Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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Live From Yahoo's "End of the 10 Blue Links" Talk Top
We’re at OutCast Communication’s offices for a Yahoo Search event that they’re dubbed “The End of the 10 Blue Links.” It looks to be a state of the union for Yahoo’s search product, and a look ahead. There’s a clear theme already in this presentation: Search is shifting away from links to intent, according to Yahoo. They don’t just want to serve up a series of static results based on a word, but rather want to leverage the data they’re collection from products like Search Monkey to figure out what people are actually looking for. Below find my live notes: Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Labs and Yahoo! Search Strategy It’s time to kill the 10 blue links. Take the insight from mobile search and take it back to the web. Figure out the underlying intent of the user. We need to move from a web of pages to a web of objects. It goes from how many pages we index to how complete of a picture do we make. We need to build a web of objects from a web of pages. We need to use the wisdom of the crowds — it’s not just about machine algorithms, but the people who gives us information through Search Monkey. BOSS is another important part — open up the search engine structure for other players to use it. Query volume of BOSS been growing fast, past 30 million now. Microsoft Live Search is 40 million queries a day, BOSS is hovering around 30 million already — is this a sales pitch? Larry Cornett, Vice President of Consumer Products Understanding user intent, creating open search ecosystem and mobile Let’s talk about intent: Users have goals that go way beyond a search page: 1) Intent around keywords 2) Intent around objects 3) Intent within time In July 2007 we kicked off some of our new initiatives (search suggestions), launched way before competitors followed suit The drop-down menu when you do a query, this does query-completion and explore related concepts. Rolled this concept out to image searching as well. But image searches are done visually, so we include pictures in there. All of this is available through the BOSS API Currently in testing: Search for “Paris” and get images of Eiffel Tower. Bring in objects from the real world. Also in testing: Recognize an object in the real-world and figure out what they’re looking for — again, all about intent. The final dimension: Time. Search Pad is the product we’ve been using to do research. People don’t recognize that they’re doing the same query every night for 6 months. Search Pad is being bucket tested. There is intent being expressed over time. “iPod” is different from “iPod fix” Get music to play right on page, and music videos to play right on search page — old stuff, Yahoo just patting itself on the back. 1st anniversary of Search Monkey. In 23 markets around the world. 70 million enhanced results viewed everyday 15% increase in click-through rates for some partners 15,000 developers using it 400 applications in the gallery Increase in structured data 413% since we launched It’s completely open-standards compliant Alex Moskalyuk, software engineer for Facebook — Yahoo Search Monkey partner Building a Search Monkey app was a valid project for us People want to see a user’s picture and their bio information — we can also display the geo information Facebook had to create a special URL schema for profiles to work with Search Monkey They also had to format pages in hCard microformat Matthew Hertz from pipl.com — BOSS partner Pipl started in 2004, public beta since early 2007 — People search engine - we covered them here . We’re good at deep web, but we needed surface web data — that’s where BOSS came in Also use BOSS for spam detection and algorithm screening Mark Davis, chief scientist Yahoo Mobile 4 billion people have a mobile device around the world - we’re looking at a world that people use mobile to meet fundamental needs Another Star Trek example, it needs to be real easy to figure out what you’re looking for especially on mobile. We’re talking to a web of objects that can be connected to by people Answers, not just links — with a minimal amount of clicks as possible Understanding user context — these 4 billion phones know a lot about you already, now we just need to connect that with results Showing off oneSearch — oneSearch shortcut, etc. Search assist is a “lifesaver” on mobile. 1 billion PC users versus 4 billion mobile users worldwide — not all Internet users yet, but will be soon In Indonesia, mobile search volume is about 4 times greater than PC search. Emerging market growth is juge 70 partnerships in 40 countries. This is not about one phone (*cough* iPhone *cough*) Summary and What’s Next? Ending the 10 blue link legacy to move to user intent Creating experiences from objects and their relationship with the world (rather than just pages) Leading the industry with an open foundation for innovation Q&A Session Interfaces in testing — when will we see them? We learn from these bucket tests — if they test well they can launch in the coming months. How does a web of objects change the way you serve ads? It doesn’t really change it, but web of objects can help with intent which helps with advertisers. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Financial Exposure: Rudder Inadvertently Shows Users Each Other's Bank Account Info Top
Hundreds of people who use personal financial monitoring service Rudder woke up this morning to find that their personal bank account, credit card, and other financial data was exposed to other users. One Rudder user, Angie Seaman, told us that she received not only her own daily financial update from Rudder, but also the financial update for about 300 other users (see screen shot above). And not only could she see what was in their emails, but she could click through to their accounts. Seaman was understandably shocked and closed her account (see her full e-mail below). Plenty of other users have been complaining on Twitter as well. I called up the company to find out what happened. Chief financial officer Nikunj Somaiya confirms that 732 accounts were compromised, or about 3.5 percent of active users. Members whose email start with the letters “a,” “b,” or a number had their account information shared before the company noticed and shut down all e-mail updates. Somaiya says, “We realize this is very sensitive information. We are extremely sorry.” But he also notes, “We get read-only access to balances and transaction. We don't even store your banking user name and password. We can't touch your money, nobody can move your money.” Yeah, but hundreds of Rudder members might now know how much other users have in their bank accounts. It could have been worse. Rudder only lets members keep track of their financial accounts and balances in one place. It doesn’t allow people to access the underlying accounts. It doesn’t show passwords or social security numbers or even real names—unless, of course, you use your real name as your email address, which many people do. So how did this happen? Rudder’s emails were getting caught up as spam by Yahoo, so all of its users with Yahoo Mail accounts weren’t getting any updates. After talking with Yahoo, Rudder added a new DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKMI) component to its outgoing emails last night which adds a signature to each email that verifies it is coming from a valid domain. But for some reason, “instead of separating the emails, it appended them together,” explains Somaiya. So those 732 users received not only their own financial updates, but also all of the updates from the appended accounts. Somaiya says Rudder is bringing in a security consultant to go over their procedures and will implement any and all suggestions. But it might be too late. When it comes to personal finance, trust is everything, even if it is just your financial data you are entrusting to a site and not actual transactional capabilities. Will Rudder be able to bounce back from this breach? And will competitors such as Mint also be tarnished with doubt, or will they be able to capitalize on Rudder’s misstep? Here is Angie Seaman’s email to us: I’m not sure if you’ve heard this one yet, but this morning I woke up to a really unpleasant surprise. I had several hundred email updates from Rudder, only one was actually intended to be delivered to me. The rest were to other users. Yes, I got about 300 users’ daily financial update information. I think I would have gotten more had I not deleted my account when it started happening. I got mostly email addresses that started with “a” and “b.” That’s shocking enough. I cancelled my account right away, but then wondered–can these people access my account? So I clicked on one of the emails I received and lo and behold, it logged me right in as them. Obviously I didn’t do anything with their account but I could have. There isn’t address information or full account numbers, but it’s pretty unreal that I was able to just access about 300 other users’ personal banking details. I don’t think they wanted me to know they’ll have like $1.83 left at the end of the month and I don’t really want them to know my info. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Tickets Now Available for Our Star Trek Screening in Tel-Aviv Top
Tickets for our Star Trek screening in Tel-Aviv are now available, get em’ while they’re hot right here . This Thursday the 21st at 7pm we’re taking over the main screen in the Globus Movie Theater in Azrieli Center for a screening of the new Star Trek flick. There are 320 seats to fill and hopefully you can be one of those joining us. We’re taking care of the ticket cost, but there will be a $2 charge just to minimize no-shows. Thanks again to the sponsors that helped make this screening possible: Kenshoo is an innovator in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) technology and applications with offices in Tel Aviv, London and San Francisco. MetaCafe , an independent online video site, makes it easy to find videos from top content creators - and help discover new ones. Conduit offers an on-demand Marketing Platform that helps more than 180,000 web publishers put their content and applications on a branded community toolbar to increase their site traffic, revenue and brand loyalty. And Eventbrite for helping with the cost of the tickets. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
An Interview With Queen Rania of Jordan On How Twitter Can Help Change The World Top
The fundamental shift we are experiencing in how the Web is consumed ( streams vs. pages ) is also impacting our ability to engage with those we thought were beyond our reach. Consider this anecdote: When I was a teenager there was no chance I would have been able to communicate with a Jordanian monarch, and the closest I got to my favorite rock band—Guns n’ Roses—was getting crushed in the first row of their concerts in Budapest and Vienna. Seventeen years later I am able not only to reach out to Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, I am also one of the 46 users followed by Duff McKagen ( @duff64 ), Gn’R’s former bass player. What made these things possible was Twitter (of course). The piping for 140-character thought bursts is what today connects an everyday, common Israeli, with the Queen of Jordan and a rock star. In a recent post we wrote about Her Majesty joining twitter (follow her handle @QueenRania ). We followed up with an interview request to find out how she is using Twitter both personally and to help change the world, and she graciously accepted. “Of course, I tweet,” she says. But unlike most of us, she tweets about taking her family to meet the Pope and working to give every child an education . If you are unfamiliar with Queen Rania’s work, here’s what she’s been up to lately: Among her many activities in Jordan, Queen Rania focuses on promoting excellence and innovation in education. As UNICEF's Eminent Advocate for Children, she is a staunch defender of children's welfare. Queen Rania has also been vocal about the importance of cross cultural dialogue in fostering greater understanding, tolerance and acceptance across the world. Her YouTube initiative exemplifies this. Below is the email interview I conducted with her: TechCrunch: Could you tell us how you came to know of Twitter? Is it really you tweeting? And why do you prefer using Twibble and TweetDeck over other applications? Her Majesty Queen Rania: I guess I first heard about it following the US election campaigns; there was quite a buzz around the creative use of social media in mobilizing people behind a common cause. Since then, I've seen Twitter evolve into a dynamic and diverse medium for action as well as communication. Whether it's raising money for malaria nets or promoting your company brand, Twitter answers much more than just "what are you doing?" It's expanded to "what is the world doing, and what can the world do?" Of course, I tweet. Tweeting is a very personal form of expression. Who else could talk about my son refusing to wear a suit to meet the Pope, my husband flying a helicopter, or take a twitpic from our home? Tweetdeck was recommended by a friend, and that's what I'm used to. And the same with Twibble; it works for when I'm on the go. TC: My wife is still (grudgingly) coming to terms with my tweeting about our family… I’m curious as to how your husband, King Abdullah II, accepts Twitter now being fused with the everyday life of your family? Is your daughter, Princess Salma, aware of it? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Well, my husband is supportive of my work, like advocating for dialogue between cultures on YouTube. Last summer he was really proud of the millions of views my YouTube channel was receiving. He's a bit of a techie himself with his gadgets and gizmos, so he's very intrigued about all my twittering. Like me, he knows we're just like any other family and so opening a window into our world shows people that, regardless of titles, we're human, too. Ever since YouTube, my children aren't surprised by me joining Twitter and Facebook. Really, as part of the digital generation, they're probably wondering what took me so long! TC: Do you view Twitter solely as yet another social medium to use for spreading your message, or will it replace an existing tool? Who do you have in mind when you’re tweeting? Jordanians, or an international audience? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Twitter's a great way to tell people across the world what I care about and, hopefully, motivate them to join me in furthering my causes. It's also a fantastic medium to hear the ideas and opinions of people I might not otherwise get to meet. I want to tell people more about Jordan, about my life and work, but also to campaign for quality, global education. Not many people know that there are 75 million children out of school in the world…and two thirds are girls. And there's just no excuse for that. We know what to do, we know how to make it happen, but we lack momentum from the masses to push politicians into action. It's only when we have a critical mass of supporters behind this issue that we will put every child behind a school desk. Twitter's one way we can do that. It's about using social media for social change: creating a community of advocates who can use their voices on behalf of the voiceless, or leverage their talents, skills, knowledge, and resources to put more children into classrooms, or pressure their elected representatives to get global education top of the agenda. Who am I tweeting? Anyone who wants to learn more and help make a difference. TC: You have a very progressive approach, even by Western standards, to transparent communication. How do you view restrictions imposed on the Internet in Middle Eastern countries? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Just to clarify, not all Middle Eastern countries have restrictions on the internet. Some do, but I'm not in a position to comment on policies in other countries. I can tell you that in Jordan we don't impose restrictions on the Internet. TC: Do you foresee the use of the Internet in education to become as pivotal as it is in Western countries? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Absolutely. Jordan is committed to ensuring that every child in our schools has access to, training, and proficiency in ICT . I believe that if we want our children to understand the world beyond their classroom, we must bring the world into their classroom. And teachers are also part of this equation. We're using the internet in schools to upgrade their skills, mobilize resources, and encourage joint learning through online communities. With a youthful population, we know the importance of a strong and innovative education sector, one that prepares our young people for the 21st century's global marketplace and equips them with a 21st century skills' set. By inspiring, engaging, and igniting their imaginations, we're encouraging our children to be life-long learners. TC: Do you see technology as key to the advancement of women’s rights? Is there a conscious effort on your part to become a role model in this sense? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Social media are a catalyst for the advancement of everyone's rights. It's where we're reminded that we're all human and all equal. It's where people can find and fight for a cause, global or local, popular or specialized, even when there are hundreds of miles between them. It's not about me being a role model, but about empowering people and making them believe that they can be role models and leaders for change. TC: Have any of your tweets gotten a particularly large or surprising response? Her Majesty Queen Rania: Well, I've only been tweeting for a week or so, but the Pope's visit got quite a large response. I noticed people were quite interested in this one: @QueenRania : Hoping he cn get both sides 2 recognize their common humanity, then we cn start building frm there . TC: Did your son end-up watching “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” or was he spared the agony of the “chickflick”? (your husband’s words , not mine ) Her Majesty Queen Rania: No, his father got to him before I did! TC: Has anyone from the Twitter team contacted you after joining? Do you know of any other royals that use Twitter (perhaps privately)? Does anyone else in your family use Twitter besides you? Will we ever see the King tweet? Her Majesty Queen Rania: I follow Biz Stone, but he has yet to DM me! As for other royals, I don't know of any, not even His Majesty… If His Majesty ever decides to tweet, I'll let you know on Twitter! TC: What is your position on Holocaust denial groups on social networks specifically, and what should be done about hate speech in general? Her Majesty Queen Rania: I think that, as is the case offline, we should not be tolerant of hate speech, racist comments, or groups that promote hatred or intolerance in any shape or form. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Jimdo Sells 30% Stake To United Internet, Signs Deal To License Its Website Editing Tool Top
Last July, international ISP United Internet took a 30% stake in Jimdo , which markets a simple tool that allows users to build their own websites with little time and effort, and now the first results of the tie-in are becoming visible. Today United Internet’s hosting provider subsidiary, 1&1 , is debuting a new business service to its customers dubbed ‘1&1 MyBusiness Site’ , which boasts Jimdo as its underlying engine. 1&1 later today will start offering this new package to its corporate customers, enabling small and medium-sized businesses to create their own website in just a few minutes without the need for extensive website design experience, starting at $9,99 per month. Specific designs are available for more than 100 different business types (restaurants, real estate, etc.), and users get a 5-day free trial to test the service before they sign up for a paid subscription. Users can check the success of their website via the inclusive 1&1 WebStatistics tool, and the 1&1 MyBusiness Site package also includes modules for SEO, implementation of RSS feeds, photo albums, YouTube videos and Flash animations. This is a big deal for Jimdo, a small German startup that so far raised only a ‘fairly small amount in angel funding ‘ from the infamous Samwer brothers . Looking at their traffic estimates on Google Trends , it was already doing nicely in terms of usage compared to competitors like Weebly and the well-funded Synthasite (now rebranded to Yola). The latest user numbers it released were back in February 2009, when the company said it had over 500,000 registered users building websites with its web-based application. However, I think licensing deals with Internet Service Providers and server hosting companies are a much better way to make money from something like basic website editing tools than going after one user at a time. Jimdo clearly understands this and is making it happen, too. Earlier this year, Jimdo also announced it had reached an exclusive agreement with KDDI Web Communications, a subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telecommunication corporation KDDI, to launch the Japanese version of the application. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Daimler Takes A 10 Percent Stake in Tesla Motors. Where's My Electric Benz? Top
Silicon Valley electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors got another shot in the arm today from German auto giant Daimler, which took a 10 percent stake in the company and expanded its partnership with Tesla to equip future Mercedes-Benz vehicles with electric lithium-ion batteries. Mercedes has been testing Tesla’s batteries in a fleet of 100 smart cars, and is already moving into limited production. But with this agreement, Mercedes now expects to roll out its first battery-powered Mercedes-Benz in 2010, and offer battery-powered vehicles for all of its models by 2012. The amount invested was not disclosed, but even more valuable to Tesla is the vote of confidence from one of the world’s leading auto companies. In a press release, Daimler proclaims: “Tesla is the only production automaker selling a highway capable electric vehicle in North America and Europe.” The money will no doubt help as well, since Tesla still needs a few hundred million dollars to produce its own $50,000 Model S , which is half the price of its first car, the Tesla Roadster. The company is still applying for $350 million in government loans to get the Model S into production, but it looks like Mercedes will have at least its B-class cars on the road first. But as I suggested a year ago, Tesla’s real business may be in supplying the electric drive trains for other vehicles. The Roadster and Model S might just turn out to be really expensive demos. In a TechCrunch poll I inserted into that post (and again below), 77 percent of you agreed. I wonder if Mercedes has an exclusive license to Tesla’s battery technology, at least for a few years. ( Update : Tesla says there is no exclusivity. According to spokesperson Rachel Konrad, “This investment obviously establishes a very close relationship between the two companies, but Tesla still plans to continue with its strategy of growing its powertrain business through sales of EV components. This investment does not preclude Tesla from growing such relationships with other automotive OEMs.”) What will be a bigger business for Tesla in five years? ( polls ) Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
AdaptiveBlue Enhances Sticky Web Browser Companion Glue With API Top
Glue (formerly known as BlueOrganizer), now boasts its own API . Glue is a contextual social networking layer powered by a Firefox browser add-on which startup AdaptiveBlue added to its semantic browsing technology platform late last year. This provides third-party developers with a way to connect to and tap into the databases and semantic recognition engine the company has been building over the past few months. Glue essentially leverages information that already exists inside Web pages, and enables users to interact with things like books, music and movies from a toolbar layered on top of the pages in a frame when browsing with Firefox. It tells you more contextually relevant things about what you’re browsing, and also lets you interact with friends or unknown people who also visited, liked, or purchased those things. With the API, developers can dive into the information that’s been pulled together by the Glue add-on over time: things that a particular user has displayed an interest in since he or she installed the extension, but also lists of users that liked a specific book, music album or movie. More on the surface, the API can be used to fetch information from ‘the Glue activity stream’, which shows a continuous influx of semantic data generated by its users. But the most interesting use for the API as far as I’m concerned is the ability to link to a certain object on any Glue site and receive structured information about it straight away. I can see a lot of potential for other web services to integrate that information into their own tools. Finally, the interactive features Glue users enjoy from the toolbar (think likes, comments and replies) can henceforth be built into third-party applications as well. Developers, go check it out and let us know what you can come up with. Don’t forget to tell AdaptiveBlue about your app(s) either: the company is running an API launch contest which gives you the chance to win some prizes and swag in return for the cool stuff you create with their data. (Image from Webmonkey ) Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Buzzd Unveils Location-Based Entertainment Guide For The BlackBerry Top
buzzd, a location-based city guide and social network, has launched a native app made for BlackBerry smartphones, which brings many features of its mobile Web version to a native mobile application. The network was one of the recipients of the first round of investments from the BlackBerry Partners Fund (similar to Facebook’s fb Fund ) last October. Previously only available via a mobile web browser, buzzd has also launched a companion website (for a computer browser) that offers the same information. buzzd’s app answers the question, "What's going on around me right now?” Buzzd will tell you which bands are playing at local bars, the location of a four-star eatery, which bar is most popular and other similar information. The interface lets the user share information with others on buzzd, so people can setup their own social networks. With this app, users can browse and search continuously updated event feeds, which include pricing, location, and event details, and access ratings and reviews on restaurants and bars. buzzd aggregates information from other event and review sites including Citysearch, Flavorpill, Time Out, MyOpenBar, last.fm, and Clubvibes. User-generated feedback from the buzzd community for "real-time" activity about events, restaurants and bars is also included in the mashup of information. The application also allows you to automatically add events to your Blackberry Calendar, add venues to your Blackberry contacts, broadcast updates from buzzd to Twitter, and features integration with maps to provide you exact locations of venues. Instead of using GPS (which navigates positioning based on global positioning satellite technology), the app claims to be one of the first of its kind in the BlackBerry AppWorld to use Cell ID, which buzzd says is faster than GPS and works more efficiently in concentrated areas (like clubs and bars), where buzzd is likely to be used. Cells are the hundreds of radio base stations that make up a mobile network in any given city. Each base station or cell covers a physical area and these cells connect together to make up the entire network. The size of cells depends on the density of base stations installed in a given area. A mobile phone connects to the network using the cell in which it is located. As the mobile phone moves, it leaves one cell and joins another. The new cell then takes responsibility for connecting the phone to the network. Every time the cell that “owns” the mobile changes, buzzd reads the cell id and cell name and delivers these to the device. Cell ID is a common back-up for geo-location services when GPS is not available. For instance, the mobile versions of Google Maps uses it, even on the BlackBerry. Google uses its own Cell ID database, built up every time somebody uses Google Maps on their cell phone. In order for mobile app developers to tap into this database, they ar erequired to use Google Gears, which sometimes limits the functionality of the app. Buzzd is creating its own database of cell base stations, and currently has about 500,000. The more people who use buzzd, which is approaching one million active users per month, the bigger the database becomes and the more accurate buzzd can pinpoint a user’s location. To get even more cell base stations into its database, buzzd is planning on opening up its database for free to other mobile app developers. Founded in 2007, buzzd has previously partnered with Virgin Mobile to equip Virgin’s phones with a native app. Interestingly, Yahoo Mobile recently abandoned its Smartphone app to focus on the iPhone market. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Facebook Turns Down $8 billion Valuation Term Sheet, Claims 2009 Revenues Will Be $550 million Top
In the last couple of weeks Facebook received and turned down a term sheet for a new $200 million venture round of funding that would value the company at $8 billion, we’ve learned from a source with direct knowledge of the proposed transaction. We’ve also heard that they’ve received at least one other term sheet that valued the company at $6 billion. Facebook declined the term sheet based on the requirement of a board of directors seat, says our source, and not the valuation. This has been a touchy subject in the past as well. Founder Mark Zuckerberg has three common stock board seats - one empty, one he holds and one held by Marc Andreessen . There are two preferred stock board seats, held by Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund and Jim Breyer of Accel Partners. Zuckerberg seems to be quite serious about retaining control over the board of directors. Investors David Sze of Greylock Partners and Paul Madera of Meritech Capital Partners have non voting observer seats. Facebook is also now pitching financial projections well above what we’ve previously heard. The highest 2009 revenue number that has leaked out of Facebook is $400 million. But investors are now being told the company expects $550 million in 2009 revenue. 2008, they say, rang in at around $280 million. The previous best information on 2008 Facebook revenue was $230 million from eMarketer. That’s quite a jump in revenue. We’ve heard that things are going swimmingly at Facebook on the revenue front, but $550 million this year may still be quite a stretch. Or even perhaps unrealistic. But apparently that revenue growth is getting the company to a valuation it could stomach other than the board seat issue. Facebook’s last round valuation was $15 billion , but those days are long gone. The last few months have been crazy with rumors. BusinessWeek reported that Facebook was looking to raise $100 million in debt. We reported on early term sheets in the $2 billion range. Even Google was sniffing around the company to see if they could buy it on the cheap. We have no information yet on whether or not Facebook is continuing to pitch for new money, or if the rumors from last weekend from VentureBeat that says they’re close to closing $150 million from existing investors in a common stock sale that would value the company at around $4.5 billion. But we have near confirmation that they recently turned down an $8 billion valuation simply because the investor wanted a board seat. That means they think they have other options. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
TechCrunch Hits Stockholm, May 27 - Come And Join Us Top
Well we have over 100 people coming to the TechCrunch Europe Roundtable event in Stockholm, TechCrunchTalk Nordic, on May 27, but there are still a few tickets left . I’m really looking forward to an afternoon of panel discussions and presentations followed by startup pitches and a great networking reception. And we’ve just confirmed our latest speaker line-up which includes: Natasha F Saxberg, serial entrepreneur from Denmark; Jüri Kaljundi from Estonia’s nagi.ee ; Northzone Ventures ‘ Pär-Jörgen Pärsson; Scandinavian investor maven Angel Gambino ; and Sweden’s "IT-person of the year”, Stina Ehrensvärd from Yubico . And that’s just for starters. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Hip Hop Star Murdered Just Two Hours After His First Tweets Top
Here’s one of those stories that’s just kind of eerie and sad. About 13 hours ago, hip hop artist Dolla signed up for Twitter. He sent out a couple of tweets and presumably left to go to the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. I know this because he was shot and killed there shortly thereafter. One of the trending topics on Twitter right now is “ RIP Dolla ” and hundreds more messages are being directed at Dolla’s now-dormant account. It seems that he’s gained several hundred followers since his death and a lot of people are using the account to pay their respects to him. Celebrities are now rushing to join Twitter as it’s a great means of promotion. Dolla himself used his second (and last) tweet to promote his MySpace page where he sells his music. It would seem that this may be the first time a relatively famous person that actually uses Twitter (if only for a day) has passed away. And like a MySpace or Facebook wall, this is now another way for fans to pay respect. This also brings up the personal privacy topic. Dolla did not have a chance to tweet out his location, but just imagine if he had. This would have potentially turned into one of the biggest location service/privacy issues yet. Sadly, it’s only a matter of time before that comes up with one of these celebrities using sites like Twitter. The police have a person of interest in custody, with regards to Dolla’s murder. [thanks Eric] Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
MySpace Is In Real Trouble If These Page View Declines Don't Reverse Top
We’ve all been closely watching the total user number for MySpace and Facebook and trying to predict the date that MySpace’s last stronghold will fall - no. 1 in U.S. social networking users. A year ago Facebook had super growth around the world, but U.S. growth was flat and we pondered the real value of all these worldwide users. At that time it would have taken Facebook more than four years to catch up to MySpace in the U.S. In January we re-ran the numbers and the trend suggested January 2010. Today that has all dramatically changed - MySpace has 70 71 million monthly U.S. uniques (Comscore, March April 2009), less than they did a year ago. Meanwhile, Facebook has surged to 61 67.5 million U.S. users and are adding a few million more every month. In other words, the war is over. MySpace user number growth has stalled out , and historically speaking, no company of note has reversed such a trend. But MySpace may have a much bigger problem on its hands than losing the social networking war to Facebook. Their real problem is that page views are declining sharply. That means people are still visiting the site, just far less than they used to. That means less advertising impressions in a time that MySpace can hardly be expected to deal with it. Worldwide monthly page views for MySpace have declined from 47.4 billion a year ago to 38 billion today, a 20% drop. In that same period Facebook has grown from 44 billion to 87 billion, a roughly 100% increase. And it isn’t much better when you look at just the U.S. data. They’ve seen a 16% year over year drop in page views, from 41.6 billion to 34.8 billion (Comscore, April March 2009). Facebook has grown from 13 billion to 20 billion page views per month in that period. We have also spoken with a couple of very large application developers who confirm that activity on MySpace is decreasing at a dramatic rate, as high as “half a percent a week.” MySpace is a battleship that’s going in the wrong direction at high speed. It’s hard to turn a battleship. Perhaps even impossible in this case. In about a year from now MySpace will receive their last welfare payment from Google, and they’ll be on their own. They’ll have a social network that costs half a billion dollars a year to run. With page views decreasing and the Google money gone there is a strong likelihood that the News Corp. subsidiary will be unprofitable a year from now. Revenue of $800+ million last year could easily decrease to well below half a billion dollars, and likely will. No wonder new CEO Owen Van Natta isn’t committing to actually move to Los Angeles, where MySpace is headquartered. CrunchBase Information Facebook MySpace Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Mogulus Rebrands With A Killer Domain: Livestream.com Top
When Mogulus launched in 2007, few people understood its name. Most people still don’t because, quite frankly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Or I should say, didn’t make a lot of sense — because beginning today, the service has been completely rebranded as something much more obvious: Livestream . Mogulus is making the change because it feels like the entire field of streaming live video on the web is on the verge of exploding in popularity, and it’d be hard to find a better name to take advantage of that, as CEO Max Haot tells us. Naturally though, this change would not have been possible without the killer livestream.com domain, which Mogulus acquired recently. Haot wouldn’t tells us how much they paid for the domain, but you can bet it was a very pretty penny. [Update: Domain Name Wire claims it sold for $100,000 - thanks Jeremy] So now Livestream moves forward. Having just launch its super simple Procaster tool that allows for one-button streaming over video over the web, the first tool Livestream will launch is Broadcaster. It will offer the same one-click simplicity, but will do so completely over a web browser, without any software needing to be downloaded (which you need for Procaster — which is also more powerful). Mogulus has seen some good growth over the past year in terms of visitors to its site, according to numbers from Compete . I suspect that will rise greatly with this new domain. But it’s the features that make users stick around, and this move to one-click publishing is a good idea — keep it simple, stupid , and all that. Haot also notes that Livestream has over 1,000 paying Pro members, the premium service it launched last year. So what was Mogulus going for with that name? Well, as you can kind see in the now old logo, it was Mogul-us, as in “anybody can become a media mogul,” Haot says. Yeah, Livestream is much, much better. Disclosure: Mogulus advertises their Procaster product on this site. CrunchBase Information Livestream Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Glympse: A Hassle And Worry-Free Way To Share Your Location, Minus The Social Network Top
We’ve all been there. You’re late for a meeting with friends, stuck in traffic and unsure of when you’re actually going to arrive. You call them with updates like “well, I’m closer now, but still not sure…” and a shaky “maybe I’ll be there in 20 minutes?” What if your friends could track exactly where you were without the frustrating back and forth? Glympse , a new location-based service that is decidedly not another social network, is looking to help you do just that. Glympse is launching tonight on Android, and is coming soon to the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and “other leading smartphone devices” (read: Palm). Now, Glympse isn’t the first application that allows you to share your location with friends. But while other services like Loopt ask you to create a permanent connection with your peers, Glympse recognizes that oftentimes we don’t want all of our contacts to know our current whereabouts. Sure, you could adjust privacy settings on a per-user basis to specify who to share your location with and when, but that’s a hassle and can be easy to forget about. So Glympse takes a different approach, instead asking you to create temporary connections with other people that last for a maximum of four hours. The service doesn’t have any concept of long-time friends - you establish a connection, and it’s gone four hours (or less) later. Glympse is the kind of application that sounds a little pointless at first, but the more you think about it, the more you realize how great the service could be. I can’t remember how many times I’ve told a friend or colleague I’d meet them at a restaurant “in about an hour”, only to find that I get stuck in traffic and wind up calling them multiple times to tell them when I’ll actually show up. With Glympse, I could just send them a message when I left, and they’d be able to track my progress. I wouldn’t have to be overly selective about who I shared my data with, as their permission would expire only a few hours later. Reestablishing connections with your peers could get old quick, so Glympse is making it as painless as possible (you can initiate a Glympse in well under a minute). After opening the application, Glympse will ask you who you’d like to share your current location with (you can either enter their phone number or Email address manually, or you can select from your contacts). Then you specify the duration , which determines how long this contact will be able to see your current location. You can optionally also enter a message to accompany your location, as well as a plot for your ultimate destination (I could send a map to a friend with a marker that says “meet me here”). Hit Send and you’re done - a message will be sent to your contact informing them of your current position. The message itself will contain to a link unique Glympse website, which pinpoints the sender’s current location on a dynamically updating map. You can view the website from mobile phones, and you can also share it with friends. This opens the door to some minor privacy issues (I could potentially Tweet a Glympse link and let the world see my friend’s current location) but since it would expire in a few hours anyway it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. Glympse isn’t launching with notifications (you’ll have to manually track your friend’s current status on the map), but the company says that it will soon issue an update that adds the feature soon. This means that you’ll be able to receieve a text message or Email whenever your friend arrives within a certain radius of you. Very cool. This all sounds great, but there’s one major obstacle that’s going to hold Glympse back, and that’s the lack of background updating on the iPhone. Glympse is really only useful when your peers can keep track of your current position - not where you were the last time you remembered to check in (similar problems affect many other LBS services like Loopt ). If I wanted to use my iPhone in the examples above, I’d have to leave the application open for my entire drive. Android does support background updating, but this can be a battery drain and the Android Marketplace doesn’t have nearly the momentum of the App Store. In any case, Apple is rumored to be trying to bring background updates to the iPhone, and other platforms like the upcoming Palm Pre support them, so this weakness may wind up being shortlived after all. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
A Bunch Of Hot Spammers Had The Day Off Of Work LOL. Top
Around noon Pacific time today, a small meme broke out on the Internet. At nearly the exact same time, over a dozen Twitter accounts all tweeted out the message “Oh i had the day off work lol. thats why im home.” All were sent out from what appear to be the Twitter accounts of cute girls. Why? Because they’re all automated spam accounts set up by some lame online dating site. Spamming a social network by creating fake accounts with pictures of cute girls is as old as social networking itself. But this one on Twitter is tricky because when you look all the accounts individually, they look like they may be legit. All use different names, have different pictures and use different bios. But all link to the same site (with the same BS ad campaign URL) and all have tweet streams that are exactly the same, word for word. It looks like this Singlesnet site (or someone trying to reap the affiliate benefits) built a grass-roots spamming campaign of Twitter with these girls. But what’s odd is that it seems to be working somewhat. While most of these accounts seem to be following a good number of fake accounts — ones with no profile pictures and no updates — they all appear to have a good number (in the hundreds) of what appear to be real followers. Whether its the cute icons, mundane fake updates or number of legit followers that leads others to follow them, I couldn’t tell you. But people are following the fake girls. And if you were only following one of them, it’d be hard to know that they were fake. Some have the same pink flower background (seen in the screenshot below), but not all do — tricky. But the two tell-tale signs are if their bio links to that Singlesnet site, or if they tweeted the magic words today, “Oh i had the day off work lol. thats why im home.” Previous fake tweets included “Getting ready for work! Hehe just got out of the shower pervs” — always a winner. I’m not sure that the bios in these fake Twitter accounts aren’t populated from real bios for real girls on the dating site, but the tweets are definitely all BS. Hope you didn’t try to set up a date with one of these girls. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Zazzle Goes To The Dogs, Expands Business Abroad Top
Zazzle, the site that lets you custom-design and sell everything from T-shirts and sneakers to postage stamps and skateboards, is launching localized sites and offerings in Australia and Canada. The company has also expanded its existing UK site, which was launched in late 2008, to the greater European market by accepting payments in Euros. And for pet-friendly users, Zazzle has unveiled a line of custom dog apparel, letting sellers put the same designs on items for both dogs and humans. Zazzle allows anyone the opportunity to become product designers and to earn money by selling designs on a variety of items displayed in custom store fronts, free of charge to the seller. Designs and images can be screen printed or embroidered on items. Sellers earn royalties from the sale of products they design and can also allow consumers to further customize their creations. The design site has also unveiled a suite of new “seller-friendly” tools to spice up sellers’ offerings. Sellers can now uber-customize their online storefronts, creating a branded destination for their products. Sellers can also enable a a filtering mechanism to specify which designs can be featured in different products in various colors. Additionally, Zazzle has implemented a Flash-powered bulk image upload tool that is compatible with Macs and PCs. It’s good to see that Zazzle is growing by expanding its reach and offerings. Earlier this year, the startup underwent a round of layoffs, letting 15% of the company’s staff go due to the sluggish economy. Competitors include CafePress and Spreadshirt, which both have an international presence. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Exclusive Leaked Screenshot Of Nokia's Maemo Harmattan Top
After we broke the news this morning that Nokia was cracking away at a phone-friendly and potentially ad-supported version of their Internet tablet OS, Maemo, we figured we might be able to swing a screenshot. Sure enough, our source came through. With that, we present the world’s first ever look at the mobile OS Nokia tentatively plans on launching around the end of 2010: Maemo Harmattan. Read the rest of this post >> Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
CrunchBase Data Rocks. Too Bad The Q1 Numbers Suck. Our Report Top
We’re all glad Q1 is behind us. Silicon Valley and the start-up ecosystem certainly was not immune to the general economic malaise. The TechCrunch sweet spot, early-stage start-ups, was particularly hurt. The number of start-ups getting started was down 65% vs Q1 2008. We saw just 184 new start-ups formed, down from 546 in 1Q 2008. Start-Ups Founded: January 2008 - March 2009 Source: CrunchBase Early-stage start-ups are working hard to do more with less. The average number of staff at new start-ups founded 1Q 2009 was 6, down from 8 a year ago. How do we know? It turns out that there’s a wealth of interesting facts that we can glean from CrunchBase , our structured-wiki startup directory and primary data source for TechCrunch Research. What else did we learn from CrunchBase? The $3.1 billion in venture capital financing was down 50% from Q1 2008, though up nearly 25% from Q4. Venture Capital Financings: January 2008 - March 2009 Source: CrunchBase Here’s the thing, transaction volume was weighted heavily to Series B and later stages of investment, suggesting that VCs were focused on providing additional resources for their top portfolio companies as opposed to new deal flow. By example, only four of the startups founded last quarter also reported the closing of outside funding. Venture Capital Financings by Stage: 1Q 2008 vs. 2009 Source: CrunchBase (Excluding the New York Times’ $250 million bailout raise by Carlos Slim), the biggest consumer web and mobile financings were: obopay ($70M), Zag ($70M), Twitter ($35 million), Omniture ($25M) and Pocket Communications Northeast ($25M.) Monetization businesses received attention: Tremor Media ($18M), Offerpal Media ($15M) and AdMob ($12.5M.) Perhaps most telling of all, no acquisitions were announced by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL, or Amazon. We can’t remember a fiscal quarter where none of these companies announced even a small transaction. In total, $1.6 billion in M&A was reported for the quarter, down from $11.9 billion in Q1 2008. M&A Transaction Values: 1Q 2008 vs. 2009 Source: CrunchBase There were a total of 82 exits announced for the quarter, and the number of exits was actually higher than the 73 reported Q1 a year ago. In 2009, dealflow was tactical and modest in size. The two big deals of the quarter were Autonomy’s acquisition of Interwoven for $775 million and Cisco’s acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies (aka the Flip) for $590 million. M&A lTransactions: January 2008 - March 2009 Source: CrunchBase Despite a number of executive departures and hirings, we’re still waiting to hear new news from big internet media. After budget cuts are complete, what will be the sources of future growth? There is a vast sea of start-ups available at newly rationalized prices. The full 28-page first-quarter report (including 32 interactive exhibits and charts in excel) is available for $149 as a download here . This quarter, we added all our raw data, charts and tables into excel so readers can easily cut-and-paste charts into their own reports and slice-and-dice the data for their own use. It’s a big improvement to our 2008 Year In Review . Of course, you’re also welcome to grab data free of charge through our CrunchBase open API . See the report table of contents and table of exhibits here . BUY the 1Q 2009 Report $149 BUY the Annual Subscription (2008 Year In Review, 1Q 2009 Report, plus the Q2-3 Reports sent to you as soon as they’re issued) $450 Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Fox Television Tries To Crowdsource Cartoons Through Aniboom Top
Fox Television, the proud home of The Simpsons and Family Guy , is looking for another cartoon franchise to add to its roster. But rather than searching in Hollywood, it is crowdsourcing cartoon ideas on the Web. In a contest hosted on animation site Aniboom , professional and amateur animators alike will be able to submit a two- to four-minute animated video online for a chance at cash prizes and a shot at producing a full-length pilot for TV. The contest starts on May 27. Fox is looking for holiday-themed ideas (anything from Halloween to Christmas). Fox executives will pick four finalists, and the Aniboom audience will pick a fifth. A Fox development deal is not guaranteed, but Fox hopes to find new talent it can showcase on TV. Aniboom is becoming a strong community for animators. If the contest produces something which ends up on TV, you can expect to see more like this one in the future. But instead of just using Aniboom for what amounts to nothing more than online auditions, Fox should start thinking about how to make its next cartoon franchise truly live online as well as on the Web. I am not sure what that means, but Fox is not even asking for animators to submit videos or concepts with online components. Maybe Fox should launch the series online first before it takes it to TV. That seems to be a popular emerging TV development model these days ( see Blah Girls ). If you were developing the next Simpsons for both the Web and TV, what would look like? Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Nightglow Offers Tabbed Browsing For The iPhone, But It's A Resource Hog Top
Over the past few years, tabs have become one of those must-have features in a web browser. The mobile web is a bit different obviously, because the screen is so small, but some mobile browsers like mobile Safari give you the option to have multiple windows in which to browse. But let’s be honest, multiple windows are a pain, we want tabs. And with Nightglow , a new browser for the iPhone, you can get them. Nightglow allows you have have up to four tabs open at any given time. They reside in the upper left (or right, if you change the settings) side of the window and each page is distinguished by its favicon. Tapping on that icon will quickly switch you from page to page. The method is a lot faster than using Safari’s page-switching option. But with this speed there’s a downside: Overall system speed — Nightglow is a resource hog. I’ve been testing the app out today and a number of times I’ve gotten the system resource warning message. The only other apps that have triggered that in my iPhone before have been huge games like SimCity. Something else which is slightly annoying is that unlike other third-party quasi-browsers on the iPhone (I call them this because they are really just new wrappers for the Safari browser), Nightglow cannot rotate the screen when you rotate your iPhone or iPod touch. Actually, that’s a point of debate right now at the TechCrunch office right now. Some of us love that auto-rotate feature, others of us hate it. I hate it because it makes browsing while lying in bed a pain. And Nightglow actually touts not rotating as a feature. Nightglow also features an easy way to dim and brighten your screen, has options for finger gestures and has fairly nice way to easily search YouTube, Wikipedia and Google. Another nice feature is that Nightglow remembers the pages you last had opened in the tabs. If you’re addicted to tabbed browsing, you should definitely check out Nightglow. I suspect that with subsequent releases they’ll fix the performance issues. I’m not a huge fan of the UI either beyond the tabs, but that’s just a matter of taste. Nightglow, which was made by Synthereal Co., LTD, a Japanese development company, is available now in the App Store for an introductory price of $0.99. After that, it will be $2.99. Find it here . And watch more about it in the video below. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Leaked: RunKeeper To Get A New Logo, Website Overhaul Top
We only just opened the MobileCrunch Tips Line , and the stories are already pouring in. Keep’em coming, guys. According to a source close to the matter, popular iPhone fitness app RunKeeper will soon be seeing a rebranding and website overhaul. We’ve obtained a screenshot showing most of the major changes, all of which seem to be visual at this point - but if nothing else, at least it’ll look pretty while you’re trying to de-fat yourself. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
All My Mail: A Smarter Inbox For Your iPhone Top
I’ve made no secret of my dissatisfaction with the iPhone’s built-in mail client, which omits basic features like search that makes navigating through any sizable inbox nearly impossible. Things are going to get much better with the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update this summer, which includes some search functionality, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. ‘ All My Mail ‘, a new application from Attassa , is a step in the right direction. The application is comparable to a stripped down, mobile version of Xobni , and is now available on the iPhone App Store. After scanning through your inboxes, the application analyzes your Email messages and breaks them into conversation threads, similar to those found in the Gmail web interface. It also uses the Email addresses you typically interact with to generate a comprehensive address book (it can identify when the same person uses multiple Email addresses, and groups them accordingly). Whenever you click on one of these contacts, the application presents every Email thread you’ve had with that person, as well as related contacts. There’s also a very useful feature that allows you to look only at the attachments you’ve exchanged with other contacts, which is great when you’re looking for a particular file but can’t remember when exactly someone sent it to you. At launch the application works with Gmail and AOL webmail accounts, as well as any Outlook accounts (you have to install a special plugin). Support for more services is on the way. A free version supports a single inbox, while the premium version (which is $4.99 plus a subscription fee) allows for an unlimited number of inboxes. For you privacy buffs, Attassa says that it does not store entire copies messages on its server, but that it does store encrypted meta information and snippets about each message. The company could theoretically look at this data, so it might be unwise to use it for highly confidential information, but this is really a risk with any startup service. Attassa is free if you’re hooking it up to one Email box, and is charging $20 per year for the service if you’d like to tie it to multiple Email accounts (the first three months are included in the application’s $4.99 sale price). That’s obviously fairly inexpensive, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to pay it unless I could count on All My Mail as my default mail client - and it isn’t quite there yet. For one, you can’t compose a new message (though you can reply to them), and it’s frustrating to have to switch between multiple mail programs depending on what you’re trying to do. The company says that this will change as soon as the iPhone 3.0 update is released. I’d also like to see a more comprehensive search, similar to the impressive full-text search that was just released by ReMail last week (again, Attassa says search is coming in a future update). That said, All My Mail is definitely a very welcome addition to the iPhone’s otherwise anemic mail functionality, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for its future updates. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 

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