Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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Facebook Sure Does Have Trouble Keeping Execs Top
Facebook will soon have its third chief financial officer in less than two years, the company announced today via a leak to the Wall Street Journal. Gideon Yu , the man who came back from Dubai empty handed , is out . The hunt for his successor is starting now. Facebook says this is about getting a CFO with public company experience ( “We have retained Spencer Stuart to lead our search for a new CFO and will be looking for someone with public company experience.” ). Which is complete nonsense (and poorly thought out nonsense at that), because Yu, after a short stint at YouTube and an even shorter stint at Sequoia Capital, was the treasurer and SVP Finance at Yahoo. Which is very much a public company. So why is he leaving? We have to speculate for now, but perhaps he’s not convinced the company can get another round of financing at the valuation the board wants to see. Or it could be any of a thousand other things. But it most certainly isn’t because he doesn’t have public company experience. Just last June Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of Yu “I consider it kind of a coup that we were able to recruit him here…He’s just excellent.” Yu is just the most recent Facebook exec to leave the company. Here’s a list of at more than ten that have left since 2007 (not included on the list is Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, who is expected to leave this year to run for Attorney General in California): Gideon Yu, VP and CFO – left 3/31/09 Net Jacobsson, director of business development –left, March '09 Owen Van Natta, chief revenue officer – left in Feb '08 Adam D'Angelo, co-founder and CTO left in May '08 Matt Cohler, VP of product development and #5 employee – left in June '08 Katie Geminder, Director of Product, left sometime after Jun '07 Jeff Hammerbacher – left in July '08 Ben Ling, head of developer platform – left in Aug '08 Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook cofounder– left in Oct '08 Rudy Gadre, VP and General Counsel, January 2006 – April 2008 Mike Sheridan, CFO, left in June 2007 Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
More Layoffs Hit hi5 Top
We’ve confirmed that hi5, the third largest social network in the world, is laying off employees today. hi5’s VP of Marketing, Mike Trigg, wouldn’t say how many employees were being let go but we’ve received multiple independent tips that the social network laid off 50% of its staff. Previous to this round of layoffs, hi5 employed around 100 people. Trigg said the layoffs were due to a “realignment of the company” and that it was also a cost-cutting measure. Obviously, revenues were not keeping up with costs. The social network recently went through a previous round of layoffs last October, letting go 10 to 15% of its staff due to another “restructuring.” hi5 gets about 63 million monthly unique visits worldwide but only 3.7 million of those are from the U.S., according to ComScore’s February stats. The site boasts close to 80 million registered users but apparently many of these users are just not in markets that advertisers find particularly appealing. Hi5 is the third largest social network in the world. Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide with 275.6 million unique visitors, with MySpace is coming in second with 125.8 million unique visitors. Orkut is No. 4 with 51.7 million. We’ve added the layoffs to the TechCrunch layoff tracker. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Networks In Motion To Launch First GPS App For BlackBerry App World Top
In news that seems to indicate that Blackberry’s App World is indeed launching tomorrow, we’ve learned that Networks In Motion (NIM) will be releasing a GPS application for the BlackBerry on Wednesday, which would make it the first (or at least, tied for first) GPS app available on the new storefront. NIM has built a number of applications and services for its partners, including Verizon Navigator, but this is the first time it has sold an application carrying its label to end-users. The new GPS application takes advantage of technology built by TrafficGuage, which NIM acquired earlier this month. TrafficGuage’s technology will be used to offer users real-time traffic updates on the application. Other features in the app include the ability to locate nearby points of interest (like gas stations) and multiple viewing angles. NIM has not yet released exact pricing, but the application will be available on a subscription basis. Depending on the application’s pricing and how well it works, NIM’s app could do very well on the BlackBerry application storefront. And while BlackBerry will have GPS at launch, it’s worth noting that Apple’s App Store appears to have actually banned turn-by-turn GPS applications (even if developers can get them working) until the iPhone’s 3.0 software is released this summer. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Confirmed: Facebook Loses CFO Gideon Yu Top
Facebook is losing its CFO Gideon Yu. The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier today, and speculated that the reason could be that Facebook might want to make an early bid for an IPO and wants a CFO with public company experience (which is complete nonsense). Yu was previously the CFO of YouTube. At Facebook, he was key to raising money from Microsoft at the famous $15 billion valuation, but as the economy soured he was not able to find as many takers at that same price, despite Facebook’s voracious need for capital to keep up with its growth. A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed Yu’s departure to us, providing the following statement. Facebook confirms that CFO Gideon Yu will be leaving the company. Gideon has played an important role in helping us achieve our financial success, building a strong finance team and establishing the core financial operations of our company. We are grateful to Gideon for his contributions to Facebook and what we are trying to accomplish. Despite the poor economic climate, we are pleased that our financial performance is strong and we are well positioned for the next stage of our growth. We have retained Spencer Stuart to lead our search for a new CFO and will be looking for someone with public company experience. High-level departures are becoming more common at Facebook as it strives to match its managerial talent to its ever-changing needs. Part of Yu’s job was to find capital to keep Facebook’s server farms growing. He was certainly in constant discussions with various investors, even going to Dubai last year looking for deep wallets. But he came home empty-handed. An early IPO may not necessarily be the best thing for Facebook right now. Its revenues are rumored to be growing faster than many people think, driven by a huge inventory of advertising spots. Even if those ads are sold for pennies apiece, those pennies add up. One insider claims that revenues are on track to exceed $400 million this year. But Facebook would do better to wait until it starts generating substantial profits before testing the IPO waters. Going out too soon may just be a sign that it can’t find funding in the private markets. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Mozilla Weave Now Lets You Sync Your Mobile Browser Too Top
Today, Mozilla Labs released the 0.3 version of Weave , its project that syncs multiple browsers in the cloud. Weave lets users sync their bookmarks, tabs, passwords, and histories in the cloud across Firefox browsers on different computers. With today’s release, you can also sync with Fennec, Firefox’s mobile browser , which unfortunately right now only works on one kind of phone: a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. Yeah, I don’t have one of those either. But the idea of syncing your browsers is a powerful one for anyone who uses more than one computing device on a regular basis. Originally launched in December, 2007 , Weave is now faster and more reliable. In other words, now it actually works (or so I’m told). The one thing Weave doesn’t sync is all of your add-ons. But that is planned for a future release. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Jimmy Wales Deadpools Wikia Search Top
It is going to take more than just an open search platform to take on Google. Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced today that he is shutting down Wikia Search , the company’s experiment in creating better search results through crowdsourcing. Wikia Search attempted to port the Wikipedia model over to search by allowing anybody to modify results by including new links or moving natural results up the page. The initial launch last year was awful , but the experience improved over time . Still, it never really attracted anything more than a trickle of searchers. We are placing it in the deadpool . Then Wikia Search got Googled when the search juggernaut launched its own Search Wiki feature , which lets you do pretty much the same thing on Google itself (move results up the page, block results, add comments—except it only affects your search results, not everyone’s). And so it goes. You cannot compete in search if your idea can be easily copied by Google. But if Wikia Search had never existed, Google might never have felt pressure to add wiki features to its interface. In that regard, Wikia Search did have an impact beyond its own site. Wales says that Wikia will focus its resources on its main Wikia service for building wikis, as well as Wikianswers , a Q&A service which launched earlier this year and also faces stiff competition, but not from Google. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
MySpace, Citysearch Partner To Create MySpace Local Top
MySpace and Citysearch are jointly announcing a new MySpace property this morning called MySpace Local. The site combines Citysearch business listings (including address, photos, menus, videos, maps and hours of location) from a thousand cities with the MySpace community. The site is launching into private beta this week, with a general U.S. launch next month. The new site will eventually include listing information for all Citysearch businesses via small business listing pages. To start just restaurants, bars and “nightlife” listings are included. Users can rate and review businesses, which is shared via the MySpace activity feed. Don’t just skip over that last sentence. This is good stuff - users will be able to see the restaurants, bars and other businesses that their friends are interested in, and how they rated those businesses. When you first visit MySpace Local, the first thing you see are reviews from friends. Listings are grouped into city hubs for all major U.S. cities and include new local search functionality. And eventually, MySpace says, users will be able to make reservations and upload their own photos and videos. Features will also be built into MySpace mobile products. A demo of the product is here . It’s All About The Money Don’t be fooled - the reason for all this local content is to create premium ad space. Businesses will be able to use MySpace’s self service MyAds product to promote these pages. And more importantly, they can place an ad when someone is looking at the competitors or other local businesses. Expect national brands to advertise as well - Coors and Outback Steakhouse are initial sponsors of the site. Citysearch has already integrated Facebook Connect, allowing Facebook users to pull reviews and other information they leave at Citysearch into their Facebook news feed. MySpace is saying we can expect an implementation of MySpaceID, their version of Facebook Connect, in the near future. But MySpace Local goes a full step further, bringing all this listing data directly into MySpace itself, and creating literally tons of ad inventory for the sales team (and self service product) to sell into. The terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, other than that this is a revenue sharing agreement. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Financial Trading Platform eToro Secures $6.3 Million In Series B Funding Top
Online financial trading platform eToro has secured $6.3 million in Series B financing from BRM Group , Cubit Investments and other unnamed investors. In 2007, the Cyprus-based startup raised $1.7 million in Series A funding from Cubit Investments, Chemi Peres, and other investors. The financial trading company, which launched originally as an online foreign exchange trading platform, is small but growing with an average of 2,000 new accounts opened every month. eToro is also announcing the addition of commodities trading for its users as well as significant additions to its trading methods which will allow traders to conduct more long-term, lower-leveraged trades in both the forex and commodities markets. Jonathan Assia, eToro’s founder and CEO says that the funding will be used to hire additional staff to keep up with demand and it will allow the company to further extend its current platform into the commodities and stock index markets over the next two years. As we noted in the past, eToro’s trading platform is attractive because it provides basic tools for less experienced traders to easily conduct online trading via a simple user interface. eToro’s interface provides six different “trading arenas” for traders ranging from beginners to experienced traders. It might not seem like the best time for financial startups, but remember: traders thrive in volatile markets. By making it easier to trade, eToro is hoping it will too. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Make Your Firefox Browser Look Better With Mozilla Labs' Latest Skins Top
Mozilla Labs is debuting new personas today - extensions that add lightweight themed skins to your Firefox browser - enabling you to personalize your user experience according to your mood without interrupting your browsing sessions. The Personas for Firefox add-on was first introduced in late 2007, but has now expanded to include hundreds of artist-created designs in a variety of categories, according to a blog post announcing the new sets. I like custom skins / themes and the fact that Mozilla is taking steps to make it easier for people to adjust the look and feel of their browser according to their mood, but somehow the announcement made me cringe a little (much like this Labs experiment did). I would rather see Mozilla focus on improving the speed and usability of its browser than offering its users ways to add eye candy, particularly now that the browser wars are heating up again. Firefox needs more innovation, not decoration. But then that’s just me. Some people love eye candy more than speed. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Troubled SeeqPod Files For Bankruptcy Protection Top
SeeqPod , the popular “playable media” search service that many music sites use as the foundation for their core offering, has filed a petition for Chapter 11 yesterday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California. The company, which has raised $7 million in venture capital to date from undisclosed investors, is evidently doing this out of fear about the outcome of the multibillion dollar lawsuits it was slapped with by music labels like Warner Music , Capitol Records and EMI. We reported earlier that SeeqPod has become quite the target of the music industry, which went so far as going after developers who merely leveraged the SeeqPod API. They silenced Songbeat and forced Streamzy to put itself up for sale on eBay as a result. SeeqPod has developed interesting and powerful technology that is able to quickly crawl the web for playable media (MP3s, slideshow presentations, videos, etc.) and enables users to play it on-site. It doesn’t actually host any files on its servers, but the downside of the technology from a legal point of view is that the crawling engine picks up pirated music files from across the Web too, which is why the music labels are so eager to sue the company behind the service, especially since it spawned so many third-party services which use the engine as the basis of their online offerings. It’s worth noting that many search engines index copyrighted material too and are shielded from legal actions against them under the DMCA, so it seems rather arbitrary that the music industry is picking on SeeqPod specifically (the startup is huddling under the DMCA protection too). Maybe this is because of the fact that SeeqPod enables visitors to play files directly, and because it has reportedly been slow in setting up negotiation talks with the labels. SeeqPod recently started selling its source code to developers (price tag: $5,000) in the hopes of creating a legion of ‘mini-SeeqPods’ which could prove difficult for the music labels to kill one by one, but it’s unclear if this strategy has paid off so far, and yesterday’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition doesn’t bode well for the startup (or its investors, who are often wiped out in such proceedings). To be continued. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Tinker Goes Live And Offers Micro-Payments To Micro-Bloggers Top
Micro-blogging is getting micro-payments. Tinker , the micro-blogging topic tracker from Glam Media which we covered in depth last night, is now live. The service tracks specific topics on both Twitter and Facebook, and allows these “event” streams to be republished as standalone widgets on blogs and other sites across the Web. I’ve embedded an example below showing the subsequent Tweets about our original article. With the launch, Glam Media is also creating a professional micro-blogging network for journalists and bloggers who want to sign up to cover specific events or topics via Twitter or Facebook. It will be called the Tinker Micro-Bloggers Network. This will be a vetted subset of Tinker users who are advertiser-friendly. Glam is working on a micro-payments system to share revenues with approved micro-bloggers from ads in their associated widgets and Tinker streams. All existing Glam Media publishers are automatically part of the Tinker Micro-Blogging Network. Glam also hopes to attract professional bloggers and journalists, who are pre-qualified (including any bloggers who are part of other blog advertising networks such as Federated Media, BlogHer, and TotalBeauty). Others can apply to be part of the network as well. In order to make advertisers more comfortable with the concept of associating their brands with these micro-conversations, Tinker will offer a “safe” mode so that ads never appear near obscenities or specified keywords. Event moderators can also use the filters to block specific keywords or people from appearing in their curated stream. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Cellmania Gives Carriers Their Own Android Marketplaces Top
Cellmania , a company that builds and licenses the software that drives many mobile phone stores, has launched a new platform called the Android Content Storefront for Android phones that will allow carriers and manufacturers to install their own, customized app stores on Android phones. While Android phones already offer Google’s official app store, Cellmania CEO Ronjon Nag says that many carriers and manufacturers are looking for a way to offer their own stores, where they can feature localized content and sell media like music, ring tones, video, and graphics (none of which can currently be sold through Google’s store). The store also supports a variety of different payment plans, including subscriptions, charging purchases to the user’s phone bill, and ‘in-app’ purchases, which allow users to purchase virtual goods and other services from directly within the app. As an added bonus to developers, Cellmania’s storefront includes software that can convert J2ME applications (which are common on many other mobile phones) into Android executables. Cellmania has a long history with a number of major cell phone carriers and manufacturers, which puts it in a position to have its white-labeled storefronts come as default applications for some Android phones. That said, Cellmania’s third party app stores would not be Android’s first - other companies like Handango have offered their own markets too. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Google's New VC Fund Lacks Domain Name Top
Now that Google has come out of the closet with its proper venture capital fund , dubbed Google Ventures, I’m curious as to how many people will be going to googleventures.com today, only to find that the domain name is neither owned or operated by the company. We’re not sure if this is an oversight or if Google has actively tried but failed to claim ownership over the domain name, but the fact is googleventures.com was first registered back in 2004, and that it’s currently supposed to expire in June of this year. Update: as reader George Kirikos correctly points out, Google has filed a UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) case for the domain name. See the National Arbitration Forum website for details (case number 1249421). Since the WHOIS information at this point is unprotected, hence public information, we know that the domain name was registered by a James Hung from Connecticut. Hung is the CEO of The Hive , a “global venture consulting firm comprised of business and technology gurus, entrepreneurs, and strategic partners in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.” The domain name is not being forwarded to the firm’s website, but only displays an image saying that site is currently unavailable. We’ve contacted both Hung and Google for comment. In case you’re wondering, Google’s Terms of Service prohibit the use of “any of Google's trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features”, so this is clearly a violation. Cease & decist in 3, 2, 1 … Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Reminder: Prague-Crunch ][ Meet-up is April 11 Top
Hey, TC/MC/CG/TCEU Central European readers! We haven’t forgotten about you. Robin Wauters and John Biggs will arrive in Prague on April 11 for a wee get-together at Hergetova Cihelna AKA the Brick Factory. We’ll start the day off at about 2pm and will be drinking, talking, and networking until the wee hours of the night. You can find the bar here on Nelso . We’re currently planning out the day’s events so if you have any ideas or would like to RSVP, drop us a line at john@crunchgear.com with the subject line “RSVP PRAGUE” or just hit up the Facebook Event . I hope that you’ll be able to join us for a bit of Czech beer and keep an eye out for updates including a complete sponsor list. Na zdraví. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Facebook Hooks Up With Adobe For Richer Social Applications In Flash Top
Not to be outdone by MySpace announcing a deeper partnership with Microsoft yesterday, bringing Silverlight technology to its development platform and mobile application, Facebook and Adobe are today announcing a partnership and the release of fresh Flash client libraries to make it easier for developers to plug into the Facebook Platform inside their social applications built with Flash. Flash has been supported since the launch of Facebook Platform in 2007 through tags, embedding Flash in Feed stories, and multiple client libraries, which have helped developers make Facebook API calls directly from ActionScript (see example on the Red Bull website ). But Facebook felt the exisiting ActionScript client libraries were not up to par, so it teamed up with Adobe to tweak the open source version to support all Facebook APIs and add some features to better support authentication for both Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect. After the PHP, JavaScript and iPhone client library, the all new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform is now the fourth officially supported client library for the Facebook Platform. The code can be downloaded here . Facebook and Adobe Systems will share more about the new partnership on April 2 at a San Francisco event . Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Google Ventures Opens For Business, Investment Scope Covers Just About Anything. Top
The long awaited Google venture capital fund, Google Ventures , is now open for business. The Fund is led by managing partners Bill Maris and Rich Miner . The fund’s FAQ says they’ll invest in just about any type of startup (”consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and others”) and they’re willing to invest just about any amount you might need (”from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars, depending on the stage of the opportunity and the company’s need for capital”). It’s not exactly what you’d call a tight investment focus, but hey, it’s not like they need to worry about keeping limited partners happy so they can raise the next fund. They’re also happy to invest along side other venture firms and strategic partners. No other commercial arrangement, such as a partnership, is required (so no, you don’t have to build your service on App Engine ). This is, Google says, their primary engine for venture-style investments going forward. The FAQs also say the fund will be actively involved with investments (”We believe that our active involvement will help to create value, so we look to work with management teams to maximize the impact of our investment and their technology or innovation”). That may be somewhat over-ambitious, depending on how many investments they actually make. There are only two partners after all. Is this a good investor for your startup? The cachet of having Google behind you is great for marketing. But if you think you have the next new Google-killer search idea, you may want to bake it a while before showing the technology to these guys. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Tinker Gives Twitter Its Long Awaited Events Firehose Top
Over a year ago Fred Wilson wrote about the need for a Twitter events firehose - a place where users could input a handful of keywords collectively referred to as an ‘event’, which could be used to monitor current news as it happens in near real-time. Tomorrow morning, he’ll get his wish when Glam Media launches a new service called Tinker to the public. As its popularity has skyrocketed, Twitter has quickly become an indispensable tool for nearly any event, ranging from breaking news stories like the Mumbai terrorist attacks to the broadcast of the most recent episode of Dancing With The Stars. Major earthquakes are often reported by hundreds of Twitter users a matter of seconds after they’ve occurred. Most people rely on Twitter Search and hashtags to keep tabs on these events, but these aren’t particularly efficient or user friendly. There have been a number of sites that have offered one-off Twitter pages for events, like the Presidential election and The Oscars. These are great, but there still hasn’t been an easy way to create similar pages for smaller events or breaking news stories. Tinker solves this problem, allowing users to build these pages in seconds. And it’s very well done, with a polished intuitive interface that may well make the site the de facto standard for Twitter events. At a high level, each Tinker event can be described as a persistent search for multiple keywords on Twitter. Each Event is associated with one or more terms, which Tinker then searches for across all Tweets and presents in a single stream. For example, a Tinker Event for March Madness might present tweets that included the terms ‘NCAA’, ‘Basketball’, and ‘Final Four’. At launch Tinker is going to allow normal users to create their own ‘Events’, but they’ll only be able to search for one key word, hashtag, or phrase at a time (they can also choose terms that they’d like to exclude). Trusted partners, such as those that are running an event, will be able to access a more robust interface, where they can include multiple queries in a stream (normal users will eventually be able to use the same functionality). And while these queries are currently limited to Twitter and FriendFeed for now, it wouldn’t be surprising if we saw Tinker open up to monitoring other services in the future. The homepage is very well done, but Tinker’s real power will likely lie in its ability to go viral with widgets. After creating an Event, users can share the event’s feed using an embeddable widget, which they can place on their webpage or blog. These widgets allow users to both view the feed of an event and to submit their own messages, which can then be sent to Twitter and eventually sites like Facebook and FriendFeed. From an advertising perspective the widgets are also appealing, as they allow brands to pick out ‘trusted’ streams (for example, one with tweets only pertaining to the Oscars) that they’d like their ads to appear next to. Tinker will also post feeds created by trusted partners on its homepage, allowing the most established events to get more traction. Some Twitter veterans might argue that Tinker isn’t really necessary to monitor an event - after all, hashtags originated for largely the same purpose. But hashtags come with their own issues (namely, you have to figure out exactly which hashtag everyone is using), and for Twitter novices hashtags can be a pretty difficult concept to grasp. On Tinker, they don’t have to deal with any of those issues - they simply sign on and click on the topic that they’d like to read about. Aside from its text streams, Tinker has a number of very cool tools that can be used to monitor events. My favorite is Historical Trends, an interactive graph that plots out how ‘hot’ a given event is over time relative to any other event in the system. Users can watch how the ‘Lost’ event skyrockets to the top of the Twitter conversation on Wednesday nights, only to drop sharply the next day. Or they can watch as the SXSW event slowly faded from prominence to obscurity over the last week. It’s an impressive visualization, and one that could easily be used to map other keywords, like the name of a startup over time. Tinker will be launching tomorrow morning to the public, and we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it does. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Lala Gets A Fresh Coat Of Paint, Still Rocks Top
Tonight music-streaming service Lala will be rolling out a number of improvements to its homepage and integrated music player. While the site has had a clean feel since its relaunch last October, it has also been a bit spartan - users had to navigate to various links to find their playlists and songs, and while it looked good it wasn’t as functional as it could have been. The redesign builds on the site’s persistent music player, which sits at the top of the browser window no matter where on Lala’s site they go. Users can now view a pulldown-menu with a list of songs, and there’s a similar pull down menu for playlists. Another new addition is the ‘Mix’ button, which allows users to generate a list of similar songs to the one they’re current playing (it is similar to the Genius feature found on iTunes). The feature is great for exploring new songs, allowing users to get exposure to a variety of music they haven’t heard while still retaining control over what they’d like to hear next (radio services like Pandora , while great for discovery, can still be frustrating because they only allow users to skip a limited number of songs). All in all, it’s a more usable interface, and it also looks much slicker. Other additions to the site include a revamped user profile page and improvements to artist homepages. These are all great, but we’re still itching for the day we’ll get to use Lala’s upcoming iPhone app . Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Jonathan Miller, Who's Taking Over MySpace, Doesn't Have A MySpace Profile Top
As far as we can tell, the guy who’s going to be taking over MySpace along with the rest of News Corp.’s digital assets doesn’t actually use the site itself. We cannot locate a MySpace profile for Jonathan Miller , who will shortly become the CEO of Digital Media for News Corp. We’re big believers in company executives eating their own dog food, and more often than not they do. But MySpace is a different story - every once in a while they announce new executives who don’t have a MySpace page at all. It’s always fixed promptly, but it’s a bit of an embarrassment. News Corp., MySpace and Miller all either refused to comment or haven’t responded to our inquiries. My guess is the MySpace team will be creating one for Miller shortly, assuming he doesn’t in fact have one. He could have an anonymous profile, but from what we’ve heard he doesn’t. We love Miller and think he’s an awesome choice for the huge job he’s about to take on. And now’s the time for him to start using MySpace. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
If bit.ly Is Worth $8 Million, TinyURL Is Worth At Least $46 Million Top
In a world where everything is being jammed into 140 characters or less, shorter is better. That goes double (or is it half?) for lengthy URLs. So-called URL shortening services are increasingly becoming indispensable to anyone who uses Twitter. It is the only practical way to share links on the service. Today, one of these URL shortening services, bit.ly , raised $2 million, sparking the question: How much are these things actually worth? Nobody really knows. But here is some fun math. Assuming bit.ly sold 20 percent of its shares to its new investors (the O’Reilly Alpha Tech Fund, Mitch Kapor, and Howard Lindzon), that would imply an $8 million pre-money valuation ($10 million post-money). Its market share of shortened links, as calculated by Tweetmeme , is only 13 percent. The biggest URL shortner out there is actually TinyURL , which commands a 75 percent share. So by that metric, if bit.ly is worth $8 million, TinyURL should be worth at least $46 million (8/13 X 75 = 46.15). Yes, I am making up these numbers, just like the investors do. But wait. Bit.ly seems to be shooting up like a rocket , while TinyURL may have plateaued . Why is bit.ly growing so much faster? One big reason is because it creates even shorter URLs than TinyURL does by about five characters (http://bit.ly/ versus http://tinyurl.com/). Don’t laugh. Every character counts. Bit.ly also offers better analytics and tracking tools on the backend. Don’t get too caught up in the site traffic growth figures either, though. Traffic to http://bit.ly/ and http://tinyurl.com/ cannot be trusted as reliable proxies for usage because heavy users don’t go to the corresponding websites. They use desktop clients or browser based tools instead which incorporate one service or the other. For instance, TweetDeck (a popular Twitter client) uses bit.ly as its default shortener. The bit.ly service itself is a spin-off from Betaworks, which is also an investor in Tweetdeck (and in Twitter). See how it works? How any URL shortener is supposed to make money is still unclear. The links themselves act as pass-throughs to the original sites. TinyURL has slapped some Google ads on its site and bit.ly doesn’t even bother. The data each service is collecting might be valuable and could be packaged in various ways to brand marketers or other corporate buyers . . . perhaps. Or more likely, these things become features of other services. Already Digg is working on its own URL-shortening toolbar wrapped into its service, and Stumbleupon is working on su.pr , which is even shorter than bit.ly! Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
AirCoaster iPhone App Turns The Stock Market Into A Scary Ride Top
The stock market has been a wild ride the past 12 months. If you don’t feel sick already, you can actually turn the ups and downs of the stock market into a virtual roller coaster. Ziconic, the developers of AirCoaster 3D, a high speed 3D roller coaster app for the iPhone, has turned the Dow Jones and Apple stock charts into roller coaster tracks that users can download and ride. The steep decline of the Dow Jones index makes for an exhilarating ride . But Apple’s more volatile stock makes for an even more thrilling up-and-down roller coaster track. The app lets you visually experience every twist, turn, and corkscrew, within a 360-degree panoramic background. (Once you choose a ride, though, you can only control the view, not the actual ride). You can choose to ride an auto-generated track that changes with each ride. The AirCoaster 3D, which costs $0.99, lets you design your own tracks as well with sound effects and themes via an interactive multi-touch track editor. And you can download tracks created by others. (In fact, the Dow Jones and Apple tracks don’t come with the app, you have to download them from the community tracks tab). Stock charts make for excellent virtual roller coaster tracks. But which stock chart would be the most fun to ride? One rule of thumb: the fun of the roller coaster ride is the inverse of the fun of owning the stock. Here’s a video showing the Dow Jones ride on an iPhone: Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Microsoft To Shutter Encarta, Read All About It On Wikipedia Top
Microsoft is preparing to shut down Encarta, the digital encyclopedia it first launched in 1993 as a direct competitor to old reference standbys like Encyclopedia Britannica. The encyclopedia, which for years was based on optical media and eventually made its way to the web too, grew quickly in the mid to late 90’s as a reference guide that was more convenient than book-based encyclopedias and was available for a tiny fraction of the price. According to its FAQ , Encarta’s web sites will be discontinued on October 31, 2009 (Except for Japan, which has until December 31, 2009). Microsoft will also stop selling the Encarta products by June. From the FAQ: Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft's goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today's consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business. Microsoft’s vision is that everyone around the world needs to have access to quality education, and we believe that we can use what we've learned and assets we've accrued with offerings like Encarta to develop future technology solutions. In doing so, we feel strongly that we are making the right investments that will help make our vision a reality. In the 2000’s Encarta’s popularity died out, largely due to the incredible growth of Wikipedia, the free web-based encyclopedia. Wikipedia is updated by a community of users from around the world, and is far more efficient than tradional encyclopedias and their online counterparts, which are edited in-house. In 2005 Encarta tried to take the middle ground by allowing users to submit suggestions for article updates, but these were not integrated into articles until they had been approved by Encarta editors. For a full history of Encarta, be sure to check out its comprehensive Wikipedia entry , which has already been updated to reflect Encarta’s shutdown. Encarta’s entry on itself doesn’t mention anything about its demise, and actually seems to have less information than the Wikipedia article. Via Ars Technica Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Habbo Pulled In $74 Million In Real Revenues Last Year From Virtual Goods And Advertising Top
Convincing people to pay for nothing, or rather for things with zero marginal cost to produce, is a great business model—in theory. In practice, there are so few examples to point to, and most of them are overseas, such as Helsinki-based teen virtual world Habbo . The virtual world’s parent company, Sulake, today reported some selective financial and user data for Habbo. In 2008, Habbo’s revenues rose 20 percent to $74 million (50 million Euros), and posted positive operating cash flow (EBITDA) of $7 million (4.8 million Euros). It was even slightly profitable on a net income basis as well, however the company chose not to disclose that exact amount. Perhaps the bulk of revenues are being plowed back into global expansion or to pay the salaries of Habbo’s 300 employees (yes, 300). But its sub-10% margins so far are underwhelming. And Habbo is supposed to be one of the shining examples of a real business based on a virtual economy. It also makes money from advertising, but the vast majority of its revenues comes from in-world gifting and virtual vanity items. Habbo says it attracts 11.5 million unique visitors a month (based on internal Google Analytics data) and that more than 120 million Habbo characters have been created. How many have been abandoned, though, is unclear. ComScore estimates 8.7 million worldwide unique visitors in February, down from 9.3 million in December. By year-end 2008, the global Habbo community had also grown in activity to 121 million Habbo characters with the number of returning visitors increased by more than 40 percent. Traffic to the teen virtual world also reached an all-time high in December, with more than 11.5 million unique visitors. Most of that is in other countries than the U.S., where interest seemed to peek in October with 2 million unique visitors. In February, the number of U.S. unique visitors was down to 1 million, according to comScore. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 

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