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Would you like a patent search with your recruiting tool?

If you thought patents were intruding into the tech industry just a wee bit too much, brace yourself. Now they can be part of the recruiting process.

TalentBin, a San Francisco startup that scrapes social media sites ranging from Quora to Twitter in order to index hiring prospects for recruiters, has added the U.S. Office's patent database to the sources it scours for information on prospective employees.

Call it novel or horrifying, but I can see how it would be useful for recruiters, particularly in areas like biotech and manufacturing. And, yes, software, though you could argue that … Read more

With Pinpointing, Zappos hooks up Pinterest with e-commerce

Amazon's online shoe seller Zappos is combining the popularity of Pinterest with its own products in a new service.

Dubbed Pinpointing, the service delivers Zappos products based on what a user has pinned. In addition, the service will list products that had been pinned recently. Pinpointing lists a host of product categories, including shoes, skirts, dresses, and jeans.

In order to take advantage of the features, users can enter their own Pinterest username to see what sort of Zappos recommendations might relate to their previously pinned items. They can also input another person's username to see recommendations based … Read more

Entrepreneur sees tech startup potential in Arab world

In a region plagued by religious tensions and violent political strife, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nima Adelkhani sees economic opportunity.

Through Progress in Technology Middle East, a company that launches today, Adelkhani plans to connect startups in the Arab world with the American technology industry's movers and shakers, part of a larger plan to help a fledgling ecosystem grow and foster stability in the area.

But let's be clear -- Adelkhani doesn't see any of the 27 businesses he is working with as charity cases. These are ideas that bring him goosebumps because he believes they are original … Read more

Y Combinator founder: Startup funding could get scarce

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The future for startup funding is "getting more unpredictable."

That's what Y Combinator founder Paul Graham said today, theorizing that because there are so many more young companies getting off the ground these days, venture capitalists may well have a much harder time predicting winners than in the past.

It makes sense. Startups can get going today for as little as a few hundred thousand dollars, so there are many more of them. "But the funnel at the top is the same," Graham said during the Y Combinator Demo Day. "… Read more

Leaked media kit points to 2004 ad sales pitch for 'TheFacebook'

Facebook seems to have understood from the very beginning that in order to make some cash, it would need help from advertisers.

Digiday today published an early Facebook media kit purportedly developed in the spring of 2004. The kit was designed to inform marketers on why they should place their ads on TheFacebook, the original name of what has become the world's largest social network.

The slides published by Digiday show off Facebook's earliest features -- which at the time, were only accessible by college students -- including personal information like relationship status and political views, as well … Read more

Thrillist Media Group raises a whopping $13M

In what started out as a small newsletter to 600 friends has grown into a company worthy of $13 million in Series A funding.

Thrillist Media Group, a man-about-town newsletter and e-commerce company, announced today that it has raised this wad of cash with funding led by Oak Investment Partners that has been joined by Lerer Ventures and Pilot Group. What's more, Fred Harman from Oak will be joining Thrillist's board of directors.

Thrillist was co-founded by Ben Lerer who comes from a family that knows about media. He's the son of Ken Lerer, who co-founded the … Read more

Square offers nice round number with flat-fee plan

Square launched a flat-rate monthly fee today for small-business owners, turning the credit card industry on its head again.

Merchants who process up to $250,000 in customer payments per year using the card reader can pay a monthly rate of $275, instead of 2.75 percent per swipe, according to a press release from Square. The monthly fee includes the usual Square perks -- no additional fees and no contract.

Square -- known for its small, square card reader that can be plugged into mobile devices to create an instant credit card machine -- said it is "leveling … Read more

Building apps for Facebook: A dance with the devil

Dalton Caldwell caused a stir recently when he posted an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, accusing top Facebook execs of threatening his latest startup with the Luca Brasi treatment: Sell out to us or we'll crush you.

"I had explicit approval from Facebook to build what I was building," says Caldwell, a software developer who unexpectedly found himself in the crosshairs because an app he was building to run atop Facebook was similar to Facebook's recently unveiled App Center. "They said, 'Sorry, we just need the revenue.'"

Caldwell's public dust-up with Facebook -- … Read more

Bing Fund unveils first two startups enrolled in incubator

Less than a month after unveiling the Bing Fund, Microsoft's startup/accelerator incubation effort announced today the enrollment of its first two startups.

App development services provider Buddy and online games advertising service Pinion will get access to the software giant's technology assets and expertise, as well as its funding, the Bing Fund said today.

Buddy was founded by former Microsoft employees Dave McLauchlan and Jeff MacDuff. The Kirkland, Wash.-based company aims to reduce the amount of time mobile and Web app developers spend writing, testing, and managing server-side code. Bellevue, Wash.-based Pinion helps gaming communities … Read more