The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- OneRiot Monetizes What’s Hot On The Web With Realtime Trending Ads
- For Google, The Meaning Of Open Is When It’s Convenient For Them
- Chesspark And Chess.com Put Their Pawns Together
- Chorus Reveals Its Most Socially-Recommended iPhone Apps In November
- Video: A Decade Of Tech Highs And Business Lows
- In 2009, Netbook Shipments Grew 103%, Revenues Up 72% Year Over Year
- gWallet Reveals Secret Weapon For Virtual Currency Platform: gLTV
- Apple Not Liable For Plagued iMac Screens, Updates Firmware Anyway
- Opera Reports Massive Growth For Mobile Web Usage, Particularly In Asia And Africa
- Raptr Loses Director Of Product Strategy To Twitter
- Livemocha Bags Another $8 Million From August Capital, Maveron
- The App Store Forgets It’s Not The Android Market, Temporarily Sells NES Emulator
- Voice May Join Google’s Enterprise Lineup
- Ron Conway & Sean Parker Raise More Than $70,000 For UCSF And Malaria No More
- Founder Institute’s Monstrous Gets $400K To Make You Entranced
- Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally.
- YouTube Gets Its Own Short URLs. Except They’re Still Pretty Long.
- MySpace Reaches Out To Upset Imeem Users: Your Playlists Will Soon Be Resurrected
- Backed By Google Ventures, EnglishCentral Raises $3.5 Million For Video Language Learning
- Twitter Captures A Nexus One Unboxing And Another Video
- 2009 As Told In Google Wave
- Appolicious Now Delivers Personalized App Recommendations To The iPhone
- Facebook Uses FriendFeed As A Testing Ground For The Next Generation Of OAuth
- Facebook Says “FML,” “Twitter” Is A Top Status Trend In 2009
- Meebo Launches Self-Serve Meebo Bar, Takes A Look Back At Its Big Year
| OneRiot Monetizes What’s Hot On The Web With Realtime Trending Ads Posted: 22 Dec 2009 08:56 AM PST
We recently wrote about OneRiot’s foray into the advertising word, RiotWise, which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. Because people are becoming more and more interested in realtime search and getting access to information that is going on right now, OneRiot believes in the strong potential of serving relevant ads beside results. Today, the realtime search engine is launching RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web. RiotWise will match Trending Ads display ads that are highly relevant to the same trending topics within an application. OneRiot says says the "realtime relevance" result in a higher click through rate on the ads. The system is enabled by OneRiot's realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm. OneRiot says the Trending Ads offering is a perfect fit for monetizing social web applications such as Twitter apps, IM clients and iPhone apps. The third-party Twitter client makes particular sense considering how many of these clients incorporate trending topics as a feature within their apps. OneRiot will share advertiser revenue with the application developer. OneRiot has already signed up an IM application developer, Digsby, to feature Trending ads on its application. RiotWise Trending Ads are available via OneRiot's API, as well as a new Mobile Ad Unit. OneRiot syndicates its search results and realtime advertising across a partner network of over 90 applications, websites and search engines that are utilizing the OneRiot Realtime Search API, including Yahoo and Microsoft. We’re bullish on RiotWise’s ad platform in general and this new offering seems like a compelling product as well. Trending Ads could be a useful way for third-party Twitter apps to advertise contextually relevant and dynamic content. As long as the OneRiot produces quality advertising content, the new ad format may work. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| For Google, The Meaning Of Open Is When It’s Convenient For Them Posted: 22 Dec 2009 08:38 AM PST
Yesterday, Google published a long manifesto on the “meaning of open” in the form of an email to all employees republished as a blog post. In it, senior VP of product management Jonathan Rosenberg, makes an eloquent argument for why open systems always win and urges Google’s employees to always strive to be open when designing products. An open Internet spurs innovation and brings more consumers on board, which ultimately means more searches and increased use of Web applications. The gist of his argument is that a bigger, better Internet is good for Google. He writes that Google employees should resist the impulse to create closed products and systems, and even makes a swipe at Apple for doing so (bold added for emphasis):
It all sounds great and Google certainly is a champion of open systems with Android and Chrome and countless other projects. Google is making a very public effort to claim the mantle of openness. But the battle for this mantle has been going on for a long time. Two years ago, I wrote a post titled “Who Is The Opennest Of Them All?”. What I noted then bears repeating:
Google is only open when it is convenient for them. Google will never open up the source code to its search algorithms or its advertising system, or share the core data which gives it a competitive advantage in those areas because that is where it makes all of its money. Again, I pointed this out in that post two years ago:
Rosenberg realizes there is an incongruity between what he is saying and what Google is doing. He takes a stab at rationalizing this huge exception to Google’s embrace of everything open:
Maybe, but it is more likely it would hurt Google. The company has good reasons for keeping those things closed tight. Opening up those black boxes would make it easier to spam search and game AdWords and give competitors valuable data to make their own search engines and advertising systems better. If it opened all of that stuff up, it would have to work harder to keep its customers. And really nobody should begrudge them the right to keep products they’ve spent a lot of time, energy, and money building to themselves. But don’t give us this song and dance about how everything should be open and how Google is the opennest company in the world. Google has nothing to lose if operating systems, mobile phones, browsers, books, news, and every other industry becomes open and free, as long it can make money from search and advertising. That is exactly why Google is so disruptive. It can offer products for free that other industries charge for, as long as those products result in more searches or other advertising opportunities. There is nothing wrong with this strategy. The fact that Google is pushing openness in so many industries is generally a good thing for startups and consumers alike. But Google should just be honest and say that they think everything should be open—except for search and advertising. (Image via j/f/photos). Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Chesspark And Chess.com Put Their Pawns Together Posted: 22 Dec 2009 06:52 AM PST
Chess.com is making the transition easy, as former Chesspark users can simply log on with their familiar credentials and find that their usernames, avatars and ratings have automatically been transferred. West Palm Beach-based Chesspark.com raised $1 million from angel investors in July 2007, including True Ventures founder and managing partner Jon Callaghan, Burnt Norton and Eaglebrook School. That was around the time Chess.com surfaced as well, with a better domain name but a very similar offering (see our coverage). Chesspark founders Jack Moffitt and Brian Zisk likely decided a merger was in everyone’s best interest because they decided to focus more of their attention on their latest venture, real-time search startup Collecta. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Chorus Reveals Its Most Socially-Recommended iPhone Apps In November Posted: 22 Dec 2009 06:50 AM PST
Chorus, the recently launched iPhone app that helps you discover other apps, is revealing the most recommended apps from their community. Developed by envIO Networks, Chorus is sort of like a mobile social network based around the apps that your friends have downloaded and lets you tap into your existing social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share with your friends. The app features real-time feeds from your designated friends (those who have also downloaded Chorus and whom you have friended) displaying the apps they are downloading, and what they are saying about them in the app. Chorus’ technology will match your favorite apps against those your friends use, building a personalized and relevant list of recommended apps. Chorus will also ask your a series of questions to determine the types of apps your like. And you can share your favorite apps through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and also invite them to test out Chorus. envIO is now releasing the most popular and recommended paid and free apps in its community over the past month out of mote than 25,000 purchase and download attempts. Top 10 Most Recommended Apps Among Chorus Community: 1. Eliminate Pro (free) Top 10 Free Apps for November 2009 based on buy attempts: 1. FunMail Top 10 Paid Apps for November 2009 based on buy attempts: 1. Touch DJ Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Video: A Decade Of Tech Highs And Business Lows Posted: 22 Dec 2009 06:28 AM PST Quick, which company was founded first: Facebook or Youtube? What year did Apple launch the Jesus phone? Can you name three of the biggest financial calamities of the past decade? The three-minute video above from WatchMojo recaps the decade in business and technology. The video strangely alternates between the fraud and financial crises of the general business world (Enron, the housing bubble, Bernie Madoff) and all the change and innovation of the tech world (Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the iPhone). It’s as though it is talking about two different worlds or two different eras. If the next decade is going to be anything like the last one, I’ll stay in the tech world. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| In 2009, Netbook Shipments Grew 103%, Revenues Up 72% Year Over Year Posted: 22 Dec 2009 06:12 AM PST
The company’s most recent Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report also shows a huge increase in the size of the netbook market, having grown its revenue share of the overall portable computer market to 11.7% in the third quarter of 2009. This has increased the overall size of the portable PC market considerably, according to DisplaySearch, but not nearly enough to offset declines in revenue. Revenues in every notebook PC category were down year over year, and only the portable category (displays from 13" to 16.4") posted Q/Q growth.
DisplaySearch expects notebook PC shipment volumes to increase 5% year over year in 2009. Netbooks and portable notebook PC (13″-16.4") ASPs are however expected to be down more than 15% Y/Y in 2009 and again next year. These two market segments account for more than 85% of the total notebook market. DisplaySearch expects the notebook PC market to grow by 16% in 2010, with higher than average growth for mini-notes and ultra-portable notebook PCs.
(Image credit: Yurukov – Flickr) Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| gWallet Reveals Secret Weapon For Virtual Currency Platform: gLTV Posted: 22 Dec 2009 05:55 AM PST
We recently wrote about gWallet, a startup that hopes to offer a legitimate virtual currency monetization platform, after OfferPal, and others have recently come under fire (a.k.a. “Scamville”) for scamming users of virtual games on social networks. The startup, which recently raised $10.5 million in funding, works directly with brands directly as opposed to adopting an affiliate leads model. gWallet claims that its proprietary technology and transparent platform allows game developers and social networks to see when and where exact offers are being presented within their ecosystems. The startup wouldn’t reveal the details of what its platform would look and feel like, but today is giving us a little bit more insight into how it will work. gWallet is launching gLTV, a new metric that will aim to give publishers analytics on how they can measure and increase their lifetime value of users on their applications. gWallet says gLTV uses info about individual users to demonstrate specifically how it can increase the lifetime value of a user based on prior usage and transaction history. Currently, publishers cannot see how they are increasing the lifetime value of their users. Other virtual currency platforms can only measure yield through a CPM model, which measures how much revenue is generated after a thousand views on their offer wall. Gwallet says that social media advertising, and virtual currency offers in particular, have the potential to be a positive brand engagement experience where users spend minutes rather than seconds engaging with this content and messaging. Chahal told us previously that unlike its competitors in the space, gWallet has a full-time direct sales force that corresponds between high quality brands and agencies and game developers to ensure legitimacy. The key factor that differentiates gWallet says Chalal is that the platform works with advertisers directly, showing them the value that they can provide within a social gaming site, and also offering the advertiser the ability to customize any offers so that they are relevant to the consumer. There’s no doubt this a lucrative (and competitive) space and TechCrunch’s efforts to expose Scamville has made a lasting impact on both game developers like Zynga and social networks, including Facebook, MySpace and others to provide legitimate offers. gWallet may have emerged at the right time to carve a place for itself as the beacon of legitimacy. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Apple Not Liable For Plagued iMac Screens, Updates Firmware Anyway Posted: 22 Dec 2009 05:31 AM PST
A New York federal judge dismissed a potential class action lawsuit which alleged that Apple propagated their popular iMac screens without disclosing certain manufacturing defects to its customers, saying that the allegations were too general to be considered. The lawsuit stated that unwanted vertical lines would appear on the devices after the warranty period had expired and that Apple “internally recognizes and concedes” the defect, but did nothing to warn consumers. While the class action suit was dismissed, the judge did state that the common-law claim regarding Apple’s deliberate conciliation could be amended to add more detail, and thus decrease the scope of the suit. (Source: Law360, requires registration) Coincidentally (or maybe not so), Apple released a firmware update to address problems which have arisen on the 27″ iMac screens. The firmware is stated to “address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering”. The results of this update, however, have been mixed. Our own Daniel Brusilovsky tweeted that even after the iMac software update, he was still having issues with the screen. Others are having better luck, stating that the problems have subsided. It doesn’t seem too far fetched to believe that these two events are correlated. Apple knew that their product had widespread malfunctions, and as such, are finally trying to rectify the situation. Luckily for them, the class action suit was too broad. Next time, they might not be so fortuitous. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Opera Reports Massive Growth For Mobile Web Usage, Particularly In Asia And Africa Posted: 22 Dec 2009 04:48 AM PST
Browser maker Opera Software has released its latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report this morning, which is based on the usage of its Opera Mini browser for mobile phones. They do this every month, and the conclusion is always the same: mobile web usage around the world keeps on growing and growing. The Norwegian company says Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users, showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month and more than 154% compared to November 2008. In addition, Opera claims the number of page-views in November 2009 went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to the previous month. The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Poland.
The company in this month’s report pointed a looking glass at the state of the mobile web in Africa, where Facebook has apparently taken a strong lead and ranks as the most popular site in six out of the top 10 countries. This is in line with yesterday’s report of Facebook’s global rise. Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia are other popular websites in Africa. When it comes to handsets, it seems Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets are the most popular in the continent, but Samsung boasts the most popular phone used by Opera Mini users in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia. From November 2008 to November 2009, page views in the top 10 African countries increased by a whopping 374%, unique users by 177%, and data transferred by 183% according to Opera’s report. Ghana, Kenya and Ivory Coast lead the top 10 African countries in terms of growth. As you can tell from the graph below, mobile web usage Southeast Asia is growing even faster.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Raptr Loses Director Of Product Strategy To Twitter Posted: 22 Dec 2009 03:28 AM PST
Overseeing Twitter’s products, and primarily its web service, will henceforth be the task of Kevin Cheng, formerly Director of Product Strategy at Raptr, a social network for gamers. Cheng previously worked at Yahoo!'s Brickhouse incubator where he designed Yahoo Pipes and Bravonation, and at Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Local, Adaptive Path, and Trilogy. Cheng last night tweeted a link to this blog post, in which he shared the cover of the offer letter he just signed:
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Livemocha Bags Another $8 Million From August Capital, Maveron Posted: 22 Dec 2009 03:05 AM PST
Livemocha offers free and premium online learning courses for over 30 languages, and claims to have attracted more than 4.8 million registered members from over 200 countries to date. Its interactive courses include practice with native speakers for natural development of practical language skills. While the company does not disclose specific figures, it says customer in 97 countries are currently paying for premium products and services, and that revenues are growing rapidly. The online language learning industry is seemingly maturing as a whole, and Livemocha enjoys the company of multiple venture-backed startups vying for a piece of the cake, including babbel, Myngle, italki, Idapted and EnglishCentral. Livemocha will spend the new money mostly on product development and new partnership deals, the company says.
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| The App Store Forgets It’s Not The Android Market, Temporarily Sells NES Emulator Posted: 22 Dec 2009 02:28 AM PST
As stringent (and arguably overzealous) as Apple’s App review policy is, things still slip through the cracks from time to time. I mean, who can forget the infamous baby shaking simulator slip-up? The latest bit of contraband to hit the App Store isn’t nearly as offensive – that is, unless you’re Nintendo. Earlier today, an application called “Nescaline” popped up on the App Store. Everything about the application, from the name, to the copyrighted icon, to the very functionality of the application rang of something that Apple would generally deny without batting an eye.. and yet, there it was – for all of one day, at least. Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >> Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Voice May Join Google’s Enterprise Lineup Posted: 22 Dec 2009 01:09 AM PST
From what we’ve heard, Google is very seriously planning to add a version of the Google Voice product to its Apps/Office suite of applications for businesses. Currently, businesses are offered enterprise versions of Google Docs (online Office), Gmail, calendar and other applications. More than 2 million businesses and 20 million people use Google Apps. Google Voice gives users a phone number that they can then redirect to any phone – mobile, landline, VoIP, etc. My Google Voice number rings my home Vonage line and multiple mobile phones simultaneously. And the Android Google Voice application effectively takes over the phone for all outbound calls and text messages, too. The consumer service will supposedly launch publicly sometime early next year. But an enterprise version, which will act as a virtual phone system for small businesses, may come soon after. Small businesses currently have a variety of choices for their phone system. Regular phone service is just one of those options. Services like Ring Central, which is funded by Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and DAG Ventures, offers a robust virtual phone system for businesses. Pricing ranges from $50/month. Vonage and others also offer business-focused products. There’s no reason for Google not to enter the enterprise phone business. There’s lots of potential revenue there from tens of millions of small businesses. And they are already selling Google Apps into those businesses. A simple version of the service would give a company a single phone number. An automated operator would then direct calls via an extension to employee phones (home business lines, mobile phones, whatever). Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Ron Conway & Sean Parker Raise More Than $70,000 For UCSF And Malaria No More Posted: 21 Dec 2009 07:38 PM PST
The results are in. Conway has raised $40,600 for the UCSF Foundation. He’s beaten Parker, who raised $32,130 for Malaria No More. TechCrunch readers donated to both causes generously, including by simply going to see Avatar with us last week. Of course the real winners are the children, some 5,000 a year, who get treatment at the UCSF Children’s hospital. And 3,200 children will receive mosquito nets that will greatly reduce their chances of getting Malaria. You can still donate to either cause of course. Just follow the links in the second paragraph above. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Founder Institute’s Monstrous Gets $400K To Make You Entranced Posted: 21 Dec 2009 07:21 PM PST
Fans of games like Tap Tap Revenge, Rez, and even Guitar Hero will probably most appreciate Entranced, as it’s a game that requires you to listen to music and play along on the screen by tapping different colored objects and they come along. It’s all about timing, as you must hit these objects at the right time for them to explode (or “bloom”) and keep you alive. Rather than having objects that you tab as they come down the screen at you, these objects in Entranced can be anywhere, which makes it a bit challenging at times. Each music track features its own custom visuals, the company notes. There are 5 worlds you can play in Entranced with the promise of more to come. The company also notes that the focus for making these “games as art” apps extends beyond just the iPhone. They’re working to bring their games to the Wii, PC/Mac, the web, and other systems as well. For now, Entranced is the first offering, and it’s in the App Store for $1.99. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally. Posted: 21 Dec 2009 06:38 PM PST
Apple may be on the verge of gaining two key television network agreements, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, CBS and Walt Disney (which runs ABC) are said to be considering a proposal by Apple to offer a subscription-based TV service over the Internet. Presumably, this would work through iTunes like all of Apple-based content, but also presumably it would work over Apple’s Apple TV device (though maybe a new version of it) to bring this content into the living room, where people are used to consuming it. Simply put: This could be huge. But “could” is the keyword. Just as Apple transformed the music industry in the earlier part of this decade thanks to the iTunes/iPod combination, and the mobile industry thanks to the iPhone, a device that offered all the television content over the Internet could force the cable companies to stop sucking. Of course, Apple already offers a ton of television content over iTunes, but there are a few big problems. First and foremost, you have to buy all of this content. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to buy 99% of the television shows I watch. I would much rather pay a fraction of the purchase cost to “rent” them, as it were, for a time being. iTunes currently has no such option — it’s all or nothing. And buying this content has another very real downside: You need enough storage space to keep it all. Seeing as some HD TV show seasons are 50 GB in size, this is an untenable model until Apple moves iTunes to the cloud (which it will do, eventually). Another problem for Apple is that the Apple TV device has not yet proven to be a hit. But this is just as much Apple’s fault as anyone else’s. No less than Steve Jobs has said time and time again that the Apple TV remains a “hobby” and the “fourth leg” of a stool that doesn’t yet need a fourth leg. Apple could have done a number of things to help the Apple TV, such as opening it up to the Internet for use with Hulu and other services. But it hasn’t done that, instead opting to use it to move iTunes content. And it’s actually quite good at that, provided iTunes has what you’re looking for and again, you don’t mind paying for TV shows. A recent firmware update to the device, also made the UI much more usable for scanning a lot of content. But the Apple TV, which sells for $229, could be a hit in a hurry if Apple offered its own television subscription service that allowed you to bypass the cable companies. Just think about it: Most people pay in excess of $50 a month (and some much more) to the cable companies. For what? Mostly for a bunch of crap they don’t want and will never watch (nor would they even have time to). The problem is that the cable companies have refused to move towards an a-la-carte offering, even though there is a clear demand for it. (It’s partially the TV networks fault too since they like to package their cable channels when giving them to the cable companies.) Apple could do that. And I would bet that is the plan. They may have to start out small with just one or two networks, but if it’s proven to work, eventually they would get more on board and people could start canceling their rip-off cable packages.
But I realize that not everyone is ready for that yet. But that’s why Apple’s role is crucial here. They have a proven track record of taking new ideas and technologies that seem complicated for the average consumer and making them appealing. The networks are likely to play hardball with Apple though. They’ve all seen what happened to their brethren in the music industry when Apple came on board (they got bullied, but possibly also saved). According to the WSJ report, Apple’s proposal to the TV industry has already changed several times. One deal is said to be a $30-a-month package to consumers that would be a “best of television” package that included several shows from several networks, and more importantly, no commercials, according to the report. Not surprisingly, not everyone liked that idea. Another part of the report has Apple paying $2 to $4 a month to the major networks per monthly subscriber, and $1 to $2 for a cable subscriber. This is more than a lot of these guys get from their current distribution deals. But Apple would also likely put costs on top of that so they make money too — though it might not be all that much. Remember, Apple doesn’t make that much money from iTunes, instead it’s a driver of iPod sales, and now iPhone sales. The same could be true with this model and the Apple TV. While everyone is busy focusing on Apple’s tablet device, this could actually be the hot thing to watch for from Apple in early 2010. The report says Apple was hoping to launch this service in March, but that could be delayed, obviously, as the networks fight about why they should or shouldn’t join this venture. There are at least a dozen headaches Apple would likely have to deal with to get the TV networks on board with this, but Apple’s close ties to Disney (which counts Steve Jobs as its largest shareholder) could help. While it may be just a pipe dream for now, I, for one, hope they’re able to blow up the cable industry. For too long we’ve put up with their sub-par service, their crap hardware, and their rip-off offerings. A change of the channel would do us all good. [photo: flickr/rickremington] Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| YouTube Gets Its Own Short URLs. Except They’re Still Pretty Long. Posted: 21 Dec 2009 04:46 PM PST
In a blog post announcing the new feature, YouTube writes that the short URL will be used exclusively for YouTube videos (which means it isn’t as useful to spammers for misdirection). The post also notes that because all youtu.be shortlinks include the YouTube video ID, developers can use that information to surface thumbnails and track how a video is spreading. Unfortunately, embedding a video ID has a downside: they’re relatively long. Whereas your typical bit.ly link weighs in at around 20 characters, a youtu.be link comes out to 27 characters, primarily because YouTube IDs are a beefy 11 characters long. That may not sound like much, but those extra 7 characters represent 5% of your maximum tweet length. Hopefully the features that video IDs enable for developers will outweigh that cost. Any videos shared through YouTube’s autosharing features to Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader will take advantage of the new short URLs automatically. You can also create the link yourself in this format:
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| MySpace Reaches Out To Upset Imeem Users: Your Playlists Will Soon Be Resurrected Posted: 21 Dec 2009 04:11 PM PST
We’ve known this was happening for a while now (MySpace even tells users who visit imeem.com that their playlists are being migrated), but it now looks like the site is taking a more proactive approach to keeping its users informed. This is probably what it should have done from the start, instead of suddenly pulling the plug on its API and redirecting all imeem traffic to MySpace without any prior warning. But at least your imeem playlists will live on, which is better than nothing.  Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Backed By Google Ventures, EnglishCentral Raises $3.5 Million For Video Language Learning Posted: 21 Dec 2009 03:57 PM PST
Video language learning website EnglishCentral recently raised a total of $3.5 million, according to an SEC filing. Part of that funding was $1.38 million from a previous convertible debt round, making the amount raised in the current series A financing $2.1 million. EnglishCentral is backed by Google Ventures and Atlas Venture. The fact that Google Ventures was the lead investor in a seed round last October was reported, but the amount invested was never disclosed. Based on the information in the filing, it is possible that that the seed round was in the form of the $1.38 million convertible note and is now converting into equity with the additional $2.1 million investment. The filing does not say who the invested in the new round, but Rich Miner of Google Ventures is listed as a director of the company. Google Ventures is Google’s venture arm which launched last April with an initial $100 million and can invest in pretty much anything, although mostly it’s been putting money into clean tech startups. EnglishCentral is a language tutorial site which uses popular videos from movies, news clips, and other categories to help people around the world learn English. Students watch a captioned video, and then try to repeat the phrases by speaking into a microphone and recording their attempts. Speech-to-text software tries to make sense of their pronunciation and gives them grades for accuracy, which they can track over time. The video tutorials are free, but the site also connects language students with tutors, and presumably takes a cut of any resulting fees. We have contacted both EnglishCentral and Google Ventures for clarification on the details of the funding and will update if we here back.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Twitter Captures A Nexus One Unboxing And Another Video Posted: 21 Dec 2009 03:50 PM PST A number of pictures have hit the web now showing the Nexus One, aka the Google Phone, in the flesh. But there haven’t been too many showing its packaging, and it getting unboxed. Today, some Twitpics shared by one user show those. As a bonus, he also shows off a bit of its HTC-innards, and even shared a nice little video of the device in action. The Nexus One is expected to be released early next year sold both unlocked from Google and in partnership with at least one major carrier. Plenty of Googlers already have the device and have been going around all over the country showing it off. There was previously a video of it booting up, but apparently Google made the YouTube user take it down.
[thanks Philip] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Posted: 21 Dec 2009 03:12 PM PST Love it or hate it, Google Wave is proving to be a great way for people to express themselves creatively in the form of videos. We’ve seen it with Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. We’ve seen it with the Declaration of Independance. And now we have a 2009 year-in-review Google Wave video. There’s not much to say other than this is really well done. It was created by Whirled Interactive, the same group that made the movie Waves. These guys are good. Sure, this isn’t as serious as using Wave for a manhunt, or even as a new form of communication. Nor does it make Google Wave any easier to explain. But it is an interesting form of entertainment. And a quick tech-way to recap the year. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Appolicious Now Delivers Personalized App Recommendations To The iPhone Posted: 21 Dec 2009 03:00 PM PST
Appolicious, a comprehensive iPhone app directory with a social twist, is on a roll. The startup just raised $1.5 million in funding last week and is now launching a free iPhone app that compliments its web platform. The Appolicious iPhone app will recommend apps for you based on ratings, reviews, comments and will also let users review and rate apps from the phone itself. Appolicious pulls in professional reviews about each app and also provides you with lists about the most popular apps on its network. You can also keep track of all of your apps and share your apps and recommendations with your social graph via Twitter and Facebook.The iPhone app is similar to fellow iPhone app Chorus. Founded in May of this year by former Yahoo VP, Alan Warms, Appolicious is hoping to expand its platform to include Android, Blackberry and other smartphone apps. Warms is a serial entrepreneur who sold his startup Buzztracker to Yahoo in 2007. The startup, which is similar in some ways to oneforty, an app directory for Twitter; also faces competition from Appsfire, 16 Apps, mPlayit, and others. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Facebook Uses FriendFeed As A Testing Ground For The Next Generation Of OAuth Posted: 21 Dec 2009 02:56 PM PST
As Facebook’s David Recordon writes today on the Developer Blog, the development team has implemented a prototype version of the new OAuth WRAP specification on FriendFeed. One of FriendFeed’s co-founders, Bret Taylor, who is now Facebook’s Director of Product Management for Platform, also writes at length about it on his own blog. The basic gist is that Facebook decided to test out implementing it in FriendFeed so that they could get feedback from anyone in the developer community that wants to try it out. OAuth WRAP is potentially very important for a few reasons. Namely, it’s likely to be the next iteration of OAuth — and the first one that all the big companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and others are all helping to make a new standard. It also should greatly simplify OAuth for developers. As Taylor writes in more technical speak:
Recordon notes that while Facebook Connect and its APIs don’t yet use OAuth, they will next year with OAuth WRAP. And from what I’m hearing, this is likely to be on the early-side of next year. This FriendFeed integration should show developers not only how far along it is already, but just how easy it is to both build on top of, and work with APIs that use it. With the FriendFeed team and Recordon now on board at Facebook, the company has been taking the right steps towards being a more open part of the web. Soon after the acquisition, Facebook open-sourced FriendFeed’s realtime tech, called Tornado. They’re also hard at work on a new project called Open Graph, which isn’t getting a lot of buzz, but could potentially alter the social graph landscape of the web. And Facebook is even about to open its status updates for full Twitter syndication this week. [image: 20th Century Fox] Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Facebook Says “FML,” “Twitter” Is A Top Status Trend In 2009 Posted: 21 Dec 2009 01:02 PM PST
Facebook has just released its list of top status updates for the year, and they’re pretty interesting. This is a new feature that Facebook plans to release yearly called “Memology,” the study of how memes are spreading on Facebook. Specifically, the Facebook Data Team looked at status updates in the U.S. for this year’s list. For this list, Facebook grouped together similar items to make it a more comprehensive one. As such, the first item on the list should be a surprise to no one: “Facebook Applications.” The specific words that Facebook grouped together here include Farmville, Farm Town, and Social Living, they note. The fact that Farmville has 72 million month active users who update their statuses with info from the game was probably enough to give Faceboook Applications the top spot.
But below that, things start to get interesting. For example, “FML” is the number two term. As you likely know, this stands for “fuck my life” (or as Facebook puts it, “We’ll leave the “F” open to your interpretation”) and is a popular Internet meme in general for talking about why your life sucks. As you can see in the graph they included, FML usage rose out of nowhere to peak in May, then dipped, then came back in September. Facebook also notes that usage of the term was strong during Mondays and Tuesdays. “Swine Flu” and “Celebrity Deaths” came in third and fourth place respectively, which isn’t surprising given how much news both created this year. Then things get pretty boring until number 10: “Twitter.” Technically, Facebook included both the word “Twitter” and “RT” in this trend. There are a few interesting things about this. One, the two are obviously rivals as Facebook has seemingly been taking a lot of product cues from Twitter, and Twitter turned down an acquisition offer from them. Two, “Facebook” did not appear on Twitter’s year-end list, which we found suspicious and still think it may have been filtered out. Three, Facebook still manages to take a swipe as its much smaller rival:
There’s been a lot of talk about Twitter’s lack of growth recently, and Facebook is clearly playing that up here. Update: Facebook continues to be moody about Twitter-talk. As they write to us, “Just had to object to your claim that we were taking a swipe at Twitter.” They continue on, “We also made very clear that the term RT (retweet) had grown to be very common. The mere fact Twitter made the list means it's become one of the biggest trends of the year—and we openly acknowledged that.” They also link to a post with more charts showing that Twitter talk did in fact decline at the end of the year. We don’t doubt that, but it’s still interesting that much of the blurb is dedicated to pointing out the peak activity and specifically the peak momentum earlier in the year.
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| Meebo Launches Self-Serve Meebo Bar, Takes A Look Back At Its Big Year Posted: 21 Dec 2009 01:01 PM PST
Sternberg says that Meebo started 2009 with around 30 million uniques, almost all of which came from the site’s chat portal at Meebo.com. The Meebo Bar has added nearly 70 million more visitors in one year. The product was originally announced back in July 2008, and launched late that year on Flixster. Since then, it’s been deployed to 130 partner sites, with 150 more contracted partners ready to deploy it in the near future. Unfortunately for small-time bloggers, the Meebo Bar had to be installed with some help from Meebo, as there was no way to integrate it yourself. Sternberg says that the site initially decided to focus on the “torso sites” of the web — sites with over 1 million unique visitors, but under 20 million. That encompasses quite a few popular sites, but it excludes the countless longtail content sites and blogs that could also benefit from the Meebo Bar. Sternberg says that Meebo receives 75 Emails a day from smaller sites requesting the bar. Today, they’re getting their wish.  For sites that integrate the Meebo Bar, Sternberg reports increased engagement and sharing across the board. He says that on sites like MyYearBook and Justin.tv, 35% of all users wind up chatting with their friends using the integrated bar. Perhaps more important to site owners is his followup stat: users tend to share twice as much content using the bar’s integrated Twitter/Facebook/Yahoo/Email sharing tool than they do using more traditional share buttons. He attributes this largely to the fact that users can simply drag and drop an item to share it with a friend, which most people are comfortable with. But the Meebo bar isn’t perfect. Sternberg acknowledges that on some content sites (he singled out tech sites) sharing hasn’t seen such a big increase. And he says the flow to get people using the chat bar, which involves setting up a Meebo account and inputting your credentials for various chat services, could use some work. The conversation then shifted to Meebo’s future. Sternberg calls 2010 Meebo’s “pivot year”: it’s the year that Meebo is going to start earning some serious money. Sternberg is optimistic about the site doubling up on its unique users, with hopes to reach 200 million monthly uniques. And he thinks Meebo can turn those users into added revenue: the company has been getting strong traction with major brands, who are ordering much larger ad campaigns than they were when the Meebo Bar was first launched. The company itself is growing too. Meebo started 2009 with 35 people and has since doubled its headcount, with plans to boost that number significantly over the next year. From the looks of things, the Meebo Bar is shaping up to be a major hit. Now the question is just how much of a hit it will be with advertisers over the long term. Meebo has nearly $40 million in funding, so investors are going to want to see that revenue stream turn into a full-blown torrent.
Graph via Quantcast. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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Social network for chess fans 
Industry research and analysis firm 
Whether 
Online language learning community 
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GrandCentral, which Google acquired in 
Last week we wrote about a 
The cable companies suck. All of them. Some suck less than others. But they all suck. We need someone to whip them into shape. And that someone may be Apple.
I did it myself last year. I cancelled all but the most basic cable and just used my Apple TV and things like Hulu to get all my content. It was much easier than I imagined it would be. Did I miss cable? Not one bit.
Looks like Google is really going full steam ahead with its shortened URLs. Only a week after the search giant launched its own 
In the two weeks since it 
When Facebook 
For a long time, 
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