TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

It has been fascinating to watch some of the leading online travel companies -- including Kayak, Bing Travel and Travelocity -- rise up against Google as it attempts to buy ITA Software. The battle took to the airwaves this week as Google's Adam Kovacevich and Expedia's Tom Barnett each laid out their case in this informative interview on CNN.

Asked whether Google is getting too big, Expedia general counsel Barnett laid out the fear that many tech companies have of the dominant search company.

"One thing to remember here is that most Internet searches today start on Google. Google has the ability to steer folks through various mechanisms to where they want to go," said Barnett. "That's why companies like Expedia, even though we may not use ITA, still are vulnerable to Google and manipulations that they may engage in."

McCaw

Wireless pioneer Craig McCaw has resigned as chairman of Clearwire, the Kirkland broadband wireless company that he founded seven years ago. McCaw's decision comes at a tough time for the company.

Clearwire -- backed by the likes of Intel, Comcast, Google and Sprint -- cut 15 percent of its staff in November amid financing challenges. The company also is facing new competition from Verizon, which just recently started aggressively promoting a rival mobile broadband service in many of the markets where Clearwire operates. Meanwhile, Clearwire's stock is down nearly 24 percent on the year.

Skytap, which helps companies cut costs by testing software applications in the cloud, has raised $10 million in fresh funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded in 2006 by University of Washington computer scientists Brian Bershad (now at Google); Hank Levy, David Richardson and Steve Gribble, Skytap has raised a total of about $23 million to date.

Investors in the company -- led by former iConcluded and ADIC exec Scott Roza -- include Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, WRF Capital and Bezos Expeditions.

Venture capitalists are glass-half-full kind of people. And as 2011 approaches, investors in privately-held companies have reason for some new-found optimism. A string of positive exits of venture-backed companies -- including EMC's proposed buyout of Isilon Systems for $2.25 billion and Salesforce.com's planned purchase of Heroku for up to $249 million -- have raised the spirits of Seattle area venture capitalists.

Adding to the enthusiasm is a belief among many venture capitalists that cloud computing and Web-based services represent a transformational shift in the high-tech business.

Jonathan Roberts of Ignition Partners in Bellevue certainly feels that way. He calls the rise of cloud computing the most significant development he's witnessed since the PC revolution.

Seattle isn't quite known as a Mecca for high fashion. After all, this is a region which spawned the flannel tops and blue jeans of the early nineties grunge scene. But Shalonne Foster, Chief Executive of Fashion Network-Seattle, is trying to change that perception by writing about some of the innovative fashion activities in the Pacific Northwest. We chatted with Foster, a UW grad who previously founded the event planning company Posh Productions and interior design firm Foster Design Group, for the latest installment of Startup of the Week.

What’s your elevator pitch... Fashion Network-Seattle is the number one source of fashion related content in the Seattle Metro area.

We're concluding our look back at the top stories of the year today with a fun category. As loyal readers of TechFlash know, we like to cover breaking news, feature cool products and profile the leading minds in technology. But some of our absolute favorite stories are the offbeat pieces which tell the quirky and unusual side of the Pacific Northwest technology community. So, we decided to highlight our top 10 post -- nah, make that top 11 posts -- which can best be described as odd news.

Windows Phone parade: Thriller, and pallbearers carrying iPhone

What Microsoft learned from Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

Microsoft apologizes for banning gamer from Fort Gay, West Virginia

Top five worst Google Fiber pitches

Read Ballmer's lips? Guess not

How to fix the Gulf oil spill: Bob Woodward says 'Call in Google'

Rapping monkey puppet says Amazon is buying Woot.com

Microsoft guys get girls; other Millionaire Matchmaker musings

Paul Allen's Brangelina moment

Microsoft: 1 in 5 young adults has dropped a phone in a toilet

Don't Kindle and drive

Previously on TechFlash: Top 10 Startup Stories of 2010. Top 10 Amazon stories of 2010. Top 10 Microsoft stories of 2010.

Americans are increasingly spending their hard earned dollars on digital content, with most Internet users in the U.S. spending about $10 per month on purchases of music, software applications and games. The actual average monthly purchase for digital content was $47, but the report notes that some heavy online users pushed the average higher. That's one of the findings from a telephone survey of 755 adults conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The study also found that 65 percent of Internet users have paid to download some type of digital content. The report comes as online retailers such as Amazon.com and movie distribution services such as Netflix attempt to grab a bigger share of the digital content pie. (Amazon just this week declared that its third-generation Kindle device was the best selling product of all time on the site).

Here's a look at what people are buying.

It can be tough to find a job in this economy. And with dozens (sometimes hundreds) of qualified people trying to land a job it sometimes comes down to how you interview.

In order to help job seekers get ahead, Glassdoor.com has compiled a list of some of the "weird and wacky" interview questions which have popped up at Apple, Amazon.com, Google, Facebook and other tech titans in recent interviews. Here's a look at some of them:

Microsoft is by far the biggest technology company in the Seattle area. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that stories about the software titan drove the most traffic on TechFlash during 2010. Here's a look back at the most read Microsoft stories for 2010, including news of executive departures, challenges facing CEO Steve Ballmer and controversies about Kin.

Video: Bing Maps at TED

Bach, Allard leaving Microsoft in big shift for consumer business

Windows Phone challenges us to pull our heads out of our phones

Q&A: Microsoft's Bach on his exit, and future of the company

Microsoft apologizes, edits Kin video after 'sexting' complaints

WA seeks new tax revenue from software, but not from Microsoft

Microsoft pruning more jobs

Why Microsoft? Ballmer's reply to underwhelmed college student

Feathers fly over 'Angry Birds' teaser on Windows Phone site

Microsoft job cuts in the hundreds, scattered across the company

Previously on TechFlash: Top 10 Startup Stories of 2010. Top 10 Amazon stories of 2010.

Trilogy International Partners, a Bellevue company which operates wireless networks in Bolivia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and New Zealand, has raised $44 million in equity financing, according to a SEC filing. It is unclear how the funds will be used, and we've reached out to representatives of the company for comment.

Ignition Capital Partners has found itself in the middle of a complex legal dispute over the distribution of Budweiser beer in Vietnam.

Ignition Capital, the Seattle private equity arm of Ignition Partners, signed a letter of intent in February 2010 to invest up to $25 million in Gannon Hong Kong, an entity which had plans to construct a Budweiser brewery near Ho Chi Minh City, according to The Financial Times.

Online travel giant Expedia said yesterday that its Twitter account was hacked. The company, which has nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter, posted this message.

"To our followers, our account has been hacked so please disregard that last tweet. We apologize for any confusion it may have caused. Thanks."

Paul Allen

Billionaire Paul Allen has filed an amended complaint in his patent infringement suit against some of the biggest technology companies in the world. The amended complaint comes about two weeks after a federal judge dismissed the initial suit, citing a lack of details. At the time, a spokesman for Allen said that the Microsoft co-founder planned to file an amended complaint in order to address the judge's concerns. A deadline of December 28th was set for the amended complaint to be filed.

In August, Allen sued Apple, AOL, Google, Netflix, Facebook, eBay, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube, alleging that the companies violated patents on "fundamental web technologies" developed at a now-defunct Silicon Valley company called Interval Research. Allen created the company with David Liddle in the 1990s.

Amazon.com has been on a roll in 2010, with the stock surging more than 34 percent and the Seattle company making a series of high-profile acquisitions and investments. We've been tracking the developments along the way, so here's a look back at the top 10 most read Amazon.com-related stories on TechFlash. Stay tuned later this week for a look at the most read Microsoft stories of the year.

Amazon: You can read Kindle books on the iPad too

Amazon.com's 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam

Texas slaps Amazon with $269M bill for uncollected sales taxes

Kindle's future? E Ink shows off color and flexible displays

Amazon patents bad gift defense system: "gift conversions"

Former Amazon exec's 5 reasons why the iPad is not a Kindle killer

Facebook envy? Amazon.com patents social networking system

Colorado law sets new rules for Amazon, other online retailers

Amazon starts moving into new Seattle headquarters campus

Report: Amazon to unveil new, thinner Kindle in August

Previously on TechFlash: Top 10 Startup Stories of 2010.

Dashwire, which has developed a mobile phone backup service that allows users to sync contacts, photos, music, text messages and other mobile content with an online Web service, has raised nearly $1 million in financing, according to a SEC filing. The Seattle startup, led by former Microsoft product manager Ford Davidson, could not be immediately reached for comment.