The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Google Helps Battle Deforestation With The Cloud
- TweetDeck Puts Its New Twitter List Directory Front And Center
- Jolicloud Launches Beta Version Of Its Netbook OS At Le Web
- VeriFone Rushes To Announce Square Competitor; Jack Dorsey Comments
- Stribe Snags Top Prize At Le Web / TechCrunch Europe Startup Competition
- NBC Universal Taps Adgregate Markets To Launch Mobile Commerce Advertisements
- GOGII Raises $8.2 Million Series B For Free iPhone Texting
- Peek Email Device May Find Life In Europe: The PeekFON
- By Extension, Chrome Battles Firefox
- Opera Sweetens Mobile Browser Offering For OEMs With Unified UI, Android Version
- Thursday Giveaway: Pulse Smartpen
- Malaysian Payments Company MOL Global Snaps Up Friendster
- There Are Already 500 Chrome Extensions. They’ll Work On Mac Chrome By Week’s End.
- The Facebook Privacy Fiasco Begins
- Divvyshot Releases iPhone App For Easy Photo Sharing
- Kayak’s New iPhone App Takes Flight
- Rippol Launches Lightweight Version Of Video Discovery Engine
- Watch First Round Capital’s Startups Sing About Their Big Dreams
- With Live Streaming A Go, Qik Rushes Towards The App Store
- TigerTag Bets On Good Samaritans To Reunite People With Lost Valuables
- CrunchGear In China: The Ex-Pats
- WikiHow Gets Pretty, And Hits 20 Million Monthly Visitors
- There’s A Stranger In My Tweet House
- Backstage With Chad Hurley, Talking About His Ridiculously Cool Life
- AOL’s Armstrong Tells CNBC He Is More Interested In Nichebusters Than Blockbusters (Full Transcript)
| Google Helps Battle Deforestation With The Cloud Posted: 10 Dec 2009 09:00 AM PST
One of the most effective ways to battle global warming would be to curb deforestation around the world. Google is helping today on the monitoring front by combining satellite imagery from Google Earth with heavy computational analysis in the cloud. Studying satellite imagery can identify where deforestation is occurring, but serious analysis requires a lot of computational power to compare images over time and locate illegal deforestation activity before it is too late to do anything about it. The image above, for instance, shows deforestation in Rondonia, Brazil over the last two decades, with recent activity in red. The red spots in the image below show deforestation hot spots in the past 30 days. Google is working in collaboration with scientists who have created software to analyze deforestation activity as seen through satellite imagery. But the desktop computers these scientists typically use can take days to run each analysis. By moving that to more powerful computers in the cloud, Google can reduce that time to seconds while also making available literally petabytes of raw satellite imagery data. While this prototype service is not publicly available yet, Google plans to give scientists access to it on a not-for-profit basis. Google will generate goodwill from the effort, but more importantly it’s a great marketing example that shows off the power of cloud computing. It’s a proof point for a future Google wants to see come to pass.
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| TweetDeck Puts Its New Twitter List Directory Front And Center Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:10 AM PST
The latest version of TweetDeck, the popular Twitter client, is List-crazy: you can add lists on the fly, edit them, create new lists based on existing lists, and it even suggests people you may want to add to a list. Now TweetDeck is launching a List directory and putting it front and center on its homepage. Previously, the homepage was not much more than a place to download the Tweetdeck client, but with the new Lists directory TweetDeck wants to make its Website more of a destination site in its own right where people go to discover new people and lists to follow on Twitter. The TweetDeck List directory is broken up into more than 140 categories, including technology, law, architecture, healthcare, media, startups, and video games. You can browse through the different categories, or get recommendations. Since TweetDeck already creates a tag cloud based on the most common subjects Tweeted about in any given list, it matches the categories to the tag clouds. It also looks at your profile information to try to target the recommendations a little bit better. Most other list directories simply rank lists by number of followers, which TweetDeck also takes into account but does not give it as much weight. Each list can also be voted up and down within a category or commented on. The List directory is replacing TweetDeck’s old directory of suggested users). But you can still drill down to individual users to see their follow/follower count, tweets per day, tag cloud of what they Tweet about, all the Lists they have created and all the Lists they are on. The automatically-generated tags feed into the list search as well, showing you what lists match your query even if that keyword is not on the list. (See screenshots below). There are other Twitter List directories out there which TweetDeck wil be competing with, such as Listorious, which now has more than 10,000 curated lists. TweetDeck however gets a feed of all the Lists on Twitter and can surface those through search or recommendations. Combining Lists with search provides a powerful way to do people search as well. For instance, Listorious recently turned on people search so that when you search for “VC” or “entrepreneur” you get people who are in lists with those (human-generated) tags. TweetDeck’s search now does the same thing, surfacing Lists with “VC” or “entrepreneur” in the title, descriptions, and tags (both those generated by humans and automatically based on the dominant subjects of the Tweets). As people rate the lists and add comments, those will factor into search results and recommendations as well. TweetDeck has one more advantage: the millions of people who use TweetDeck and the one million unique visitors per month who visit the homepage. A button that will launch the new List directory will be included in an update to the TweetDeck client going out on Monday (v0.33), which also fixes some bugs from the last update and takes up less memory (always an issue with AIR apps)
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Jolicloud Launches Beta Version Of Its Netbook OS At Le Web Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:09 AM PST
Well-known European entrepreneur Tariq Krim just finished presenting the public beta release of Jolicloud, a new type of operating system for netbooks that we’ve covered a couple of times before, at Le Web. As of today, you can install Jolicloud Express on most Windows netbooks out there easily by simply downloading the installation file and run it from the machine (when I installed the alpha release, I still needed to download it to a USB key and boot it from on there). It will keep the Windows partition and data safe, so you can always switch back to Windows if you want. Jolicloud also added a HTML5 launcher to the system, with help from Mozilla engineers and developers. The main goal is to give people a way to synchronize as many netbooks as they want with their Jolicloud account, including preferences, installed apps, and so on. Try it out, and let us know what you think. Jolicloud raised $4.2 million in Series A funding from Atomico Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners last July.
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| VeriFone Rushes To Announce Square Competitor; Jack Dorsey Comments Posted: 10 Dec 2009 08:07 AM PST
I just saw an announcement by VeriFone on their own Square competitor – an iPhone hardware and software solution called Payware Mobile that lets users take physical credit cards just like Square. They can’t help but get a jab in at Square – CEO Douglas Bergeron says:
Here’s the great thing – Square cofounder Jack Dorsey is still here at Le Web (he was on stage yesterday) and was just a few feet away when I read the article. I grabbed him and got an on camera reaction to the PAYware announcement. The PAYware site and announcement was clearly thrown together quickly – that’s a photoshop job if I ever saw one. But beyond that, their solution still requires a merchant account to process payments. That’s great for businesses who have those accounts. But for millions of consumers and small businesses that don’t want to or can’t get a merchant account, Square will still work. Also, Square’s hardware, which interfaces with the phone via the headset/microphone jack, will work on most phones. PAYware only works on the iPhone. Note that Apple has their own solution for this and have recently rolled it out to Apple retail stores. Video is below: Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Stribe Snags Top Prize At Le Web / TechCrunch Europe Startup Competition Posted: 10 Dec 2009 07:01 AM PST  So the Le Web Startup Competition is over for another year. Instead of sitting on the sidelines reporting the event, as I was last year, this year TechCrunch Europe was asked to co-organize it with Le Web. So, together with Loic Le Meur, Ben Metcalfe and Geraldine Le Meur we filtered down the hundreds of applicants to the final 16. Although we didn't concentrate exclusively on it, it was nice to fit in startups that were broadly releated to the realtime theme. It was great also to see the Le Web startup event veer back to its roots as a venue for very early stage, rough and ready startups, as well as a launch-pad for more fully-formed plays that have literally launched for the first time at this event.
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| NBC Universal Taps Adgregate Markets To Launch Mobile Commerce Advertisements Posted: 10 Dec 2009 04:30 AM PST
Transactional advertising network provider Adgregate Markets, a finalist at the 2008 TechCrunch50 conference Adgregate Markets has struck a monumental deal with NBC Universal to power the media conglomerate’s mobile commerce ad campaign. Adgregate's ShopAds enables customers to shop and complete secure transactions within Flash-based ad banners. The mobile version of these ads are similar. NBC is using ShopAds to advertise, publicize and sell the DVD release of movie Inglourious Basterds within rich media ad-units on mobile devices. Greystripe, which recently got an $2 million infusion from NBC Universal, will include the branded ShopAds on its rich-media mobile ad network. The idea of bringing together shopping and advertising on mobile phones is compelling considering that rise in e-commerce on mobile devices. According to a Deloitte report addressing mobile shopping, one in five shoppers plan on using a mobile phone to assist with holiday purchases, from researching prices and other product information to actually buying presents. There seems to be a huge opportunity for the crossroads of both retail and advertising platforms. The deal with NBC is a big coup for the year-old startup. Adgregate Markets has seen a good amount of growth since it’s launch last year; recently acquiring widget business Gydget and scoring a deal with distribution deal with Google’s DoubleClick, enabling advertisers on that platform to integrate ShopAds widgets with just a few mouse-clicks. The startup also recently launched its own shopping cart platform, ShopCloud. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| GOGII Raises $8.2 Million Series B For Free iPhone Texting Posted: 10 Dec 2009 04:15 AM PST
GOGII, the company behind the popular iPhone applicaiton textPlus, announced today that they have raised an $8.2 million Series B led by Matrix Partners, with existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also participating in the round. GOGII was one of the first companies to get funded by the iFund initiative, which is a venture capital partnership between Apple and Kleiner Perkins. Matrix Partners General Partner Dana Stalder is taking a board seat with this round of funding. Stalder is the former Chief Technology Officer & SVP of Product & Marketing of PayPal. Since launching the textPlus in June 2009, GOGII has become a crowd favorite in the iPhone community, making texting messaging free to anywhere in the world, using a textPlus username. According to GOGII, the textPlus app has been downloaded almost 3 million times, reaching over 9 million people, with over 300 million messages sent using the service since June. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Peek Email Device May Find Life In Europe: The PeekFON Posted: 10 Dec 2009 03:55 AM PST
But the Peek may just be the perfect device for Europe, and Spain’s FON is going to take a shot at distributing it here under the brand PeekFon. (See Robin Wauters’ take on TechCrunch Europe) FON CEO Martin Varsavsky hinted at the deal yesterday to me backstage at the Le Web conference in Paris. Here’s why he think the Peek is perfect for Europe – avoiding roaming charges: The Peek doesn’t make sense in the U.S., he says, because people don’t have mobile roaming charges and so their phones are perfect for email. But in Europe people get “killed” on roaming charges. The PeekFon can help solve that problem. Varsavsky later posted more information on his blog. The device will be available at FON on December 15:
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| By Extension, Chrome Battles Firefox Posted: 10 Dec 2009 03:15 AM PST
Perhaps Firefox’s biggest selling point is that it has an expansive library of extensions that work with the browser. Even as Firefox gets beaten in performance tests, and people complain about its bloat, the extensions are always the thing that users go back to as the reason that they can’t switch. But now Chrome has those too. Sure, not as many yet, but they’re coming — fast. And fast is maybe the main key to this. As Google demonstrated tonight at a Chrome Extension launch event at its headquarters in Mountain View, it is very, very easy to make extensions for Chrome. "Extensions are just web pages," Chrome engineer Erik Kay noted at one point before he and fellow engineer, Aaron Boodman, made an extension live on stage in all of five minutes. Later on in the event, Google had third-party extension developers come up and describe just how easy it was to create them for Chrome. Obviously, those guys are all going to say the right things on stage, but I had conversations with a number of different extension developers after the event — every single one of them gushed about the ease of making a Chrome extension. Not only did they gush, but many made the obvious comparison to making an extension for Firefox. Again, every single one of them noted just how much easier it was with Chrome. This is largely thanks to the fact that Chrome extensions really are built simply using web languages as Kay noted. Creating a Firefox extension is a much more involved process. But perhaps even more problematic for Mozilla is the extension submission process. With Chrome, for the majority of extensions, once you submit them, they are instantaneously live in the Extensions Gallery. The exceptions are if they use native code or access the file system, Google reserves the right to review them (which basically amounts to the developer signing an agreement that they have no malicious intent, and sending it to Google). The process for submitting a Firefox extension can take longer — in some cases significantly longer, I was told by multiple developers. The few I asked wouldn’t go so far as to compare it to Apple’s App Store review process, but they said it’s not entirely dissimilar either. Google, on the other hand, is much more open. And that’s gaining them a lot of fans in the extension developer community.
One of them is James Joaquin, the CEO of Xmarks, one of the most popular extensions for Firefox (it was formerly known as Foxmarks), that just launched a Chrome version. Joaquin could not believe just how quickly you can get an extension out there with Chrome compared to what it’s like for the other browsers. Michael Galpert, one of the founders of Aviary, makers of another new Chrome extension was also amazed by the extension updating process. Much like Chrome itself, extensions auto-update, removing a problem that developers often find annoying: That most users will not take the time to update, even when prompted. Some users may be uneasy that developers can push updates at their extensions as they please, but Galpert thinks the trade-off is definitely worth it. It’s also worth noting that thanks to this auto-updating feature, Google is able to remotely kill any extension that is found to be doing bad things to people’s systems. Yes, Google has a kill switch, much like Apple does for iPhone apps. Also significant is that for the installation and updating of Chrome extensions, no browser restart is necessary. Again, with Firefox, that is the case. “It just works,” Kay noted in a very Apple-like way. But in terms of the extensions themselves, nothing is more important than performance. With Firefox, unfortunately, that’s been an issue. The more extensions you have, the worse the overall browsing experience seems to get. Google is promising that Chrome extensions will not suffer from the same fate. Kay noted that the team installed 50 extensions on one browser to see how it would affect things like startup time and page load time. At first, they did a slow page load times, but Google went to work and made some tweaks to get the load times running in line with regular Chrome load times — again, with 50 extensions running. Every Chrome extension is also its own process. At one point Kay and Boodman showed off a “badly behaving extension” that was designed to wreak havoc on a system’s CPU resources. While it did that, the other tabs and extensions remained running, unfazed. Using the Task Manager within Chrome, they simply shut down the offending extension and continued browsing as if nothing had ever happened. Google has also developed a new technology that it calls “Isolated Worlds,” which allows them to keep the scripts a webpage normally uses separate from the scripts an extension may run. This is important from a security perspective.
Basically, the gist I got from tonight was that Google has perfected browser extensions. Again, obviously Google is going to be selling that message, but it’s actually the third-party developers who seem even more excited about it. At one point early on, Google thanked Mozilla and Firefox for making extensions something that people demanded. They then dove into their presentation about how they’ve made them better. Thanks to Mozilla and Firefox it’s now something people demand and want. Over the past several months, Internet Explorer has continued to lose market share as Firefox and Chrome gain it. But at some point, with the extension excuse now out of the way, I’m starting to think Chrome will begin eating into Firefox’s share as well. Yes, right now Chrome is just a single-digit sliver of the market, but it has a few very compelling things in its favor. First, it’s now available on all the major platforms (Windows, OS X, Linux). Second, it offers the best performance (though some tests have Safari slightly ahead). Third, it has extensions — that third-party developers seem to love making already. Sure, it may not be Google’s stated goal to take on Firefox. In fact, they would undoubtedly say their goal is simply to create the best overall web experience for end users. I’m sure they wouldn’t even admit to trying to battle Internet Explorer. But when you’re saying your browser is the best, you’re also saying that someone else’s is worse. And now that Chrome Extensions have equalized things, Google is making the case that its browser is the best, and Firefox is worse. And developers already seem to be in agreement. That’s not good news for Mozilla. [photo: 20th Century Fox] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Opera Sweetens Mobile Browser Offering For OEMs With Unified UI, Android Version Posted: 10 Dec 2009 02:40 AM PST
The distributor version of Opera Mobile includes the Norwegian company’s new, cross-platform UI framework, which fits right into its strategy to unify the look and feel of its mobile browsers. Essentially, the framework allows operators and OEMs to implement the same user experience across their entire range of handsets. Opera Software says 135 million smartphones running Opera Mobile have been shipped globally to date by a wide variety of handset makers and carriers. The new user-interface framework is built on top of the core browser engine and enables OEMs and operators to “build once, deploy everywhere” across platforms and handsets. The addition of an Android version is particularly interesting, although it’s surprising that the company says it is not considering the release of a mass-consumer version of Opera Mobile for Android phones because of the ‘platform’s limitations’. That said, its other mobile browser product, Opera Mini, has had an Android version since November 2008. We’ve also just learned that the Android version of Opera Mini 5 will be available for mass consumer download ’soon’, although the company declined to confirm a date at this point. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Thursday Giveaway: Pulse Smartpen Posted: 10 Dec 2009 01:44 AM PST  Man, am I sleepy! I almost didn't post a giveaway for you all today! Maybe I won't post the giveaway and maybe I'll just go take a nap… what do you guys think? Nap? Or Pulse Smartpen. You'll recall that the Pulse Smartpen is one of the coolest toys we've played with this year and we're giving a kit away to one lucky commenter. How do we keep our prices so amazingly low? We get this stuff free and pass the savings on to you! Also remember we're still giving away a SMART Board!
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| Malaysian Payments Company MOL Global Snaps Up Friendster Posted: 09 Dec 2009 08:44 PM PST
We heard reports that Friendster was going to shopping itself to an Asian technology company but tonight, the news was released that MOL Global, a Malaysian payments company, has purchased social network Friendster. The full press release is below. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but we’ve heard that the purchase price is around $100 million. Friendster, which was founded in 2001, has raised over $45 million in venture capital to date, and is sitting on some potentially lucrative IP. The acquisition makes sense because while Friendster is no longer hot in the U.S., it’s most definitely still has members in the Asia/Pacific region. The social network, which just rolled out a much-needed redesign, appointed Richard Kimber as its new CEO, who used to head Sales and Operations in South East Asia for Google. MOL Global and Friendster already had a partnership power the payments ecosystem of the Friendster Wallet and its payments platform. MOL Retail and Payment Channels and Leading Online Social Network Combine to Form Massive Content Distribution and E-commerce Platform in Asia for Over 100 Million Users KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ — MOL Global Pte. Ltd. (”MOL Global”), an affiliate of leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad (”MOL”), and Friendster, Inc. (”Friendster”), the operator of a top global web site based on traffic and a leading social network in Asia, announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which MOL Global will acquire 100% of Friendster. The principal shareholder of MOL is Tan Sri Vincent Tan, the Chairman and CEO of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, a leading, diversified Malaysian conglomerate that has annual revenues in excess of US$1.8 billion. Following the acquisition, the operations of MOL and Friendster will be combined to create Asia’s largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL’s offline retail channel partners and payment platform with Friendster’s large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia. “The merger with Friendster will continue to transform the social networking industry, combining a highly intuitive and successful social media site and online marketing channel with an integrated payment platform and content network which includes games, goods, gifts, music and video. We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base, here in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, president and chief executive officer of MOL. MOL uses the leverage of a network of over 500,000 physical and virtual payment channels across 75 countries worldwide to collect payments for content and services. Its core markets are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India. MOL has relationships with over 70 online game publishers that have a suite of over 200 online game titles. It also has partnerships with music, movie and video content owners and distributors across the region. “Friendster and MOL are both industry pioneers and are close partners. This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event,” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster. “The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline.” In 2003, Friendster pioneered social networking, and today is a leading web site in Asia, with over 75 million registered users and over 90 percent of daily traffic coming from the region. Asian youths have embraced Friendster and use it as their primary means of connecting to and keeping in touch with friends, self-expression, sharing content and news with friends, and as a source of entertainment. Friendster users also enjoy local music, gifting, photo sharing, online games, and using Friendster on their mobile devices. All of these are incorporated in Friendster’s product suite and will be further developed over time with MOL, specifically with Asian youths in mind. Friendster and MOL entered a global partnership in October of this year where MOL was appointed to provide an integrated payments platform, as a foundation for The Friendster Wallet and The Friendster Gift Shop, for Friendster’s users. The new combined entity will now build upon that initial set of products to deliver a content distribution network and e-commerce platform, enabling a wide array of content to be distributed to Friendster’s community and monetize via micro-transactions using MOL’s payment platform. MOL will use the leverage of its physical distribution networks to localize and extend the online reach of social networking in Southeast Asia to the physical world through Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s substantial assets across Malaysia and the region, including retail franchises in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia such as Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Borders, Krispy Kreme, Wendy’s and Papa John’s Pizza, just to name a few. Friendster recently launched a new brand and web site packed with new features representing a significant milestone in the company’s history and further signifying the company’s evolution to focus on the Asian youth market. The notable changes include a new fun-centric brand, and a redesigned web site with a focus on local relevance, fun and simplicity. The combined entity will maintain offices in various locations, around the world, including Mountain View, CA (USA), the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Ganesh Kumar Bangah will become the Group Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity while Richard Kimber will become the Non-Executive Chairman. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| There Are Already 500 Chrome Extensions. They’ll Work On Mac Chrome By Week’s End. Posted: 09 Dec 2009 07:24 PM PST
And it’s easy to see why after tonight’s presentation. Two software engineers on the Chrome team, Aaron Boodman and Erik Kay built a working in extension live from scratch in front of the audience in about five minutes. And it wasn’t just a demo “Hello World” extension, it was a useful one that can pop-up a Gmail message window populated with a link to the page you’re on. The reason they’re so easy to build is because they use the same technology that any web developer will already be familiar with. “Extensions are just web pages,” Kay noted. Another thing of note said tonight was that Chrome extensions will be working on the new Chrome for Mac by the end of the week, Google expects. To be clear, this will be on the dev channel (which you can find on this page) and not the beta channel just yet. Full support (and the first actual release of Chrome for Mac) is expected by early 2010. This dev channel Mac support of extensions shouldn’t surprise users of Chromium, the open-source browser that Chrome is built-off of. Extensions are currently working in the latest Mac builds of Chromium, but Google accidentally shut off the ability to install them (you can learn how to easily turn them back on here). And with the beta channel now out for Mac, the dev channel versions of Chrome will be built directly off of newer Chromium builds.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| The Facebook Privacy Fiasco Begins Posted: 09 Dec 2009 06:40 PM PST
Facebook is spinning the news as a win for users. They’re supposedly getting more control than ever over what they’re sharing, and it’s easier than ever to control it. But that’s not the real story. Marshall Kirkpatrick over at ReadWriteWeb has nailed it: this is Facebook’s move to push people to share with the public. For those who haven’t been following the six month buildup to today’s announcement: last June, Facebook rolled out a new feature called the Everyone update. In short, this is Facebook’s answer to Twitter. Unlike other content posted to Facebook which is managed by the privacy features the social network built its reputation on, ‘Everyone’ updates are accessible to the web at large. That means Facebook can leverage it for real-time search, and can also syndicate it to other places, like Google and Bing. The feature has been available in the site’s privacy settings since last summer, but most people didn’t use it (and probably didn’t even know it was there). The new privacy launch today puts this as the default option for many users. Much of the general press is going to simply regurgitate Facebook’s press release, which boasts that Facebook is giving users more control than ever:
Sounds great, right? Let’s get one thing straight: Facebook is forcing users to choose their new privacy options to promote the Everyone update, and to clear itself of any potential wrongdoing going forward. If there is significant backlash against the social network, it can claim that users willingly made the choice to share their information with everyone. That’s why there are all of these notifications informing users about what these privacy features do. And it’s why there’s now a Privacy Center. The vast majority of users will ignore this information the same way 80% of them have ignored privacy settings in the first place. But Facebook will still be able to claim that it did its best to get their informed consent. The Electronic Frontier Foundation agrees:
Facebook first announced many of these changes in July. In the five months since then, I’ve asked Facebook representatives a few times what the hold up was. The response? “We want to get it right.” At the time, I suspected that Facebook might be backpedaling from its decision to promote Everyone updates the same way it started backpedaling from the Twitter-inspired redesign. That clearly wasn’t the case. So what happens next? Facebook will doubtless see the same kind of knee-jerk reaction it gets for any change it makes. But even that will be smaller than the outrage over this year’s redesign, because the changes are much less in-your-face. It’ll probably take a bit longer for the real problems to begin. First, we’ll hear some reports of people accidentally sharing too much in their updates, only to have a prospective employer find that information when they run a name check on Facebook. Similar stories have been around for ages, so most people probably won’t be alarmed. The real trouble will start when Facebook starts sharing these status updates with the search engines and other third parties. Bing will be getting access to Facebook ‘Everyone’ status updates in early 2010. Google will only have access to Fan Pages at first, but don’t be surprised if they cough up the cash for access to the status updates too. Both of these sites cache data. And you can be sure more sites and applications will be pulling in these updates too. Up until now, Facebook alone has maintained control over the vast majority of content uploaded to the site. Get rid of it on Facebook, and it’s usually gone, at least from the prying eyes of a stranger. If you’re about to apply for a new job and want to go through and clean up your update history, you can still do that. But with ‘Everyone’, that changes. From Facebook’s privacy policy:
In other words, if users do wind up sharing far more than they intended to, Facebook can’t do much to repair the damage. Will this have a major impact on Facebook’s success? Probably not. But people may no longer perceive it as a private site, which is what made it popular in the first place. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Divvyshot Releases iPhone App For Easy Photo Sharing Posted: 09 Dec 2009 05:09 PM PST
Divvyshot, a startup that makes sharing photos between groups very easy, has just launched an iPhone app to make photo sharing on the go even easier. Divvyshot’s web service launched in private alpha in March 2009. Divvyshot still isn’t open to the public, but if you download their new iPhone app, you’ll be able to sign up for an account. With the new Divvyshot iPhone app [iTunes link], the service is making it easier then ever to share photos on the go or to another Divvyshot user. Divvyshot already has deep integration with photo services including Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, and now you can upload all your photos from your phone. There’s just one catch — you’ll have to first manage these accounts from the Divvyshot website before you can use them on your phone. The iPhone app uses some of the core features of the iPhone, including the accelerometer and the GPS for one of its coolest features: being able to send photos from one iPhone to another, wirelessly. All you have to do is put the two devices together, and shake them, and accept the photo transfer. After that, the photos in the event will start streaming to your iPhone. You’re automatically added to the event so the photos show up in your Divvyshot account on both the app and the web service. Divvyshot is preparing for some much needed updates to its web client as well, and is also launching an alpha version of its desktop client in the next couple of weeks. The desktop client will sync your photo library on your computer to your Divvyshot account, instantly. Divvyshot was a winter 2009 Y-Combinator company. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Kayak’s New iPhone App Takes Flight Posted: 09 Dec 2009 04:52 PM PST
Discount travel site Kayak has launched a new version of its popular, free iPhone app. The new app, which is already in App Store, includes a trips management tool, an upgraded user interface and faster search. New features and upgrades include a two-dimensional desktop-style navigation system, an enhanced flight, hotel and car search design including a new scrolling calendar, faster search and additional search options and filters. It basically comes one step closer to bringing the web experience of searching Kayak to the iPhone. The app also serves as an itinerary management service that consolidates flight, hotel, car rental, maps and other events into a single itinerary. Kayak’s paid app ($3.99) for flights on business or first class has also been updated with the trip management feature and improved search and UI. One feature missing from the app is the ability to conduct a transaction within Kayak; if you purchase a flight or hotel, you are led to the airline or hotel chain’s mobile page, which is often difficult to use on the phone. To remedy this problem, Kayak plans to add a booking assistant tool to its next generation of iPhone and mobile apps in 2010 that would allow users to buy the travel item without having to go the the airline, hotel or car rental site. Kayak will also be folding in advertising into apps but isn’t sure how ads will be integrated. Kayak is continuing to expand its mobile strategy, with several iPhone apps, a BlackBerry app and and a recently launched Android app. The iPhone app is amounting to 5 percent of Kayak’s total search queries (around one million per day), and already has 600,00 downloads after launching in February. Kayak is pouring 20 percent of its development resources into mobile, says Kayak’s CMO Robert Birge. Kayak, which has raised a healthy $223 million in funding, has seen steady growth in a over-crowded space. And Microsoft’s Bing newly launched travel search engine looks a whole lot like Kayak’s but isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Rippol Launches Lightweight Version Of Video Discovery Engine Posted: 09 Dec 2009 04:40 PM PST
Rippol, the video discovery engine that combines both complex algorithms with user suggestions to surface interesting content, has tweaked its interface slightly to provide users with a lightweight version of the site when browsing. After receiving feedback post-launch, Rippol decided to adjust the settings of the site to not require users to login or register with the site to view video. The startup tells us the lighter version is 100% HTML with no Javascript so older browsers can use it easily. The idea behind launching a simpler version is to allow users to view videos and then decide if they want a more personalized experience. Rippol has also launched a new content section called “Buzzy” which are videos that were data mined out of social networks. The videos, which have been stripped of personal information, showcase of content that is currently being talked about or posted on Twitter and Facebook. The algorithm that aggregates the videos takes into account the most recent videos and the most posted videos or Tweeted videos. Rippol has also developed a go-around with the whole Hulu fiasco. After debuting at the Real-Time CrunchUp a few weeks ago, the startup's co-founder Aaron Crayford received notice from Hulu that the video embeds on Rippol from Hulu were in violation of the terms of service which state that embeds are for personal, non-commercial use only. While Rippol says that they won't place ads in the videos or around the videos, Hulu said that the simple fact that Rippol plans to make money from the entire content service violates the TOS. Instead, Hulu offered Rippol the ability to us its site map, which is a feed that links back to Hulu for video playback. To circumvent the Hulu situation, Rippol is using Comcast’s Fancast, which it was already crawling. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Watch First Round Capital’s Startups Sing About Their Big Dreams Posted: 09 Dec 2009 04:26 PM PST First Round Capital 2009 Holiday Card from First Round Capital on Vimeo. This is quickly shaping up to be my favorite holiday tradition. First Round Capital has once again rounded up all of its portfolio companies to create a video holiday card that’s as hilarious as it is heartwarming. This year, we get to witness each startup team singing their hearts out. The theme? “Building Big Dreams”, inspired by Les Misérables. Not even Aaron Patzer, who just sold Mint for $170 million, gets a bye. This is a great followup to last year’s card, when First Round Capital got all of its startups to dance their way through the gloomiest days of the recession. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| With Live Streaming A Go, Qik Rushes Towards The App Store Posted: 09 Dec 2009 03:33 PM PST
I’ve actually had the Qik live-streaming app on my iPhone for a while, thanks to the magic of ad-hoc distribution. Unfortunately, Apple’s policies restrict the number of copies Qik can send this way, so the application remained mostly a proof-of-concept for most people. Given how quickly Qik submitted the app to the store, we expect the official build that will likely get approved to be the same one we have been using, which we reviewed here. It’s solid, but the video quality leaves a little to be desired compared to some competing video apps (none of which did live streaming). Like Ustream, Qik did release a version of its app that allowed users to upload videos — but not live videos, until now. Following Ustream and Qik, you can probably expect other companies like 12seconds to get into the iPhone live streaming game as well. Once all these apps are available, the question is how much will people use them? Services like Qik in particular seemed hot among some of the tech elite last year, but this year have seemed to have large cooled off. Perhaps that’s because people have been ditching their Nokia phones (it seemed like everyone was using the N95 with Qik for a while) in favor of devices like the iPhone. Now that these apps are allowed on the iPhone, will we see a resurgence of links to live streams on Twitter again? Below find some examples of Qik videos I shot with my iPhone 3GS using the ad-hoc version of the app. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| TigerTag Bets On Good Samaritans To Reunite People With Lost Valuables Posted: 09 Dec 2009 02:12 PM PST
Startup TigerTag launched this week to help reunite people with their lost valuables by “harnessing the power of goodwill.” Here’s how it works: Owners affix a unique TigerTag to their valuables, then register their items at TigerTag.com. If an item is misplaced, the finder goes to TigerTag.com and enters the unique ID of the item, which will allows the finder to connect with the owner. The service itself is free but TigerTag charges users $2 for shipping and handling of the tags. When you lose an item that has a TigerTag finder, you go to the site and fill out a lost form. When the finder registers the Tag on the site, the platform will connect an notify the owner. Of course, the site is built completely around the premise that finders would actually be good samaritans and make the effort to try to find the owner via TigerTag’s site. TigerTag is also being offered as a white label service to large consumer electronics brands, which could distribute the the service as part of their product packaging. TigerTag says that it has already signed an agreement with a device manufacturer and are in the process of negotiating more partnerships. The startup was co-founded by an former Skype employee, Eric Lagier, who was responsible for launching Skype into mobile. I like the idea of TigerTag in theory, but as I wrote above, the company is taking a big bet on the kindness of others in its venture. Call me a cynic, but I’ve had many valuables stolen vs. returned back to me. Startups in the space include Life360. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| CrunchGear In China: The Ex-Pats Posted: 09 Dec 2009 01:05 PM PST  I'm sitting on a darkened patio of a club called Viva in the Futian district of Shenzhen. It's not too late - about 1am - and the place is busy but not full. It's mostly ex-pats here, folks who work at the various sourcing companies nearby. This place is so anti-China that it almost looks European. Techno is blaring out of the bar and there's a pool table. Down the way is a coffee house where English teachers from Vermont are playing chess. A little further down is a Tuscan restaurant run by a real Italian who sits at his own table and eyes the clientele. One plate of pasta there costs more than what the average Chinese makes in a week. This is the other Shenzhen. It's a cocoon, perhaps, or an escape. It used to be worse. There used to be one bar where all the ex-pats went. It was just like in Prague where, for years, there were only one or two spots they flocked to, where they isolated themselves from the tumult of a post-Communist society.
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| WikiHow Gets Pretty, And Hits 20 Million Monthly Visitors Posted: 09 Dec 2009 12:35 PM PST
How-to sites are always popular on the Web because they give people practical instructions on how to perform specific tasks and projects. They are also search engine optimization (SEO) machines, getting most of their traffic from search engines. About.com and eHow are the biggest sites in the category, but there are a slew of others, including wikiHow which just crossed the 20 million monthly unique visitor mark (see Google Analytics screenshot above provided by CEO Jack Herrick). It also released a major redesign today which makes the crowdsourced site downright pretty. (Wikipedia should take note). While sites such as eHow (which Herrick founded and sold to Demand Media) and About.com are still roughly four times as big, getting to 20 million monthly uniques with only 6 employees and no VC money is nothing to sniff at. Besides the new look, some of the new features include a video curation tool, a guided editing page which automatically organizes the how-to articles into Steps, Tips, And Warnings, category pages (also great for SEO), user profile pages (duh), and images on the homepage. There is also a community page to help train new editors and collaborate on articles. The site is filled with tons of useful and not-so-useful information such as “How To Use Old Corks” (gotta love that easy chair). And is all about openness. You can even opt out of advertising if you want. What is your favorite How-to site?
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| There’s A Stranger In My Tweet House Posted: 09 Dec 2009 11:54 AM PST
Since recovering from its last bit of downtime a few days ago, reports of random tweets showing up in users stream have been popping up all over Twitter. I actually noticed the problem a couple of times over the past few days myself. Today, Twitter has acknowledged the issue and says it’s working on a fix. It also points to this page for more information about it. What’s funny is that the page first and foremost asks you to make sure the tweet you’re seeing is not actually a new-style retweet (not an issue) and that it is just a random tweet showing up in your timeline (an issue). Quite a few users still seem confused about what the difference is, and it’s hard to blame them. And 10 pages worth of comments with specific examples suggest this issue is pretty widespread. While random tweets in your stream is definitely an annoying problem, much worse is that others are reporting not only this issue but that they’re receiving text message alerts for these random tweets. Plenty of Twitter users have the service set up with SMS to send a message every time people that they choose tweet, but apparently this random tweet problem is also triggering SMS messages for many of them. It’s hard to think of something much more annoying then your phone getting pinged every time a random person tweets. Others still are reporting getting SMS messages from people they do actually follow, but don’t have that feature turned on for. Another major problem with this is that many of these random tweet injections are coming from users with protected accounts. With a protected account, you are able to control which users can see your tweets. This new bug apparently destroys that security. Let’s hope Twitter fixes this issue quickly, but again, it has been a number of days already. Twitter, it seems, has some leaky pipes right now. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Backstage With Chad Hurley, Talking About His Ridiculously Cool Life Posted: 09 Dec 2009 11:31 AM PST
What does one do when the company you’ve cofounded sells to Google for $1.65 billion? You have fun, that’s what. In addition to his full schedule at YouTube, Hurley has invested in a Formula 1 racing team and cofounded a fashion site called Hlaska. My main question is what Hurley’s going to do next: “Once you’ve blown all the money from YouTube on the race cars and the fashion company what will you do for your next startup to make it all back again?” His answer? Skip to the 1:40 mark. Off camera I asked Hurley about the whole tattoo thing in Israel. He didn’t have too much too say other than “it was sort of cool,” or something similar. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| AOL’s Armstrong Tells CNBC He Is More Interested In Nichebusters Than Blockbusters (Full Transcript) Posted: 09 Dec 2009 10:25 AM PST
On the eve of AOL’s official reemergence as an independently-traded company (although in reality its shares are already trading), CEO Tim Armstrong gives CNBC’s Julia Boorstin a lengthy interview on his message to investors and where he hopes to take AOL. He is fully aware that cost-cutting is only going to take AOL so far and he that investors are concerned whether the “newer business [is] gonna be able to overtake the declining business.” But he thinks it is just a matter of execution and promises to show investors the “metrics,” “changes,” and “great products and services” which will drive AOL forward. His focus is on making brand advertising work on the Web and marrying that to targeted content. He notes that spinning off from Time Warner will allow AOL to escape the blokcbuster mentality which pervades the media company. Time Warner, he says, is “a company that can actually make the hits business work, you know, at scale. I think at AOL we would use our cash slightly differently” with a more “focused internet strategy . . . precisely done.” Sounds like a nichebuster strategy to me, something I’ve advocated that Time Warner adopt in the past (I define a nichebuster as content targeted at a large niche audience). Armstrong elaborates on this further:
He’s spoken about how he is preparing AOL for a fragmenting Web in the past. Going niche is a valid strategy, and ironically may even set AOL up to become the Time Inc. of the 21st Century. Armstrong also talks about what he learned at Google, namely to capture great ideas from employees and to build great consumer products:
CNBC is starting to put up clips from the interview on its site. The first one is embedded below. But we also have the entire raw transcript under the video. JULIA BOORSTIN: Thank you for doing this interview again. So– so, why is it important on the eve of AOL, you know, AOL’s big IPO, why is important for AOL to be a standalone, publically-traded company? TIM ARMSTRONG: Sure– first, thanks for the interview. And– I think it’s really important for a couple different– main reasons. I think, number one is, you know, the internet is a very competitive place, and I think whether it’s hiring employees or whether it is, you know, competing for M & A, those type of things, I think that we need to have a very clear, clean focus and act like an internet company. And I think that’s– that’s one reason. I think the second reason is that we would probably use our resources, you know, differently. I think inside of Time Warner which has been a very successful company and a company that has actually, I think, turned out to be a company that can actually make the hits business work, you know, at scale. I think at AOL we would use our cash slightly differently and the– and overall resources of the company. So– I think what you see from us is a very clear, focused internet strategy, and a strategy both on the business side but also on the use of resources and cash side which will be, you know, precisely done. And I think that’s– you know, a couple of the main reasons why it makes sense. JULIA BOORSTIN: You just finished your road show to investors, what was your message to investors about what the value is in this new AOL? TIM ARMSTRONG: Sure, so I think there’s kind of– you know, quick five point bullet points for investors. I think number is, you know, I say the management team because the management team, I think– competing in the internet space takes deep knowledge– you have to understand the network effects. That’s one. I think the second– one is really focused on the AOL brand. I mean, we have a global brand, it’s a great starting point for us. Not many companies have global brands. I think third is really kind of a clear strategy. And I think the strategy we’ve been executing since July 24th which is really content ads and communications is a big asset for us, and we’re making progress. And then, the– the fourth reason I think comes down to– really, in essence, what the company’s gonna spin out as. So, we’re gonna spin out with no debt, you know, with some resources to continue to move forward. And I think it’s a great position for us to be in the turn around. The last point is I just say we’re serious about the cost structure, is that this business, we announced the fact that we’re gonna have a layoff of up to one third of the employees. So, I think when you look through those five bullet points, the company’s in a position as long as we execute, and that’s really our job to be successful. JULIA BOORSTIN: So, what kinds of questions did you hear from in– investors on this road– road show? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think some basic questions which are what– what’s AOL’s business. I think people haven’t gotten updated in a fair amount of time in– in detail on what we’re doing. I think they also wanted to know, really, about the strategy. I think if people– investors are betting on this company, they’re betting on the fact that we have a clear strategy and we have clear execution. I think they also wanted to know what we were planning on doing with access business and other parts of the business that people probably historically, you know, know us for. But– in general, I think the investors– are very interested. I think that they’re expecting execution and wanna see execution metrics. And overall, I think there was overwhelming support for the strategy we have. JULIA BOORSTIN: What are investor’s biggest concerns, and what are you– what are your biggest concerns? What do you think your biggest challenges are right now? TIM ARMSTRONG: Right, so I think– investor’s biggest concerns, I think, come down, you know, what– what’s really here at the business, there’s a business that’s– that’s large, historic and declining. There’s a newer business which I think they’re tryin’ to understand and see. So, I think their concern is is the newer business gonna be able to overtake the declining business? On my plate, I think I have a different set of, you know, concerns because I believe in the new business. I think my concerns are really makin’ sure that we execute. I think, you know, we’re running this company much differently now, we’re very focused and very metrics based. And I really wanna make sure we execute the strategies, they’re gonna move the metrics and become transparent for– for investors. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, the AOL Time Warner merger a decade ago was considered– a debacle to be fair, and a deal that didn’t work out the way it was supposed to. How long do you think it’s gonna take for you to live that down and for the company to live that down? TIM ARMSTRONG: So, I– I think number one is, you know, we have a big opportunity to change the brand almost immediately. I think with the focus and energy we’re putting around the new strategy, I think people are actually starting to see the changes at the company. That’s number one. And number two is, I think as you look forward for this company, you know, is the turnaround gonna take one year? No, it’s gonna take longer than one year. Is it gonna take– five years? I hope not. And I think within that sorta time frame, I think you will– consumers and the business community will see us do some incredible– products and services, I think, that were really meant for the future of the internet. And I think that’s what it takes to change the perception of the brand is you have to be authentic about it. You can’t just tell people you’re gonna change, you actually have to show people. And as I say internally all the time is we live in the “Show Me State”. Now, show me the metrics, show me the changes, show me the great products and services. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, you– you’ve rebranded the logo. You’re still keeping the name AOL, but it’s a slightly different look, what does the AOL brand stand for now? What do you want it to stand for? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think we want it to stand for creativity. I mean, I– at the end of the day, this business is a business that’s built on our employees, and one of our board members, Jim Stengel, you know, likes to say and I– I learned this from him while I was at Proctor & Gamble, he says, you know, brands are really built by the people who work on them, and if the people who work on them aren’t enthusiastic and they’re not doing their work– the best work they can, that’ll show up in the brand. And I think there has been a sea change at AOL. I think we have employees who are enthused now. Some of the products we’re gonna be– I think launching in the next three months are probably some of the best products the company’s done in a long time. And at the end of the day, it’s about the enthusiasm. I think our brand is about creativity, and I think that creativity is a direct– reflection of the employees enthusiasm. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, you have had to slash your employees, I know you’re asking for 2,500 volunteers of people to take packages and leave, how important are these layoffs in restructuring? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, I think the restructuring is about reengineering. I think the company–when I got here was in state where, you know, we had the access business which is declining, and the advertising business which held– holds huge promise and the content business. But is the company totally structured correctly? The answer’s no. And I think, you know, a lotta people looked at the announcement we made as, “Oh, they’re just purely cost cutting.” You know, I’ve been very specific about this since I started as I did the hundred day road show. You know, met the thousands of employees, all the employees actually, all 7,000, met a couple hundred partners externally. And I think in July we locked the strategy down. And what you’re seeing from use, you know, in relation to the cost cutting is not really cost cutting, it’s reengineering based on the strategy. And you know, employees first is our internal model, and our business, you know, model is really about strategy first. So, that’s what– that’s what the changes in employee base are about. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, you came from Google considered best in breed of– of internet companies, what did you learn at Google that you’re bringing here? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think I learned a lot at Google. I would just say at– you know, very personal level, I think working with some of the executives at– at Google, especially Eric Schmidt and Larry and Sergey, I think, you know, I’ve learned a lot about Google– Google doesn’t get credit for the company they run, they run an excellent internally driven, you know, company that is able to capture employee ideas. So, I think one thing I took away from them is capture all the employee ideas, you know, and make sure you can execute them. And then two is I think I took away the focus on the consumer business is you know you have to make great things for consumers, and if you don’t, you end up paying the price for that. So, I think those are the two main things. You know, maybe a third thing with Eric is, you know, how to– how to be a CEO. I think Eric spent some time with me in the transition here, you know, kinda helping me think through what some of the challenges are in the chair and how you deal with them. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, Google’s obviously the search ad giant. You said you wanna– you want AOL to be the display ad giant, to really dominate that space. How are you gonna do that? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think one is, you know, our– our– display business starts with creating great consumer product experiences and having a great ad network. And I think, you know, similar to how other people have been successful on the web, I think it comes from building very, very strong scaled, you know, technologies which this company can do and is doing. And then, number two is, I think, really understanding the brand market– marketing space, the display ad space is– there’s a set of solutions in the marketplace which are, you know, very Silicon Valley based, you know, type solutions, and we’re taking Silicon Valley type mentality around the platforms but mixing it with what I think the big brands in the world want, which is they wanna put their products and services next to the world’s best content experiences. And we’re– that’s what we’re laser focused on doing. JULIA BOORSTIN: But so, what does that mean you’re actually doing for your advertising clients? Is it branded content? What does this actually mean? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, so we’re doing– I mean, we do a spectrum of things for– for our clients. I think one is we do great branded content. So, if you look at some of the properties we have, like a MovieFone or a black voices or an asylum, asylum’s you know, largest content property on the web for young males, you know, we’re able to take big brands and integrate them in branded content experiences. I think also some of those customers want broad reach and to reach as many consumers in their target demographic. So, we use the technology that was built at advertising.com and we are able to offer branded engagement plus very high reach, you know, across the internet. And we have the largest reach– ad network in the U.S., so that’s very helpful. JULIA BOORSTIN: And there’s obviously so much competition in this digital ad space between Microsoft and Yahoo and obviously Google, how does AOL really distinguish its advertising product, and how do you compete in that space? TIM ARMSTRONG: Sure, so I think– number one is I think on the fact that we produce 80 percent of our content ourselves, I think we’re the only large internet company that produces that much content. And I think when you own and are able to operate that content, the advertisers actually are very attracted to it. JULIA BOORSTIN: You say this wave of the internet is all about content, where’s the money in content right now? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, so I think the money in content– first of all, I think, you know, this wave of the internet coming up in the next decade is gonna be about content because if you look at the size of the distribution platforms out there, the Googles the Facebooks, the Twitters, you know, those things work and operate on people’s content. And I think we see that as a big gap in the marketplace where the– people can produce much more content to be much more useful. And I think the second piece of where the money is, the money comes, right now, I think, from– mainly from advertising and from really having specific types of programs for advertisers. If you’re Proctor & Gamble with the Tide brand, you know, the question is can you spend 20 million, 30 million dollars on-line in a way that’s actually not just scaled in reach and technological, but also speaks directly to the consumers. At the end of the day, what Tide expects from us or Proctor & Gamble, is when someone walks down a grocery store aisle, you know, our products and services need to be able to help that– the consumer distinguish why you pull the Tide box off the shelf. And I think our content and our community– communications areas are able to do that for those customers. JULIA BOORSTIN: And you have so many– you have 80 different brands, you earlier mentioned that you wanna have hundreds of different content brands on-line. Is the idea to have different niches that serve different demographics? I mean, what is the strategy to creating all of these different brands? TIM ARMSTRONG: Sure, so the strategy is– twofold. One is on the platform side of creating content, I think we’ve been work for the last five months on a pretty significant– platform which allows us to create very high quality, very high scale– content which we can then grow– and got from 80 to 200 to 300 properties. And we– like to say here we’re building the world’s largest niche, you know, media business. And niche meaning at scale. We wanna have a lot of properties with a lotta users on them. And then, the second piece is really that fragmentation is our friend. As the internet becomes more fragmented, when– if you can produce great content in niche areas and then really leverage the distribution on the internet, you’re looking at a very high scale, high ROI, return-on-capital business. JULIA BOORSTIN: There’s so much content out there on the web already, every newspaper, every magazine, every blog out there, do you think the content market is saturated at all? TIM ARMSTRONG: You know, I look at the content market probably exactly the opposite. Investors asked us that question saying, “Isn’t there a lotta content on the internet today?” And you know, the example I use is– when you think about if you’re going to look at a piece of content, I mean, what you see on the surface is the content itself. What you don’t see is the structured data and how the content was produced, how it was distributed and those things. And my guess is there’s a limited subject matter of content that’s been produced up to this point, and with more technology and more scale behind it, we can have much deeper, richer, you know, more engaging content. So, you know, I think what other people see as a giant web of tangled content, I think we see as our biggest opportunity. JULIA BOORSTIN: So, you– I hear you referring to C.com, you’re new content management system, you say this– using data is gonna help you enable– help enable you to create more better content that’s gonna be able to get higher ad rates it sounds like. Tell me what C.com is and what the strategy is here. TIM ARMSTRONG: So, C does– some very specific things. One is it leverages a lot of internal data here plus data that we license to understand what type of content to producer. And on a very simplistic way from testing the system this fall, we figured out that Halloween actually doesn’t start the third week in September when people are tryin’ to find costumes, you know, that families and– and people are looking for– costumes and Halloween information in August, around August 22nd. So, we were able to move all of our Halloween content a month earlier and see a big return in that. So, that’s why data is important. The second piece is it allows us to add, you know, tens of thousands of content producers. So, we have about 3,500 content producers today, you know, we expect that to go to tens of thousands over the next couple years. That’s important because once you do that, you’re able to create, you know, mass-scale content that’s very targeted and very timely. And then, the third piece of what C does is on the distribution side, it allows us to distribute content not just to our platforms, to other people’s platforms as well. And the money that we’re gonna make in C, first of all– some of the content we’re gonna produce is probably non-commercial. You know, we’ll produce things that are good for the world. And– I think our second piece is the ad system that we have, you know, is we are– we have a church and state on editorial, but we are making the ad system smarter and smarter with the content– from the data that we use from the content producers and the distribution to make it smart, we think the ad model can be moved further underneath the content model and offer, you know, better use– end user experience and advertiser experience. JULIA BOORSTIN: So, effectively, you’ll have– advertisers have more influence over what kind of content is produced? TIM ARMSTRONG: No, I think it’s just the opposite actually. I think that– we’re using both our editorial human resources as well as the data resources to understand what content to produce. I think that the advertisers would love to know why we’re producing content. They don’t need to influence the content production. So, I think you’ll see us with a very, you know, clear church and state way that we produce content, but le– giving advertisers more inclination to why the content produces, where it was sent, how it was sent. JULIA BOORSTIN: So, you’re marrying art and science in content creation– TIM ARMSTRONG: Right. JULIA BOORSTIN: What is the net effect for your business? TIM ARMSTRONG: Right, so the net effect for the business is I think people should expect us to, you know, dramatically scale the amount of content that this company produces– really influence the quality of content on the internet. And I think the third piece, which is the business model piece of it, is you know, how do we actually make advertising in this business model work very, very well. I mean, I think for the last decade, I think every sentence has– for advertising has ended in the word search. You know, people are enthralled by search and have been. And search is a great business. But the reality is the next 50 billion, 100 billion dollars that’s gonna move to this space, a lot of is– based on brand and brand advertising which traditionally, I think, a lot of the traditional companies have done well and the internet companies, you know, are now taking very seriously. And that’s what the benefit is for us. JULIA BOORSTIN: The advertising business has really suffered of the past year, 18 months, double digit declines across the board, do you see the ad market coming back? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, so I– I think there’s a lot of life and energy in the ad market right now. Specifically, I think we see customers reengaged in planning and buying and getting very active. I think one thing that’s very beneficial for our– business and for other internet businesses, as the recession happened, I think a lotta customers went into conference room and says where are consumers and what works? And I think when they come out of the recession, they’re seeing that digital media is an incredible place for them to continue to migrate ad dollars. So, I would– I’d expect, you know, robust growth over the next few years for advertising. JULIA BOORSTIN: Rupert Murdoch has talked a lot about charging for content and implementing– a pay system on his news websites. Do you think there’s value in a pay model for your type of content? TIM ARMSTRONG: Well, I think it’s been a pretty truism to say you can’t bet against Rupert because I think he has been really successful. So, I think when Rupert has ideas like that, I think people should pay attention. I think second of all, is I do see value there. I think that there are pieces of information and content that, you know, can be paid for and– and probably will be paid for. You know, for our business model, version one is really focused on advertising. I think we actually have– a fairly large payments platform in the access business, and millions of people who pay us monthly subscriptions. So, you know, could AOL get into that business? I think that’s something we’d be interested in– in looking at. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, I know you’re– investing a lot in hyper-local content, and you’ve described this as a white space, but local advertising has suffered far more than national advertising over the past year. Why do you see value in local? TIM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, local’s important for a few different reasons. I think one is it’s a very defendable, you know, space. I think that consumers in their local area like local content, like local community– and I think on the advertising side of it, I think– you– you know, people see what’s happened in the newspaper business and other areas where local has kind of gone– has declined. The reality is– is it more important or less important to get people local information– around– advertising. I think it’s probably more important now than it was before. So, the question is who’s gonna figure it out, and who’s gonna capture that, you know, market. So, we see it as a big white space, and we’re aggressively going after it. JULIA BOORSTIN: Now, you have all these different content businesses, but you’re also still involved in communications. And AOL started off with a definitive Instant Messenger. Where does Instant Messenger, you know, and I.C.Q. fit into AOL’s business now? TIM ARMSTRONG: Sure, so I think at a macro level, we’re betting that people are not gonna carry around ten devices and also log into 15 or 20 applications on the web. So, I think we really see the future of the internet– communications as based on unified messaging. So, I’m a consumer, I come on-line, I’d like to log into one application that allows me to see all my social networking traffic, all my e-mail, all of those things. So, we launched a product called Lifestream this summer which is version 1.0 of what I just described. And I would expect us to, you know, continue to launch more and more products in this space over time. JULIA BOORSTIN: But how does that fit with the content business? TIM ARMSTRONG: Oh– the content business specifically, I think the– the messaging and communications business offers a great opportunity for us to recirculate– you know, information to people. So, you know, a lotta people who go into e-mail every day like to look at content as well. And one of the more successful things we’ve done is figured out what type of content to give people as they’re logging into their e-mail– boxes. And I think the other piece is, you know, people love to share content. So, if you think about a great way to distribute content, AIM, I.C.Q., you know, the e-mail property we have, there’s a great distribution mechanism for us to let people share content. 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