Have you ever wanted to build your very own mobile application? Are you having trouble trying to figure out the server-side backend functionality? Well don’t waste precious time on that–a new startup has emerged out of it’s “beta” phase to help you out. It’s called Parse and it was started in June 2011 as a service designed to “provide cloud service for mobile developers. It makes it dead simple to add a backend to your iOS or Android app.”  With over 10,000 developers already signed up with Parse, the goal for the company is to be, quite frankly, considered the “Heroku of Mobile“.

A Y Combinator-funded company, Parse was founded by startup veterans, including co-founders Ilya Sukhar, James Yu, Tikhon Bernstam, and Kevin Lacker. Just within their first year, Parse has raised over $7 million in funding from angel investors like Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Yuri Milner, Garry Tan, Don Dodge, SV Angel, and many others, in addition to a Series A round covered by Ignition Partners. With all this funding, what problem is Parse really trying to solve? Well according to Mr. Bernstam, a co-founder, many mobile app developers just aren’t “deeply familiar” with the server-side code that you need to manage things like databases, user authentication, notifications, and even other common features. Parse hopes to cut through all that angst and just let developers push out their mobile apps a lot quicker by simply leveraging the service’s extensive library of resources.

Did you know that today marks around one year since the announcement was made that yet-to-be-proven startup Color declared that it had received $41 million in funding. All because they were developing a brand new (and supposedly “revolutionary”) photo-sharing application that dozens of other companies had already gone and did. The industry was rather chagrined and dismayed when they heard this, with even some publications declaring that the infamous “bubble” had returned. What made Color so fascinating for some people? It helped develop a brand new “paradigm” for photo sharing, but that you would take a photo and view the pictures that those around you would share photos. Simply put, according to GigaOm, it was more like Foursquare than existing photo-sharing services. The technology itself probably made it plum for the reputation that it was worth $41 million, but it ultimately was a bust, having hardly gained any traction.

But now, a year later, Color has undergone a bit of a pivot–moving past being an app displaying real-time’ish photos from those around you to now being an app that will enable you to basically broadcast live right from your phone, without requiring any upload time–give yourself 30 seconds and then your status update is now on the world’s largest social network. An interesting pivot, don’t you think?

IGNITION West tackled some meaty questions: what’s in store for the future of mobile technology? What’s happening now, what’s next, and how does it affect your business? Valerie Reimer, Operations Manager of Business Insider’s IGNITION West, says the focus is on startups, and the movers and shakers who are actively evolving mobile tech. The audience at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco teemed with C-level executives, founders, startups, VC’s, angels and analysts. I sat in on the opening keynote with Henry Blodget, CEO and editor-in-chief of Business Insider, and Ben Horowitz, Co-Founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz.

Blodget shared some fun factoids about the mobile space. Smartphones, he said, are exceeding PCs, and the only platforms that matter are Android and iPhone. Android is experiencing major fragmentation — it’s not as easy to monetize and even developers appear less interested in it.

Mobile advertising, social media, music, and eCommerce are attracting lots of attention from developers, but games are hotter than anything. Angry Birds, Instagram, Draw Something — they’re all wildly successful. Have you even heard of Draw Something? It’s the number one app in 79 countries and was only launched in February. It’s already attracting 12 million users per day — (not surprising, it was acquired by Zynga shortly after the conference for $180 million). In short, mobile is global. And it’s bursting at the seams with growth.

Have you wondered what’s the largest website (based on visits) are in the United States? You might think it would be Facebook with it’s enormous user database, but you’d be a bit off on your count. In a 24/7 Wall Street report by Douglas McIntyre and reported on MSNBC today, a look at the top sites has been done to see which Internet property is dominating the rest in terms of traffic. It’s estimated that that there are over 240 million users on the Internet as of 2010, and in the two years since then, it’s probably drastically increased. If you look at the list curated by Mr. McIntyre, you might be surprised by a couple of things: it’s being reported that each one technically has a different business model and none are in the same business as the other. I’ve looked at the list and it seems that some are actually in the same business, but it isn’t their primary competency. But when it’s all said and done, this year, the largest web properties are mostly dominated by those with capabilities in search and have an offering in social media.

The list by Mr. McIntyre includes the world’s largest search engine, web portal, video site, software company, social network, encyclopedia, and e-commerce site. Technology has certainly done a tremendous job at cornering this list, but then again, it’s not that unexpected right? The Internet is all about technology so it wouldn’t be far-fetched to expect these sites to not be on the list. It should be noted that this curated list only includes size of the site and traffic. The revenue generated isn’t necessarily factored in–according to MSNBC, “revenue is not essential to size online, but size can be essential to revenue.”

So what Internet properties took top honors as the largest websites in the United States?

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Magdalena Georgieva, an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot. HubSpot is a marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA that makes inbound marketing and lead management software.

Those of us who spend a significant amount of time watching online video are smitten with the inspirational TED talks. But what do we know about the local TEDx events? I am glad to report that they are equally enchanting and present a great lesson in experiential marketing.

If I had to use one word to describe the TEDxSomerville event I attended on March 4th, it would be “purposeful.” Everything there – from the event logo, stage design, and curated art to the bands playing, sponsors, and the organic soy milk offered along with the coffee and tea — was intentional. These elements came together to build a holistic experience that helped attendees truly connect with the content and people around us.

This sense of purpose is what transforms an alright event into a fantastic performance. It conveys a strong message that lingers even after one leaves the event. In this post, I will walk you through the different elements at the TEDxSomerville event and how they came together to build a memorable experience.