What you need to know - Friday 11/19/10

Fabricly raised $400,000; Tripping wins Amplify; Gnip raised $2M; Plastic Jungle raised $10M

President Obama said that he is going to push Congress next year to move ahead on critical technology policies, though no specific policies were mentioned, many companies could potentially be impacted by the legislation.

The Amplify business pitch competition, has announced a winner. She is, Jen O'Neal, the co-founder and CEO of Tripping. As the grand prize winner she was awarded two iPads for her startup, an online cultural exchange network that matches travelers with locals.

AllThingsD is reporting that Google may put its "group on." According to many sources, Google is in talks to buy the provider of local deals. Without making the requisite joke about the deal of the day, sources said the price being considered is certainly no discount–well above the $2 billion to $3 billion that Yahoo offered Groupon in acquisition talks that took place earlier this year.

Google plans to hire more than 2000 people, worldwide. The site currently has 2076 job listings, which is a increase by six-fold from a similar tally of job listings page conducted in March 2009.

HP has won an award for social technologies. The award, called the Forrester Groundswell Award winner for excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications, was given for the The HP Consumer Support Forum.

 Fabricly, a  crowdsourcing design company that allows users to vote on fashions, has raised $400,000 from Atomico Ventures. This was the company's seed round of funding. 

Gnip, a social media data provider for businesses, raised a $2 million funding. The round was led by Foundry Group. Other investors include First Round Capital, another existing investor.

Plastic Jungle, a giftcard marketplace,  raised $10 million Series C round of funding. The round was led by Jafco Ventures, and other investors included: Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Bay Partners and First Round Capital.

The  2010 State New Economy Index was released. The Index shows how prepared for the "new economy" various states are. States such as Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut scored well, while Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama and Wyoming scored poorly. The research was conducted by the Kauffman foundation, in conjunction with The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Myspace has announced a “Mashup with Facebook,” This new collaboration allows users to import their Facebook profile, favorites and content into Myspace.

President Obama presented the 2009 National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation. The 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation was given to  Helen Free, Adjunct Professor of Management at IU South Bend for her work in clinical urinalysis testing.