Thursday, October 29, 2009

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Ustream Boosts Virality, Now Lets You Syndicate Your Comments Across The Web Top
Ustream has just launched a new feature for its live video streams that allows commenters to syndicate their thoughts across four of the web’s largest social sites: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and AIM instant messenger. The feature is similar to what Facebook has offered for its video broadcasts (like the one it had for President Obama’s inauguration ), where users are invited to update their statuses in real-time as they watch a video. Except with Ustream’s comments, users will be able to check off boxes at the top of the chat window to choose if they’d like to broadcast their updates across multiple services. Each update from the Ustream ‘Social Stream’ box will also include a link to the video you’re watching, which means that the feature can help videos go viral quickly. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Scoopler Digs Up Some Funding, New Features Top
Realtime, realtime, realtime — it’s all you seem to hear now with regard to the web. But back in May, it was just emerging as a new trend that looked poised to explode. And one company at the forefront of that was Scoopler , a Y Combinator -backed realtime search engine. Today, being ahead of the curve has paid off, as the service has just raised a seed round of funding from some big name investors. When we intially wrote about the service (remember, very early on in the realtime search phenomenon), we noted that the presentation of results was impressive, but the results themselves were utterly dominated by Twitter. That really shouldn’t have been all that surprising considering Twitter’s popularity in the space. But the service has since added some new features to make it more robust. You’ll notice that when you do a search, there is a clean, two-column layout. On the left, popular shared items appear. These can be links shared on Twitter, Digg items, etc. You can also filter this content by videos, links, and images. On the right, you’ll see the live-updating items from around the web. The majority are still coming in from Twitter, but there are plenty of results from places like Delicious and Digg mixed in as well. These two columns have been swapped since when we first covered the service, and the “Your Searches” column has been removed and place in the top bar. More importantly, Scoopler has added an entirely new top area to break searches up into categories. Scoopler is calling the feature “Realtime Channels,” and co-founder AJ Asver describes it as, “ like Digg’s categories but updated in realtime. They show the hottest tweets, links, videos and images in News, Business, Technology, Politics etc.  The idea is to drive more search queries by suggesting what people should search for. ” Makes sense. And the results are pretty solid. For example, I just clicked on the Entertainment channel and I see the live posts are being populated with talk about things like the new Michael Jackson movie and also the new Avatar trailer. There is also a constantly updating area along the top of the page to show you the hottest topics being talked about in realtime around the web. But perhaps the best feature of Scoopler remains the “peek” option. This allows you to quickly see the content being linked to through tweets and Digg results in an overlay without having to leave Scoopler. The service also has little picture thumbnails that get inserted into the stream for things like Flickr pictures. Scoopler’s seed round has attracted investors such as Ron Conway , (Bebo co-founder) Michael Birch , Avalon Ventures , and XG Ventures . Though the amount of the round wasn’t officially disclosed, we hear it’s in the $500,000 to $1 million range. Speaking of realtime, don’t forget our second Realtime CrunchUp taking place on November 20. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Google Tackles Mortgage Market With New Comparison Ads Top
Google has just debuted a new form of advertising called AdWords Comparison Ads — a special kind of ad that will prompt users to view a list of sponsored products in a structured format. To get started, Google is running the ads for queries related to the mortgage market, though it has plans to eventually expand beyond that. The ads are in a limited rollout for now, with only some users in some states seeing them. Here’s how Google describes the new ad type: AdWords uses a host of targeting and relevancy signals to determine the best ads for each query. However, sometimes a user’s query doesn’t provide enough information for us to confidently predict what they want. Take, for example, users who search for “mortgage.” Do they want a new home loan or a refinance? Do they want a fixed rate or an adjustable rate loan? Comparison Ads improves the ad experience on Google.com by letting users specify exactly what they are looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side. Users searching for “mortgage” on Google.com may see a promotion from Comparison Ads prompting them to select the type of loan they are looking for and to compare various rates. If they click the promotion, users are taken to a page with more detailed sponsored results. They can choose directly from the offers listed on that page, or they can further refine their search by providing additional information like income and home value… Once users find an offer that matches their specific needs, they can either call you directly or request a quote. If a user requests a quote, Google automatically anonymizes the user’s phone number and sends you a unique code that you can use to contact the user. You only pay if a user calls the phone number on your offer or fills out a form to request a quote. As Leadcritic points out, Google’s entry into this space is obviously going to be bad news to lead gen services like LendingTree , and they aren’t the only newcomers looking to get in on the action — we hear that Billshrink will soon be expanding its price-saving tools to include mortgage comparison shopping. And, as noted before, Google will be expanding this ad type beyond mortgages. This may well be its answer to Bing’s decision engine model, which presents a number of structured options for the services and products you’re looking for that aren’t based exclusively on search rank. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
PlayHaven Lets iPhone Developers Create In-App And Online Gaming Communities Top
Games, both online and on mobile devices, draw such an intense following that often there are fan communities and forums created entirely around a single game. PlayHaven is hoping to empower developers with the tools to create their own online and in-game (for the iPhone only for now) fan communities for free. PlayHaven has created shell communities around 15,000 games on Apple’s app store, so most developers can automatically claim their community. If their community hasn’t been pre-created, developers can also create their own communities. The transition between online communities and in-game communities are fairly seamless, says Raymond Lau, co-founder and CEO of PlayHaven. Lau says that in-game communities on iPhone apps can be integrated by inserting a snippet of code. In the app, the “community” feature will be able to be accessed under the menu button, so users can access the community from within the feature. On both the app and online communities, fans and developers can share their passion for games by creating guides, tips, reviews, and other content. Developers can also have a channel to connect to fans to notify users of news and new releases. PlayHaven is already testing its communities in-game and online for several apps, including Geared, Minigore and The Quest. In fact, one-third of all Geared players are active on PlayHaven’s community on a daily basis. Competitors include OpenFeint and Plus+. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
PlaySpan Strikes Deal With Nickelodeon To Power Microtransactions Top
We just wrote about PlaySpan’s recent study showing positive growth in the exchange and e-commerce of virtual goods exchange. PlaySpan powers micro-payments across over 1,000 video games and virtual worlds and has virtual goods storefronts on Facebook , MySpace, within games and on its standalone site. Today, PlaySpan is announcing a fairly significant deal with Nickelodeon to power payment services for virtual goods and microtransactions for the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Virtual Worlds Group. PlaySpan’s technology and services will power Nickelodeon’s virtual worlds' currency, called NeoCash, across multiple payment providers including credit cards and prepaid cards. Through PlaySpan's subsidiary PayByCash , Nickelodeon will offer users over 80 global payment methods. This is a big move for PlaySpan, considering Nickelodeon’s vast reach and popular games, including virtual world NeoPets , which has a user base of 45 million gamers. PlaySpan recently acquired micro-transaction app developer Spare Change, which powered micropayments across 700 social networking apps on Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo. Earlier this year, PlaySpan also made deal to power micropayments on hi5. Micropayments are huge these days and the number of players are scaling quickly. With continued expansion on social networks, media properties and virtual worlds, startup PlaySpan has become a player in an arena where bigger players like PayPal, Facebook and MySpace are all investing in. In fact, PayPal’s new API powers micropayments. The competition may be stiff but as micropayments for virtual goods continue to gain traction in virtual worlds and integrate with consumers’ social graphs, there is definite potential for both startups like PlaySpan, Live Gamer and Zuora, and the more established players to play in the same pool. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 

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