App developers who are chomping at the bit to increase search engine hits will soon be able to join the race to buy keywords. Search engine Chomp is launching a service to let developers bid for ads based on searches. Modeled on Google AdWords, the service will return results based primarily on relevancy, according to [...]

If you grew up on the West Coast, you may or may not have heard the term “hurricane party” before – it’s a multi-day party held during a hurricane, where guests bring sleeping bags, radios, food and other hurricane supplies. Of course in the chaos of a hurricane, the trick can be finding the party, and [...]

Appconomy’s Steve Guengerich is not from Austin, but he says he got here as quickly as he could. He came in the 1990’s, moving his company from Houston when it was ready to go public. Now his latest venture puts him at the center of the mobile apps economy – which he has christened the appconomy. Appconomy builds [...]

Austin American Statesman | August 25, 2011 | Lori Hawkins LibreDigital Inc., the fast-growing digital content distribution provider, will stay in Austin and expand here after its recent acquisition by Chicago publishing giant RR Donnelley & Sons Inc. …… Read full article here via Austin American Statesman

The Statement | August 2, 2011 | Lori Hawkins In a move that expands its network of high-profile supporters, fast-growing WhaleShark Media said it has received an investment from Google ….. Full article here via The Austin American Statement

Google Austin: A first-person, customer update Google.  They are the digital version of General Electric, but for the 21st century.   Both are classic, American-headquartered, global conglomerates, with diverse portfolios.  But, whereas GE’s goods and services have ranged from light bulbs to jet engines to TV networks, Google’s portfolio ranges from mobile operating systems to lunar [...]

In a recent draft proposal, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will regulate apps that combine with medical devices that are already regulated by the agency, such as heart monitors that transmit data to a smartphone. The FDA is taking these first steps toward applying regulation to expanding field of medical apps for [...]

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. (APPL) and its iPad 2 is still the most popular tablet around the globe, even after it’s been on the shelves for four months. In the last couple of weeks, Apple has finally chipped away at a vast backlog of orders that has caught up to demand and is shipping tablets [...]

After two long years of negotiations with record companies, Spotify, a Swedish streaming music service, is finally launching today in the U.S. after hammering out deals with the big four labels of Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner Music to stream around 15 million tracks. As the eighth nation to welcome Spotify and the first outside [...]

The first model of smartphone to carry a dedicated Facebook button on the keypad is launching this week from AT&T Mobility (T), which is taking pre-orders for the Android Honeycomb-powered HTC Status and marketing the device as the inaugural phone to be integrated with the social network through a keypad. When users push the button, [...]