Saturday, January 21, 2012

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14 Steps To Successful SEO For Startups Top
ryan_dogpatch_reasonably_small-1This is a guest post by Ryan Spoon (@ryanspoon), a principal at Polaris Ventures. Read more about Ryan on his blog at ryanspoon.com. For startups, it is dangerous to entirely separate product and marketing – both strategically and organizationally. A great product isn't overly useful without an audience. And a great marketing strategy can't save a poor product. Product and marketing have to coexist.
 
Dave McClure Isn't Worried About The "Series A Crunch" Top
alexia dave mcclureIn recent months, there's been some hand-wringing about a "Series A Crunch" — namely, a glut of startups raising seed and angel funding, then struggling once they need to raise a proper Series A. But in a recent interview, 500 Startups founder Dave McClure said the complaints are misguided.
 
Steal This Book! Top
Swarm-coverNobody wants to be told that their business model is obsolete. Ask Kodak. Or Hollywood. And the publishing industry is slower on its feet than most. Bookstores don't want to believe that they'll ultimately lose 75% of their pre-e-book business to that scourge plus Amazon delivery. (I'm assuming e-book market share will eventually plateau somewhere north of 50%.) Meanwhile, publishers cling to the model wherein readers purchase books individually, usually before they've been read: a model so entrenched that many seem to find it literally impossible to believe that alternatives might exist. I've been lamenting that paucity of imagination in my columns here for some time now. It's why publishers have lashed out so ineptly at any suggestion of a subscription model. But I've also been saying for five years that publishing's business model will ultimately become even less restrictive than that. In the end, lo these many decades from now, most books--and all novels--will be free to read, and their readers will decide whether and how much to pay for them after reading them. I know, big talk, no action, right? So:
 
What Happened To Kodak's Moment? Top
kodak-graph
A Kodak Moment: a rare, one-time moment that is captured by a picture, or should have been captured by a picture
Click. We all had them: times you reached for a camera to stop life for a second, to grab a memory. For decades, Kodak was the rock solid standard in photography and as the 131-year old company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, "Kodak moments" may be all that's left of what was once one of the most powerful companies in the world. Kodak can't compete let alone survive in this new world. The only thing keeping them alive is a trove of 11,000 patents, and even those don't seem to be piquing anyone's interest. Click. From household name to also-ran in a few years. This isn't a story of a stubborn buggy-whip manufacturer going out of business for refusing to change. This is a carriage maker making a seemingly successful transition to the automobile and then, just as quickly, failing catastrophically. So what happened?
 
Daily Crunch: New Eyes Top
1527Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: HumanBirdWings Guy Survives First Test Flight Marketing Genius: Two Twins Giggling As They Sell You Designer 3D Glasses Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Finally Get Proper, Untethered Jailbreaks
 
The Dawn of Social Lobbying Top
MoneyThe word "lobbyist" surely doesn't have the best connotation in the world. Depending on your reading of the definition, it generally signifies an attempt to influence government decisions, traditionally by targeting legislators or regulators. What isn't often taken into consideration, however, is that while there are lobbyists in dark suits roaming the halls of Congress funded by entities such as big oil and pharmaceutical companies, "lobbying" is also conducted by nonprofit groups funded by different kinds of special interests. We think of efforts, however, as "activism," but at the end of the day, they're just another form of lobbying. Now, a new form of "lobbying" has emerged, but instead corporate checks or individuals donations, the currency has shifted from cash to social connections, where financial power will be trumped by network power: "social lobbying."
 
Analyst: All These Concerns Over EA And Star Wars Are "Overdone" Top
EA-LogoSo, there's been some hubbub around Electronic Arts over the last few days, as the company ramps up for the release of its third quarter earnings on February 1st. Yesterday, EA's stock closed at $17.54 per share, which, in context, meant that the gaming goliath's stock was down 30 percent since hitting its 52-week high in early November. This drop was mostly due to the collective shock relating to the news concerning its recently released title, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which now has a ridiculous price tag attached to it -- as Wall Street is estimating the cost to be between $150 and $200 million.
 
If The Tech Industry Had Its Way, Hollywood Would Be Zynga Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 8.27.20 PMLike all of y'all I just read Paul Graham's SOPA-soaked call for a tech startup that would kill Hollywood.  You would have to be a complete idiot to think Hollywood (or at least some part of Hollywood) isn't ripe for disruption BUT ... "The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise."
 
Google Trims The Fat Top
Google Thin LogoGoogle has more than 40 core products, and hundreds depending on how you count them. Even with over 30,000 employees, that's a lot to support. In the name of refocusing, today the company announcedthat Picnik, Sky Map, Urchin, Needlebase, Google Message Continuity, and the Social Graph API are all headed for the deadpool, open source, or absorption into more central divisions.
 
Delicious Adds Collaboration and One-Ups Pinterest With Privacy Top
Delicious Collaborative StacksDelicious has just announced 4 new features to make its stacks, or collections of links, more social. Because the only thing better than a bundle of your favorite kitten websites is bundle co-created by you and your friends. You can now collaboratively build stacks, comment on whole stacks, respond to a stack with a stack similar to a YouTube response, and create private stacks. The features will permit new use cases like stealth cooperation and give Delicious an advantage over Pinterest which doesn't offer private boards yet.
 
Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately Top
shotsYou can't always count on the wisdom of crowds. But this particular project turned out not merely good, but amazing. Star Wars Uncut is a project by filmmaker Casey Pugh (and edited by Aaron Valdez and Michael Pugh), in which Star Wars: A New Hope was divided into 15-second segments, each of which was replicated by fans in whatever way they chose. Connect the new segments and voila! Crowdsourced magic. Watch the video inside.
 
Investors Bet On Social Gambling, $ZNGA Closes Up 6.57%, Now At $9.09 A Share Top
featured-games-380-226-zp-game-board-02The social gaming industry has been getting more and more interested in a potentially big new way to make money: online gambling. And investors, who are now able to buy stock in market leader Zynga, are following suit. Today, Zynga told All Things D that it was considering how to approach the new opportunity: "We build games and experiences that our players want and love. Zynga Poker is the world's largest online poker game with more than 7 million people playing every day and over 30 million each month. We know from listening to our players that there's an interest in the real money gambling market. We're in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity."
 
Groupon Buys Social Shopping Platform Mertado To Bolster Groupon Goods Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 3.46.15 PMWe've been hearing rumbles about Groupon taking its Groupon Goods initiative more seriously, and those rumbles have a little more weight today, as the company has acquired Mertado, the social shopping startup that uses Facebook as a distribution platform. From the Mertado blog:
"Our mission at Mertado has always been to expose a selection of high quality, unique, lifestyle-oriented products to consumers wherever they spend their time. Working toward this goal, we have strived to create shopping experiences that build bridges between content, commerce & community.
 
TCTV Debate: Can SOPA Be Fixed Or Should It Stay Dead? Top
SOPA Debate Part 1.mov-2The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been pulled and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) is on hold. The Internet won this round, it seems. But don't celebrate just yet. The forces behind these acts are simply regrouping. Should SOPA and PIPA be killed, or can they be fixed? We invited Viacom's General Counsel and EVP Michael Fricklas and David Sohn, General Counsel and Director of the Center for Democracy And Technology, to debate the issue in the video above.
 
DreamHost Hacked, Password Changes Made Mandatory Top
sadAnother day, another hack. The company whose data was compromised this time? DreamHost.
 
How-Tos: Entrepreneurs Talk Customer Acquisition, Social Media & More In New Video Series Top
Screen shot 2012-01-20 at 3.24.19 PMBuilding on their education and training video platform for startups and SMBs, Grovo is today launching an "Expert Series" that aims to "shed light on the evolving world of Web 2.0," in which entrepreneurs, small business owners, celebrities, journalists, and investors will offer insights into successful operation strategies, brand building, differentiation, how to leverage social media, and everything in between. The goal is to not only help others understand how to use popular web services and tools, but why they're important and how they've helped grow their own businesses.
 
More Crunchies Tickets Just Released Top
CrunchieAwardHave you voted for your favorite startups of 2011? Well what are you waiting for? Vote NOW. The Crunchies Awards are only a week away and we have been hustling behind the scenes getting ready for the big event. For those of you who do not know what the Crunchies Awards are about, think of them as the Oscars for technology. We host the awards show every year with our co-hosts GigaOm and VentureBeat and every year it's a smash hit with all-star guests and winners. We have categories ranging from Best Technology Achievement, to CEO of the Year, all the way to Best Startup of the Year. For this year's awards show, you can take a look at all of the final nominees up for the award here.
 
Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense Top
quadhk1Imagine you're a hunter-killer robot, hovering over the broken wasteland that used to be the world of men. You have surprised a group of biologicals in an act of petty insurrection, and they have split into two groups and begun to flee. You can only pursue and eliminate one group, but you don't have the spare milliseconds to analyze your high-definition imagery; yet you must determine which group is greater if you want to meet your termination quota. It's a good thing that back in 2012, a university lab in Italy helped machines like you evolve approximate number sense!
 
Home Depot Acquires Home Services Marketplace Redbeacon Top
red-beaconBig-box retailer Home Depot has acquired home services marketplace and TechCrunch50 winner Redbeacon. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Redbeacon lets users search, browse and book local home service providers, including plumbers, roofers, painters, and house cleaners, on its website. Service providers pay a fee to Redbeacon for new paying customers for a lead. The company has expanded from San Francisco to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston.
 
Radio App TuneIn Tunes In To Mega Funding Round Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 1.38.06 PMWith a reported 30 million monthly unique users, the bragging rights of being the top iOS music app last October and a slew of newly released auto integrations at CES, the under-the-radar TuneIn is sitting pretty. The service, which like iheartradio takes terrestrial radio stations and streams them online, differentiates itself from other contenders in the music space by offering up traditional radio mainstays like DJs and contests, etc. And as of this week the company is sitting a little prettier, on some freshly signed terms sheets for a new round of funding from existing investor Sequoia Capital and new investor General Catalyst Partners.
 

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