This one comes from Gamasutra, the games-industry-focused site, but it still has plenty of relevance to entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to make apps. There are plenty of legitimate complaints to be made against Apple’s service, but, unfortunately, or fortunately, however you look at it, it’s the best thing we got going. It’s centralized. Everyone’s there. But, yeah, there are a lot of problems.

Although, it should be stated, that Apple is aware of these problems and complaints. Since Steve Jobs’ death, there have been a number of huge Apple missteps (like the “continuously improving” Maps app, which infamously got an Apple product manager fired), and the App Store is no exception. Earlier this year, the App Store was hiring editorial people to help make that part of iTunes much more user-friendly. To add trailers of apps in use. To help improve what’s called “discoverability.”

That’s the problem with the store being successful, though: It gets harder and harder to find stuff in the store.

So, rather than gripe to Apple and be a digital drop in the e-bucket, there are things to do that are much more proactive.

There’s an infographic over at Gamasutra laying all this out. I won’t recite them here, but some are kind of interesting and aren’t super-common knowledge. For example:

• Don’t spell numbers.
• Use your company’s logo.
• Use URL-safe characters.
• Have friends and family rate your game.

Read the full list here.

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as IFC’s comedy, film, and TV blogger, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

About a year ago, Groupon acquired Breadcrumb, the creator of a Point Of Service system and iPad app that targets local restaurants. Now, the daily-deals company is launching the payment system for businesses. A new competitor for PayPal and Square, Breadcrumb POS makes good on Groupon’s plan to get more deeply involved with payments and point-of-sale services for local businesses.

The free app charges vendors 1.8 percent interest per swipe for Visa, Mastercard and Discover — with American Express card rates, as always, varying.

But wait, is this really news? Hasn’t Groupon already rolled this service out? Yes and no. The app is new, and previously, Breadcrumb POS was available, but now it is being offered to all brick-and-mortar salons.

Also, merchants using the service won’t be required to run Groupon deals.

"We've got merchants already working with Groupon on the core business in terms of deals," Mihir Shah, vice president of Groupon's merchant operating system division told the Tribune. "(There's) great leverage in terms of that distribution to help us get penetration for Breadcrumb."

Although the current version being offered on iTunes is free, there’s also a pro version that offers “all the features, free lifetime updates and the best support available" for $99 a month.

As the Trib also points out, “Groupon and Square are trying to convince local businesses to ditch their traditional cash registers and point-of-sale systems in favor of more streamlined technology.”

But as-is, Groupon is a latecomer to the party. Will it be enough to keep the company afloat, and more importantly, relevant?

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as IFC’s comedy, film, and TV blogger, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

Again, I am pretty loathe to do “refer posts,” or ones that just use up your time and reading efforts to point you to another post, but this one I’m pointing to here is the sort of thing people love and it’s pretty useful: Fast Company has a quick-hit list of 10 big-name entrepreneurs giving props to the apps they positively can’t live without. Some of them, as it happens, I’ve already recommended for you guys on my own. Others I hadn’t heard of before and I’m sure the same is probably true for some of you guys.

For example, Tim Ferriss (yes, of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” among other titles) told Fast Company that he “can’t live without” Jumpcut, which is a free tool that allows you to copy and paste multiple items simultaneously. Well, not simultaneously, but it gives you the capability to copy and paste multiple things without losing any of them, period, which is pretty nifty.

Anyway, take a look at the other eight apps (ooh, mysterious!) in the link here. Happy hunting!

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

Technology can assist in helping keep children safe from child abductors.

A small device, like Amber Alert GPS, can be easily concealed on your child and will track the child's location every five minutes.

If your child carries a smartphone, several applications are available in Apple's App Store and in the Google Play store which offer tracking capabilities.

Among them is HERO, which was endorsed last year by Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her home in 2002. The application works as a geo-location device in emergency situations. Find My iPhone and Find Friends are other options on iOS.

SecuraFone serves as a smartphone-based "panic button" for a user with a cellphone. Hold the button down for a few seconds and a caregiver can immediately receive location information via text message or a phone call.

Other applications allow parents to send geographical "fences" and are immediately alerted if a child wanders outside that region.

No smartphone? No problem. There are services which can also track a user's basic cellphone, including Sprint Family Locator, Life360 and iLOCi2.

For parent's cell phones, applications like the FBI's Child ID allows them to easily carry vital information about their child. In the event a child goes missing, parents can quickly and easily share that information with authorities.

Several phone carriers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Spint, also offer paid services where parents can track the location of a family member using GPS.

• Illinois State Police: Parent's Guide to Prevention Child Abduction

The shake-ups at the daily-deal giant continue: Faisal Masud, Groupon’s VP and GM of Groupon Goods, will be leaving the company by the end of the month. Where he’s leaving for hasn’t yet been disclosed or confirmed, though some are speculating and crediting “one source” with saying Masud is heading for a top position at Staples. Masud’s LinkedIn doesn’t indicate anything other than the fact he’s still at Groupon, where he came aboard in April 2012 after serving as eBay’s GM and head of global shipping and fulfillment.

That, in turn, was a position Masud held for a year. In fact, it seems to be a pattern for Masud to land in high-profile companies and stay put for about a year: His LinkedIn indicates he was at eBay for a year (2011-2012), was the senior manager of inventory control for Pottery Barn under Williams-Sonoma for a year (2004-2005) and also the merchandise operations manager for Amazon.com for a year (2002-2003).

So, leaving Groupon after a year may not indicate anything about Groupon’s conditions, necessarily. On the other hand, lots of other top-name people have been leaving, so who’s to say.

What is troubling, though, is that we haven't been hearing much in the way of big names coming to replace the ones leaving. 

Groupon’s stock, as of press time, is roughly hold steady in the mid-$5 range. As of press time, it’s at $5.57. 

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

It feels like two ice ages ago when Andrew Mason was fired in February by Groupon, the company he helped create and make so dang ubiquitous. But now, it’s three months later and what’s going on with Groupon?

There was the initial dust-up, of course, as new leadership took over and the company settled into a new routine. But the new routine, frankly, looked a heck of a lot like the old routine. It’s like when a band you really like breaks up and then decides to reform, only without its awkward frontman to trot out the same hits.

The end result is that the buzz, or whatever word you want to use to describe the general enthusiasm and curiosity about Groupon, is dying down. Lots of people in leadership positions have been leaving (like PR evangelist Julie Mossler), and, in general, people seem to be talking far less about daily deals.

It’s certainly true of Andrew Mason, who has resumed tweeting in April after a prolonged absence from social media. No announcements about his next moves: just a Mike Judge retweet, a tweet at Intelligentsia Wholesale Educator Jesse Raub (who’s been advertising a job in LA with the company) and a Groupon-ish attempt at humor.

Word has also gotten out about Mason’s severance: He took home$5,287 (six month’s pay at his $757 2011-established base salary) and still has 6.9 percent of Class A common stock and 41.7 million shares of Class B common stock. So, obviously, he still has a stake in the company’s success — but the company needs to do something new to be, well, more successful.

The consensus, seems to be that Groupon is “better off without Andrew Mason.” But that really isn’t saying much: While its stock, at $5.86 as of press time, is being lauded for being at an eight-month high, is obviously, well, not all that high.

All these hardships aside, the company is gearing up to look for a new CEO. On May 8, the company will be announcing its first-quarter results, so, who knows. Maybe Groupon has been turning things around, but don’t you think we would have heard about that already if that were the case?

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

Warren Buffett — known for investing in traditional media — has finally joined the ranks of new media.

The billionaire unveiled his new Twitter handle on Thursday during a speech. Buffett posted his first tweet at 12:20 p.m. ET and had amassed over 75,000 followers by Thursday afternoon.

Warren is in the house.

— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013

The business mogul has shied away from investing in technology companies because he says he can't predict the future of those businesses the way he can with insurance or manufacturing companies.

Buffett says even though he may not understand Twitter well, he knows it can't be all bad because one of the company's co-founders is from his home state of Nebraska.

Mark Zuckerberg has clicked "Like" on the Keystone XL Pipeline — and now his timeline is going to be chock-full of angry.

The Facebook founder and CEO recently started a political advocacy group called FWD.us — and the group is running a series of television ads in support of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

His PAC was created to support immigration reform, but it is also going to support such things as drilling. There are those in Congress who support immigration reform, but who also support drilling, and some say that the PAC funding might be a means to an end.

Feared and loathed by environmentalists, the pipeline would open up Canadian tar sands for oil and gas exploration.

Activists in the San Francisco Bay Area say they are "angered and mystified" over Zuck's turn for the pipe, and a group of about 50 protested Wednesday at Facebook's world headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The protest was timed just before the company released its first-quarter earnings. . Wednesday is also "May Day," a day where many took up immigrants' rights and a path to citizenship as the key causes of the day.

The protesters questioned why Zuckerberg would "spend millions in support" of the pipeline, "among the dirtiest projects on Earth."

And they created an online petition to stop "running ads supporting fossil fuels" which as of Wednesday afternoon had collected more than 18,000 signatures.

Zuckerberg did not come outside the building when the protect occurred about noon, nor did he issue any statement on his Facebook news website.

Supporters, however, point out that that building the pipeline means thousands of jobs.

FWD.us's ads feature Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) bashing President Barack Obama for not being supportive-enough of the pipe.

Credo Mobile, the socially-active mobile carrier, says that Facebook has refused to run its ads that blast the pipeline and FWD.us's support for it.

Even though experts say Zuckerberg's primary directive in effecting change in social policy is immigration reform, some are not going to agree with using the pipeline ads as "cover" for that change.

"But invariably there is going to be people who don’t understand and the inevitable result is going to be this type of press fire," Dan Schnur, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times.

Ironically, the Zuckerberg critics have a Facebook page dedicated to their cause.

An artfully-drawn skier flying down a slope over a rainbow and into an extra-large fudge sundae may make a seventh grader from South Barrington a top hit on Google this month.

Meg Metha, a student at Station Middle School in Barrington, was selected from more than 130,000 students to represent Illinois in Google’s sixth annual Doodle 4 Google contest. The contest invited K-12 students to redesign the Google logo inspired by the theme, "My Best Day Ever."

Family, friends, Rep. Peter Roskam and Google officials gathered Wednesday for a school-wide assembly to unveil Metha’s doodle. The design, featuring a brand new puppy, A+ report card and Metha reading under the stars, will be displayed in a special exhibit at the American Museum of National History in New York along with all 50 state winners.

Metha is also in the running to become the national winner who will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 technology grant for school.

Google will decide the winner from the top five finalists determined by public vote, one in each grade group. The finalists and all 50 state winners will be invited to an awards ceremony on May 22 where the national winner will be announced.

The public can vote for their favorite designs until May 10 at: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who sparked an uproar and hurt her image as a working mom when she banned telecommuting two months ago, is now offering employees generous new family leave benefits.

Under the new policy, mothers can take 16 weeks of paid leave with benefits, and fathers can take up to eight weeks, each time they have a new child via childbirth. Both parents receive eight weeks of paid leave for new children via adoption, foster child placement or surrogacy.

This change is a significant increase for Yahoo employees, particularly mothers, who will basically get twice as much paid time off. Under the old policy, moms received up to eight weeks paid after pregnancy.

Yahoo will also give new parents $500 to spend on such things as house cleaning, groceries and babysitters, plus Yahoo-branded baby gifts.

Mayer's decision, which brings the Sunnyvale-based Yahoo closer to Silicon Valley titans Google and Facebook, could help repair the damage as she works to turn around the struggling media giant.

But it doesn't only make sense from a public relations standpoint, observers said. The new policy could fit into a broader corporate strategy to attract and retain more talent and ultimately improve Yahoo's financial performance.

"It's a smart move," said Rachel Sklar, a New York-based writer and founder of The Li.st, an organization dedicated to elevate the status of women in New Media and technology. "It suggests a long-term strategy. This is a great precedent."

Companies who provide "everything" to their employees, such as free lunch and daycare sites at Google, do better financially in the long run because there is nothing to "distract" their workers from working, Sklar said.

"The temptation will be to see this through a gender lens - -that of course she did it because she's a new-mom CEO," Sklar said. "And this certainly would suggest she has a heightened awareness as a working mom, but this will encourage new parents to be engaged with the company and have a financial peace of mind. When companies nickel-and-dime their employees, it just adds to their burden."

From the moment she became Yahoo's new chief executive last year, Mayer, 37, has been seen as a symbol of corporate gender politics. She took the job when she was five months pregnant and worked through a two-week maternity leave that ended in October.

Her decision to return to work so quickly attracted both praise and criticism - praise for showing that a new mother could continue to steer a Fortune 500 company, and criticism for failing to set a realistic expectations for America's working moms.

Mayer drew praise for adding perks such as new iPhones and free food, cutting company bureaucracy and redesigning work spaces. Many of those amenities were standard at her prior employer, Google.

In February, Mayer sparked another debate when she decided to end Yahoo's lenient telecommuting policy. Employees with existing work-from-home arrangements were told they had to start coming into the office or look for another job.

The move reflected Mayer's an all-hands-on-deck approach to turning around Yahoo and make it more competitive. But she was again accused of making it harder on working parents.

But her decision to double family leave for new parents from 8 weeks to 16 weeks puts Yahoo in the same ballpark as her Silicon Valley rivals: Google gives between 18 and 22 weeks off to new mothers, and Facebook told the New York Times that it gives new mothers and fathers four months of paid leave.

A Google spokeswoman said that all the Mountain View-company perks - which include preferred parking for expectant mothers and $500 in "baby bucks" to spend on things such as takeout dinners, like Yahoo is now offering - are so that life can be as smooth as possible for new parents. That's of course, the spokeswoman noted, so that they can come back to work fully rested.

In California, workers are eligible for six weeks of partial pay through the state's disability benefits program.

Mayer's move also comes amid a broader debate in America about the country's commitment to family leave. The United States, which hasn't updated its Family and Medical Leave Act in 20 years, ranks among the worst of all developed countries. Sweden, Denmark and Russian mothers get at least a year off paid and Canadian mothers get 50 weeks off paid.

The U.S. law requires large companies to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employers who need to care for a newborn child or an ill relative. And that relatively stingy benefit covers only workers who have been at a company for at least a year. That leaves millions without access to the benefit. Many more cut their absences short because they can't afford unpaid leave.

NBC Bay Area's Scott McGrew contributed to this story

There is no more put-down technology than the QR code. The red-headed stepchild of web marketers, the QR code is an easy go-to punchline, like this Tumblr filled with people scanning QR codes.

But if we can look beyond the jokes, QR codes serve a very specific purpose that little other tech can do: it builds easy connections and intersections between the physical world and the virtual world we carry around in our pocket.

The issue is that QR codes are used indiscriminately, like ones on banner ads and emails. If you're already in a web world, the QR makes no sense. It's carrying a passport when you not crossing the border. And since most phones need to download QR scanners, this technology comes off like a party trick more than anything. But used well, they can create new intersections for businesses and marketers.

For example, what if you had an event where people were physically congregating and conversing, but you wanted to add an element of the virtual, like passing contact information back and forth? You wanted to connect people's online persona to the person standing in front you.

Or what if you had an event-wide scavenger hunt, where organizers have placed QR codes around the space based on clues and attendees can scan it to prove they found it?

Maybe even a trivia game where a user scans in the right answer and gets points while walking around the vendor hall?

This kind of controlled environment, where everyone has their smart phone on hand, where everyone has downloaded the QR-enabled event app, with strategically placed QR codes, either on people's name tags or on event collateral, is tailor-made for QR code use.

QR codes are worthless on billboards as people zip by them. And anyone who uses a QR link a regular link should have their geek card taken from them. But by generating more physical and virtual intersections, event organizers can make events more meaningful and effective. QR codes can be the bridge between our active online world and somewhat more real physical world.

Just because they don't make any sense in emails doesn't make they useless, it makes them improperly used.

James Ellis is the director of digital strategy at FLIRT Communications. His latest book, Google Analytics for Small Business is currently in beta. He's giving away discounted copies if you are willing to help make it even better.

LivingSocial, the D.C.-based daily deals site, says more than 50 million customer accounts may have been compromised by a cyberattack.

Customers' names, email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords stored on the company's servers may have been accessed, a company spokesman confirmed in an email to NBCWashington.

The first news of the hacking was reported by All Things Digital.

Credit card information was not accessed or affected, according to the company. Nor was merchants' financial or banking information.

LivingSocial suggests all customers change their passwords on their accounts. The company is in the process of emailing the customers who were affected to help them reset their passwords.

They are also working with law enforcement to investigate the breach.

"The security of our customer and merchant information is our priority," said LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy in the email to customers. "We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future."

Here is the email that LivingSocial is sending to affected customers:

Subject: An important update on your LivingSocial.com account

LivingSocial recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords -- technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.

Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one.

For your security, please create a new password for your <<email_address>> account by following the instructions below.
1. Visit LivingSocial.com
2. Click on the "Create a New Password" button (top right corner of the homepage)
3. Follow the steps to finish
We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s).

The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website – and require you to login – before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information.

If you have additional questions about this process, the "Create a New Password" button on LivingSocial.com will direct you to a page that has instructions on creating a new password and answers to frequently asked questions.

We are sorry this incident occurred, and we look forward to continuing to introduce you to new and exciting things to do in your community.

Tim O'Shaughnessy
CEO, LivingSocial
 

 

Anything whispered or commanded to Apple's virtual assistant can stay on Apple servers for up to two years, according to reports.

An Apple spokeswoman confirmed how long it keeps Siri data, Wired reported. However, spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the data on Apple servers is anonymized and only the company only collects the sound bytes to improve the virtual assistant.

Apple apparently assigns voice files a randomized number to represent an individual user and represents the user in voice analysis. After six months, Apple will take away a user number from the clip and delete the number. However, it still keeps the voice files for 18 or more months.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants Apple to link to its Siri privacy policy so users know that a person could reveal "sensitive things about you, your family or business" before they buy an Apple device.

Apple being forthright about how it uses its customer information would be a boost for consumer protection. However, Apple is notorious for not being a very forthright company. In fact, it seems to revel in its secrecy. So, can Apple be the proverbial leopard that changes its spots? Probably not.

After a pair of explosions rocked the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 150, millions took to social media to look for loved ones, let friends and family know they were OK, and to express sympathies for victims.

On Facebook, two disparate voices carried the day: the beloved children's TV host Mr. Rogers, who died in 2003, and comedian Patton Oswalt.

A black-and-white photo of a smiling Mr. Rogers made the rounds, with the caption, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Oswalt, a man best known for a wit that can be as merciless as it is acerbic, offered a reminder of the prevalence of good, one that took Rogers' point a step further:

You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out… This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness. 

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus... This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago. 

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

In addition to sharing these messages, many on Facebook changed their cover photo to a picture of the Boston skyline, and still others switched out their profile photo for the iconic "B" logo of the Boston Red Sox, or some other similar show of support.

Close to 50,000 Facebook users have joined a "virtual run" event that asks people to "run (or walk) any distance, anywhere and at anytime" to show solidarity in the running community.

NBC correspondent Ann Curry launched a new hashtag #26Acts2, which is an update to #26Acts - a Twitter call to arms for random acts of kindness in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A piece by Bruce Schneier of The Atlantic in which he implored readers to "Refuse to be terrorized," bore a headline that included the phrase "Keep Calm Carry On." Originally part of a 1939 propaganda campaign in England meant to boost morale, the phrase has of late developed something of a kitsch cool about it, but yesterday and today it was repeated with sincerity time and again on Twitter.

In the moments after the explosions, the Twitterverse was quickly flooded with the hashtag #prayforboston and some variation on the message, "You go to a movie, You get shot, You go to school, You get shot, You go to a marathon, You get bombed."

The terror in Boston also brought out attention-seeking charlatans. Twitter has already suspended a fake account, @_BostonMarathon, which claimed it would donate $1 to victims for each retweet.

But Google offered a stark counterpoint to fake Twitter accounts by establishing a "Person Finder" for the Boston Marathon, a site where people can look for or post information about loved ones. As of Tuesday morning, it was tracking more than 5,200 records.

The executive director of the Chicago Area Runner's Association, Wendy Jaehn, ran the Boston Marathon Monday morning along with roughly 974 Illinois runners who registered to participate.

The 2013 Boston Marathon ended abruptly, however, with explosions near the finish line. 

Jaehn said a majority of the runners from Chicago have been located and accounted for. 

The Boston Marathon web site offers a service that allows users to look up individual runners based on location of origin. Of the 974 Illinoisans who registered for the race, 361 hailed from within Chicago city limits.

"I don't think that anybody could have every fathomed that someone would think about doing this at a marathon," Jaehn said. "The timing that it went off, around the four hour mark of the marathon, that's really when the bulk of the runners start coming through with your average marathon finishing time, so it appears to have been designed for maximum impact and it's just sickening."

Jaehn's is at the airport waiting for a flight back to Chicago and using phone calls and social media to track down all the runners from the Chicago-land area. 

NBCChicago.com was able to speak with a few. 

Joey Cocco, 27 of Chicago, finished the race in 3 hours and 18 minutes and managed to cross the finish line before the explosions. He was already back to his hotel when the melee occurred and watched it unfold on the television. 

Sara Parks, a Senior from Marquette University, ran the 26.2 mile course and finished in 3 hours and 14 minutes. Parks crossed the finish before the explosions, but saw the aftermath from her nearby hotel. 

"It's so sad."  she said. "Now I'm glad I finished. ... the amount of runners, elbow to elbow through the chutes ..." 

Chicago Marathon Executive Director Carey Pinkowski was in Boston Monday morning and spoke to NBCChicago over the phone. He was at the airport heading back to Chicago. 

"It's just amazing," Pinkowski said.  "We're not sure exactly what happened but there were definitely two explosions and there were some injuries.

"[Chicago Marathon General Manager Mike Nishi] didn't know what that was at first, but it was concerning. As we do in Chicago, the Boston Marathon has a complete medical support at the finish line, so they were able to deploy medical personnel at the scene immediately. ... this is something that really sent -- wow, it's really emotional. Although it was at the ending of the race, there were still a lot of spectators in the area, people in the area, as a populated finish line is, but just -- very emotional by everyone. ... There are people here at the airport right now that had ran, that had friends that ran, so there's just a shock." 

The medical director for the Chicago Race, George Chiampas, said he believes the Boston medical team acted on instinct. 

At the moment when something like this occurs I think you just respond what you've been trained to do. After this, psychologically, I think a lot of people are going to need to kind of sit down and inhale and exhale and figure out what just occurred." he said. "Just like any city, every day that they wake up, they think about this, unfortunately since 9/11. The marathon is just like any other event that occurs, you wake up in the morning and you say, 'Hey, is our city safe? Is public safety in place?' and that's how we proceed with Chicago as, I'm sure, every other city."