Websites are using hidden tricks to make you click or buy without realising, and the way they do it can be both baffling and controversial, finds Chris Baraniuk. The internet is one big experiment, an

At Dropbox, we treat growth as an integral part of the product experience. We look at major holes in user experience that slow growth, and we try to be creative in addressing the big picture, rather t

Ev Williams: “Metatrend of the Decade” by @PeterDiamandis https://t.co/DQtIDm7cZe

TRANSLATIONS: 中文 (UI.cn) | 中文 (CSDN) | 한국어 | ру́сский язы́к This summer, I packed up all my things and moved from San Francisco to Guangzhou, China for work. Through an unlikely chain of coincidences

*** The Monday before Thanksgiving, we all came to work. Some people had turned on their computers and were working. At around 8:15 a.m., that black screen of death came on. They shut down the entire

Chris Green holds an envelope. At least, it looks like an envelope. In reality, it's a piece of office copy paper that's been cut and folded into the shape of a Kindle Voyage, the latest in Amazon's b

It’s Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence I am an AI researcher and I’m not scared. Here’s why. Published in Backchannel · 5 min read · Dec 9, 2014 -- Some people have long regarded a

This image was removed due to legal reasons. About two years ago, I wrote a story about a strange phenomenon on the web: in a medium known for its ability to track people—following them around with Za

Andrew Courter: “... there is a pendulum in any creation process, which swings from ‘flare’ to ‘focus.’” —@ev https://t.co/Kq1M1ATujf

Just over a block from where I live in Oakland, California, there are two identical Edwardian cottages – well, almost identical. Their façades are covered in different materials; one has had its small

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group Jimmy hands $2 worth of dimes to the conductor and finds a seat at the back of the bus. Advertisement Advertisement He settles himself in for what is going to be a lo

Published in Make Time · 6 min read · Aug 31, 2014 -- In 2012, I realized I had a problem. My iPhone made me twitchy. I could feel it in my pocket, calling me, like the Ring called Bilbo Baggins. It d

Hey China, you're welcome. When you think about your future multi-million dollar shipping moguls, innovative tech giants, and up-and-coming diplomats, please remember a small handful of them probably

It rarely makes sense to take product feedback from all users and it never makes sense to get it all at once. At the outset of a new project, or especially if you’ve recently taken over a product, it’

Uber just lost a really good driver. As a mom who had stopped working to raise my child, I decided to try driving for Uber part-time, for flexibility and some extra cash. I am a native English speaker

wed at TrialPay in 2012, I learned that strongest signal for whether someone would get an offer was the number of typos and grammatical errors on their resume. On the other hand, where people went to school, their GPA, and highest degree earned didn’t matter at all. These results were pretty…

In late 2011, screenwriter Charlie Brooker introduced the television show Black Mirror to the world that had yet to fully embrace smartphones. In fact, in Q3 of 2014 there were nearly as many smartpho

Steve Jennings/Getty Images Over the last few weeks, billionaire and former tech executive Mark Cuban has become increasingly vocal on the subject of net neutrality. In an interview with The Washingto

Chris Dixon: "Hacking the Tweet Stream" https://t.co/gc6dwH8BYP http://t.co/Gc5uXfMPT0

jason wright Dec 12, 2011 Would you be able to add time to each stage? Typically how long does each stage last in companies you have invested in please? fredwilson Dec 12, 2011 too long!but seriously,

Benedict Evans: Apple Watch: Hard Questions, Facile Predictions http://t.co/zpCKZzoAOy

Since I still receive a few emails every week asking me if Launcher is ever coming back to the App Store, I figured it would make sense to post a public update now that I finally have a pretty solid a

W e all remember Clippy, right? He of the friendly, persistent “It looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?” Clippy (real name: Clippit) was an innovation for Microsoft ; the idea that

Software only becomes valuable when you ship it to customers. Before then it’s just a costly accumulation of hard work and assumptions. Shipping unlocks a feedback loop that confirms or challenges tho

The gist: We all eventually suffer from “lazy expert syndrome.” The best way to snap out of it and grow is to mentor someone new to your field. It was the “roaring twenties” in America, and business w

Published in Obvious Ventures · 2 min read · Dec 1, 2014 -- Today marks the official launch of Obvious Ventures, the third chapter in the history of ‘Obvious.’ In order to tell you where we’re going,

Governments should sack plans to auction off old television frequencies to the highest bidder and instead use the bandwidth for free super-frequency WiFi if they want to boost the economy, scientists

Robert Cottrell: @cdixon Chris, we've built this. Here's the spec: https://t.co/v9CnLSeUGG

Introducing the Bittersweet Spot Published in Backchannel · 6 min read · Dec 3, 2014 -- I got an iPhone 6 Plus to test just before Apple put it on sale in September. Two days later I was having brunch

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Hunter Walk: What People Who Worked At Google Know That You Probably Don’t http://t.co/wH5r26vYK3 [new blog post w troll-y title]

A n elderly man crouches on a rug in a house in west Baltimore. He’s alone, and wearing shalwar kameez, so from the back I assume he’s praying. In fact he’s eating his dinner. When he sees me come thr

Veronica: TaskRabbit - the startup that launched the sharing economy really doesn’t want to talk about its troubles— Matter http://t.co/cKHmJcOTHk

Secret, the anonymous messaging app that captured the attention of Silicon Valley in the months after its January launch, is struggling. Almost a year later, download rates at home and abroad have plu