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By Douglas MacMillan
A recent controversy ensnaring Uber doesn't appear to be lessening the company's appeal to investors as it moves forward with plans to raise one of the largest venture-capital funding rounds in history.
Some of the world's top investors packed into a room in the Las Vegas' Bellagio hotel Wednesday afternoon to see Travis Kalanick, Uber's chief executive and the headline act of a two-day, closed-door tech conference organized by Uber investor Goldman Sachs. During the keynote, Kalanick outlined the ridesharing startup's breakneck growth across 230 cities around the world and highlighted new initiatives, like its carpooling service in the U.S. and a plan to use rickshaws to shuttle around passengers in India, according to a person in attendance.
Outside that room, the portrait of Uber wasn't as flattering. A scandal stirred a top Uber executive — who at a dinner proposed a smear campaign against press critics — boiled to a fever pitch, with a customer boycott and a Congressional inquiry into the company's data practices.
Kalanick, 38, prefaced his keynote appearance with a brief statement saying the company would never consider snooping on journalists. Then the subject was dropped.
The greatest publicity crisis to hit Uber over its five-year ascent exposed a gulf between the company's evolving perception in the public realm and its growing appeal to investors. Kalanick and the executive in question, Emil Michael, have since the apologized, but many questions remain unanswered about the company's handling of the matter.
Kalanick may have felt no pressure to explain the incident to a room full of his own investors and others eager to buy in.
As proof of that indifference, a massive financing round is coming together behind the scenes, undeterred by the controversy. Uber has held talks with investors to raise more than $1 billion in a round of funding likely to value the startup at more than $30 billion, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
It's still unclear whether any investors have committed to the round. But there is no indication any potential investors have lost interest in Uber as a result of recent events, said the person close to the fundraising process.
Sequoia Capital is among several venture-capital firms that have discussed a potential investment in the round, the person said. The deal would be unusual for Sequoia, which tends to invest in tech companies at earlier stages. A Sequoia spokesman declined to comment.
Uber has also discussed selling shares to prominent investors in India, Latin America and the Middle East, with the goal of fostering powerful new allies who could help the company clear obstacles to growth in those strategically important markets, the person said.
An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment on the fundraising effort.
Uber's list of backers reads like a compendium of the investing world and includes mutual-fund managers Fidelity Investments and Wellington Management; venture-capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Menlo Ventures; and private-equity firm TPG Growth.
While most of those backers have stayed silent through Uber's recent controversy, a few have come to the company's defense. "I don't believe Uber management needs to be replaced," Shawn Carolan, a partner at Menlo Ventures and observer on Uber's board, told Bloomberg News. "Absolutely, they are making mistakes, but generally they are very ethical and working very hard."
Chris Sacca, an early investor in Uber, said in a tweet that what Michael "was reported to have said was awful. No excuse. None. But I'm encouraged that he recognizes that and is apologizing." Hollywood star and tech startup investor Ashton Kutcher took a different approach, defending the substance of Michael's comments, writing on his blog that "journalists should not be exempt from the actions they often employ in news gathering."
Several of Uber's previous backers have expressed interest in committing more funding in the upcoming round, said the person familiar with the fundraising.
The story Uber pitches to investors in private meetings revolves around its numbers. Already one of the most valuable private startups in the world, Uber's revenue growth is still accelerating. The company topped the third-quarter revenue estimates it shared with investors during its last round of funding, which closed in July, the person said.
Uber made hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue last year and is growing at a clip of more than 40% a quarter, this person said. That's an increase from earlier this year, when Kalanick said revenue was doubling every six months.
By the end of 2015, Uber is expected to have a revenue run rate of more than $10 billion in gross sales, or about $2 billion in net revenue, the person said.
Uber has already weathered a series of embarrassing comments and ethically questionable tactics by Kalanick and his staff. The CEO has admitted to interfering with rival Lyft's fundraising process, suggested publicly that all drivers will one day be replaced by self-driving cars and publicly mocked customers when they complained about Uber's practice of raising prices during times of peak demand.
In June, while the company was raising its last round of funding, an Uber driver was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a drunk female passenger and taking her to a motel room.
Uber has already raised $1.6 billion, likely giving it one of the richest balance sheets of any company backed by venture capital. So it's unlikely the company needs more cash. But an additional round could help it put off an initial public offering, a process that would draw greater scrutiny to Kalanick and create more immediate consequences to his actions.
Of course, appealing to investors can only get Uber more money. If the company seeks to live up to its lofty expectations, it also needs happy employees and loyal customers.
New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson, an investor in two Uber competitors, Sidecar and Hailo, wrote on his popular blog that Uber's recent missteps might be evidence of broader problems in its culture that may eventually hamper its growth.
"I've watched this company closely for a long time now and what I see is ruthless execution combined with total arrogance," wrote Wilson.
"It is about the best execution I've witnessed in a long long time," he wrote. "But I am not in awe of how they conduct themselves. And I wonder if the two are connected at the hip. Can they lose the swagger without losing the execution?"
By Eva Dou
Google has taken a small step toward China, announcing it would open up Google Play for Chinese developers to sell their apps outside of the country.
The friendly gesture coincides with the World Internet Conference taking place this week in Wuzhen, China. But it also underscores the uneasy relationship that Google has with China: many of Google's services are still blocked there, including the Google Play developer website, according to checks Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. Google pulled its China search engine to Hong Kong in 2010 due to censorship concerns.
Google Play is not available in China, so the move would only allow Chinese developers to attract foreign customers. Chinese developers will be able to use Google's back-end developer system to upload their apps and to sell them, with options like in-app purchases and subscriptions – that is, if they can access the website.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the developer website's availability in China and whether Thursday's announcement could pave the way for further business in China for the company.
Developer support has also been expanded recently to other countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Qatar and Venezuela.
Google is not the only Silicon Valley company trying to play nice with China. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, whose website has also been blocked in China, spoke in Mandarin last month for a Q&A in which he said he loved Chinese culture . His speech was a great hit with Chinese netizens, and another Facebook executive gave a follow-up at this week's conference.
But it's unclear if such overtures will make a difference to Chinese regulators.
China's top Internet regulator, Lu Wei, said Wednesday that Internet controls were a sovereign issue and that China saw the Internet as a "free and open place, with rules to follow."
Carlos Tejada in Beijing contributed to this article.
By Juro Osawa
South Korea's KakaoTalk, one of several popular messaging apps in Asia, is among the fastest-growing technology companies in the region based on revenue, according to a new survey from consulting firm Deloitte.
Kakao, which merged with Korean Internet portal operator Daum earlier this year and became Daum Kakao, came first in Deloitte's annual ranking of the Asia Pacific region's 500 fastest-growing technology companies based on revenue growth rates over a three-year period. Kakao's 2013 revenue surged more than 116 times from 2011, according to Deloitte.
But that's only part of the story. Revenue isn't the only way to measure the success of mobile messaging apps. Growth in user numbers is just as important – or sometimes more important – to investors and analysts.
KakaoTalk's monthly active users in the third quarter decreased to 48.4 million from 48.9 million a year earlier on concerns about potential security issues and as the app struggled to expand outside of Korea. The company also swung to a net loss in that quarter.
U.S. messaging app WhatsApp, a dominant messaging app in many parts of the world, has more than 600 million active users worldwide. Facebook earlier this year agreed to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion even though the app had only generated $20 million in 2013 revenue. WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, has 468 million active users, while Line, owned by South Korea's Naver, has 170 million.
Kakao's ultra-high growth rate is in part because the app, launched in March 2010, was hardly generating any revenue in 2011. The company's 2011 revenue was only about $1.6 million, while its 2013 revenue was around $190 million, according to Kakao's own figures.
KakaoTalk earns its revenue by offering additional services such as games on top of messaging. Those games are free to play, but some users pay for virtual items and optional features in the games. The app also charges for some of the stickers, or emoticons and cartoon images that users can send to one another.
Like any survey, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 has its limitations. It is impossible to obtain revenue figures from all of the many technology companies in the Asia Pacific region – many of which are closely-held businesses that don't disclose their financial results. Deloitte ranks the top 500 out of the companies that have participated in the survey by submitting their audited revenue figures. For the latest survey, 670 companies participated, according to Deloitte. The companies that decide to participate are usually the ones that are confident their growth is strong enough to be included in the top 500, said Deloitte managing director Jolyon Barker. "The key is to get on the list," he said.
Top 10 companies in Deloitte 2014 Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500
*Growth rate based on revenue growth between fiscal years 2011 and 2013
Source: Deloitte
–Min-Jeong Lee in Seoul contributed to this article.
A controversy sparked by the recent comments of an Uber executive has triggered an inquiry from Capitol Hill.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick, Sen. Al Franken (D-Min.) called on the company to explain what policies it has in place around tracking the personal data of users on the ride-sharing service.
The inquiry came after Buzzfeed reported that an Uber executive suggested the company should invest $1 million in an opposition research team to expose the personal lives of media critics and their families. The comments from Emil Michael, Uber's senior vice president of business, were made at a dinner in New York on Friday that included Kalanick, celebrities and some journalists.
Michael's remarks ignited concerns that the company could use data from its own service to track the whereabouts of specific people who use its service. One Uber employee had admitted to a BuzzFeed reporter that he had tracked that journalist's location, the website reported on Tuesday.
Sen. Franken, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, in his letter said these revelations suggested "a troubling disregard for customers' privacy." He asked about an internal company tool called "God view," a dashboard that reportedly gives employees a view into the movements of specific users, and who in Uber has permission to use it.
Michael apologized for his comments and Uber said it has never spied on journalists. Uber didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
By Charlie Wells
Mobile apps are offering consumers the chance to stash in a drawer all the loyalty cards cluttering their wallet or key ring.
These apps also offer merchants a rich opportunity: the chance to pitch offers to shoppers just as they are about to make a purchase.
Bearing names like Key Ring, Belly, CardStar and Stampt, these apps have launched in recent years, offering to store consumers' loyalty-card information on mobile phones to save time at the register and money in their wallets. The apps can typically be used to store information on cards from stores, hotels, airlines and groups such as AARP—all of which may offer immediate discounts on purchases or points that accrue over time.
To use your loyalty-account information when you make a purchase, you open the app to get a membership number or a bar code to be scanned at checkout.
Two other options are Apple's Passbook and Google Wallet, which work in a similar fashion, but, of course, are brought to you not by startups but by tech's very established players.
These apps are competing not just with plastic cards but with a barrage of app-based rewards programs for individual retailers such as Starbucks and Sephora.
When users of most loyalty-card apps make purchases, their transaction information is stored and ultimately used by retailers to understand how, when and where consumers buy things.
Retailers then use this information to target special offers to consumers on their phones, hoping to induce them to buy more when they otherwise wouldn't, says John Zhang, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who researches pricing strategies and retail management.
The ideal outcome, he says, is to target consumers who are at the "point of purchase," or at the moment they are about to spend money, but who then for some reason don't.
"Imagine that a consumer is looking at a particular brand of breakfast cereal," he says. "That consumer walks around a store and often ultimately doesn't buy it. You can imagine that as a manufacturer, I would have an incentive to pop something up on your phone so that you go back and grab that box of cereal."
That's not reality today, but some services do target discounts to consumers based on their location. In some locations, if a Key Ring user walks into a store that is offering a new coupon, the user will get a notification on his or her phone, according to Chris Fagan, chief executive of Key Ring. The company was co-founded by Mr. Fagan in 2008 and acquired by Gannett in 2012.
Old-fashioned loyalty cards let companies track spending history, but just don't offer this type of near-immediate feedback to consumers or retailers, says Mr. Zhang.
Loyalty-card apps give customers an incentive not just to save with their phones, but to pay with them, too.
This fall, companies' campaigns to get consumers to use mobile payment systems came into the limelight, with the launch of Apple Pay, as well as debate about CurrentC, a payment system being developed by major retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores and Best Buy.
Jim DuBoyce, a payment specialist at W. Capra Consulting Group in Chicago, says that mobile-payment systems work best when they are paired with customer rewards programs.
Mr. DuBoyce points to the Starbucks app as a particularly successful model, allowing customers to pay for coffee and earn rewards at the same time. Starbucks said earlier this year that it might look to license its mobile-payments technology to other merchants.
Still, the proliferation of loyalty apps is not without at least a little consumer fallout.
"It's totally overwhelming," says Norman White, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business who teaches a course on designing and developing mobile apps. He says there are so many loyalty-card apps out there now that it is hard for consumers to decide which ones to use and why.
In solving the problem of too many loyalty cards, Mr. White says apps have just created another: Now there are just too many loyalty-card apps.
Mobile-messaging app Kik is getting more cash to help it stand out from rivals Snapchat and Tango.
The Canadian startup has raised $38.3 million in a round led by hedge fund Valiant Capital Partners, the company said in an interview. The round also included new investors Millenium Technology Value Partners and SV Angel and several earlier investors. A portion of the funds will be used to buy employee stock.
Thousands of miles from Silicon Valley in Waterloo, Canada, where BlackBerry is based, Kik has quietly built one of the most popular apps on the Apple and Google app stores and amassed 185 million registered users.
Unlike some other mobile chat programs, Kik doesn't require a phone number to sign up – a feature that Chief Executive Ted Livingston said makes it popular with teenagers who don't like sharing their phone numbers.
Kik will use the new cash to turn its free mobile app into a moneymaking business. The company earlier this year began helping brands such as Seventeen Magazine and headphone maker Skullcandy interact with its users through "promoted chats."
The advertisers use Kik's technology to create branded chat robots that tell jokes or give out clues to a mystery, and Kik charges them around 20 cents for each user it helps bring into the promoted chats.
The unusual sponsorships may help Kik stand out from an increasingly competitive pack of well-funded messaging apps. Of Kik's users, 68% are in the U.S.
Snapchat, with more than 100 million monthly active users, has already raised $150 million and is in the midst of raising another round valuing the ephemeral messaging startup at $10 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. Tango, with 250 million registered users, has raised more than $360 million from Alibaba and other investors.
Snapchat also began selling its first ads last month, when it pledged never to be "creepy" by targeting ads to users' interests. The ads show up as an optional button alongside other "recent updates" in the app and disappear after 24 hours.
According to a comScore report this summer, 18 to 24 year olds in the U.S. spent 2.5% of their app time in June with Kik, ranking seventh ahead of Facebook Messenger and Netflix but behind Snapchat.
Along with its new Series C funding, Kik announced it acquired Relay, a maker of a popular animated GIF tool. Relay will be incorporated into Kik's app and the standalone GIF service will be shut down Dec. 15, the companies said. Terms of the cash and stock acquisition were not disclosed.
Livingston founded Kik in 2009 while an intern at BlackBerry. Initially, the app was designed to share music within BlackBerry's messaging service. But after he began offering music-sharing and chat as a separate app in 2010, he noticed chat was a hugely popular feature and decided to focus on that.
The company last year settled a lawsuit filed by BlackBerry in 2010, alleging Kik infringed on its patents. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Kik began talking to investors about its Series C round earlier this
year, after Facebook paid $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp, Livingston said. That deal sparked a flurry of interest from investors and overtures from potential acquirers among U.S. and Asian tech giants, which now see mobile messaging as an important strategic battleground, Livingston said.
"Every company in the West is realizing that they need a messenger if they want to play in this next phase of the game," Livingston said. "And every player in the East has realized that if they want to play in West their only way in is by buying their way in."
Rather than sell, Kik opted to raise more funds and accelerate its growth plans. Over the next year, the company plans to double its staff to about 120, from 60 currently, by recruiting from the University of Waterloo's engineering program.
Livingston declined to comment on Kik's current valuation. The company was last valued at $60 million in a round of funding in April 2013. Kik has now raised about $70 million from investors that include Foundation Capital, RRE Ventures, Spark Capital and Unoin Square Venture.
Some of Kik's first advertising partners say they are already seeing strong results from promoted chats. Skullcandy recently held a contest where it auctioned off a ticket to the Los Angeles premiere of "Hunger Games: Mockingjay" to promote a new line of headphones themed around the film. For a chance at that prize,
Kik users had to solve a series of clues related to the film, entering their guesses and getting hints inside Skullcandy's promoted chat.
Skullcandy said it gained 307,000 chat users on Kik over the past three months, nearly three times the number of followers it has on Twitter, where it has had an account for five years.
"It's early with Kik," said Diego Nunez, Skullcandy's senior director of digital marketing and e-commerce. "Their demographic I think is still very much a community that doesn't feel as invaded by all the marketing initiatives and brands."
By Alistair Barr
"Google rarely says in public that something specific will rank you higher in its search results," said Mark Traphagen, senior director of online marketing at Stone Temple Consulting, a digital-marketing agency. "This will change a lot of behavior."
Google is keen to promote mobile-friendly websites because its search engine wasn't designed to track down content buried inside mobile apps. The company is working on app-search technology, often called "deep linking," but if people increasingly switch to using apps rather than the mobile Web to do things online, that's still a risk for the company, Traphagen added. In sectors like retail, travel and local, people are finding information in niche apps developed by companies like Amazon, Kayak and Yelp, rather than Google's broad search engine.
Google's search engine is a powerful tool the company can use to encourage developers to focus on areas Google thinks are important. In August, Google started giving bonus points in its ranking algorithm to Web pages that are encrypted. Google did that to prod website developers to adopt technology that protects against hackers breaking into their websites and stealing users' information.
By Yoree Koh
Twitter is soon making it possible for users to search through every one of the half-trillion tweets sent over the past eight years. That's a huge improvement from the previous search query, which surfaced tweets that were up to a week old, or older ones if they were greatly retweeted or favorited.
The company said Tuesday its multi-year project of indexing all of the tweets will improve the search and discovery capability, one of the areas Twitter has focused on as it tries to make the service's content more relevant to users.
"This new infrastructure enables many use cases, providing comprehensive results for entire TV and sports seasons, conferences (#TEDGlobal), industry discussions (#MobilePayments), places, businesses and long-lived hashtag conversations across topics, such as #JapanEarthquake, #Election2012, #ScotlandDecides, #HongKong, #Ferguson and many more," wrote Twitter engineer Yi Zhuang in a company blog post.
He added it will be rolling out to users over the next few days.
The size of the entire index amounts to "roughly half a trillion documents," grows by several billion tweets a week and and is about 100 times larger than the previous "real-time index." That earlier index, built in 2012, originally allowed for users to search for tweets going back one week. An update in 2013 stretched that time frame back further, surfacing older tweets based on a variety of factors such as the number of retweets or favorites a tweet had received.
The company blog post by Zhuang goes further into the engineering mechanics of how it built and scaled an index that is able to support such an immense amount of data.
The results from the full index will show up in the "all" tab of search results, according to the blog post. It will eventually show up in the "top" tab of search results and new product features.
By Scott Austin and Douglas MacMillan
According to a tweet from Buzzfeed's editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, who wrote the story, Kalanick didn't hear Michael's remarks at the dinner, though he was present.
In Kalanick's first comments since the report broke on Monday night, he issued a series of tweets midday Tuesday that denounced Michael's remarks and pledged to regain the trust of users, drivers and the public. "His remarks showed a lack of leadership, a lack of humanity, and a departure from our values and ideals," Kalanick wrote. He did not discuss specific assertions made by Michael or say whether the executive would be subject to any disciplinary measures.
While this appears to be an isolated event, Uber is no stranger to controversy. The scrutiny will only increase as Uber's valuation inflates — it is currently raising funds at a valuation that could top $30 billion — and if the company ever holds an IPO, the public markets won't be as forgiving.
Here's a look back at some comments and stories over the past year that have drawn criticism:
"Hot chicks"
Uber's office in Lyon, France, earlier this year ran a promotion on its site that promised to pair passengers with 20-minute rides in cars driven by models it called "hot chicks," according to Buzzfeed. Uber canceled the promotion before the program went live and in a statement apologized for the incident and called it "a clear misjudgment by the local team."
Canceling rides
Uber competitors Lyft and Gett have accused Uber of interfering with their businesses by ordering cars on their service and then canceling them. Uber has denied those claims, but did confirm a report that it pays a staff of "brand ambassadors" to ride in competitors' cars to attempt to recruit their drivers. Kalanick defended the practice by saying that it's the equivalent of "ordering a plumber, he comes over, then you recruit him."
Self-driving cars
One of Uber's most valuable assets is its army of part-time drivers, but at a tech conference in May of this year Kalanick revealed he plans to one day replace all of them with self-driving cars to minimize costs. "The reason Uber could be expensive is because you're not just paying for the car — you're paying for the other dude in the car," Kalanick said in the interview. "When there's no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle." The views did not sit well with drivers, and Kalanick took to Twitter to clarify that he believes robots will not replace drivers until the year 2035.
Child's death
The company appeared callous after six-year-old Sofia Liu was struck and killed last New Year's Eve by an Uber driver. In a statement, Uber distanced itself from the incident by saying, "This tragedy did not involve a vehicle or provider doing a trip on the Uber system." The driver's attorney claimed he was logged into the Uber application and was in between fares.
The surge
Uber has come under fire for its practice of surge pricing, or raising fares during times of high demand to encourage more drivers to get on the road. Customers periodically lash out against Uber for being charged hundreds of dollars for a short ride. After a snowstorm in New York last December that caused surge pricing to rise as much as eight times, Kalanick mocked one customer complaint by posting it to his Facebook page and telling his friends to "get some popcorn" before they read it. In the response he posted, he defended surge pricing and told the customer, "If you have other ideas for how to provide a reliable ride during busy times, I am all ears."
Email misfire
Uber took issue with one passenger's accusation in September 2013 that she was choked by her driver, saying in a statement that the driver was defending himself from an intoxicated passenger who was hitting him. In response, Kalanick sent an email to his PR team instructing them on how to respond to such incidents, and – in an apparent misfire – copied tech blogger Nitasha Tiku, who posted the exchange on Valleywag. In it, Kalanick called Tiku "a straight up Internet troll" and advised his team to "make sure these writers don't come away thinking we are responsible even when these things do go bad."
Lyft's fundraising
In a Vanity Fair profile, Kalanick admits that he got involved in Lyft's fundraising efforts earlier this year by telling his rival's investors: 'Just so you know, we're going to be fund-raising after this, so before you decide whether you want to invest in them, just make sure you know that we are going to be fund-raising immediately after.'"
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
It took a year after the first iPhone was released for Apple to open the device to third-party apps. Apple Watch users won't have to wait so long.
Apple on Tuesday announced the availability of WatchKit, a set of tools for developers to create apps designed specifically for the Apple Watch. In a press release from Apple, executives at Instagram, ESPN and American Airlines expressed excitement at the prospect of creating apps for the wearable device.
Apple has said its first smartwatch will be available in early 2015, starting at $349. But the company hasn't offered any details on how much higher-end models will cost. A lot of other questions about the watch remain unanswered.
In its press release, Apple said developers can create notifications that allow users to take an action such as turning off the lights after leaving the house or accessing flight details. Apple also said developers can incorporate "Glances" to quickly show information such as news, sports scores or the next step in a cooking recipe.
Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, said last month that a computing device placed on the wrist is an ideal place for "lightweight interactions" and "casual glancing," but not for heavy reading.
By Danny Yadron and Elizabeth Dwoskin
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service with more than 600 million users world-wide, is now encrypting text messages by Android users, a stark development in efforts by technology companies to shield consumers from hackers and spooks.
WhatsApp said it won't be able to help law enforcement decrypt messages, effectively shielding the contents of one of the most popular forms of smartphone communication. Until now, encrypted messaging was complex and reserved for the technically savvy.
For now, WhatsApp's encryption applies only to text messages sent from one Android phone to another. The latest version of WhatsApp's Android app automatically encrypts messages; users don't have to turn on encryption. It doesn't apply to group messages or media messages.
This type of encryption is distinct from the flavors traditionally used by consumer email – which shield messages from outsiders but still allow Google, Yahoo or Facebook to decrypt them for commercial or law-enforcement purposes.
WhatsApp declined an interview request. Facebook referred a request for comment to WhatsApp.
WhatsApp's co-founder, Jan Koum, has long spoken out about privacy and grew up in Ukraine when it was part of the former Soviet Union.
Apple's iMessage system, for texting between two iPhones, also uses end-to-end encryption. But that data, by default, is backed up on Apple's servers. That means law enforcement can go to Apple and request the data after the fact.
WhatsApp said it is working with Open Whisper Systems, a privacy-technology company run by Moxie Marlinspike, a dreadlocked programmer in San Francisco with credibility in hacker and privacy circles.
In a blog post, Marlinspike's firm said that it plans to add encryption to WhatsApp's apps on other mobile-operating systems.
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has stressed independence from Facebook and a strong commitment to privacy. In an interview in June, he said the company's motto was "no ads, no games, no gimmicks," and that he planned to keep things that way.
By Christopher Mims
Yesterday, my column on why the Web is dying and how we'll miss it inspired some especially thoughtful responses. Or I should say rejoinders; just about everyone who linked to the piece disagreed with both its thesis and particulars.
They're provocative, and in the spirit of thoughtful debate it's worth rounding them up as a sort of snapshot of both how we're spending time with our (increasingly mobile) devices, and what it is we think of when we say "Web." It's an increasingly difficult term to define.
But before I get to the roundup, here's a point I want to emphasize, which I think no one addressed in their responses to the column: The dream of the Web becoming a place for "apps" is imperiled, and it's what I think endangers the Web long term, as it leads to a lack of investment by developers of both Web apps and the Web browsers that run them. And that, in turn, endangers the parts of the Web that are still very functional — the parts delivering information, documents, news and certain retail experiences.
One example: Google Maps. It's available in at least three formats: a desktop Web app, a mobile Web app and a native mobile app. The first is functional, and the second nearly unusable compared to the last. The better apps become, the more users will demand them on every device they use, mobile or not. As those who build the technology we enjoy focus on the app experience, the "Web app" experience diminishes, and with it the drive by the world's most powerful tech companies to push the Web forward.
Eventually, this will have consequences even for sites that are mostly just delivering documents (i.e. pages), which is what the Web has always been best at.
Now to the roundup:
"The web is alive and well" — Zach Seward at Quartz
"The assumption is that… the time when people are inside native apps doesn't count as using the web.
To see the mistake here, just look at the most popular mobile app supposedly leading this turn away from the web: Facebook. A substantial portion of Facebook content offers links to other websites. Tapping them opens a browser within the app, and there you are, on the web.
"The assumption is that… the time when people are inside native apps doesn't count as using the web.
To see the mistake here, just look at the most popular mobile app supposedly leading this turn away from the web: Facebook. A substantial portion of Facebook content offers links to other websites. Tapping them opens a browser within the app, and there you are, on the web.
"The Web Is Dying! Wait, How Are You Reading This?" — Will Oremus at Slate
"A closer look at the numbers reveals that the Web is still growing. Comscore finds that time spent on the mobile Web grew 17 percent between June 2013 and June 2014. True, app usage grew faster—52 percent, by Comscore's reckoning. But as Quartz's Seward points out, "the overall pie is growing," and mobile apps have been "largely additive to the online experience."
"A closer look at the numbers reveals that the Web is still growing. Comscore finds that time spent on the mobile Web grew 17 percent between June 2013 and June 2014. True, app usage grew faster—52 percent, by Comscore's reckoning. But as Quartz's Seward points out, "the overall pie is growing," and mobile apps have been "largely additive to the online experience."
"Native Apps Are Part of the Web" — John Gruber at Daring Fireball
"How has the rise of native mobile apps been anything but a renaissance of innovation? [...] The pre-mobile web was largely about consumption for most people: reading articles, watching videos, buying stuff. In today's world, everyone is creating and sharing their own content — everything from photos to videos to their thoughts and observations. Mims claims native mobile apps are "bad for innovation and the consumer" while consumers around the world are doing remarkably innovative things using native mobile apps."
"How has the rise of native mobile apps been anything but a renaissance of innovation? [...] The pre-mobile web was largely about consumption for most people: reading articles, watching videos, buying stuff. In today's world, everyone is creating and sharing their own content — everything from photos to videos to their thoughts and observations. Mims claims native mobile apps are "bad for innovation and the consumer" while consumers around the world are doing remarkably innovative things using native mobile apps."
"The Web, Still Dying After All These Years" — MG Siegler at Medium
"So the problem most people seem to have is that they either can't wrap their heads around this concept: you are using the web, you're just using it in an app. Or they worry about the app model being destructive to the open nature of the web. Maybe. I just think it's cyclical. AOL begets World Wide Web begets Facebook and so on."
"So the problem most people seem to have is that they either can't wrap their heads around this concept: you are using the web, you're just using it in an app. Or they worry about the app model being destructive to the open nature of the web. Maybe. I just think it's cyclical. AOL begets World Wide Web begets Facebook and so on."
"Why the Web Still Matters for Writing" — Matt Mullenweg of WordPress, writing in April and quoted yesterday by Mathew Ingram of Gigaom
"There is no question that apps are here to stay, and are a superior interaction model for some uses. But the web is like water: it fills in all the gaps between things like gaming and social with exactly what any one particular user wants. [...] Let the water flow to exactly where it's needed! That's the power of the web, and now that a computer is with us in so many more places, we need that flexibility more than ever."
"There is no question that apps are here to stay, and are a superior interaction model for some uses. But the web is like water: it fills in all the gaps between things like gaming and social with exactly what any one particular user wants. [...] Let the water flow to exactly where it's needed! That's the power of the web, and now that a computer is with us in so many more places, we need that flexibility more than ever."
But one other issue is worth emphasizing: Many wrote that the Web is simply turning into apps, as if that were a values-neutral phenomenon. But apps don't run in any browser, on any device, as Web services must. Handing control over what can appear on our phones is an enormous tax on developer time and companies' resources, at best, thanks to the necessity of creating apps for every platform. At worst it's a concession that the democratizing force that is the Web should now give way to walled gardens that threatened it in the past. That the Web won in the era of Firefox vs. Microsoft, or AOL vs. openness, is no guarantee it will win today.
By Rory Jones
Not all is doom and gloom in The Middle East.
The region is set to be one of the fastest growing in the world for the adoption of gaming in the coming decade.
That's according to a new report by Strategy& and commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. Strategy& is the global management consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The report says the size of the gaming market in the Middle East will grow from $1.6 billion in revenues this year to $4.4 billion in 2022 as online and mobile games soar in popularity. Growth will even exceed markets such as Russia, China and South Korea, Strategy& says.
It is easy to understand why. Arabs are some of the biggest users of social media where games are often played, and penetration of smartphones is high, particularly in the Gulf region. Strategy& says boxed console games will be the gaming platform of choice that makes way for the mobile. Smartphone gaming will make up 52% of the market in the Middle East by 2022.
Gaming offers the most obvious "illustration of the opportunities available to global players" in the media industry in the Middle East, Strategy& says in its report.
"As such, we expect the total gaming segment size to mirror the size of the TV market in seven to eight years," it adds.
The vast majority of games played in the Middle East currently come from outside the region, but local games and global games localized in Arabic will drive growth in the industry and make up more than 15% of the market in three to five years, Strategy& says. Arabic speakers account for 5% of internet users, but content in Arabic is only less than 1% of the web – a fact that developers are out to change by creating games for Arabs about Arabs.
Snapchat debuted a new tool with payment service Square that lets users of the mobile messaging app send each other cash with the swipe of a finger.
The service, called Snapcash, will let users 18 and older connect a debit card to their Snapchat account and send money to anyone using the app free of charge. The tool was made in partnership with mobile-payment startup Square and relies on that company to store payment information and process the transactions.
Though Snapchat won't make any money from the transfers, Snapcash could help the company build a business selling goods and services through the app. If even a small portion of more than 100 million users of the app provide their debit-card information, Snapchat could potentially sell them stickers or other virtual goods.
Chief Executive Evan Spiegel has said he looks to Tencent, and its success selling virtual goods in mobile messaging app WeChat, as a role model.
Spiegel told technology blog Recode that he was inspired to develop the mobile payment tool after Square CEO Jack Dorsey sent him cash via email using his company's Square Cash tool. "I really thought that was cool," he told Recode. "I wasn't expecting that from email."
Snapchat is facing pressure to make money from investors who valued the company at $10 billion in a round of funding that is not yet complete. The company began selling its first advertisements last month.
Mobile money transfers between friends have surged with the growing popularity of apps like Venmo, now owned by EBay.
A new partnership between Uber and Spotify will let passengers of the ride-sharing service control the music when they get in a car.
Starting Friday in 10 cities around the world, users of Spotify's $10-a-month premium service will be able to log in to their accounts within the Uber app, the companies said Monday. When those customers hail a car that's set up to stream music, they will be prompted to select a playlist from their own music library or choose one picked out by Uber.
Music streaming is Uber's latest attempt to personalize the rides on its service to individual riders, as the company races to sign up millions of new users and fend off rivals including Lyft. When it launched in 2010, Uber pioneered the concept of a smartphone-enabled taxi where drivers show up knowing the passenger's name and the ability to charge their credit card automatically.
But giving passengers control over music means taking that control away from Uber's drivers, tens of thousands of contract workers who have come to rely on ridesharing for income. This new feature could create tension between some passengers and drivers who might object to certain musical tastes.
Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said on a call with press Monday that the Spotify service is optional for drivers, but expects most of them will comply.
"People get into cars all the time and ask, 'Hey can you turn it onto this station?'" Kalanick said. "I haven't seen drivers have too much of an issue with that," he said.
Letting passengers control music might also be safer alternative to having drivers fumble with the radio, Kalanick added.
Some people claiming to be drivers for the ridesharing app have already vented their frustrations about the Spotify arrangement on sites like UberPeople, an anonymous online message forum for Uber drivers.
One commenter in Atlanta going by the name "Pascal O." pointed out that even though Uber says the service is optional, not complying with it could result in passengers giving their drivers lower ratings on Uber's five-star scale. If a driver's rating falls below a certain threshold, they can be terminated from Uber.
"Such a move increases the passenger's expectations of an Uber driver," Pascal O. wrote. "Yes we do have the right to deny a request for the [passenger] to control the music, but that could end up being the difference [between] a 5-star versus a 2-star rating."
Another anonymous poster called "duggles" suggested that any extra service offered by Uber drivers, such as the Spotify music, free water and snacks and phone charging, "should be rewarded with tips."
Uber and Spotify plan to begin the program in London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Toronto and Sydney. In addition to their own music, users will have the option of listening to a unique playlist picked out for their city.
Music streaming will only be an option to the 12.5 million Spotify users who pay about $120 a year for unlimited access to the app's music catalog. Daniel Ek, Spotify's founder and chief executive, said he hopes the Uber partnership will help convince more users to sign up for paid subscriptions.
"There's three main places people listen to music," Ek said on the call with press. "In your home, on the go and in your car."
The music service has partnered with carmakers including Volvo to create voice-activated car audio systems. The Uber partnership was partly the result of the company thinking about emerging alternatives to car ownership, Ek said.
"Instead of just doing car integrations, we thought, what is the next generation of transportation?" he said.
The companies did not disclose any financial details of the partnership.
Uber has recently informed investors it plans to raise more than $1 billion in funding, according to people briefed on the matter said earlier this month. The new round of financing could total as much as $2 billion and is likely to value the company at more than $30 billion, one of the people said.
On phones, 86% of our time is spent in apps, and just 14% is spent on the Web, according to mobile-analytics company Flurry.
The Web—that thin veneer of human-readable design on top of the machine babble that constitutes the Internet—is dying. And the way it's dying has farther-reaching implications than almost anything else in technology today.
Think about your mobile phone. All those little chiclets on your screen are apps, not websites, and they work in ways that are fundamentally different from the way the Web does.
Mountains of data tell us that, in aggregate, we are spending time in apps that we once spent surfing the Web. We're in love with apps, and they've taken over. On phones, 86% of our time is spent in apps, and just 14% is spent on the Web, according to mobile-analytics company Flurry.
This might seem like a trivial change. In the old days, we printed out directions from the website MapQuest that were often wrong or confusing. Today we call up Waze on our phones and are routed around traffic in real time. For those who remember the old way, this is a miracle.
Everything about apps feels like a win for users—they are faster and easier to use than what came before. But underneath all that convenience is something sinister: the end of the very openness that allowed Internet companies to grow into some of the most powerful or important companies of the 21st century.
Take that most essential of activities for e-commerce: accepting credit cards. When Amazon.com made its debut on the Web, it had to pay a few percentage points in transaction fees. But Apple takes 30% of every transaction conducted within an app sold through its app store, and "very few businesses in the world can withstand that haircut," says Chris Dixon, a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz.
App stores, which are shackled to particular operating systems and devices, are walled gardens where Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon get to set the rules. For a while, that meant Apple banned Bitcoin, an alternative currency that many technologists believe is the most revolutionary development on the Internet since the hyperlink. Apple regularly bans apps that offend its politics, taste, or compete with its own software and services.
But the problem with apps runs much deeper than the ways they can be controlled by centralized gatekeepers. The Web was invented by academics whose goal was sharing information. Tim Berners-Lee was just trying to make it easy for scientists to publish data they were putting together during construction of CERN, the world's biggest particle accelerator.
No one involved knew they were giving birth to the biggest creator and destroyer of wealth anyone had ever seen. So, unlike with app stores, there was no drive to control the early Web. Standards bodies arose—like the United Nations, but for programming languages. Companies that would have liked to wipe each other off the map were forced, by the very nature of the Web, to come together and agree on revisions to the common language for Web pages.
The result: Anyone could put up a Web page or launch a new service, and anyone could access it. Google was born in a garage. Facebook was born in Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room.
But app stores don't work like that. The lists of most-downloaded apps now drive consumer adoption of those apps. Search on app stores is broken.
The Web is built of links, but apps don't have a functional equivalent. Facebook and Google are trying to fix this by creating a standard called "deep linking," but there are fundamental technical barriers to making apps behave like websites.
The Web was intended to expose information. It was so devoted to sharing above all else that it didn't include any way to pay for things—something some of its early architects regret to this day, since it forced the Web to survive on advertising.
The Web wasn't perfect, but it created a commons where people could exchange information and goods. It forced companies to build technology that was explicitly designed to be compatible with competitors' technology. Microsoft's Web browser had to faithfully render Apple's website. If it didn't, consumers would use another one, such as Firefox or Google's Chrome, which has since taken over.
Today, as apps take over, the Web's architects are abandoning it. Google's newest experiment in email nirvana, called Inbox, is available for both Android and Apple's iOS, but on the Web it doesn't work in any browser except Chrome. The process of creating new Web standards has slowed to a crawl. Meanwhile, companies with app stores are devoted to making those stores better than—and entirely incompatible with—app stores built by competitors.
"In a lot of tech processes, as things decline a little bit, the way the world reacts is that it tends to accelerate that decline," says Mr. Dixon. "If you go to any Internet startup or large company, they have large teams focused on creating very high quality native apps, and they tend to de-prioritize the mobile Web by comparison."
Many industry watchers think this is just fine. Ben Thompson, an independent tech and mobile analyst, told me he sees the dominance of apps as the "natural state" for software.
Ruefully, I have to agree. The history of computing is companies trying to use their market power to shut out rivals, even when it's bad for innovation and the consumer.
That doesn't mean the Web will disappear. Facebook and Google still rely on it to furnish a stream of content that can be accessed from within their apps. But even the Web of documents and news items could go away. Facebook has announced plans to host publishers' work within Facebook itself, leaving the Web nothing but a curiosity, a relic haunted by hobbyists.
I think the Web was a historical accident, an anomalous instance of a powerful new technology going almost directly from a publicly funded research lab to the public. It caught existing juggernauts like Microsoft flat-footed, and it led to the kind of disruption today's most powerful tech companies would prefer to avoid.
It isn't that today's kings of the app world want to quash innovation, per se. It is that in the transition to a world in which services are delivered through apps, rather than the Web, we are graduating to a system that makes innovation, serendipity and experimentation that much harder for those who build things that rely on the Internet. And today, that is pretty much everyone.
–Follow Christopher Mims on Twitter @Mims; write to him at email@example.com.
Google's Glass is losing support among some developers who are focusing on devices such as smartwatches that they hope will be more socially acceptable than the controversial Internet-connected eyewear.
Twitter stopped developing its Glass app about a month ago in favor of an app for Android Wear, Google's operating system for smartwatches and other wearable devices, according to a person familiar with the social-media company.
Adriana Vecchioli created the Find.it app for Glass to mark the location of objects by taking pictures with the device. Vecchioli said she cut the time she spends on the project because many people have resisted wearing the device or responded negatively to others wearing it. Glass users can snap photos or record video unobtrusively, raising privacy concerns.
"Wearing a piece of technology on your face was an obstacle," Vecchioli said. She said she hopes future versions of Glass "will be more discreet."
The defections by developers raise questions about the future of Glass, unveiled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2012. Google has been selling the device for $1,500, mostly to developers and other early technology adopters.
Brin had said Google planned a broader consumer launch in 2014, but that has slipped into next year.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday that nine of 16 Glass developers it contacted had stopped working on their apps.
"This isn't something that's going to catch fire with consumers. It's niche because of its high price, the lack of social acceptance and questionable aesthetics," said John Jackson, a mobile-technology analyst at research firm IDC. "You look like a nerd when you wear it."
Developers were initially attracted to Glass as a new technology platform that could potentially rival smartphones. When consumers failed to embrace the device, developers backed off, Jackson said.
"Developers like cutting edge stuff but ultimately they're slaves to volume, in terms of the number of devices being used," he said.
A Google spokeswoman said Google is "energized by the opportunity that wearables and Glass in particular represent."
Sterling Udell attended a conference for Glass developers near San Francisco in late October. He left thinking that others think Glass in its current form had failed as a consumer device, and stopped work on his Glass app.
"At best, it's seen as a geeky toy, and at worst, a privacy-invading tool of the Googleplex," he wrote in a blog Friday. "Wearables are hot — as long as they're not Glass."
Among larger companies, photo-sharing and messaging service Path has a Glass app but it is focusing on developing apps for other wearables for now, said CEO Dave Morin. Thuuz, which makes sports TV apps, has stopped working on its Glass app in favor of other priorities.
Google has lost some Glass executives, managers and business-development staff, but the company has more than 300 people working on the project now, a number that has steadily grown since Glass was launched in 2012.
Google hired Ivy Ross, a fashion and marketing executive, to run Glass in May. The Google spokeswoman said the team is "working towards a consumer version of the device," but declined to specify when it would be available.
By Friedrich Geiger
Customers of ride-sharing service Uber Technologies Inc. faced a disappointment this week when they tried to book a lift through the app in Berlin.
The San Francisco company used to offer rides in the German capital with private drivers through a service called UberPop and with limousines through one called Black. But when checked several times in recent days, the app didn't offer any of those cars, after authorities had forbidden the service.
Banned from transporting people, Uber has switched to a new type of passenger: crops. The company tried to cheer its customers by promising free boxes of fruits on Friday.
"Today you can get a delicious fruit box from HelloFresh delivered to the office or home," the company said on its website. Customers were able to order them from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. GMT. No fruit box was available when The Wall Street Journal checked the app. But Uber's Twitter account displayed pictures from several people who received boxes, according to the tweets.
Uber cut the UberPop fare to 35 euro cents (44 U.S. cents) a kilometer in October, a level permitted by law for drivers who lack a taxi license because it is regarded as merely covering the costs of running a car. This low level made it unattractive for drivers to offer their service.
Germany's taxi market is tightly regulated and companies are required to adhere to a set fare structure and obtain special licenses, which Uber didn't demand from its drivers. Authorities in Berlin and Hamburg therefore banned the service. Uber initially continued to offer its service after the bans, but supply of cars has apparently collapsed. The company also started to offer licensed taxis through its app. In some other European countries, Uber faces similar legal obstacles.
Uber's general manager in Germany, Fabien Nestmann, on Friday didn't immediately respond to emailed questions asking about the fruit offer and whether the company had terminated its UberPop and Black services in Berlin.
The next front in the rivalry between Uber and Lyft may be your corporate expense report.
The smaller of the two ridesharing apps on Thursday announced "Lyft for Work," a service that lets companies issue their employees credits for free rides. Employers can give workers a monthly balance of free rides, and set limits on where and at what time of day credits can be used.
Lyft's foray into the corporate market follows Uber's move to offer new tools for businesses, including easier expense reporting and a dashboard for managers, last July. The two companies have frequently co-opted one another's innovations as they race to add passengers and drivers around the world.
The startups see a growing opportunity in the business travel industry, which is expected to generate $1.21 trillion in revenue world-wide this year, according to the Global Business Travel Association.
Lyft's corporate program is already being used by a few tech companies to offer customized commuting perks to workers. Payments startup Stripe gives employees free rides when they leave the office after 7 p.m. Yelp plans to pick up the tab on rides to its staff holiday party.
The service could help build interest in Lyft Line, the carpooling service it began offering earlier this year to let customers share a ride with a stranger and split the cost. Lyft at Work lets companies restrict their free employee credits to rides on just Lyft Line.
Uber this summer linked up with expense-management company Concur and started a new business portal called Uber for Business that also lets corporate travelers charge their rides directly to their employers.
Earlier this month, Lyft sued its former operating chief, Travis VanderZanden, claiming he took secret company documents with him when he left the company and took a job at Uber. VanderZanden, who is now vice president of international growth at Uber, denied Lyft's allegations in a series of tweets, writing that he did not take any confidential data to Uber and deleted all the documents listed in the complaint before joining the company.
By Evelyn M. Rusli
Reddit said its CEO Yishan Wong has abruptly resigned, apparently over a dispute involving office space.
"We have a team in place to ensure that Reddit's best years are still ahead of it," wrote Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who also announced that he will be returning as executive chairman. The company's chief operating officer, Ellen Pao, a former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, will act as the interim CEO.
In an interview with the Journal on Wednesday, Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator and a Reddit investor, said Wong left after a disagreement with the board about office space. According to Altman, Wong wanted to move the office to Daly City, Calif., and spend more money than the board was comfortable with. "We were caught off guard," he said of the resignation.
After Wong's resignation early last week, Altman said he reached out to Ohanian to see if he would be interested in a larger role. "I said, 'Hey I think this is a special opportunity, you'll be able to impact the company in a way no one else will be able to." It is unclear if the company will ultimately reach out, externally, to find a permanent CEO. Altman said he felt confident in the current arrangement and that the company was "figuring it out as we go."
Wong couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The move comes just months after the popular news site raised $50 million from several prominent Silicon Valley backers including Altman, Alfred Lin. a partner at Sequoia Capital. and Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz.
The company has also courted controversy, most recently for its handling of a cache of nude celebrity photos shared on the site. After initially permitting the photos, stored under a subreddit called the "Fappening," Reddit banned the forum.


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If you're a woman, perhaps one of the most important things you need to know about heart disease is this: You don't need gray hair to get it—or die from it.
It's true that a woman's risk of heart disease increases with age. In fact, heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death for American women 65 and older.
However, the disease is also the second leading cause of death among women 45 to 64 years old and the third among women 35 to 44 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That's why it's crucial to protect your heart no matter how many birthdays you've celebrated. CDC and the American Heart Association recommend that you:
Choose a heart-healthy diet. Eat mostly fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy and whole-grain foods, such as brown rice and whole-grain breads. Heart-smart protein options include lean meats, fish and beans.
Try to limit the overall amount of fat in your foods and replace saturated and trans fats (like butter or partially hydrogenated oils) with healthy oils, like olive and canola. Also, pay attention to portion size.
Move more. Most adults need to do at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) every week, along with strengthening exercises that work all the major muscle groups two or more days a week.
Make it personal. Talk with your doctor about specific risk factors—such as having diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol—that can raise your risk of developing heart disease and what you can do to lower your risk.
Keep track of your heart health and learn what your test results mean by clicking on the link to our free booklet, Know Your Numbers.
Did you know?In Yakima County:
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States. More people die of sudden cardiac death in the U.S. than of breast cancer, prostate cancer, homicides and traffic deaths combined.
The Yakima Heart Center and Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital are working together to address cardiovascular disease in our community through education, prevention, early diagnosis and cardiac rehabilitation.
Nov. 16, 2014—From the grocery store to your kitchen table, what you eat is a major player in diabetes control and prevention. November is National Diabetes Month, so it's a great time to dish up some nutrition know-how.
If you have type 2 diabetes, choosing the right foods in the right amounts may help you manage the disease and protect against related complications, such as heart disease and stroke. And even if you don't have diabetes, eating right to manage your weight may help reduce your risk of developing the disease.
Boost control with superfoods
If you're rethinking your nutrition, check out this infographic to find an assortment of power-packed foods to rev up your healthy eating plan. These diabetes-friendly foods contain key nutrients and sport a low glycemic index, which helps with blood sugar control.
|The Memorial Calendar
Tip: Click to add an event to your Yahoo!, Microsoft Outlook, MSN Hotmail, Apple iCal, or Google calendar.
Nov. 14, 2014—Want to know if your children will have weight problems in high school? Their weight in 5th grade could offer a good clue, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers found that kids who were overweight or obese in 5th grade tended to be overweight or obese in 10th grade as well.
About the study
Researchers measured the body mass indexes (BMIs) of nearly 4,000 children when they were in 5th grade and again in 10th grade. They also measured the BMI of one parent per child at the same time. They found that:
Researchers also interviewed children and their parents to determine factors that could potentially play a role in obesity. They found that 5th graders who were overweight were more likely to become obese if they watched too much television or had an obese parent.
Researchers noted that these findings reinforce the idea that childhood obesity should be addressed early, since younger children tend to be more receptive to healthy interventions than older ones.
To learn more, read the study at the journal's website.
|The take-home message
|Childhood obesity is the top health concern among U.S. parents, and for good reason. The American Heart Association says overweight kids have an 80 percent chance of staying overweight for their entire lives, putting them at risk for negative long-term health problems like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer and osteoarthritis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a BMI calculator specifically designed to measure the BMIs of children ages 2 through 19. If your child is overweight or obese, there are several ways you can help him or her achieve a healthier weight:
Accreditation honors Memorial for quality care in 4 areas:
heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care
YAKIMA — Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital has been recognized as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® for 2013 by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditation entity of health care organizations in the United States.
The announcement recognizes Memorial as a top performer in four areas: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.
"It is a testament to our exemplary physicians and staff at Memorial to be recognized as a Top Performer by The Joint Commission," Memorial CEO Russ Myers says. "To be specifically recognized in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care speaks to the dedication that each and every employee places on ensuring safe, high-quality care for our patients and visitors."
The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 20,500 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including hospitals and health care organizations that provide ambulatory and office-based surgery, behavioral health, home care, laboratory and nursing home services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
The Top Performer program supports health care organizations in their quest to improve programs and service to patients. The program is based on data reported in the previous year about evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to be the best treatments for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children's asthma, inpatient psychiatric services, stroke and immunization.
The results, released Thursday in The Joint Commission's 2014 annual report, "America's Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety," are based on data reported by more than 3,300 Joint Commission accredited hospitals in 2013. Overall, the Joint Commission recognized 1,224 hospitals across the country with the 2013 Top Performer distinction. Memorial is one of 17 Washington state hospitals so recognized, and one of just nine in the state recognized in more than three clinical areas.
The full report can be found here: jointcommission.new-media-release.com/2014_annualreport/.
Nov. 13, 2014—Many women are not getting screened for cervical cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That's concerning given the importance of the screening: It can allow doctors to detect abnormal cells before they turn into cancer and give women the opportunity to take steps to potentially prevent the disease.
About the study
CDC researchers reviewed national health data to determine the number of women who hadn't been screened for cervical cancer in the past 5 years. They also analyzed cervical cancer cases and deaths that occurred between 2007 and 2011.
While rates of cervical cancer dropped by around 2 percent, other findings were less encouraging:
The numbers suggest that too many women are missing opportunities for cervical cancer screenings, which can help reduce the number of cervical cancer cases and deaths. According to CDC, more than half of all new cervical cancers occur in women who have never been screened or haven't been screened in the last 5 years. You can read CDC's findings here.
|The take-home message
|All women are at risk for cervical cancer, and getting tested can save lives. It's essential for women to learn about their screening options and get the test that's right for them:
Health insurance plans that started on or after Sept. 23, 2010, are required to cover recommended cervical cancer screening tests—usually at no cost to you. If you don't have health insurance, you can find a plan at www.healthcare.gov. Open enrollment starts Nov. 15, 2014.
In addition to cervical cancer screening, another good way to prevent cervical cancer is to get an HPV vaccine. Giving girls and boys ages 11 and 12 an HPV vaccine offers them the best protection against the HPV virus. Doing so can also help reduce a girl's risk for developing cervical cancer later in life.
Read on to learn more about what you can do to identify and reduce your risk of developing cervical cancer.
Nov. 12, 2014—This November, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is recognizing National Diabetes Month and urging Americans to take steps to reduce their risk of developing the disease. It's also a time for those who have the disease to guard against related complications.
People with diabetes are nearly 2 times more likely than those without it to die from heart disease, according to the NIH. They are also more vulnerable to serious kidney, eye and nerve diseases.
More than 29 million Americans have diabetes. And another 86 million or more are on the verge of getting it: Their blood sugar levels are abnormally high but not yet elevated enough for an actual diagnosis of diabetes. This condition is known as prediabetes.
Defining diabetes
There are 3 types of diabetes:
If you have diabetes
If you've already been diagnosed with diabetes, the National Diabetes Education Program encourages following the diabetes ABCs—steps to reduce your risk of diabetes complications. The ABCs stand for:
Ask your doctor what your ABC goals should be and how to reach them.
If you have prediabetes
The number of Americans living with type 2 diabetes is growing, along with rates of obesity nationwide, according to the NIH. Still, there's good news: This disease can be prevented. According to the director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, research funded by them shows people with prediabetes who lose just a modest amount of weight—about 15 pounds—may reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 58 percent.
If you don't have diabetes
Even if you don't have diabetes, the American Diabetes Association recommends doing your best to stay at a healthy weight, eat well and be active—3 safeguards that can prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes. It is also beneficial to understand your risk factors for developing the disease. This assessment can help you determine if you are at risk of type 2 diabetes.
Currently, Memorial Hospice cares for fifteen veterans. Staff delivered special service pins and "Welcome Home Vietnam" pins yesterday to all of our veterans. Cali Hunn, a social worker, said her veteran was overwhelmed and thrilled. He pinned it on his pajamas and said "I've never seen anything like this – thank you so much – it means so much to me – I won't ever take it off."
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and Virginia Mason Health System announced that their respective governing boards have signed a Letter of Intent to pursue a formal affiliation. The announcement signals that the two organizations will work exclusively to determine how and if a partnership might benefit both communities. Memorial CEO Russ Myers appeared on KIT 1280 on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, to talk more about that agreement and what it means for the Yakima Valley.
Why is Memorial considering a partnership with a larger health care organization?
Partnerships in health care are occurring across the country as a way to improve service, lower costs and respond to health care reform. Our purpose is to provide the best care for our community – to inspire people to thrive. That means we need to consider options that allow us to improve the health of our population, improve the patient experience of care – including quality and satisfaction – and reduce the per capita cost of health care.
We view a partnership as an opportunity for Memorial Family of Services and Virginia Mason Health System to transform health care in the Yakima Valley and create a broader network of care that better serves both organizations' communities.
Why Virginia Mason?
Memorial and Virginia Mason, both not-for-profit health care providers, share similar values and cultures and a commitment to innovation that can improve quality, safety and the total patient experience.
How might a partnership change how health care is delivered here?
The Memorial Board of Trustees views a strategic partnership as an opportunity for Memorial – and Yakima – to maintain access to high-quality healthcare, improve access to specialty care and advance physician recruitment. Such a partnership also ensures that state-of-the-art medicine continues in this community.
There are some areas – for instance, rheumatology – where specialists are in high demand and we have difficulty recruiting them to Yakima. This may present an opportunity to bring VM specialists here to provide these services. A partnership also could streamline the process for patients who simply must go to the west side for certain services.
How much local control will Memorial retain in a partnership?
The Letter of Intent identifies two potential boards. Memorial will retain a local governing board to carry out governance responsibilities at Memorial, with a majority of members appointed locally and some representatives appointed by Virginia Mason Health System. There also will be a Virginia Mason Health System board, with a limited number of board members who reside in the greater Yakima area.
It's important to note, also, that The Memorial Foundation will retain its board and remain a separate non-profit entity. Money raised by the Foundation will remain in this local community, for local services and programs.
What's the next step?
Memorial and Virginia Mason now enter a period of due diligence – basically, a deeper dive into the operations of each system to see how they might best align. We expect that process to take 4-6 months.
In the meantime, our focus does not change: delivering the best care to patients and families.

subset: commoncrawl


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To mark IDC Herzliya's 20th anniversary, we spent a day following Prof. Uriel Reichman, IDC's founder and president, and Jonathan Davis, VP for External Relations, around its delightful campus.
The world hardly needs a Jewish Press commentary on the affirmative action and gay rights rulings handed down by the United States Supreme Court last week. There have already been
millions of words written about them, and there will certainly be millions more.
We do, however, urge our readers to sit back and contemplate how it came to pass that the custodian of a Constitution requiring all Americans to be treated equally under the law endorsed the principle that public decisions may be made based on race. Or, after all these years of legislative history to the contrary, how our nation's highest court was able to find
authority in the Constitution to effectively bar our federal and state governments from restricting conduct simply because it's consensual.
We do however, think it important to draw attention to the spin these decisions were subject to in the pages of The New York Times, which attempted to portray them as eminently logical and unremarkable.
In its editorial roundup this past Sunday on the Supreme Court Term - matter-of-factly titled "A Moderate Term of the Court" (emphasis ours) – the Times cited in its opening paragraphs the Court's "endorsing the consideration of race" in college admissions and that "gay sexual relations are constitutionally protected" because they are consensual.
Yet on Tuesday, in a front-page story headlined "In a Momentous Term, Justices Remake the Law, and the Court" (emphasis ours), the Times's longtime Supreme Court reporter and resident constitutional law expert, Linda Greenhouse, wrote:
The Supreme Court term that ended last week will leave as big an imprint as any in recent memory – not only on the country, but on the court itself in ways few would have expected when the term began….
In an amazing final week, the court preserved affirmative action in university admissions, providing a safe harbor for a policy that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's majority opinion described not as something to be grudgingly tolerated but as close to a moral imperative. Then the court found in the Constitution's due process guarantee a demand for gay men and lesbians to be accorded dignity and respect for their private sexual behavior.
The Times - and the Left for which it speaks – may think all of this is no big deal. But it is really a very big deal for millions of Americans who refuse to be swayed by ideological trends and political fashions.
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As Arabs murder and maim Jews, Jordan's leaders bark the blood libel of "Israeli aggression."
Perhaps attacking a terrorist's legacy broadly and publicly would dissuade others from terrorism?
R' Aryeh yelled "Run, I'll fight!" Using a chair against terrorists to buy time so others could flee
Riot started when Muslim students wore the Pal. kaffiyeh and Druze students demanded them removed
The "Media" didn't want us to know what a kind, giving, loving young woman Dalia was.
A "Palestine" could become another Lebanon, with many different factions battling for control.
Maimonides himself walked and prayed in the permissible areas when he visited Eretz Yisrael in 1165
Having a strong community presence at the polls shows our elected officials we care about the issues
Israel's Temple Mount policy prefers to blames the Jews-not the attackers-for the crisis.
When Islam conquered the Holy Land, it made its capital in Ramle of all places, not in Jerusalem.
I joined the large crowd but this time it was more personal; my cousin Aryeh was one of the victims.
Terrorists aren't driven by social, economic, or other grievances, rather by a fanatical worldview.
The phrase that the "Arabs are resorting to violence" is disgraceful and blames the victim.
Tuesday, Yom Shlishi, a doubly good day in the Torah, Esav's hands tried to silence Yaakov's voice.
Because of the disparate nature of the perpetrators, who are also relatively young, and given the lack of more traditional targets and the reverence Palestinians have for their homes, one now hears talk of Israel returning to a policy of destroying the houses of terrorists' families.
Last year the Obama administration sought to minimize civilian deaths from drone strikes by generally requiring that missile attacks be limited to instances where Americans were directly threatened and there was a "near certainty" that no civilians would be killed.
If anything, Operation Protective Edge showed that Israel will not pull punches when it comes to combating terror.
Toward the end of Operation Protective Edge this past summer, the president was unusually vocal about Israel's so-called disproportionate use of force and alleged lack of compliance with international humanitarian law.
There was no accompanying caption, but the cartoon could not help but feed the anti-Semitic canard that Israel was responsible for 9/11.
An accomplished Torah scholar and ardent adherent of Bobov chassidus, he was renowned for his self-effacing dedication and skills as an international lawyer and law professor
This week we list all the candidates we support.
The fact that the United States government after World War II sought to take advantage of the expertise of German scientists, even those known to have contributed to the Nazi war effort, is well known and largely accepted as having been necessary for America's national defense. (Wernher von Braun is perhaps the most famous and […]
The Jewish Press endorses the reelection of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. His record as governor these past four years offers eloquent testimony to the experience and vision he has to lead the Empire State for the next four years.
Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/editorial/supreme-decisions-and-times-style-spin/2003/08/01/
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The 13th Annual U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships concluded at Crested Butte Mountain today with fabulous performances on incredibly steep technical terrain.
Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) recently announced the winners of two awards for excellent service and dedication to the Colorado ski industry.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort announced today that the ski area will remain open well into April, due to the abundant snowfall and superb skiing conditions.
Edward Callaway, co-owner, President and CEO of CBMR, has announced that John Norton, currently COO for Aspen Skiing Company, has been hired by CBMR as President and CEO, effective June 17, 2002.
Okemo Owners Announce a Contract of Sale of the purachase of Crested Butte Ski Resort.
Most, if not all of Crested Butte's high profile freeskiers and riders wear helmets, and now they'll be joined by kids 12 and under participating in Crested Butte Mountain Resort's ski school programs.
Erik Schlopy tore through the second run Wednesday to win the men's SL title while Caroline Lalive tore through both runs to capture the SL crown on the last day of the Chevy Truck U.S. Alpine Championships.
Some 200 people gather in Crested Butte, CO to climb Mt. Crested Butte in an effort to raise money to fight breast cancer.
Oct. 7: The experts pick their faves, and Whistler comes out on top.
World Cup winners Rahlves and Koznick headline the 2001 US Alpine Ski Team, while Picabo Street and Chad Fleischer return from injuries aiming at the 2001 Worlds, and 2002 Olympics.
Go to skiingmag.com
Go to nastar.com
Go to warrenmiller.com
Copyright © 2014 Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. an Active Interest Media Company.


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AN apprentice at MMC Engineering in Milnthorpe has proved to be a real bright spark.
Christopher Meth-Cohn, 25, won the regional Adult Trainee Electrician of the Year award presented by the Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) and Edmundson Electrical.
He has now been nominated for the national award – which will be announced in July.
Bob Peck, of MMC, said: "We are proud of what Chris has accomplished so far. His achievements in his apprentice training were outstanding."
- Settle to Carlisle Line supporters set out aspirations for the railway
- Two walkers get lost on Coniston Old Man
- Booklet celebrates trust's 50 years
- Ingleton butcher makes the cut


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My Top 5 Genealogy 'to-dos' for 2013
Posted on December 29, 2012 by Andrew Martin
My top 5 genealogy things I hope to achieve in 2013 – a mixture of visits, writing and demolishing those research brick walls. Continue reading →
Posted in Botesdale, Burnell, Crime, Seasonal, Wright, Yarrow | Tagged 2013, Abercorn Place, author, Botesdale, brickwalls, Daisy Burnell, Elizabeth Wright, Elizabeth Yarrow, Genealogy, Henry Bowers, Mary Bailey, Mary Clarke, new year resolutions, research, time travel, to-do, writing a book, writing-up | 8 Comments


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What To Do
Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center
|Science & Nature
109 Pequotsepos Rd.
Mystic, 06355
|Highway Access:
|(I-95 Ex. 90)
Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center (DPNC) is nonprofit environmental education center in Mystic, CT. DPNC offers eight miles of walking, hiking and birding trails within a 300-acre nature preserve.
In 2013, we acquired 45 acres of property on Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic called the Coogan Farm. This new preserve is being transformed into a wildlife habitat with trails that connect to the Nature Center. Many other programs and projects are being offered and planned there as well.
The Nature Center also offers a natural history museum and small meadow theater, live reptiles, amphibians and birds of prey; a state-licensed preschool; summer camp programs; paddle trips and educational programs for all ages. Picnic areas and gift shop also on site.
|(860) 536-1216
|(860) 536-2983
|Attraction Rate:
|Adults $8, seniors and children $5; family and other memberships available.
|Mon.-Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4. Closed Jan. 1, Easter, Dec. 25.
|Credit Card:
|Major cards.
|Group Rates:
|Bus Fee:
|1-2 hours
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Still Soft Voice - Grace Wong 07 - Today's Christian Videos
Embed gracesmusic 3302 views 2008-03-17T00:00:00 t was raining.. felt like recording this song.. Title: Still Soft Voice By: Grace Wong 06 Verse 1: Won't you listen, to that still soft voice The one who knew you even before you were born. The one who loves you just as you are The one filled with so much love for you. The voice who has been calling out to you Chorus: Won't you, just stop for a moment. Look inside your heart, for that still soft voice. Verse 2: Won't you listen, to that still soft voice. The one who comforts you when no one else is around. The one that speaks life into you the one who stirs up the hope in you the voice that holds, all the answers to life mysteries. Bridge: (voice) Take a moment to reflect, on the times you've neglected this voice. Did you hear it calling out to you when you're down. When you feel your all alone, it's there. You just gotta listen..
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- Jason Castro Moriah Peters Sing 'Same Kind Of Broken.' AMAZING!Music Videos
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Latest Istanbul Stories
Market Publishers Ltd Announced as Media Partner of 2nd Annual World Intelligent Cities Summit and Exhibition
2013-09-23 23:03:30
Market Publishers Ltd is announced as a media partner of the 2nd Annual World Intelligent Cities Summit and Exhibition (WICS 2013), taking place on the 27th and 28th November, 2013 in Istanbul,
Chicago Implant Dentist, Dr. Irfan Atcha Gets Invited to Present His "No Jaw Bone Solution" Clinical Case at the ICOI World Congress to Be Held on October 3-5, 2013
2013-09-11 23:25:00
The future of implant dentistry is constantly changing and evolving through the hard work of visionaries who continue to push the envelope of science.
Word of the Day
- A small wooded valley; a dell.
- The protecting weather-shed built around the entrance to a house.
- The roofed-over space between the kitchen and the sleeping-quarters in a logging-camp, commonly used as a storeroom.
The word 'dingle' comes from Middle English dell, hollow.


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Though they hail from all over the world, the instructors at Bellyqueen are united by their passion for belly dance. Their dedication to the Middle Eastern art?and their eagerness to educate others about the empowering, often misunderstood dance form?led co-founder Kaeshi Chai to established their own bellydancing company and school in the East Village. Kaeshi's enthusiasm has caught on?since opening in 1998, Bellyqueen has gained acclaim for its unconventional workouts welcoming participants of all sizes and skill levels.
Today, the bustling studio continues to teach traditional bellydancing techniques while incorporating world-fusion styles. Experienced instructors guide guests through the sensual movements, encouraging them as they practice footwork, breath, and presentation. When they aren?t fine-tuning their routines to eyeball-enticing perfection, students can watch Bellyqueen?s professional dancers perform at weekly Djam NYC shows at Jebon and special events.
Beer, wine and comedy at a cheap price? No wonder so many people pack Chelsea's Magnet Theater daily. Shows here run the gamut from long form improv and scripted sketch comedy to storytelling and a variety of free performance opportunities for anyone willing to get on stage. Shows at the Magnet never seem to top $10, and are often free. The 70-odd seats don't make for a very big venue, but that also means there isn't a bad spot in the house, and you'll have a perfect sightline the next time some celebrity drops in to perform. Classes in improv, storytelling and comedy writing are also offered at the Training Center Studio, one block north. If you're looking for a cheap laugh, or want to inspire it in others, the Magnet is a great place to start.
Founded by philosopher, playwright, and actor Johannes Galli, the Galli Theater celebrates childhood and strives to help its actors and audiences reveal their true selves with modern adaptations of fairy tales. Each year the nonprofit organization produces more than eight family-friendly productions designed to "help participants gain self-confidence, learn new languages and cultures, improve acting skills, and increase health and wellness," according to its website. With performances of well-known and widely loved titles such as Aladdin, The Princess and the Pea, and Snow White, both audiences and actors leave each show having learned valuable life lessons and different clapping styles.
Within the intimate confines of the 13th Street Repertory Company, actor and comedian Andrew Goffman relives his transformation from child to man during a comedic one-man show. He spins the tale of his fall from innocence, which began with the discovery of his father's collection of 96 erotic VHS tapes and his teddy bear's secret life as an illegal arms dealer. Having performed in 158 venues across North America, Goffman relies on his comedic chops to make audiences guffaw throughout the 90-minute performance.
Written by Warran Manzi, Perfect Crime has compelled and delighted audiences for 23 years with its thrilling plot and mysterious characters, earning the impressive distinction as the longest-running non-musical play in New York theater history. Actress Catherine Russell's juggernaut run in the lead role of Margaret Brent stretches back to the original performance in 1987, earning her the moniker "the Cal Ripken of Broadway." Sit and spectate as she plays a Harvard-educated psychiatrist charged with killing her affluent British husband over and over for the last 23 years. The play also stars Saved by the Bell's George McDaniel as a deranged patient and All My Children's Richard Shoberg as the detective trying to figure out who committed murder and who stole his lip balm before the show.
Abbey Theatre veteran Ray Yeates takes audiences on a guided tour of the Irish émigré's psyche with an uplifting one-man performance set amid the Irish economy's stunning collapse. In this standalone sequel to his internationally produced In High Germany, acclaimed playwright Dermot Bolger reconnects audiences with Eoin, an expat back in the country of his birth after an extended stay in Germany. Armed with no more than his sharp wits and the stitching on his polo shirt, Ray Yeates convincingly transforms the intimate West Village stage into Dublin Airport for a riveting 75-minute performance. Making use of airports' birthday-clown-like tendency to evoke existential dread, the play extracts an uplifting story of friendship and family from the midst of a late-night boarding area.


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Every week, we recommend 5 publishing articles/blog posts that supplement the major news for the week. Whether data or industry commentary, we hope these 5 links will be a simple way to keep you in the know. Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison discuss the implications of mining real relationships for literary material. Bookish editors predict the…Continue Reading
November Posts
- Keeping The Metadata Handbook up to Date
- Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 11/17-11/21
- People Round-Up, Mid-November 2014
- Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 11/10-11/14
- The 2014 Book Distributors Profiles
- Fanfiction and Fandoms: A Primer, A History
- Top 5 Publishing Articles/Blog Posts of the Week 11/3-11/7
- People Round-Up, Early November 2014
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