Austin – GameSalad, the provider of a game development
platform for iPhone, iPad, Mac and the Web, announced on Thursday that it has
raised $6.1 million in its second round of funding, led by Steamboat Ventures.

Greycroft Partners, DFJ Mercury, DFJ Frontier and ff Asset Management also
participated in the investment round, which the company will use to grow its
technical and product teams.

Founded in 2007, Austin-based GameSalad (formerly
known as Gendai Games) said its free game creation platform has been used to
create more than 8,500 games, including 30 of the top 100 U.S. games on Apple’s
App Store.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/49337cm

http://www.gamesalad.com

San Francisco – Qwiki, the developer of a Wikipedia-like
service that uses video, said on Thursday that it has received an additional $1
million in financing from Lightbank, the investment found created by Groupon
co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkosky.

San Francisco-based Qwiki raised
$9.5 million in January, in a round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

The company’s technology debuted in September 2010, which Qwiki says,
"transforms data into interactive, rich-media narratives, delivering an
‘information experience.’"

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4tqabdv

http://www.qwiki.com

Baltimore – TidalTV, a online video advertising startup
founded four years ago by Advertising.com co-founder Scott Ferber, said on
Thursday it has raised $30 million in its third round of funding, led by New
Enterprise Associates (NEA).

Previous backers Comcast Interactive Capital and
Valhalla Partners also participated in the round, which the company will use to
expand its technology into new markets, as well as deploy its ad decisioning
tools into new multi-screen applications for advertisers, media agencies and
publishers.

"Our focus on bringing math and science into the branded
advertising space has been well received, and truly illustrates the demand for
more efficiency and effectiveness in brand marketing," said Ferber, who
serves as chairman and CEO.

TidalTV’s platform utilizes complex optimization
mathematics to help brands better manage video ad campaigns and more accurately
reach target demographics.

The Baltimore-based company so far has deployed its
technology for online video, mobile video and addressable television, and is
now working to expand its reach to other video platforms.

Scott Ferber and brother John Ferber
co-founded Advertising.com in 1998, and in 2004 sold it to AOL for $435
million.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4p3cvgy

http://www.tidaltv.com   

Mountain View, Calif. – After receiving nearly 1,100 pitches
from cities and towns across the country, Google (NASD: GOOG) officially
picked Kansas City, Kansas as the site of its planned ultra-high-speed fiber
network, which the company said will feature Internet speeds 100 times faster
than most Americans currently experience.

"We’ve signed a development
agreement with the city, and we’ll be working closely with local organizations,
businesses and universities to bring a next-generation web experience to the
community," Google wrote in its blog.

"In selecting a city, our goal
was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the
community and develop relationships with local government and community
organizations. We’ve found this in Kansas City."

Pending approval from the
city’s board of commissioners, Google said it plans to offer service beginning
in 2012.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4gwav2t
(Google blog)

Menlo Park, Calif. – Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay,
will become a part-time advisor at venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Fortune reported, citing sources close to
the situation.

Whitman, who lost her bid for California governor last fall,
reportedly will help the firm find new investment opportunities, while advising
portfolio companies.

Whitman, who stepped down as eBay’s CEO in 2008, currently
sits on the boards of HP, Zipcar, Teach for America and Proctor and Gamble.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4cddh6r
(Forbes)

Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) on Wednesday introduced an
experimental feature aimed at Facebook’s "Like" button, a new
"+1" button that will allow users to share recommended links directly
within search results. Recommendations from contacts with Google Profiles will
be displayed, or if no contacts have hit the +1 button on a search result,
Google may display how many people from across the Web have "+1’d"
the result.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/45j5gbw
(Google blog)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20048886-36.html

http://www.google.com/+1/button/

New York – News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) announced on Wednesday that it has
named James Murdoch — son of News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch — to
the newly-created position of deputy chief operating officer and chairman and
CEO, International. He will maintain direct responsibility for the company’s
operations in Europe and Asia, and "collaborate with senior leaders to
develop and execute strategies and plans that strengthen and further evolve businesses,
extend brands, and build new franchises."

Related Links:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110330006023/en

Washington – U.S. chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra on
Wednesday announced winners of the first annual National STEM Video Game
Challenge, aimed at motivating interest in science, technology, engineering and
math (STEM). Twelve students, selected from 500 entries, will each will a
laptop, educational software, and a cash prize of $2000 for their schools. The
contest also awarded a $50,000 Developer Grand Prize and another $50,000 to the
winner of the Collegiate and Impact Prizes.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4nrky2f

http://www.cooneycenterprizes.org

Palo Alto, Calif. – Amazon.com’s launch of a cloud music
storage service is already affecting the existing market, as mSpot announced on
Wednesday that it is increasing the free storage allotment for its own service
to 5GB — matching Amazon’s offer. "We think we have a better service than
storage lockers with a simple ‘player’ UI — and in order to remove any trial
barriers we’re going to offer 5 GB free storage," the company said.

Related Links:
http://www.mpsot.com

Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) has introduced an
experimental feature for its Google Talk instant messaging service, Google Talk
Guru, where users can post questions and receive responses from an automated
bot. Currently, the feature supports limited queries about weather, sports,
definitions and translations.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/69h8lgf
(Google blog)