The latest from TechCrunch
- Biggest Browser Share Gain In October Goes To Chrome
- The 5-inch Dell Streak's TV Commercial Leaves Out Something Big
- US Venture Investments In Cleantech Plummet In Q3, Energy Efficiency Bucks The Trend
- Vindicia Raises $20 Million For On-Demand Billing Platform
- Logitech K750 Is The World's First Solar Keyboard
- Dachis Group Acquires Social Marketing Applications Developer Stuzo
- Hyves Sold To Media Group, As European-based Social Networks Feel The Facebook Heat
| Biggest Browser Share Gain In October Goes To Chrome | Top |
| Browser market share numbers are out for October from Net Applications . Chrome made the biggest gains with a 0.49 percent jump from September to 8.47 percent. Chrome is the third most popular browser after Internet Explorer (59.26 percent) and Firefox (22.82 percent). Both FireFox and IE saw their overall market share positions erode slightly by 0.39 percent and 0.14 percent, respectively. Safari was up a smidge (0.06 percent) to 5.33 percent, and Opera declined 0.11 percent to 2.28 percent. When you drill down into specific browser versions , IE 8 is the single largest browser with 29 percent share. IE 9, which just launched in beta in mid-September, is just now beginning to raise its head in the browser share tables at 0.28 percent share. On Windows 7 , IE 9 is up to 1.29 percent share and growing fast. CrunchBase Information Google Chrome Windows Internet Explorer Firefox Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| The 5-inch Dell Streak's TV Commercial Leaves Out Something Big | Top |
| The Dell Streak is clever device, but with its 5-inch screen, a touch on the large size for a phone and a touch on the small size for tablet. Still, a good amount swear by it saying it’s the best of both — like this commercial. It cleverly shows all the usefulness that comes with the larger screen like games, navigation, Facebook, video capture — really everything — but in true marketing fashion, does so without showing the downside transporting the large device. Not that you can blame them, though. It’s the job of marketing to point out all the pros while minimizing the cons. Still, a 5-inch slate might seem like a great product until you try to put it in your pant’s pocket. Or in the cup holder of your car. Or in a shirt pocket. Or on your hip in a holster. Yeah, the Streak is a clever device, but it’s also a big device. Your call whether it’s a pro or a con. The commercial after the break will try to sway you to the former though. | |
| US Venture Investments In Cleantech Plummet In Q3, Energy Efficiency Bucks The Trend | Top |
| Domestic venture capital funding of cleantech businesses fell 55% to $575.6 million in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same period last year according to a new report from Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureSource . The energy efficiency segment, however, beat the downward trend. The largest deal of the entire quarter was a $65 million third-round later stage deal closed by Solaria Corp., a Fremont, CA developer of silicon photovoltaics and high-efficiency solar panels. Including “energy efficiency products, power and efficiency management services or industrial products,” the energy efficiency segment saw 17 deals raising a total of $161.7 million in venture capital funds, representing an increase of 6% by dollars, and 21% by number of deals, year-over-year in Q3. Smooth-Stone— an Austin, Texas startup that sells ultra-lower power chip technology to data centers— closed the largest energy efficiency deal for the quarter. Graduating from the Austin Technology Incubator , the company raised $48 million from a syndicate of investors including: Battery Ventures , Flybridge Capital Partners , Highland Capital Partners , ARM , Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and Texas Instruments . Corporate investments and plans to invest in energy efficiency influenced the trend, the Ernst & Young / Dow Jones report suggests. For example, General Electric (GE) said it would invest $432 million over the next four years into research, design, and manufacture of energy-efficient refrigerators in the US. Overall, corporate investor participation increased from 15% of deals in Q3 last year to about 23% for the same quarter this year. Cleantech deals in Q3 2010 included participation by corporate investors: BASF Venture Capital GmbH , Intel Capital and GM Ventures , which all did two deals apiece. Beyond energy efficiency, other segments faced a challenging quarter. Venture capital funds going to industrial products and services— which include agriculture, construction, transportation, materials, and general consumer products— fell 72% to $116.9 million, representing a 50% drop in financing rounds to 12. The alternative fuels segment raised $50.5 million in three deals. Regionally, the report found California’s venture investments in cleantech falling 44% to 21 deal, and by dollar value, falling 71% to $295 million. In comparison, California had five deals over $50 million one year ago, including the $286 million financing of Solyndra . Massachusetts followed California as largest regional overall investors, with eight deals worth $87.6 million, representing a 50% increase in deals and a 65% increase in capital invested compared to the same time last year. CrunchBase Information Smooth-Stone Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information General Electric Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Vindicia Raises $20 Million For On-Demand Billing Platform | Top |
| Vindicia, a company that provides an on-demand billing platform, has raised $20 million in series E funding led by FTV Capita l with existing investors Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments , DCM and ONSET Ventures participating in the round. This investment brings the company’s total funding to $41 million. Vindicia supports online merchants with a number of solutions to enhance the scalability, flexibility and compliance of their online billing services. The company markets subscription billing and fraud management solutions under the Software-as-a-Service model, delivering its software products to companies in the online gaming, social networking, virtual world and Internet dating space Vindicia says that it will use the new funding to expand its sales, services and marketing teams. Clients include Boxee, Symantec, Intuit, Activision/Blizzard Entertainment, Atari/Cryptic, Fuel Industries, TransUnion Interactive and Encyclopedia Britannica. CrunchBase Information Vindicia Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Logitech K750 Is The World's First Solar Keyboard | Top |
| Ah, mother sun: you give us maize, you give us warmth, and in the summer you give us just a little color, not too much, just maybe a little around the shoulders so we look like we went outside. Now you can charge our keyboards! The $80 Logitech K750 is the first solar keyboard built of fully recyclable plastic. The device has a set of solar panels along the top edge and even includes a luxmeter to tell how well things are charging. It charges in sunlight and even under a standard bulb. If you’re familiar with Logitech keyboards they usually last for months – if not years – on the same battery. This, however, will ensure that you don’t go dark in the midst of a marathon blogging session. Press release after the jump. | |
| Dachis Group Acquires Social Marketing Applications Developer Stuzo | Top |
| Social business services company Dachis Group has acquired Stuzo , provider of social marketing applications and programs, and notably one of the first and largest Facebook Preferred Developers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Stuzo offers a suite of services and technologies serving social marketers, launching nearly 200 custom social marketing campaigns for over 100 global brands and agencies in under three years. The company was launched in May 2007 and quickly became one of the first ten Preferred Developers worldwide selected by Facebook. Dachis Group says the acquisition of Stuzo fits into its strategy of becoming the “world leader in Social Business Design”, adding capabilities to allow large global brands the development and customization of platforms and features for the management of Facebook Pages, the development of Facebook apps, or development and management of Facebook Connect integrations for clients and their brands. The company says it will integrate Stuzo into the company’s offering effective immediately. Dachis Group was founded in 2008, by CEO and chairman Jeffrey Dachis (cofounder and former CEO of Razorfish ). The company offers services around the globe with offices in eight cities in five countries, employing over 120 people. Its growth strategy, which consists of rolling up smaller companies in the social business services space as well as growing organically, is backed by a financial commitment of up to $50 million from Austin Ventures (Dachis Group is headquartered in Austin, Texas). CrunchBase Information Stuzo Dachis Group Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Hyves Sold To Media Group, As European-based Social Networks Feel The Facebook Heat | Top |
| Leading Dutch social network, Hyves , which for a long time held out against the encroachment of Facebook, is selling the entire company to Dutch media group TMG (Telegraaf Media Groep) for an undisclosed sum. Hyves has a 68% penetration in the Netherlands, but lately we’ve been told that more and more people are talking about moving to Facebook. Hyves was founded eight months after Facebook in 2004 by Raymond Spanjar, Koen Kam and Floris Rost van Tonningen. It has 10.6 million member accounts. The move follows rumours of another European social network, Nasza Klasa in Poland, being put up for sale. Are Europe’s home-grown social startups finally cashing in their chips before the Facebook juggernaut rolls over their markets? Almost certainly. In the last few days we’ve also heard ‘European MySpace’ Netlog is aso having a tough time against Zuckerberg’s legions. | |
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