Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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Pollsb Nabs $1.3 Million In Funding For Lousy Interactive Polling Widgets Top
Pollsb (short for Polls Boutique) has raised a Series A round of $1.3 million led by DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures and early-stage investors Zelkova Ventures and PhilQuo Ventures. The Tel-Aviv, Israel-based startup had previously raised $700,000 from incubator and seed funding provider Connector Media, which brings the total invested in the company to $2 million . Here’s how they pitch the service: Pollsb is your ticket for a self-discovery ride. Our ride will allow you to learn new things about yourself, and about the way others perceive you. It’ll help you get instant feedback, and ultimately assist you in developing what we call social identity. It’ll even introduce you to some pretty cool people and help you find some pretty cool stuff people like you seem to enjoy. The Pollsb ride is fueled by questions, on every topic in the world. Joining you on it are all the other active participants on Pollsb. The insights we provide you stem from where you stand in relation to them. If that sounds a little vague, it’s because it is. But I signed up for the service and discovered it is in fact a - gasp - polling application platform (slash social network), and quite frankly not the best one I’ve ever come across. Pollsb lets you create polls and mini-surveys based on text, photo, video and/or audio, assign a category to it, tag it and turn it into a widget (see example below). The poll can be shared with the Pollsb community and by e-mail, but the process also involves the creation of embed code with direct integration to WordPress, Blogger and TypePad blogs. The user experience is really below par in my opinion, and the widgets are fairly limited (only 5 answers per poll, for example). Pollsb also seems a little thin on the business model front; I doubt placing default Google AdSense advertising units will prove to be enough to give their new investors a return any time soon. They also invite advertisers to buy into their “innovative, tailor-made solutions to engage their precise target audience, tapping into their needs, preferences and opinions” but it’s not clear how they go about this. As I was writing this, I got an e-mail from someone at Pollsb who saw the poll I created for testing purposes telling me that the polling part of the service is only the “fuel that facilitates what they’re trying to do”, which is help users and companies learn new things about themselves, get quick self-feedback, and brainstorm with others. Fair enough, but good luck telling the rest of the world that you’re not a polling application. create a free poll on pollsb.com CrunchBase Information Pollsb Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Huddle adds OpenSocial apps to Intercall conference calls Top
We don’t often report on distribution deals startups make with big companies. But it’s significant that InterCall , the world’s largest conference call provider, is to give each of their 1 million customers an account with UK-based Huddle . The UK startup has built a suite of social collaboration applications which were good enough to make it the only non-US partner for LinkedIn when it added a bunch of OpenSocial apps recently (alongside the likes of Amazon and Google). Huddle is still running on a $4 million Series A round from 2007 from UK VC Eden Ventures , but revenues are coming in at the same time from premium features and enterprise accounts from the likes of UNICEF and even some US government departments. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Modu Comes Out Of The Woodwork With A Truly Innovative Mobile Offering Top
Modu , the heavily-funded Israel-based modular phone manufacturer that enables you to slip a light mobile device into a variety of so-called “jackets” (think music players, other cellphones, car stereos, digital cameras, etc.), is prepping its big commercial launch for this year by unveiling its family of phones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress. The actual sales for the device will start at the beginning of next quarter. Modu started teasing everyone in January last year, and revealed what it had in store a month after. Crunchgear’s John Biggs dubbed it cool but flawed , but this was all way before the company ever had something to show for its promises and - meanwhile - over $85 million in venture capital funding . Well, now they do. At the heart of the Modu ecosystem is a small modular mobile phone (the lightest one available according to the Guiness Book of World Records) that comes with complete mobile functionality but also doubles as both a music player and a mass storage device (2 GB). The modu phone boasts a seven-key keypad to perform basic functions even without a jacket, but it’s really the jackets that make the product unique. Straight from the press release, the freshly unveiled Modu jacket line-up includes: Night jacket: inspired by the nightlife scene, this jacket includes futuristic styling with an edgy keypad, flashing lights, night mode imaging and a unique graphical user interface Street-art jacket: capturing the expressive and vibrant street art scene, this jacket fea tures stereo speak ers and dedicated music keys for a powerful music experience Classic jacket: designed to fit the everyday needs of a modern lifestyle, this jacket carries all essential mobile communication features with an air of elegance and fine taste Express jacket: this jacket transforms the modu phone and user interface with a rain bow of fun, playful flavors Pictures: More jackets will be announced in the course of this year. The jury is still out if Modu is onto something here, but it’s refreshing to see a company in the mobile industry risk such a bold move and truly try to innovate the space. I’m curious to find out what else they’ll announce at the Mobile World Congress; they’re promising more news on “global distribution of the Modu phone and jackets, with a significant initial order; partnership agreements; new product news; and manufacturing and production capabilities”. Modu was founded in 2007 by Dov Moran , the inventor of the USB Flash Drive (he was the founder, Chairman and CEO of M-systems, acquired by SanDisk Corp for $1.6B at the end of 2006), and you can hear him explain the product in the interview embedded below. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
And Twitter Goes Down Again Top
We’d have never thought breaking the news of Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey joining Ustream’s board of advisors would have that much of an effect on the micro-sharing service. As of 11:19 AM CET, Twitter is down for the count, which brings back a lot of memories here at TechCrunch. I hate to pimp services I was involved in myself, but since it’s a non-commercial, fun project: Twiddict should be able to queue up your tweets for when Twitter comes back again (yes, it asks for your user name and password and no, we won’t do anything wrong with it). Update: half an hour of downtime now, Twitter Status is silent. I’m getting my Fail Whale T-shirt. Update 2: the error image (see below) switched to a bogus ‘database maintenance’ claim, with a message saying they’ll back in 30 minutes. Update 3: it’s back (12:08 AM CET). Nearly an hour without tweeting; go catch up now. Update 4: this update on the Twitter Status blog says it was a database problem and the site was down for about an hour indeed. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Twitter's Jack Dorsey Joins Ustream.tv Advisory Board Top
Twitter co-founder - and former CEO - Jack Dorsey is stepping in as an advisor to Ustream.tv , the popular live video community site. By now, you will / should have read about how Twitter came to be and how vital the role of Dorsey was to the whole story, essentially laying the groundworks for the real-time updating service we’ve all come to love (or not understand). This history prompts Ustream.tv’s co-founder and CEO John Ham to state that “Jack has changed the internet forever”, which is a little over the top but no doubt his experience with real-time culture and the pains of scaling rapidly growing internet services will be a big help to the Mountain View, CA-based startup. Dorsey is the third outsider to join Ustream’s Advisory Board, after General Wesley Clark and Former Head of Monetization at YouTube Shashi Seth . The company has raised over $13 million to date but faces stiff competition from similar services like Stickam , Kyte , Justin.TV and Mogulus (to name but a few), so it can use all the advice it gets. Update: Twitter needs some advice too. The service is currently down for the count as from around 11:19 AM CET (aaah, memories). Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Yumbunny: Crowd-Sourced Matchmaking With Hilarious Results Top
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Yumbunny is a new matchmaking site that relies on ‘the crowd’ to help you pick out your future mate. The site presents two people side by side, asking users to vote if they look like they’re meant for each other (it also presents a brief list of the things they like and dislike, so you can get a feel for their personalities). The end result is ridiculously superficial, but it’s also a fun guilty pleasure reminiscent of Hot or Not (some of the matches have left me laughing hysterically). The site’s biggest draws are its widgets, which allow you to embed Yumyum matching into your blog or social network profiles. You can get either a widget that pits two randoms against each other every time, or one that always features your photo as one half of the pair (presumably this is the widget you’d embed if you were actually trying to use the site to find a match). As an extra incentive to vote on other matches, the more active you are on Yumyum, the more often your photo will be shown to other users. And if at any time you come across a match you think one of your friends might like, you can Email them a recommendation. At the end of the week the site Emails you a list of your best matches, as decided by the general population. If you’d like to initiate contact, it charges $2.99 for unlimited conversation. Given the fact that the site doesn’t seem to take region into account at all, I have a hard time believing that many people will find their true love on Yumbunny. But I really hope that someone can prove me wrong - the commercials for this thing would be hilarious. We should note that Engage.com does something very similar, but has less of a focus on widgets. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Tsavo Strays From The Acquisition Model, Develops Three Lifestyle Blogs Top
Start-up Tsavo Media , an online media network started by UserPlane founder Mike Jones , has officially added a trio of new blogs, Manolith , Twirlit and KidGlue to its growing media mini-empire. Tsavo, who has appeared to implement a growth by acquisition strategy since its start in September, opted to develop the three blogs in-house. Tsavo is trying to tailor digital content directly to a consumer’s online experience. Twirlit, which includes content showcasing celebrity gossip, fashion, food and beauty; and Manolith, which features posts on gadgets, style and men’s health; are both blogs targeted at consumers in their mid-20s to mid-40s. Kidglue rounds out the mix with resources and news for parents. Last week, Tsavo announced the acquisition of popular foodie recipe site OpenSourceFood, which has been integrated into its search aggregator and network, Daymix, under the name NibbleDish . Daymix serves as both a platform for the blogs and as a giant automated search technology. Through Daymix, users can not only search for personalized content, but can also create and embed widgets of their favorite topic searches. See the Michael Arrington widget below. Tsavo also recently created a nifty Twitter-based search engine called Twithority . Funded by deep-pocketed private equity firm American Capital, Tsavo has made several acquisitions since its birth, including the publishing assets of Canadian digital media network MoxyMedia and the online marketing and search engine optimization firm Better. We speculated last year about how Tsavo and American Capital are good fit for each other in terms of implementing an expansion by acquisition strategy. While some compare Tsavo to new media network Demand Media, Jones doesn’t agree. He prefers for Tsavo to be compared to a smaller Hearst Media, CNET or even parts of Sugar Inc.’s blog platform. It should be interesting to see how Tsavo continues to differentiate itself from the aforementioned (and well-established) digital media networks in the future. Michael Arrington on Daymix See full results » embed this widget Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Law Firm Blunder Reveals Value Of Facebook Payout To ConnectU: $65 Million Top
The founders of ConnectU were apparently paid as much as $65 million in cash and Facebook stock to settle their longstanding dispute with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, according to an ad unearthed by The Recorder this morning. The advertisment was placed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, the lawfirm that represented ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendr up until spring of last year, and includes a listing of all of Quinn’s successes over 2008, proclaiming that “It’s Our Opponents Who Need A Bailout.” Listed among the victories was the Facebook claim - a bizarre move given the great lengths all parties involved took to ensure that the press would not learn the details of the settlement. From the article in The Recorder : Lawyers in the heavyweight fight had expended great effort to keep the settlement secret — even going as far as persuading a judge to clear the courtroom of reporters on one occasion. But ConnectU’s former lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges published the settlement amount in a firm advertisement trumpeting the firm’s prowess…. The disclosure was apparently inadvertent. Firm Chairman John Quinn asked The Recorder to not print the amount, citing the confidentiality provision, and declined to comment further. Because neither Facebook nor Quinn are willing to discuss the ad, it’s unclear how much of the settlement was paid out in equity and cash, or the valuation of the Facebook stock (it may have been based on the vaunted $15 billion valuation established by Microsoft’s ad deal 2007, while recent internal valuations are only around a quarter of that). Given the fact that it’s in Quinn’s best interest to claim the highest figure possible and the apparent lack of judgment from the ad’s writer, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual value of the settlement is significantly less. The case centered on ConnectU’s claims that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their intellectual property and code to build the hugely popular social network, and has dragged on for years. As The Recorder and other publications have noted, the payout is not necessarily an admission of guilt on Facebook’s part - the company may well have just wanted to put the case (and the associated negative press) behind it. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Qik and Boingo Wireless to announce partnership Top
Like all mobile video broadcasting solutions, Qik works at its best when it’s granted access to a nice fat WiFi pipeline. But beyond their living rooms, their local coffee shop, and that one street corner where they can pick up WiFi signal if they hold their laptop just right, most people don’t have a very wide array of WiFi spots available to them - not without hotspot-by-hotspot fees, at least. Looking to make full-breadth broadcasting on the go a bit more accessible, Qik and Boingo Wireless , a nationwide WiFi provider, will be announcing a partnership later today. Under the partnership, Qik users (or anyone who makes use of the Qik-themed signup page ) will get a free month of Boingo’s Mobile service (which usually goes for just shy of 8 bucks), allowing them to hook their mobile handsets up to any of Boingo’s roughly 80,000 hotspots around the world. Boingo’s already got WiFi spots in a number of airports, McDonalds, Starbucks, and a laundry list of other major chains, so their offerings go together with Qik quite well. If you’re considering making use of the deal, know that a credit card is required and that it’ll auto-renew at the end of the month; such terms are commonplace now, but as someone who tends to forget to cancel trials I don’t want, I figured it was worth a mention. Boingo has been offering an identical deal directly for some time, but this partnership highlights the potential money model for Qik and its competing services. By passively pointing out compatible companion services to their users, they’re able to bring in revenue without forcing pre-stream blurps or other sorts of advertisements down the user’s throat. We’ve confirmed that this is a revenue sharing deal between Qik and Boingo, though we’re not sure what sort of cut they’re getting. Qik will be promoting the deal with a community blog post, a listing on a partner page which will go live later today, and by featuring it on the user profile editing page (which every new user sees at least once), but won’t be advertising the deal within the Qik mobile application. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Why no multitouch on the G1? Because Apple said so. Top
When the G1 launched back in October, a common question clanged through the halls: wheres the multitouch? When a few clever minds managed to patch in their own multitouch support, proving that the hardware could handle it, things got even more perplexing. Had Google just not ironed out the multitouch workings enough to support it in this first device, or had Apple’s patent stranglehold scared them away? According to details given to VentureBeat by an Android team member, it’s something along the lines of the latter. If their source’s retellings ring true, Apple “asked” Google not to make multitouch a part of the device. it’s unclear whether “asked” here means “Please don’t include multitouch support” or “Please don’t include multitouch support, or our lawyers will eat your face.” The source also adds that they were glad Google didn’t challenge Apple’s request. Google and Apple have a rather strong relationship, especially in the mobile realm - the iPhone comes out of the box with Google Maps installed, Google’s search engine in the browser’s top bar, and Apple has seemingly turned their heads on the fact that Google’s voice search application relies on restricted APIs . While it might work out for everyone involved for the time being, I can’t imagine it’ll stay that way for long. Heavy marketing of the capabilities of many-fingered input on Apple’s part has made it a look-for feature, and no manufacturer wants to be on the wrong side of a trend. Palm seems to be moving forward with the Pre (which makes heavy use of multitouch), regardless of the threat of litigation by Apple’s COO Tim Cook. Multitouch has become a staple and, if they have hopes for Android to be successful as a platform (beyond the initial rush of device’s we’ll likely see at Mobile World Congress next week), Google will have to find a way to offer it. It’s highly unlikely that a simple request from Apple has scared Google from multitouch altogether. What’s more likely is that multitouch support is being developed and maintained throughout the platform, but in a seperate (and private) development branch - in other words, “behind the scenes”. When an end to the dispute is reached, be it by Apple licensing the patent (probably not going to happen) or losing the legal ability to dictate who can detect two fingers rather than one (more likely), Google could be ready. As we’ve seen through the user-made demos, Android supports multitouch with just a few lines of code in the right places; with a few quick switches, multitouch could be sent out to the masses. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
TicketMaster and Live Nation Agree to $2.5 Billion Merger Top
This could be good news for the music industry, which suffers from steadily declining record sales and stands to benefit from more ticket sales for live performances. Or just another last-ditch measure to save itself from an inevitable death and rebirth. According to Paidcontent, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have entered into a definitive agreement to merge into an entity called Live Nation Entertainment. From the release: The companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $2.5 billion. Under the agreement, Ticketmaster shareholders will receive 1.384 shares of Live Nation common stock for each share of Ticketmaster they own, subject to certain adjustments defined within the agreement. Live Nation and Ticketmaster shareholders will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company. The new company anticipates generating approximately $40 million of operating synergies through the combination of their ticketing, marketing, data centers and back-office functions. Ticketmaster specializes in online ticketing whereas Live Nation focuses on concert promotions. They will still have to go through regularly review before the merger can be completed, and as Paidcontent points out , there will be those in the music industry that create stiff resistance to this consolidation of power (especially with Ticketmaster’s reputation for monopolizing ticket sales on its own). Eliot Van Buskirk from Wired suggests that the merger “could lead to a dramatic change in how event tickets are sold: from the fixed price norm that often results in quick sellouts for popular shows to an auction-based model that legitimizes what scalpers have always done.” The rationale: If Live Nation and Ticketmaster merge, the combined entity could bypass the primary ticketing system partially or completely, forcing fans to bid against each other for tickets in Ticketmaster’s TicketsNow secondary market rather than selling them at a fixed price in the primary ticket market, the way they have done in the past. This is not the first time Live Nation and Ticketmaster will have worked together. According to Barry Diller, who’s Chairman of Ticketmaster, “It was less than two months ago that Ticketmaster ended its 10-year partnership with Live Nation.” The Wall Street Journal first reported that the two companies were close to making a merger announcement early Monday morning. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Google's PowerMeter Project: For When The Web's Data Is Not Enough Top
Google has announced its plan to help consumers gain better information about their personal electricity usage. The plan, which is listed on Google’s philanthropic website , promotes the adoption of smart electricity meters in homes across the world. These smart meters are better than regular meters because they can provide detailed information about usage rates throughout the day, theoretically letting consumers make smarter decisions about when to leave the lights on or when to run the dryer. But since installing these devices in homes won’t automatically make the information they gather available to users, Google is also developing a software tool called Google PowerMeter (presumably a web app) that puts this information at people’s finger tips. We can only guess that the graph below is something that this application would produce, since Google hasn’t showed any of it off to the general public yet. The application is currently being beta tested internally by Googlers and will stay that way as Google tries to build partnerships with “utilities and independent device manufacturers”. Personally, I find this type of Google project the most exciting. The search giant is using its weight to bring data online that currently exists in a very offline realm. As Google calls it, the electrical utilities system we still use is very “1950s-era”. Who’s jaw hasn’t dropped after looking at their electricity bill at the end of a cold winter month? This sort of situation shouldn’t happen in the information age. Google is in a unique position to tackle large-scale projects like this one because of its clout and resources. It can throw its weight behind lobbying, development, and partnership efforts all at the same time. That’s why we see Google, and not startups, successfully pursuing projects like digitizing the world’s books and collecting panoramic images from every street across the country. Google’s competitive advantage over more nimble startups is the ability to actually add hard data to the internet while others are just trying to organize what’s already available (or are depending on “social” data that comes straight from consumers’ heads). Since an important part of Google’s mission statement is to make the information it organizes universally available, we can expect to see the company aggregate the data it collects from individual consumers to provide statistics about usage trends and whatnot. This ultimately has to be what Google has in mind, since simply saving consumers 5-15% on their monthly bill doesn’t warrant such an ambitious undertaking. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Miro Gets A Makeover Top
Miro , an open-source HD video player we wrote about in 2007 , launched Miro 2.0, an updated, re-designed, more powerful video player. Several new features have been added to spruce up Miro, including faster performance and torrent downloads, the ability to stream shows from websites like Hulu and YouTube on the sidebar,and the ability to play videos in a separate video. Similar to the 1.0 version, Miro allows users to search for and download video podcasts from sources but Miro is offering a greater selection of video podcasts for users. Miro, a BitTorrent-enabled, Firefox-like open-source application was built by non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation and boasts of more than 4 million downloads in 2008. Miro is in direct competition with video player Joost and lists all of its advantages over its rival here . Perhaps the recent make-over of Miro isn’t just an update of the application but also a move to keep up with the growth its competitor has seen in the past few months. Joost’s viewership recently picked up steam after the company moved away from the use of downloaded software to an all-browser video experience. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Tvinci Raises $1.6 Million For Custom Internet TV Solutions Top
Tel Aviv, Israel-based Tvinci has raised a Series A round of funding to the tune of $1.6 million led by private investors Zohar Gilon and Ron Tamir’s Keidan Capital Group. The startup specializes in the creation of customizable turnkey video environments (both live and on-demand) for mobile operators and pay-TV providers. Tvinci broadly defines its target group, citing online publishers, broadcasting networks, ISPs, mobile and pay TV operators among its potential customers. It essentially offers them a media management platform that includes an interactive video player, aimed at maximizing monetization of studio-quality content on the net. For consumers, Tvinci enables the process of locating, purchasing and watching professionally produced video content. Examples can be viewed at the websites for MTV Poland and Orange Israel’s entertainment portal . When Tvinci launched its custom video platform for MTV Israel, we concuded that they made it look better than MTV.com (best watched here due to country-specific copyright restrictions). Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Trackle Feeds You Personalized RSS Top
Silicon Valley start-up Trackle.com is launching the public beta of its personalized Google Alerts to track pretty much everything in an internet user’s life. Trackle’s technology and interface is innovative and disarmingly comprehensive. It provides real-time personalized RSS feeds of the latest crime in a user’s neighborhood, fluctuating airline ticket prices, how much a user’s house value is down this week, updated job listings, sports scores and much more. The breadth and specificity of Trackle’s information is what differentiates itself from other RSS tracking applications like Google Alerts, Yotify and Notify.me . Trackle doesn’t just search for keywords, it incorporates change into the keywords and provides up-to-date, highly customized information about ever-fluctuating internet content. For example, if a user is eyeing a camera on sale at Amazon.com but only wants to spend $200, Trackle will monitor the sale and provide you updates of when the camera price reaches $200. Trackle keeps all of this information on the user’s personalized site but the user can also choose to receive the real-time alerts via SMS and e-mail. Imagine if a user is bidding on an Ebay item; Trackle claims to give real-time price updates on an auctioned item. For free. So who’s behind this nifty idea? Trackle was founded by Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur Pavan Nigam and technology executive Naveen Saxea. Nigam was the founder of Healtheon (a health care start-up that merged with WebMD in 1999) and Cendura (a start-up that was acquired by Computer Associates in 2006). Trackle, who has received seed funding by NEA (New Enterprise Associates) and other angel investors, hopes to morph into “the PayPal of tracking systems” by having a “Trackle” button on websites, such as retail sites, to allow a user to track content instantaneously. Trackle has already started thinking towards the future by incorporating elements of social networking into the interface. For example, a user can Tweet a Trackle update via Twitter to friends and users can also share their Trackle updates with accepted friends. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Twitter To Start Charging Companies For Having An Account? Top
Companies using Twitter for commercial purposes may soon start getting charged for that activity, according to an interview British trade magazine Marketing (part of BrandRepublic) held with co-founder Biz Stone. This is what Stone reportedly said: “We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts.” No big surprises there, as this is often cited as one of the most obvious moves Twitter could make to start generating revenue, although many are expecting more from the startup who has become notorious for its lack of an apparent business model even after nearly 3 years of existence. Stone also said they will not start charging individual users, and that the move could “create revenue-generating features to tap into the way brands use Twitter as a hybrid marketing and customer-service tool.” Stone did not give any details regarding pricing or the specific way Twitter would go about charging users and for what exactly. As a reminder: the startup has raised $20 million in venture capital to date and recently turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook . One of the most recent examples of companies using Twitter for commercial purposes is Dell, who reportedly made $1 million in sales during the holidays via the micro-sharing utility, and recently started giving discounts exclusively to its followers . We’ll see more of this type of behavior in the future beyond any shred of doubt, but I’m wondering what exactly is considered as ‘commercial usage’ by Twitter management: does it mean any way of promoting a product or service or only when there’s sales activity connected to the corporate accounts? And will companies be prepared to pay up for use of the service at all? Marketing got in touch with Bob Pearson, VP of communities and conversations at Dell, with that exact question and got a telling response: “If it becomes complicated and costly, our instinct would be to move elsewhere.” Update: as Peter Kafka points out in comments, there was good article two days ago in New York Magazine which reveals a little more of where Twitter is headed. Update 2: Twitter’s Biz Stone has written a post related to the rumors: However, it’s important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we’re thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services. We are still very early in the idea stage and we don’t have anything to share just yet despite a recent surge in speculation. When we do, we’ll be sure to let you know. (Picture from Profy , hat tip to Matt from Made by Many ) Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Oodle Shows Decent Growth, Adds $5.6 Million More To Its War Chest Top
Online classifieds service Oodle is reporting decent growth in the first month of 2009 with over 10 million visits (both Quantcast and Compete reflect a significant traffic surge ). Add to that the fact that social networking juggernaut Facebook has selected the company to power its classified listings application and you know they’re on to something over at the San Mateo, CA-based startup. Its investors seem to agree, as they have just injected more capital in Oodle: Greylock Partners, JAFCO Ventures and Redpoint Ventures are adding another $5.6 million to the startup’s war chest, bringing the total amount invested in the company to $21.6 million . Oodle is already powering the classified listings for MySpace , and the roll-out for the Facebook Platform is supposed to start this quarter, effectively replacing an in-house solution (Facebook Marketplace) in favor of a product developed by an outside company, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a recent interview with Michael Arrington. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Goodrec Launches Its Mobile-Friendly Online Review Site To The Public Top
Goodrec , a recommendation site that was first introduced at TechCrunch50, has launched its online review hub to the public alongside a new iPhone application. The site differentiates itself from other similar sites by keeping reviews short and sweet - users can rate an item as either ‘Thumbs Up’, ‘Mixed Bag’, or ‘Thumbs Down’, and can include only 160 characters of text. The site also covers a very broad range of items, which include restaurants, music, nightlife hotspots, or anything else users submit. You can find the main site at Goodrec.com , and can grab the free iPhone application here . At launch the site is pre-populated with venues and items relating to nightlife, books, music, and restaurants, but users will be able to add reviews to anything else (they’ll just have to add the product or location first). Users can also request that friends review a given item by sending invitations to through peers through Facebook or Email. CEO Mihir Shah says that since TechCrunch50, the site has compiled over 100,000 recommendation from its beta testers, the majority of which were submitted through the site’s iPhone application. Shah says that because of the brevity of its reviews, Goodrec is better suited for mobile reviewing than competitors like Yelp , which doesn’t allow users to submit reviews from its iPhone app (likely because the site prefers longer reviews). Aside from the main standalone application, Goodrec is also offering free apps that focus on each category the site covers (the first will be called GoodFood and will offer restaurant recommendations, with more to follow). The site also has plans to quickly expand to other mobile platforms. The site’s Thumbs Up or Down rating system is also taking a different approach, shying away from the typical 5-star system seen elsewhere. Shah notes that as most review sites compile dozens of reviews for a given item, the average usually approaches three stars, making it difficult to tell if the restaurant or attraction is worth checking out. Goodrec presents these thumbs in a counter form (Digg does something similar), allowing users to immediately tell how positive reviews are without having to read through them. Goodrec’s biggest problem will clearly lie in getting users, as Sean Parker noted during the site’s presentation at TechCrunch50. With competitors that have compiled years worth of reviews, Goodrec will need to quickly build a catalog of content for it to stay competitive. That said, Shah says the site is off to a good start, averaging over 20,000 restaurant reviews a month in its beta stage. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Facebook Activates "Like" Button; FriendFeed Tires Of Sincere Flattery Top
Facebook has just activated a new feature that allows users to leave “Like” labels on photos, notes, and other items across the network. The feature, which is nearly identical to one on FriendFeed , was first seen in a demo video last month but has not been available to the public. According to Facebook’s blog post on the feature, users will be able to say that they “Like” something whenever they leave a comment. It appears that the feature is being gradually being rolled out, because I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Facebook has stepped on FriendFeed’s toes with a few other features, including the ability to import activity items from third party sites into your News Feed and the fusion of microblogging with activity streams . We should note that it was Facebook that really popularized activity streams in the first place, and these improvements may well have come about eventually even without FriendFeed’s inspiration. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
As IM Finally Begins To Open Up, Yahoo And Microsoft Cling To The Stone Age Top
Last week Meebo and Facebook teamed to launch the first integration of Facebook Connect + Chat, allowing Meebo users to chat with their Facebook friends from the popular web-based IM service. The feature has had a rocky history: Meebo used an unsanctioned method to integrate Facebook Chat in December, then temporarily disabled it at Facebook’s request. And while many were quick to point the finger at Facebook (which has had a history of bullying some third party services), as it turns out the site was eager to help Meebo, and is likely open to helping other third parties. The announcement is the latest in a series of policy changes that indicate that instant messaging is finally starting to open up, representing a paradigm shift could potentially lead to a slew of innovations. That is, as soon as the largest remaining holdouts - Yahoo and Microsoft - follow suit. Historically, IM has existed on closed and proprietary systems, with dedicated clients that can only connect to a single network. For many years users with accounts on multiple networks (say, AOL and MSN), would have to keep multiple programs open, which ate up system resources and cluttered desktops. By 2000 a handful of clients emerged that would allow users to manage multiple IM accounts from a single program. These stayed largely under the radar until 2002, when a client called Trillian hit 1 million downloads (and then jumped to 5 million six months later). Prompted by the application’s growing popularity and incensed by the fact that users no longer had to use its official client, AOL attempted to block Trillian in early 2002, though the application’s developers would release patches very quickly to un-break the service. Yahoo and MSN attempted to enact similar measures against third party clients with limited success, as their restrictions were quickly cracked. Eventually the battles between third party IM clients and the networks died down to a simmer - third-party programs would rely on open-sourced plugins to access the chat networks, and would be quickly updated if anything broke. The networks seemed to gradually accept the fact that these clients would persist, but wouldn’t do anything to help get their workarounds to function correctly (and oftentimes advanced features like file transfer didn’t). Finally, in 2006 some chinks started to appear in IM’s armor. Google launched Gtalk , a chat client built on the open standard Jabber protocol. Meebo, a popular web-based multi protocol client, launched at around the same time, and along with other clients encouraged sites to begin opening their protocols to third parties. Gradually AOL’s AIM network began to get in on the action, first with Open AIM 1.0 (which really wasn’t open at all, as it was primarily concerned with plugins and status updates) and later in 2008 with Open AIM 2.0 . The second iteration of Open AIM offers third party web services like Meebo and native clients like Adium a sanctioned way to access the network. More recently, the social networks have also begun to also grant access to Meebo and some other third parties, though most of them aren’t quite open (at least not yet). MySpace worked with meebo to launch support in December, and the aforementioned Facebook support was added last week. It’s clear that progress is being made, but there are still two major holdouts: Microsoft’s Window Live Messenger (AKA MSN) and Yahoo Messenger. The two networks have teamed to let their users talk to each other, but everyone else is out of luck. Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg says that he has reached out to both companies, but that neither of them are willing to offer a sanctioned way to access their networks. He notes that while Meebo’s integration with MSN and Yahoo are secure, he’d prefer to use the standards established by the networks themselves. A lack of ‘official’ third party access is also likely the reason why the networks have not been integrated into Gmail Chat ( AIM has ). Sternberg points out the parallels between IM and SMS messaging, which has grown to become a massive market that now sees over 2 trillion messages sent per year. While SMS might seem ubiquitous now, for years major carriers didn’t support inter-network texting (you could only send messages to contacts using the same carrier). It wasn’t until these networks opened up that SMS became the norm, spurring incredible growth and widespread innovation (you can now use SMS to order pizza , look up stock prices, and get directions). IM is also ripe for innovation, but developers have been hampered by a near-complete lack of cooperation from the major IM networks. Perhaps developers will take advantage of the growing number of networks that are open, adding new features that make them attractive to users still stuck on the old behemoths. Then Yahoo and Microsoft might be compelled to finally change - or perish. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Picturesurf: Dead-Simple Photo Galleries For Bloggers Top
Picturesurf , a new Wordpress plugin that allows bloggers to quickly build photo galleries, has launched to the public. Instead of having to waste time cropping and resizing thumbnail photos (and then embedding them into annoying HTML tables), Picturesurf allows users to simply select and upload a number of photos from their desktop, which are then automatically resized and arranged in standard CSS. The plugin is available in the WordPress plugin directory, or you can grab it at the Picturesurf homepage , which also includes directions. Founder Alan Rutledge says that while there are other galleries available for bloggers, Picturesurf is primarily targeting large blogs looking to “convert their images into cash”. Because the gallery can place ads alongside each image (as opposed to just seeing a blank page using embedded .png or .jpg files), bloggers can more effectively monetize their images while saving users from having to constantly hit the ‘back’ button. The plugin is also optimized for SEO purposes, and will work with RSS feed readers (typically galleries using Flash or Javascript don’t work in RSS readers). And because these images link back to the blog itself, Rutledge says that it could help bloggers more effectively monetize their RSS feeds. While this is the first time the plugin has been publicly announced, Picturesurf has been quietly available for some time and has been integrated into over 3,000 blogs. Rutledge reports that on average, bloggers are seeing ad impressions double using the plugin as opposed to their standard thumbnail galleries (users are also clicking more images because of the increased convenience). We’ve been trying out the plugin on some of our image-heavy blogs (including CrunchGear ), and have been pleased with how easy it is to create the galleries - it sure beats doing them by hand, as we used to . We should note that Picturesurf isn’t Rutledge’s first startup venture - while a student at Berkeley he and three other students built a small mobile startup that was acquired by iLike . Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 

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