “typeahead” to users looking for a particular Page, app, or Place. “It basically will let businesses divert traffic from each other,” TechCrunch writes. For Facebook, “Sponsored Results could be big for [the company’s] bottom line, pulling in ad dollars from direct advertisers with something to sell.” 
  • Tech Startups Play Name Game
    It would appear as if tech startups are running out of cute little names. As such, GroupMe -- the mobile messaging service provider that was acquired by Skype (which was later bought by Microsoft) -- has filed a complaint against fellow startup Groupie in order to obtain the ‘GROUPME’ trademark in the United States. “GroupMe originally filed for the mark in July 2010, now almost exactly two years ago, but the trademark application was opposed by Groupie about a year after that,” The Next Web reports. 
  • Google Marrying Search With Google+?
    Is Google working on a deeper integration between Google Search and Google+? Suggesting as much, Search Engine Land picks on a tweet from a search marketer, which points to a new “share” link next to URLs. “Upon hitting the button, users are prompted to share directly to Google+ from the results pages,” SEL reports. “The result is included as a link and users are given the ability to add a comment.” Users also appear to be able to share pages that they haven’t yet clicked through to. 
  • Meet Social-Video Mixer Vyclone
    In the works for two years, Vyclone -- a new iOS app that takes video from people shot at the same event and edits it into one multi-angle collaboration -- just made its official debut. “You can keep the videos between your ‘crew’ of friends or choose to mix yours with angles from people you don't know,” the Los Angeles Times explains. Created by a two-man team, including the son of music legend Sting, the venture has so far received $2.7 million in seed money from Ashton Kutcher's A-GRade investments and others. 
  • Google "Acq-Hires" Design Team For Google+
    Google, apparently, isn’t entirely happy with the current design of Google+. As such, it has “acq-hired” part of the design team Cuban Council to help out. “We’re very excited to share that some folks on our team will be joining Google to focus on design aspects of Google+,” the Cuban Council blog explains. “Having worked closely with a variety of Google product teams since 2005, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to focus our creative efforts within the organization.” Google confirmed the mini-acquisition in an email to TechCrunch. 
  • Meet-Up App Twist Gets $6M
    Twist just launched version 1.0 of its app with a $6 million in funding from such investors as eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll and Bridgescale Partners. What is Twist? Let’s call it a micro-event manager. Quite simply, the iOS app addresses “the pain point of having to wait on someone, or making someone wait on you,” as The Next Web explains. “Twist is a little bit like Glympse, in that it allows you to tell someone where you are. But instead of just showing them a location on a map, Twist will figure out exactly how long it’s going to take …
  • Dailymotion Relaunches Publisher Tools
    Web video platform Dailymotion has relaunched its Cloud product, which is basically a set of white-label video-publishing tools. Now, developers and online broadcasters can use the suite to upload, host and stream video on the Web and mobile devices, while generating ad revenue all the while. As betakit reminds us, the platform first launched in 2010 with broadcast and streaming options. New features include improved monetization, live-streaming and added security features.  
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