It may now be obscured by all the hoopla surrounding Facebook’s going public, but back in November the popular user-generated review site, Yelp, filed to go public and planned to raise $100 million ahead of its IPO (at an expected $1 to $2 billion valuation). On Friday, Yelp filed an amended S-1 that shows that the company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “YELP.”

But, of perhaps greater interest to those following Yelp’s trajectory is the fact that the third amendment to the company’s S-1 includes full-year financials for 2011, showing that, while the company’s net revenues have continued to rise exponentially since 2009, its operating losses have continued to increase right along with them. Yelp’s total revenues in 2011 were $83.2 million, up 74.6 percent from $47.7 million in 2010 (and 25.8 million in 2009), but net losses were up to $16.9 million in 2011 — a 74.2 percent increase from a net loss of $9.5 million in 2010. (Adjusted EBITDA losses were $1.1 million.)

The amended S-1 also shows some adjustments in Yelp’s traffic for 2011, as it saw 65.7 million unique monthly visitors for the year (with 5.7 million uniques on mobile), up from 39.3 million in 2010. Yelp users left 24.8 million reviews in 2011, up from 15.1 million in 2010.

As to Yelp’s increasing net losses, most of that was incurred from sales, marketing, and product development-related expenses, as sales and marketing costs increased 61 percent to $54.5 million in 2011. Product development costs, in turn, rose 77 percent to $11.6 million, up from $6.5 million in 2010. Of course, revenues increased right along with losses, jumping to $83.2 million, with the majority of revenues coming from local advertising, which accounted for approximately 70 percent, or $58.4 million, of that total.

Yelp was founded Jeremy Stoppelman, a former PayPal exec, in 2004, and follows the public debuts of both Groupon and Zynga late last year, along with the announced IPO of Facebook last week. Yelp may be operating in the red, but it’s not alone, joining the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial. It’s not unusual for fast-growing companies like these to operate at a loss early on their growth, spending big money on acquiring talent and competitors, or getting their message out through advertising.

In terms of the latter company, Amazon’s updated filing with the SEC recently revealed that LivingSocial had sustained $558 million in losses in 2011, which mostly came from acquisitions, stock compensations, and marketing costs. While this was an expected part of LivingSocial’s fast-paced growth cycle, the high number certainly caught many by surprise — and in comparison — Yelp’s losses look slightly more manageable.

As for Yelp, Goldman Sachs is leading the IPO, with Citigroup and Jefferies pitching in on management of the deal.

Ahead Of Its IPO On The NYSE, Yelp Shows Growing Losses via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/skdWMtAJZIU/ TechCrunch

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As part of Hidden Chronicles’ Valentine’s Day celebration, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock three new exclusive scenes through a series of quests that sees Jeremy trying to learn how his grandparents fell in love. Apparently, their first date took place at a drive-in movie theater. You’ll need to complete some new quests before you can unlock this particular scene, so check out our guide to doing that right here.

We’re here with a guide showing you where to find the scene’s many items, so if you’re working on building up your combo points or just on the scene’s individual mastery scale, make sure to check out our images below!

Note: The items you’ll receive will just be a selection of all of those pictured below. If you’re looking to find a particular item: Hit Ctrl +F (or Command + F if on a Mac) and type in the name of the object you’re looking for. This will take you directly to its image.

• Tractor Beam
• Bicycle
• Skyscraper
• Dog
• UFO
• French Fries

Set 2:

• Lemonade
• Popcorn
• White Booking
• Lunchbox

• Burger
• Dice
• Red Cup
• Fence
• Horse
• Yellow Rose

• North Star
• Vinyl Record
• Cards

• Drum
• Coin
• Scarf
• Flag

• Monster
• Notebook
• Purse
• Watch

• Ear Muffs
• Battery
• Fried Egg
• White Bread
• Tennis Shoe

• Chocolates
• Roller Skate
• Pink Rose

• License Plate
• Rop
• Moon
• Wallet
• Bell

• Portable Radio
• Diamond
• Pen

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Hidden Chronicles Drive-in Theater: Our guide to finding every item via http://blog.games.com/2012/02/05/hidden-chronicles-drive-in-theater-item-location-guide/Games.Com

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As you watch Super Bowl 2012 (on NBC tonight at 6:30 p.m. EST), notice how high technology continues to ease its way into your favorite weekend NFL smackdowns.

There’s instant replay, sophisticated communications equipment, spectacular camera rigs and super slow motion technology, and there’s even talk of the NFL adopting high-tech football helmets with a Head Impact Telemetry System (HITS), letting doctors monitor the condition of the human brain as the game is played.

However, too many human beings are being injured in the process of slamming into each other at high speed, so perhaps someday there will be a solution to all of the grisly casualties that occur on the gridiron.

That’s where our editor-in-chief and chief cartoonist Lance Ulanoff steps in with his own unique solution.

How about you? Do you think football is so violent that something drastic must to be done to curtail the injuries?

More About: comics, Super Bowl, Super Bowl 2012, Super Bowl XLVI

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Super Bowl 2012: Tech Marches On [COMIC] via http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/K96MWBuByWw/ Mashable

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Assassin’s Creed 3 to take place during the America Revolution? [Rumor], Ubisoft looking for player input on next Assassin’s Creed location,

Ubisoft to take mobile gaming seriously? via http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/02/ubisoft-to-take-mobile-gaming-seriously/ UberGizmo

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Editor’s note: Nick Cronin is a former corporate attorney and now the President and Founder of ExpertBids.com, which is based in Chicago.

For more than a decade now, the Internet has done a great job of making things in our day-to-day lives more efficient by easily connecting parties who can have a mutually beneficial personal or business relationship. This same idea is now on the verge of disrupting labor and changing the definition of employment as we know it.

The Rise of the Independent Worker.

Over the past couple of years, there has been a huge increase in the number of workers who operate as some sort of independent, free-agent contractor or consultant. Though the numbers vary greatly, the consensus seems to be around 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, and growing (with some estimates up to 50 percent by 2020). Think about that, one in every five workers are currently unattached to any one company!

Expert explanations for this rise vary as much as the number itself, but I believe the two most important factors, by far, are:

1. Technology. Never before has a physical space represented less. An office building, in and of itself, often holds no more tools necessary to perform a job than someone can carry with them. Computers, phones, the cloud, and an overall connectedness has produced an environment where location is becoming less and less relevant. Not having to rely on someone else for the tools of productivity has given substantially more people than ever before the ability to be an independent worker. (No doubt there remain exceptions).
2. The economy. The recent recession has resulted in layoffs and very high unemployment numbers. Further, there is a whole new generation coming of age believing that long-term employment at one company is a remnant of the past. Whether this is because they have read about layoffs, experienced it with their family or friends, or any other reason — many people, regardless of age, no longer feel comfortable or stable at a traditional job. So the economic conditions have forced some into an independent role by necessity, and it has motivated a countless number of others to explore work options outside of the traditional job.

Armed with the technology and connectedness, people are setting out on their own in record numbers. But where are they finding work?

Changes in How Companies ‘Hire’ Labor.

Labor efficiency is about having the right workers for the tasks which need to be accomplished. This includes tasks of all types and in all areas. More than ever, this is being accomplished by having lean, flexible workforces which come and go as projects demand. Increasingly, employers are parsing up tasks and having temporary, project-basis workers complete the tasks.

Take one gigantic U.S. company, Caterpillar Inc., who recently reported that they hired almost 30,000 flexible, contingent workers in the last quarter of 2011. By almost every study, companies of all sizes are emphasizing a lean workforce, and hiring on project-basis engagements more and more (though not all are as drastic as Caterpillar). This trend is not limited to factory workers or computer programmers or any one group — workers in every industry and profession are seeing this increase.

For a company to hire someone, there are many costs beyond a salary and benefits (which in and of themselves are substantial!). There are recruitment efforts, on-boarding costs such as supplies and training, and finally costs when the employee leaves, such as unemployment premiums, severance packages, and HR costs. Now, instead of choosing to go the route of employing someone, companies have the option of hiring some of the millions of independent workers out there for substantially less. Instead of paying all the associated costs, businesses can parse tasks up into projects and find experts to do them very efficiently – only having to pay for the work completed, not the secondary costs discussed above. Additionally, they can more easily expand and contract their workforce as supply and demand dictate.

Not only are the large businesses hiring more independents, this trend is trickling all the way down to the millions of bootstrapped startups who hire (outside of the founders) only independents for projects as they grow their company. The era of the lean, flexible workforce is here and guess where both companies and independents are increasingly locating each other. Yep: The Internet.

Time for Disruption.

There are already plenty of companies out there connecting one party who needs a service with another who can provide it. TaskRabbit and Zaarly specifically are two startups that have grown very quickly. But we are just beginning to scratch the surface of how the Internet is going to disrupt labor. The real change will come as more and more of the traditional job creators, small businesses all the way up to the Fortune 500s, realize the benefits of flexible workforces and more and more individuals take the plunge into independent, free-agent land — whether by necessity or choice.

There are many companies working to facilitate the connection between project-basis workers and companies. Marketplaces like ODesk and Elance provide a worldwide platform of freelancers in a variety of different fields. Some of these marketplaces are aimed more towards commoditized services, but increasingly they encompass services of all types. OnForce allows companies to retain the services of IT professionals for projects. WorkMarket is a labor resource platform. Crowdspring and 99Designs are creative services marketplaces. And finally (though there are countless others that could be included here), my company ExpertBids.com is a professional services marketplace for consultants, lawyers, and accountants. Every day it seems a new vertical labor marketplace launches. There are many obstacles these companies must overcome still, but change is coming.

Some have criticized this shift, saying this type of labor and employment is only increasing inequality and the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. We need to begin looking deeply into this trend and how it is affecting people, but an efficient labor system can have major advantages to both parties.

A marketplace where tasks are accomplished by the right people, at the right time, and at the right price (not lowest price, the right price) may seem to favor the employer. But think about an independent who has very little overhead, can work from anywhere, at anytime, and for anyone and whose income potential is no longer limited by a single salary. Removing wasted time and expenses is something both parties, and the economy as a whole, can gain tremendously from. That is where all of the online labor marketplaces, ExpertBids included, need to assist. We must create efficient platforms that remove the barriers for these two parties to connect in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Labor Efficiency: The Next Great Internet Disruption via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VtVqmc1oLOc/ TechCrunch

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The online price has been slashed from $9.99 per animal to $2.99 per animal. If you happen to find some in your local brick and mortar Best Buy, they look to be priced $0.99 across the board. Remember, for that price, you’ll receive the actual stuffed animal, 10 Farm Cash, and a Mystery Game Dart. If you happen to redeem your codes during an in-game Farm Cash promotional period, you’ll have a chance at receiving extra Farm Cash or items respectively. Needless to say, if you pick up some animals for a buck each, you’re getting a ton of items for your purchase price.

To be especially clear, there’s no guarantee that your own store will still have any of these plush animals in stock (even if Best Buy’s website says that it does), but it’s worth at least calling to find out, don’t you think? Good luck completing your collection!

Did you complete the full plush animal collection back at Christmas, or will you check your stores for clearance animals now? Sound off in the comments.

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FarmVille: Best Buy Christmas Plushies now on clearance via http://blog.games.com/2012/02/04/farmville-best-buy-plush-clearance/Games.Com

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The 54th Grammy Awards ceremony is only eight days away and the Recording Academy is kicking off the next phase of its digital and social campaign. Under the heading of “We Are Music” the Academy and its partners are harnessing the power of social, mobile and digital to make the award show more modern than ever.

The Recording Academy made the decision to invest in social and digital media several years ago (you can read Mashable’s past coverage of the 2010 and 2011 campaigns) and the organization and its awards show are now seeing the dividends. Big time. The latest trends in social TV and second screen experiences are in direct alignment with the road Grammy has been traveling for years.

We spoke with Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer of the Recording Academy, and he told us the strategy around the 2012 Grammys was to put mobile and digital at the forefront of the project. That means the campaign and the show itself were designed with the digital and mobile attributes in mind from its inception, not tacked on at the end. As someone who has been beating the drum of making social and digital a part of the creation process from beginning to end, this is great to see.

Grammy Live and the Second Screen

As in years past, the cornerstone of the digital Grammy experience is around Grammy Live. Grammy Live is a three-day webcast of special Grammy events, red carpets and parties, designed to bring fans behind the scenes and close to all the action.

Although CBS (Grammy’s broadcasting partner) doesn’t stream the awards themselves online, Grammy Live is available as a second screen experience during the event, giving additional insight and tidbits into what’s happening, views from the crowd and access to backstage areas.

As Peter Anton, executive producer of Grammy Live pointed out in our conversation, Grammy Live was actually the first major second screen experience designed around an award show — and this was before the iPad!

Of course, now that the iPad is here, it makes sense to extend the Grammy Live experience to other devices. In addition to viewing the experience at Grammy.com, users can also interact with the experience in the Grammy Live app for iOS [iTunes link].

This year, Greene told us, the Recording Academy worked hard to make the Grammy Live app a perfect extension of the website itself. CBS was also heavily involved this year, both in helping craft the app and in giving Grammy Live official on-air callouts and integration.

Not only does the Grammy Live app give users access to the photos, videos and articles available at Grammy.com, it also features Grammy trivia, the ability to guess who will win at the 54th Grammy Awards and the ability to listen to a streaming radio station of Grammy nominees. One of my favorite features of the app is that it also includes a database of past winners, as well as nominees for the 2012 awards. During the show on Feb. 12, those listings will be updated in real time.

The app also lets users browse tweets from various Grammy accounts and hashtags, and of course, access the full Grammy Awards experience before and during the show itself. The app is optimized for iPhone and iPad, and is one of the best apps we’ve seen for an awards show.

The Campaign: We Are Music

For the fifth consecutive year, the Recording Academy teamed up with TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles for the awards show campaign. The team created a robust campaign with print, outdoor, digital, mobile and television components centered around the theme of “We Are Music.”

The genesis of the campaign was formed around the emotions and social experiences that music brings out in us all. The agency TBWA\Chiat\Day wanted to capture the way music moves us as humans and wanted a way to help visualize that emotive experience.

TBWA\Chiat\Day always likes to push the technical boundaries in the digital aspects of its campaigns, and this year was no different. The centerpiece is a microsite that lives at Wearemusic.grammy.com. This site was developed using cutting-edge web technologies (in this case, Flash 11 Stage 3D) to create robust real-time 3D visualizations that are modified based on what music is playing in the background.

Users can select their own mix of songs (powered using Rdio‘s library API) and add in their own photographs to create their own unique visualizations. Users can then share these visualizations with others using Facebook or Twitter. The effect is insanely cool and I encourage you all to visit the site and see it for yourself.

Creating a robust and cutting-edge desktop experience was important, but the agency also wanted to have a powerful mobile component. Enter the We Are Music iPhone app [iTunes link]. This app helps bring the visualized experience to mobile devices.

In the mobile app, a user’s own music library is used to power the visualizations. Users can also provide their own photos or take one within the app. The app then creates customized experiences based on the music, and also uses the camera flash on the iPhone 4 and 4S to create special pulsing experiences (you can shut this off if you don’t like it). Up to 15 users on the same WiFi or Bluetooth network can even share their experiences with one another.

It’s a super cool app and again, it’s cutting edge. The technology team relied on some of the newest features in iOS 5 to take advantage of these tools. What I like about this app — as with the Music Mapper from the 53rd Grammy Awards, is that the app and microsite can still be enticing and fun even outside the context of the awards show.

The TV spots TBWA/Chiat/Day crafted around the campaign have already made the rounds on YouTube. The Grammy artists profiled in this campaign include Adele, Foo Fighters and Bon Iver. All the spots have style, but the ad with Skrillex is notable because they outfitted the artist in a motion-capture suit to get the liquid movement effect.

Check it out:

Staying Social

Of course, no modern digital campaign strategy would be complete without a big focus on social media. For the 54th Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy is putting Grammy everywhere and engaging with the community of music fans across social platforms.

In addition to the Grammys Facebook Page @TheGrammys Twitter account, the Grammys are also active on:

• Instagram — Photo contests were held for the first month of the campaign
• Tumblr — The Grammy team held a contest asking users to blog about what artists have influenced them.
• Foursquare — This profile includes historical tips about venues that have hosted the Grammys as well as locations of studios where Grammy Winning albums were recorded.
• GetGlue — GetGlue is offering exclusive stickers not just for checking into the awards, but for checking in to the artists nominated for the Big Four awards.
• YouTube
• Google+

What made me really excited, however, was to see how The Grammys embraced digital music services. Grammy and Pepsi teamed up to create a custom Pandora station that includes Best New Artist videos and Grammy winners and nominees in 12 different genres. Next week, Grammy will also roll out its official Grammy Spotify app that will let users listen to all past Grammy winners in four major categories. The Spotify app will get more categories in the months ahead.

What this strong commitment says to us is that the Grammy Awards aren’t playing around with social, the team gets it.

Mashable will be at the Grammy Awards live on Feb. 12, 2012 and covering the digital action from the ground. Let us know what you think of the digital campaign for the 54th Grammy Awards in the comments.

More About: 54th Grammy Awards, apps, grammy awards, grammys

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2012 Grammys Embrace Digital, Mobile and Social Media via http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/mashable/tech/~3/hbDKbugJ9gg/ Mashable

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The LG-P880 is said to be a high-end device, featuring a 720p HD display. It is a likely candidate for the rumored quad-core LG X3 which was leaked previously – a Tegra 3-packing, 4.7″ display, 8-megapixel rear camera and 16GB storage Android phone. As usual, we can’t say for sure until the devices have been officially revealed, so stay tuned for more details during MWC 2012 at the end of the month.

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Want to watch the big budget Super Bowl commercials, but can’t wait till Sunday or don’t care about football? Facebook and USA Today have just launched Ad Meter, a Facebook app where you can watch many of the TV spots right now. Then from kickoff until Tuesday night you can vote for your favorites. Traditionally an offline poll done live with handheld meters, USA Today has finally brought Ad Meter online so you can judge ads both in real-time and post-game.

Facebook tapped Involver to build the app, and has secured early previews of roughly 20 commercials. The rest of the ads will become available through the app at game time. Last year Facebook let you watch

Several Internet companies have plopped down the big bucks this year in an attempt to court the mainstream. Arrested Development’s Gob plugs Hulu, and Teleflora.com touts the lovin you might get if you use it to send a Valentine’s Day gift. Etrade, Careerbuilder.com,

Investing in Super Bowl ads makes more and more sense for web services as the general public becomes more internet savvy. They should tread cautiously, though, considering past ads from Salesforce, Groupon have been voted most disliked and caused PR crises. Let’s hope no one gives our industry a bad wrap this time around. Oh wait, GoDaddy’s ads filled with body-painted models and angels in the cloud are just as sexist as ever.

Watch 2012 Super Bowl Commercials Now With Facebook + USA Today’s Ad Meter via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JF500ocX3Qs/ TechCrunch

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While it offers a single-player campaign mode (what’s the fun in that?), Dead Drop sets friends against each other using GPS technology within smartphones in an all-out death match. Players can create their own individual games with friends, and be provided with missions to tackle in real time as their completed. But what’s most interesting about Dead Drop is the concept of “safe houses.”

Safe houses, once the game launches “within the next 30 days,” will be real-life businesses that serve as protective areas for players in which they can’t be attacked by enemies. The idea is that safe houses will both drive gameplay to specific areas and business to those locations. However, exactly how Dead Drop will get these local businesses to participate is a concern.

“Dead Drop represents a labor of love for us, and also a huge opportunity to bridge smartphone-based gaming and marketing in a way that goes beyond check-ins and deals,” Dead Drop founder Jeff Lind said in a release. “What we’re most proud of is creating an experience that’s legitimately fun for gamers, and presents real engagement value for marketers. Just watch your six, if you know what’s good for you.”

After the game’s release, the Lind brothers plan to introduce plenty more updates, like new weapons, disguises, play modes, mini-games and augmented reality features. Check the teaser below:

Are you psyched by the idea of a location-based that drives players to places? Do you plan on trying Dead Drop out when it hits? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Dead Drop on iPhone, Android brings the mafia wars to the streets [Video] via http://blog.games.com/2012/02/03/dead-drop-iphone-android/Games.Com

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