Monday, September 14, 2009

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TC50: RedBeacon Lets You Hire Local Service Providers Online, Without Any Phone Calls Top
The web is loaded with sites offering listings and reviews for local services, with mainstays like Yelp and Craigslist leading the pack. But when it comes to actually executing a transaction with one of these service providers — establishing details like establishing a price and timing — most people still turn to their phone books to call the service. RedBeacon is a new service making its public debut today at TechCrunch50 that further streamlines this process by bringing the OpenTable model of online transactions to much broader spectrum of services. Using the site will be easy for anyone who has used a local review service like Yelp . Simply type whatever service you’re looking for (be it plumber, gardener, or hair stylist), and the site will present a list of recommended service providers in your area. RedBeacon also employes natural language processing so it can figure out exactly what you’re looking for (for example, “Cupcake maker” would search for any bakers in the area). The site will then present a list of proviles for each match, featuring reviews and comments from other users, basic information like their hours, and star reviews imported from Yelp. To figure out exactly how much a given service will cost, you first detail what you’re looking for and the site begins an auction among the matching providers, where each bids on how much their fee will be. Once you’ve picked a provider, you can schedule your time online, without having to ever pick up the phone. The site also has a feature that allows you to quickly find workers for projects that don’t require any training. Say, for example, you needed someone to hand out 500 cupcakes at TechCrunch50. RedBeacon would let you post a job, and then would automatically ping RedBeacon members in your vicinity to see who was available. They could then respond with a price quote, as well as an ETA for when they’d be able to perform the task. The site is launching today in a limited beta, inviting local services to fill in their profiles. And in two weeks, it will launch to the public, allowing anyone to start hiring local providers. Q: How do you get over the chicken and the egg problem? A: We’re launching two weeks early to invite providers to join before opening to the public. Also don’t need to necessarily have lots of providers, just need some in each category. Q: How do you reduce friction A: Can receive Email or text message notification. Just enter the time and hit submit. It’s also complete free for them to respond to jobs and create a profile. Q: ServiceMagic seems to be the same idea. A: Started in the mid 90’s, started by IAC. They charge service providers lots of money to sign up initially, and charge every time they receive a lead, even if they don’t win. Q: Is there a class of job you anticipate being especially popular? A: In the Bay Area, household services (handymen, maids, gardeners). But never know how people are going to use your products. Q: Have you thought about focusing on specific verticals? A: Yes. We’re reaching out to strategic verticals (less than five). But we’ll support virtually any occupation. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Control Any PC Game With Your iPhone With iMo Top
One of the cooler iPhone apps to launch last year was SGN’s iFun , which let you use your iPhone or iPod touch to control games on your computer screen. But iFun only works with SGN’s own games like iGolf. A new startup, iMo , launching today at TechCrunch50 , expands the ability to all PC games. Most PC games are still played using the mouse+keyboard combination. A lot of hardcore gamers like this experience, but more casual users prefer controllers like you find on consoles. The most popular of those out there right now is the Nintendo Wii, undoubtedly thanks to its motion-based control system. With iMo, you can bring a similar experience to all PC games thanks to the iPhone and iPod touch’s accelerometer. Another nice thing about using the iPhone or iPod touch as your controller is that it’s much more portable than traditional PC controller hardware. If you want to play a game on your laptop on the go, for example, but don’t want to lug around a joystick, you could simply use iMo, which is on a device you’re probably already carrying around. The system also features onscreen controls for the iPhone and iPod touch too as every PC game won’t benefit from using things like the accelerometer, obviously. This all works via both bluetooth and WiFi connections between your device and your computer. The plan is to offer iMo in the App Store for $0.99, the first version should be available new in the App Store. And long-term, the company hopes to make it available on other mobile platforms as well including Android. And ultimately, they’d love to include support for gaming consoles as well, like the aforementioned Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360. Despite a glitch at the conference that prevented iMo from doing their presentation initially, iMo easily had the most crowd-pleasing presentation of the day. Co-founder Himanshu Baweja rocked the crowd, showing off the demo set to music like “Eye Of The Tiger,” “Danger Zone,” and “In Da Club.” Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Marissa Mayer, Roelof Botha, Marc Andreesen, Paul Graham, and Tony Hsieh. RB: Controlling a lot of things with the iPhone is turning into big business. TH: I imagine the whole club becoming MA: Grand Theft TechCrunch Q: PC games not console games, right? HB: Yes, right now PC games only, but we’re looking at consoles. Q: Where are you from? HB: We are from India. Q: How does it work? HB: It’s an iPhone application that you run and it sends the data over WiFi to your PC. There is software that people install on their PC to accept the signals. MM: Gutsy presentation, went off really well. Exciting to push the limits of these devices. CrunchBase Information iMo Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 (Demopit): LIFEmee Keeps An Online Record Of Your Life "From The Cradle To The Crave" Top
There are a number of promising web companies here at TechCrunch50 that didn't make the cut as TechCrunch50 finalists, but were chosen as DemoPit participants instead. One of these companies, a 4-man startup based out of Tokyo called LIFEmee , has probably one of the grandest ideas of TechCrunch50 as a whole: The service intends to become a platform for recording, managing and sharing your life online – from “the cradle to the grave”, as LIFEmee itself puts it. Users can choose between a set of different tools to organize their life on the site. For example, they can keep a daily diary (”MyLife”), list up significant past events in your life (”MyHistory”), manage their assets and annual income or even upload a Last Will and Testament. LIFEmee visualizes all the data you enter in the form of a time line (”LIFEstream”) that reaches from past to future events and lets you browse through these events with the click of a button. For example, you can write about memories of your wedding party that took place 3 years ago but also motivate yourself by uploading a picture of your dream house you plan to buy 5 years later. You’re free to choose to keep all your information private or share it with friends. But you can also open life data stored on LIFEmee to everyone, making it possible to share and compare aspects of your own life with that of other members around the globe. This so-called “World function” allows you to look into what kind of assets those users have or how high their annual income is. LIFEmee also automatically ranks your own assets and income with other users so that you can compare your financial situation with members with similar jobs and biographies living in the same area, for example. LIFEmee launched today and is currently in alpha mode. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
A Visual Way To Search Google News. They Called It Flipper. Now It's Google Fast Flip. Top
Back in June, we broke the news that Google was working on a new visual way to display Google News then called “Flipper.” Today, at the TechCrunch50 conference, Google’s Marissa Mayer formally launched the product now known as Google Fast Flip . As we wrote previously, the service puts a new face on Google News. Imagine going to a newsstand and looking at all the magazines lined up, only here, it’s screenshots of actual articles. And while the thumbnails are small initially, you can click to zoom in on any of them and actually see how it looks on the actual page. Obviously, you can click-through to read the entire article on its actual site. The name “Fast Flip” comes from the idea that with this visual look, you can easily flip through the news. If you find an article you like that looks interesting, you click through to read it, if not, just flip left or right to go to another. And it is fast. Really fast. If you do like an article, there is a “like” button, similar to that functionality on FriendFeed and Facebook (the smiley face is built into the logo). You can also easily email any article to a friend. Obviously, as this is Google, there is also search functionality built into Fast Flip. One interesting aspect of this is that it’s likely to reward sites and authors that use good visuals (which I’d like to think I do) in their stories. Also, the more you use Google Fast Flip, the smarter it will get to things you like. Not all publishers will like the idea of Google doing this, as news companies such as the AP love to complain about the amount of content that can be legally shown as an excerpt in places like Google News. These Fast Flip thumbnails show much more content than a regular Google News search result excerpt, but only pages from publishers who opt into this service will be shown. And those publishers will get a share of the revenues from ads shown beside their content on Fast Flip. TechCrunch is an initial partner as are others like BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and US Weekly, among others. There is also an iPhone-optimized interface for Google Fast Flip. Google was nice enough to point out our initial scoop of this news today at the TechCrunch50 conference. Interestingly enough, “flipper” is still in their Google Labs URL. And you’ll also notice the “Google confidential!” in the image below. CrunchBase Information Google News Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Udorse Leverages Facebook Photos For Social Product Endorsements Top
Billed by its founders as a ‘visual endorsement engine’, Udorse is launching today at the TechCrunch50 conference a couple of months after word got out that the startup raised half a million dollars in seed funding from The Founders Fund and convinced Peter Thiel to join its board of directors. So what the heck is a visual endorsement engine and why on earth would anyone need it? Udorse allows you to link your Facebook profile to your account using Facebook Connect, enabling the web service to fetch all the photos that you share on the social network as well as the ones that your friends have shared with you. Items in the photos can then be highlighted using the Udorse dashboard, after which they function as actual online product endorsements – or ‘udorsements’ as the startup refers to them – made by yourself, publicly. In other words: showing anyone who cares what you think is cool. In the example shown on stage, Udorse co-founder Geoffrey Lewis picked a photo of him and a friend who works as a fahion designer. Endorsing in this case is done by selecting an item – the dress she’s wearing – and identifying it with a description and associated brand name, with the extra ability to add links and commentary to the highlighted item. Every time someone sees the photo and clicks the associated Udorse icon or link, they are able to gather more information about the product or directly be referred to the website where it can be bought. Udorse also comes with a useful search engine that allows you to browse product endorsements made by your social circle based on type of item, brand or tags that were used to identify products. When someone ends up on a product website from a Udorse partner brand – which any type of business can easily sign up for online – following a referral link on a ‘udorsement’, the person who highlighted the item is entitled to 25% of the commission fee in case this person purchases the product as well. The referrer can choose to get cash payment for the tracked referral on his PayPal account or instantly donate it to charity. Udorse is going live today with Armani and American Apparel. In my opinion, this is a really well thought-out concept that fits the social nature of Facebook perfectly and particularly the hugely popular photo sharing activity on the social network. Expert panel Q&A: Q- Marissa Mayer: I really loved it. I always thought that this was one of the way social networks going to raise money. Q-Paul Graham: Are there places where you can and cant run these photos? Technically- A: Can serve them on the Facebook platform, working on plug-ins for blogs, behind the scenes it depends on Javascript. Q-Tony Hsieh: I thought this was one of the more passionate presentations. But I think its weird for you to get paid for me to dress like you as your friend. A: You can opt in to share endorsements. You can also donate the revenue to a charity. Tony Hsieh: It’s sort of creepy, wearing the same outfit as your friends. A: The technology will let you see other items from different stores and brands. Q_Marc Andreessen: Do you have any thoughts on distribution? A-We have a part-time journalist on staff to figure out who are the top influencers who share photos on line. Partners, like American Apparel, are also excited about pushing the app out to users. Q-Marissa Mayer- Apparel might be a big space, but also electronic gadgets might be good for this. You might have a model around cooperative buying. A: In the end, we are aiming towards anything that can be included in a picture. Q-Paul Graham: Are there classes of sellers who are particularly excited about this? A: We’re getting traction from apparel retailers, hoping to make progress with additional brands. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: Udorse lets you tag your photos with product endorsements VentureBeat. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Gift Card Auction Site Rackup Aims To Shake Up Market Top
Leveraging the power of the Web, behavioral economics and an applied branch of game theory called auction theory, Rackup is surfacing today at TechCrunch50 with a bold play on online auction platforms and the audacious goal to disrupt the $100 billion gift card market with it. Unlike most web services in this field, Rackup isn’t about offering a trade or resale platform for gift cards but does something unique, basically offering the auction winners a way to always get more value than they pay for no matter what. The goal: bringing the ‘Black Friday’ feel into people’s lives online, every day. How it works: basically people bid on the value of gift cards in very fast auctions. The person who bids first, gets the advantage of gaining more value on his or her gift card the more bidders join in. As long as the person stays in the top 10 for a gift card, there’s an additional bonus on top of the value of the gift card. Rackup offers a dashboard where people can manage and see the history of their auction activity. The bottom line: the money is already being spent on these brands, so why not take a couple of seconds in our lives to get more value out of existing gift cards of retailers. Although the company has remained in stealth up until today, it has signed up over 20 customers for the beta product, including many familiar brands like American Airlines, Nespresso, Nike Golf and Travelocity. Rackup's team is lead by Marc Rochman and is supported by a board that includes Stanford Prof. Paul Milgrom , one of the most prominent experts in auction theory, and Duke Prof. Dan Ariely , author of "Predictably Irrational" . The company raised early-stage funding from the founders and some private investors, amounting up to $3.5 million . Expert panel Q&A: Q – Jason Calacanis: is this legal? A: Yes, because it’s not gambling. You don’t pay to participate, can only win more value, and you can’t lose money. Q-Paul Graham: So People don’t have to pay to bid, not like Swoopoo? A: The average discount is around 18 percent, the discount for retailer is flat. We charge an auction fee to the retailer. Q-Mark Andreessen: What do you think about your marketsize? A: Last year the figr car market was was $100 billion so this is a growing segment. Sending online gift cards is a new way to give and spend spend money. A: We get around 8 percent of each transaction. We are signing contracts with retailers, will get hope to get a large portion of giftcard transactions. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: RackUp sells gift cards in fast online auctions VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: Ross Levinsohn on MySpace, Ad Industry Top
I grabbed Ross Levinsohn after the advertising panel to conduct a very serious interview with the former president of Fox Interactive Media and now VC at Fuse Capital about how FIM is faring these days and the state of online advertising generally. Then Arrington decided to Segway over and interrupt it. Video on the jump. CrunchBase Information Fuse Capital Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: HealthyWage Pays You To Get In Better Shape Top
Healthcare is one of the top social and economic problems facing Americans today, as the rising cost of medical care and health insurance in the United States continues to significantly impact the livelihood of many of its citizens in one way or another. America spends a dazzling $2.4 trillion annually on healthcare, 75% of which is estimated to go to chronic, largely preventable diseases like obesity, diabetes, smoking-related diseases, sleep disorders, stress and so on. So what would happen if individuals were offered a financial incentive to improve their health, driving down the immense cost of the system down the line? HealthyWage is launching at TechCrunch50 today a way for people to take ownership over their own health and get rewarded up to $1000 for it in the process. On the company’s website, people can register and complete a health risk assessment which identifies ways for them to improve their health. The individuals are then supposed to return to the website daily and enter specific data (e.g. what they ate, their activities throughout the day, drug compliance etc.) as part of their participation in a program created by Harvard physicians. After a year of participating in the program, successful consumers can earn up to $1000. Besides the direct financial incentive for them, they’d also be in better shape, which should result in a decline of health expenses over time. First challenge that is seeing its debut on HealthyWage today: a BMI Challenge, designed to help people lose weight and get rewarded for it if they succeed. Overweight Americans or the companies they work for can put in $200 on the ‘bet’ that they’ll get to a certain BMI (Body Mass Index) and ‘lose’ all that money if it doesn’t pan out. If they achieve the targeted BMI – helped by friends and relatives and even their doctors through the system – they get their money back fivefold. The company intends to make money not only off the ‘losers’ (people who pay to participate in the program but don’t actually complete the challenge successfully) but also from selling the (anonymous, aggregate) health history and daily health data to drug and food manufacturers, retail companies, healthcare providers, diet companies etc. and by running targeted advertising campaigns from these companies on their website. This is definitely an intriguing (and potentially controversial) idea, and I can see this really taking off when employers start to see the benefit of offering such challenge programs to their workforce. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Tony Hsieh: I would do this at Zappos, we see healthcare costs rising. You may want to figure out how to separate the incentive from the need to logging in on a daily basis. A: we’re open to ideas on how to reward people, cash or other prizes. The big idea is getting people in the habit of being mindful about their health, we tailor tips etc. It’s about wellness. Q – Marc Andreessen: how do you translate it to a company’s bottom line? A: A 20% or 30% decline based on our data. Q – Marc Andreessen: do you have a sense of how much money is required to get people motivated to change their lifestyle? A: Small amounts of money works, but it’s more about the support, the acknowledgement of the money. Q: Why wait a whole year to pay people? A: A year forced it to be a lifestyle change and not a short-term thing. We want to build a foundation, lead people to change their behavior long-term and keep their motviated. Q – Marissa Mayer: I’m skeptic. There are tools for people who are already motivated, what’s to stop Weight Watchers for offering the same service? A: their business model is different, focused on consumers, while we focus on companies/employers. In terms of addressable market, there’s a lot of room in the U.S. and incentives work. A program this comprehensive is unique in our view, and we’re confident people will embrace it. Q – Roelof Botha: Mind that foreign health insurance companies are already implementing similar programs. A: The U.S. is different, consumers are hesitant to participate if the program goes out from the health insurance companies, even if lower premiums are the incentive. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: HealthyWage lets companies incentivize employees to stay fit VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: SeatGeek Is The Farecast For Sports And Music Tickets Top
Lots of people purchase tickets for events like sports games, rock concerts, etc. on secondary markets like eBay or StubHub, where they can often be picked up at huge discounts. Of course, it’s a bit of a challenge to know when to make a move and buy tickets exactly. The main problem with buying tickets on secondary markets is that you have no clue if they reached their lowest price already or if you should be well off exercising some patience and let the price drop a bit more. Enter SeatGeek , launching at the TechCrunch50 conference today, which offers a service that basically forecasts ticket prices on secondary markets so you can make educated decisions on when to break out your wallet. SeatGeek developed a bot that crawls hundreds of secondary market websites every day to aggregate information on transactions like the amount of money tickets are going for and other factors that have an effect on pricing. The startup actually takes into account a very broad set of relevant factors. For instance, when they track baseball games they not only trace the prices of tickets but also if the game was on a weekend, what the weather was like, who was pitching and so on. SeatGeek can go over this multitude of records in their database and analyze historical price points for events, enabling them to forecast what the pricing pattern for secondary tickets is going to look like for future similar events. Buyers can sign up to get notified when the price drops to the rock bottom as predicted by their system and simply purchase only once it does. And the good thing is even sellers can benefit from the forecasting model because they can use it to determine when they should be unloading their tickets. SeatGeek offers a free version for buyers and will soon release a premium version for brokers and other sellers. SeatGeek also gets 7 to 10% of ticket sales thanks to affiliate relationships with ticket brokers. They’re also preparing the roll-out of a ‘ticket insurance’ product, where users get compensated if SeatGeek doesn’t provide accurate forecasts. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Roelof Botha: I like it, like I like Farecast (which did pretty well). Is your goal to become the primary site to go to to get tickets, and wouldn’t that hurt the brokers? A: we’re helping them, we’re doing marketing for them. We’ve spoken to them and they’re supportive of what we’re doing. Q – Paul Graham: What percentage can you predict, e.g. baseball games? A: In average, 40% of baseball games that are sold out. Overall, I don’t know. We’re directionally correct 80% of the time. Q – Marc Andreessen: How high is up? How big can it get? A: The size of the secondary ticket market, $15 billion a year. Q – Paul Graham: why do you make a consumer website, why not use it and resell tickets yourself? A: We thought about it, but the downside is the initial capital injection. Half the battle is acquiring tickets, brokers are good at it and we’re not it, so we focus on providing tools to help them and buyers. We think the opportunity is bigger by not doing it ourselves and letting consumers use our tools. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: Is Jim Lanzone a Jerk? Top
So former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone just launched his new company, Clicker . It's like a TV Guide for online video, and the experts named it as one of their favorite companies they saw today. I like Lanzone, but I had to ask: Does a company with a well-known CEO and $8 million already in the bank really need to win our $50,000 prize? His answer and more about why he's jumping back into the start-up fray and his “divorce” from Barry Diller on the video clip on the jump. CrunchBase Information Jim Lanzone Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Clicker Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: DataXu Optimizes Ad Bidding, Buying Across Exchange Platforms In Real-Time Top
DataXu is a Boston-based startup founded by a couple of tech entrepreneurs and MIT alums who are committed to making waves in the online advertising landscape by debuting the first real-time ad optimization system working across exchange platforms from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Essentially, the aim is to bring more power to advertisers – rather than publishers – who are looking to increase the ROI of their online ad campaigns by making it easier for them to make fast decisions based on qualitative data and act on them virtually in real-time. Ad exchanges serve to float unsold and/or undervalued inventory in a pool to be bid upon by advertisers. On the marketplaces, sellers get guarantees about the impressions that will be sold for the highest bid price above the specified reserve, and buyers can use the exchange to supplement their online campaigns with low-cost impressions. The DataXu platform values, bid manages and buys ads on an impression-by-impression basis, across the major ad exchanges and based on smart algorithms. The platform is said to be capable of processing hundreds of thousands of "ad decisions" a second, each returned in under 100 milliseconds, through automated, campaign-specific algorithms. Founded in 2007, DataXu has raised $7.8 million to date from venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital . The startup has been running its system in private beta on Yahoo inventory, is about to add Google’s upcoming Ad Exchange platform – which they say is in fact launching in the next few weeks and will be processing “hundreds of billions of dollars” a day – to the mix and has just added Havas to its roster. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Marissa Mayer: On a technology level, it looks impressive. My questions is: are you targetting people? Ad buyers can build their own data profiles, so you can tweak it to fit your core audience. The Internet is becoming more dynamic, and what we’re doing fundamentally is make decisions quickly, change campaigns in real-time and learn from past behavior. Q – Paul Graham: What’s the rocket science behind it, the core engine? A: Our system is designed to find the features that matters for brand, really custom. Advertising is not a one-size-fits-all, you need dynamic, intelligent algorithms. Q – Tony Hsieh: We’ve dealt with third-party pixels at Zappos, and it causes problems. How do you deal with that? A: As soon as we can tie data together, we can work, so it doesn’t have to be pixel ads. Q – Marc Andreessen: What’s your sales model? A: we can paid on a CPM basis, like an ad server, but a percentage on the lift. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: 5to1 Lets Publishers Regain Control Over Unsold Ad Inventory Top
Remainder aka remnant advertising are not exactly widely known terms, but the average person browsing the web for content knows perfectly well what it is. Anyone who’s ever browsed their favorite news site and has been exposed to advertising units that seem totally off base with the publisher brand, or even completely – even if unintentionally – juxtaposed to the content that’s being viewed has been a ‘victim’ of ads that were placed just to fill up unsold ad inventory, which is what remnant advertising comes down to. 5to1 , a startup with a high-profile founding team that includes former Fox Interactive execs Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn , has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to work on a solution that can turn remnant advertising into premium advertising. The company’s breaking out of stealth mode today at TechCrunch50 with a service that could rid both publishers and advertisers of the extremely ineffective ad campaigns that are basically only beneficial to the networks selling them. The 5to1 system allows publishers to get in between the remnant networks and the ad inventory to give them more control over what will appear on the site, where and when. The company’s founder and CEO Jim Heckman dubs it a “Match.com meets iTunes for advertising” because it allows publishers to dynamically create ‘playlists’ of ad units of sorts and easily run both proper ads and potentially placeable remnant ads on variable places on their website(s). Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for content publishers to increase the quality of – and with it, the revenue that comes from – the ads that appear on unsold inventory without too much hassle. And if it takes off we’ll see a lot less of these horrible screaming ads that you’d never click on even if they held you at gunpoint. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Marissa Mayer: At Google, we agree that optimization can be done. However, what technology do you have for matching content to advertising, and how can you provide for larger-size networks with lots of inventory? A – Jim Heckman: We’ve been in stealth for a year, but we’ve noticed that publishers like hearing about being able to match advertising with context and having control over it. We didn’t want to compete with the Google model, but we’re more like iTunes: you ‘play’ ads whenever you want. It’s no different than what Web 2.0 has done for content. So if you’re a tech blog on gadget, you can see what ads work for gadget news sites specifically. It’s not algorithmic, but more of a marketplace. Q – Roelof Botha: Can you demonstrate better CPMs? A: We can find ads so fast, even with hundreds of thousands of ads in the system, literally in seconds. You can drag and drop ads right in the rotation. We talk to publishers and they tell us that even if we get similar CPMs but just prettier ads that don’t curse with the content, they’d already be happy. But talk to us again in six months. Q – Tony Hsieh: Does it take a lot of time for publishers to deal with your system, and what about scale? A: We showed publishers in our beta test that it doesn’t take a lot of time to manage their advertising units on unsold inventory. They want to be involved, and they seem to be motivated with the speed of our system. The key thing is: the compiled results of the entire network shows the context of just one ad in seconds. Q – Paul Graham: Humans can only do worse than the best optimization, right? A: Pages are dynamic. What we found is that a vast majority of ads are not contextual, and we can fix that. Q – Marc Andreessen: Regarding the chart, which side do you lean most to? A: All inventory is not created equal, but I’d say just in the middle. Video: Pictures: Other coverage: Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Clicker Wants To Be TV Guide For The Web Top
More and more television content is making its way online. But because of different deals by various networks, it’s all over the place. Even the huge sites like Hulu, only skim the surface in showing what is out there. Clicker , a service launching today at TechCrunch50 , wants to be the most comprehensive way to find the video content you’re looking for on the web. While there are no shortage of video search engines out there, Clicker believes its offering is superior because it creates a structured database of programming, organizing shows by things like network, genre, and show name. This type of data not only allows for better search results, but it allows you to browse content without having to do text-based searches, which you probably won’t be doing when television and future web-enabled tablets start to serve up this content. Clicker already has a deal with Boxee. The goal is really to be the best search engine for video content. Clicker will point you in the direction of whatever you are looking for (and will do embeds if they’re available), but won’t serve up the videos themselves. They will also delve into surfacing content not explicitly produced for television, but is still high quality web video content. But they don’t want to be YouTube, which is cluttered with user-generated content. Clicker is going for a different market. Clicker will also allow users to edit and submit information about shows wiki-style. As a search engine, the business model will obviously be search and display advertising. But eventually, there is a plan for Clicker Pro premium accounts, which the company envisions might be used for storing you favorite videos online, kind of like a DVR of sorts. CEO Jim Lanzone (former CEO of Ask.com) and COO Paul Wehrley presented Clicker today on stage at TechCrunch50. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: Is this automated? JL: Where content resides is always changing, a lot of it is automated, but we have to find stuff too. Q: How do you monetize. JL: We’re looking at the IMDb model. And eventually we’ll have a Pro version. And there’s a downstream model since we’ll be sending a lot of traffic. Q: What do you think about Bing? JL: That’s not fair. I think it’s fantastic for pushing beyond 10 blue links. A lot of it looks familiar though. Q: How do you get the market penetration? JL: Part of it is branding, some of it is distribution deals. We’ll also be very heavily SEO’d. Q: What’s the business model? JL: It’s mostly advertising, and we’ll get into Pro later, again. But IMDb makes $75 to $100 million in just what they do. Q: Is this funded? JL: Yes, earlier this year Benchmark and Redpoint – $8 million. Q: Would you invest? JH: This is a big problem for web video. RC: Great product. YV: I can never predict if products will succeed so I bet on people. Jim is a good one to bet on. TC50: Clicker is a TV guide for the Internet age VentureBeat. Clicker Guides You To Internet TV #TC50 Techgeist. Clicker's Guide to Online Video Technologizer. Stealth Report: TV / Video search engine Clicker AltSearchEngines. Former Ask.com CEO Lanzone Launches Video Search Engine paidContent. CrunchBase Information Clicker Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Spawn Labs Is Slingbox For Video Games Top
Slingbox owners love their devices. They allow you to watch your home television content anywhere you are in the world with an Internet connection. A new startup, Spawn Labs , launching today at TechCrunch50 wants to extend that concept to video games. But Spawn Labs offering is actually a bit more robust because it includes a social element as well. A key part to playing video games is playing them against other people. And with the Spawn HD Pro appliance, you’ll be able to do just that. Say a friend has an Xbox 360 in California and wants to play a game against you, but you’re in New York. From New York, you would simply install the Spawn Player application on your computer, and you could remotely connect to their system, to play a game. The key to all of this is of course the Spawn HD Pro box, which will retail for $199 (available on their site today). These boxes will be able to transmit HD-quality (720p) content over the Internet to the computer on the other end. On those computers, users can play the game with an input device of their choosing. The idea of playing popular video games over the web is a hot area right now. The two most well-known names in this field are OnLive and OTOY . But both of those are attempting to use their own servers to create a completely online experience, Spawn Labs is simply allowing you to take an existing console and transmit the content over the Internet. Of course, one potential issue with this method is that someone must be on the other end (where the console is) to make sure it has the game disc you want to play inside of it. Eventually, the plan is to expand Spawn Labs’ technology beyond video games as well. They’d basically like to handle any and all video content over their box. Computers, other set-top boxes, and even mobile devices are all in the pipeline to be hooked up to Spawn Labs’ services. Today, President and CEO David Wilson presented alongside QA engineer Daniel Bethke. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: Is it a weakness to have one game in at a time? DW: That is something we thought about, but the direction of the industry is to have games on console’s hard drives. Q: How do the graphics travel? And is this software on the console itself eventually? DW: When you’re in a bandwidth constrained around, the network will downscale. Q: So this is more targeted in the home? DW: We’re targeting both. Q: The bet is that customers will pay $200 for a hardware device to play games remotely. How often do players do that? DW: Right now they can’t do it. But there is a strong desire for this. We have orders from several of the top game developers in the world for this. Q: What kind of support? DW: It runs any game on the supported consoles. (Xbox 360, Wii, Gabecube, PS3, etc) Q: This also assumes the player has their controller? DW: You don’t need one, but you can use any controller you want. Q:  What about the handhelds? DW: Theoretically yes, not sure yet though. TC50: Spawn Labs lets you play your console games on your laptop VentureBeat. TechCrunch50: Remote-Controlled Xboxes, Cableless Cables Gearlog. Spawn Labs launches way to play console games remotely on PC BigDownload Spawn Labs HD-720 enables streaming of console games joystiq. Gaming Tech Firm Spawn Labs Launches With $1 Million In Funding paidContent. Spawn: It's SlingBox for Your Console Games Technologizer. Spawn Labs launches at TechCrunch 50 AustinStartup. Spawn Labs Allows You To Play Your Console Games On Any PC #TC50 Techgeist Spawn Labs launches at TechCrunch 50 Austin Entrepreneur Network. Startup lets you play console video games remotely Yahoo! Tech. Word Of Mouth Has The Most Influence On Gamers WebProNews. Finally — a ‘SlingBox’ for Your Games PC World. CrunchBase Information Spawn Labs Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Toys Spring To Life With ToyBots Internet Magic Top
Eventually, it’s probably safe to assume that all electronics will be in some way connected to the Internet. As long as you’re not worried about a Skynet-style Terminator apocalyptic future, that’s probably a good thing. With that in mind, the online gaming network SGN began working on a secret project to connect children’s toys to the Internet. Today, ToyBots is being unveiled at TechCrunch50 . Basically, the ToyBots’ vision is to be the platform that any toy maker can use to make sure their devices have a portal to the Internet, and all the data potential that comes with it. SGN and ToyBots founder Shervin Pishevar describes the key idea as a “Kindle of toys” or an “iPhone inside of a toy.” The thought there being that the Kindle works so well because of the network behind it that allows the device to seamlessly connect to Amazon’s extensive collection of books. Likewise, ToyBots is announcing a partnership with a major telecom provider (they’ll announce in the next week or so) that will allow toy makers to set up pre-paid service for their toys (that is, have wireless costs baked into the product, like the Kindle, rather than making customers pay a monthly fee). ToyBots’ demo product is called the Woozee. Basically, it’s a cute stuffed toy that can transmit messages sent over the Internet. So if a parent is away on a business trip, but wants to be able to read to their child at night, they can record themselves reading on something like their iPhone (via an app) and send it to the toy. The child would get an alert via the toy that a message is there. Then, when they’re ready, they can play it back, via the toy (think: Teddy Ruxpin , but with a parent’s voice rather than a stranger’s, and it has an accelerometer!). A sender could also set message to play for a specific time; the child’s bedtime, for example. There is also a website component to this Woozee that allows for further functionality. You can have a network of friends with their own toys, for example. This is kind of like the Chumby , as it’s a web-connected device with a website component where you can manipulate it as well. Alongside Pishevar, Carrie Feigel, Senior Director Marketing, presented today. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: Who are you selling to? And will you let Obama speak to children through this device? SP: Yes, Obama will be able to speak to the kids. The number one audience is the developer community to make all kinds of toys. We’d like the major toy companies to get on board. Q: How important is the platform versus the toys? I want a Chucky toy. SP: I want a Chucky toy as well. A lot of different audiences can be reached with this. We hope it’s similar to the App Store with the iPhone. CF: There’s a big market for people who want to get their favorite toy with this tech. Q: How does Spongebob get on this? CF: He would get his own toy and cotent. Q: Do you make royalties from toy developers? CF: That’s a part of it, but also a partnership. SP: We don’t want to build the toys ourselves. We want to be the gaming cloud. Q: Will you open this to anyone, or will you control this? What about porn? SP: We’ll leave that to someone else to work on. Q: What’s the security? CF: There would have to be careful controls, we would approve apps, and manufacturers would have a say. Q: Big challenge crossing the virtual world to physical world with a toy. CF: Club Penguin started virtual then went physical. Q: Invest/take another meeting/pass? GZ: Second meeting JH: Same RC: Get retailers YV: We need better toilet seats first! DD: Nothing more to say than what Yossi did. TC50: Toybots lets toys come to life with Internet connectivity VentureBeat. ToyBots – Connected Toys Of Some Sort #TC50 Techgeist. Quick Thoughts from TC50: ToyBots Startup Marketing Blog. CrunchBase Information ToyBots Woozees Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: FluidHTML Wants To Rewrite The Web With Flash-like HTML Top
Adobe’s Flash product has obviously been an integral part of the web for many years now. But it still has a major weakness when it comes search engines and complexity. While Adobe and others have been working on solutions to make Flash-based website more Google-friendly, they’re still nowhere near as crawl-able as regular HTML-based pages. FluidHTML or “Fhtml” is a new server-side markup language that hopes to merge Flash-like functionality with the easier-to-use HTML language. Obviously, trying to create what would essentially have to be a new web standard is no small task. But the group behind Fhtml thinks they have a shot to do it because Flash is so widely used by millions of sites on the web who want a better visual appearance than HTML can offer. Aside from just Flash, Fhtml is also going up against Silverlight another Adobe framework, Flex. But Fhtml claims to be not only simpler than both Flash and Silverlight, but more powerful than Flex. Another downside to Flex, Silverlight, and Flash is that they all must be compiled. Fhtml, like HTML, does not need to be. This makes it a lot easier to edit on the fly. And because all of those are more complex, they often require a special developer with just those skills to create a site using those technologies, Fhtml promises to be much simpler. And because it’s server side, the company says that Java developers, PHP developers, Ruby developers, .NET developers and Python developers can all write Fhtml in their native language. Today on stage, FluidHTML CEO Michael Collette and Founder Jim Kremens prototyped the Southeby’s (one current partner) website in FluidHTML. They also showed a Hulu media player made in Fhtml. They’re looking for $1 to $2 million in funding in October. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: How does this compare with HTML 5? MC: I expect HTML 5 is a big leap forward, but what happens after that? JK: And HTML 5 won’t be fully implemented until 2014. Q: What has Adobe said about it? MC: We haven’t spoken to them. (Laughs) Q: Making Flash searchable is a big plus, but getting developers to switch their language is tough, how do you deal with that? JK: The product is free to developers. And we think it opens them up to be more creative than HTML, while not having to deal with some difficulties of Flash. MC: It runs at the full speed of Flash too. Q: What’s the business? MC: We charge a low fee to publishers. Q: Have vast is the object library? MC: It’s extensible, which is great. Developers will expand it beyond what it is now. And an open API in January. Video Other Coverage : TC50: FluidHtml builds a more web-friendly version of Flash VentureBeat. FluidHTML seeks to bridge Web programming divide CNET. CrunchBase Information FHTML Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: iTwin Remotely Connects Two Computers Via USB Drives Top
Remotely connecting two computers is still a pretty big pain. It usually requires two parties jumping through a bunch of hoops to get things working. This includes each computer having the same software, using various passwords, and waiting on a connection. iTwin , a new startup launching today at TechCrunch50 aims to make the process entirely plug and play. iTwin takes the idea of remote connection and transfers it to hardware. A simple two-part USB drive allows one user to plug it in to one computer and then snap off and hand the second part to someone else with another computer. They will then have instant access to the other computer. It’s as if there was a hard line cable connecting two computers anywhere in the world, but there is no cable, just the USB drives and the Internet. As iTwin puts it, they’re the “cable-less cable.” The idea came to the team when they realized that remote access to a second computer was simply too complicated for most users. Everyone gets how to use USB drives, but those simply either don’t have enough storage to share an entire other computer’s hard drive, or are not secure enough (you could lose the drive, etc). So iTwin combines the two technologies. This is a product totally designed for the mass market, not the techies, though they’re obviously welcome to buy and use it as well, iTwin notes. Next year, some 200 million flash drives are expected to be sold, that’s the market iTwin is looking at. The plan is to launch iTwin in the first half of 2010 for $99. CEO Lux Anatharaman and COO Kal Takru presented the company today. They are based in Singapore. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: Security is a big concern. LA: Everything is encrypted. Q: What happens when I lose the other half? LA:You just pull out your half and your data is safe. Q: How many people are in the company? LA: Two of us and three engineers. Q: Does this kill remote desktop? LA: It certainly could. Q: How much does this cost? LA: Eventually if we make enough of these it will be super cheap to make. We will distrupt portable storage. Q: What distribution channels? KT: We will initially sell it online through our own web store. The initial launch with be in Singapore, in 6 months in U.S. and Europe. Q: File sync is a big problem. How do you compete with what Microsoft is doing with Live Mesh, with its free offering. LA: Uploading a terabyte to the cloud is still too time consuming and expensive. This is a two-person device to give people a very easy and tangible way to save something. Q: Would you take another meeting with them? DD: Pass YV: Pass RC: I’m software too but I would consider GZ: I would take another meeting JH: Cool technology but retail is tough. Video Other Coverage : TC50: iTwin allows encrypted, cableless file-sharing VentureBeat. CrunchBase Information iTwin Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Bing Pops With Visual Search Top
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand keywords. Today at TechCrunch50, Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi announced a new visual search feature on Bing which returns results as an interactive gallery of images. For instance, if you type in “dog breeds,” it organizes them for you in a grid of images that you can scroll through using a slider on the right. When you hover over a particular image, it enters the name of that dog breed in the search box. And you can re-order the image results by size, breed, exercise needs, and Bing popularity. There are more than 100 visual galleries ranging from movies, books, and cars to products, animals, and sports teams. The sorting categories change each time. So for movies, you can filter by release date, title, or rating. Cars can be sorted visually by make, price or mileage. When you resort, the images fly around the screen to find their new positions. The visual search acts as a showcase for Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, which makes the animations and visual rendering possible. “The whole concept,” says Mehdi, “is that the world of search will change. There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search.” The judges were impressed with his demo. Ron Conway noted, “I think the huge winner here will be consumers because competition breeds innovation, and this nice little battle between Google and Microsoft is fantastic for consumers.” Microsoft launches Bing ‘Visual Search’ CNET. Microsoft's next attack on Google: Bing gets visual search VentureBeat. Bing Tries More Pictures, Less Text Silicon Alley Insider. Microsoft's Bing Introduces Visual Search Feature paidContent. Making Search Prettier: Bing Launches Visual Search ReadWriteWeb. Microsoft Updates Bing with ‘Visual Search’ Feature PC World. Microsoft Bing Adds Visual Search Option Bits NYTimes. Bing: Now With Visual Search Digital Daily. Meet an Awesome Search Engine for iPhone Apps – Bing Digital Inspiration. Bing Search Gets Visual Technologizer. Hands on: Bing gains Silverlight-only Visual Search feature Ars Technica. Microsoft Bing Adds Picture Searches for Some Queries Bloomberg. Microsoft Bing gets visual search; full 2.0 update later this fall All About Microsoft. Microsoft Adds Visual Search to Bing PC Magazine. Bing’s new visual search tools are both stupid and cool Daily Finance. Bing 2.0 "Visual Search" Launches, Allows Search By Pictures Search Engine Land. Is Bing Optimizing for the Short Snout? The Noisy Channel. Microsoft announces Bing Visual Search MobileTechWorld. Bing Goes the Visual Internet AppScout. Visual Search – Why type when you can see it? Bing Blog. Microsoft Bing Visual Search Option Helps Us Become Lazier Searchers Google Watch. Bing encourages visual search Computer World. Google Leads in Search Engine Quality Test, But Bing Impresses eWeek. Bing 2? Microsoft Debuts Visual Search Engine internetnews.com Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Widget-Happy Bloggers Can Express Their Personal Brands With SealTale Top
Bloggers love to have widgets and badges on their sites that communicate their personal brand in the form of interests, causes, and affiliations. Korean startup SealTale is tapping into the widget craze by making it easy for bloggers to create widgets that express their affinity to particular interest groups and products. The TechCrunch50 finalist lets bloggers pick “seals” which typically shows the logo of a particular product or band or movement. They can also create their own seals. When a seal is clicked on, it flips around to show an RSS feed made up of posts from other blogs that have seals with the same tags. In this way, blogs can connect to each other and send each other traffic based on common interests. The tags can be edited to to customize the feed. The seals also work across social messaging sites such as Facebook and Tumblr. On the back of each seal, along with the feeds there are targeted ads (also based on the tags). And the seals themselves act as advertisements for commercial brands. Companies can offer seals and program the feeds with news, events, and other information they think will strengthen their bonds with brand enthusiasts. The seals could be particularly effective as marketing vehicles for bands, movies, and other content. They will support music and video, in addition to text feeds. Expert Panel Q&A : Conway: How big is the market size, is it available today? Chae Myungjin: Our service applies to all the services like Myspace and Facebook. It is like Google AdSense. Conway: How long has the product been available? Myungjin : It's been available for 6 months in Korea, we have 20K users, 200K people who have come in. Don: What is the revenue model? Myungjin : We earn money from advertisements. Two ways. One is brand seals and product seals. Another way, which is an advertisement through the seal book, in the info tab they can upload advertisements in the form of feeds. Calacanis: They can claim the seal, correct. If somebody made a seal for an iPhone, the company Apple could then buy it and put the proper information in? Myungjin: Yes. Calacanis: Judges, would you invest? Conway: We'd have to see how the product took off and acceptance in other countries Vardi: What he means is if he knows it is a success, he will invest. Hirshhorn: It is obviously great eye candy, a way to say these are the brands I am interested in. Other than the interface I don't know how different the delivery stem is. TC50: Sealtale offers a personalized way to declare brand loyalty Venture Beat. SealTale – New Widgets For Your Blog (?) #tc50 techgeist. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 

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