Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Latest from TechCrunch

The Latest from TechCrunch

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A Conversation with Sergey Brin

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 08:20 AM PDT

Sergey Brin is holding an audience this morning with a roomful of journalists in New York City. Below are my live notes.

Sergey Brin: We have had a number of interesting activities. A bunch of you saw the verizon announcement, android, software platform, more enhancements in terms of faster software, better software. A number of devices are coming out as a trickle, many more we expect. Google Books, a hearing today, but generally that is something I am very proud of, to make the world's books accessible. Have written a little piece I hope comes out as an op-ed.

Eric Schmidt: It seems like Sergey has jumped the gun. We should focus mostly on search, and some of the ideas Sergey has. We are having our global sales meeting here, we brought senior sales executives. The mood was very, very positive. We told them that the worst is behind us and we are clearly seeing aspects pf recovery, what is notable is we are seeing aspects of recovery I not just US but in Europe. I thought it was going to be US first, Europe second, Asia we never saw a hit. We are increasing our hiring rate and investment rate in anticipation of a recovery.

Sergey: There are a bunch of things that have come out recently, you can now get more commercial results or less commercial results. There are other controls that are coming down the pike. I will highlight now, today you can restrict things by date, but that is based on dates mentioned in the text, cannot restrict based on the date the text was authored.

Steven Levy: You have more activity from your competitor in redmond, rolled out a branded search engine. Historically when one competitor steps up it opens up innovation. Do you feel this increased competition will ramp up your innovation, or is it just business usual?

Sergey: I think it is healthy for the industry to have many competitors. You've seen search engines such as Cuil and Powerset that MSFt acquired. MSFT has made its contributions. We are working as hard as we can, but I do think having all of those competitors out there generally helps the health of that industry.

Q: Do you think Bing is something different or a rebranding?

Sergey: I don't want to speak about our competitors

Schmidt: Better for you to judge. We like to focus on our customers. We have been criticized

Ed Baig; where do you stand with Android?

Sergey Brin: At the outset, we started to focus on Android because phones basically lacked powerful browsers and phones also lacked the ability to easily run applications. I think Android has really addressed that really well, but it has also pushed the rest of the market. I am pretty excited for the future of mobile phones because they are increasingly getting quite capable. You can write an application across five phones, we plan to push the state of the art with Android. I might be overstating it a bit, but having the software platform has freed the hardware makers from software platforms, reinvigorating hardware design

Q: Enterprise market?

Sergey: definitely a market I am very excited about, born from an internal need, being able to handle many hundreds of thousands of emails. At the time that we started and launched in 04, Webmail offerings at the time [were limited] we wanted something that would work in an enterprise, and made it available to consumers, pushed things further [than our competitors].

We feel we are further ahead, for you to judge, in email caability and collaborative document editing. Sites All of those would be available to enterprises and consumers. And I think ultimately the cloud model is a better model.I think this installess system of the cloud is better.

Stephanie Mehta: can you characterize future investments Google needs to make for medium to larger enterprise?

Ken Auletta: If the judge says why should I not be concerned about your concentration of power?

Schmidt: It is an error to answer hypothetical questions from a journalist. The question you posed is not actually a question that will occur.. Book search, we thought we were doing something appropriate. We were sued by a bunch of publishers, and now it has come before a judge. We don't want to change it unless we need to. The hearing is going on right now. My guess is in this hearing there will be a date for another hearing. Does putting the book sin the hands of someone like Google who has other strategic resources a problem? It is possible for another company to do what we are doing. And the rights registry, which we would administer is something we would do for the orphan works. The scenario that is in front of us is probably the best outcome for someone who is looking for information that is not otherwise available.

Sergey: regardless of the settlement we want to make more books available online.

Q: You keep adding to Chrome and nobody seems to be paying attention. If that is one of the places where the battle is fought you seem pretty far behind.

Sergey: Perhaps that is true in media . . .

Schmidt: let me, some of your assumptions about Chrome adoption are wrong. The adoption rate of Chrome is [very strong]. We are going to do a better job of getting that message out.

Schonfeld: Steve Ballmer calls it a rounding error, is it?

I don't respond to Steve Ballmer questions. Next question?

Schmidt: The fundamental aspect of Chrome is speed. People who go to Chrome have a hard time moving back. Two months ago we announced Chrome OS. Everything is linked together, Chrome, Chrome OS, the cloud

Sergey: There is also the security aspect. In a recent hacker competition, Chrome was the only one to escape unscathed in terms of security vulnerabilities. And more stable.

Tom Post, Forbes: Lately there seems to be a revisiting of settlements with core media where you seem to be taking a new approach. Leading question is not is Google too big and mean, rather is Google being nice? Do you have a new product out called Google remorse?

Schmidt: In many ways we always wanted to be this Google, rather than the one we were perceived of last year. I am really proud about relationship with advertising agencies. In the media industry, the success of YouTube. We have always wanted to have these partnerships. We are learning how to do it ina way that they win too.

Sergey: People have always equated Google with the Internet, which is disrupting businesses.

Schmidt: Google is an innovator, the innovations in eth internet are causing collisions. Innovation plus collisions equal opportunity. The fact that Verizon has adopted the open principles we articulated five years ago is shocking. This is Verizon. It happened over time.

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Use Your Social Graph To Rent A Vacation Home With Second Porch

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 08:10 AM PDT

There are a vast amount of sites, such as VRBO, that serve as a platform for owners to rent out their vacation homes to vacation goers. But the main drawback to these sites is the risk of renting your home to someone who you don’t know or have any personal connection with. Second Porch hopes to mitigate this problem with its Facebook app that lets owners create a free property listing that can be broadcast to your Facebook friends.

The app is fairly simple. Once you list a property via Second Porch’s application, this will be published in your feed with a link to the listing. The app itself aggregates all listings onto a map (owners can also choose to let anyone on Facebook see their listings) and lets people search for rentals by location, rate or amenities. And of course, you can search or filter by properties owned by friends. Currently, the app has over 700 listings for rental properties.

Second Porch plans to introduce a paid service which requires owners to pay $99 per year to provide additional marketing for the listings including redirecting your inquiry stream to a property manage and let owners link to information like a Flickr photo album, another Facebook page, a property web site and a Twitter profile.

I think the app is fairly useful and I like the idea of using your social graph to both advertise and find rental properties. If the app is able to gain a solid user base, it could prove to be a popular destination to both advertise and find rental properties.

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GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 07:44 AM PDT

If the Internet has made one thing crystal clear, it’s that physical borders and geographical distance are no longer necessarily an absolute barrier for conducting business.

More and more companies are getting accustomed to the idea of being able to do business with companies on the other side of the world using nothing but digital communication means, or to have entire business units or projects led by teams made up of people located all over the globe.

Hence the popularity of services such as oDesk and Elance, websites where you can outsource given projects to registered programmers, designers, writers, legal experts and whatnot. Another player in this market is GetAFreelancer, an Australian company that’s been offering freelance jobs online since it was founded back in 2004.

Today, the company is announcing that it has changed its name to the far better-sounding and undoubtedly more memorable Freelancer.com. They bought the domain name from a private individual who used to run a magazine called Computer Freelancer over 15 years ago, for a ’six figure sum’. All in an effort to increase its visibility and profile.

GetAFreelancer CEO Matt Barrie tells us that the site recently hit a big milestone and now boasts over 1,000,000 registered professionals and businesses from 234 countries and territories worldwide. Over 475,000 jobs have been posted on the website to date, for a sum of over $43 million.

Not too shabby for a bootstrapped venture.

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Rackspace Launches NoMoreServers.com To Tout Computing-As-A-Service

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 06:45 AM PDT

When Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff launched his CRM platform in the cloud in 1999, he embarked on a “No Software” campaign to tout his “Software as a Service” agenda. Today, hosting service Rackspace is promoting a similar campaign with the launch of NoMoreServers.com, a site dedicated to the emergence of Computing-as-a-Service models (like hosting, cloud computing and SaaS) to power enterprise IT.

NoMoreServers.com is a rally cry of the computing-as-a-service era. The site seeks to empower businesses to acknowledge the decline of in-house computing and the rise of the All Cloud Enterprise (ACE). Covering hosting, cloud computing, SaaS, and the key vendors driving them (eg: Amazon, Google, Rackspace, Salesforce, etc), NoMoreServers.com will feature daily commentary explaining all things cloud computing. The site will include third-party content and news about hosting, cloud computing and will have a live community portal for visitors to engage on the topic of outsourcing computing.

Rackspace deliver hosting and cloud services to businesses and has more than 70,000 customers, including over 51,000 cloud computing customers. Hosting guru Andrew Schroepfer is taking lead of the new site. Schroepfer founded, led, and sold Tier1 Research, a research firm focused on the hosting and data center industry. Rackspace also recently partnered with Robert Scoble to launch Building 43, which aims to help businesses use modern technology and social sites to increase their exposure and the money they're making by offering valuable advice.

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Panasonic Unveils Lithium-Ion Battery Module And Home Fuel Cell Cogeneration Facility

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 06:24 AM PDT

Panasonic has on display at CEATEC a "1.5 kWh battery module [made] from 18650-type (18 mm in diameter x 65 m in length) lithium-ion battery cells, which are widely used in laptop computers, to provide energy storage solutions for a wide range of environmentally friendly energy technologies." String a couple of these suckers together to store the juice collected from the solar panels on your house, for example.

Inspired By Google, Microsoft Adds Voice Command Feature To Bing Search

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 06:06 AM PDT

It’s been almost a year since Google introduced a feature that allows iPhone owners to search the Web using voice commands, and now Microsoft is getting into the game, too. As announced on the Bing Search blog, Sprint Wireless’ brand new Samsung Intrepid phone now comes equipped with a fresh voice user interface from Tellme, a speech-recognition company that was acquired by MS in early 2007.

As the video below demonstrates, you can use the new interface to search the Web by speaking your search query, compose a text message or dial a contact by simply talking instead of typing. The company cites a study from Sanderson Studio that found 40% of smartphone usage occurs in multitasking scenarios where the user cannot offer their undivided attention to their phone, and claims the new voice command feature should simplify their lives.

Despite what the title suggests, I think it’s perfectly fine for Microsoft to add features that plenty of people will find useful, whether Google came out with them ages ago or not. Competing companies copy stuff from each other all the time, so it’s hardly something to get overly worked up about.

Of course, the feature is restricted to just one phone on one carrier only for the moment, so in the meantime you can check out services like Dial2Do, although that application is more suited for action commands than searching the Web.

I hope in time Microsoft comes out with apps for the most popular platforms rather than keeping this type of feature phone-specific.

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Compuware To Acquire Gomez For $295 Million In Cash

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 05:15 AM PDT

Compuware is acquiring Web app experience management solution provider Gomez for $295 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in November of 2009, following government approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions. Gomez employs 272 people around the world, most of which will be staying with Compuware after the transaction's close, including its executive management team. Gomez was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts. The company reported $47 million in revenues in fiscal year 2008.

Dutch Music Rights Association Plans To Charge $32 Per Embedded YouTube Video

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 02:59 AM PDT

Buma/Stemra, a Dutch collective rights society that represents the interests of copyright holders (some 19,000 composers, authors and publishers), is the topic of the day in the Dutch blogosphere and beyond. The association has managed to wield itself into the eye of the storm because of the introduction of new, exorbitantly high digital music licensing fees, and its stated willingness to fine bloggers up to €21,6 (roughly $31.8) per music video they dare embed on their websites or blogs.

Buma/Stemra has commissioned a local startup called Teezir to build an Audio Detection Solution which the company claims is capable of automatically detecting copyrighted audio on Dutch websites. Should the association use the crawler to find out you embedded a YouTube video featuring material from a composer or performer who is registered with Buma/Stemra, then they aim to charge you their new annual license fees for embedded content (calculate them here).

These fees, which will become effective 1 January 2010, were laid out in this brochure (PDF in Dutch) and are, according to the director of Buma/Stemra, calculated based on the fees they currently charge for offline music playback such as copyrighted background music in bakeries and the likes. The fees amount up to €130 ($191) for up to six embedded files, €260 ($383) for up to twelve, and if you embed over thirty files you will be liable for €650 ($957) per thirty or part thereof (i.e. 31 embedded files on your site will set you back €1300 or roughly $1914).

Because God forbid you might want to provide their right holders with a bigger audience for their music and potential new fans who would buy their albums and pay to attend their live performances. The horror!

The association did say that they do not intend to ‘chase’ individual bloggers, but also added that they will not be excluding them from eventual fines either. In an extraordinary act of compassion, they intend to give naughty embedders the chance to take the material down before going after their wallets. Buma/Stemra is currently also trying to start conversations with Google (YouTube, Blogger) and local blogging platform providers like Hyves to try and get financial compensation for them for the distribution of copyrighted material by their users, but so far hasn’t reached any agreements with either party.

Fortunately, several political parties in The Netherlands have already stated that they are concerned about Buma/Stemra’s intentions, posing questions about the juridical grounds for the new licensing fees and publicly wondering if it’s actually a smart idea to refrain music fans from spreading the work of their favorite artists.

Let’s hope common sense prevails.

So we can all keep enjoying this video clip of Dutch rock band Golden Earring, with ‘When the lady smiles’.

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New Google Logo Celebrates The Barcode

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 10:43 PM PDT

Google’s new logo is a barcode which, as far as we can tell, says “Google.” Today is the 57th anniversary of the first patent on the bar code. Inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed the patent on October 1949, and it was granted, No. 2,612,994 (pdf), on October 7, 1952. The original patent was for a system that would encode data in circles (a bulls eye pattern), so that it could be scanned in any direction.

The barcode on the Google homepage is Code 128 encoded, which is a standard way of encoding ASCII character strings (ie. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, etc.) into a barcode. It would be safe to assume that Google used their own open source barcode project, ZXing, to generate the barcode. The same library is used in Android for barcode recognition.

The barcode is a technical innovation that has become an often unnoticed, yet essential, part of modern day life. The format is a global standard, where a scanner from any manufacturer can interpret almost any conforming barcode from anywhere (assuming it can interpret the encoding format – which is UPC in the case of products, and Code128 or something else for other applications, depending). The barcode is a great example of why uniform protocols and standards serve a greater good for everybody, and the same lesson certainly applies to the web.

We had to double check that the barcode in this instance was correct (some of the geeks here insist the barcode isn’t 100% correct), since Google has previously messed things up when they try and talk geek dirty.

Google regularly changes its logo for holidays and other special events. Here’s their 10th birthday logo from last year, for example. More recently they celebrated Gandhi’s birthday. Google hosts some of their holiday logos here, and fan created logos here.

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Reevoo’s Hunkering Down Pays Off As It Signs New Partners

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 10:40 PM PDT

Back in December 2008 Reevoo looked like it was running out of time. The UK-based B2B customer reviews site hunkered down on staffing amid pressure from the downbeat economic climate in an attempt to play out its investment from Banexi Venture Partners and Eden Ventures. Partner revenue was coming in but its crowd-sourced reviews were invisible on Google and it was, in my opinion, treading water.

Well today it looks like CEO Richard Anson’s slow burn strategy has paid off. Reevoo is announcing new partners for its service which supplies genuine, post purchase, customer reviews for European e-commerce sites. But the lack of an open API remains a gaping hole in their strategy.

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HotPrints Launches Totally Free Photo-Book Printing

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 10:00 PM PDT

Early this year we were introduced to HotPrints, a startup that lets you print out color photo books at a very low price. Where other photobook printing services cost around $20-$30, HotPrints sells its books for a mere $2.99 plus $0.75 shipping to the United States. Given the low price it’s little surprise that the service has started to get some significant traction, with over 20,000 books printed. And tonight, the company is sweetening the deal even more: HotPrints is now offering everyone one free photo book per month (you don’t have to pay shipping, either).

The new free program is advertiser supported, which means books will come with removable inserts from sponsors (none of the ads will actually be printed alongside your photos). To help make the deal more appealing to advertisers, HotPrints is using demographic information from Facebook, like your region and profile content, to pair users up with appropriate brands (it can also use contextual data like the theme a user chooses for their photo album). However, while HotPrints does its best to match advertisers with users, the company says that sponsors are never actually given anyone’s private information. The ads themselves will be placed as full-page removable inserts in the center of the book.

Building a HotPrints book is easy: the Facebook application will pull in photos from your Facebook friends, which you can drag and drop to place (there’s also a Bebo application available). Books consist of eight sheets of glossy stock paper, or 16 printed pages, each of which can fit multiple color photos. You can also tweak the background colors, titles, and borders. My only issue with the process is that it can take some time for the various designs to load, though it was never more than a few seconds.

Don’t be surprised if the service takes off quickly — these photo books can serve as great gifts or mementos, and only take a few minutes to make. And that $0 price tag won’t hurt either.

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Kindle 2 Goes to $259, International GSM Version Coming October 19

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 09:21 PM PDT

This just in: the Kindle 2 is falling from $299 to $259 and they will be selling an international version with built-in AT&T SIM card for $279 on October 19. Quoth the suits:
"Kindle has revolutionized the way we purchase and read books, by making it mobile, easy and intuitive," said Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T. "We are excited to work with Amazon to help readers access books even faster and from significantly more places than ever before, including more than 100 countries and territories around the world through AT&T's global wireless coverage."

The Mountain Goats Get a Colbert Bump and, Interestingly, It Creates a Unique Music Marketing Opportunity

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 09:14 PM PDT

I was just watching the Colbert Report and on came the Mountain Goats aka John Darnielle, one of the best indie songwriters out there. The interesting part? The ColbertNation.com website is streaming his new album for 24 hours, a nice little window for the curious to visit and listen (and, if they're horrible, horrible people, use a stream catcher to grab the music, but don't do that.) In short, in the Venn diagram of TV you have Colbert Report watchers and Mountain Goats listeners. Many of us exist, obviously, but the confluence of these two audiences into one tasty streaming opportunity is quite cool.

Exclusive: Dell’s Android Phone Is Coming To the U.S.

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:24 PM PDT

Remember the Dell Mini 3i, Dell's China-only Android phone? Well it's not China-only anymore. Rumor has it that Dell will bring the Mini 3i to the U.S. in the next few months to compete with other Android phones coming down the pike from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. The phone, presumably still in its Chinese trade dress, felt "cheap and plasticky, like the Pre," according our tipster. He believes it will be upgraded for the American market.

doubleTwist Unveils An Alternative To The iTunes Music Store, Powered By Amazon MP3

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 05:02 PM PDT

Last week doubleTwist, the media management software company with DVD Jon as its CTO, released a remake of Apple’s classic 1984 commercial featuring none other than Steve Jobs as a malevolent dictator. The commercial closed with a promise. “On October 6th, doubleTwist brings you Choice“.

Today, doubleTwist has revealed what it means by that: doubleTwist now includes an integrated Music Store, powered by Amazon’s MP3 Store. But unlike iTunes, this app will let you transfer your files to non-Apple devices. The store includes Amazon’s catalog of over 5 million songs, allowing users to purchase songs either as albums or individual tracks (there’s also plenty of free songs available). From a design standpoint, it’s clear that iTunes served as a big inspiration — if you’ve ever used the iTunes Store before, it will take you all of thirty seconds to figure out how to use this one.

In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the new doubleTwist music store is actually easier to use to download music than iTunes is, simply because there’s so much less going on. Upon launching the store you’ll see a handful of top albums and songs, along with a prominent search box at the top of the screen. Click on an album and you’ll see a list of the disc’s tracks, which you can click for a 30 second preview. To buy something simply enter your Amazon ID.

Of course, the store is easier to navigate than iTunes for a reason: there are no movie or TV downloads, no playlists or mixes, and obviously no App Store. But for music, it works like a charm. And there are more features in the pipeline, including recommendations, artist bios, and song ratings.

Once you’ve downloaded your music, you can drag and drop it into whatever device you’ve connected to your computer. Unlike iTunes, doubleTwist supports hundreds of devices, including the Pre, BlackBerry, PSP, Android, and others. The application also lets you manage your photos and movie files, though the company says it doesn’t currently have plans to offer video downloads.

All in all, this is a very impressive effort. Before now Amazon’s MP3 store has been primarily browser based (there are some mobile devices that support it but doubleTwist believes this is the first desktop based application to integrate the store). And there’s no doubt that the doubleTwist download experience is far better than navigating Amazon in your browser. doubleTwist is going to have a hard time convincing the throngs of iPod and iPhone users on iTunes to make the switch, but for anyone else using a device that’s not supported by Apple, it’s quickly turning into a very appealing solution.

doubleTwist’s Music Store is currently available in the Mac version of the app, with the PC version coming soon. The store is currently US-only, but doubleTwist says that UK, German, and French versions are on the way.


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TA Associates Shells Out $200 Million For Minority Stake In AVG Technologies

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 04:28 PM PDT

Private equity firm TA Associates has acquired a 25 percent stake in security software company AVG Technologies for $200 million. According to reports, the ownership was purchased from AVG's shareholders and investors, including Intel Capital, and Benson Oak Capital, and Enterprise Investors, which remains the largest shareholder of AVG with 34 percent of shares.

Founded in 1991, AVG provides free antivirus and anti-spyware security software that is distributed through resellers and through the Web and supports all major operating systems and platforms. AVG currently has over 80 million users in 167 countries. AVG reported over $140 million in sales in 2008.

TA Associates says that the investment will be used to fund global expansion and potential add-on deals. The private equity firm also will be distributing cash to shareholders and some investors, which were rumored to want liquidity.

AVG’s technology was actually part of Microsoft Vista’s security essentials but the business is at threat now because Microsoft released the new security essentials which has their own free anti-virus engine, which was acquired from GeCAD in 2003 and Komoku in 2008.

In 2005, Intel Capital and Enterprise Investors invested $52 million into AVG. At that time, the company had 25 million users.

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London Calling: Foursquare Hopping Across The Pond This Week

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 04:04 PM PDT

album-The-Clash-London-CallingOne major complaint about the location-based social network Foursquare is that it’s not in enough cities, and that almost all of those cities are in the U.S. That’s due to change in a small, but meaningful way as Foursquare is planning to launch in London by the end of the week.

Currently, London and Amsterdam (which was previously launched) are specifically the only European cities on Foursquare’s roadmap, but if the London roll out goes well, there will be others in relatively short order, co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. Not surprisingly, at least one of those is Paris, judging from a tweet sent from the Foursquare Twitter account earlier.

Every time we write about Foursquare, we get a lot of comments and emails wondering when it is coming to your city. Other services such as Gowalla, rely on crowd-sourcing much of the venue population so that they can be available in more cities. But while Foursquare has talked about using that approach more in the past, the company still feels most comfortable pre-populating cities as it wants to make sure it can scale as it grows. When pre-populating a city, Foursquare says that it tries to hit 80% of the places that people are most likely to go — obviously, that takes a lot of work out of the users hands, and instead they can simply “play” the game.

So will London users take to Foursquare? Obviously, that remains to be seen, but it does tend to do well in large metropolitan cities with a good amount of nightlife, as we’ve seen in the U.S. with New York and San Francisco.

Foursquare also looks poised to continue expanding its city base in the U.S. shortly. It would seem that places like Chapel Hill, NC are on the list. Chapel Hill is of course the home to the University of North Carolina, and college towns seem like a natural fit for Foursquare. Get ‘em hooked early, as they say.

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Meebo’s Reach Spikes To Over 90 Million Users With Community IM Growth

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 03:52 PM PDT

Ever since Meebo launched its Community IM feature — which lets any site integrate a chat feature that’s similar to Facebook Chat — the service has seen strong growth. But the bump the site has seen with each successive partnership over the last year pales in comparison to the growth it’s been seeing in the last few months: between August and October, Meebo has jumped from around 50 million users to over 90 million. Granted, this doesn’t mean that Meebo has 90 million people actually using the chat functionality, as every visitor to one of Meebo’s partner sites gets counted as a hit. But Meebo’s interactive ads are still being shown to each of these 90 million users regardless of if they’re signed in, and the ads have been drawing an impressive 1%+ click rate.

So what caused the recent spike? Meebo’s Director of Business Development Daniel Bernstein says that this can largely be attributed to Community IM rolling out to a slew of content sites (in other words, news publications and blogs) and the introduction of the service’s drag-and-drop sharing feature. Before now Community IM has been primarily deployed on social networks, which means that users usually had to log in before they’d see them. On these other sites, there’s no such barrier.

The syndicated bar has had a major effect on Meebo’s revenues. Before 2008 Meebo’s income was a big zero, and that finally changed when it finally began running ads on its portal at Meebo.com last year. Meebo declined to specify its exact revenues, but says that it expects revenue to jump 10x in 2009, in large part thanks to the uptake of its Community IM bar.

COO Martin Green says that Meebo’s roster of clients has been very satisfied with the results, and that many of them have switched from running small test campaigns (the average insertion order size in late 2008 was 50k) to full fledged campaigns, with an average order size in 2009 at around 100k with some as high as 500k. Green says that the expected 10x revenue growth this year isn’t all attributed to the Community IM bar though, explaining that building relationships with brands who are now repeat buyers and a longer time existing in the market have also been factors.

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Mobile Advertising Is Shaping Up To Be All Search

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 03:23 PM PDT

WIth the rise of Web phones like the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm (Verizon’s CEO says that 40% of its new phone sales are such smartphones), mobile advertising promises to be a huge growth area. The Kelsey Group, a market research firm, projects that the mobile advertising market will balloon from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013.

Of course, that is just an educated guess which will turn out wrong. But there is no doubt that mobile advertising will be much bigger in four years, perhaps even ten to 20 times bigger than it is today. Where will all of that mobile ad money go to? Here I think the Kelsey group is more on target. It projects that mobile search will go from 24 percent of the total mobile ad market last year to 73 percent of the much larger pie in 2013, according to a recent research note put out by Citi analyst Mark Mahaney, which is where I’m getting all of these numbers.

Display ads are projected to go from 13 percent of the total to 18 percent, while SMS ads will decline as a percentage from 63 percent to 9 percent (see charts). So once again it looks like search is going to be the big winner. No wonder Google is so focused on mobile search as one of its major sources of growth.

Think about it. Display ads take up precious real estate on your phone screen and tend to just get in the way and be an annoyance. That’s why most people don’t like them. But when you are doing a search on your phone, you are often looking for something nearby—a store, a restaurant, a dry cleaner. You are more open to ads, especially if they are relevant to your search.

Mobile search is particularly tuned for local search ads. Mahaney writes:

Given the nature of mobile devices, local queries on mobile should, over time, be greater than local queries on the desktop.

Indeed, the Kelsey Group predicts that local searches will rise from 28 percent of all mobile searches in 2008 to over 35 percent by 2013. And as a percentage of mobile search ad revenues, local search is already half. So that is a $1.27 billion market opportunity in four years just for local mobile search.

So who would you rather be: Google or some random mobile ad network shoving display ads into apps and mobile browsers?

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AT&T Greenlights VoIP For the iPhone. Too Bad Google Voice Isn’t VoIP.

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 02:05 PM PDT

attvoiceYesterday, we saw a Vonage app hit the App Store, which seemed to go against Apple and AT&T’s previous stance that VoIP apps that work over the 3G (and 2G) network would not be allowed in the App Store. Turns out there’s been a policy change. AT&T has just announced that it will no longer restrict VoIP apps that use its network on the iPhone, a move which is long overdue considering that it was already allowing these on other phones.

But don’t be fooled. A rumor earlier today about the move suggested that AT&T was thinking about letting Google Voice on the iPhone alongside Skype, Vonage, and other VoIP apps. There’s two problems here. First, Google Voice isn’t actually a VoIP app. Second, AT&T did not have anything to do with the Google Voice rejection (or non-approval, whatever), that was all Apple.

Apple has never said it blocked the Google Voice app because it was a VoIP app (which would have fallen under its agreement with AT&T to do so), it blocked it because it said it emulated many of the features of the actual phone portion of the iPhone, and would confuse customers. That’s pretty much crap, especially considering that the Vonage app which was just approved also looks like the iPhone’s phone portion.

And here’s where things get really interesting. Since the Vonage app does look so much like the iPhone dialer, maybe it is a signal that Apple is gearing up to do the right thing and allow the app into the store. We’ve stated from the beginning that we thought that was likely to eventually happen, following the huge negative reaction about the rejection.

But again, that has nothing to do with VoIP apps now being allowed in the store, because Google Voice is not one of them. Google Voice does not place calls over the Internet. Instead, it uses a current phone line to both place and receive calls. It simply gives you a new number to use as well as records certain information routed through that number, this is not VoIP. That’s not to say it will not do VoIP eventually, but right now it does not. And if Apple tries to now allow Google Voice in the store under that guise (that VoIP is now okay), that would be extremely disingenuous.

This move seems to be simply AT&T looking at scrutiny from the FCC (brought about by the Google Voice thing), and also seeing moves like Verizon teaming up with Android to do phones that will offer Google Voice, and attempting to make sure that it is not again portrayed to be the bad guy here. Of course, at the same time, they’re also petitioning the FCC to look into Google Voice, which we think is fair (but also hypocritical) under net neutrality ideals — even if Google doesn’t think it should.

Look for more shake out from all of this.

CrunchBase Information
AT&T
iPhone
Google Voice
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R.I.P. Good Times: One Year Later

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 01:46 PM PDT

It’s been one year exactly since Silicon Valley venture capitalists decided to call an end to the funding party. Sequoia Capital started things off with a 56 slide presentation to portfolio CEOs titled R.I.P. Good Times. In it they warned “it’s different this time” and said that “survival of the quickest” mandated deep cost cutting.

Benchmark Capital also communicated with their CEOs, telling them to “Be calm, but pragmatic” and “You don't realize how fast things spin out of control.” Super angel Ron Conway likewise warned his companies, saying of the spreading financial crisis, “we will not be "immune" to its drastic effects.”

So it’s been a year of massive layoffs (we’ve tracked more than 340,000 since August 2008). When you’re cutting costs, people are usually the first to go.

But one thing we didn’t see over the last year is a complete drying up of new funding, or large scale deadpooling of startups. Either the advice was off target in the first place, or the buckling down and cost cuts worked.

It’s probably a little of both.

Earlier today I spoke with Ron Conway and asked him what he thought of the last year and how things worked out. He said “We’ve seen an explosion of real time data startups which has helped offset the downturn in Silicon Valley. We still see 5-6 deals a day, which tells me the market is very vibrant. I feel like we’ve weathered the storm very nicely. Also, a lot of companies that needed money last year raised money quickly or cut costs and survived, so we had a lower failure rate than we thought we would.”

I also spoke with Pete Flint from Sequoia and Conway backed Trulia today (so he was hit from two investors a year ago). Trulia, a real estate startup, had 80 employees a year ago. They did not lay anyone off, says Flint, and have 90 employees today. They are now approaching breakeven as well, he says. Revenue has grown significantly over the last 12 months, he says. And while he won’t disclose revenue, 90 employees suggests payroll in the range of $1 million per month alone. The real estate market has gotten tougher in the last 12 months, and Trulia makes money from real estate professionals and companies via subscriptions and advertising. But they’ve found a way to struggle through and are at the threshold of profitability. One strategic choice the company made a year ago, says Flint, was to diversify revenue away from few big advertisers to lots of smaller ones. Trulia has raised $33 million to date, and the last time they raised money was Q2 2008.

Certainly there have been some hard times. We tracked a steep decline in venture investments and liquidity events earlier this year, particularly when tracked against the peaks of Q4 2007.

But Silicon Valley certainly seems stable right now, particularly when you compare 2009 to 2008. We track venture funding and acquisitions on CrunchBase, and we are just now preparing to publish Q3 data for download (it should be up later this week or next). I’ve taken a look at the data, and it’s surprising.

There were 645 venture financings for a total of $7.7 billion in Q3 2009, v. 660 and $7.7 billion in Q3 2008 (basically flat, but not down at all). Acquisitions have become less common, but the average price is way up. There were 231 acquisitions in Q3 2009 for an aggregate of $45.2 billion. In Q3 2008, there were 329 acquisitions for $25.9 billion in aggregate.

Charts are below for all of these, and we’ll have a deeper dive on the data shortly. But for now at least, the sky has yet to fall.

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Google: A Web Browser Is Not A Computer, Not A Search Engine, And Not A Ham Sandwich

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:40 PM PDT

482608166_8657a3616fGoogle has spent a significant amount of time over the past couple of years building a very impressive web browser, Chrome. By most accounts, it’s the fastest around, and isn’t system resource heavy, and those who use it seem to love it. But there’s a tiny little problem: Being the best product doesn’t matter when general users have no idea what the product even is. And I’m not talking about just your specific product, I’m talking about the product category in general. And I’m not talking about some crazy new tech, I’m talking about a web browser.

We’ve actually known since Google’s hilarious video this summer that plenty of normal people have absolutely no idea what a web browser really is, even though most use one on a daily basis. But today, Google has put together what can only be described as an extremely dumbed-down one minute video (below) and rudimentary website to attempt to explain to everyone once again exactly what a web browser is. And make no mistake, the undertone is clear: You should be using Chrome.

The web site consists of five parts: An area telling you what browser you are currently using, a place to show you the one-minute video, an area to show you a bit more about browsers and their performance benchmarks, an area to let you pick a new browser to try, and an area with tips and tricks for using a browser.

The video is much more subversive. While the first part is spent explaining what a web browser is not (not a computer, etc), by the end, Google throws out there that “the web browser is the most important piece of software on your computer.” And they continue, “so a faster web browser means that you’ll save time on every web page you open.” The hope there is that of course, people will look into what web browser is the fastest, and figure out its Chrome, and install it, since it is free to do so.

Of course, Google doesn’t bother to say that if you look up the fastest browser, find it to be Chrome, then try to install it on a Mac, you’ll be out of luck. Good luck trying to explain what Chromium builds are to these people, Google.

I all of a sudden don’t feel so bad having difficulty trying to explain to people what Google Wave is. And maybe now we know why Google actually is making Chrome OS: To stop having to explain to people what a damn browser is.

Screen shot 2009-10-06 at 12.30.27 PM

[photo: flickr/marshall astor]

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The Windows 7 Launch Party Video Was Not An Isolated Incident; They Have Party Favors!

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:25 PM PDT

It was only two weeks ago that the Windows 7 Launch Party video cut a burning swath across the internet, leaving only scorched sensibilities and a feeling that you'd lost something fundamental never to be regained. We lied to ourselves then that it couldn't be more than a blip on the radar, a PR pitch gone awry and furtively uploaded, unfit for human consumption as it was — a tainted morsel of the promotional meat grinder. And to be honest, I was ready to let it lie. But it wasn't just a morsel. Little did we know, the Windows 7 launch sausage factory would be squeezing gristle into our inboxes regularly — and now they've gone and sent us party favors.

Astronomy Service Slooh Will Let You Watch The LCROSS Impact Live On October 9

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 12:16 PM PDT

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Slooh, a service that offers unfettered access to two huge earth-based telescopes, is inviting folks to watch the LCROSS impact on Friday at 4:30am PDT or 7:30am EDT. The feed begins at 3:30am PDT.

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite will hit the moon to created a crater 14 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. The resulting analysis will help assess how large bodies will damage planets along with an assessment of current water levels in the moon. Plus it involves blowing holes in the moon.

The feeds are available here and they will be transmitting from New Hampshire and Arizona simultaneously. NASA is also transmitting the impact live.

Slooh is a cool web-based service that lets “borrow” time on high powered telescopes. I’ve had bad luck with it – I’ve never been able to see much because of cloud cover – but if the weather is right and you’re fascinated by astronomy it’s a fun service.

The service costs $5.95 a month (the LCROSS impact is free) or $49.95 a year. It includes live picture-taking and group missions led by a professional astronomer. You can also share your pictures at MySlooh. There is also a kids’ version including tours of the moon, the universe, and the outer stars.

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Geo-Fashion Comes To The iPhone With StyleCaster’s Clothing Recommendation App

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 11:25 AM PDT

Interactive fashion community StyleCaster has launched an iPhone app that answers the age-old questions that many women (and men) ask themselves when they wake up in the morning: “What’s the weather outside?” and “What should I wear?” StyleCaster’s free iPhone app pulls in a weather feed and will give you the recommendations of styled “looks” based on your current location and weather conditions.

The app also has much of the functionality of StyleCaster’s site, which aims to be a one-stop-shop for fashionistas. The app lets users access style tips optimized for each individual, news, videos and content on the latest fashion and beauty trends, and a large online retail catalog of brand-name clothing. With each look that is recommended by StyleCaster’s app, you can see the products used in the featured outfits, where to purchase them, as well as learn about the stylist, hair stylist, make up artist and model.

Interestingly, StyleCaster is monetizing the app by advertising. Rugby, a brand of designer Ralph Lauren, is the inaugural sponsor of the app and StyleCaster will continue to feature various sponsors. In July, StyleCaster raised $4 million in a Series A round of financing from investor Dan Gilbert, the chairman and founder of Quicken Loans, to pursue technologies in the mobile space. I’m definitely a fan of this app and especially love the feature of giving me personalized recommendations based on my location. If it could only sync up with my closet, I’d be in heaven.

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