The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Yahoo, Right Media To Shut Down DMX Platform End Of January 2010
- VidQue Aims To Do A Better Job Surfacing Online Videos Worth Watching
- Coremetrics Says Online Retailers See 14 Percent Rise In Cyber Monday Sales
- InBox2: One InBox And Communications Stream To Rule Them All
- Genieo Raises $3 Million For Personalized Homepage Platform
- Google Publishes Zeitgeist 2009 – Michael Jackson Crowned King Again
- Animoto Sends Some Holiday Cheer With Festive Custom Videos
- UK Broadcaster Turns Angel, Backs GymFu And School Report Card
- Need Help Selecting a Payment Processor? Look No Further Than Payments-R-Us
- Facebook Investor DST Expands Mail.ru With Astrum Online Merger
- Fring Brings Free Video Calling To The iPhone, Nokia Smartphones
- Spotify Gets A New Mobile Savvy CTO
- Foxconn To Launch Retail Stores In China
- BillShrink: Now Cutting Costs For 1 Million Users
- SMSONE: Micro-Local News From India To Make Silicon Valley Jealous
- Plancast Is Foursquare… For The Future
- Google Names Winners Of Second Android Developer Challenge
- Why the CrunchPad Mattered
- The Facebook Verified App Saga Ends Tomorrow
- What’s Behind That Short Link? Bit.ly Steps Up Its Efforts To Sniff Out Spam.
- Twitter’s Downtime Also Downs Downforeveryoneorjustme
- Another Google Wave Use: Manhunt
- Interview With Eventbrite Founders, Plus Rare Insights From Sequoia Capital
- Searches On Google For Black Friday Deals Were Up 50 Percent From Last Year
- M.I.T., Google, And Umberto Eco Want To Erect a Realtime Cloud Over The 2012 London Olympics
| Yahoo, Right Media To Shut Down DMX Platform End Of January 2010 Posted: 01 Dec 2009 08:29 AM PST
When the announcement of Walrath’s departure was made, Yahoo at the same time declared that it would be shifting strategy for Right Media by placing more emphasis on serving as a high-quality, premium marketplace rather than contuining to be an exchange platform for large volumes of ad networks, including many small ones (zing!). They’re now making good on that promise by confirming that Right Media’s DMX (Direct Media Exchange) platform will be shut down on January 31, 2010. From the FAQ:
Probably the right move for Yahoo to make, but pretty brutal for the lot of small ad networks that built their business on top of Right Media’s solutions. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  |
| VidQue Aims To Do A Better Job Surfacing Online Videos Worth Watching Posted: 01 Dec 2009 07:57 AM PST
Every minute, approximately 20 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube, so it won’t surprise you if I say that it’s impossible for any human being to watch everything on there in the span of one lifetime – provided anyone would even want to. The standard of quality of videos that are uploaded to YouTube or other video sharing platforms like Vimeo or Blip.tv is subject to debate, as is the ability for the operators of the websites to put in such good filters that the best videos across a variety of categories get featured rather than the most popular (most viewed) only. VidQue, for one, aims to build a better mousetrap by applying what you could refer to as a social filter to videos shared online. VidQue functions in large part as a video bookmarking and distribution app, enabling users to save videos to their custom pages with a single click, and easily share them with their friends on Twitter or Facebook. At the same time, VidQue puts a lot of focus on video discovery, allowing users to watch videos based on their personal “Video Feed”, which is a listing of the latest videos saved by their peers or basically anyone they decide to follow. The essence of the service is based on the premise that popularity rarely equals quality, and VidQue instead algorithmically analyzes trends and peer reviews in order to showcase the best videos on its main category listings (e.g. Technology). Thus, the startup claims, each user gets treated as a unique individual which in turns makes for a more “successful and rewarding video discovery experience” over time. VidQue is entirely bootstrapped, but CEO Lukas Dryja informs me that the fledgling company will now start looking for external funding to be able to grow.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Coremetrics Says Online Retailers See 14 Percent Rise In Cyber Monday Sales Posted: 01 Dec 2009 07:17 AM PST
Cyber Monday might have turned out to be better than expected. Online retailers saw a 13.7 percent increase in sales compared to last year, and 24.1 percent more than on Black Friday 2009. The latest data comes from Coremetrics, a Web analytics service used by more than 500 retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, Office Depot, and Williams-Sonoma. The average online order was $180.03, compared to $170.19 on Black Friday and $130.24 last year. Consumers also bought 10 percent more indivual items than on Friday, and 30 percent more items than last year. The average session length across Coremetric’s sample was 7:32 minutes, down from 8:23 minutes last year, but the percentage of visits that actually resulted in an order increased to 5.26 percent from 3.99 percent last year. Coremetrics is just one set of data about Cyber Monday sales, and reflect the large retailers who use its product. Those retailers did better on Black Friday (up 24 percent) than broader estimates from comScore suggested for the online retail sector as a whole (up 11 percent). ComScore has not yet released its Cyber Monday data. Photo credit: Flickr/garethjmsaunders Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| InBox2: One InBox And Communications Stream To Rule Them All Posted: 01 Dec 2009 06:55 AM PST  Mirror, mirror on the wall, which inbox is the fairest of them all? InBox2 is betting on all of them with its online platform, which attempts to bring together all your message streams (email accounts, Twitter, Facebook) into a single master inbox. Today, recently launched Netherlands-based InBox2 is launching a host of new features to its offerings. InBox2 offers both a web application and a Facebook application that will integrate your email messages and Twitter stream into the social network. The web app can configure to multiple email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL) and presents various ways to see your streams broken down by service, contact, thread or within one powerful stream. You can send, reply and search in one place. One of the key features for InBox2’s web app and Facebook app is the ability to send Facebook messages or Twitter DMs and replies from within the apps. When using the Facebook app, the service will notify users if they receive new email or status update from any of their configured accounts. InBox2 also allows the use of smart labels and stars for messages and attachments and you can import your existing labels from other services such as Gmail. The apps now allow users to share and attache email, documents and images directly from your InBox2 stream or Facebook app. The app has also added realtime updates from Twitter, Facebook and now Yammer and LinkedIn. You can also create and save searches on Twitter. And the app now supports Microsoft Exchange 2007. InBox2 is best compared to TechCrunch 50 finalist Threadsy, which debuted its all-in-one, web-based communications client a few months ago and received positive reviews from the judges and audience. The main difference is that Threadsy doesn’t have a Facebook app. InBox2 is planning to roll out an iPhone app soon and is also looking to launch offerings for other smartphones in the near future. Not only is InBox2 a useful service for consolidating communications, but it is visually appealing and easy to filter out the stream.  Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Genieo Raises $3 Million For Personalized Homepage Platform Posted: 01 Dec 2009 06:00 AM PST
Startup Genieo, which develops personalized home pages, has raised $3 million in seed funding from undisclosed investors. Genieo’s technology automatically discovers the user's topics of interest when they are browsing and generates a personal home-page with relevant content and personalized news widgets. A desktop application, Genieo maps and profiles user behavior on computers to determine what content to add to a user’s hompage. Content that is integrated into Genieo’s homepages include favorite websites,news/blog updates, Facebook status updates and Twitter Streams, a Google search bar, videos, and more. It’s a little scary for a program to be profiling a user’s behavior on private sites where you might not want a third party be viewing information, but Genieo assures users that it does not collect or share any private information. The startup faces competition from NetVibes and iGoogle. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Google Publishes Zeitgeist 2009 – Michael Jackson Crowned King Again Posted: 01 Dec 2009 05:31 AM PST
But we could have picked nearly the same headline for Google’s just-published Zeitgeist 2009, only it would read “Michael Jackson Beats Out Twitter, Facebook And Windows 7″. Google once again examined the billions of queries that people around the world typed into its search box for the past year, weeded out the spam and NSFW stuff and came up with this list of the fastest rising search terms on a global level: 1. michael jackson No, I don’t know why so many people searched for a free torpedo, nor do I know what a sanalika or a dantri.com.vn is, but lists never lie so we’ll take their word for it. For the United States only, Twitter actually beat Michael Jackson for the ‘Fastest Rising’ category, which means those Google found to be the most popular searches conducted in 2009 and were next ranked based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2008. The full list for Google.com (US): 1. twitter ‘Swine flu’ was the most search term on Google News for the U.S., and images of Lady Gaga were also in high demand. Head on over here for much more data. Also check out Yahoo’s Year in Review. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Animoto Sends Some Holiday Cheer With Festive Custom Videos Posted: 01 Dec 2009 05:19 AM PST Animoto, the startup that allows you to take your images, video and your music and mash them together to create cool videos, is launching a holiday themed platform that lets you send fun and personal online greeting cards this year and provides nifty themed templates for users to work from. Animoto launched a similar initiative last year, but this year comes with more festive and innovative themes and options to bring cards to life, including pop-up cards, a Starry Night montage and a Pandora’s Gift Box that will erupts into a shower of lights, colors, and wrapping. To create an Animoto holiday greeting, users simply upload their images and video clips, add optional text, and pick a soundtrack, upon which Animoto returns a unique, energetic and emotional video montage. The startup’s proprietary technology allows users to easily implement production techniques for video slideshows that are used in television and film, taking into account the images and every nuance of the song. Once created, videos are produced in widescreen format and can be emailed, embedded on any website, shared via social network and mobile device, or downloaded in DVD-quality formats for display on computers, televisions, and even large projection screens. The 30-second holiday cards are are free to create and share, while full-length videos cost $3. And you can purchase an annual subscription to create an unlimited number of full-length videos are $30. We’re big fans of Animoto, and we’re not the only ones. Launched in 2007, the startup just raised $4.4 million in Series B funding and is cash-flow positive. With over 750,000 users, Animoto is venturing into mobile, launching an iPhone app and just released a new video product that’s already a hit. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| UK Broadcaster Turns Angel, Backs GymFu And School Report Card Posted: 01 Dec 2009 05:15 AM PST
TechCrunch Europe has acquired details of two of the investments. The first is GymFu, an iPhone app maker which creates apps like PushupFu designed to encourage people to get fit which we reviewed here. The other is to-be-launched The School Report Card, a new web service that should help parents make better informed decisions about which school to send their children. Here’s what else we’ve learnt. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Need Help Selecting a Payment Processor? Look No Further Than Payments-R-Us Posted: 01 Dec 2009 05:11 AM PST
The irony is that many get pretty far down the development path before realizing that adding billing infrastructure to their offering may not be as simple as integrating with PayPal’s API or some other payment processor. Choosing the right processor, and many times, processors, from a confusing multi-layered vendor ecosystem can be tricky. Poor decision-making when it comes to issues such as terms of pricing, business fit, or processing capability, can each be a deep gash in any startup’s soft underbelly. Payments-R-Us is trying to alleviate the confusion by providing a payments vendor-to-merchant wizard that makes it a snap to choose the right payment processor. The wizard is supplemented with some in-depth content aimed at educating merchants to better grasp the ins and outs of the terms and options offered by vendors so they can better negotiate agreements. The Payments-R-Us wizard covers four major verticals: traditional US, international, digital goods and high risk. There are currently 15 processing services listed (including several from Amazon, PayPal, and Google Checkout), with about a dozen more in the pipeline. CEO Michael Shatz stresses that most are considered ‘Tier 1′ processors, defined by the fact that they are listed in the top 50 of the annual Nilson Report on top processors. The wizard is pretty thorough and will walk a merchant through a selection process that includes such options as multi-currency support, affiliate marketing, digital content, eCommerce hosting, alternative payments, as well as adult and gaming. Payments-R-Us’ business model is a fairly simple one: affiliation. It gets a commission for every merchant it refers to a vendor. Does the fact that Payments-R-Us earns a commission impact its objectivity? I don’t believe so. One of the founders and investors in the company is Yuval Tal, Founder & CEO of Payoneer, which we’ve previously written about (here & here). By all accounts, Tal is considered a stand-up entrepreneur in the Israeli startup community. Payments-R-Us won’t be a billion dollar business. But it serves a real need and has a clear hook for a business model which I imagine could run revenues up to six-figures per month. Its only challenge will be to situate itself as a key destination for merchants when making their processing vendor selection.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Facebook Investor DST Expands Mail.ru With Astrum Online Merger Posted: 01 Dec 2009 04:49 AM PST
Astrum Online Entertainment, itself formed by DST after merging five online game companies that were active mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe (Astrum Nival, Nikita.Online, IT Territory, TimeZero and DJ Games) back in 2007, will effectively become 100% owned by Mail.ru, the leading Internet portal in the Russian speaking world and equally majority-owned by DST. The transaction is structured as an acquisition of Astrum Online shares by Mail.ru, paid for by a combination of the latter’s shares and an undisclosed amount in cash. The combined entity, DST claims, is capable of reaching some 300 million Russian located around the globe (the aggregate audience of both companies is said to be somewhere around 50 million users today). It will fly under the Mail.ru flag, which is arguably the most familiar brand name of the pair. Curiously, the press release bares no mention of Naspers/ MIH Group, although the South-African conglomerate owns 43% of Mail.ru and was recently granted anti-trust permission to buy between 38% and 100% of Astrum Online from DST. We’re digging for more information. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Fring Brings Free Video Calling To The iPhone, Nokia Smartphones Posted: 01 Dec 2009 03:31 AM PST
Big caveat for starters: the camera on the iPhone 3GS is located on the back, which is handy for recording videos of people and locations in front of you but of course makes it impossible for you to point the camera at your own face while still being able to see the screen (unlike Nokia N Series phones for instance). Thus, the latest version of fring’s iPhone app may well integrate video calling, but it’s only for incoming streams – which the startup acknowledges in the press release. Its application for selected Nokia Symbian S60 devices, however, should have two-way video calling. The tool is designed to work for video calls between both fring and Skype contacts, but the new feature most definitely failed to deliver in my own personal experience at first. After trying to set up video calls both with a friend on Skype and someone from the company over fring, I found that calls were dropped automatically after only half a second. Two calls and multiple chat sessions with fring’s engineering team later, we found that – while my settings are hardly exotic – the configuration of my WiFi access point prevented me from handling incoming video calls using the fring application. The company swiftly solved the problem of the blocked connection, and after rebooting my access point I successfully accepted an incoming video call from a fring engineer who was using his Nokia N97 camera and phone. It – finally – worked like a charm. Do you have an iPhone, iPod Touch and are you near a WiFi access point, or do you have one of the supported Nokia devices, which also works over 3G? Give it a whirl (iTunes link) and let us know if it works for you. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| Spotify Gets A New Mobile Savvy CTO Posted: 01 Dec 2009 01:39 AM PST
Stål comes from the mobile transaction company mBlox, where he’s been for the last eight years, growing from a five-person start-up into a global business. By hiring a CTO with deep mobile experience it’s clear Spotify sees the mobile as the key supporting plank in its structure. Last night I spoke to a Spotify contact who told me that since they launched the Symbian version of Spotify, the service has “gone crazy.” Make of that what you will. Symbian, as a platform used by Nokia’s non-smartphones, is of course a great deal more mainstream, especially in Europe, than the iPhone or Android. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Foxconn To Launch Retail Stores In China Posted: 01 Dec 2009 12:40 AM PST
What will they sell? Probably some of the many products that they build for well known brands, including the iPhone, iPod, iMac, Sony Playstation, Sony Vaio notebooks, Amazon Kindle, Nokia phones and Nintendo Wii. But part of the plan, we’ve heard from an independent source, will be to use the retail presence in China to win manufacturing business as well. HP, Dell and others can move more of their business to Foxconn, along with a promise to get retail presence for their electronics in the Foxconn stores in China. Foxconn exports $55.6 billion of electronics from their factories in China, says the article, or about 3.9% of China’s total exports. And that number may be lowballed. Our sources say no one outside of Foxconn even knows the real size of their exports, and that $100 billion/year or more is the street rumor in Asia. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| BillShrink: Now Cutting Costs For 1 Million Users Posted: 30 Nov 2009 09:03 PM PST
That second statistic is a little confusing. BillShrink basically means that if its users had signed up for the top matches generated by its cost cutting tools, they would have saved a total of $1 billion. Of course, not everyone who uses the service decides to change their cell phone carrier or credit card, so the total amount of money saved isn’t that high. That said, this is the first time BillShrink has disclosed the size of its userbase, and it’s clear that the site is getting some solid traction. BillShrink has been gradually rolling out its cost saving services in new verticals over the last year and a half. The site kicked off with support for finding the cheapest cell phone plan in 2008. Since then it has expanded to include a service for picking the best credit card, saving money on gas, and choosing the best saving account or CD. Most users are interested in the wireless service though, in part because of a marketing push from T-Mobile, and also because dealing with hellish cell phone carriers is something nearly everyone has to do. BillShrink is able to expand to new verticals relatively quickly because of the technology that’s working in the background. The site is essentially taking unstructured data from across the web and converting it into searchable structured data. That’s a feat that’s harder than it sounds — Google is trying it with Google Squared with mixed results. Granted, BillShrink is dealing with a smaller set of data than a search engine that can query any term, but the site’s backend is more tech-heavy than you might think. Looking forward, CEO Peter Pham says that the site will be launching some new verticals next year, some of which will include major new partners. Pham says that BillShrink will likely be exploring the ‘Triple Play’ deals offered by cable companies for internet/cable/phone service, as well as a service looking at mortgages (a space that Google has recently entered). Image by Don Hankins Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. |
| SMSONE: Micro-Local News From India To Make Silicon Valley Jealous Posted: 30 Nov 2009 07:17 PM PST
But every once in a while I find a company that hits the trifecta: It's addressing a big problem locally, it's something I don't think is offered in the US, and…. I want it. And when a product in undeveloped, chaotic, messy India can make someone in Silicon Valley feel jealous, you know that entrepreneur has come up with something good. I'm talking about SMSONE Media, a company I met in Pune about a week ago. Like most of the impressive companies I saw in India, it's aimed squarely at the base of the pyramid and is using basic SMS to deliver services to people some of India's most unconnected areas. It was started by Ravi Ghate, who proudly points out that none of his core team graduated from high school, much less attended an IIT or IIM. (Typically not something you brag about in India.) SMSONE is basically a very-local newsletter. Ghate goes to a village and scouts out an unemployed youth—preferably one who's had jobs as a street vendor or has experience going door-to-door shilling for local politicians. The kid pays Ghate 1000 rupees (or about $20) for the "franchise" rights to be the local reporter for that village. He goes door-to-door signing up 1,000 names, phone numbers and other basic information, then mails the slips to Ghate. Ghate enters it all in his databases and all those "subscribers" get a text introducing the kid as their village's reporter. In India all incoming texts are free so, the subscribers don't pay anything. And what readers get is pretty powerful. Right now there is no way to get a timely message to people in a village. There's no Internet access, no TV, no local paper, and frequently no electricity. All they have is a basic mobile phone. SMSONE's service can give farmers instant updates about crop pricing or news of a seed or fertilizer delivery a town away. That means the farmer only makes the trip when he knows the shipment is there, rather than wasting days of travel hoping the shipment is there. Consider something even more fundamental: Water. Much of the villages have government-owned water pipes that are turned on for an hour or so once a day, or even in some areas once a week. Everyone has to bring their vats, pitchers and empty kerosene cans and get as much water as they can while the pipes are on. But these pipes don't really run on a schedule so people frequently miss getting the day’s or week's water. Now, SMSONE subscribers get a text when the pipes are about to be turned on. I know it's not as life-changing, but I'd pay to get micro-local, highly relevant news about my neighborhood in San Francisco in 160-character bursts, whether it's about a power or cable outage, a construction project that's disrupting traffic or details on a shooting that just happened. And I might even welcome local ads that report a hot new restaurant opening or a sale at a boutique two streets over. In the U.S., EveryBlock and Outside.in probably come closest to what SMSONE is doing. I feel like modern, uber-connected life has made us less interested in "local news" as we used to think of it on a city or region level, but more interested in the micro-local, hence the excitement in the Valley around Foursquare, CitySourced, and a host of location-aware iPhone apps. But the beauty of what Ghate has built is its simplicity. It doesn't need a $300 smart phone and it doesn't need GPS locators or a platform like Twitter to run on. Sometimes the most powerful innovation is built in the most extreme constraints. I'm hardly the first to be impressed by what Ghate has created. He has won a host of awards including the Clinton Global Initiative's YES Fund Award in 2008. And similar models are being built in parts of Africa where there's similar mobile ubiquity and little else in the way of communications. The change in life is not only pretty huge for subscribers. That once-unemployed kid suddenly has important local standing in his community. In addition to writing 160-character local news stories, he also sells local ads. Like a newspaper, Ghate enforces a ratio of ads to stories, so the news doesn't get overrun by promotions. The economics work out like this: Out of a 1000 rupee ad sale, 300 goes to SMSONE with the rest kept by the reporter – plus Ghate pays him an additional 50 rupees for each news story. That adds up to a nice income for a village kid, but not so high that he picks up and moves to the big cities. Ambitious franchisees can even hire a few other reporters, expand their subscribers and make more money. Right now Ghate's operation is in 400 communities, reaching roughly 400,000 readers. He just got an investment from the government of Bangalore to boost that reach to five million readers in the next four months. Ghate is clear that the money will be used strictly to reach more people. The company already breaks even and Ghate makes enough to pay his basic living expenses. He doesn't care about fancy cars or clothes. It wasn't too long ago that he was one of those disadvantaged kids, selling flags and berries on the side of the road and being told to go away. He still regularly travels between villages by bus and stays in $5/a night hotels. He's promised to take me with him on my next trip to India, to see how the service works first hand and meet some of these young "reporters." "I'll be back in February," I said. "Will you have 5 million readers by then?" "Not quite," he said looking up at the ceiling, seemingly counting in his head. He looked down at me again, smiled and said, "Come in April." Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Plancast Is Foursquare… For The Future Posted: 30 Nov 2009 07:00 PM PST
Hendrickson left TechCrunch in March. After about two years of writing and doing development for TC, he got the startup itch. He formed a company, Worldly Developments, and along with co-founder Jay Marcyes is now ready to unveil their project: Plancast. As you can derive from the name, Plancast is a way to easily broadcast your plans to your online social circle. But a better way to think about it may be as a “Foursquare for the future,” which is how Hendrickson often describes it. The main idea is that while many people use Foursquare and similar location-based services like Gowalla and Loopt to share where they are, Plancast is about sharing where they will be. Here’s a perfect example: On my main Plancast page right now, I see that Hendrickson, another former TC writer Nick Gonzalez, and current TCer Jason Kincaid are all going to spend the night in the woods together in early December. I don’t know why they’re doing it, but they’re broadcasting that they’re doing it. That’s something that you really need to plan a little bit for, so if I wanted to join (I would if there was a hotel nearby that I could stay in), I could do so and let them know with the click of a button.
But it’s not just about events that you need to plan for. In fact, it’s not really supposed to be about events. “We shy away from using the term “events” because we don’t feel it’s very appropriate for the scope of activity we’re trying to capture. While our users may be interested in posting more formal, organized parties and whatnot to Plancast (and we certainly encourage them to), we want them to also feel completely comfortable sharing more informal plans (getting drinks, seeing a movie, going to the zoo, traveling to new york for a week, attending a conference, etc),” Hendrickson tells us. He goes on to note that there’s a real void in that particular area, and I agree. While services like Upcoming and Going allow you to broadcast future things you’ll be doing, they are very event-centric. If you’re just going to get a drink tomorrow night and want friends to join, it seems like overkill to create an Upcoming event for that, for example. Likewise, Facebook and Evite allow you to make future plans, but both are still pretty formal and are based around the idea of the RSVP. With Plancast, you simply click on a friend’s event and if you want to tag along, you hit the “count me in” button, and you’re set. You can also comment on events, to get more information or share your thoughts on it.
And the event creation process is extremely simple. Along the top of the Plancast page (above your friends’ stream) is an input box asking “What are you planning to do?” Clicking in this box reveals fields to enter the “what,” “when,” and “where” of the plan. The “when” and “where” fields are particular useful because upon entering something it will automatically look up both a date and a place that it assumes you meant. This helps avoid confusion — with the place in particular, as it uses Google Maps to show it on a map. Going forward, mobile will be a key part of the service, Hendrickson says. He notes that they’re thinking about doing an iPhone app that can do things like alert you when you’re in the vicinity of a plan currently taking place or one that will be in the near future. He says that they’re also thinking about integrating Foursquare’s new API to create a service that offers the best of both worlds — what your friends are doing now and in the future. (It’s important to note, by the way, that while it may be described as ‘Foursquare for the future,’ Plancast has no gaming element…yet. Hendrickson is also thinking about that.) Likewise, Plancast wants to integrate with the some of the calendaring services to make it easy for people to use no matter your planner of choice. Facebook Events will be a key part of this, as will Google Calendar (which recently started testing a more social element of its own). And there is a plan for an Plancast API so other services can import and use their data.
The Facebook integration is key for Plancast. The service was borne out of Facebook’s fbFund ‘09 initial winners (its codename was Magellen at that point), and they’ve received a micro-seed round from that so far. The next step is to raise a proper seed round, Hendrickson says. So how does Plancast build a business out of this? Hendrickson notes that they’ve already begun talking to venues about how Plancast could benefit them, such as getting people to organize events at certain places. The venues themselves may also be able to post Plancasts when they have specials coming up on a certain night, for example. This is similar to what Foursquare is thinking about, but again, for the future. Currently, all plans shared on Plancast are public, but soon they will roll out a feature to allow you to share certain plans just with select friends, we’re told. There is also a plan to have friend groups/lists to futher make it easier to share plans with only certain people. I’ve been using Plancast for several weeks now, and it’s a solid service and idea. Hendrickson and Marcyes have managed to keep it simple (which I appreciate) while adding funtionality that differentiates it from competitors. The trick will be convincing people that they need to use yet another information sharing service in their life. But if I’m say, going to happy hour tomorrow and want to share information such as exact location, and time without going over 140 characters, while seeing who else is interested, this is a great solution. I do think this fills a need. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Google Names Winners Of Second Android Developer Challenge Posted: 30 Nov 2009 06:40 PM PST
The top winner overall was SweetDreams, an app that helps you send late night calls straight to voicemail and automatically conserves battery power by turning off features like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi at night. Second overall was What the Doodle!?, an app that’s like an online multiplayer version of Pictionary. And third prize overall went to WaveSecure, a security/backup app that lets you track your phone’s current location, lock it down or remote wipe your phone, and backup/restore data. You can see a full list of the winners, along with their descriptions here. Of course, if you’re at your computer you can’t browse Android Market to learn more, because it still lacks a presence on the desktop. 200 finalists for the contest were announced earlier this month. To choose these, Google developed a special Android voting app for the contest; the top 20 apps from each of 10 categories were selected as finalists. To determine the winners, Google again allowed users to vote using the app. User votes accounted for 40% of the final tally, with votes from official Google judges weighted at 60%.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 05:26 PM PST  There's already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I'd add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it's fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it. Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I've seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean. |
| The Facebook Verified App Saga Ends Tomorrow Posted: 30 Nov 2009 03:39 PM PST
This shouldn’t come as a surprise: Facebook announced plans to end the program in late October, and has been Emailing developers about it for weeks. But now that Verified Apps are going away, it’s a good time to look back at the long, convoluted road Facebook took to a program that was ultimately very shortlived. The Verified Apps program has been anything but a smooth ride for developers. It was first announced at the Facebook developer conference in July 2008, with the intention of helping users identify the most trustworthy apps on the platform. In return for meeting Facebook’s guidelines, apps would be rewarded with bonuses like advertising credits and relaxed rules on how many notifications and messages they could send to users. More concrete details about the program were revealed the following November, when Facebook opened up the program to applications. Developers were charged a $375 fee to apply, which we likened to a protection racket. But after developers paid their money, Facebook went silent about the program for half a year. That understandably led to growing developer unrest. Finally, nearly a year after it was first announced, Verified Apps made its debut in May 2009. But Verified Apps was only supposed to be a stepping stone to the site’s true cream of the crop. The most elite class of applications was to be called “Great Apps”, and launched with iLike and Causes as inaugural members. But that was another false start. Two months after the launch of Verified Apps, Facebook revealed that it was canceling its plans for its Great Apps program and demoting current members to regular Verified Apps. Or, as Facebook put it, they were getting rolled into the same thing, so Verified Apps were getting the benefits that would have been reserved for Great Apps. Despite these logistical hurdles, developers certainly benefited from the program. For example, CampusBuddy, a verified app we covered in September, has grown from 60,000 to over 150,000 monthly active users. CEO Michael Moradian says that the company will especially miss the “extra boosts” that applications received as part of the program because they helped virality. But while CampusBuddy would have liked to see the program continue, Moradian acknowledges that times may be changing. You can see his blog about the news here. So why is Facebook getting rid of Verified Apps? Facebook gives the following explanation:
In other words, Facebook wants every app to be trustworthy. To do that, they’re planning “to expand [the] team responsible for policy enforcement on Platform so that they can support the upholding of the principles we’ve introduced as part of our roadmap.” It’s not really clear why they wouldn’t have done this from the start. The timing is certainly interesting. Some of the companies we called out in our ScamVille posts for using scammy offers, like Zynga, have some of their apps Verified. Granted, Facebook announced the decision to end Verified Apps a few days before we first broke the Scamville story, but they’ve been aware of the infringing games, offers, and ads for a long time. In effect, they’ve been stamping their seal of approval on games using tactics that are the target of a class-action lawsuit. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| What’s Behind That Short Link? Bit.ly Steps Up Its Efforts To Sniff Out Spam. Posted: 30 Nov 2009 02:43 PM PST
With the rise of Twitter, we’ve also seen the rise of link shorteners (standard URLS take up too many characters). The king of the link shorteners right now is bit.ly, which is the default shortener on Twitter and accounts for more than 75 percent of all short URLs on the service. Every month, bit.ly shortens about 1 billion links. For spammers, that’s one huge honey jar. The flip side of a short link like this one—http://bit.ly/6PwhcP—is that you can’t tell by looking at it what website it redirects to. It could be a TechCrunch post, or it could be a spam site. There’s no way to immediately tell the difference when you see the link in a Tweet. (Don’t worry, it’s a TechCrunch post). You can find out more about any bit.ly link by cutting and pasting it into your address bar and adding a “+” at the end like this—http://bit.ly/6PwhcP+—that will take you to a bit.ly page with all the stats for that page. The spam problem is getting worse, which is why bit.ly is taking more serious measures to sniff out spam behind its short links. Today it announced it is working with three new services to fight spam and malware: VeriSign's iDefense, Websense Threatseeker Cloud, and Sophos. These efforts will be in addition to its current attempts to warn users when it suspects malicious sites behind its links. It’s going to be a constant battle. The best protection from spam is to only click on links from people you trust, but even they can be fooled. And then friendships are lost, society crumbles, and the spammers win. Unless bit.ly can weed out most of those bad links before you even click on them. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. |
| Twitter’s Downtime Also Downs Downforeveryoneorjustme Posted: 30 Nov 2009 01:22 PM PST So this is funny. Yes, Twitter is having downtime issues right now. Yes, again. But that’s nothing new, obviously. What is new is that Twitter being down has also apparently borked the site many people use to check if Twitter is down, downforeveryoneorjustme. While the site, made by Ryan King, is working for every other site on the web, the image below shows what is returned when you put in twitter.com now. Did I mention King is now a Twitter employee? Beyond meta. And yes, I tried putting in downforeveryoneorjustme.com into downforeveryoneorjustme — and I somehow ended up inside John Malkovich’s head. Update: Both are back up now, however the Twitter Lists feature appears to be disabled.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| Another Google Wave Use: Manhunt Posted: 30 Nov 2009 01:00 PM PST
This public Google Wave has been set up to involve the community by offering realtime information that anyone may know about the location of a man suspected of killing four Seattle police officers. A search of a Seattle-area home this morning turned up nothing, but various reports of sightings are coming in, and the Times is opening a Wave to help with the flow of information. About 45 minutes ago, the Wave was opened with just a few people in it. Already, there are over 100 people in here now communicating quickly with updates. Included are Wave elements with links to police scanner audio, live video footage of the search, a suspect description, and information about local schools on lockdown. It’s actually quite amazing to watch this unfold and get updated before your very eyes. That said, it will also be a bit overwhelming for many people to follow. In just the first Wave message in the thread, there are four people currently updating things, for example. As one users participating wrote, “distracting/annoying, mostly,” with regard to the live-typing element of Wave. Another simply wrote, “google wave is a mess… back to twitter.” But others participating are amazed at the rapid flow of information coming in. And plenty are able to follow along. As someone else writes, “That last radio about the fresh blood was pretty chilling… hopefully they are close.” The fact that this is a public Wave that anyone can join is also both a blessing and a curse. Right now, the comments are pretty much all on-point, but that’s only because many people on the web still don’t know about, or have access to Wave yet. If they did, undoubtedly forums like this would turn into a mess of spam. That’s something Google has to think very seriously about for Wave going forward. Still, a use case like this is very interesting. A manhunt is all about gathering information. Could there be misinformation? Of course, but there could be on tip lines as well. If a police department had someone watching this Wave (I’m not sure if that’s the case right now), they could do their best to attempt to filter the good information from the bad. Something like this could also be potentially useful for a missing child. Of course, for all of these types of cases, a solid mobile interface may be better than someone sitting at their computer using Wave. Presumably, the best tips will come from someone who is out and about and sees the suspect. [thanks Brian]
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Interview With Eventbrite Founders, Plus Rare Insights From Sequoia Capital Posted: 30 Nov 2009 12:09 PM PST San Francisco based Eventbrite went prime time earlier this month when they raised $6.5 million from Sequoia Capital, and added partner Roelof Botha to their board of directors. We had a chance to sit down with Botha as well as founders Kevin Hartz and Julia Hartz and talk to them about their business and the fundraising. We were supposed to talk for just ten minutes, but the interview went on for a solid 25 minutes before we were done. Julia and Kevin talked about Eventbrite’s growth to ten million registered users based only on word of mouth advertising. The company lets people sell (or give away) tickets to events – something only the big venues could do previously through companies like TicketMaster. The service is free for people who give away tickets, and they charge a small percentage on non-free sales. The free tickets spread the word to new users, who often come back to sell tickets to their own events. This year, Eventbrite will rack up $100 million in gross ticket sales, says the company. The average ticket price, not factoring in the free tickets, is $60. Why did Sequoia invest? Botha talks at length about the business model and explosive growth, and the fact that Eventbrite invented the market. The potential market for small-scale event tickets, says the company, may be as high as $36 billion in the U.S.
Botha also shows off his MBT shoes at the end of the video, which apparently make him a happier and healthier venture capitalist. I know what I want for Christmas. And for everyone that couldn’t care less about this stuff, just skip to the outtakes at the end. Just skip to 24:40. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
| Searches On Google For Black Friday Deals Were Up 50 Percent From Last Year Posted: 30 Nov 2009 12:03 PM PST
As online retailers are witnessed strong Black Friday results, Google is reporting that there was a surge in online shopping searches with “Black Friday” on Thanksgiving day and the Friday after the holiday. Searches with the term “Black Friday” were up by more than 20%, year over year, according to Google. Searches for “black friday sales” and “black friday ads” were both up by more than 50%, year over year. This data indicates that consumers match deals around this time of the year with Black Friday and that these deals are increasingly displayed online versus on TV or in newspapers. The most fast growing store-specific search terms were “Walmart Black Friday”, “Kohls Black Friday Ad”, “Sears Black Friday Sales” and “Target Black Friday Deals Online.” Searches for “printable coupons” on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were up about 50% over last year and searches for “sales” were up by more than 25%. Google also released a few interesting data points about consumer interest in specific verticals. Searches in the apparel and toys categories rose about 50% and searches in the consumer electronics category more than tripled over last year, with “Black Friday Computer Deals” and “Best Buy Black Friday Deals” also topping the fastest growing search terms during the holiday period. It should be interesting to see how Cyber Monday fares in Google Search. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 |
| M.I.T., Google, And Umberto Eco Want To Erect a Realtime Cloud Over The 2012 London Olympics Posted: 30 Nov 2009 11:36 AM PST
What is it with architects that they feel the need to glom onto the latest buzzwords to justify their projects? A group from M.I.T.’s Senseable City Lab is looking for funding for an ambitious observation deck designed for the 2012 London Olympics. They are calling it the Cloud. It is a “lightweight transparent tower, composed of a ‘cloud’ of inflatable, light-emitting spheres . . . fed by real time information from all over the world.” The structure is an architectural interpretation of the realtime cloud. Videos of the Olympic events, Twitter and Facebook streams, and other realtime data such as energy usage, Internet traffic, and mobile phone activity will be projected onto LED displays in the Cloud so that people in the Cloud can observe the events from high above London. M.I.T. credits Google and the engineering firm Arup as part of the design team. Fiction author Umberto Eco is an adviser. In other words, it’s never going to be built. Not by 2012. They don’t even have building permits yet. The drawings are nice though. Except I’m not sure what that person is doing inside one of those spheres in the bottom image. Is that some sort of realtime cage? He looks like he needs saving.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors |
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Apple has long been 
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Google has just annouced the winners of its second Android Developer Challenge, a competition that looks to spur development on the Android platform by offering large cash grants to the winners. Thirty prizes were given out in total, with the top 3 winners from each of ten categories taking home $100,000, $50,000, or $25,000 respectively, with 3 overall winners walking away an additional $150,000, $50,000, or $25,000.
For the last six months, you may have noticed that some of your favorite apps on Facebook Platform carried a special badge deeming them to be “Facebook Verified”. These apps “passed Facebook’s review for trustworthy user experiences”, and were given both greater exposure in the App Directory and less restrictive limits on the number of messages they could send to users. And tomorrow, just over six months after the program launched, Facebook is killing off Verified Apps for good.
Apparently, like everyone else, the Seattle Times is very interested in 
If you’re trying to raise money, listen closely to what Botha says. This is the guy who first invested in YouTube, and he’s one of the young guns at Sequoia. You’ll also want to read 
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