The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Live From TechCrunch50
- Yammer Shows Some Microsoft Love, Launches Plug-In For Outlook And Windows Mobile App
- DotSpots Launches Collaborative Annotation Platform To The Public
- You Are Invited To Celebrate Rajeev Motwani’s Life On September 25
- CA Picks Up NetQoS For $200 Million In Cash
- Yahoo Sells $150 Million Worth Of Alibaba.com Shares As Tensions Lurk
- Skype Says Next Generation Platform Will Embrace Developers
- Intuit To Acquire (Former TechCrunch50 Winner) Mint For $170 Million
- Location-Based Mobile Social Network Centrl Integrates Web App, Adds First Real-Time Location-Based Messaging System
- Did AT&T Just Start Rolling Out MMS For The iPhone?
- Zynga Settles Mob Wars Litigation As It Settles In To Playdom Fight
- Countdown To TechCrunch50, And Some Advice From Veterans
- Social Media Guide to #TC50
| Posted: 14 Sep 2009 09:06 AM PDT Streaming .TV shows by Ustream And so it begins. The finalists are prepped and double-prepped. The Demopit companies are overflowing in the halls. And we are about to start this year’s TechCrunch50. For all of you following along at home (or the office), we’ll be streaming the conference live via UStream here on TechCrunch as well as on the TechCrunch50 website. You can also vote for your favorite startups on this page thanks to Microsoft Bizpark. (The voting will begin as the startups start presenting). The startup with the most votes will win our Web audience award. You can also follow along on various social media sites. Just search for the tag #tc50 . You can find official photos hereon Flickr and Tweetmeme has set up a TC50 channel that aggregates links and Tweets. You can also try these links: Twitter: #techcrunch50 or #tc50 So who will be the next Mint? Stay with us over the next two days to find out. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Yammer Shows Some Microsoft Love, Launches Plug-In For Outlook And Windows Mobile App Posted: 14 Sep 2009 09:00 AM PDT  At the start of this year’s TechCrunch50 conference, last year’s TechCrunch50 winner, Yammer, is making a significant announcement about a partnership with Microsoft. Yammer, a micro-messaging tool for enterprises (TechCrunch uses it), is releasing a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook and an app for Windows Mobile phones. Yammer is also joining Microsoft BizSpark, a program that encourages startups to build on their software. Yammer, which recently launched a “likes” feature, threaded conversations and a new push-enabled iPhone app, is rolling out “Yammer For Outlook,” a Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 plug-in that afford users much of the same functionality as Yammer desktop app. From a secure, separate pane within the Office client, Yammer users can post status updates, view feeds, reply to messages, upload attachments, send messages to Yammer groups, and invite colleagues. Yammer’s CEO and founder, David Sacks, told me that Yammer is even integrated into Outlook’s email system, allowing users to address an email to their Yammer network using the drop-down menu. The user can choose either “CC Yammer”, which posts a regular status update by email to their Yammer network, or “CC Group”, which posts a message to a Yammer group, with the members optionally receiving it by email. Yammer’s Windows Mobile app is similar to its Blackberry app, but is has a sleeker interface. You can view feeds, post updates and replies, look up colleagues, and place calls to colleagues from your Yammer network. It’s not surprising that Yammer is now integrating with big-time enterprise apps like Outlook. The company has grown incredibly fast in a year, with employees at more than 40,000 companies worldwide using Yammer. Not to mention, Yammer’s product is solid and continues to improve. A few months ago, Yammer released a new, sleeker version of its desktop app (built on Adobe Air). And Microsoft definitely stands to benefit from helping Yammer build innovative applications on top of productivity software or products. Sacks said that Yammer is currently developing a plug-in for Internet Explorer, similar to the plug-in the startup created for Firefox.  Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| DotSpots Launches Collaborative Annotation Platform To The Public Posted: 14 Sep 2009 08:00 AM PDT  DotSpots, a TechCrunch50 startup that demo’d its product last year, received a good amount of buzz and even a compliment from judge Marissa Mayer. Today, the startup is launching its annotation platform to the public, after thousands of people signed up to use the service over the past year. DotSpots’ service is simple—it lets users annotate any part of a web page, from a single quote to the entire page, leave a comment and socialize it with friends (You can publish your comments with a link to Twitter and FriendFeed). The idea is to comment on a single paragraph from a story instead of on the entire post and then create a FriendFeed-like stream of conversation around your comment. These comments will then appear in other posts with similar passages across the web, enabling users to become citizen journalists. DotSpots searches through millions of online news articles, indexing paragraphs of text and using an algorithm to determine when certain passages appear multiple times across different sites. And Dots are evolving; other users can add to Dots as long as the creator approves of the addition. The beauty of Dots is that the comments are presented in each post as unintrusive (but readily visible) “dots”, which expand to reveal the text or video that has been added by DotSpots users. Dots are not designed to take people away from their reading, but only to add another layer to their experience. To use Dotspots, users can either use a browser plugin/extension for FireFox, or publishers can include DotSpots for all users by adding a line of code. DotSpots says that they will launch plug-ins for Internet Explorer and Chrome in the near future. Founded by serial entrepreneur and Shopzilla founder, Farhad Mohit, Dot Spots currently doesn’t have a business model (it’s free for publishers to embed the code in their site). But Mohit is truly focused on DotSpots reaching ubiquity by using crowdsourcing to change the way people comment and interact with news on the web DotSpots has potential to be a powerful commenting system and seems to capture the essence of the power of the crowd in reading and analyzing content, especially when it comes to news. And if more publishers implement the service on their site, it could change the way many consumers interact with online news. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| You Are Invited To Celebrate Rajeev Motwani’s Life On September 25 Posted: 14 Sep 2009 08:00 AM PDT
For my part I crossed paths with Motwani only a couple of times. But he gave his time generously to me nonetheless. In 2007, for example, he spoke at our inaugural TechCrunch50 conference, giving his time to our community without a second’s thought. On September 25, 2009 there will be a celebration of Motwani’s life at Stanford University, and you are invited. Details are here – the event is free but you must RSVP by September 21. Thousands of people are expected to attend. A memorial service opens at 3:30, followed by a reception and concert. The celebration ends at 8 pm. If this man touched your life, this is a wonderful way to say goodbye. I hope you can attend. I spoke with Rajeev’s wife Asha last week, the first time she has spoken to the media about her husband’s legacy. Asha spoke passionately about him, and sometimes tearfully. Rajeev was a brilliant academic mind who, she says, was able to build bridges to the busines/real world like few others (which explains his deep influence on Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin). His abilities increased dramatically, she said, as he worked closely with students. “He leaves a void in Silicon Valley.” Asha also mentioned that in recent weeks, several people have made pilgrimages to her Atherton home to just sit and think by the pool where Motwani died. “I don’t know these people, but I was so touched by this,” she said. I asked Asha about Rajeev’s legacy. There is much unfinished work, she said, and it is too painful for her to go through it now. But she said that he was doing cutting edge research into privacy issues and next generation social networks, and that there are others at Stanford who may eventually pick up these projects where Rajeev left off. I also asked Asha about Rajeev’s thoughts on immigration, since he came to the U.S. from India as a student, and remained here afterwards. She said he felt strongly that immigration is what makes Silicon Valley strong. “He believed the U.S. has attracted the best minds on the planet,” she said, and that he supported any policy which allowed more intellectuals and entrepreneurs to come and live here. “What he cherished most about the U.S. and Silicon Valley is the freedom, the intellectual freedom, that you don’t have in India and other places. The system here unleashes your creativity. Young minds from across the planet come here to unleash their individual potential. Nothing compares to Silicon Valley.” When I asked what Asha misses most about Rajeev, her hesitation told me I’d asked too personal a question and I apologized to move on. She stopped me though, and said “The papa. We are missing the papa in the house.” At this point I think we were both crying a little. Rajeev and Asha have two daughters named Naitri and Anya, who clearly miss their father. I did ask one last question about what else we should remember Rajeev for beyond his contributions to academia and business. She laughed a little and said “Rajeev was a big fan of rock and roll, and he always wanted to be a rock star.” He played keyboard in a local band. when I asked if he was any good, she said “Rajeev thought he was really good. I think he was…ok.” So there it is. Come celebrate the life of an intellectual giant, an Indian adopted into Silicon Valley. As I aid above, Rajeev was a leading light of our community. He may not have been much of a musician, but that just makes him more perfect, doesn’t it? Don’t forget to RSVP for the memorial and celebration concert by September 21. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| CA Picks Up NetQoS For $200 Million In Cash Posted: 14 Sep 2009 06:30 AM PDT
If the deal goes through, it will be CA's biggest acquisition in three years (since it bought Wily Technology for $375 million in January 2006). According to the announcement, NetQoS’ solutions will extend CA’s capabilities in areas such as network and systems management, application performance management and cloud management. Founded ten years ago, NetQoS has over 1,000 active customers worldwide, including many in the Fortune 100. With annual revenue of $56 million in 2008, NetQoS' revenues have experienced a 58 percent CAGR over the past five fiscal years. Both companies anticipate that the majority of NetQoS' 250 employees will remain with CA. At the close of the transaction, NetQoS co-founder and CEO Joel Trammell will join the company as senior VP and general manager, and Dr. Cathy Fulton, NetQoS CTO and executive VP of Products, will join CA as senior VP of Software Engineering. Initially, NetQoS will operate as an independent entity within CA's Infrastructure Management and Automation business unit and will report to Ajei Gopal. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Yahoo Sells $150 Million Worth Of Alibaba.com Shares As Tensions Lurk Posted: 14 Sep 2009 05:16 AM PDT
Yahoo announced a little over 4 years ago that it would purchase a 39% stake in the e-commerce giant’s parent company for US $1 billion – which it will be retaining – plus Yahoo’s Chinese assets (worth about US $700 million). Alibaba in return took charge of Yahoo! China, while Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma remained in charge of Alibaba Group. Yahoo China recently underwent a significant restructuring, during which its popular classified listings service Koubei was taken and moved to Taobao.com. Partly because of the restructuring, tensions started to lurk between Alibaba Group and Yahoo, and they recently became even more strained when insiders also revealed that Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz was far from being satisfied with the way Alibaba has handled its Chinese portal. To add fuel to the fire, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma confirmed last weekend at the company’s 10-year anniversary celebration that Alibaba has so far not yet decided if and how to manage the search engine’s algorithm in China after the cooperation agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft, even though the deal was considered to be global. We earlier reported how China could potentially throw a wrench in the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, because of a Chinese law that went into effect in August last year and essentially gives the Chinese government regulatory oversight over any merger that "involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies' operations." Interestingly, Jack Ma also sold 13 million of his shares, or less than 5 percent of his total direct and indirect holding, in Alibaba for about HK$273 million (US $35 million) just last week. We’re trying to find out more about Yahoo’s plans in China and will update when we do. Update: a statement from John Spelich, VP of Alibaba Group’s International Corporate Affairs
We’ve also confirmed with a Alibaba spokesperson that UBS AG will handle the sale of the shares and line up several institutional investors to get the shares sold by tomorrow morning. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Skype Says Next Generation Platform Will Embrace Developers Posted: 13 Sep 2009 11:48 PM PDT
As an aside, one of those conversations was extraordinary from a technical perspective. Jonathan called me via Skype, which forwarded via Skype Out to my mobile phone when I didn’t pick up. Since Google now controls my mobile number, it rang my cell and my home Vonage line per my rules. I picked up the vonage line and I had a crystal clear connection with no lag. Christensen says that the Extras announcement is not about Skype backing away from a robust developer platform. Rather, he says, Skype is focusing on a next generation platform that will hopefully address the deficiencies of the old program and open many more opportunities for developers to build on Skype services. Vague? Somewhat. But it’s a heck of a lot more information than we’ve ever gotten out of Skype before. Eventually, we suspect, Skype will release a SDK that allows developers to integrate deep into Skype and make calls over the Skype service without opening the Skype client. In other words, people may start to think of Skype (voice, video, chat) as a service rather than a client that must be installed and used to communicate. Today’s tools, which include a public API and the now defunct Extras program, require developers to open the Skype client to make a call. In the future we’ll see other third party desktop applications be able to make Skype calls directly, and possibly share in the growing Skype-out per minute charges that make up the bulk of Skype revenues. And sometime after that, we will see web applications leveraging Skype as a service, too. A couple of things have to happen first, though. There are two reasons Skype has to run on a client today. The first is audio/video encoding at the client level that ensure high quality calls with low latency and minimal configuration. There’s a reason calls on Skype tend to sound good. The second is the p2p architecture of Skype, which also affects latency and cost. It’s relatively straightforward for Skype to allow third parties to build both functions into their apps via a SDK, which is why we’ll see desktop applications integrate Skype as a service first. But the real win is when you can initiate skype voice and video calls via web applications. It’s not clear that we’re anywhere near that being possible with today’s browses, say experts we’ve spoken with. There will likely always need to be some desktop software to assist with at least audio/video encoding. But it’s possible this could be done via browser plugins, or even in Flash. Anyway, we’re looking a ways into the future with all of this. But one thing seems clear – Skype, which is happily soon to be under new management, will someday open its doors widely to developers. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Intuit To Acquire (Former TechCrunch50 Winner) Mint For $170 Million Posted: 13 Sep 2009 11:18 PM PDT
This is a terrific exit for Mint, which first launched two years ago at TechCrunch50. Mint took the top prize at that event and has been growing fast ever since. Their last round of financing valued the company at $140 million. In all, Mint has raised $32 million over three venture rounds. Earlier this year Mint and Intuit had a humorous clash over Mint advertising claims of gaining 3,000 new users a day and jumping from 600,000 to 850,000 users in a matter of months. Intuit sent a letter to Mint demanding an explanation for this apparently inconceivable feat, which we obtained and printed here. We have just one question for founder and CEO Aaron Patzer, though. Can we please have our $50,000 grand prize back? It seems like you don’t really need it any more. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2009 07:17 PM PDT
But there are more location-based social networks out there, and one of them, Centrl, is now intending to further bridge the gap between mobile phone users and the web at large (a move we called for last year). The service, which has been available on the iPhone [iTunes link], Android, BlackBerry [JAD file] and Nokia since May 2008, extended its offering with a web app a few days ago. The service runs within major social networks and lets you login from your existing accounts (on Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, Friendster, Ning, Hi5, bebo, Orkut, iTimes, or Sonico) on any platform and device, which means there’s no need to register. (It’s free to use in all variations, too). iPhone and Facebook versions (click to enlarge): Centrl’s new web application basically does all what the mobile version does: broadcast your own location to your friends, help users find coupons, restaurants, bars, gas stations, general points of interest, real estate, or events near you by pulling information from Yelp, Citysearch, Wikipedia and other sites (Centrl calls these sites “layers”). The web app is completely integrated into Centrl’s social network versions and mobile phone apps. It’s also possible for users of the web version to contribute and share content, for example by marking a certain place on a map, uploading a picture of it, adding a comment and posting a link to Twitter (mobile app users can do this, too). Centrl then automatically creates a profile page based on that information for other mobile or web app users to view and interact with. Screenshot of the Centrl web app (click to enlarge): Centrl’s web version also introduces location-based communication in real-time. According to CEO Murat Aktihanoglu, his service is the first to offer a “free IM on a map”-system that doesn’t rely on SMS and is completely device- and platform agnostic (as long as you’re a Centrl user). The way the messaging system works is that people accessing Centrl on a PC, for example, can see the location of people using one of the mobile apps and instantly start text-chatting with them, virtually in real-time and without fees for both sides. Centrl has attracted 500,000 users so far. The service is based out of New York and angel-funded with $500,000.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Did AT&T Just Start Rolling Out MMS For The iPhone? Posted: 13 Sep 2009 03:39 PM PDT  A few hours ago, we got a tip from one of our readers that they'd popped into their iPhone messaging app this morning, only to find that they'd suddenly gained the ability to send MMS. We chalked it up as a fluke - AT&T promised it would launch on September 25th, after all, and they haven't exactly been punctual about this whole thing thus far. Two whole weeks early? It seemed shaky. Then a few hours later, we got another one. And another.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Zynga Settles Mob Wars Litigation As It Settles In To Playdom Fight Posted: 13 Sep 2009 02:33 PM PDT
In February 2009 Mob Wars creator David Maestri sued Zynga for copyright infringement. Zynga's game Mafia Wars – a text-based game very similar to Mob Wars – was just too much of a copy of Mob Wars, said Maestri. Maestri himself had only recently cleared up his own rights to the game after a scuffle with his former employer, SGN. The Maestri-Zynga lawsuit has now been settled as well. The rumor was that Maestri was demanding $10 million from Zynga to settle the litigation. Ultimately, says one source, he got a payment in the “high seven figures.” So that implies something like $7 – $9 million. Wonder why the settlement was so high? It’s hard to believe, but Mob Wars was pulling in an estimated $1 million/month at one point from users eager to upgrade their weapons and other stuff. These games seem silly, but real money flows through them from virtual goods. Not a bad payday for Maestri. And it also highlights the fact that none of these companies have a completely clean record when it comes to respecting the intellectual property of competitors. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Countdown To TechCrunch50, And Some Advice From Veterans Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:12 PM PDT
A bunch of good articles giving advice to launching startups have been posted over the last couple of days. We’re linking to them here, because when CNET and others look back at TechCrunch50 2009 and sort the winners from the losers, you want to be on that winners list. So take the advice of these grizzled veterans seriously. And then ignore most of it and forge your own path, like all good entrepreneurs do anyway: 22 Tips on How to Operate a Trade Show Booth: Jason Calacanis gives solid, useful advice on how to run your TechCrunch50 (or any conference) booth. An Open Letter To All TechCrunch50 2009 Startups: The TC "Bump", What It Really Means & How To Navigate It: Sean Power with Alistair Croll talk about their experience of launching Akoha at TechCrunch50 2008, and how to make the most out of the traffic and attention you’ll receive. Good advice: “Being Talked About Is Nothing. Being Remembered Is Everything.” Don't drink your own Kool-Aid (surviving TC50): Mark Suster says not to get too into the hype and attention you’ll receive right around the conference. Memorialize it, but don’t believe too much of the hype. Use all that attention to build a sustainable business. See you all tomorrow! Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:00 PM PDT
With TechCrunch50 less than 24 hours away, and already the reviews and advice to startups are coming hot and heavy. For all of you who want to know how to keep on top of the latest Tweets, posts photos, and news from the conference, just remember one thing: #tc50. That is the hashtag we are encouraging people to use for all TC50-related posts, photos, videos, etc. The more people who use that, the easier it will be for others to find Techcrunch50 related content. You can also use the hashtag #techcrunch50, but that’s a whole eight characters longer. Here are some examples of how you can use these hashtags to connect with fellow attendees and folks on the web. Twitter: #techcrunch50 or #tc50 And for those social location fans, we’ve even made a venue for TechCrunch50 on Foursquare. Who will be the mayor? Hope to see you all on Monday morning! Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco |
IT management software company 
I’ve had a couple of conversations with Skype exec 
Intuit will acquire the free online personal finance service 
Social game startup 
It’s less than a day before the third annual (and third sold out) 
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