Friday, February 6, 2009

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Join The Travelling Circus Of TechCrunch Events In Europe Top
Here’s a heads-up about some TechCrunch events we are planning to put on in Europe in the first half of this year. The format of the events follows a simple formula: afternoon panel discussions involving tech startups and the investment community, followed by relaxed evening networking. Where possible we will live video stream the events onto TechCrunch. We bill these sessions as as “TechCrunchTalk”. The aim is to both network the disparate community of European startups together, whilst also providing an insight into how the European tech scene works for those outside. We have done our best to “synchronise” with other events on the European circuit like like Seedcamp , OpenCoffee so that we’ll be in a city around the same time as many of the key players on the scene. We’ve also tried to avoid clashes with larger European events like Plugg , The Next Web , Next 09 , and Le Web , among others. For each event we’ll be looking for entrepreneurs and VCs for the panel discussions in the locations listed. So if you are potentially available, throw your hat into the ring by contacting Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK . And some events may also have a ’startup pitch’ element as well, with startups selected by TechCrunch UK editorial. We are always interested in hearing about venues in these locations - ideally someone with a big office space that can host about 150-200 people. TechCrunchTalk events will be covered on TechCrunch UK and cross-posted to TechCrunch.com. Plus, wherever possible, they will be video streamed live onto TechCrunch so you can get a heads-up on the European scene from wherever you are. We already have a live streaming partner for one event, Floobs , but we’re interested in hearing about more. And of course we have a range of sponsorship packages available. If you would like information on the sponsor packages please email our European events co-ordinator Petra Johansson of Twisted Tree Events on petra@twistedtree.co.uk If you are a member of the press wanting to cover any of the forthcoming events in some way, please email our PR co-ordinator Rassami Hök Ljungberg of Rassami PR on rassami@rassami.com If you want to come to any of these events please go grab tickets where they are available for the early bird prices. An if you wish to be on the mailing list for information about ALL the up-coming events, sign up on our Amiando account here : We also now have a dedicated page on TechCrunch UK for these events . Outside of these dates I (Mike Butcher) will be attending many of the other European tech events and am available as a speaker or moderator. The dates we have so far (other events are planned for the second half of the year) are: Barcelona 19th February - “Mobile 2.0″ event alongside Mobile World Congress Topic: The future for Mobile 2.0 startups. Get Tickets More Info here Sponsors so far: LiveCLIQ Inc. Paris 25th February - The day after Seedcamp Topic: Building the Tech scene in France, scaling across Europe and the world. Get Tickets Warsaw 19th March - Central European event for tech startups & VCs Topic: Re-engineering the Central European tech scene - What’s next? Get Tickets London 21st April Topic: A day-long event for UK & other European startups. More details to follow Sign up for further info Stockholm 27th May - Nordic and the Baltic states event for startups and VCs Topic: Connecting Northern Europe - Where are the strong and weak links? Sign up for further info Berlin 10th June – More details to follow Topic: How does Berlin and Germany become a key node for European Tech? Sign up for further info London 9th July – TechCrunch Summer-Party Topic: Party! Sign up for further info Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
IMO.IM Is The Best IM Web Service You've Never Heard Of Top
With all the talk about Meebo adding support for Facebook chat yesterday, I took notice of a message in our tips inbox today about another instant messaging aggregator service that I’d never heard of before adding support for Skype chat. IMO.IM is its name, it’s still in alpha stage (whatever that means), and it’s actually pretty neat. First, the good. IMO.IM is simple, web-based service that doesn’t require you to register, comes with a desktop version for Windows and supports multiple languages. It can handle text, voice and video conversations on the most important instant messaging services including Windows Live Messenger / MSN, AIM / ICQ, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Gtalk as well as - and correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is a first - Skype. I tried using the service on my iPhone (no app, just browse to the website) and it worked seamlessly. Update: Nimbuzz also supports Skype chat. The bad? No Mac or Linux desktop application and no Facebook chat (yet), but that’s about the only things we could come up with for an otherwise awesome little product. According to this blog post , IMO.IM has some other great stuff in the pipeline, including text to speech and vice versa functionality in all languages, face and object recognition, smart advertising, 3D emoticons and avatars, offline access, and more. Consider me subscribed to that blog to learn when those features become available. Also worth noting is that IMO.IM was co-founded by Georges Harik , one of the first 10 employees at Google and manager of several of its early products. He’s also an active angel investor; he invested in our competitor Venturebeat so he’s lucky to get written up here at all (please note the sarcasm), and a handful of other internet startups which you can check out in his Crunchbase profile. Also, FriendFeed co-founders and also ex-Googlers Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh are listed as advisors to IMO.IM. Surprised that they haven’t enjoyed more buzz so far. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Gmail Adds Support For Multi-Pane Viewing Top
A new feature in Gmail Labs just launched, giving users the ability to simultaneously view multiple panes in Gmail without having to open another browser window. For users that frequently label their messages and have saved searches, this is a huge upgrade that will make Gmail even more efficient. Since launching, Gmail users looking to view search results or a subset of their labeled messages saw their results take up their entire browser window. Now, you’ll be able to do multiple things at once. To enable the feature, first activate Gmail Labs for your account, then enable “Multiple Inboxes” from the list of Labs options (you’ll have to scroll down a bit to find it). The term Multiple Inboxes is a bit of a misnomer - you can’t actually show messages from other accounts, but that could still come in a future Labs release. To set up your panes, go to the Gmail Settings menu and select “Multiple Inboxes” (once you’ve enabled them). From there, you can create up to five different panes. Creating a pane seems to be a little counter-intuitive - you’ll need to manually enter the Gmail ‘code’ of your label (for example, “label:friends” would display a list of messages tagged with the friends label). But the system is also flexible, as it allows you to combine multiple attributes into a single pane (for example, “is:drafts OR is:starred” would show messages that are either drafts or starred). Google first launched Gmail Labs last June, giving Googlers a way to showcase the results of their 20% time. Labs apps have included everything from a version of the classic game Snake to features like SMS chat , Gadgets , and even Mail Goggles , meant to keep intoxicated users from sending drunken Emails that they’ll regret in the morning. For more, check out Google’s blog post on the new feature here . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Come work with Laguna (and us) at TechCrunch Top
We like to say that TechCrunch isn’t a job, it’s a calling, and certainly there are a lot of great reasons to work at TC. Truth be told, Laguna (Michael Arrington’s chocolate lab) is one of our favorite perks. She’ll have you well trained in frisbee 2.0 and the latest catch API in no time flat. Seriously, we’re growing and hiring and we’d love to hear from you if you want to help TechCrunch change the world. We need: Developers (2) : We don’t just report the news, we build products that change the media landscape. CrunchBase is one of our first successes. We have more projects in the pipeline. Rails developers preferred, but raw talent and drive most important to our team. Sales Directors (2) : TechCrunch is the largest technology blog network, reaching over 5 million uniques and 15 million page views / month. We are expanding our direct sales effort with online and event-related sponsorships. Separate positions sought for focus on each start-ups and agencies/brand. Conferences & Events Director : TechCrunch hosts about a dozen events a year. Roundtable sessions, networking MeetUps, big conferences (such as TechCrunch50) and awards ceremonies (Crunchies.) Plan events for 200 - 2,000 people and be in the center of the tech community. Executive Assistant : If you love to be involved in a million projects, and love attention to detail, and want to keep us organized, this job is for you. Bookkeeper (part-time/contractor) : We’re growing and profitable, so our financials are fun to do. CrunchBase Analyst : Great opportunity for a recent college grad to break into the start-up scene by researching and writing about new start-ups. Broad exposure to the start-up, VC and technology landscape. CrunchBase Interns (6) : College sophomores through seniors are invited to join us as CrunchBase interns. It’s a great way to learn about technology start-ups from the inside. We need a commitment of 5 hours a week and keen interest in covering new products. Also, we’re finally looking for proper office space. If anyone has 2-3,000 square feet of space to sublet in the Palo Alto area, please ping me, heather [at] techcrunch [dot] com. Photo credit: thank you netzkobold . It’s a favorite. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
How to Get RC33 On Your G1 Without the Wait Top
If you’re a G1 owner and are anything like us, you’ve been checking your handset every 20 minutes for the last two days in hopes that it’s finally your turn to bask in the light of the latest update, RC33. It’s not the Cupcake update folks are so anxious to get their hands on - but its got voice search and Latitude , and that more than justifies the patch for us. Fortunately for those of us dying to play with the latest and greatest, some brilliant beings managed to sniff out the official update package. Armed with little more than an SD card, you can be enjoying RC33 in under 10 minutes. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Facebook Pledges Support For OpenID; But Will Anything Change? Top
The OpenID Foundation has just announced that Facebook’s Luke Shepard will be joining the OpenID board as a corporate member, and that Facebook has made a $50,000 donation to the cause. The news marks the first time Facebook has officially signed on with the campaign, though some of its employees have been actively involved with improving the open standard for some time. At this point it’s unclear exactly what change this will bring to Facebook. Facebook’s increasingly popular Connect product, which allows users to secure use their Facebook ID’s as logins across over 4,000 sites (including ours), is a closed and proprietary system. But it is also very well designed - members from the Facebook Connect team have given several talks in the hopes of improving the OpenID effort, and are holding an event on the topic next week. From Facebook’s development blog : As we’ve launched and built Facebook Connect, we’ve been participants in OpenID efforts. One of our user experience experts, Julie Zhuo, presented at the UX Summit in October. Several of our engineers have been participating in meetups, and one of them ran as a community member for a board seat. We’re happy to announce today that we are formalizing our support of the OpenID Foundation by officially joining the board. It is our hope that we can take the success of Facebook Connect and work together with the community to build easy-to-use, safe, open and secure distributed identity frameworks for use across the Web. As a next step in that effort, we will be hosting an OpenID Design Summit next week here at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto. Facebook is apparently “building up momentum towards their adoption of OpenID as a standard”, but that too is ambiguous - many companies have signed on as “issuing parties”, meaning they’ll allow their IDs to be used elsewhere. But far fewer have been “accepting parties”, which means that accounts from other sites can be used to log-in to their services. OpenID has long been exploited by major internet brands who have pledged support to the cause (and reaped the positive press), only to put their plans on the backburner indefinitely. That said, even if Facebook doesn’t wind up implementing OpenID, it sounds like they’ll at least help make it a little easier to use. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
No Escape From Work: Present.ly Releases AIR and Mobile Applications Top
Enterprise microblogging service Present.ly , which faces off squarely against TechCrunch50 winner Yammer , has made strides to match the accessibility of its competitor by releasing several applications for the desktop and mobile devices. Present.ly users can now exchange messages with groups of their coworkers using an AIR-based desktop app that looks and functions much like Twhirl, Twitteriffic, and Yammer’s own desktop client. For when in transit, these same users can also install Present.ly applications on their phones. The list of supported devices and mobile operating systems now includes the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile. The desktop application should be particularly effective at persuading Yammer users to try out Present.ly. As many who’ve gotten into the habit of microblogging can attest, having a simple client that sits in the background while you do other work makes staying on top of messages a much more feasible task. Details about Present.ly’s new applications can be found in the company’s official blog post . Our initial review of Present.ly, which launched days after Yammer this past September, can be found here . Screenshots are below. Desktop AIR Application Mobile Applications Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Offline Google Calendar Is The Ugly Stepsister of Offline Gmail Top
After announcing the offline feature for Gmail last week, Google allowed another feature to be viewed offline: Google Calendar . Unfortunately, the masses will have to wait for access. The offline access, which was built using Google Gears , is currently only available to users of business software package, Google Apps. While the offline feature for calendars offers read-only access for enterprise users, it’s not nearly as useful as offline Gmail, where users can write and save emails that will be sent once online. The new offline calendar application doesn’t allow you to create, edit or delete events. So what’s the next feature to join the offline party? And when will Google let consumers use the offline calendar? Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Extensions for Google Chrome Coming In May? Top
If the schedule for Google’s big annual developer conference is any indication, we should expect to see an extension platform released for Chrome sometime this May. Programmer Nicholas Moline has noticed a session called “Developing extensions for Google Chrome” among the 38 sessions posted to the Google I/O website. It sits alongside two other Chrome-specific sessions (the others titled “Exploring Chrome internals” and “V8: Building a high performance JavaScript engine” respectively) and carries the following description: Learn how Google Chrome makes it easy to write extensions using the web technologies you already know. This talk will cover the basics of the extension system (distribution/packaging, installation, updates), as well as the different APIs to enhance with the browser. This isn’t a guarantee that extensions will be released before or during the conference, but it’s hard to believe Google would hold a session on the topic if we didn’t see them sometime around the date of the conference. Extensions, which are very popular among Firefox users, were notably absent from Chrome when it launched last September. Google has since made it clear that it has always planned to provide for them at some point. However, many have taken it into their hands to hack away at Chrome on their own. As Google Operating System points out , Google has already enabled user scripts for Chrome. A draft of the extensions model can also be found here . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
The Parent Company Auctions Off Assets, Sells Toys.com Domain For $1.25 Million Top
After YP.com (picked up by Yellow Pages for $3.85 million ) Fly.com (bought by Travelzoo for $1.8 million ), Vibrators.com ( $1 million ), here’s another high-profile domain name that was just acquired for a 7-figure sum: Faculty Lounge has put $1.25 million on the table for Toys.com in an auction organized as a result of the recent meltdown of The Parent Company . The Parent Company filed for bankruptcy in December 2008 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware, and has auctioned off several substantial assets at the law offices of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP yesterday morning. Although creditors still need to approve everything, most of the assets on auction were sold, and you couldn’t tell we’re in a recession if you look at the sums that were coughed up. ePregnancy.com and other eToys assets were bought for $2.15 million (they were actual operational businesses, not just domain names), while Birthdays.com, Pinata.com, eParties.com were acquired for $200,000 by Done Ventures and Domain Equity picked up Hobbies.com and iToys.com for $102,000. But Toys.com was the most noteworthy sale, as it was worth $1.25 million to Faculty Lounge solely for the domain name. (Source: Domain Name Wire ) Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Google's Answer To The Kindle? Top
If you ever get a craving for classic literature while on the go, Google’s just given you the ability to check out your favorite literary works via an iPhone or Android phone. Google’s Book Search currently features 1.5 million public domain books, which have all been optimized to fit a mobile screen. Unfortunately, Blackberrys and other non-Android operating system phones are out of luck in accessing this feature. Google is using an extraction technology called Optical Character Recognition (OCR), that captures and formats the text from the page so that it can be easily viewed on a mobile browser. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
MySpace Struggles In Korea, Shuts Down Regional Office Top
MySpace will be closing its Korean satellite office by end of the month, we’ve learned, though its Korean portal will continue to operate and will be maintained by staff in the company’s other Asian offices. Sources close to the company say that the layoffs will affect fewer than ten people, but that unlike MySpace’s recent shutdown of its Netherlands office where some employees were offered reassignment, the Korean employees will not be consolidated into other regional offices. While MySpace wouldn’t comment on its usage statistics in Korea, it’s likely that the company was underwhelmed by its growth since launching a localized portal last April. Korea is a notoriously difficult market to crack, primary because it is dominated by Cyworld - a social network founded back in 1999, long before MySpace was even in beta stages. Reports have pegged Cyworld’s membership to include up to 90% of Koreans in their 20’s - a staggering figure that leaves little room for newcomers. Add that to substantial cultural differences and it’s little surprise that MySpace is struggling get a foothold in the market. We should note that despite Cyworld’s Korean dominance, that company has had a hard time expanding its presence abroad. Cyworld’s US site , launched in 2006, has largely failed to catch on, after months of research spent trying to tailor the network to an American audience. Outside of Korea, MySpace has generally been more successful at expanding abroad. The company reports that international revenue is up 35% year over year, with engagement up 38%. But Facebook is growing even more quickly internationally, and is now nearly twice the size of MySpace worldwide. MySpace issued the following statement regarding its Korean office shutdown: On Thursday 22nd January 2009, employees in our Seoul office were informed of our decision to close our Korean facility and MySpace/FIM legal entity Fox Interactive Media Korea. Since opening MySpace in Korea we have realized many successes and gained invaluable insight into the local market. Our team created a locally relevant and unique experience for the Korean community and built awareness for the value of open platforms across the market for developers. We have also advocated cultural diversity and enabled our users to harness the power of our platform to creatively express themselves locally and globally. We are incredibly proud of our accomplishments and of the team that built MySpace Korea. We are laser focused on profitable growth and rapid monetization. We are very pleased with how this strategy is gaining traction around the world and we believe this decision will enable us to continue to prioritise our investments in the markets that will achieve this for the brand most rapidly. Korean MySpacers will continue to enjoy access to MySpace at http://kr.myspace.com/ It is expected this change will take effect from 28th February 2009. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
ClickTale Launches Email Tracking, Says Revenue Growth Is Strong Top
ClickTale is revving-up for its second round of financing by both rolling out a new email tracking feature and reporting that it’s making significant headway on the business front: Passing the 20K registered customer mark and a 500% revenue growth in the past 12 months. With more than 550 customers paying $99 to $290 a month, we estimate the company is pulling in somewhere between $55,000 and $100,000 a month. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, here’s a short primer on ClickTale’s in-page web analytics: Requiring site owners to paste a bit of JavaScipt into pages, ClickTale is then able to capture a variety of user-centric data such as mouse movements, scrolls, clicks, and keystrokes. The data is used to provide a view of how users actually interact with websites by way of videos of users’ browsing sessions, and through aggregated reports—form analytics, heatmaps, etc. Another interesting upside of using ClickTale is that it provides a real measurement of user engagement. This is because it’s able to truly determine the amount of time that users were moving their mouse, scrolling, typing, or clicking. Certainly “Time on Page” provided by standard web analytic solutions will suffice for many, but there are definitely site owners who can use such valuable data to optimize pages and their elements. ClickTale’s new email tracking feature is an extension of its core service. Using special tags added to links within emails, ClickTale is able to generate video and data on each individual user that clicked a link and consequently interacted with the linked website. The video embedded below shows my own personal interaction with ClickTale’s website after Tal Schwartz (CEO), emailed me about this feature. You can start using ClickTale for free, but be warned, you may end up paying for a web service that actually delivers real, quantifiable value. ClickTale - Email Tracking from Itsik Hefez on Vimeo . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Yourmagz.com Marries Ning with Scribd Top
Canadian start-up Yourmagz.com launched the closed beta version of its SaaS content distribution platform today. You can sign up to view the site. The platform - which can be described as a hybrid between social network platform Ning and web document sharing service Scribd - specializes in distributing publishers’ content across various websites, social networks, and mobile devices. So basically, a user creates a website (much like one can do on Ning), uploads print or video content and then can distribute a “virtual magazine” to Facebook and other social networks, mobile phones and websites with the click of a button. Each virtual magazine can have members who can comment and upload their own photos and videos. Yourmagz will offer "freemium" based services, allowing anyone to use the technology's core benefits for free. The founder says the premium service will be “low-cost” while declining to specify just how much he will charge for it. Yourmagz seems more likely to draw an independent, smaller publication. While it’s doubtful that a large magazine like Forbes would switch it’s content to Yourmagz, but it might be a useful side application. Yourmagz.com is similar to an existing business. Scribd had a successful year in 2008 , which could mean that there is a receptive audience for content sharing services like Yourmagz. You can also get a similar magazine-like experience for free with services such as Issuu . But there are definite challenges in forming such a widespread and open platform like Yourmagz.com. Recently, Ning found itself in a sticky situation with the creation of adult sites. With Yourmagz’s tagline “Freedom to publish,” it doesn’t sound like the platform will be restrictive. Also, users may not want pay for access to the platform when they could use free services offered by Scribd, Issue, and Ning. You can check out Yourmagz’s example of an embedded magazine or take a look at the screen shots below: Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Viagogo Raises $15 million Round And Signs Tennis Stars To Battle Seatwave Top
So Viagogo has raised another $15 million and hooked in former tennis champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf both as board members / investors as well as advisors to help it push its secondary ticketing market into Europe. The funding now gives it $70 million of external investment. That’s some war-chest. Agassi and Graf invested in the common-stock round alongside existing shareholders Index Ventures, Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA; German media mogul Herbert Kloiber; and international financier Jacob Rothschild, via his family's interests. The new funding values Viagogo at more than $300 million, although I hear from sources that they were aiming for a $30 million round. The company currently serves ticket seekers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and the Netherlands. Founder Eric Baker says Viagogo has annual sales close to a $100 million annually and expects those figures to double or triple this year. Viagogo, which charges buyers a 10% fee and sellers a 15% fee on each confirmed transaction, handled $100 million in transactions in 2008. The London-based secondary ticketing site has deals with UK soccer clubs Manchester United, Chelsea and Germany’s Bayern Munich as well as music companies Warner Music International, Live Nation and Madonna. It is looking to push into more European markets such as Spain and Italy, and the US, but Germany is key to this. Graf and Agassi are going to open their contact book for partnerships in tennis, and Graf is clearly a draw in the key German market - but one wonders if signing up a celebrity is really going to give Viagogo the extra juice it needs. Because it’s not just about having deals with clubs and live music promoters. A growing proportion of resold tickets are sold by fans to other fans. To that end Viagogo competitor Seatwave has a 3-year exclusive deal with StudiVZ, the “German Facebook”, for instance. Seatwave is Viagogo’s headache in Europe. According to a Hitwise spokesman I spoke to today, Viagogo is the third largest secondary ticketing site in the UK. As of January this year Seatwave is on 35% market share, GetMeIn (a UK startup founded by US guy James Gray and acquired by TicketMaster) is on 25%, and Viagogo is on 14%. Seatwave also has deals with European soccer and rugby clubs and saw a 50% increase in transaction volume in the fourth quarter last year. Seatwave is also London-based and backed by a phalanx of investors including Adinvest, Atlas Venture, Fidelity Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners to the tune of $36 million. Seatwave was founded in 2006 by Joe Cohen, formerly with Ticketmaster and Match.com, and is widely tipped on the London scene as a smart entrepreneur. One of those backers, Fred Destin of Atlas Ventures, has blogged vociferously against Viagogo, at one point last year calling out Viagogo as being poised to deadpool. Clearly he was wrong, but third party observers Hitwise reported last October that Viagogo’s traffic numbers had fallen from 3.8% in April to 1.7%. We know traffic leads to sales but Baker denied it was of significance and preferred to talk about transactions. Nevertheless, perhaps that’s why they signed some high-profie celebs to push the site? Agassi is liked in the UK, Graf in Germany. Queue advertising blitz maybe? Then again both Viagogo and Seatwave stand to benefit in the recession, which is driving down prices for live events. That’s good for secondary ticket markets of course, because people start to sell their tickets more often. Viagogo said ticket prices for this year's Super Bowl dropped 40% - a $5,000 ticket last year sold for $3,100. People are now bargain hunting which puts more power in the hands of secondary markets. The trouble is, these markets have to get volume. In the US it Viagogo faces StubHub, which in 2007 signed a five-year contract with Major League Baseball to be its official ticket reseller and TicketsNow, was acquired by TicketMaster Inc. in 2008. Forrester estimates U.S. online secondary ticket sales reached almost $3 billion last year, up from about $2.6 billion in 2007. Last year TechCrunch named both Viagogo and Seatwave a well placed to weather a downturn. Viagogo was launched by Baker in August 2006 after reportedly fell out with Stubhub CEO Jeff Fluhr, hence Viagogo. StubHub was sold to eBay in 2007 for $307 million. ( picture credit ) Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Is The Worst Behind Us? Online Ad Revenues Pick Up In The Fourth Quarter. Top
With Time Warner reporting earnings yesterday, we now have online advertising numbers for the fourth quarter from the four largest players: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL. Tallying up their online advertising revenues provides a decent proxy for the health of the overall online advertising industry as a whole, since they represent a majority of those revenues. (For comparison, see IAB numbers for the U.S. only).  After a full year of slowing growth, their combined ad revenues actually picked up in the fourth quarter, showing a 3 percent rise compared to the third quarter. Combined revenues grew 8 percent on an annual basis. Like everyone else, I’ve been expecting to see continuing pressure on Internet advertising. In the third quarter, the sequential growth of the combined ad revenues from these four companies ground to a halt , going from 12.7 percent sequential growth in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 0.6 percent in the third.  (All growth rates are quarter over quarter, unless otherwise noted). What the slight rebound in growth tells us is that search advertising may be making up for the continued weakness in display advertising, which each of these companies acknowledged in their conference calls.  The question is whether sequential growth will remain in this low range for the rest of the year, or whether search advertising can push it higher. One quarter’s worth of data is not enough to make any conclusons on that front, but at least these numbers provide a ray of hope. The combined ad revenues totaled $8.5 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $8.2 billion in the third quarter and $7.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. Google continued to dominate, accounting for 65 percent of those revenues, up from 61 percent from a year ago but slightly down from its 65.3 percent share in the third quarter.  Google contributed slightly more than half of the growth.  Yahoo’s 19.1 percent share of revenues went up quarter-over-quarter by the same amount that Google’s went down (0.3 percent).  Microsoft’s $866 million in online revenues gave it a 10.2 share, up from 9.4 percent in the third quarter.  And AOL’s advertising revenues remained flat at $507 million, giving it a 6.0 percent share (down 0.2 percent). For the purposes of this analysis, I took the total advertising revenues from both Google and Yahoo, including their network revenues paid to affiliates, the online revenues reported by Microsoft, and only the advertising portion of AOL's revenues. The revenue share figures above are rounded. Below are the absolute revenue numbers, broken down by company: Update : We’ve updated the chart and table below to reflect more data going back to the third quarter of 2007. While there was an uptick in the quarterly growth rate in the fourth quarter, the 8 percent annual growth rate was still much slower than the 18 percent annual growth rate we saw in the third quarter. The big quarterly jumps began to temper in the fourth quarter of 2007, so that is only now beginning to be reflected in the year-over-year comparisons. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Universal Music Links To Unauthorized, Soundless Eminem YouTube Clip From Its Own Website Top
Universal Music Group has a long history of bringing lawsuits upon music and video sharing services ( MySpace , Veoh and its investors , Grouper / Bolt.com , etc.), so it’s kind of surprising to see them link to a clip of one of their biggest artists, rapper and producer Eminem, which has not been authorized by its copyright holders (i.e. Universal Music themselves). Update: the news item has been updated as a result of this coverage. Good thing we have a screenshot. The link can be found on this January 7 news item on the UMG website about the ‘leaking’ of Eminem’s newest track, and leads to this YouTube clip posted by a regular YouTube user. In case you were wondering, Universal Music Group has an official channel on the video sharing site which does not feature a clip for this particular track yet. Ironically, there is a notice from YouTube below the video stating that the video “contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders”. Furthermore, the audio has been disabled as a result of YouTube’s new policy whereby audio that has not been authorized is simply stripped away from the video, effectively generating a ton of creepy, soundless music videos . Way to encourage uploading copyrighted material without your consent, UMG! CrunchBase Information Universal Music Group YouTube Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Once Again, The AP Tries To Redefine Fair Use; Goes After Shepard Fairey For Obama Poster Top
The Associated Press is on the wrong of a fair use argument again. It is actually going after artist Shepard Fairey for his iconic Obama poster, which it recently discovered was based on an AP news photograph by Mannie Garcia. The poster is clearly based on that photograph (see comparison at left), but this is exactly the kind of use of copyrighted works that is meant to be protected. The poster is art. The image it is based on has been sufficiently transformed that even the AP did not know it owned the copyright to the underlying work until a few weeks ago . And Fairey says he hasn’t made any money from the poster, although others have. You can buy the image on posters, stickers, coffee mugs and T-Shirts, and copies of the poster signed by Fairey sell for thousands of dollars. Still, the AP is wants money from Fairey. I’d link to the AP story describing the dispute, except that we’ve banned the AP for exactly this kind of behavior in the past. The AP has a history of making copyright infringement claims that push the boundaries of the law. Last year, it went after Websites that copied its headlines, even if they had links back to AP stories. (The AP syndicates its headlines to news organizations, that’s how it makes money, but using headlines as links is also common practice on the Web). Fair use is under attack, and the AP is leading the charge. Artists like Fairey take copyrighted images and reinterpret them all the time. Many argue that is what art is. Fairey’s Obama poster certainly made a bigger impact on our culture than the original image, which he reportedly found by doing a Google image search. He is being represented by the Stanford Fair Use Project. I hope he tells them to go to hell, because if this isn’t fair use, I don’t know what is. Update : This gets worse. It is not even clear that the AP owns the copyright to this photo. The photographer, Mannie Garcie, says he was a temporary staffer when he took it and never signed the AP contract. In a Q&A with Photo News Forum , he throws doubts on the AP’s claims of ownership: 2) Where you either an employee, or a freelance photographer, as defined by their contract, for the AP when you took this image? I was a temporary hire, filling in for a staffer at the AP. It is my understanding that I was neither a freelancer nor a staffer, but rather a temporary hire. I have never been an AP staff employee, and no, I have never signed an AP contract. 3) So, you own the copyright to the image? The ownership of the copyright is in dispute, as per the AP. It is my understanding that since I was not a staffer, and was not a freelancer, and did not sign any contract, that I am the owner of the copyright, but I am in discussions with the AP over this issue. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Warner Music Slaps Songbeat With Lawsuit Top
Who didn’t see this one coming? When we first reviewed Songbeat , a simple desktop application for playing and discovering music on the net, we liked the product but were interested in what the music industry would have to say about it. The updated version released last December was even better, but we were still critical of its chances for survival. Songbeat essentially allows you to scour the web for MP3s using integrated search for Seeqpod, Project Playlist, SpoolFM, iASK and more, stream tracks and even download them. You can find and listen to as many music tracks as you wish, but you can only download 25 of them. An upgrade would cost you 19.99 Euros (or $ 29.9), for which you'd get an unlimited amount of downloads. When we checked with the German company behind the application about possible copyright infringement at the time, their response was: The downloading of music is not fundamentally illegal. However, it lies in the hands of the user to discern whether or not they have the right to download the particular music file at hand. The music labels didn’t agree, obviously. In an unsurprising move, an alliance of European labels have decided to sue the company, according to co-founder Marco Rydmann. So far, Warner Music is the only one who has made a move by enacting a restraining order against Songbeat in agreement with the BVMI (the Association of German Music industry who has all major labels amongst its members), but because of a protective letter filed in all major courts in Germany the restraining order did not go through. The first hearing in the case will take place next week on Wednesday in a Hamburg court, and the general expectation is that more music labels will join in for what BVMI intends to put forward as an “example lawsuit”. Philip Eggersgluess, founder and CEO of Songbeat, is confident about the case and claims the service is perfectly legal in Germany. He says: “The music industry’s action shows, once again, that instead of looking for dialogue, they seek confrontation. Our intention, though, is to be a partner, not an enemy. We are offering dialogue: open talks aimed at finding a solution together”. TechCrunch has written quite a bit about the highs and lows of online music distribution and sales, and how the industry is responding to the changes that will inevitably continue to turn their business model upside down. Read some of our thoughts here and here . Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Social Playtime: hi5 Adds Casual Gaming Section Top
That other social network boasting tens of millions of members worldwide, hi5 , is launching hi5 Games today, adding casual games like sports, arcade, strategy and cards to its roster of social entertainment initiatives catered to some 60 million unique monthly users. The social networking service says hi5 Games will become an important part of its monetization strategy, with the help of their recently launched virtual currency that allows members to buy virtual gifts using real money in a digital form (still with us?). Users will eventually be able to utilize the virtual currency, called hi5 Coins, for direct transactions such as premium content, advanced gaming features and status upgrades. Hi5 is also experimenting with “new and immersive” advertising options on hi5 Games, which it says will allow brands to better engage their target audience. Hi5 has recently laid off a good portion of its staff but continues to be a very relevant player in the social networking field; it is still the third largest social network after Facebook and MySpace according to Comscore. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 

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