Back in September, we reported that eBay was attempting to sell off its stake in StumbleUpon, the website recommendation service it bought for $75 million in 2007. That didn’t happen. Instead, the company has been bought back by its investors and original founders. It emerges once again as an independent startup.

Yes, StumbleUpon is once again a startup. “The company is amply funded. And everyone is glad that the company is away from eBay,” a source tells us. It had been looking for at least $75 million we hear.

Last January, Y Combinator startup Addmired released the game iMob for the iPhone, tapping into the immense popularity of text-based mafia games on Facebook and other social networks and bringing them to Apple’s hot mobile platform. That game has fared quite well, peaking as the App Store’s fourth most popular game (other companies like Zynga have since released their own mob-based games). Now the Addmired team is looking to capitalize on the craze by building clones like iVampires, which swaps out the Mafia-themed gameplay for one that focuses on the creatures of the night. And today they’re launching a version that is focused on an entirely new demographic: the tween girl crowd.

Dubbed Girl Wars (iTunes Link), the game replaces the gritty guns and knives of iMob with stiletto heels and handbags. Founder Gabriel Leydon says that the gameplay is similar to Addmired’s other games, but that it has been made significantly easier (presumably to appeal to a younger audience), allowing gamers to unlock items much more quickly.

With the popularity of Twitter and the proliferation of symbiotic applications designed to feed off the Twitter phenomenon, it’s becoming increasingly uncommon to see startups taking a stab at creating a totally new “micro-blogging” platform. That’s why it’s always fascinating to see how people are trying to reinvent the Twitter wheel. TribeHQ has launched its own twitter-like platform, but with a twist. TribeHQ is a “micro-jobbing”platform: a micro-blogging social network that enables members from the same occupation (or “tribe”) to converse with each other and with employers about potential job opportunities.

Unlike Twitter, which uses ungainly hash tags (#hashtags) as a convention to indicate what a particular Tweet is about, TribeHQ uses job-matching algorithms to align members seeking a new job with opportunities that match their career goals. Employers can post jobs and profiles of their companies. Tribe members can then have real-time conversations with employers (but only using 140 characters or less) and are automatically matched with jobs available to members of their tribe. TribeHQ integrates with Facebook Connect to import contacts. TribeHQ’s real-time conversations with employers is forward thinking when it comes to Track, because it combines real-time updates with filtering and mining of content.

Jim Breyer, a partner at Accel Partners, joined the board of directors of Dell today. That’s interesting in itself, but the man also sits on the board of Facebook, Walmart and Marvel, as well as a number of younger startups.

On a daily basis Breyer sees a flow of non public information (retail sales at Walmart, Facebook’s monetization plans, Marvel’s thoughts on the promise and peril of digital distribution, Dell’s plans to stay relevant) that would be the envy of anyone.

I’ve long had a warm place in my heart for Breyer, who managed to defuse the absurd legal situation that arose last year when we put on an Iron Man screening. Marvel tried to shut it down for a variety of reasons. Breyer, realizing the ridiculousness of the situation, called back the attack dogs and the screening went forward. I’ve had a man crush on him ever since.

Sports-blog network SB Nation is now officially sanctioned by the NHL. Posts from its 29 hockey blogs now appear as linked headlines on the homepage of NHL.com. CEO Jim Bankoff, a former AOL executive, tells me that he is in discussions with other major sports leagues for similar link deals. You’d think that investor Ted Leonsis, the former AOL vice chairman who owns the Washington Capitals, helped make some introductions at the NHL. But Bankoff says that wasn’t the case. We’ll see if the other leagues bite.

If they don’t do it already, the official sites of the various sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB should definitely consider adding sports blogs to the mix of information they make available on their sites. I am not sure how many true sports fans trust the sanitized news you typically find on those sites, but they are a good starting point. Adding some blog coverage might make fans feel the leagues are at least open to more points of view. It shouldn’t be limited to one blog network either, but I can see the appeal of handing those links over to SB Nation and letting them deal with quality control.

As Apple’s App Store continues its countdown to 1 billion apps downloaded, Compete has released the results of a rather humorous study of iPhone users. Apparently, for all the bells and whistles the combination of the iPhone and the App Store offers, the most popular thing to do is look up the weather, as MediaPost highlights today.

Of those iPhone users surveyed, 39 percent stated that a weather application was one of their three most-used apps on their device. This was far ahead of any of the number two cited app, Facebook, which 25 percent of those surveyed named. By far the most popular category in the App Store when it comes to actual downloads is games, but in this survey, that category only managed third place with 20 percent. Compare that to numbers from ComScore last week which reported that a crazy 32 percent of all iPhone and iPod touches have a version of the game Tap Tap Revenge installed.

The first quarter of 2009 wasn’t just a dry one for venture-backed exits, very little money went into the coffers of VC funds as well. According to data released today by the National Venture Capital Association, only 40 funds raised new money during the quarter, down from 71 the year before (1Q08) and 47 the previous quarter (4Q08). Out of the 40 funds, only three were brand new

In dollar terms, the total raised was $4.3 billion, down 39 percent from the year before (1Q08), but up 23 percent from the fourth quarter when it dipped to a low of $3.5 billion. At least the sequential comparisons are up. The largest capital raising was for August Capital’s $650 million fund. Bain Capital raised a $475 million fund, and Charles River Ventures raised a new $320 million fund.

Here are the stats (Source Thomson Reuters/ NCVA):

So I was in Prague for the weekend together with CrunchGear’s John Biggs, in an effort to learn more about the Czech tech scene first hand. The organizer of the event, dubbed PragueCrunch, was Jack DeNeut from Nelso, an American who has been living there for the past 16 years and is extremely well connected with the local community. When we weren’t enjoying the great weather on the terrace, the awesome local beer or cuisine, we engaged in a lot of conversations with Czech entrepreneurs and learned a lot, so a big thank you to Jack for hosting the event. Also big kudos to all sponsors for making it possible! For pictures, check out the tag PragueCrunch on Flickr.

Hare are some of the most interesting people and companies I met at the event:

(after the jump)

I was away for the weekend attending PragueCrunch (more on that later), so I missed most of the conversation about Mikeyy, the Twitter worm that’s been plaguing the micro-sharing service for the last couple of days. And just as I was reading up on it, it seems like a fourth attack is being carried out as I’m writing this. That means that Twitter has not yet fully fixed the issue that arose during the weekend, and the messages Mikeyy is posting reflect that:

How TO remove new Mikeyy worm! RT!! http://bit.ly/yCL1s
This worm is getting out of hand Twitter. - Mikeyy
Twitter, your community is going to be mad at you… - Mikeyy

Update: at 3:40 am PST, Twitter posted a message saying that they believe the situation is now under control, and that they’ll continue to monitor Mikeyy.

Users are being advised (not by Twitter for the moment, but by others) to refrain from using the web version and use third-party apps instead, as well as to be careful when clicking links. Other steps that should be taken are changing your bio, URL and change / reset your hex color.

Last week, we wrote that FriendFeed was in danger of becoming “the coolest app that no one uses.” The thought was that while FriendFeed is doing some great things both in terms of its technology and feature-wise, it has failed to capture the growth of the hot micro-messaging service, Twitter. But I think that misses the real key comparison. If you look at it, FriendFeed is actually a lot closer to Facebook these days. You know, that service that 200 million plus people use. They’re doing a lot of similar things — only FriendFeed is doing them better.

Go ahead, take a look at the newly launched beta version of FriendFeed side-by-side with the recently redesigned Facebook. Sure, both also look a lot like Twitter, but look deeper, beyond the appearance and into the functionality. Both of the services’ main pages offer a stream of information, including information piped in from other services. Both have filters on the sidebar (though FriendFeed recently moved its from the left side — where Facebook’s are — to the right side). Both offer the ability to comment and “like” elements within the stream. And both offer the ability to hide information within the stream.

MySpace has announced that it is planning to launch a new “Editor’s Pick” category in its application directory next week, allowing members to quickly sift through the platform’s best apps. MySpace had previously shown a handful of featured apps as users browsed its Apps Directory, but these rotated and there was no way to browse through them. Now, users will be able to access a stable list of the best apps as determined by a team of MySpace employees who work with the applications on a daily basis (all apps will be chosen by merit, not through paid sponsorships).

MySpace is beginning to accept submissions from developers today, which can be sent in by following these instructions:

If you’d like to be considered for this category, please send an email to developerrelations(at)myspace dot com. Include “Editor’s Pick Category” in the subject line, and provide a reason why you feel your application should be in the spotlight and why your application stands above the rest. Be sure to include the a 200 character description and an 128×128 icon image.

Since social networks began to offer support for third party applications (a trend that began with the launch Facebook Platform in May 2007), one of the biggest issues facing users has been weeding out the best applications from the countless spammy and useless apps available.

Online ad network Collective Media has secured $20 million in Series B funding led by Accel Partners and iNovia Capital. Collective Media offers publishers an ad network management platform to create their own branded, vertical ad networks. The company raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding, led by Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital, in October 2007.

Launched in 2005, the company provides technology products that let publishers use advance audience targeting, manage ad networks, and access analytics. Collective Media says it will utilize the new funds to grow its network, develop new technology, expand internationally and explore acquisitions. Last year, Collective purchased contextual ad targeting company Personifi for an undisclosed amount (though there were reports that they paid “eight figures” for the Personifi).

Tomorrow TechCrunch welcomes MG Siegler as a full time writer and our newest hire (pictured to the right of Marshall Kirkpatrick, a former TechCrunch writer). He joins us from VentureBeat, where he created quite a following for himself by writing interesting, timely posts on the current technology trends. In fact, in just two years of solid blogging he’s become one of the top twenty most productive tech bloggers. Obviously, we are pleased as punch to add him to our team.

MG is a hard worker, and writes both quickly and well (a rare combination). Combine that with a certain level of competitiveness and you’ve got a winner. He’s also very much a part of the startup and technology community here in Silicon Valley.

He maintains a personal blog at ParisLemon, where frankly I think some of his best articles have been posted. He’ll continue to write on ParisLemon, but I’ve asked him to bring more of that personal style and opinions into his TechCrunch writing as well. I think you’ll like what you see.

MG joins Erick Schonfeld, Sarah Lacy, Jason Kincaid, Robin Wauters and Leena Rao (and myself) as the team writing most of the content you see here on TechCrunch. Look for his first posts soon.

Just as children love hunting for Easter eggs, we love finding virtual Easter eggs in software and Web apps—those intentional hidden messages, features or jokes built into the software that users in the know may stumble upon at some point during their experience with the application. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite software Easter eggs of all-time (in no given order) in light of today’s holiday. Of course, there are many more Easter eggs out there. Tell us us your favorites in the comments!

Once again, Google is the favorite bogeyman responsible for the rapid deterioration in the health of the news industry. This time it is Nick Carr doing the finger-pointing, describing Google as the most powerful middleman in news:

When a middleman controls a market, the supplier has no real choice but to work with the middleman - even if the middleman makes it impossible for the supplier to make money.

So how powerful is Google when it comes to parceling out traffic to news sites? If you are talking about Google News, the answer is that it is not quite as powerful as you might think. In the U.S., Google News is overshadowed by both Yahoo News and even the sites controlled by the New York Times (which includes NYTimes.com, Boston.com, HeraldTribune.com, and several other newspaper sites). According to comScore, Google News attracted 16.2 million unique visitors in the U.S. in February, compared to 42.3 million for Yahoo News and 46.2 million for the sites operated by New York Times Digital.

So Google News is not the middleman here. Let’s just put that notion to rest. Yahoo News is three times as large, and Yahoo sends even more traffic to newspaper sites from other parts of Yahoo through its online newspaper consortium.

Yesterday Apple announced that it was closing in on its whopping 1 Billionth application download from the App Store, which now features over 25,000 apps built by thousands of developers. In honor of the milestone, Apple has also posted an updated version of the store’s most popular apps ever (iTunes link) - something they’ve done only once before, at the end of 2008. The list includes such popular mainstays as Facebook, Koi Pond, and Shazam, allowing the millions of new iPhone owners to discover favorites of months gone by. It’s a shame this list will probably be shortlived.

This isn’t an accident. One attribute that has helped the App Store reach its upcoming billion download milestone so quickly is the fact that its featured App Lists are constantly churning - even the most popular applications probably won’t be on the top lists a few weeks down the line. This ensures that users who pop into the store will always have some new, quality apps to try out, boosting downloads and giving new applications a chance to shine.

But it can also be frustrating for new iPhone owners, who visit the store unsure of what they should download. This isn’t to say they’ll leave empty handed - there’s always a variety of great apps being showcased on the App Store. But the classics that everyone else already has, like Tap Tap Revenge, Ocarina, and Shazam often aren’t featured on the App Store’s homescreen any more, so new users might miss out on them. Apple has made progress since I wrote about this issue last August, now allowing users to browse through apps by category, each of which features its own top lists. But the need for a more readily available all-time leaderboard still remains.

Recently, I enjoyed a refreshing and invigorating dinner with Walt Mossberg. While we casually discussed our most current endeavors and experiences, the discussion shifted to deep conversation about the future of journalism in the era of socialized media with one simple question, “are newspapers worth saving?”

Walt thought for no more than two seconds and assertively replied, “It’s the wrong question to ask. The real question we should ask is if whether or not we can save good journalism.” He continued, “Think about it. Of the hundreds, thousands, of newspapers around the country, there are really only a few that matter. Good journalism and journalists, on the other hand, are worth saving.”

Indeed. Perhaps good journalists, intuitive and ambitious journalists, might figure out how to survive this Darwinian state of media evolution on their own.Whether it’s newspapers, television shows, or online mediums and networks, the shift is in consumption behavior, quality, relevance, and personality, not the production or distribution of content per se.

Journalists must tap the Statusphere in order to earn awareness for their work and more importantly, build relationships with those who share affinities for the topics they cover. While traditional media models lived and breathed through the sharing of content directly to the existing readership, new media will thrive from those individuals who reach people where they interact and hand-deliver relevant information directly to them.

News Feeds and Timelines serve as our centralized attention dashboard and determine what we read, what we say, and who responds simply by the information that continually flows through it. We’re engaged at the point and place of introduction and bound by context and time. Noticeable content sparks curiosity and dictates our next move and subsequently the next moves and reactions of friends and friends of friends (FoFs).

As the New York Times reported, Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, are in talks with several private equity firms and are amassing their own financial resources to make a bid for the internet phone business. eBay bought Skype from Zennstrom and Friis for around $3.1 billion in 2005. We reported last year that eBay would be willing to sell Skype if the company couldn’t support eBay’s core ecommerce business.

eBay has been having trouble finding ways of using Skype across its other products. eBay removed Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom in October 2007, reportedly due to frustration at the financial performance of Skype. Ebay also negotiated down the huge earnout due to Skype stockholders and took a $936 million one-time loss around the transaction.