Remember your ICQ number? The story behind how the messaging platform gave birth to startup nation

Remember your ICQ number? The story behind how the messaging platform gave birth to startup nation. In a month, after 28 years of activity, the ICQ messaging platform will be shut down. Its sale to AOL jump-started the startup nation in 1998, but at first, the founders just wanted to play ping pong together. How did four nerds from a basement in Israel reach the summit of global high-tech in just two years? An excerpt from the book “The Israeli Mind: The Story of Israeli Innovation”.

Israel’s Elbit accelerates work on high-power laser weapon systems as order backlog crosses record $20B. The defense company’s sales in the first quarter were approximately $1.55 billion, marking an 11% increase year-on-year. Rafael’s "Iron Beam" laser system is expected to reach maturity next year, and Elbit's El-Op company is developing a laser weapon for aircrafts.

Sienna Venture Capital Partner: Now is the best time to invest in Israeli tech. Isabelle Amiel, Founding Partner of Sienna Venture Capital spoke to CTech during Israel’s Business Delegation to Paris led by Calcalist and Bank Hapoalim about how less investor competition and resilient entrepreneurs makes this the best time to invest in Israeli tech.

How cloud credit became tech's new currency. Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google use their cloud services as a kind of new currency. They invest in companies while giving "credit" to use the cloud instead of paying in cash, and along the way attract and tie start-ups to their infrastructures.

Is your feed filled with junk? Blame it on the algorithm. Social networks are trying to increase revenue by tweaking their settings. The result: more junk content and problematic ratings. The solution: algorithm-free platforms, such as WhatsApp.