David Needle

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Where is social networking heading? Wherever you are, said a panel of mobile experts here at the User Generated Content Conference & Expo. “The trend is that the phones are getting smarter, but the audiences are getting smarter too,” said Eric Litman, chairman and CEO of the mobile analytics site Medialets. […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the press room with Craig Newmark, the ‘Craig’ of [Craigslist](http://craigslist.com), who’s prepping for his talk here at the [User Generated Content Conference and Expo](http://www.ugcxevent.com/). He’s chatting with a few reporters and Evan Forster of [TuffBreak](http://tuffbreak.com) who will be introducing him. No CEO title for him, Newmark is careful to note, […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — User-generated content (UGC) like podcasts, photoblogs and YouTube videos may be a labor of love for millions of people, but how’s a company supposed to make money with it? Perhaps it can take a lesson from iStockphoto’s executives, who detailed their successes and failures in doing just that during a keynote […]

A new Web site is aiming to make it easier for creators of online user-generated content (UGC) to market and make money from their work. Designed to become a kind of clearinghouse for UGC creators and producers UserGenerated.com made its debut this week at the User Generated Content Conference & Expo. in San Jose, Calif. […]

More cancers will be preventable in 5 to 10 years, using a vaccine. People wearing artificial feet may scale walls a la Spider-Man. Robots will come with lifelike faces that convey human emotion. That was just a sampling of the technology envisioned for the future at TED, the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design gathering of […]

Google frequently states its grand ambitions to organize all the world’s information, but even the search giant needs help when it comes to the daunting challenge of providing patients with universal online access to their medical records. That help is coming from IBM, which announced a partnership designed to help streamline information access for users […]

PALO ALTO, Calif. — It’s tempting to say Box.net is thinking outside the box with its latest release, but that turn of a phrase isn’t quite accurate. The company says its move to add more social network features is more a natural evolution of its business. Box.net continues to offer its namesake free online storage […]

Short-form video abounds on YouTube and the Web in general. But the vast majority of these are user generated content (UGC) and promotional videos that don’t generate revenue. Hollywood production studio Katalyst Media thinks it has a better idea: a video series with a clear business model. The company’s KatalystHQ series, which debuted Wednesday, has […]

What’s Apple got up its sleeve for the iPhone? Per usual, the company has pressed the mute button when it comes to disclosing any future product plans. But a recently awarded Apple patent on touchscreen devices and persistent buzz around new video features both might shed some light on the next iPhone. Late last month, […]

Google said that for nearly an hour on Saturday, users got an erroneous message when they did searches on many sites, saying, “This site may harm your computer.” The problem began at 9:30 a.m. ET and ended at 10:25 a.m. ET “What happened? Very simply, human error,” the company said on its blog. Google said […]

Facebook may be at it again. Efforts by the popular social networking site to better leverage the enormous amount of data it has on its users’ interests haven’t always gone over well. But with the privacy flap over its Beacon ad program now in its wake, Facebook may be next studying how to tap users’ […]

Nortel Networks, the ailing telecom equipment provider, has decided to abandon its WiMax wireless technology business as it restructures in bankruptcy protection. In a statement late on Thursday, Toronto-based Nortel said it will also end an agreement with Alvarion Ltd. Under that deal, struck last June, Nortel was to resell Alvarion’s WiMax access products and […]