Andrew Mason OUTWEIRDS Zuckerberg As Weirdest CEO… Oops Your Sacked

The group shopping website Groupon has fired its chief executive and co-founder as the company struggles to turn around its poor earnings and crumbling share price.

On the day its stock slid 24 per cent after reporting dismal quarterly results, the daily deals company said Andrew Mason was asked to step down.

In an unusually candid letter to staff, Mr Mason confessed he was getting in the way of the company he co-founded just a few years ago and had failed in his role as leader.

“After four-and-a-half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention,” Mr Mason wrote in a memo to staff.

“From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.”

Co-founder Eric Lefkofsky and board member Ted Leonsis will lead the company until a permanent chief executive is found. Groupon declined to comment on potential candidates :: Read the full article »»»»

REBLOG! Australians Addicted to Smartphones, the Rest of the World is Addicted to Social Media

Blogger and ABC contributor Peter Ryan has a superneat post on a new report confirming what most of us  already knew: Australians are addicted to their smartphones. The survey of smartphone users by tech behemoth Cisco reveals that the daily ritual for Gen Y Aussies kicks off with a quick txt.

Many of the survey participants admitted that they checked for messages, emails and updates at least twice an hour, many becoming anxious when their phone goes astray.

Kevin Bloch isn’t alone, our favourite news agency – Reuters – has an ubercool post on our latest addiction, Social Media.

Social media is now apparently a recognised addiction, a study undertaken last year by the University of Chicago found that Liking and Tweeting can be even more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol. The research showed that social networking sites gave users a burst of the addictive neurotransmitter dopamine :: Read the full article »»»»

NEXUS Q Googles FIRST Original Gadget STALLS!?

It takes bucket loads of work to get a launch RIGHT, a kizillion things need to go smoothly, not least of which is product!

Those übergeeks at Techcrunch have run a post on the woes of that internet behemoth that is Google and their stalling on the release of it’s media streamer Nexus Q.

Seriously how bad would something need to be for a company – GOOGLE - to decide to postpone the launch of such a high-profile product indefinitely, just days before it was expected to ship.

Apparently pretty BAD, stall is precisely what Google has just done with it’s Nexus Q.

The oddly spherical Google Nexus Q media streamer wasn’t just the companys first consumer electronics hardware project designed completely in-house. But it was also a key product that the company recently showcased at its I/O developer conference, putting the gadget into every attendee’s swag-bag.

TC reckons that even at I/O it was clear that Google wasn’t really sure what the Q was supposed to be and maybe that explains why the on-stage demo of the Q, which was meant to go on-sale for $299, was the single worst demo of I/O :: Read the full article »»»»

Twitter Acquires Email Marketeer RestEngine

TechCrunch has reported that Twitter has just finalized a deal to acquire RestEngine, a developer of personalized email marketing services, which could help Twitter deliver email digests of great tweets you’ve missed. The acquisition fits well with Twitter’s recent talent acquisition of Summify, which creates these kinds of personal news digests. The boostrapped RestEngine had spent the last few years generating and distributing re-engagement emails for social game companies like Crowdstar. The emails often enticed users to start playing again by telling them what their friends had been accomplishing in the game.

Three of four founders will be joining the flock, and the company’s technology will come along with them. Co-founder Joe Waltman won’t be moving to Twitter, though, as he tells me his entrepreneurial spirit is too strong and he’ll be working on new projects after a vacation. Waltman tells me RestEngine will shut down, and has already begun helping clients migrate to other email providers  :: Read the full article »»»»

SMS Etiquette

It’s hard to believe how recently texting was introduced into our lives. The formative years were 1989 to 1992, when people were flipping their pagers upside-down to receive vital messsages like “hello” (07734) and “boobies” (5318008). In 2009, a reported 152.7 billion text messages were being sent per month in America, averaging 534 per user. You could say it’s gotten popular. We wanted to know how long it takes the public to respond to one of those billions of texts.

Recombu has done a pretty neat little survey, with some surprising results.

The big pull was between a speedy response and an apathetic laze. Most respondents said they typically respond within minutes, but there was a large group who are either too busy to ensure a quick reply, or just don’t care enough to jump on it immediately. More often than not, it was the former, but there were some who expressed a sort of anti-texting sentiment. One commenter wrote, “I hate the phone with a passion therefore normally it takes me forever to get around to replying to any messages on it”  :: Read the full article »»»»