Jasmine Hicks / The Verge: Reddit updates its search to index comments, available globally on the web but not its apps, and improves natural language searches  —  The new rollout also comes with a refined search experience for desktop users on the platform  —  Today, Reddit is updating its search feature to index comments.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Filevine, which offers tools to help with legal workflows such as document management and billing, raises a $108M Series D, bringing its total funding to $155M  —  Filevine, a startup offering a software-as-a-service product for legal case management, today announced that it closed …

Swetha Gopinath / Bloomberg: PitchBook: VCs invested $148B globally in Q1, down 25% from $191B in Q4 2021, as rising inflation and the war in Ukraine dampen investor appetites  —  Private companies globally are pulling back sharply on raising new funds, as pressure on public markets begins to weigh on the lofty valuations sought by […]

Callan Quinn / The Block: Context, an app that lets users follow and track other people’s crypto wallets and transactions, raises a $19.5M seed led by Variant Fund and Sam Altman  —  Quick Take  — The round was led by Variant Fund and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.  — The firm’s app lets users track on-chain […]

Nicolle Liu / Wall Street Journal: After the pandemic forced employees to work from home, some neurodivergent people are thriving at remote cybersecurity jobs  —  The Covid-19 pandemic forced many employees to work from home, leveling the playing field for people with conditions such as autism, who might not fare as well in office settings

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: India’s ban on Chinese apps, including TikTok, has allowed homegrown short-video apps like Josh to thrive; Josh has 150M+ MAUs and a $5B valuation as of April  —  Jiya Kiran Valambhia’s success story as a social media influencer is a familiar one in the age of TikTok.

The sounds of cities can make it hard to discern the underground signals that indicate an earthquake is happening, but deep learning algorithms could filter out this noise

JD Shadel / Them: Analysis of Google search results for 50+ trans celebrities shows transphobic suggestions, such as “before surgery” or “as a guy”; Google says it fixed an issue  —  When the world has a question, we Google it.  Processing more than three billion searches a day …

Daniel Van Boom / CNET: Meta’s plan to take up to a 47.5% cut of each virtual transaction on Horizon Worlds draws criticism from NFT proponents; OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut  —  Meta, previously known as Facebook, is figuring out how to monetize the metaverse. … It’s been nearly six months since the company formerly […]

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Salsify, which helps e-commerce brands manage inventory, raises a $200M Series F led by TPG at a $2B valuation and says it has 1,200 customers  —  E-commerce is booming, but it’s become increasingly apparent over the years that the businesses that are able to capitalize on that trend …

Jonathan Greig / The Record: Ukrainian officials say they stopped an attack on an energy facility with help from ESET and Microsoft, and identified a new variant of the Industroyer malware  —  Ukrainian officials said they stopped an attack on an energy facility with the help of researchers from ESET and Microsoft.

Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk: Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith is sentenced to 5+ years in prison and fined $100K for helping North Koreans use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions  —  Griffith previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate international sanctions for giving a talk at a crypto conference in Pyongyang in 2019.

New York Times: Many tech companies, eager to please employees returning to offices, are providing perks like concerts with pop stars, food trucks, and “appreciation events”  —  Tech companies really want their employees to be happy — or at least less annoyed — about returning.

Plant-based alternatives to sausages can sometimes lack the textures of meat products, and testing the mechanical properties of the foods explains why

Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg: A look at Stripe’s $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others  —  Some of the world’s largest companies will spend $925 million buying offsets from startups that remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Alex Konrad / Forbes: A profile of a16z’s Chris Dixon, whose early bets on crypto startups, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and Dapper Labs, have made him Forbes’ top VC in the space  —  The Andreessen Horowitz partner is the new no. 1 on Forbes’ 21st annual Midas List of top venture investors, thanks to savvy bets […]

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal: IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020  —  Advertising has followed shopping online during the pandemic at a breathless rate.  The ad spend was concentrated—78.6% […]

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: Sources: Meituan plans to lay off ~10%-20% of staff from its core business units after announcing that it added a net 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022  —  Up to 20 per cent of Meituan’s staff in core business units, including food and grocery deliveries have […]

Maria Chutchian / Reuters: Cloud services provider Sungard files for bankruptcy with $424M in secured debt, its second bankruptcy filing in three years  —  (Reuters) – Technology company Sungard Availability Services returned to bankruptcy on Monday about three years after wrapping up its prior Chapter 11 case.

The Verge: Meta rolls out a test for a handful of creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, with Meta taking a 25% cut after a platform fee in Horizon  —  Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees  —  Meta is testing new features […]

A 3D-printed robotic fingertip contains structures that allow it to touch and feel surfaces using the same principles seen in human skin