The Ferenstein Wire is a syndicated news service. For inquires, email the editor at greg at greg ferenstein dot com
Syndicated News. Data-Driven. ADHD Friendly.
Bitcoin, the digital currency infamous for wild swings in value and black market transactions, could have profound implications for the future of public services. Tech optimists at the highest levels of government are exploring how the same technology that makes bitcoin …
There’s a new startup ecosystem report demonstrating global rankings, with the top 3 spots all from America (Silicon Valley, LA, and New York). Tech company benchmarking firm, Compass Startup Genome, updated their 2012 list that ranks the areas of the world on how well…
Jdate, the popular dating service responsible for more Jewish hookups than a bottle of Manischewitz, is playing hardball in the dog-eat-dog world of nice Jewish match-making. Jdate’s parent company, Spark Networks, discreetly filed a lawsuit late last year against Jswipe, the …
I didn’t expect to spend 5 minutes watching a commercial for an ecommerce startup, let alone enjoy it enough to share it with friends. But, Amazon competitor Jet.com produced a delightfully entertaining commercial that proves the financial underpinning of ad-based …
Uber just won a huge political battle. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has dropped a proposal to place caps on the number of Uber cars on city streets, according to a statement released by Uber’s New York general manager, Josh Mohrer. Instead of…
(Ferenstein Wire) — Self-driving cars will save the average driver about $1,000 annually, or cost $250 a year total, according to estimates from auto insurance startup, Metromile. Robotic self-driving cars have a near perfect driving record; thus far, when self-driving …
Netflix is on a roll. The video streaming giant has grown 6x in the last 6 years, expanding from roughly 10.3 million subscribers in 2009 to an astounding 65.6 million in the second quarter of 2015. Over the past 6 years, Netflix has averaged…
A new report finds that small tweaks to Google’s algorithm can cause immediate and significant changes in web traffic. Google has a history of intentionally punishing or rewarding websites that align with its vision. Most recently the search giant decided to lower the …
(Ferenstein Wire) – IBM announced a major breakthrough in chip technology today, with a super-tiny 7-nanometer chip. This chip breaks the difficult 10nm barrier and proves that the industry can still move along an important innovation pace known as “Moore’s …
(Ferenstein Wire) – China’s taxi-hailing monopolist, Kuaidi, has raised a whopping $2B to compete with the surging presence of Uber. Kuaidi controls 99.8% of the taxi hailing app market, after it recently merged with its Chinese competitor, Didi. Even with about a …
It’s been a good year for Yosemite National Park. After the world’s richest tech company decided to name its premier operating system “OS X Yosemite”, it sent a wave of free advertising that the historic mountain range. The data seems to show that this…
(Ferenstein Wire) – Google is reportedly jumping into the ridesharing business. According to Haaretz, the search giant is launching a pilot carpooling service in three Israeli cities on top of their popular driving directions app, Waze. The feature, RideWith, allows riders …
Early Facebook investor and Paypal billionaire, Peter Thiel, revealed two key pieces of advice he gives aspiring entrepreneurs and investors this week at the Atlantic Aspen Ideas Festival. They can be distilled into two simple quotes: To investors — Buzzwords should be a …
If it weren’t for the excessive spending of late 90s Silicon Valley startups, one of TV’s most iconic shows would likely have been axed by network executives. “Silicon Valley put The West Wing on television,” the show’s creator, Aaron Sorkin, tells The Ferenstein …
As Uber and other Silicon Valley startups come under legal pressure for employing an army of fulltime freelancers, a well-funded new startup has decided to completely switch its workforce to staffed employees with full benefits (“W2” workers). Shyp, a hot new startup that …
Google realtime trends (The Ferenstein Wire) — Just 3 minutes after the Supreme Court declared gay marriage legal nationwide, much of America shifted its attention to learn more. Google set up a series of gay-friendly easter eggs in the search bar and on Youtube to greet…
A day after Apple began the mass purge of applications depicting the Confederate flag, the Nazi Swastika is still standing prominently in some games. The choice to ban a symbol of slavery from historical games, but not of mass genocide, reveals how tech companies…
