By Jessica Roy 9/05/12 5:53pm

I Can Haz Sad

(Photo: Memmento)

Bizzaro New ‘Online Cemetery’ Kind of Makes Us Want to Cry

When a netizen dies, what happens to his online body of work?

Many times websites of the deceased are shuttered by family members or slowly kicked down the Google index the longer they sit dormant. Defunct Facebook profiles are turned into online memorials for the dead, where people collect to share their memories and best wishes. Facebook even has a form you can fill out to “memorialize” a deceased person’s profile.

Memmento, a new site that launched today, wants to transition memorials from Facebook onto its own death-dedicated platform. The results are as unsettling as you’d probably expect. The site is a virtual graveyard littered with photos, videos and memories of souls long gone. Users can choose to leave flowers or candles on the “official” pages of deceased stars like Donna Summer and Steve Jobs. They can also write notes and upload photos and videos. Read More

By Ben Popper 8/05/11 11:02am

Seed Stage Slaughter

Mown down by the markets

The Seed Stage Slaughter Begins: MyNines Shuts Down, CEO to Rue La La

If you’ve been listening closely at tech parties and events over the last month, you could begin to hear the tectonic rumblings of a reckoning. The bubble in seed stage funding that saw hundreds of start-ups raise capital during 2010 is coming to an end. And many of the companies who raised less than $1 million are now running out of cash.

This morning we got an anonymous tip, since confirmed, that flash sales aggregator MyNines, which raised $750K back in April of 2010, has shut down. The company’s website is currently offline. Founder Apar Kothari has been named vice president, head of business development and strategic partnerships at private sale shopping destination site Rue La La. (Sounds like that emerging talent pool we told you was coming.) Read More

By Ben Popper 4/08/11 2:55pm

Buy Local

Can't let my Twitter followers down

Things to Do With Data When You’re Dead

Dying in the digital age is tricky, as the dozens of accounts and services someone used while alive persist in cyberspace.  We’ve all heard the stories of Facebook and Twitter users haunted by recommendations they they connect with dead friends.

LifeEnsured, a New York startup with a $150,000 in angel funding (different kind of angel), is focused on carrying out the last rites and rituals a person might need to clean up the stray threads of their virtual life. Read More