The latest from TechCrunch
- Carpooling Startup Zimride Hits 100 Million Miles Served [Infographic]
- Paul Adams: Seeing Google+ In Public Is Like Bumping Into An Ex-Girlfriend.
| Carpooling Startup Zimride Hits 100 Million Miles Served [Infographic] | Top |
| Though The American Automobile Association (AAA) is only expecting a relatively marginal 2.5 percent decrease in travel over the holiday weekend compared to last year, gas prices are currently averaging $3.57 across the U.S. — an 82-cent increase from the same time last year. In a timely piece of news for all those weekend riders out there, the social ride-sharing startup Zimride announced today that it has passed the 100 million miles-traveled mark. Since the FbFund recipient launched three years ago, travelers in the Zimride network have logged over 100 million miles and have saved over $50 million in vehicle operating expenses. Zimride, co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, focuses on college, university and corporate communities, allowing its users to join networks based on these communities in order to facilitate and coordinate carpooling. The startup allows the first 50 users within a network to sign up for free, at which point the community of users then has the option of singing up for a subscription. The company then works with transportation departments and student governments at universities and large companies, charging universities, for example, $9500 a year for the service. Institutions can also pay month-to-month if they choose. While that may sound like a tough sell, so far participating organizations and institutions have been enthusiastic . To this point, Zimride is also announcing its 100th client network today, which means that Zimride networks now include each of the 10 schools in the University of California system, as well as others including Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Facebook, and Intuit. As the startup aims to build a nationwide marketplace for drivers looking to make a few extra bucks on those empty car seats during commutes and road trips by selling them to other passengers, the announcements today show the company is making progress in that direction. With gas prices remaining high, there is plenty of interest in carpooling as an effective means of cutting transportation costs. To date, Zimride has raised $1.5 million from FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures, Keith Rabois, and more. For more stats, check out Zimride’s infographic below: CrunchBase Information Zimride Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Paul Adams: Seeing Google+ In Public Is Like Bumping Into An Ex-Girlfriend. | Top |
| Ex-Google UX guy Paul Adam s is perhaps most known for his slideshow “The Real Life Social Network,” which highlighted the perils of having one default group for sharing and emphasized that the ideal social networking service would be designed for multiple groups. The slideshow illustrated the flaws in Facebook’s lump sum friend model and called for a social network where users could set sharing levels to correspond to the 4-6 separate relationship groups that people tend to have. Sound familiar? Well, if this reminds you a little of Google+ Social Circles , its because Adams was a User Experience Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. The first version of his famous “The Real Life Social Network” deck was published in April 2010, at least two months before the project started (with an even earlier version published two years ago). While designer Andy Hertzfeld and team have been lauded for the (granted) amazing design, it’s less discussed that Hertzfeld inherited the Circles model from Adams, and simply designed the front-end user experience for it. Poetically enough, Adams, who is now at Facebook, was asked by current Googler Chris Messina on Google+ what he thought about the service. He responded by elaborating on a tweet where he likened the experience of the Google+ launch to seeing an ex-girlfriend in public. Adams wrote, “It was like when you first see her you have a moment where you have a niggle of regret and wonder for a split second, but that quickly passes when you remember why you broke up with her.” Adams directed me to Facebook PR when asked for further comment on his opinion and involvement on Social Circles. I’m sure their response will be fascinating. While we wait, you can flip through the slideshow that started it all, below. | |
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