The latest from TechCrunch
- Google Sites Get Liberated By New API
- One Year Later, Google's Project 10^100 Lives! But Overwhelmed Google Needs Your Help.
- Waze Turns Turn-By-Turn Navigation And Mapmaking Into A Free Game
- Leaked Email: Quincy Smith Of CBS Wants To Counter "Reckless Hulu Streams"
- Microsoft's Looking Glass Will Let Marketers Peer Into A Real-Time Social Stream
| Google Sites Get Liberated By New API | Top |
| For the last 18 months Google Sites has given businesses a way to quickly build their own websites with no HTML knowledge required, making for an easy way to help coordinate efforts internally and to also build consumer facing sites. But there’s been one fairly major complaint about the service: there was no easy way to export your data if you wanted to take it elsewhere. Today that changes, as Google introduces its new Sites API. For those that aren’t familiar with it, Sites is the reincarnation of Jotspot, which Google acquired back in 2006 (though the two products look totally different). The product is Google’s easy-to-use website and wiki builder that’s widely used by businesses, though there’s a consumer option available. The new API is part of Google’s recently launched Data Liberation Front , which consists of a team at Google with the “singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products”. In other words, it’s Google’s attempt to ensure that if you’re no longer pleased with one of its services, it should be fairly easy to pick up and go somewhere else without losing any of your data. It also gives businesses a chance to create their own local backups — something that Google says has been among Sites’ most requested features. But there’s plenty you can do with the new API beyond just data export. Businesses will now be able to update their Sites pages from third party apps (Google offers the example of updating a Sites page when a new lead is added to your CRM). You can also use the API to download your entire Google Sites account to your desktop, which would be helpful if you were in a region with minimal Internet connectivity. You can get an idea for what the API is capable of by checking out the open source import/export project and Sharepoint Move for Google Apps , both of which use the Sites API. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| One Year Later, Google's Project 10^100 Lives! But Overwhelmed Google Needs Your Help. | Top |
| Every so often, we get pinged about Google’s Project 10^100 . The program, which asked for ideas that could change the world which Google would in turn put money towards, launched exactly one year ago (in honor of the company’s 10th birthday). But voting was meant to start in October of last year and conclude in January 2009. That never happened. People started to question if Google was quietly letting the ambitious project die. It wasn’t. And today it’s back. With a post on the Google Blog today, Google has let everyone know that it was simply overwhelmed by the response it received about Project 10^100 (Google’s Marissa Mayer has made comments recently saying the same thing). Over 150,000 idea submissions came in written in 25 different languages. Google says it took over 3,000 employees around the world to go over all of them. But they’re still not done. And they need your help. Because there were so many submissions, Google has decided to group them together into 16 different overall theme ideas. And starting today, they’re asking you to vote to help figure out which of the 16 themes the project’s advisory board should be looking at to pick the 5 projects that will get funded. In its post, Google notes multiple times that this process has taken much longer than anticipated. It’s taken so long, that it’s actually surprising that they didn’t turn to this crowd-sourcing method earlier for help. The fact that 3,000 employees were tied up in this seems rather insane. Still, the project remains a good idea and the themes seem interesting. So go vote and help Google let their employees actually go back to their regular jobs. Voting will end on October 8 (two weeks), at which point the the advisory board will pick the five finalists which Google will then reveal. Then it will ask for proposals from individuals or organizations that want to help implement these ideas. Here are the 16 themes: Enhance science and engineering education Create real-world issue reporting system Promote health monitoring and data analysis Create genocide monitoring and alert system Make government more transparent Provide quality education to African students Help social entrepreneurs drive change Create real-time natural crisis tracking system Build better banking tools for everyone Collect and organize the world’s urban data Work toward socially conscious tax policies Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists Drive innovation in public transport Make educational content available online for free Build real-time, user-reported news service Create more efficient landmine removal programs Update : As Andrew Mager notes in the comments, this also appears to be Google’s first use of reCAPTCHA the anti-spam service that also aims to help digitize books. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| Waze Turns Turn-By-Turn Navigation And Mapmaking Into A Free Game | Top |
| Turn-by-turn navigation was one of the features that iPhone users were most looking forward to with the release of the iPhone 3.0 software. Unfortunately, as users quickly found out , turn-by-turn meant either significantly more expensive apps, or a monthly fee. Not only does Waze do it for free, but it offers an interesting gaming element to boot. The reason Waze can be free while other turn-by-turn apps are expensive is that their maps are entirely user-generated. Waze simply lays down a foundation and users build out the roads just by using the app. And the company makes it in your interest to help them not only by offering turn-by-turn functionality, but also by turning the mapping of uncharted areas into a game or sorts. If you’re on a road that no Waze user has mapped before, you will see little dots and your car icon will turn into a Pac-Man-like character, to eat the dots and collect points for it. I got a chance to see Waze in action at the DEMO conference in San Diego this week. The company was there to formally launch the service to a majority of smartphone users, adding Symbian and Windows Mobile support to its previously in-beta version of its iPhone and Android apps. The company took me for a ride through San Diego to show off how it works. Not only does the turn-by-turn functionality work well, but the the social element is very interesting. And did I mention that it’s free? If you’re in an area with other Waze users, you will see them represented by icons (of their choosing) on your screen. You can also easily send reports of traffic incidents to Waze and to services like Twitter. Obviously, you probably don’t want to do that while you’re actually driving, but it’s a kind of cool little element of the mapping service that seems perfect if someone else is in the car with you. And these real-time mapping updates are really the key to all of this. While turn-by-turn navigation is great, the real end-game for Waze is to have full map data for the entire U.S. and presumably, eventually, the rest of the world. The service initially launched in Israel, and it has already seen some 180,000 downloads there which has led to 91% of the map for that country being built. In fact, the data is so good that it is ready to be licensed out to other companies, I’m told. When the data for the U.S. get to the same level, that will be the plan as well. And it’s a compelling business model because Waze basically has users building their maps for free, so they are able to then license that data at much better rates than the two big mapping companies, Navteq and Tele Atlas. And the company says that by relying on this user data, it is able to update its maps much faster. This means the service can offer things like real-time traffic information (you get pinged if there is bad traffic based on your driving pattern — stop and go, etc) and road construction. All of this information is passed to Waze anonymously. You can find Waze for the iPhone here , for Android here , and for Windows Mobile, Symbian and other devices here . CrunchBase Information Waze Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| Leaked Email: Quincy Smith Of CBS Wants To Counter "Reckless Hulu Streams" | Top |
| There is no love lost between CBS and Hulu. You won’t find any full episodes of CBS shows on Hulu , and CBS’s own site TV.com is so similar in look and feel that one might call it a product of envy . So it should come as no surprise that the knives are still out for Hulu at CBS Interactive. An email with an article critical of Hulu from CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith that was passed around internally (excerpted below) landed in our inbox. Smith confirms that the email is real. Earlier today, he passed along an article from Contentinople titled “Execs Rip Hulu for Giving Away Content” which quotes media executives on a panel laying into Hulu for giving away TV shows for free. The panelists in the article also praise the cable industry’s proposed TV Everywhere model which will make TV shows and movies available online only to consumers who are already existing cable TV subscribers and can be authenticated as such. Smith passed along the entire article to his executive team, along with a note wondering “how hard it would be to prove that some ratings declines are a result of reckless hulu streams.” CBS’s ratings for the Fall Season premiers have been doing relatively well, compared to other networks. The implication Smith seems to be making here is that maybe the other networks are down because their audience is going online. If he could prove that, it would make his strategy of shunning Hulu look smart. But he then writes that “Authentication is a nice option.” And his SVP Anthony Soohoo later chimes in: “Authentication will play a huge role in 2010.” Hulu itself may add subscription and pay-per-view options to its service, according to Ruport Murdoch . Smith also mentions some “findings” that support “packing more ads” in online videos. So what can we conclude from all this? CBS will either be more conservative with its full streams online, or pack them with more ads. Maybe that is what the findings are all about, that online audiences will tolerate more ads for quality content. It is certainly easier to put more ads in online videos than to try to put up an authentication wall (which is really just a pay wall by another name). Here is the email except (the only thing I didn’t include is the full text of the Contentinople article which you can read at the link above). From: Soohoo, Anthony Subject: FW: hulu pricing Date: September 24, 2009 8:26:44 AM PDT fyi. Authentication will play a huge role in 2010. ——————————————- From: Smith, Quincy Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 8:23 AM To: Soohoo, Anthony; Ashe, Neil; Lurie, Zander; Marquez, Michael; Cain, Sarah Subject: hulu pricing Nice way to put it. We should think about how hard it would be to prove that some ratings declines are a result of reckless hulu streams and that Authentication is a nice option We should also think about if we want to talk the walk on packing more ads and our findings thus far. -q ——————————————- Execs Rip Hulu for Giving Away Content . . . Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
| Microsoft's Looking Glass Will Let Marketers Peer Into A Real-Time Social Stream | Top |
| Microsoft is going to let marketers and advertisers dip their toes into the social stream. The tech giant is planning to launch a new social media product, dubbed “Looking Glass,” which will let marketers aggregate and monitor social media platforms for brands and companies. According to a report by Ad Age today, the product is still in “proof of concept” stage and will be privately distributed to testers in the coming month. Microsoft’s advertising blog also mentions the new product. Looking Glass will aggregate feeds from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and other social media sites and will also be able connect with CRMs, databases, service centers and more. In terms of analysis, the product will track sentiment of content but it’s unclear what other data analysis and features the application will have. Looking Glass will be browser-based and powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. And unsurprisingly, all data collected by Looking Glass will be integrated with Microsoft’s Sharepoint and Outlook products. In fact, the product’s functionality may be limited for a business that isn’t using Microsoft’s enterprise suite. That tidbit isn’t too big of a surprise, considering other platforms, like Salesforce, offer social monitoring and engagement services that are attached to their software. But it seems like Microsoft is pretty late in the “stream monitoring” game. There are plenty of startups out there like Viralheat, PeopleBrowsr, Socialseek and more that offer freemium platforms that do the same thing as Looking Glass. Not to mention that Salesforce just launched an incredibly powerful version of its Service Cloud, with Twitter and Facebook features integrated within the platform. The other piece of the puzzle is if Looking Glass will have real-time functionality. That’s definitely where the future of social monitoring is, so it would make sense that Microsoft would add this into the product. We’ve contacted Microsoft about this question; we’ll update the post with more info when we hear back. UPDATE: Looking Glass will have real-time functionality says a spokesperson for Microsoft. Photo Credit: Flickr/Pfly Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco | |
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