Saturday, December 26, 2009

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This Week On TechCrunch: Zuckerberg eaten by zebras, Al Qaeda invests in Twitter, Spotify profitable and more Top
The only good thing about the deadline for this week’s TechCrunch round-up falling on Christmas Day is the absolute certain fact that you won’t be reading the results. After all, with the holiday season in full swing, no one in their right mind will be reading TechCrunch. I certainly won’t. Safe in that knowledge, I can pretty claim anything I like. That this week’s top story was Mark Zuckerberg being eaten by zebras , for example, or Al Qaeda investing in Twitter . Hell, I could probably claim that Spotify is profitable and it would still pass entirely without remark. Who would know? Just me and Google’s spider. But I’m a professional – which is why I only missed my Christmas Day deadline by 24 hours – and as such I take seriously my responsibility to bring you this week’s top stories, regardless of whether you care or not. Hell, I’ve even come up with a festive theme in a vain attempt to keep you reading. Even though I know you’re not. Here we go then… On the first day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…. One billion dollar exits Sarah rounded off her South American research trip by profiling Wences Casares and examining the difference between billion dollar exits and what it means to feel “success”. On the second day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Two out of every ten companies suffering from “stealth disease” Vivek tells stealth start-ups: Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets. On the third day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Three years of Crunchies The first tickets to the third annual Crunchies sold out very quickly, but there’s still plenty of time to vote for the winners across 18 categories before voting closes on January 6th. On the fourth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Four screenings of Avatar Or at least that’s how many Arrington has attended since the movie launched this week and he described it as ‘The iPhone Of Movies’. On the fifth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Five hundred and fifty million dollars Over half a billion dollars; the price that Yelp turned down when they walked away from selling to Google. On the sixth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Six -ty thousand nooks will be shipped by Barnes & Noble this year …despite issues with shipping pre-orders. On the seventh day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Seven million more dollars raised by ChaCha ….despite issues with their entire business being a joke. On the eighth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Eight million dollars raised by Livemocha …in a round led by August Capital to allow the online language-learning community to build new partnership deals and work on product development. On the ninth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Nine ‘rock-star’ names associated with WePay’s new group payments services Levchin, McClure, Conway, Y Combinator… On the tenth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Ten IPO Candidates for 2010 ….and, from Europe, ten disappointing tech stories of 2009. On the eleventh day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Eleven billion valuation for Facebook Up from the company’s $10billion valuation earlier this year. And finally. On the twelfth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you… Twelve (at least) religions that I’ve certainly offended by suggesting that the entire world stops for Christmas. I look forward to the comments. Not that I’ll be reading them – after all, it’s Christmas! Have a good week! Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
The Wonder Of Apple's Tablet Top
In 2007, just prior to its launch, I was absolutely positive I wasn’t going to buy an iPhone. My rationale was that I didn’t even like using a cellphone, so why would I want a $600 one? What I wanted was a touch screen iPod — basically, an iPhone without the phone. In other words, I wanted an iPod touch, but that didn’t exist yet, so I would sit back and wait, I told myself. Then came iPhone launch day: June 29, 2007. Curiosity about the launch day hoopla drove me to an Apple store. There was a line around the block just to get in. So again, there was no way I was getting an iPhone. But then I started to wonder why so many people were lined up for this device — what was I missing? A few hours later I returned to the Apple Store. I waited in a much shorter line to get in. I walked up to the iPhones out on display, picked one up, played with it for all of 10 seconds. I left the Apple store $600 poorer. My point in telling that story is that all signs indicate that we’re closing in on another new Apple product, a tablet computer. And the hype around it is already palpable. But so is the skepticism among many — skepticism similar to what I felt with the iPhone. “Why would anyone want a tablet computer?” “It will be way too expensive, no one will buy it.” “This is all just nonsense Apple hype.” Those are a few of the more common reactions against the still-mysterious device. But I’m not going to be tricked again. Conventional wisdom suggests that Apple will not be able to succeed where so many others have failed. But Apple makes billions defying conventional wisdom. The truth is that most of us don’t understand the allure of a tablet computer because they’ve all sucked up until now. It’s the exact same reason that I didn’t understand the iPhone at first. My cellphones leading up to the iPhone ranged from “okay” to “junk.” The idea of getting one with such a high price tag was insanity to me. But within seconds of using the iPhone, I was able to tell that Apple had made something completely different. It wasn’t a cellphone as I had known them. It redefined the category. And while there are no sure things in the tech world, I would bet that Apple’s tablet will do the same. If an outsider were to look at the tech news coverage of the past few days, they’d think there is an oddly disproportionate amount of Apple tablet talk. Why is that? The lazy answer is that everyone is a bunch of Apple fanboys. But the reality is that it’s dozens of blogs and all the mainstream media sites covering this news about a product which no one is even 100% sure exists. Everyone is covering it because there is a huge amount of interest about the device among each site’s readership. And it goes far beyond that. People outside the tech world, those who don’t ever read tech blogs, have been asking me about it recently. And Apple’s stock is at an all-time high based on the rumors of this device. Part of it is that Apple has a sterling record with consumer-oriented products. Sure, there are some duds, like the Mighty Mouse . And yes, there are some slip-ups, like my new iLemon . But overall, Apple commands attention in the consumer space because more often than not, they nail it. Going deeper, Apple is not afraid to step outside of the traditional comfort zones to try to create a new product — even if others have failed there before, as is the case with tablets. While this stirs skepticism in some, in many more people, it creates a sense of wonder. What if Apple can do it right this time? It’s exciting partially because it’s no sure thing. It’s exciting because the payoff is potentially huge. By this time next year, we may have a whole new genre of computing. It’s an undiscovered country. But it’s also familiar. There’s a quote from the first season of Mad Men that I think applies in this regard. “ But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate, but potent, ” Don Draper says leading up to his Kodak Carousel presentation . The core idea of a tablet is interesting to people on a fundamental level. At least as far back as Moses with the Ten Commandments, it has been a part of the human psyche. It’s something that couldn’t be simpler. It’s a slate that displays information. It’s not a computer with a mess of peripherals and/or physical buttons. If a media and web-centric computer were being designed today with no thought to what the computing norms of the past were, it would be a tablet. It also points to the future of interacting with computers. The mouse and keyboard will one day die and everything will be touch and gesture-based . We’ll be living in a future with Minority Report, Star Trek, and Avatar interactive technology. To many of us, few things are more exciting. To others, that concept is foreign and as such, scary. Regardless, it will happen and the tablet computer is the latest, and perhaps most important step in a line of technology taking us there. I think a lot of people understand that, even if they don’t realize it. That’s why we saw so much interest in the CrunchPad. It was to be a simple, touchscreen device that you could surf the web on. For many people, that’s more than enough of a computer. And the truth is that Apple has already proven the concept. The iPhone is a tablet computer, just smaller. Recently, a former Apple employee was quoted in the New York Times as saying that much of the early work on the tablet exists today in the iPhone. The iPhone is the computer I use the most now day in and day out. And again, I never thought I’d want one. So while the immediate use of the tablet in our homes already riddled with computer may not be apparent just yet, I have no doubt that it will prove itself to be very useful. I have no idea what the tablet will be called ( Robin lays out a comprehensive tale of why it may be the “iSlate”), what its specs will be, or how much it will cost. But I’m not going to make the mistake of dismissing it like I did with the iPhone simply because its practicality isn’t immediately apparent. If it succeeds, it will likely redefine the role of computing in our lives just as the iPhone has. That’s exciting. And that’s why we care so much about it. [images: 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures] Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Merry Christmas, Meagan Donahue. You Are Going To Machu Picchu Top
A month ago we ran a contest giving to give away a 7-day adventure trek for two to the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. As we wrote back then : . . . the winner will be climbing a mountain in Peru to the fabled Inca city of Machu Picchu. Well, you and a guest will actually be on horseback most of the way, and staying in WiFi-equipped luxury eco-lodges. But you can walk part of the way just to say you hiked the Inca trail. This 7-day adventure for two, which is worth about $7,000, is being donated by the tour operator Mountain Lodges of Peru in conjunction with ekoVenture , a marketplace for “experience travel” (read our recent post on them). And we have a winner, reader Meagan Donahue. Merry Christmas. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
GROU.PS DIY Social Network Platform Reaches 2 Million Users, Becomes More Customizable Top
GROU.PS, a do-it-yourself social network focused on moderated online collaboration has steadily gained an impressive amount of users and added compelling features to its application. The social network platform has just hit 2 million users, adding another million members in just 6 months. And GROU.PS has amped up its offering for publishers by launching Elastic Modules, which gives publishers the ability to change the way the data is displayed to their visitors. To date, the highest reach of look and feel customization was at the template level; the publisher could only change the skin of their site. Now publishers can actually modify the backend of the social network they’ve created. GROU.PS counts Don Dodge, developer evangelist at Google, is among the community builders that have chosen GROU.PS as their online platform. “Don Dodge’s Startup List” is sort of a Crunchbase for Boston area. The startup’s networks are attractive to users because it lets you run all of your group's collaboration tools from one GROU.PS domain using a single login. The system supports wikis, photos, links, blogs, calendars, chat, forums, maps, profiles, and subgroups – each of which is available as a plug-and-play module for your community. These modules also allow users to pull in their data from other third party services (flickr, Digg, blogs, etc). The startup, which has over 40,000 networks on its platform, also recently added ActivityRank Pipelines, a point and reward system that lets moderators of a social network measure and rank members' content contributions and then extend moderation privileges to members based on these rankings. And the social network is launching a subscription model that will allow moderators to charge subscription fees to members (GROU.PS gets a 50% cut on any fees charges). GROU.PS just raised $1 million in funding, bringing the startup’s total funding up to over $2 million. But while the social network is growing, it is still faces major competition form the leader in the space, Ning, which recently hit 37 million users with 1.6 million social networks created on the platform. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Apple's New Tablet To Be Baptized iSlate? Let's Dig A Little Deeper Top
Nice scoop by MacRumors , which reportedly retrieved historical evidence that Apple has acquired the domain name islate.com back in 2007. Apparently, the Cupertino company registered the domain through brand protection firm Mark Monitor to conceal the fact that the domain name is theirs, as usual, but was briefly listed as the owner at some point in the past nonetheless. If correct, that means we can add a rumor to a rumor: that the unconfirmed, unannounced but most definitely coming (maybe) Apple tablet device will be named iSlate. That would be in line with earlier connections of the ’slate’ term to the elusive tablet computer, based on New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller calling it something to that effect in a speech. Let’s dig a little deeper. Other iSlate Domain Names There’s a lot of islate-related domain names with different TLDs that Apple most definitely does not own (islate.org, islate.net, islate.be, islate.nl, islate.es, and so on) but I did find a couple of interesting things trolling whois servers. A search for islate.co.uk lists Mark Monitor as the owner, just like islate.com. This could be meaningless, but we know for sure Apple works with Mark Monitor for other domain names and the United Kingdom is a key market for the company. Registration date: 17 November 2006 . Unfortunately, the whois server for German TLDs (whois.denic.de) is currently down, so I can’t look up who secured islate.de at this point. Update: owned by Innovative Dynamics GmbH since December 2007. But look up who the owner of islate.fr (country TLD for France, a third key country for Apple in Europe) is: a Paris-based IP property attorney firm called Wilson & Berthelot . Guess who the technical contact for the domain name registration is? Mark Monitor. And doesn’t Apple work with law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in the States? Coincidence, or not? Other related domain names that were secured through Mark Monitor: islate.info and islate.biz, both of which were registered on the same date as islate.co.uk: 17 November 2006 . Update: islate.jp (Japan) was registered by Mark Monitor on 29 November 2006 , while islate.cn (China) was registered through the company on 18 November 2009 . The plot thickens. The ISLATE Trademark (United States) On November 21, 2006 a company called Slate Computing (registered in Delaware) filed for a US word mark for ‘ISLATE’. Notably, that was right around the time at least three islate-related domain names were registered. You won’t find any information about any company called Slate Computing online, although according to the filing these are the goods and services they offer: Computers; computer software, namely, database management software, electronic mail and messaging software, Internet browser software, paging software, database synchronization software, software for accessing, browsing and searching online databases, software for creating spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts, software for organizing and analyzing data, software for word processing, software for creation and display of presentations including text and graphics, software used for image editing, image processing, image acquisition, image file management, image viewing, image sharing, and the creation of documents incorporating images, software for use in developing websites, software to help users create, edit, organize, search, transfer, publish and subscribe to weblogs, blogs, podcasts, web broadcasts and news and information feeds on global and/or local computer and telecommunications networks, software for use in authoring, downloading, transmitting, receiving, editing, extracting, encoding, decoding, playing, storing and organizing audio, video and still images, software for authoring digital content, software for personal information management, software for DVD authoring, software for the electronic storage and retrieval of electronic calendar files, software with clock and alarm clock functionality, telephony management software, character recognition software, application development tool software for personal and handheld computers, software for the redirection of messages, Internet e-mail, and/or other data to one or more electronic handheld devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server, and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer peripherals. notebook computers; laptop computers; tablet computers; computer servers; handheld computers; mobile computers; hard drives; audio speakers; speakers for computers; radios; cameras; video cameras; telephones; mobile telephones; personal digital assistants; electronic personal organizers; electronic notepads; blank magnetic data carriers; computer gaming machines; microprocessors; memory boards; computer monitors; keyboards; computer input devices, namely, touch screens, styluses, mice, trackballs and shuttle dials; computer cables; modems; printers; computer accessories, namely, computer battery chargers, battery packs, docking stations, adaptors, computer wired and wireless remote controls, audio headphones and earphones, and replacement parts for all the aforesaid goods. That’s quite a list for a company that doesn’t even have its own website, but it matches exactly what Apple’s business is all about. Is Slate Computing just a shell company created by Apple, or is someone trying to play a number on them? More on that later. Either way, the USPTO record shows that an opposition was filed on June 10, 2008. In case you’re interested, the domain name slatecomputing.com is owned by a company called “Cayman Ninety Business” – with an office address on the Cayman Islands – which according to Domain Tools owns over 11,000 other domain names (all the marks of a savvy domainer and/or cybersquatter at play). The ISLATE Trademark (Europe) I did a search for ‘islate’ on OHIM , and founded out that same Slate Computing has filed for a trademark for the term in the European Union as well. It was filed in 21 November 2006 , on the same day the filing for the ISLATE word mark was registered in the US. Listed as legal representative on the form: UK-based Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge , the same law firm Apple worked with for securing the EU-wide trademark for the term ‘Macbook’, for one. Then I noticed something else on the record for the European ISLATE trademark: the priority country that was registered is Trinidad & Tobago. Why that matters? Because Apple has a history of listing Trinidad & Tobago as the priority country for European trademarks – just look up ‘iphone’ on OHIM and you’ll see I’m right. Conclusion Here’s what I think happened, based on the evidence presented above: Apple decided on the name iSlate for a new product it was working on, whether it will ultimately turn out to be for their new tablet computer or not, in November 2006. That same month, they moved to file for a trademark for the name in the United States and Europe under disguise, setting up and using Slate Computing LLC as a shell company, and securing a couple of available domain names through Mark Monitor (islate.co.uk, islate.biz and islate.info). Then, they acquired the domain name islate.com from whoever owned it at that point. MacRumors reports that the domain name was under ownership of a company called Data Docket, Inc back in 2006, and a search for that company turns up this interesting article on that company. They’re either a shell company for Google (unlikely), or professional domainers/cybersquatters. I’m told Data Docket is in fact affiliated to Mark Monitor, which would make sense. Either way, Apple reportedly got a hold of the domain name early 2007, right about the time they also secured islate.fr, supposedly. The evidence is overwhelming: if there’s going to be a new tablet from Apple coming out next month, chances are that it’ll be christened iSlate. Feel free to start lauding or ranting on the chosen name. (Original image: MacRumors ) Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
CrunchBase Funding Digest: Center'd, Lexy, Accelerate Mobile Apps, Brickfish Top
Every day I troll SEC Form D Filings to discover new startups, fundings and investments. I put everything I find into CrunchBase . For everyone else I give you the daily digest, a quick hit of the latest and greatest SEC Form D filings in the TechCrunch sphere: Center'd - Local Search and Discovery Lexy - Audio Content Distribution Accelerate Mobile Apps - Mobile Apps for Business Brickfish - Social Media Marketing
 
Flixup Brings Its Movie Tweet Aggregator To The Web For The Holiday Movie Season Top
At our Realtime CrunchUp in November, Bazaar Labs showed off their iPhone application Flixup , which scans Twitter to create aggregate scores for movies. Tonight, just in time for the busy Christmas movie-going season, they’re launching the website for the service. The website works just like the app. The main page shows the “Top Movies” based on the amount of talk on Twitter. For example, right now Avatar leads the pack by far. Flixup’s Buzz meter also shows if the talk about the movie is positive (green), neutral (yellow), or negative (red). Avatar is not only being talked about the most, but it’s also very clearly green, which is impressive (it’s definitely worth seeing if you missed our screening of last week). And just like the iPhone app, Flixup works better if you sign in with your Twitter account (via OAuth). If you’re signed in, when you click on a movie title, you can see the conversations about the movie on Twitter that your contacts are having. You can also click to see all the conversations on Twitter about the movie. And you can rate the movie (on a 1 to 5 scale) or say if you’re interested in seeing it or not and tweet all that out with the click of a button. On the individual movie pages you can also get additional details about the film and see its trailer. And Flixup features its Rotten Tomatoes score as well. This is appropriate since when the iPhone app was previewed, we called it the “Rotten Tomatoes for Twitter movie talk.” You can find Flixup’s free iPhone application in the App Store here . Update : And the site is now live . CrunchBase Information Flixup! Bazaar Labs Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Polyvore's Virtual Styling Tool Aims To Be More Social With Facebook Connect Top
As “Fashion 2.0″ sites continue to innovate, the social component of these style-focused sites becomes an important tool for viral growth. Weardrobe, a site focused on capturing and sharing the street style of web users, was recently acquired by Like.com And we’ve written about Polyvore, the startup lets web shoppers pull their favorite items any online store and mix and match to create personalized outfits online. Users can then share their creations on the site and can then buy the items shown. The site is seeing rapid growth, with over 6 million unique visitors per month thanks to new branding efforts and the launch of Facebook Connect. Polyvore’s virtual styling tool allows people to mix and match products from any online store to create fashion collages, called “sets,” and collections that can then be embedded in other sites. Armed with $7 million in funding, Polyvore has recently forged partnerships with brands like Calvin Klein, Barney’s, Lancome, Zappos Marc Jacobs, and the Gap to create branded collages that the Polyvore community of users can then share and buy from. Many of these brands use Polyvore’s technology to create contests for users.The startup collects revenue in these partnerships and also sees returns from affiliate fees when users buy And users can now share their branded “sets” via Facebook and Twitter, serving as social advertisements for designers and fashion companies. Polyvore says 30,000 sets are created daily on the site. Launched in 2007, the startup just raised $5.6 million in funding. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
SCVNGR Raises $4 Million From Google Ventures Top
SCVNGR , the platform that lets you build location-based games compatible with any mobile phone, is on a roll. The company has just raised $4 million from Google Ventures, with participation from existing investor Highland Capital. Google Ventures’ Rich Miner will be taking a board seat. The news comes just over a week after we learned that SCVNGR is cash flow positive, with over $1 million in revenue in its first full year in business. While mobile location based games like Foursquare and Gowalla are getting a lot of attention right now, SCVNGR has quietly managed to establish a very nice niche market for itself. SCVNGR, which started in the DreamIt Ventures program back in 2008, makes a platform that allows companies, schools, and other organizations to build their own location-based scavenger hunts. Dozens of major universities have used the service at campus orientations, while major companies have used it for team building exercises. The platform has been used by over 400 clients including Princeton, Yale, MetLife, and HSBC, and has a whopping 91% client repeat rate. SCVNGR is also expanding very quickly. In the eleven days since we last wrote about them, they hired six new people. They are currently doubling the company’s size from 20 to 40 employees, filling roles in everything from mobile application development to sales. Oh, and there’s one other impressive thing about the startup: SCVNGR closed its funding round on CEO Seth Priebatsch’s twenty-first birthday. CrunchBase Information SCVNGR Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Google Voice Is Coming Back To The iPhone Via The Browser, Thanks To VoiceCentral Top
Last summer, when Apple pulled third-party Google Voice applications from the App Store , one of them was VoiceCentral . Apple’s subsequent rejection of the official Google Voice app spurred an FCC investigation , but Google Voice never made it to the app store and none of the other apps ever made it back in. Well, that’s not stopping the developers Riverturn, the company behind VoiceCentral. They are bringing back their app to the iPhone via the browser. They call it the Black Swan edition . You can get on a waiting list to be on the private beta here . The app is completely browser-based but has the look and feel of a regular app, complete with a dialer, list of transcribed voicemails, and SMS messages. When you dial a number, Google Voice simply makes a call to your iPhone while simultaneously calling the number of the person you are trying to reach, so you still pay for the voice minutes. But the appeal of having Google Voice on your iPhone is the ability to read transcribed voicemails, or play them, and avoid SMS charges by texting through Google Voice. (You cannot yet do all of these things when you access Google Voice via the iPhone’s browser directly). The downside is that it cannot access your contact list on your iPhone through the browser. Although, VoiceCentral mimics the look and feel of the iPhone contact manager, you have to export your contacts to Google Voice first and access them that way. Another limitation is that the audio plays through the speaker instead of through the earpiece, but if you are using a pair of earphones that is not a problem. VoiceCentral will probably be a paid app, but Apple won’t get any of the revenues since it is simply a mobile Website. It even offers offline caching and takes advantage of the HTML5 features of mobile Safari. This could very well be the future of mobile apps. As mobile browsers become more capable, more and more developers are going to ask themselves why bother with the limitations of the App Store and be at the mercy of Apple’s whims? And it won’t just be developers like VoiceCentral who have no other choice. Below is a promotional video which shows some of the features of VoiceCentral’s Black Swan app. Remember, this is all happening in the browser: Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
The Top Ten IPO Candidates For 2010 Top
It’s been a long drought for IPOs , but venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs are hopeful that 2010 will be the year they rain down on the Valley once gain. Earlier this year, a handful of IPOs trickled out , such as OpenTable , Rackspace , and A123Systems . But what people are really waiting for is another Netscape moment —an iconic IPO which will whet investor’s appetites and open the floodgates for others to follow. Below is our list of the top ten IPO candidates for 2010 in the technology industry (and, no, it doesn’t include Twitter). I conducted an informal survey of some top VCs and angel investors. These are the names whispered about the most in the Valley and other tech circles. The hope is that the economy will swing back and the public markets will become receptive to IPOs, especially towards the second half of the year.  The stock market in general is finding its legs already.  The S&P 500 is up 24 percent this year. If the bull market continues, that will be good for the prospects of seeing these potential IPOs.  And if it doesn’t, there’s always M&A. 1. Facebook . Total raised: $716 million. If there is one company which everyone is looking towards for a new Netscape moment, it is Facebook.  The company can pretty much go public any time it wants.  It is already the fourth largest site in the U.S . and the world .  Its last private common stock sale valued the company at $11 billion , which may or may not be rational.  The key to a large public valuation will be whether Facebook can figure out how to turn all of that attention into advertising dollars.  So far it is said to be on track to beat its $ 550 million revenue projections from earlier this year.  A Facebook IPO would certainly create a halo effect for other tech offerings.  Even if it doesn’t go out in 2010, the prospect that it might could still help other companies go public as hungry investors grab what they can get. 2. Zynga . Total raised: $219 million. Social game developer Zynga is on a tear , with more than 230 million people a month actively playing its games such as FarmVille, PetVille, and Texas HoldeEm Poker.  The company just raised a whopping $180 million round.  It is believed to be Facebook’s largest advertiser and pulling in at least $250 million in revenues on its own.  But it is also at the center of the Scamville controversy over how it makes some of its money from scammy offers.  If it can convince investors it has cleaned up its act, they will gobble up an IPO. 3. LinkedIn . Total raised: $103 million. The other social network, LinkedIn is like the enterprise version of Facebook. It is where business gets done and people find jobs.  LAst year alone it raised about $75 million at a $1 billion valuation. Founder Reid Hoffman has spoken repeatedly about LinkedIn’s ability  to IPO .  Earlier this year, he recruited former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner to be CEO and is spending more time himself as a venture capitalist , which has always been his sideline. 4. Glam Media . Total raised: $125 million. Glam Media is one of the fastest growing ad networks and collection of fashion- and women-oriented sites.  At a time when traditional media and women’s magazines are suffering, Glam is saw display advertising revenues across its network up more than 50 percent in 2009.  CEO Samir Arora expects the company to be profitable in the fourth quarter, and is recruiting executives with big-company experience.  Ad networks which dominate their niche are an easy lay-up for investors. 5. Demand Media . Total raised: $355 million. Demand Media is another LA-based company, started by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt .  Demand Media owns a collection of sites such as eHow, Livestrong, and countless niche sites.  It also owns domain name registrar eNom, which generates a lot of its cash.  Demand Media is a content mill , churning out articles and videos for its niche sites like Golflink.com and Trails.com  cheaply and quickly in response to what people are searching for .  It may not be sexy, but it is lucrative enough that potential acquirers are sniffing around and AOL’s Tim Armstrong is looking to copy and improve on the niche content model. 6. Gilt Groupe . Total raised: $48 million. Gilt is a private online shopping club for luxury goods.  Its revenues are reportedly around $200 million this year, and expected to more than double next year.   IPO talk is already in the air.  Gilt’s counterpart in Europe, Ventee-Privée, is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Amazon for around $3 billion.  And Kleiner Perkins just invested in One Kings Lane , another private shopping club based in England. 7. Etsy . Total raised: $31.6 million. Another niche e-commerce play could be Etsy, the Brooklyn-based marketplace for handcrafted goods.  Sellers on Etsy are on track to trade $200 million worth of goods on the maretplace this year, double from last year.  Founder Rob Kalin recently took over again as CEO and says the company is now profitable.  Etsy will never be as big as eBay, but its focus means that can become a the alternative eBay for buyers and sellers of high-quality, custom-designed apparel, furniture, and other goods. 8. Yelp . Total raised: $31 million. Yelp was nearly acquired by Google for around $500 million before the deal broke down last week.  The fast-rising local reviews site now might try the public markets instead.  The company already has 300 employees and is becoming a powerhouse in the online advertising for local businesses, which is an area of growth every major Web company wants to participate in.  Already the IPO filings are starting to come in, with Re achLocal filing to raise $100 million for its local ad network. 9. Tesla Motors Total raised: $783 million. Why would you invest in GM IPO if you could invest in Tesla instead?  Silicon Valley’s electric car company is expected to hit the public markets .  Building a car company takes massive amounts of capital, and Tesla has raised nearly $800 million so far.  Most of that comes in the form of government loans, such as the $465 million it received as part of the government’s $25 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry.  A lot of the capital also comes from partner Daimler , and billionaire founder Elon Musk.  But, hey, at least Tesla is profitable , which is saying a lot for a car maker. 10. Skype Total raised: $69 million Despite all the drama surrounding eBay’s recent sale of Skype to a group of private investors including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz for $2.75 billion, the deal got done.  Skype is already a major Internet brand, with more than 500 million users of its Internet calling, IM, and video communications service, and $185 million in quarterly revenues .  Before eBay found its buyers, it was very publicly pursuing the IPO route .  And given that eBay retains a 30 percent stake in Skype, that is still an option if its growth continues apace. Runner’s Up :  The ten names above are the most likely to go public if the markets open up.  Other companies which might tap the public markets include Associated Content , Brightcove , Digg , StumbleUpon , LiveOps , Workday , MerchantCircle , ExactTarget , Chegg , and Rearden Commerce .  Most informed observers do not expect a Twitter IPO next year.  It is too early.  The company just raised $100 million, and still needs to figures out its business model.  Maybe in 2011. Which of these companies do you think is most likely to IPO?  Which ones would you invest in? Photo credit: Flickr/ David Paul Ohmer Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Soocial Hassels The Hoff Top
Funny story on Dutch business blog Sprout this morning: Soocial , an Amsterdam-based digital contact management startup, talks about its quarrels with actor and singer David Hasselhoff . Here’s how the story started: Soocial, an angel investor-backed startup that provides a simple but powerful contact synchronization service for both the Web and mobile phones, figured ‘hassle-free address book management’ fit its core product perfectly as a description when it was founded about two years ago. As a gimmick, they associated the baseline with the freedom-looking Knight Rider and Baywatch actor and started using images and footage of the Hoff as part of their marketing message (see video below). Turns out Hasselhoff wasn’t all too pleased with the unauthorized use of his image, prompting him to have his lawyers send a cease and desist letter to the fledgling company. The message was clear: Soocial was to remove all images of David Hasselhoff from its website, videos and business cards or legal action would ensue. First, the startup tried to stall the process by delaying any response to letters or e-mail that was sent to them, and (unsuccessfully) attempted to make personal contact with the celebrity more than once. They ended up getting Hasselhoff’s agent excited by planting the idea of producing official endorsement videos for Soocial, featuring the actor, in his head. The initial excitement ebbed away rather swiftly when the agent learned that Soocial wasn’t able to actually pay for those videos: he wanted $250,000, close to the total of capital that has been injected into the startup by angel investors to date. Soocial didn’t give up and instead took it up a notch: they offered Hasselhoff equity in the company in exchange for a potential endorsement, and tried to sweeten the deal by playing the card of much-needed positive publicity that would ensue should the actor support a small, innovative company. The Hoff didn’t bite, and Soocial stopped using unlicensed material for marketing purposes. Guess it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Clear Channel Radio Debuts Android Version of iheartradio App Top
Clear Channel Radio already had mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Chumby devices, but today it’s adding an Android version to the line-up. Not that there’s a lack of decent radio streaming applications on well, any platform these days, but here goes: Clear Channel Radio’s iheartradio app gives users free access to some 350 American radio stations, including a couple of artist-hosted stations from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Megadeth, Eagles and Weezer. The app also enables you to get ‘frequently updated’ traffic reports for large markets including New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. Like its iPhone / iPod Touch sister, the iheartradio app for Android can be configured to automatically start playing a specific station upon launch, includes artwork and lyrics and also enables users to tag songs for purchase on iTunes. To download the free app, simply log on to Android Market from your handset (Android v1.5 or higher). Update: the app seems to have disappeared from Android Market. Kinda puts a downer on the drum-banging efforts. Update 2 : And it’s back! CrunchBase Information Android Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
Zealous Desperately Trying To Sell Interactive Subsidiary Top
Publicly traded Zealous ( OB:ZLUS ), a fountain Valley, CA-based holding company which operates through its three subsidiaries, Zealous Interactive, Health and Wellness Partner and Zealous Holdings, has had a pretty rough year. Zealous Holdings, the financial services arm of the company formerly known as Adult Entertainment Capital, was recently discontinued and is currently involved in Chapter 7 dissolution. In addition, the company is now desperately trying to sell off its Interactive unit to anyone who cares to take a look, in order to reduce the legacy debt that stems from the Holdings’ demise. It’s so desperate, even, that it put out a press release this morning to announce that it is currently ‘in detailed talks with a major creditor and other parties’ about the sale of its online, media and marketing assets. The kind of thing a company would do if they were vying for attention from other suitors. The assets of the Interactive unit include, according to the announcement, an adult portal and social network as well as its print and online publications and over 700 URLs and websites. I was unable to retrieve any names of these ventures, but I most certainly hope this isn’t Zealous Interactive’s official website. And I also hope potential buyers know how to search the Web for more information about the company . Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Indiagames To Launch New Cricket Gaming iPhone App Top
One of India’s most popular gaming platforms Indiagames is launching a nifty new Cricket iPhone app, called Cricket T20 Fever. Cricket is hugely popular in India and the new app will be a feature rich gaming app that will aim to simulate the experience of playing the sport and competing against other players. The game will launch first on the iPhone and as a PC browser based game and within a few months be available on additional platforms like Symbian, Symbian, Maemo, PSP, Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo DSi. And the app will feature Facebook Connect. Indiagames has already released a number of mobile cricket apps, including its Cricket T20 World Championship app. Initially Indiagames plans to launch a free version of the game on App Store and a Paid Premium version but will also be experimenting with microtransactions with the app. While cricket doesn’t have a significant fan base in the U.S., the sport has a huge following in other parts of the world, such as India. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
Skout Studies What Happens When Dating Goes Mobile Top
Over the last decade or so, the public perception of online dating has shifted from being a bit odd to something that’s pretty normal. But even as people get used to surfing the web as they look for a potential date, there’s a new trend emerging: location aware, mobile dating services. Skout , a social dating service with a strong mobile component, decided to conduct a study to see how hesitant people are to make the move from mobile messaging to in-person meetups. The company surveyed 1000 of its users 20-30 years old, with an even gender split. While everyone surveyed was a Skout user, the questions pertained to any mobile dating service. Now, obviously these stats don’t readily apply to the general public — everyone surveyed is already a Skout user, so they’re more likely than average to be inclined to use a mobile dating site. Here are some of the conclusions Skout came up with: 51 percent of the consumers surveyed have met another single person in the Real World that they initiated contact with on their iPhone. The survey findings show that: 69 percent are comfortable meeting up with someone they met on their iPhone 40 percent are using a mobile dating service while out in bars, clubs and restaurants 20 percent are only using the service outside of their homes 35 percent are using the service at work The company also concluded that most people would rather be dating than hanging out with their families during the holidays (which is kind of sad): 29 percent of the surveyed consumers would prioritize spending time with family 36 percent would prefer going on “a date or two” 20 percent would prefer at least one “hook-up” and a few dates 15 percent would prefer multiple “hook-ups” and dates before the Holidays are over Finally, in a strange twist, 20% of those surveyed already had a significant other. Half of them were participating on these social dating sites with their partner’s consent (huh?) and the other half were doing it behind their back. Of course, there are probably a good number of folks who lied on this question — I suspect the number of people who are secretly using these services is actually higher. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
The Great Location Land Rush Of 2010 Top
Back in November, at our Realtime CrunchUp event, I sat on the geolocation panel with members of Twitter, Foursquare, SimpleGeo, GeoAPI, Hot Potato, and Google. At one point, I raised the question if location was going to be the next battleground between startups large and small, much like social identity plays (Facebook Connect vs. Google Friend Connect) and status updates (Twitter vs. Facebook). All of the panelists indicated that it wouldn’t be, because they could all get along. How sweet. Sadly, I don’t believe them. I believe they might think that right now, because it’s still very early in the game. But it’s still a game, and people are going to play to win. I’m sure some of them would counter that because location data is fairly standard right now, and moving easily between services, all of them will win. But that’s not true either. While location, as a whole, will win, there will be individual companies that end up ahead of others in the space. More to the point, there will be one or two services that people will go to for their social location data. That’s what we’re moving towards. And the bigger companies are starting to realize it. That’s why today we saw what may be the first maneuver in an upcoming rush to secure the location landscape, with Twitter snatching up Mixer Labs, the team behind GeoAPI. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams writes today that “ We will be looking at how to integrate the work Mixer Labs has done with the Twitter API in useful ways… ” and notes that they’ll be working on adding contextual local relevancy to tweets. But those vague statements don’t mean a whole lot. Here’s what likely really went down, based on what we’re hearing: Twitter scooped up some solid talent in the location space, on the cheap (in the mid-seven figure range, we’re hearing from multiple sources). Mixer Labs CEO, Elad Gil , for example, was the original product manager for Google Mobile Maps. Four of the other six Mixer Labs employees are also former Googlers, including co-founder Othman Laraki . What Twitter likely won’t be doing is getting into the core location platform business anytime soon. Though GeoAPI says it has “no plans to retire the current GeoAPI” that seems quite likely to happen as Twitter will just cherry-pick whatever they want from it and merge those elements into its own location APIs. But again, this was mainly a talent acquisition. Twitter is unlikely to compete with what a company like SimpleGeo is doing (and what GeoAPI was doing) because their main goal is to attach location to tweets, for now. SimpleGeo wants to provide general location information to startups, tweets or not. “ Unless Twitter was to change their policies regarding distribution of location tagged tweets (or there was a disparity in the availability of aggregated location data), the acquisition doesn’t change our approach at all. We’re still going to continue working with SimpleGeo ,” Hot Potato’ s Justin Shaffer tells us. Going forward, however, Twitter is likely to try and position itself as the main syndicator of location. That’s likely to put them up against Foursquare, Gowalla, and yes, eventually, Facebook and Google. Again, right now Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, and many of the other smaller players in this field play very nicely with one another. That’s because they all have a common goal: Getting location to take off. And it’s working. But the problem that the Foursquares and the Gowallas have is that their core product is based around location. If people decide that they’re getting sick of the gaming elements, or someone like Twitter or Google moves in to secure better local coupons based on location, the location-only players could feel the heat. Of course, both are also likely to be very pretty acquisition targets in their own right next year. And guess who will be buying? Twitter, Google, and Facebook. In my mind, this is how this is shaping up. The companies with the clout (because they do other things) are going to start scooping up the smaller location-only services. Of those bigger players, Twitter is by far the smallest and weakest, but they’re smart to get started in the buying spree early with the GeoAPI purchase. Don’t be surprised if they scoop up another location service sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, Facebook has been dragging its feet (to say the least) getting into the location game. We’ve been hearing for months that they’ve been at work on their location solution, and at one point were even racing Twitter to beat them to it. Obviously, that didn’t happen . And last we heard, they were still a few months out mainly because of the privacy implications. But you can bet Facebook will enter the location space in a meaningful way in 2010. And if whatever they’re working on doesn’t get traction. Look for them to start making acquisitions in the field quickly. The third big player, Google, has Latitude, but they may be too far ahead of the curve with their thinking there. So far, the check-in model has proven to be the one people are gravitating towards. Latitude employs the “always updating” model. That may be the future, but we’re not ready for it yet, and it’s hurting Google in the location space. Again, a quick aquisition could solve that. Of course, Google had a perfect chance to be way ahead of the game when it bought Foursquare co-founder D ennis Crowley’s previous startup, Dodgeball, in 2006 . But it badly dropped the ball (pardon the pun) with that one, letting the service die , as Crowley left in a huff. Because of that, a Google/Foursquare marriage may look to be out of the picture — but money heals all wounds, so never say never. Location, as a trend, remains on fire. Startups are getting funding from big name investors left and right . And you can expect that to continue into 2010. And you can expect the big players to step up their game in the space as well, as they all look to connect the social online world with the real world — a real world that has also has a lot of money potentially tied to location . I asked SimpleGeo co-founder Matt Galligan for his thoughts on Twitter’s move today. “ I think it validates the Geo space in a very, very big way. One of the hottest companies just made a major bet on it,” he says . As he went on, his sentiments echoed mine, “ I d on’t think it’s far behind that we see similar plays from other big companies .” With its biggest rival now neutralized, that could include SimpleGeo down the road. Consider every location player now on acquisition watch. Game on. [photos: flickr/ Serge Melki ] Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
WePay's Group Payments Get Some Big-Name Backers, Including Max Levchin Top
Managing a baseball team, school club, or fraternity can be a rewarding experience. It can also be a total nightmare, at least when it comes to getting everyone to cough up their dues. WePay is a very promising startup in private beta that’s looking to fix group payments for good. Earlier today news broke that the company had raised $1.65 million from August Capital and some angel investors. That’s obviously great news for WePay, but also impressive is the company’s roster of angels: as of tonight the company can count PayPal cofounder Max Levchin as an investor. Given Levchin’s experience in this industry, that’s a very strong endorsement. PayPal alum Dave McClure is also onboard, as are Paul Buchheit, Ron Conway, Mark Goines, Andrew McCollum, Joe Campanelli, and Angus Davis. WePay is also a part of the Y Combinator program. So what exactly does WePay do that PayPal can’t? The difference stems from the way payment accounts are set up. With PayPal, your account is tied to your name, without any way to separate the payments associated with your soccer team from those of your fraternity or your own personal transactions. On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each of these. The account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate. This gives you much more freedom than you’d have otherwise. If you want to share your fraternity’s transaction history with the entire group, you can do that without having to worry about a personal transaction ever popping up. The site comes with controls for specifying who can have access to these histories. There’s much more to WePay, of course. The site can also fully manage the payments to and from each of these accounts. If you need to collect money from your soccer team, you can automatically shoot an Email to each player informing them how much they owe. They can pay immediately through the website using a credit card or direct account transfer, or they can submit a check. If they don’t pay soon, the site will automatically remind them a few days later. If you’re managing a WePay account, you can also sign up to receive a special WePay credit card that draws directly from the shared account. WePay makes money by charging a 3.5% transaction fee (there’s also a different plan that charges 50 cents per transaction and limits you on the methods of payment you can accept). WePay looks like it could be a winner. The company is solving a problem that nearly everyone has had to deal with, and they’ve got a proven way to make money doing it. Look for their launch early next year. CrunchBase Information WePay Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
CrunchBase Funding Digest: Where.com, MarketArt, Cafegive, Whaleback Systems Top
Everyday I troll SEC Form D Filings to discover new startups, fundings and investments. I put everything I find into CrunchBase . For everyone else I give you the daily digest, a quick hit of the latest and greatest SEC Form D filings in the TechCrunch sphere:
 
Chegg Founder Raises Another $7.5 Million For Stealth Startup Kakai Top
It’s not often that you hear about a startup still in deep stealth that has over 40 employees and backing from some of the biggest names in the valley. But that’s exactly the case for Santa Clara-based Kakai , which was founded in May by Chegg founder Osman Rashid . The company has recently closed a $7.5 million Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Josh Kopelman (First Round) and Ron Conway. Marc Andreessen will be joining Kakai’s board. This brings Kakai’s total funding to $9.35 million, after a $1.85 million Series A earlier this year led by Rashid himself and Mike Maples. Very little is known about Kakai at this point. It was cofounded by Rashid and engineer Babur Habib, who has spent time working on both semiconductors and software at Intel, Philips, and Exponent. The company has been rumored to have something to do with electronic readers, but all reports are vague. I did manage to dig up the following from an old job listing, which seems to be in line with those rumors: “Kakai is a stealth-mode start-up developing an innovative Linux-based, portable consumer electronics product (details available through non-disclosure agreement).” Rashid isn’t talking. He does say, though, that we’ll likely be hearing much more from the company come late March. He also says the 40 person company is actively hiring top technical talent. Don’t bother looking at Kakai’s homepage for more information. It has no details, and appears to have been designed to look as drab as possible. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Amazon Takes A Holiday Vacation, Takes Customers With It (Update) Top
Looks like Amazon has decided to go on holiday vacation early, and invited all of its customers to go along with it. Amazon and Amazon Web Services seem to be down, and people are noticing it . This is bad news for any companies relying on Amazon’s cloud services. Many startups use Amazon Web Services to host files in the cloud including images and other key content. And it isn’t the first time this has happened (though its competition isn’t much better ). And, of course, those looking for extremely last minute holiday gifts are out of luck. We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment, and we’ll update you on the status of Amazon. Update : Amazon looks to be back up from here. Is it up for you? Update 2 CNET is reporting that the problem stemmed from a large denial of service attack on Amazon’s DNS provider UltraDNS, which also affected other sites such as Salesforce and Walmart. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Introducing… The 27-inch iLemon Top
Regular readers will know my affinity for Apple products. In general, they’re high quality, and I’m willing to pay a bit more for that. But a lemon is a lemon, regardless of who it’s made by, and must be labeled as such. These new 27-inch iMacs ? Lemons. In case you haven’t heard yet, the screens on these massive things are failing left and right. Granted, not all of them seem to be affected, but 110 pages worth of support questions/rants on Apple’s Support page for the issue tells me the problem is pretty widespread. That’s 1,640 replies, so far. And that thread has been viewed an incredible 264,630 times . The next closest recent page with that many views has 26,852 — and guess what? It’s also about a problem with the 27-inch iMac screen. Two days ago, Apple  issued a fix for the issue. The only problem? The fix doesn’t appear to work. It did look like the fix was working for a little while, but today I’m back with the same constant flickering and random screen shutoffs that have plagued many of us. It basically makes the machine unusable. The support board is already filling up with users who applied the fix and still have the same problem. And, in fact, the only other TechCrunch writer with the new 27-inch iMac also has had the same issue and the fix hasn’t worked for him either. Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was delaying further shipments of the 27-inch iMacs until it could get to the bottom of the screen issue. Many believed the fix two days ago was the solution, but it’s not. And so Apple appears to have a very big problem on its hands, literally. If I have to send this bad boy back, it will be the second time I’ve done so. The first time, it shipped to me with a crack in the screen. A problem which is also not an isolated one . Perhaps you read about how the FDA delayed the replacement one because it thought it was a piece of fruit. I was mad, but I shouldn’t have been. The truth is, these new iMacs are a piece of fruit. They’re lemons. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
23AndMe Completes $27.8 Million Series B Round Top
Personal genomics startup 23andMe has recently raised another $14.2 million to close out its $27.8 million Series B round, according to regulatory filings with the SEC. The filing indicates that the new funding is an amendment to the company’s previously reported raise of $11 million in May, which was followed by an additional $2.6 million in June. We’ve reached out to 23andMe to confirm the funding amount, and to also determine if there are any new investors. Update: 23andMe have confirmed that they’ve raised funding, but have not yet confirmed the amount. The last few months have been rocky for the company. In September, co-founder Linda Avey left 23andMe to start a foundation dedicated to studying Alzheimer's disease. In late October, the company laid off a substantial chunk of its workforce, but declined to comment on how many people were affected. 23andMe is one of the first personal genomics companies, allowing customers to have portions of their DNA analyzed for around $400 (there are a few different products available). After completing a test, customers can log into the site to get reports on their genetic makeup, including a listing of some diseases they may be at risk for. CrunchBase Information 23andMe Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Twitter Acquires Mixer Labs To Step Up Geo-Location Top
Twitter CEO Evan Williams just announced on the company blog that they have acquired Mixer Labs , creators of GeoAPI . In a nutshell, GeoAPI provides developers with the ability to query the world through services which include a reverse geocoder; deep data about 16 million businesses and tens of thousands of points of interest; a writable layer for developers to annotate the world and do complex geo-queries; and location-enabled media layers (e.g., Twitter and Flickr). Just recently, they added an iPhone SDK to speed up mobile development as well. GeoAPI will be integrated directly into the Twitter API, speeding up Twitter’s efforts in the geo-location space. In August 2009, Twitter first announced that they’re getting into the geo-location game as well. And, in September, a lot of you started seeing the Geo API in action through apps like Tweetie, Birdfeed, etc. Twitter formally turned on the functionality in November, but only through its API (not on the site itself). Geo-location has been a hot topic these last few months with contenders including Foursquare , Gowalla (which recently took a hefty amount of funding in ), Stalqer , Seesmic Web , and many more applications. Loopt and Whrrl have both pivoted their companies recently to stay relevant in the space too. It’ll be interesting to see how companies like SimpleGeo will thrive in the space now, especially since a lot of SimpleGeo’s data is Twitter and social network-based. Mixer Labs actually started out as TownMe, a site that is a comprehensive guide to pretty much everything that's relevant at the local level, from restaurant reviews to the best schools and hospitals in town. It’s worth noting that Mixer Labs largely ex-Google employees. Also worth noting is that Mixer Labs CEO Elad Gil and Twitter’s Director of Platform Ryan Sarver were both on the Geo panel at our Real Time Crunchup in November. That was clearly the start of a very good friendship. GeoAPI has more details on their blog too. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. CrunchBase Information Mixer Labs Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 
ChaCha Raises Another $7 Million Top
Human-powered mobile answers service ChaCha has raised $7 million funding, according to an SEC filing. The company has confirmed the funding but declines to name investors. This brings ChaCha’s total funding to nearly $70 million. ChaCha has been the subject of a little bit of ridicule at TechCrunch since its launch, thanks to its entertaining snafus and some issues with its business model. Despite its various problems over the years, the company has been able to raise a boatload of money adding $4 million to the pot earlier this year. While ChaCha’s service currently attracts about 9 million unique users per month through mobile devices and its website, the model has had some problems ChaCha has cut guides’ payments quite a few times since its inception and was forced to lay off a significant part of its staff earlier this year. The startup recently branched out from the answers engine by launching a digital coupon service. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 

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