Thursday, April 2, 2009

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Microsoft Releases All New Windows Live Client For Windows Mobile Top
Windows Live may seem like a failure in the eyes of many a TechCrunch reader, but there are a number of services that continue to thrive within the scope of a vast, mainstream audience. Hence it’s worth noting that Microsoft has released a new application for Windows Mobile devices that encompasses a slew of Live services used by dozens of millions of people every day. The new version (v10.06.0046.0800) of the Windows Live For Windows Mobile client, which is evidently free of charge, includes mobile versions of Windows Live Hotmail (works with both both pull and push sync), Windows Live Messenger (finally!), Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft Live Search and enhanced photo upload capabilities. The app comes in a Pro version for touch-enabled devices and a Standard version for non-touch phones, and is available in 25 languages. The mobile web version is also still available, and features a new beta version of Windows Live Hotmail which offers a number of welcome additions like the ability to see full HTML pages within e-mail messages and a new email search feature, next to a revamped UI and navigation enhancements for touch-screen devices. (Hat tip to Microsoftie Coolz0r on Twitter ) Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
MyHeritage: Avoiding the MetaCafe Curse Top
BNEI ATAROT- In case you don't recognize it, that dateline is the name of a small village about forty-five minutes from Tel Aviv. Don't worry, my concierge hadn't heard of it either. It may actually have more roosters than people living there. But tucked away, in a hundred-year-old house built by German Templars is one of the most exciting Web companies in Israel: MyHeritage . It's also completely outside of the Israeli Web "scene." I've never seen founder Gilad Japhet at any of the Web mixers, and I've never gotten a pitch from his PR people. In fact, I had to do a bit of hounding to get a meeting. But don't be fooled by the low-profile: MyHeritage is boasting some of the best numbers of any Israeli Web startup. It’s got 31 million registered users, who have documented 330 million family members, some living and some dead. The company has been backed by blue chip investors Accel Partners and Index Ventures. And Japhet told me on Monday, the company is starting to bring in real revenue from premium services and eCommerce transactions. (Think: sending flowers and candy to your parents for their anniversary). Japhet admits the company should have focused on this earlier, but says the lean operation should be break-even by the end of the year. After a tour, Japhet said, "How long do you have? Because when I get going, it's hard to stop." He's not kidding. He also took the liberty of giving me a bigger notepad. I think I asked one question, but mostly nodded and ate the homey selection of apples, pears and bananas that was laid out for us. But I'm not sure there's anyway to tell the story of MyHeritage quickly. It's been a long road and little has come easily for this company. As a result, more than a few people have described Japhet as a little crazy. That's ok. I like crazy entrepreneurs. Frequently, you have to be one to succeed. After all, when he started MyHeritage no one was interested in a mainstream Web genealogy startup. He bootstrapped the company for years, mortgaging his house and begging a German company for free access to its facial recognition software. He was turned down for venture capital so many times, when he finally got a small round from prominent Israeli angels, he had to give up a lot of equity. "Have you ever heard this word 'Chutzpah?'" he asked smiling. It's not that Japhet is modest: He clearly crowed over MyHeritage's technology and other things he believes he's done well. But he openly admits where he has struggled. One of the most pivotal events in his company's history: The launch and monster $100 million valuation of competing site Geni.com. On one hand, it legitimized the space. But as his investor Simon Levene of Accel told him, "Be careful what happened to MetaCafe doesn't happen to you." The story of MetaCafe is one you hear over-and-over again in Israel. The company is still alive, but the founders have left , traffic has stalled, and according to Arrington at least, acquisition attempts were thwarted . In case you aren't familiar with MetaCafe, it was a lot like YouTube, only it launched earlier. It was growing nicely when, like an Israeli cabbie, YouTube came out of nowhere and sideswiped MetaCafe. (Yes, I'm trying to make Israeli driving jokes in every post about the country. I'm actually a big fan of the taxi drivers here. I've arrived at meetings in record speed over the last two weeks.) If I've heard about the so-called MetaCafe curse at least two dozen  times since I've arrived, no doubt Japhet has heard about it more. After six years of building this company, putting a strain on his family and having to give away most of his equity to keep it alive, Levene's words were like a call to action. "He didn't say we were going to lose," Japhet says. "He said, 'You're going to work really, really hard to make sure you win.'" And as TechCrunch has reported, MyHeritage is killing Geni in traffic, and buzz-wise everyone seems more excited about Geni founder David Sacks' newer company, Yammer . Japhet likes Yammer too. "David Sacks is a very talented guy and now I only have to compete with half of him," he says. I've always been a huge fan of Geni's user interface, and it's still better. But MyHeritage gives you more to do. While everyone in Israel has been in a lather about Face.com this week, MyHeritage has long had pretty impressive facial recognition software that could also tag photos on Facebook, Flickr and other sites. Again, Face.com is glitzier, but at least Japhet knows this is a weakness. This is the real reason he bought the UK's Kindo recently. "They didn't have a ton of assets, but they were good at UI," he says. It's been a tough road for Japhet. Maybe he built the company too early. Maybe he should have focused more on the Web than a downloadable client. Maybe he should have focused more on revenues a few years ago. But there's also an advantage when things don't come easily for entrepreneurs: They take nothing for granted and are less likely to get sideswiped by an upstart. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Twitter Confirms And Details New "Discovery Engine" Top
We’ve been getting a lot of tips today and yesterday about the limited roll-out of a new Twitter homepage design, which gives the search functionality a more prominent place along with some additional features. We couldn’t see it ourselves on our accounts, but now co-founder Biz Stone has confirmed the changes in a blog post , calling the new feature a ‘discovery engine’. (see it here on the Flickr account of Adam Jackson) With the redesign, the search box has moved to the right sidebar of the interface (only for a small subset of users at this point), where Stone claims it’s a more ‘natural part of the Twitter experience’. I agree, and it shows that the company realizes very well that real-time search is a killer feature they should be nurturing and monitoring very closely. When you do a search, the results no longer appear on a separate page but remain on the homepage, and by default it only crawls the tweets from the accounts you’re following. You can also save search queries and revisit the results at a later time. Since the searches you save stay on your homepage, this feature makes it a lot easier for people to keep track of conversations around a given topic (e.g. a brand, event or person) and also sort of makes the plethora of third-party monitoring tools obsolete for basic queries. We’ll have to see how this will affect the applications that are currently centered around monitoring Twitter conversations (take for instance, the Yahoo Sideline desktop app we covered yesterday ), but it’s clear that the more emphasis Twitter puts on that, the less relevant they become. Twitter is also going to display popular trending topics below the search box, which will in turn make it easier for people to discover what the Twitterverse is talking about the most at any given time. Stone reminds us Trends is in beta, but like he says, it has potential. Meanwhile, a lot of people are still reporting missing tweets and direct messages, a problem that’s been lingering for several weeks now. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
520 Tesla S Sedans Reserved In One Week: Company Gets $2.6 Million In Fees Top
Tesla says that 520 S Model all electric sedans have been reserved by customers in first week since it was announced . Each customer must pay a $5,000 reservation fee, which is refundable if they choose not to buy the car. The base price for the Model S, which will be available starting in 2010, is $49,900 after a federal tax credit of $7,500. A limited editon of the Model S is available for a $40,000 reservation fee. The Model S is the second car unveiled by Tesla after the sportier Roadster, and it’s half the price. But it’s no slouch on performance. The car will do 0-60 in 5.6 seconds (the Roadster is 3.9 seconds) and has an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph. The car should go up to 300 miles between charges. Best of all, I believe I may actually fit in the Model S. The Roadster isn’t fully compatible with people my size. If you want one, you can reserve it here . You should get it by late 2011. Tesla says they delivered 104 Roadsters in March and about 320 all time. The company has raised $186 million in capital to date, and has applied for $350 million in federal loans. Here is the Model S and Roadster side by side: Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Survey Says: Workers Are More Worried About Their Colleagues Being Laid Off Than Themselves Top
When it comes to layoffs, the light always seems darker over your co-worker’s cubicle. A new employee confidence survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of company/job review site Glassdoor.com shows that 26 percent of respondents are concerned about being out of work in the next six months. That is up from 21 percent in the last quarter. But when asked about their colleagues , a full 44 percent said some of them wouldn’t last through the summer. You never think you are the one who is going to get fired until your boss calls you into his office for a little chat. More than half of those surveyed, 57 percent, said that layoffs or planned layoffs had occurred at their companies the past six months. Other findings from the survey: 35 percent think their company’s outlook will improve over the next six months 51 percent think their company’s outlook will stay the same 36 percent of employees still expect a raise, down from 40 percent last quarter 39 percent are confident they could find another job with comparable pay and experience if they had to 70 percent would be willing to take on more projects and responsibities to keep their jobs 62 percent would be willing to work longer hours to keep their jobs 40 percent would be willing to take a pay cut 35 percent would be willing to accept reduced health or dental benefits 34 percent would take an unpaid leave of absence to save their jobs longterm 30 percent would give up vacation time Interesting what people value the most. More people would take a pay cut before giving up health benefits or vacation time. What would you give up to keep your job? Full survey results embedded below: Glassdoor Employee Confidence Survey 1Q09 - Get more Business Plans Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Vodafone's Betavine R&D Lab introduces "easy as pie" Mobile Widget platform, developer contest underway Top
What do you get when you mix HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Opera, select cell phones (for now) and a Vodafone Group’s R&D lab, Betavine? Mobile Widgets ! For anyone who has ever wanted to develop a mobile web-app but lacked the specific technical skills, Betavine’s new Mobile Widget platform may just be what you’ve been waiting for. So what is a Mobile Widget? Betavine defines them as: Essentially, Widgets are the new touchpoint for how users will access the internet on their mobiles. They are mini Web applications that reside on the phone but can be personalised to easily fetch relevant information from the web and present it to the user. They require a device to have a Web Run-Time (WRT) environment which enables them to behave like applications (rich GUI, can be used offline) yet are as easy to code and update as a mobile internet browser site. Consequently, widgets can deliver relevant, 'always on' services to users – they are typically based on 1-2 use cases, for instance, a simple weather forecast or an Amazon search feature. Take Carsonified ’s “Slimline Twitter Search” Mobile Web Widget, Twiggy , for example (screenshots above). Ryan Carson and Co. built Twiggy in just 4 days (as opposed to the multiple weeks and/or months that a “full” app might take). Twiggy “is a simple mobile widget that allows you to search Twitter, right from your phone.” According to Carson, Mobile Widgets like Twiggy are the future of mobile app development: The importance [of Mobile Widgets] is that [they] offer web developers and designers a whole new market to build for: non-iPhone devices (1M+ and growing). Also, the widgets, because they’re built in open web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) will work on any device that has the Web Run Time. There is an exciting initiative called BONDI which is helping all the device manufactures agree on a set of API’s that will be consistent across all devices, that will give mobile widget developers access to device level functionality, like location and contacts. This means someone could build a mobile widget and it would work on a huge array of devices. Furthermore, Vodafone (via Betavine) is currently offering mobile developers a chance to win £20,000 in its new mobile widget contest. Not only do they walk home with that hefty chunk of change, but: The winner will receive a commitment from Vodafone to promote the widget to users in one of Vodafone's major markets. Two runners up will also receive a £1,000 cash prize. All developers submitting widgets will also have an opportunity to make their entries available through the Vodafone Widget Manager Beta application, which is currently being rolled out across a range of 10 popular S60 handsets in Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain and the UK. The competition started began back on Feb. 2 and runs through April 30, 2009. For specific rules and more detailed information, head on over to the Betavine contest site . What are you waiting for? Start Mobile Widgeting! Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Palm Opens Early Access Program For Pre SDK Top
Today at the Web 2.0 Expo Keynote, Palm’s Michael Abbott has taken the stage to walk the audience through some of the principles driving Palm’s webOS platform, which will drive its upcoming Pre phone, which CrunchGear first revealed back in January. Abbott notes that on the webOS Platform, developers can run applications using HTML, JavaScript, and can access data from hardware on devices, including location and the accelerometer. He says that webOS spans the device and the cloud, and that web applications can run natively on the platform even without internet connectivity. “So why is Palm here”? Abbott says Palm wants to expose the web environment to developers. Today they’re launching developer.palm.com , giving developers early access to the SDK. The program will only be available to a limited number of developers to begin with, and Palm has not announced when it will be generally available to developers. There was some speculation that Palm might announce the release date for the Pre, which it has previously said would be some time in the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, the actual release date and pricing point for the phone remain a mystery. From the Palm blog: We are happy to announce our new early access program for developers interested in creating applications for the Palm webOSTM. The early access program is an opportunity for developers to test-drive and provide feedback on the Palm MojoTM SDK prior to its public release. Admission to the program is by application – we'll admit a small group of developers to start and gradually increase the size of the program as the tools mature. We'd like to let everyone in, but we want to make sure that we can provide a solid development experience and attentive developer support before we scale up. We are eager to get the SDK into developers' hands and will expand the program as quickly as we can. The program will continue until the SDK is officially released to the public, at which point any developer will be free to download the SDK. No, we're not announcing the date that will happen yet. If you wish to to apply to the early access program, complete and submit this application form. If you're admitted into the program, you'll be able to download the Mojo SDK, which includes the tools you need to develop and test apps for the webOS platform. You'll also have access to the early access program portal, where you'll find documentation, sample code, and community forums where you can share experiences, tips and tricks with fellow early access developers. Because this is early access, all program participants will be required to accept an SDK Agreement which will require you to maintain confidentiality until the end of the early access program. We are very excited about the expansion of access to the SDK, and can't wait to see what you are going to build. For more, see this post on the Palm blog. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Is Office Finally Coming To The iPhone? Top
I’m here at the Web 2.0 Expo keynote, where Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division, hinted that we may be seeing Microsoft Office make its way to the iPhone some time soon. After his interviewer Tim O’Reilly caught him on the comment, Elop backtracked a bit, stating “not yet, keep watching”. But it’s clear that an iPhone version of Office is on his mind. Rumors of an Office client for the iPhone have been circling for over a year , as users clamor for a way to edit their Word and Excel files on the go (the iPhone allows them to view them, but doesn’t include any editing functionality). Unofficial editing suites are also on the way. Today saw the annoucement of QuickOffice , a suite of applications that can edit office files (though it has yet to be released). Also worth checking out is this spreadsheet application. In other Office-related news, Elop said that Microsoft plans to launch an ad-supported online version of Office for the web, though it won’t be out this year. He also notes that of the 500 million people who use Office, only 250 million actually pay for it. When asked what Microsoft’s biggest fear concerning Office was, Elop said that it was afraid of innovation slowing down, explaining “It’s not about having bolding or underlining in the browser… The real threat is if we’re not continuing to innovate”. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Adrollo Launches Dynamic Ad Network Platform For The iPhone Top
Since Apple’s App Store launched last July, a number of ad networks have emerged that allow iPhone developers to place advertising in their apps so that they can generate revenue, even when an application was initially sold for free. But as the number of ad networks available has increased, developers are being faced with a new problem: once they’ve deployed an application with a certain ad network, it’s tough to switch to a new one. Typically developers have to issue updates to their apps, which can take days or weeks to make it through Apple’s approval process. Adrollo , a new service that launches today, is looking to help developers make this process more efficient, allowing them to switch between different ad networks on the fly without having to submit a new application to Apple. At launch the service has support for five different ad networks, with more on the way shortly. After integrating Adrollo into their application, developers can view their current ad setup from the service’s web panel. From there they can specify which ad networks they’d like to rotate between and how often they’d like their ads to appear in their application. Developers can also set up Adrollo to automatically switch between all available ad networks, optimizing CPM rates to ensure that their apps are generating as much revenue as possible (it can also fill an ad unit when the current network runs out of inventory, which can be a problem on popular applications). AdRollo - Free Your Ads from iPhone Developers on Vimeo . Adrollo co-founder Sam Yam says that developers can make as much as twice as much money using the optimizations available on the platform. Yam acknowledges that there are a few other options for developers to pull ads from multiple ad networks, but that they come with their own issues. Some services aggregate ads from various networks on the server-side, then send them to the iPhone applications, but Yam says that these typically only support basic ads. Adrollo supports all ads served up by the networks, and also allows developers to include their own ads in their applications (for example, you could place an add for your premium app in the free ‘lite’ version). Adrollo is going to be available to developers for free. Yam says that the company’s monetization plan is to eventually begin offering its own ad inventory, which will also be deployed through the platform. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
MySpace Stealth Webmail Product Definitely Happening (Internal Memo) Top
In January we wrote about rumors of MySpace launching a webmail product that would compete head on with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. At launch it could be as large as some of the biggest players in the space. The company has been reassigning internal email addresses (employeename@myspace.com) to a new domain name (@myspace-inc.com), which is exactly what Yahoo and others did when launching webmail services. There is no other reasonable explanation for the changeover, which is extremely disruptive to communications. That changeover had been happening quietly since late last year. But today Fox Interactive Media, the soon to be disbanded corporate parent of MySpace, sent an email to all MySpace employees. That email is copied below. It doesn’t seem like much, but this is as good as confirmation that we’ll be seeing MySpace launching a full webmail product in the near future. MySpace PR would not comment on this story. Fox Interactive Media hasn’t yet returned my call. Greetings from FIM Corporate IT; IT has assigned all MySpace employees login@myspace-inc.com corporate email addresses with an alias that matches your current login@myspace.com corporate email. Company-wide, MySpace is migrating from the login@myspace.com to login@myspace-inc.com. Effective immediately, all outward bound corporate emails will be sent FROM and will REPLY TO login@myspace-inc.com. You will continue to receive all emails sent to login@myspace.com, however login@myspace-inc.com will be your primary corporate email address. Feel free to update your email signatures however, there is currently no need to alert your contacts or order new business cards. It's our goal to make this migration as transparent and simple as possible. If you encounter any issues with your corporate email please contact FIM Helpdesk (FIMHelpdesk@fox.com) Thank you for your time. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Comcast's OnDemand Reaches 11 Billion Views, Nearly Twice The Number Of iTunes Music Downloads Top
Comcast has reached the 11-billion views milestone for its On Demand video services since the launch of the feature 6 years ago. The cable operator threw out some interesting factoids to help measure the magnitude of its milestone. Comcast points out that 11 billion views is nearly two times the total number of music downloads ( 6 billion ) sold on iTunes since its launch six years ago. The company adds that 11 billion views is four times the total number of Big Macs sold in the US (3 billion) over the same time period and 30 times the total number of Harry Potter books sold around the world (375 million copies). Yeah, it’s a lot. But it’s less than how many videos are watched on the Web in a single month (that number reached 11 billion last April) . And it is still a fraction of how many movies and TV shows Comcast cable customers watch on the other 300 channels they get with their monthly subscription. The cable company also announced that PBS will now be available On Demand in HD. (Don’t knock anything over rushing for that remote). OnDemand gives consumers instantaneous access to more than 10,000 programs each month. Some are free, some cost $3.99. But unlike iTunes songs, you don’t get to keep them. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Veoh Lays Off 25 Employees And Shifts Focus Away From Competing With YouTube And Hulu Top
In the world of Web video, either you are YouTube or you are in trouble. Today, well-funded video site Veoh laid off 25 people, the company confirmed today. The layoffs were brought on by a restructuring, as the company shifts focus away from its standalone site, says founder and now-reinstated CEO Dmitry Shapiro. Shapiro replaces former CEO Steve Mitgang. With both today’s layoffs and cutbacks last November, the company is now left with 45 employees, says Shapiro. We have added the latest round to our Layoff Tracker . Shapiro says that the company is doubling down on its video search browser plug-in, Video Compass, in an effort to engage consumers with videos at times when they wouldn’t normally be watching them. Video Compass adds a video recommendations whenever you conduct a search on Google or elsewhere on the Web. Veoh adds over 25,000 new Video Compass users daily. Veoh’s standalone video playing site is having difficulty competing with the bigger players in the game like YouTube and Hulu. Still Shapiro maintains that Veoh’s site remains popular among consumers, generating more than 200 million video streams each month from content publishers such as ABC, CBS, ESPN, Viacom, and Warner Bros. Comscore says Veoh’s site had 15 million unique views worldwide in February 2009, down from 18 million last August, plus another 7.2 million for its VeohTV app, which has also been losing viewers (see chart below). Shapiro says that the site alone reaches over 23 million unique users each month. So what went wrong? Shapiro says that the video search business model is still immature. He thinks that while video should be omnipresent in a consumer’s web experience, the ad model is still evolving. Shapiro is sure that advertisers will one day throw seven and eight-figure dollar amounts to advertise on video sites, but its simply not there yet. For that reason, Veoh is tightening its belt and trying to come up with new ways get consumers to watch videos. But getting people to watch videos online doesn’t seem to be the problem. It is getting advertisers to pay to reach those viewers. Veoh is placing a big bet on Video Compass, which is a novel video discovery tool, but still has many glitches to work out. As we wrote in our review, Video Compass sometimes offers bizarre matches and appears only after the page you're visiting has finished loading (so your Google search will finish, for instance, and only then will the Veoh ribbon pop in, shifting everything down a few centimeters). Veoh has been on a rollercoaster ride over the past year. It is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Universal Music Group, which so far seems to be going its way, marginally . Veoh has also raised significant capital ($70 million to be exact) from big-name investors like Goldman Sachs, Gordon Crawford and Time Warner. Shapiro says investors are supportive of the company’s redirection so far. The two comScore charts below show worldwide unique visitors (for both Veoh’s site and its VeohTV app), and a U.S. comparison of Veoh.com to Hulu,.com. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Never Nude Land: A Place For Cutoffs Top
Well, the internet officially has a social network for everything. Today sees the launch of Never Nude Land , a social network for users who prefer to keep their dark nether regions housed in the comfort of clothing - at all times. It’s exactly what it sounds like: the site caters to a collection of individuals that consider portions of their clothing to be an integral part of their nude physique, and are generally unwilling to take it off, even when they prepare to make love on their spouses. While most people have never heard of it, according to the site Nevernudism is a fairly common condition affecting dozens of people worldwide (the actual number is far higher, as the vast majority of Never-Nudes do not reveal themselves to their peers). Unfortunately, despite its high frequency, there are many social stigmas associated with the condition. Never-Nudes are commonly mocked for their affinity to jean cutoffs, which others often interpret as an attempt to hide a lack of genitalular fortitude. The social network was founded by outspoken Never-Nude Zach Braff , who says he started the site as a way to meet girls who could understand his condition (I suspect he also has quite a bit of free time now that Scrubs is nearly over). Braff says he relied largely on outsourced developers to build the site, who appear to have simply cloned innovative German social network StudiVZ . But what NeverNudeLand lacks in originally, it makes up for with its tight-knit community. Members can be found helping each other with common Never-Nude issues on a forum frequented by Braff and other celebrity members. Popular threads include “How to bathe in the never-nude”, “Sex, Denim, and You” and a photo sharing section where members can comment on how effectively their outfits ‘hide their thunder’. At this point the site is still fairly early in its lifespan, and I have high hopes for it despite its derivative design. Furthermore, in researching this piece I learned things about the Never-Nude community that I was not aware of, and I deeply hope that they can gain the acceptance they deserve under the guidance of Braff. The community has my full support, and I understand their plight far more than they’ll.. never know. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Another Dry Quarter For Venture Exits Top
The first quarter is now officially over, and it was another dry one for venture-backed exits. Once again, there were zero venture-backed IPOs and only 56 M&A transactions, according to the National Venture Capital Association . Those numbers are down from five IPOs and 106 M&A exits in the first quarter of 2008. Six venture-backed IPOs were withdrawn from registration during the quarter. The disclosed value of those M&A deals in the first quarter of 2009 was $645 million, down from $4.5 billion a year ago. That amount is also down from the $2.4 billion in M&A deals in the fourth quarter of 2008, when there were 61 deals. The average deal size has dropped dramatically from $140 million in the fourth quarter (and an average of $115 million all last year) to $50 million in this past quarter. You can see the data in various charts below and on this page . It is not pretty out there. As long as the exit window remains shut, venture firms will remain cautious with their money. Of all the deals, nearly half (24) were in computer software and services, 9 were Internet startups, and 11 were life sciences. The largest acquisition in the quarter was in fact a medical device company, Ablation Frontiers, which was bought by Medtronic for $225 million. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Is Twitter Turning Into MySpace? Top
Editor’s note : The following guest post was written by Mrinal Desai, who was an early employee of LinkedIn before he co-founded CrossLoop , a startup funded by El Dorado and Venrock. You can follow him on Twitter . I try and test many social services and since 2003, there are only three that represent me—LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. MySpace was a service that I tried but it did not appeal to me personally for one reason—I wanted to connect with real people and I did not "see" them on MySpace. I started using Twitter in early 2007, and it gave me something I cherish in the offline world – the ability to connect to real people who share my values and learn from them. It also has given me access to people I might never have otherwise been able to speak to. Through Twitter I have had conversations with the likes of Steve Case and Craig Newmark . I learn about new services and tools, read news when it happens and "my dumb questions' give me instant gratification when people smarter than me actually answer them. Against all the initial skepticism of the people around me at home and at the office, I thoroughly enjoyed Twitter and also noticed that it was 'stealing' me away from Facebook and other services like Google Reader. Yet now I am beginning to question if Twitter is turning into MySpace. Here are five parallels just off the top of my head: • There is a competition for followers similar to collecting "friends" on MySpace • Anonymity is normal on both Twitter and Myspace, unlike Facebook • Fake profiles are proliferating • Real celebrity profiles are also proliferating, but they are often maintained by someone else for marketing, l eading to spam • Finally, the one most evident visually—services like Twitback, Twitterbacks and Twitterimage help you customize your profiles. You can compare Britney Spear's profiles on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook respectively (see screenshot below) Recently The New York Times uncovered ghost writers like Annie Colbert who tweets for Guy Kawasaki , Lauren Kozak who tweets sometimes for Britney Spears and Chris Romero for 50Cent. Furthermore fake accounts are surfacing. Twitter recently suspended (then reinstated, and then suspended again) an account that seemingly belonged to the actor Christopher Walken , to the dismay of Erick and his 90,000 other followers. But it was created and maintained by an impersonator. Then, on the other hand ,you have Tina Fey , who has publicly acknowledged it's not her on Twitter yet her fake account currently has over 216,000 followers. Finally, there are many questionable accounts like Oprah's, which has 9,390 followers without a single tweet – probably because she is working hard on her Facebook Fan Page , which now has over 420,000 fans. And finally, if you are still really curious to learn whether Russia is really visible from Alaska, you can @reply Sarah Palin here , here or here . (Just don't expect to actually reach the real deal). All of these fake profiles remind me of Julia Angwin's recent piece in The Wall Street Journal , “Putting Your Best Faces Forward”. She notes that MySpace grew out of the 'Fakester Revolution' from the Friendster that denied anonymity. MySpace became the Promised Land for those who wanted to stay anonymous—it was so by design (pun intended). MySpace was about collecting friends – users like Forbidden and Tila Tequila amassed hundreds of thousands of them MySpace did what it did as a competitive advantage against Friendster. Twitter does not necessarily want to go in that direction by choice – after all, it is suspending fake accounts and is removing the Auto-Follow feature favored by self-promoters. As Evan Williams freely admits , a lot of the different types of activity we are seeing on Twitter is not necessarily by design—it is driven by unexpected uses. Maybe the bling bling on the profiles, the fake accounts or ghost writers are unexpected, but sometimes it is important to also recognize that users do not always know what they want. I agree with Michae l that staying true to your vision and pushing the envelope is what makes you a winner. MySpace effectively exploited Friendster's technical problems, but so far no one has been able to do the same whenever Twitter sputters. And I don't think they will. The Achilles' heel for Twitter is not technology - it is the experience (with the site itself and with other users). Does Twitter want to be more like MySpace, which is cleaning up to be more like Facebook, which wants to be like Twitter? Where shall these three meet—in thunder, lightning or rain? Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
chi.mp Lets You Own And Keep Your Web Identity All In One Place Top
Are you a chump for putting all your data on social networking and media sites and not having any real control over it? chi.mp thinks so. chi.mp is a service for owning and managing your online identity, and is now open to the public. Previously in private beta, chi.mp ( which stands for Content Hub & Identity Management Platform), allows people to bring together their presence on from all over the web in one place. Chi.mp basically gives users (for free) their own domain and Web site and gives them full ownership over the content, letting them create a “social hub.” chi.mp is kind of like having your own FriendFeed. It offers users a free “.mp” domain name, allowing users to get a free web site that includes Open ID, social network profiles, an activity stream, a blog, photo albums and other tools to import content and contacts from Twitter, Flickr, Gmail or Yahoo, and any site with RSS or Atom feeds. chi.mp also includes a contact management system called the 'Ultimate Black Book', a tiered privacy tool called 'Personas' and the ability to publish and push content to other sites and social networks, such as Facebook. The 'Personas' feature on chi.mp lets owners create multiple versions of themselves for different audiences. This feature is useful when wanting to differentiate your identity for your work place, for instance, from your online identity for friends. And its comforting to have full ownership over your profile and information about you on the web. Ownership over users content can be a complicated issue, according to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. ch.imp is also somewhat similar to .Tel’s service of aggregating personal information via a domain name. But .Tel doesn’t provide a free service to mashup, import and organize your online information like chi.mp. Of course there are plenty of other social network and web information aggregators like Nomee (a desktop app) and FriendFeed (a web application) but chi.mp’s key difference is the user’s ownership over the domain and the content. Is that enough to get people to use it, though? The nice thing about FriendFeed, for instance, is that other people actually go there. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Disney Online Buys Kaboose Assets For $18.4 Million, Barclays Private Equity Limited Acquires Its UK Operations Top
Disney Online , the online publishing business unit of Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG), announced this morning that it has acquired a number of assets from Toronto, Canada-based firm Kaboose , in a deal worth CAD 23.3 million (approximately $18.4M). The acquisition encompasses Kaboose.com and other properties including Babyzone.com, AmazingMoms.com, Funschool.com and Zeeks.com. The assets of Kaboose, which was founded about 10 years ago, will be integrated into Disney Online's line-up of websites. This network boasts, according to the press release citing comScore Media Metrix figures for February 2009, more than 27.6 million unique visitors per month, making it the No. 1 Community-Family & Parenting Web destination. Kaboose says it received nearly five million unique visitors in February 2009. This is not the only announcement coming from Kaboose today. In a separate agreement, the company’s UK business, being Bounty Group Limited, is being sold off to a company controlled by funds managed by Barclays Private Equity Limited. The purchase price payable to Kaboose under the terms of the Bounty Transaction is approximately $97 million in cash less third-party debt outstanding on closing which is expected to be approximately $18 million. From the press release: Following the completion of these two transactions, Kaboose intends on distributing the resulting net proceeds to its shareholders. The Company expects that such net proceeds will result in approximately $0.65 per share being distributed to shareholders in the months following completion of the transactions, which distributions represent approximately a 70% premium to the thirty-day average closing price of Kaboose’s stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Jason DeZwirek, Chairman and CEO of Kaboose, is not hiding the fact that the company was under pressure: “2008 was a difficult year for many businesses and shareholders, and Kaboose was no exception. With the fundamental shift in the sentiment of the capital markets in general and in the media and advertising sectors in particular, and having been approached by several large international media companies and global private equity institutions interested in our business, we felt compelled to re-examine our long-term plan. With the advice of our financial advisors, the Company’s Board of Directors determined that Kaboose could divest its assets and realize significantly greater value than we could deliver as an independent public media company in the foreseeable future.” The closing of the two transaction is conditional on obtaining Kaboose shareholder approval and other customary conditions. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Nomee Is An All-In-One Social Networking Aggregator And RSS Feed Top
Startup Nomee aggregates social networks and websites into a free Adobe Air powered desktop application that helps you manage these networks and sites into a single interface. The nomee personal all-in-one dashboard aggregates all your favorite social networking sites (you can manage profiles from up to 100 networks including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Digg ) and RSS feeds, giving you one place to organize your online relationships, share your information, follow newsmakers, and even publish your own news. Nomee is designed to simplify social networking by organizing all of your online relationships in a single location, making it easy to focus on who you want to connect with, when you want to connect. With the help of Adobe Air, Nomee also brings news updates to users in a pretty simple interface. In addition, Nomee lets you customize the information you want to share, pointing your contacts to the web sites you want them to see. It also alerts your contacts when you post updates or new content, including providing custom updates to different friends and business associates. Nomee also allows you to follow your favorite celebrities, sports teams and other interest areas through downloading its exclusive nomee newsmaker cards. You can become your own nomee newsmaker by collecting links on your nomee card and posting it for download from your blog or website, so your fans can track you. Managing all of your social networks, celebrity obsessions and RSS feeds in one place is not a new idea. FriendFeed aggregates all of this information into a website. But the adoption of Adobe Air into the application gives it a different twist. Nomee, which can be run on a PC or a Mac, isn’t your conventional website, its actually a rich internet application separate from your browser. Here’s a screenshot: Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Yahoo Launches Slick Desktop AIR App For Monitoring Twitter Top
Yahoo has launched an Adobe AIR-powered desktop application called Sideline yesterday, once again validating the power of Twitter for real-time search . After taking it for a spin, I have to say it looks and feels really nice, but other than that there’s no real incentive for me to keep using it on a regular basis. So what does it do? Sideline is a straight-forward Twitter monitoring tool, giving you the opportunity to stay on top of the latest trends on the microsharing service and/or keywords you feed into the application. It has an auto-refresh feature (which you can tweak to have the search results reload between 1 minute and 1 hour), a notification system that alerts you of new keyword mentions in an overlay that appears whatever you’re doing and the ability to only look for favorited tweets containing the keywords you’re tracking. So far, nothing special, but what’s nice about Sideline is that it enables you to create so-called Search Groups which pull together multiple keywords for tracking purposes. This basically allows anyone to create e.g. a TechCrunch group and track different keywords and phrases like ‘techcrunch’, ‘crunchgear’, ‘michael arrington’, etc. Also really nice is the advanced search function, which lets you filter results down extensively, for instance by person, hashtag, ‘asking a question’, by negative or positive connotation (determined with smilies), and so on. Update: this is actually a layer over Twitter’s advanced search functionality , as a commentor points out. It’s slick and useful, but nothing major any way you look at it, especially since it’s not a functional client that lets you actually send direct or public Twitter messages. I wonder how many people will effectively keep using it after trying it out, but I doubt it will be many. The desktop application comes from Yahoo’s User Interface (YUI) group, who explained in detail what inspired them to build it and how they did it. Sideline was developed with the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) and HTML/JS/CSS. The code is open source under the terms of the BSD license and hosted on GitHub . Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Palm Reveals New 'Post' Smartphone, Still Working On Pre Top
In an unprecedented move, Palm has revealed its heretofore ultra-secret WebOS-based smartphone - the Palm Post - at CTIA 2009. While the mobile world has been patiently waiting for the Pre since it was first teased back in January , Palm has apparently been hard at work on the (clandestine) Post as well. According to Palm’s press release : We’ve put an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources into the development and production of our new flagship device - the Palm Post . Rather than rush our highly anticipated Palm Pre to the market, we thought it was in the best interest of both our customers and our company to perform extended R&D on our new hardware and software. Not only does this ensure that consumers will receive the highest quality mobile device possible, but by moving our top engineers to a new facility - The Orchid - we’ve been able to do what no other company has been able to achieve until now…we’ve preemptively included all of the features and technologies that our customers (and Sprint) will want come 2011 in the Post! In other words, thanks to the DHARMA Intiative , we no longer have to wait for months of testing and feedback, but instead can rely on the needs and desires consumers will develop in the not to distant future. This enables us to provide the best, most comprehensive smartphones available anywhere on planet Earth. The Post’s most spectacular features include: 3.5G / 4G / 5G octo-band radios WiFi / WiMax connectivity 21 MP digital camera with 1080p video recording 4.1″ AMOLED / E-ink “reader” dual-mode display Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless USB charging/syncing 128GB flash memory Hydrogen-cell battery: 2 weeks talk-time / 2 months standby HD pico projector w/ 5.1 channel surround T10 predictive thought text auto-correction That’s right folks. You heard it here first. Palm, by utilizing nontraditional means, has developed and will soon release a mobile device - the Post - with features that you didn’t and couldn’t even know that you wanted! The Post is expected to be available online and in Sprint brick-and-mortar stores by April 10 for the fantastically low price of $49.99 w/2yr contract. In other related news, Palm still plans to release its pending Pre smartphone by April 30 in an effort to beat out iPhone 3.0 / other new Android devices to the market…if anyone still cares in light of this incredible announcement. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 

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