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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Twice a year, Sand Hill Road, the most important hub for venture capitalists in the world, empties out for a day. But it's not vacation that pulls away all the VCs -- it's Y Combinator Demo Day.

At the Computer History Museum here today, the heart of the tech investing universe came together once again to see, up close and personal, what the 74 companies in the summer class of Y Combinator have been working on all summer.

As is the case with any demo day, there were plenty of misses. But given Y Combinator'… Read more

While this doesn't look great for those hoping that Facebook's stock starts rebounding, it's hard to accuse Facebook investor Peter Thiel of not being a Facebook believer.

Thiel, who in 2004 put in $500,000 to become Facebook's first outside investor, today revealed in an SEC filing that he sold about 20 million shares on Thursday and Friday at prices between $19.69 to $20.70. That comes to about $400 million -- an impressive return even if he did sell at a price almost half Facebook's IPO price of $38 a share. Thiel already … Read more

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

People in the U.S. have an insatiable appetite for watching online videos.

According to new numbers released by market research firm ComScore, 85.5 percent of people in the U.S. with Internet access watched online videos in July -- that's 184 million people who watched a total of 36.9 billion online content videos in only one month. For comparison, that is equal to every single person on Earth watching at least five videos each.

And U.S. viewers' venue of choice is Google, which is not really surprising given the growth and popularity of YouTube. However, … Read more

Streaming company Ustream announced today that it is bringing live video to Facebook's news feed, according to The Verge.

The streaming will come via a new mobile app called BFF. No, it doesn't stand for Best Friends Forever, it means Broadcast For Friends. The idea is for people to simultaneously record and broadcast on Facebook without having to upload the video first. Apparently, Ustream's goal is that it be simple.

The way the app works is after loading it up, users can choose who in the Facebook world they want to view it, pick a camera filter, … Read more

Facebook is finally getting around to deleting those embarrassing photos you thought you had already deleted.

For years, the social network had been unable to remove deleted photos from its servers, meaning that even though such a photo wouldn't be viewable on users' profiles, it would still be accessible on the Web via direct URLs to the image. However, that seems to have been resolved.

Facebook says its new photo-storage systems are in place, allowing for images to be permanently removed from its content delivery network (CDN) in a timely fashion. Images will not stick around on servers any … Read more

Well, this was predictable.

For weeks now, pundits, stock analysts and the media have been warning that Facebook shares -- already under pressure for a variety of reasons -- would face a fresh challenge when so-called "lockups" expire, allowinginsiders holding pre-IPO shares to start selling them.

And that's exactly what happened today, doubtless bringing joy to the many short sellers who bet on the stock to fall.

Today's "lockup" expiration was relatively small, with insiders now free to sell 271 million shares, adding to the 421 million already in circulation. Yet it was enough … Read more

The first of Facebook's "lockups" has expired, meaning that insiders can start selling their stock. But so far, it appears that a flood of shares and a plummeting share price aren't in the offing for the social network.

In early-morning trading today, Facebook shares started out down about 5 percent to $20.15. It's by no means a reassuring performance, but things could have been much worse.

Today, 271 million shares were freed from their lockup, allowing insiders included in that grouping to sell as many of those pre-IPO shares as they'd like. However, … Read more

Drawing upon a little-known California law, Facebook is reportedly looking to hasten the payout of its Instagram purchase.

Typically with deals like this companies have to first register with the Securities and Exchange Commission but if the social network is able to use the California law it could save the company time and money. Only six states, including California, allow for this SEC exemption.

According to the Financial Times (subscription required), Facebook has scheduled an August 29 "fairness hearing" with the California Department of Corporations in San Francisco to discuss the terms and conditions of the proposed payout.… Read more