Thursday, April 30, 2009

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Time's 100 Most Influential People Includes 4chan And Twitter Creators Top
This list is in. Time has released its annual Time 100 list , honoring the most influential people in the world. There are a lot of interesting names including Sarah Palin and President Obama, but let’s focus on the names from the tech sphere. Moot (the creator of 4chan), Jeff Bezos, The Twitter Guys, Sam & Dan Houser, Jack Ma, Robin Chase, Nathaniel Silver, Nandan Nilekani, and Shai Agassi have all be included. And some of their write-ups are really interesting because of their authors. For example, Moot is written up by the man perhaps now best known for being the “Rick” in the “Rick Roll”, Rick Astley. The “Twitter Guys” (founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey) are written up by Ashton Kutcher, the first Twitter users with a million followers. And Jeff Bezos is written up by Bill Gates. Here’s a line from the Twitter story that will no doubt infuriate those that hate Twitter: Years from now, when historians reflect on the time we are currently living in, the names Biz Stone and Evan Williams will be referenced side by side with the likes of Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Philo Farnsworth, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In his profile of Moot, Astley admits that at first he was a bit embarrassed by the phenomenon of Rick Rolling, but then embraced it. He also uses the word “bonkers.” Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Even More Details On Mini-Pre/Palm Pixie: Specs Revealed, To Be Called "Palm EOS" Top
It looks like all it took for details of Palm’s post-Pre phone to begin spilling out was for us to break the news of it yesterday. Just hours after, a blurry shot of the handset was out. Now, before the next day is even half way over, a decent shot and a full list of purported specs have made their way out. We’re getting conflicting reports of what this thing is codenamed. Some are calling it “Pixie”, while others are calling it “Castle”. As for it’s official name, it’s currently rumored to be called the “Palm EOS” - which seems like a horrible name compared to “Palm Pre”. Looking like the oh-so-gorgeous offspring of a Centro and a Pre, all we know is that we’re aching to touch it. Read the rest of this entry >> Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Google Becomes Default Location Provider For Firefox Top
Many of us have been saying it for a long time: location based services are the future. But up until now they’ve been a distant, hazy future, because they’ve been so difficult to use. That’s going to change soon, and it looks like Google is going to be leading the way. Google has just announced that it has become the default location provider service in Firefox, which means beginning in the latest Firefox Beta ( available here ) users will be able to update their location from their web browser without having to install an extra plugins or programs through Google. This is big. Location based services take a lot of flack for their privacy issues, but so far the biggest obstacle in their acceptance has been that they’re a huge pain to use, typically requiring extra browser plugins and annoying sign-up processes. The new version of Firefox is probably going to change that, at least for desktop browsers, because it will have location detection baked in. Up until now it seemed like Mozilla was going to be using Geode, a plugin it first annouced back in October, as its default location provider. The switch to Google is obviously a big win for Google Latitude , and it will also likely give Google access to volumes of local data that will allow it to offer hyper-targeted advertising to businesses. As with Google’s search deal with Mozilla, which was recently extended through 2011, I suspect Google is paying a pretty penny for the right to be the browser’s default provider . In 2006, that search deal alone reportedly accounted for $57 million, or around 85% of Mozilla’s total revenue. Update : Mozilla says that there is no money changing hands in this case, and that it is totally unrelated to the search deal. Mozilla wanted to break the ‘chicken and the egg’ problem of location, and decided to go with Google because they saw eye-to-eye on privacy issues. Google’s plans extend well beyond the Firefox browser, too. Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser on the web, and Google recently released an update to its Toolbar which includes the same location detection service as Firefox will. Of course, users will still have to download the plugin, which makes the barrier to entry significantly higher than it will be on Firefox. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
More Info On The Palm "Mini-Pre": Code Name Pixie Top
We’ve got more information on the upcoming Palm WebOS device to debut later this year. We broke the news yesterday of its existence. Now we’ve got the internal name for the project: Pixie. The Pixie will use the same WebOS operating system and software as the Palm Pre, but in a smaller candy-bar form factor and a target $99 price point, say our sources. It will be released only a few months after the Pre in June, so this isn’t an upgrade device. It’s targeted at the lower end of the market. Yesterday we didn’t know if the device would have a fixed physical keyboard. Today we’ve confirmed that it does. Physically the device will resemble the existing Palm Centro line of phones, but the hardware and software is a clean wipe. The Pixie is the Pre’s little brother. We have conflicting sources talking about launch plans. One source says it’s full steam ahead. Another says Palm is waiting to see how the Pre does before announcing the Pixie. This morning Boy Genius Report posted a blurry picture (which we use above) of a new Palm device that fits all the facts as we’ve heard independently. Until we see something we trust more, we’re going with this. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
eBay targeted by Aroxo's 21st Century haggling engine Top
Today Aroxo launches an ambitious play, aiming to create a brand new space in between online retailing and the auction model - specifically targeting eBay. This is, put simply, the thousands of years old process of buyers and sellers haggling over price put into an online model. But there is more to it that that, since it also brings pre-qualified leads to sellers who want to offload inventory quickly. And unlike the group-buying models of old, it can dish out instant sales. Unlike on Priceline, buyers can negotiate the price and aren’t initially committed to a purchase. It can be an anonymous disposal system for the supplier, or they can brand the hell out of it with their logo, the works. It’s the sort of site that could well appeal to recession-hit retailers and backyard eBay businesses. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Facebook Updating Friends Area To Simplify Friend Filtering Top
In a few hours, Facebook will roll out changes to one of its main areas, “Friends,” designed to make it easier and more obvious as to how to add friends, make Friend Lists and edit those lists. This is important as filtering is a key part of the newly redesigned homepage, and up until now it’s been a bit confusing for some users as to how to create these lists. The specific changes to the area involve moving “Create New List,” “Edit List,” and “Delete List” buttons to the top of the area above your list of friends. Clicking on the Create New List button will open an overlay that allows you to click on friends’ faces to add them to this new list. You can also type in their name and have them show up. Editing an existing friend list is just as easy. But something else really interesting that Facebook is doing is that it is now auto-populating some lists for you, if you don’t have any. It’s doing this by using the details you entered when you confirmed a friendship with someone — the “How do you know this person?” question. This auto-generation of lists will no doubt spur more usage of them and will hopefully help less savvy users figure out how to use them to make the site more manageable. When you visit this new Friends area, you’ll also see at the very top of the page a big box to help you find friends that you email most often. Below this, is the Suggestions area which lists several people Facebook thinks you may be friends with based on your existing connections. You can also find people based on what school you went to and also based on their IM name on various services. Friend lists have existed in one form or another on Facebook since 2007. Their most obvious usage before the redesign was to give different friends different privacy settings, to modify what they could or could not see. But as I mentioned, these lists are now just as important for your own experience on Facebook, to filter the social stream. All of your Friend Lists will now show up on the left hand sidebar of the main page. You can easily rearrange these lists by dragging them into new positions. The top one will be your default view of the Facebook News Feed. Facebook is quick to note that your friends will not be able to see what lists you’ve put them in. So when you add Jim to your “Dumbass” list, you’ll be fine unless he’s looking over your shoulder when you’re signed into your own account. Check out the screenshots and a video below. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Viximo Lands $5 Million For Virtual Goods Platform Top
Viximo, which provides a platform for the creation, distribution, and monetization of virtual goods for social networks and mobile devices, has secured $5 million in a round of funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Former CEO Rob Frasca has been replaced by Dayna Grayson, who was with North Bridge Venture Partners. Viximo, which launched last fall, provides an embeddable gift store and showcase that can be integrated into any site, and also markets its own micro-transaction system. Viximo has formed partnerships with a number of Facebook applications, as well as stand alone websites looking to integrate their own stores. Partners include Always Athletes, which produces a Facebook app called My Sports Career; We're Related; Birthday Calendar (another Facebook app), and World Winner, a standalone site. Most recently, Viximo released a landmark new development platform called VixML that allows iPhone application designers to create basic applications with a minimal amount of programming knowledge. Thanks to VirtualGoodsNews for the tip. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
iPhone Sweeps JD Power Consumer Smartphone Ratings — Except In Battery Life Top
The latest 2009 JD Power Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction Study numbers are in . And the winner is … the iPhone. Apple’s device nearly swept every category, with top marks in operating system, features, ease of operation, physical design and overall satisfaction. In fact, the only device it didn’t receive the highest marks in was “battery aspects.” Looking at the chart, all of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone field were middling. HTC, Motorola, Palm, RIM and Samsung had mostly 2 or 3 stars across the board where Apple had 5. LG faired second best with 4 stars across the board expect for operating system, where it got 3. Palm should feel okay knowing that early reports on its upcoming Pre device have it battling the iPhone in design, operating system and features. Perhaps next year, Apple won’t sweep so easily through the field. Of course, its weak spot, battery, may be improved shortly with the launch of the next version of the iPhone, which may happen this summer. Speaking of battery, that’s the only category RIM did well in. And according to the consumers surveyed, that was the least important feature (in terms of this survey) of the device. That can’t be good new for the BlackBerry-maker, as consumers largely viewed its devices as “meh.” Overall, Apple scored 791 on a 1,000-point scale. LG was second with 772 and Samsung third with 759. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Disney Buys Into Hulu. YouTube Should Be Worried. Top
As Hulu continues its spectacular rise (it is the No. 3 video site in the U.S. and is closing in on No. 2), it just got major buy-in from yet another major media company. Disney is now an investor, joining News Corp and NBC (along with private equity firm Providence Equity Partners). Each of the three media companies now reportedly own 27 percent of Hulu. As the initial exclusivity for NBC and Fox content expires, Hulu will be adding Disney/ABC videos and TV shows to its distribution mix as well. Hulu is becoming the preferred distribution channel for the big media companies. And it is succeeding in attracting the fickle Web audience. This should worry YouTube, which is still casting about for a business model that will pay for its enormous storage and bandwidth costs. The media companies cannot ignore YouTube just yet, but by strengthening Hulu they can give it their best content first. In the world of media companies, every new distribution window is a new opportunity to make money. So instead of thinking of the Web as one big distribution window, maybe Hulu gets first dibs at the hottest shows and movies, and then YouTube after a while. the media companies would like nothing better than to displace YouTube as the king of all Web video. And with a stake in Hulu’s success, they have even more incentive to help it win. But if Hulu does become the de facto distribution vehicle for the media companies, the TV and movie companies who are not part of the partnership will be at a disadvantage. Companies like CBS and Time Warner have to consider joining as well. But Hulu can’t let them all in because at a certain point it will trigger antitrust concerns. So there is a limit to how dominant Hulu can become, but Hulu is still along way from getting there (Hulu streamed an estimated 380 million videos in March in the U.S., compared to 5.9 billion for YouTube). For now, merely presenting a serious challenge to YouTube is a good thing for competition and for video on the Web. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Mobile Communication Startup fring Bags More Funding Top
Fring , the Israel-based mobile call and chat application provider, has closed a Series C round of financing on top of the $13 million it has raised since its inception in 2006. The capital comes from its entire list of previous backers: North Bridge Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Veritas Venture Partners and VenFin Limited all participated in the round. The actual amount raised was not shared, but we’re told that the third round is pretty much on par with the Series B round the company closed in August 2007 (estimated at $12 million when we reported it, but more in the vicinity of $10 million according to information we received later) and that it’s “most definitely not a downround”. Fring markets an entirely free, ad-supported mobile application that allows users to engage in Web-based social activities, including VoIP calling, instant messaging and social networking. The startup says it intends to use the extra funding to make the app compatible with more mobile environments (Android, anyone?), support more Web-based community services, introduce a couple of new features and make some usability improvements across the board. When the economy started crumbling last Fall, fring let go 20% of its workforce , although at the time it stated revenues were actually on the upside but it needed to cut costs to extend its runway through 2009. The company is up against a slew of well-funded startup rivals, including Nimbuzz , Truphone and eBuddy , but also increasingly against Skype, which is eyeing the mobile handset market more and more. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
New Phishing Attack Spreading On Facebook. This Time From FBstarter (Updated) Top
Yesterday a phishing scam spread across Facebook in the form of a message form a friend asking you to click on a link which took you to what appeared to be a Facebook login, but was actually at a different URL, http://fbaction.net. It was quickly blocked. But now there seems to be a new one linking to http://fbstarter.com/. It comes in the form of a message from a friend telling you to “Look at this!” When you click on the link, you are taken to what appears to be a Facebook sign-in page. If you go ahead and sign in, the phishers have access to your account and can then send messages to all of your friends. I just got one of these messages. It looks like this: Joshua sent you a message. Subject: Look at this! “fbstarter.com” And fbstarter is hyperlinked. If you do sign in by mistake, the best thing to do is to change your password as quickly as possible. Make sure you are signed into the real Facebook when you do that, however. Again, it looks like this phishing attack is very successful. Right now “fbstarter” is the No. 1 hottest term on Google Trends . I have alerted Facebook to this attack. Update : Facebook is on the case. They just sent me this update: We've already blocked www.fbstarter.com from being shared on Facebook. You've probably seen what this looks like but I'm including a screenshot. Now, we're deleting that URL from walls and inboxes. We've also blocked access to the URL so if someone does find it on Facebook (on their wall, in their inbox, or in an email notification) it won't send them to the destination. Finally, we'll automatically reset the password on any account that sent the malicious link. Thus, the data becomes useless to the bad guys very quickly. In addition, we work with MarkMonitor (they made an announcement today). We send them URLs and they get them added to the browser blacklists and work to get the sites taken down. I've included a screenshot of the warning from Firefox that resulted from their work on the phishing attack yesterday (fbaction.net). They got that site taken down, too. Today's site (fbstarter.com) has been down most of the morning. MarkMonitor and Facebook are watching it closely, though. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
AOL's Musical Chairs: Ad Head Coleman Out, Google's Levick In Top
With AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong in place, the game of musical chairs is under way. The first big departure being announced today is AOL’s head of sales Greg Coleman, who only joined in February, 2009 from Yahoo. Replacing him is Jeff Levick, who worked under Armstrong at Google as VP of Industry Development and Marketing in North America. Levick’s new title at AOL will be President, Global Advertising and Strategy, where he wlil be in charge of AOL’s ad network Platform-A. Coleman was not Armstrong’s hire and obviously he wants his own man in such a key position. Advertising revenues were down 20 percent in the first quarter . Armstrong needs to right the AOL ship before Time Warner can spin it off, which it is planning on doing. Meanwhile, the aftermath of Armstrong’s departure from Google continues. After Armstrong left, there was an internal power struggle at Google to see who would take his spot. When Dennis Woodside, the chief of Google sales in the UK, won that battle, one of the other contenders for the spot, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, left for Accel Partners Then just yesterday, on an unrelated note, former DoubleCklick CEO David Rosenblatt and currently head of display advertising at Google, announced that he too will be leaving . Meanwhile, the longtime chief of all global sales at Google, Omid Kordestani, is transitioning into a senior adviser role in order to make way for Nikesh Arora, currently President of International Operations, to take his spot. Arora was also an internal candidate for Armstrong’s position. While all of these executives are running around to find a new musical chair to sit in, Armstrong is standing in the middle, watching with a smile. (Photo credit: Flickr/ makelessnoise ) Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Facebook Rumored To Be Looking For Funding At $5-6 Billion Valuation Top
Facebook is reportedly still in the process of talking to several private equity firms about a significant follow-up investment in the company. According to the New York Post , which tends to be a bit sensationalist at times and is owned by News Corporation, the social networking juggernaut has already held informal exploratory meetings with Providence Equity Partners, General Atlantic, Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and others to date. The article cites Facebook to be looking for fresh capital at a $5 to $6 billion valuation, with the potential investors only willing to pour more capital in the company in the $2 billion to $3 billion valuation range. This is almost exactly what we reported earlier when we learned that Facebook may have received a term sheet for an investment at a $2 billion valuation from General Atlantic. The New York Post, however, claims no term sheets have been drawn up to date. The articles cites unnamed sources with knowledge of the situation, but that none of the companies involved will comment officially or so far failed to return requests for more information. As soon as day breaks in the U.S., we’ll do a bit of poking of our own. From the mouths of ‘people familiar with the matter’, Facebook’s attempt to raise additional capital is supposedly causing some friction with its existing investors (which include Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Microsoft and Peter Thiel), who are said to be against diluting their shares and urging the company to start squeezing some real revenue out of its now more than 200 million registered users . As Michael wrote earlier, Facebook may not have a lot of choice: They’re burning as much as $20 million a month in cash and are dealing with ridiculous growth . They likely have less than two years runway left, and possibly significantly less if they continue to add new users by the tens of millions that are currently flocking there every month. To be continued, no doubt. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
ChaCha Co-Founder Brad Bostic Steps Down As President Top
This one slipped through the cracks, but apparently Brad Bostic , who co-founded mobile Q&A answer service ChaCha together with current CEO Scott Jones back in 2006, has stepped down as President of the company and will not be replaced. In an interview with the Indianapolis Business Journal , Bostic stresses that he will stay involved with the company as an advisor and strategist, saying ChaCha has matured enough for him no longer to be needed for day-to-day operations. "I'm doing some evangelism for the company at trade shows, at conferences. [To say I] 'left' is not the appropriate characterization," Bostic said. More interestingly, Bostic openly discussed the fact that ChaCha is struggling to become a profitable company in the current economic climate, despite the fact it fired 1/3 of its workforce and brought on salary cuts for the rest of the employees earlier this year. ChaCha lets people ask questions from their mobile phones to have humans (so-called Guides, often part-timers working from home) attempt to correctly answer them by text message. ChaCha makes money by embedding advertisements in those answers, and advertisers pay only when users respond by clicking through to the text ad. In the past, we’ve questioned the scalability of its business model, and we’ve also made fun of some of the answers that have been sent to users by Guides. We pegged the company’s total funding at $58 million , but Bostic in the interview says only $43 million was poured into the company, among others by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos . He also said the company is not yet cash-flow positive, but that there is a consistent growth in audience and revenue is starting to come in. Let’s hope for ChaCha that Bostic’s evangelizing at conferences spurs more thereof. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Zynga Pushing Nine Figures In Revenues Thanks To Micro-Transactions Top
Zynga , the online gaming publisher, is making a ton of money. Just how much? Well, earlier reports put revenue at something around $50 million , but some new numbers obtained by Sarah Lacy suggests that it’s closer to $100 million. And clearly, it’s accelerating. We’re hearing that the run rate for 2009 may even be well above that. So in case it wasn’t already clear, there looks to be a bright future in the online gaming sphere and specifically around micro-transactions. That’s how Zynga makes most of its money. With some of its leading games on MySpace and Facebook, it charges users for playing time or for things like chips in poker. These small purchases which usually amount to only a few dollars at a time, start to add up quick. And that’s only with a small percentage of overall players opting to buy them. And Zynga recently transitioned this model to the iPhone, but because the iPhone doesn’t yet allow for in-app purchases, it has been forced to sell expensive versions of its apps like Live Poker, with chips included. But that’s about to change with the iPhone 3.0 software due this summer. The new software’s in-app purchases could very well take Zynga’s revenues even higher. Just last week, VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon speculated that Zynga, which is now the largest Facebook app developer, might be trying to raise another large round of funding — something to the tune of $30 million. Given these revenue numbers — and yes, Zynga is already profitable as well — that certainly doesn’t seem out of the question, but you have to wonder why. The company raised a $29 million round back in July of last year, and has raised $39 million total. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Swine Flu: The New Startup Monetization Plan Top
Over the last few days, the TechCrunch tips box has been flooded with pitches from companies looking to capitalize on ‘Swine Flu’, the potentially pandemic disease that is currently freaking out a significant portion of Earth’s inhabitants. Now that everyone is stressing about it, what better time to make a buck, right? First, there’s Flu Shirts , an online T-Shirt marketplace brought to you by some of the people behind Groopvine. The store has a variety of shirts mocking the current hysteria, emblazoned with taglines like “Maybe the Muslims were right about pigs” and “My dad went to Mexico and all he got me was swine flu”. Then there’s Swine Fighter a Flash game from the guys who brought you HeyZap . Gameplay consists of clicking on diseased pigs to inject them with something and make them say, “Oink!” The game has done quite well, hitting the Digg front page and seeing over 150,000 game plays in only 24 hours. It also features a handful of guidelines from the CDC, though they’re so far below the fold I suspect very few people actually saw them. And of course the spammers are taking advantage of the widespread alarm, sending out countless Emails with subjects like “US declares emergency as Mexican flu death toll rises” to entice unsuspecting readers. Some of promotions currently being offered by companies are actually potentially useful, albeit opportunistic, like Phonevite’s decision to allow organizations to use its mass communication tools free of charge to broadcast emergency messages. There’s also ZocDoc the online booking site for doctors’ appointments, which has set up a dedicated hub for Swine Flu checkups being offered by doctors in the New York area. We’ve also gotten a variety of pitches from companies that have absolutely nothing to do with the disease, but are coming up with creative ways to explain how they’re helping. Just on a personal note, I’ve always found jokes about potentially pandemic diseases to be more than a little disconcerting. People are dying. The WHO just bumped up the Swine Flu’s pandemic alert to its second highest level . I understand that many people like to laugh as a way to cope with their own mortality, and some of the media reactions are over the top, but some of this seems like grossly opportunistic capitalism. So, uh, keep rocking those T-shirts. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Inspired By A Pile Of Crap, Gmail Adds More Emoticons Top
You’ve likely already seen it, but it’s still a little unbelievable to me that Gmail included feces as one of its emoticons. If you haven’t seen it, go ahead, check it out, it’s there (the very last one on the bottom row). And now, we’re getting more emoticons — a whole hell of a lot more. A new feature in Gmail Labs, Extra Emoji, adds dozens of these different colorful icons as possibilities to send via Gmail. Emoji is the Japanese term used for emoticons, which are hugely popular in that country. So much so that support for them was added to only the Japanese version of the iPhone. And it’s the Japanese who actually made this Gmail Labs feature as well. Specifically, “all of these extra emoticons are straight from the secret underground labs of some of the top Japanese mobile carriers, used with permission,” Google writes on its blog. I’m still digging through all of them to see if there is anything as interesting as the pile of crap one. I haven’t found anything yet, but the bomb and gun ones are pretty cool. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Wall Street 2.0: The Twitter Script Top
Not much is known about the the upcoming movie of Wall Street 2 other than it will once again team up actor Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko and director Oliver Stone. When 1938 Media’s Loren Feldman heard the news this morning, he decided to come up with his own script—on Twitter. Over the course of more than twenty Tweets, starting with this one , he roughed out the basic plot lines of the movie. Well, it could be the plot of the movie if Oliver Stone decides to make it about the Web 2.0 crowd. Something tells me that Owen Van Natta, Jason Calacanis, and Henry Blodget aren’t going to make the final cut. Well, Blodget might. Below is a (slightly edited) version of Feldman’s Twitter script for Wall Street 2 . I think Feldman should make a puppet version of the movie. What do you think? (Script note: “Bud,” you’ll remember was the character played by Charlie Sheen in the original movie): # Wall Street 2 coming. A 186 year old Michael Douglas to play Bernie Madoff. Hope O.Stone is on blow when they make this one. # WS2- Gordan Gekko buys Facebook and twitter guts them both and sells the servers. There is no IP anywhere to be found worth selling # WS2 - Bud sees the light and decides to work for a non profit org. He has his choice of almost all web companies to choose from. # WS2 - Gordan Gekko and Arrington have a fistfight cause @techcrunch deadpooled Gekko’s startup “Greedddrrrrr” upon launch. # WS2 - Henry Blodget gets banned for life again for calling Gekko’s Greeedrrrr “The greatest site ever. Easily $900 a share.” # WS2 - The line “Lets get users, profits will come later” is cut from script having been deemed too stupid even by Hollywood standards # WS2 - Gekko tries to buy Mahalo. @jasoncalacanis sells it and always regrets it. He now produces Kanye West. # WS2 - Gekko tries to buy everything. Except seesmic. Loic invites him to speak at Le Web anyway. Gekko declines. # WS2 - Gekko buys MySpace. OWen Van Atta is at his 129th job by then. Chris Crocker appointed CEO. # WS2 -Gekko attends SXSW Interactive. Scoble vomits on him and Julia Allison wants money for sex. Not happy he buys the city of Austin anyway # WS2 - Bud tries to enlist @davewiner to fight Gekko, but Dave is too busy duplicating features in the MacOS not knowing they even existed. # WS2 Fred Wilson tries to meet Gekko. Gekko rebuffs him citing his atrocious taste in music. Gekko snickers to himself “Artctic Monkeys suck” # WS2 - Gekko gets the YHOO MSFT deal done. Owen Van Atta appointed CEO. Arrington’s head explodes upon hearing news. # WS2 - Ashton tries to sell Katalyst to Gekko. Instead he buys Demi like in that movie with Redford and Woody. Gordan loved that movie. Punkd # WS2 - @ggekko becomes the most followed person on twitter with 83million. Gordan say to friends privately “What the fuck is this nonsense? # WS2 - Gekko changes combined MSFT YHOO name to “Gekkle Wolfram” to capture the dopiest name award from the webby’s. Van Atta smirks. # Gekko fears only one. @karaswisher . He’s more afraid of her, than twitter is of a business model. She scares Bud too. Heck she scares Rupe. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Forget The Pre, Palm's Got A Second Device Coming Out This Year. We're Calling It The Mini-Pre Top
Update: More information on the Palm Pixie I came across some very interesting news today. I was mostly minding my own business, hammering away at our various sources in the hardware industry and trying to dig up some sort of information on exactly when the Palm Pre (pictured right) might be launching, and how many of them will be available. Rumors are flying about both of those issues over the last couple of days. And then, wham! A whole new rabbit hole to jump down. One of our better sources indicated to us that Palm is “very far along” on a second Pre-like device and currently has plans to put it on the market in the late part of 2009, possibly as early as the Fall. This is too soon for a second generation device (Apple releases new generation iPhones yearly). and Palm won’t be expecting people to upgrade their Palm Pre to this new device just a few months after buying a Pre. It’s addressing a different part of the market. The details are still slim - it’s a smaller device (and hopefully that means slimmer), but it will run Palm’s new WebOS operating system that everyone is raving about. We’re trying to determine if the device has a physical keyboard - no word on that yet. There have been lots of rumors about Apple releasing an iPhone Nano (or alternatively iPhone Mini) in the past, none of which have turned out to be true (and many of which were very funny). It may be that Palm, seeing all that user excitement over a small form iPhone, decided to jump ahead and create a mini Pre of their own. So until we hear otherwise, we’re calling this new phone the Mini-Pre. And just like when we broke the news of the Palm Pre on CrunchGear, you heard it here first. Ok, I can get back to digging up those Palm Pre build numbers and launch date now. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
A Couple Chrome Videos Top
In an effort to spread the word about its Chrome browser , Google commissioned 11 short videos about the browser. My two favorites are below. I think the first one could actually be used as a TV commercial. It wins for best use of color. And the tune is catchy—makes me want to buy a Chrome browser. Wait, I forgot. It’s free. The second one is just funny. Men in tights always are. See how they blend into the background? Just like the browser does. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Palm Looking For People To Review The Pre Top
If you’re a social site maven who happens to be dying to dabble with the Pre, Palm wants to talk to you. Palm has just announced a “Real Reviewer” program, in which they’ll be giving a select chunk of socialites a “current-model” Palm phone (read: probably the Pre), along with six months of service. Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch >> Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
SplashCast Figures Out That To Make Online TV Social, It Is All About The Chatter Top
One of the most social video experiences I’ve ever had on the Web was watching the Obama Inauguration speech on CNN.com alongside a live chat stream of commentary from all of my Facebook friends. It was like being in a giant living room that stretched across the country and hearing everyone’s reaction as the event unfolded. The same dynamic on much smaller scale is happening with popular TV shows on Facebook and MySpace. Splashcast Media , which has created apps for about 20 different TV shows, two weeks ago introduced a new feature called Chatter into its embedded video players. For instance on Facebook it has apps for The Simpsons , The Office, Family Guy, and more. Once you install each app, you can watch episodes of teh show, many of them streamed through Hulu. SplashCast tells me that it is getting about 7 million monthly video views from one million unique viewers across all of its apps, with Hulu videos being the fastest growing proportion of that. The Chatter feature lets you have conversations both synchronously and asynchronously. You can invite your friends to watch with you and you can all chat on the side, or you can see what other Facebook members previously said about the show at the exact points in the video stream when they said it. Most of the comments are pretty mindless, as you’d expect, but it makes watching more fun. It also makes online TV more engaging. SplashCast found that adding chat to TV on the Web keeps people’s attention longer. In the two weeks since it introduced the Chatter feature, SplashCast has found that viewing time has gone up 50 percent to an average of 14 minutes, and the number of viewers who watch a video all the way through to the end has gone up 42 percent. That is probably because they are not watching, but reading what people are saying, and it is also probably why SplashCast throws ads into the conversation stream. CEO Michael Berkley says his ad inventory is “100% sold out” and that app sponsorships are going for $3 cost-per-click rates, which is a healthy price for an ad on Facebook or MySpace. The clickthrough rates on these ads are about 3 percent, he says, which is also above industry norms. How sustainable that is remains to be seen. Clickthrough rates tend to come down as a new type of ad’s novelty wears off and it scales to larger numbers. But if this is the way people are going to start watching TV, advertisers will want to be there as well. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Four Months Later, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly Confirms Bid For California Attorney General Top
As we first reported way back in December, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly today officially launched his campaign for the office of Attorney General of California. You can find his campaign homepage here and, of course, he’s also vying for fans on his Facebook page (complete with custom Facebook application). At this point Kelly has announced his intention to form an “exploratory committee”, and plans to remain at Facebook for the immediate future. Should he continue in the race (which there doesn’t seem to be much doubt of) he would take a leave of absence, when he’d likely be replaced with Facebook’s new Public Policy Director Timothy D. Sparapani, who Facebook hired last month in anticipation of Kelly’s departure. During his time at Facebook, Kelly has dealt with a variety of privacy issues tied to the social network, including negotiations with Attorneys General troughout the US, the Beacon fiasco , constant phishing and spam attacks, and the community’s revolt over Facebook’s new Terms of Service . While it’s widely considered to be the ’safer’ of the major social networks, Facebook hasn’t always come out of these unscathed, so it will be interesting to see how voters perceive Kelly’s Facebook experience. Before joining Facebook four years ago, Kelly had previously clerked for federal Judge Barry Moskowitz of the United States District Court in San Diego, was a practicing lawyer, and later served as a policy advisor during the Clinton administration (you can read his full bio here ). Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
FriendFeed Beta Becomes Regular FriendFeed. Hope You Like Real-time. Top
Earlier this month, FriendFeed opened the beta testing area of its site to test a major redesign and a big new feature: Real-time updates. Today, it has removed the beta label from the new features, and pushed them live to the regular site. Initially, there was quite a bit of concern from beta testers that the real-time updates were simply too much information being thrown at you, too quickly. But over the past several weeks, that talk has quieted quite a bit, and users seem to be acclimated to the live updating functionality. Of course, there have been some who also chose to use the regular, more static FriendFeed site still, so it will be interesting to see how those users react now. This roll-out is potentially important for other social sites as well. The biggest is of course Facebook, which has stated its desire to make the site’s news feed streams update in real-time. Given the initial backlash FriendFeed saw against real-time, one can only imagine how bad it would have been received on Facebook. Especially considering that site has over 200 million users sending updates. And it’s likely that fact that is delaying the roll-out of the real-time data flow on Facebook, I’m hearing. That functionality was first talked about during the preview event for the most recent redesign back in early March. But with its recently unveiled new stream APIs, Facebook is allowing other services to access some of its data flow in real-time, and to build apps that handle it, even if it can’t do that, yet. And the real-time updates aren’t the only new feature of FriendFeed. Aside from the aforementioned redesign that makes the site have a cleaner look, there is improved search functionality — including the ability to easily search for users. There is also a way to save searches that you do often on the site and have them easily accessible. There is also a new feature that it’s calling “ FriendFeed by Email .” Basically, this allows users to interact with the service through an email account. This includes sending updates and images, and to send messages to specific groups. You can also get custom updates emailed back, including comments on the items you have posted to the service. Replying to these will place a comment underneath on FriendFeed. The new version of FriendFeed also includes the ability to direct message people, just as you can on Twitter, and this too will work through email. Learn a bit more about the real-time update aspect in the video below. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 

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