Wednesday, July 21, 2010

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TC50 Finalist SeatGeek Closes $1 Million Series A Round, Partners With Nielsen

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:20 AM PDT

SeatGeek, one of the finalists of TechCrunch50 2009, has raised $1 million in Series A funding led by Founder Collective and joined by NYC Seed.

The funding brings SeatGeek's total investment to over $1.5 million, and it intends to use the new capital to hire more engineers and business developers.

Founder Collective and NYC Seed thusly join SeatGeek's current investor line-up, which includes Stage One Capital, Trisiras Group, PKS Capital and angel investors Arie Abecassis, Sunil Hirani, Thomas Lehrman, Allen Levinson and Mark Wachen.

SeatGeek is a bit of an odd duck in the secondary ticket market. The startup essentially forecasts the price of sports and concert tickets on the secondary market, analogous to what Farecast (now Bing Travel) does for airline tickets.

This helps ticket buyers determine whether to buy a ticket immediately or wait for a price drop, while at the same time helping sellers identify the optimal time to unload tickets.

SeatGeek says its crawlers have helped compile a database of millions of ticket transactions as well as a bunch of other factors that influence prices, data it uses to algorithmically predict ticket prices as accurately as possible.

SeatGeek will henceforth focus on making its data and analytics more accessible to strategic partners, consumers, and the media. Recently, the company partnered with Nielsen Entertainment to bring its ticketing data and analytics to the record industry.

In addition, the New York-based company announced the launch of MLB Fan Sentiment pages, which show historical ticketing trends for each team and ranks each team on fan popularity.

For example, on the New York Yankees Fan Sentiment page, fans can see how recent events like George Steinbrenner's death and Alex Rodriguez’ 600th home run chase affected fan interest in the team.

SeatGeek says it will roll out Fan Sentiment pages for all major sports teams and artists in the upcoming weeks.

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Google Spent $1.34 Million On Lobbying In Q2, Up 41 Percent From Last Year

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:06 AM PDT

With the search giant’s growing influence in Washington, it comes of no surprise that Google is pouring more money into lobbying efforts. For the second quarter of 2010, Google spent $1.34 million in lobbying efforts, up 41 percent from the same quarter last year. The number is on par with the amount Google spent on government relations in the first quarter this year, in which the search giant paid $1.38 million to influence lawmakers and regulators. The filings can be found on the U.S. Senate’s lobbying database. This brings Google’s total lobbying spending to $2.72 million for the first half of 2010.

Similar to the previous quarter, Google spent dollars on swaying lawmakers on the regulation of online advertising and privacy and competition issues in online advertising. This relates to Google’s acquisition of AdMob, which was approved by the FTC in late May after intense scrutiny.

Other issues Google is lobbying for include patent reform, consumer privacy issues, cybersecurity as it relates to cloud computing, health information and privacy, renewable energy policies, censorship, cloud computing for government and broadband access.

Interestingly, Google also spent lobbying money on “openness and competition in the online services market,” which could relate to the AdMob deal as well as the potential issue with Apple’s iAd policies (which don’t seem to have taken effect…yet). And Google is probably spending money to avoid scrutiny of its recent $700 million acquisition of travel software giant ITA.

According to a release issued by the Consumer Watchdog, Google also hired outside lobbying firms in the quarter, spending $150,000 on the Podesta Group, $120,000 on Dutko Worldwide, $90,000 on the Franklin Square Group, $60,000 on the Liberty Partners group and $50,000 on McBee Strategic Consulting.

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I-Dosing? Your Kids Aren’t ‘Getting High’ On Digital Music, So Calm Down

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 08:19 AM PDT

One hundred percent nonsense. That's the only way I can describe the story going around talking about how teens are "getting high" while I-Dosing. I tried using I-Doser nearly three years ago, and let me tell you something: it's bunk. Well, the science is there, but don't equate it to "getting high." Do not call your congressman trying to get it banned or whatever because you'd simply be wasting your time.

Microsoft Allays The Fears Of Its Hardcore Xbox 360 Gamers, Says Kinect Will Eventually Be For Them Too

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:24 AM PDT

Microsoft, perhaps sensing that it was losing control of the story, has gone on record as saying, essentially, yes, the Kinect will initially be aimed at a "casual" gaming audience, but after launch we will re-confirm our support for you "hardcores." It will take around 18 months for more hardcore-friendly—think Halo and the like—to show up.

eRepublik Releases Major Relaunch To Increase Gamer Power And Retention

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:37 AM PDT

eRepublik logoYesterday afternoon Alexis Bonte, Founder and CEO of eRepublik emailed to tell me that Russia had attacked Washington DC, with 662 soldiers defending the capital. Today Russia took over DC. Good thing it's just a game. Of course, it's not just any game now that eRepublik, the web based social strategy game, boasts 1.8 million registered users. The game is essentially a browser-based virtual world where users can take on professions, start companies, run political parties, govern countries, foster alliances or declare war. Today eRepublik launches a major new release, eRepublik Rising, that's just entered public beta. The new generation of the game is a complete makeover not just in terms of the visual interface which goes from flat to a much more graphic rich backdrop, but also in the strategy eRepublik has taken.


Data Management Virtualization Startup Actifio Raises $8 Million

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:20 AM PDT

Actifio, a company that specializes in data management virtualization solutions, this morning announced that it has raised $8 million in Series A funding in a round led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Greylock Partners. With the funds, Actifio intends to ramp up sales and marketing efforts.


Lokast Brings Proximity Based Mobile Social Network To Android Phones

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:58 AM PDT

Startup NearVerse, the developers of proximity based mobile social network LoKast is rolling out an Android app today.

Originally launched on the iPhone at SXSW in March, LoKast, which is actually short for "local-casting," allows you to set up a profile that will list all of your photos, selected contacts, videos, web links and music on your mobile phone. You can select which content you'd like to include to the public and which content you'd like to keep private. When a LoKast user is in proximity (300 feet) of other LoKast users, the app will automatically discover other users nearby and allow the user to view and download their content.

The app is optimized for background operation, and will notify a user when a Lokast member crosses their 300-ft radius. The app then allows users to view the available digital profiles of others in the same venue, similar to browsing for Facebook profiles, but targeting those who are physically around them. You can also share music, video and other content with iPhone users who are members of the network.

For example, you can see music library of any user who is in close proximity to you. You can choose to download a 30-second clip of any song to your own profile. Similarly, you can download photos, videos and even contacts from other users into your profile. You'll also soon be able to share apps on your phone with other users.

LoKast is also partnering with bands to help market their content to users. LoKast has struck deals with music distribution companies including The Orchard, IODA and Monalis 360 to provide users with exclusive content within the LoKast app. And production companies, such as Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures, are also using the service to promote their new films.

Of course, some people may not feel comfortable sharing their personal content to complete strangers, which could be a barrier. But Lokast has been actively used at concerts and music events as a digital stage, where users are willing to share photos and music with strangers in their location. Lokast says that over forty artists are using the service at summer concerts across the country including New Kids on the Block, Third Eye Blind, and others.

The beauty of Lokast is that it has its own internal network; eliminating the need for 3G connectivity to run the app, as LoKast works in subways, underground and heavily congested areas such as stadiums, where 3G connectivity is unreliable. The startup's app is effectively all network based and currently has five patents for its proprietary technology.

If users can get used to sharing content with people based on location, versus relationships, Lokast’s apps could take off. The iPhone app has seen moderate traction, downloaded 125,000 times in the first two months. But integration with Facebook could take the app to the next level, allowing users to filter out their actual friends within their location.

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Autodesk Buys Illuminate Labs, Maker Of Lighting Technology For Games

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:34 AM PDT

Design, engineering and entertainment software juggernaut Autodesk has agreed to acquire Illuminate Labs, a privately held maker of lighting technology for game development headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company's Beast middleware solution and Turtle plug-in for Autodesk Maya software enable faster iteration on a game's creative intent, and more realistic in-game lighting. Terms of the transaction remain undisclosed, but it's likely nothing terribly material for NASDAQ-listed Autodesk, which said the transaction is expected to have zero impact on previously issued guidance.


With Traffic Surging, SB Nation Buys One Blog And Starts Another

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:30 AM PDT

To use a sports analogy, sports blog network SB Nation has been racking up a lot of singles. The service’s initial funding and launch, single. A deal with the NHL, single. The SportsStream, single. The 20 regional sites, single. Slowly but surely, they’ve turned that output into a lot of runs. And the result is some very impressive traffic growth. Today brings two more hits to keep the runs coming in.

First, SB Nation has acquired a property: SportingNews’ The Sporting Blog. Launched in 2007, The Sporting Blog is meant to be a slightly more fun take on sports news. But as SportingNews, an outfit that is well over 100 years olds, is moving towards a more comprehensive coverage approach, they believed SB Nation would be a great new home for their blog.

While SB Nation has been putting a lot of work into their regional sites, The Sporting Blog content will help maintain their flagship site and inject some fun into it. The Sporting Blog archives will also be maintained a preserved, SB Nation CEO Jim Bankoff says. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The second maneuver SB Nation is making today is the launch of a new Tumblr blog. While the point of this may not be immediately apparent since SB Nation is already a network over over 270 blogs, SB Nation is following in the footsteps of companies like Newsweek, who have been able to leverage the unique blogging platform to extend their content.

SB Nation has hired Anthony De Rosa, the Channel Manager at Thomson Reuters, to run this blog. Bankoff notes De Rosa’s fandom, and also his popular Tumblr blog, Soup, as the reason for the move.

Mobile Technology Company Movitas Raises $3M, Goes After The Travel Industry

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:08 AM PDT

Mobile communication, marketing and commerce platform vendor Movitas has raised $3 million in a new round of financing from a group of private investors, the company announced earlier this morning, self-reportedly thanks to its success with hotels, holiday resorts and the likes. Movitas says it will use the additional capital to enhance its mobile platform to generate new revenue streams for the travel, tourism and meetings industries.


Trada Raises $5.75M From Google Ventures To Crowdsource Search Engine Marketing

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 04:30 AM PDT

Google’s AdWords may be one of the most successful products in Internet history, but it’s fair to say that most small and medium-sized business owners aren’t exactly experts when it comes to writing their ad copy or picking out keywords — in fact, there’s a whole industry of consultants and firms who specialize in doing just that. Enter Trada, a startup that launched in March that’s looking to help turn the industry on its head with the power of crowdsourcing. The company just closed a $5.75 million Series C round of funding led by Google Ventures, with participation from previous investor Foundry Group. Google Ventures Partner Rich Miner will be joining the board.  And yes, this means Google’s VC arm is taking a dip into paid search marketing, which is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

The basic premise of Trada is to make running an online ad campaign as easy as possible: specify a budget you’re willing to spend on ads, decide which advertising platforms you want your ads to appear on (the site currently supports Bing, Yahoo, and Google), and enter how much you’re willing to pay-per-click or per acquisition. Finish those steps and you’re done — the site sources the heavy lifting, like choosing thousands of keywords to target and writing ad copy, to its community of experts.

At first glance, the fusion of crowdsourcing with online advertising campaigns sounds like a terrible idea — it’s easy to throw away money when someone clueless is managing your account. But Trada CEO Niel Robertson says that the company goes to great lengths to ensure that their “crowd” consists of a group of vetted, seasoned advertising experts. Each expert must be AdWords certified, and they also have to pass Trada’s own 45 minute exam. And users tapping into the platform can see the track record of each expert, so it should be fairly easy to tell if someone isn’t up to par.

Each ad campaign actually has multiple experts working on it, which Robertson says can help diversify the number of good keywords your campaign is targeting (an average campaign on the site has over 6,500 keywords and 110 ads). Each expert is incented to create ads that perform well, because they get rewarded for each click/acquisition their ad receives in the wild (Trada takes a 25% cut of this reward). Trada is also experimenting with incentives that will encourage experts to work together — for example, experts could receive a bigger cut of the proceeds if the aggregate click-through rate of a client’s campaign hits a certain threshold.

Given the fact that this directly involves Google’s bread and butter AdWords, the Google Ventures connection is obviously going to draw some  scrutiny. Robertson says that Trada fully expects this; to stay as above-board as possible, it has gone through its policies and practices with Google account managers to ensure that everything is in order. That won’t silence the critics, but it’s a start.

Trada plans to use the money in part to grow internationally and also to work toward launching support for display ads. When the time comes to launch display, Robertson says that Trada will likely help solve another piece of the puzzle: you’ll be able to outsource both the placement of your ads and have another set of professionals working on creative.

Including this round, Trada has raised a total of $7.95 million since it was founded two years ago.

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With PokerBuddy Pro, You Can Go “All In” With More Confidence

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 03:42 AM PDT

Into Zynga Poker? Want a bit o’ artificial intelligence to tweak-up your game play? Then meet your new buddy, PokerBuddy Pro that is.

The PokerBuddy team spent nearly two years perfecting algorithmic and statistical analysis for no-limit Texas-Hold'em. The result is a Windows-only software client that provides players advice, in real-time, throughout their game play. In case you’re wondering, no it’s not limited to Zynga Poker, this is just the first implementation.

Using PokerBuddy Pro is quite simple, all you need to do is keep it open alongside your Zynga Poker window, and just follow its advice. It will keep it coming as it continuously updates its hand-play recommendations based on assessment of hole cards (your hand), the flop cards (top facing cards on the table), the number of cards dealt, and pot size.

How does it gather this data? Good question. All I was able to get out of CEO Alex Frenkel is that evidently it’s not all that difficult to do using deep level of communication protocols.

He went on to say:

You need to understand that this wasn’t the major challenge as there are many ways to integrate, this includes reading the chat, scraping from the screen and more. Legally we don't see any problem as well because it is not a bot , it won’t play for you!

Here’s where PokerBuddy’s truly compelling features come into play.

The application provides players with two situation indicators:

  • Hand Rank – After a player is dealt the first two hole cards, PokerBuddy rates the hand against the overall deck, and provides a percentage indicator of how many possible hands the player’s current cards gives them an advantage over. For example: An Ace of Clubs with a 7 of clubs is statistically better than 88.1% of all other possible hands.

    Once top facing cards are dealt (the "flop"), the Hand Rank lets you know exactly what your highest current hand combinations are (two pair, Flush, etc.).

  • Your Stack – This is the number of Big Blinds (potential bets against the current high bid) that you have left so you can plan your betting strategy accordingly.

    After the flop, this indicator switches to let you know how many cards left in the deck can improve your hand, also known as ‘Outs’.

Note: I am more of a cock fighting man, so all this Texas Hold’em lingo had to be explained slowly to me :)

To make things even easier for players, PokerBuddy deftly integrated game play aggressiveness levels in the form of characters who act as ‘advisors’. These range from the more conservative ‘Edward Bailey’ (The Hold'em Professor), to the mid-road ‘Karen Brown’ (Brown Sugar), to the most aggressive advisor ‘James Ford’ (Young-Gun Ford).

When it’s time to act, the advisers’ backgrounds will change to yellow, allowing the player to click on any one of them in order to get their advice on the current hand in play.

Interestingly, the PokerBuddy team has limited real-time advice at five hands per game. Their logic behind this decision was not to hurt the game or give unfair advantage to any of the players. Also, the team noted that they will gladly adjust this should Zynga ask them to. Post action feedback (after the player made a move) is unlimited because the decision was made and the feedback has no effect on the results of the hand.

There’s one additional part to PokerBuddy Pro and that is its website. The site acts as a sort of social data locker where players can track their results and performance. For players that take their Zynga Poker more seriously, this is a big deal because Zynga Poker doesn’t provide game logs, so the only alternative is to video record a game session.

A social envelope on top of the data allows players to discuss game play with others. All-in-all a great way to learn and improve your game play.

How does PokerBuddy aim to make money? Quite simple really… They plan on selling credits for real-time advice. At the moment advice is free to all, but the company plans on turning on for-pay advice in the coming months.



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PokerBuddy Pro
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Facebook Doesn’t Violate Competition Laws, Court Rules In Power.com Lawsuit

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:57 AM PDT

Back in November 2008, a venture-backed startup called Power Ventures launched Power.com in an effort to establish a one-stop shop social networking hub, enabling its users to aggregate and access data and activity streams from a variety of social networking sites via one single user interface.

Before the year ended, Facebook, one of the social networks users could access via Power.com, sued the company alleging that Power Ventures violated its terms of use, copyright and trademarks by not using its public APIs and Facebook Connect.

Although both parties tried to reach a swift settlement, which ultimately didn’t materialize, Power.com a little over a year ago filed a countersuit against Facebook, basically alleging that the company was monopolistic and engaged in unfair competition practices.

Nuh uh, a California court has now ruled.

The relevant court documents – embedded below – are filled with legalese which admittedly makes it hard for non-lawyers to interpret the ruling to great detail, but the key take-away is that the court has found that Facebook’s conduct in this case was not in any way monopolistic of nature, nor anticompetitive.

Here are the relevant bits from the docs (emphasis ours):

The Court finds that Defendants' allegations cannot support a Section 2 monopolization claim. Defendants cite no authority for the proposition that Facebook is somehow obligated to allow third-party websites unfettered access to its own website simply because some other third-party websites grant that privilege to Facebook. In fact, the Ninth Circuit has held that merely introducing a product that is not technologically interoperable with competing products is not violative of Section 2.

Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Facebook's Motion to Dismiss Defendants' counterclaims for violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Since Defendants have already had the opportunity to amend their counterclaims once, the Court dismisses these claims with prejudice.

And:

Facebook moves to dismiss Defendants' UCL (California Unfair Competition Law) claim on the ground that if Facebook's conduct is not anticompetitive under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a UCL claim cannot be premised on that same conduct. Here, the Court has found that Facebook's conduct is not anticompetitive. Thus, Defendants cannot premise their UCL claim on Facebook's conduct under either the unlawful or the unfair prong. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Facebook's Motion to Dismiss as to Defendants' UCL counterclaim with prejudice.

Facebook, of course, applauds the ruling. A spokesperson for the company tells us:

We are pleased the court rejected Power's fundamental claim—antitrust violation—and upheld our right to protect our users' data and enforce the privacy decisions they make on Facebook.

We’ve reached out to Power Ventures and chief executive Steve Vachani for their take on the ruling but have not heard back yet.

Update: looks like Power.com has a new CEO, Rob Pollock, who appears to be the only one on this planet to regard this as a victory for Power Ventures:

"Yesterday’s ruling re-affirmed two of Power’s core principles: that users own and control their own data, and that Facebook’s terms of use cannot be enforced under the guise of laws enacted to prohibit computer crimes. This is a great victory, not just for Power.com, but for all Internet users."

Update 2: Actually, two people on the planet. Vachani contacted me separately and said:

Today's ruling dismissing Facebook's legal claims against Power.com was a victory not only for Power.com, but for more than 1 billion Internet users worldwide to take ownership and control of their own data. With Facebook's erroneous claims against Power.com being dismissed by the court today, this means that user's are now empowered to decide who and how to access their own data on Facebook and across the Internet without Facebook attempts to criminalize their own users.

In today's ruling, the judge effectively dismissed Facebook's lawsuit and erroneous claims against Power.com. The most significant part of today's ruling was that the Court found that "Power "did not act 'without permission' within the meaning of Section 502 when Facebook account holders utilized the Power website to access and manipulate their user content on the Facebook website, even if such action violated Facebook's Terms of Use. Accordingly, the Court DENIED Facebook's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, and DENIED the parties' Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment as to Facebook's Section 502 cause of action."

See? Everybody won – you too.


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The iPad Clearly Cannibalized Mac Sales Last Quarter — Except The Opposite

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:42 AM PDT

Remember when the iPad was unveiled and some people tried to paint it as a lose-lose for Apple? The line of thinking was that even if the iPad was a hit (which many were skeptical of at the time), it would likely cannibalize sales of the Mac. You know, the higher-priced, and more importantly, higher-margin Apple products. If the iPad was the future of computing, it was going to come at a cost to Apple, was the thought.

Yeah. Good call on that one.

When Apple announced its Q3 2010 earnings yesterday, the big news was not only that iPad sales were huge (3.27 million), but that Mac sales were even bigger (3.47 million). Incredibly, it was the most amount of Macs Apple has ever sold in one quarter. Yes, ever. And again, this was the first quarter that the iPad was available.

So what’s going on?

Apple COO Tim Cook has a different theory about the iPad. He said that internally at Apple, they think about things the other way around. When people were concerned that the iPad may cannibalize Mac sales, Apple was wondering if it wouldn’t create another halo effect.

Cook noted that just as the iPod created a halo effect which spurred Mac sales all those years ago, the iPad (and iPhone) could very well do the same thing. He was cautious not to directly predict this would happen for sure. Be he noted that while Mac has outgrown the rest of the market for 17 straight quarters, there is still plenty of room to grow.

That’s the beauty of having a small market share, he said. In fact, he wondered if the iPad wouldn’t cannibalize PCs, which are still dominant.

All that being said, eventually, Apple’s vision is that iPads will start to eat into Mac sales. No less than Steve Jobs has said that he envisions a future where tablets and mobile devices are the norm in computing and traditional computers are more like “trucks” — only used for certain heavy-duty tasks.

For now, it appears that the iPad may help Apple sell a bunch of its own trucks.

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Zattikka Raises $5.5m For Its Social Games

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:28 AM PDT

Zattikka, the browser and mobile games company, has announced that its raised $5.5m through its parent company Expedite 5, Inc. The new round of funding is being led by Notion Capital and a group of private investors which include Harald Ludwig, co-chair of Lionsgate Entertainment. Ludwig will also join Zattikka's Board. The London-based startup previously received seed funding from Atomico Ventures, the early stage VC firm created by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. Zattikka, which competes with the likes of Zynga, says it will use the new investment for "recruitment, research and development and marketing to further broaden its portfolio of browser and mobile games, taking advantage of the diversifying audiences for social gaming."


Survey: Facebook Lovers Hate Facebook

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 11:29 PM PDT

A survey that went out this morning called the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), garnered a lot of attention around the blogosphere. While this survey is nothing new, this year, they included a few “social media” sites for the first time. And the results were interesting. Or, at least, the results basically said Facebook sucks. And that’s interesting.

But here’s the thing. I’ve read this survey over a few times, and I’m still getting nothing out of it. Sure, the company behind the results, ForeSeeResults, wants me to know that Facebook and MySpace rate behind 95% of the other companies they survey (and even 90% of government agencies) according to their index. But what does that mean? That people don’t like these social networks? Okay, so what does that mean? I’m just not convinced that any of this means anything at all.

Of the four “social media” sites surveyed, Facebook and MySpace were the two lower ones with scores of 64 and 63, respectively (out of 100). Wikipedia and YouTube, meanwhile, were the two high ones with scores of 77 and 73, respectively. Why does Facebook, one of the most popular sites in the world, rate so low? According to ACSI, users have issues with the following:

  • privacy and security concerns
  • the technology that controls the news feeds
  • advertising
  • the constant and unpredictable changes
  • spam
  • navigation troubles
  • annoying applications with constant notifications
  • functionality

So basically, Facebook users don’t like much about Facebook. And yet the service continues to grow at a rapid pace, as they shoot past 500 million users.

If users are so unsatisfied, why don’t they just leave? ACSI has an answer. Well, a few of them, actually. “Facebook has its own version of a monopoly,” the report states. They have a monopoly because they have so many users. Friends and family are forced to use the service. It’s a vicious cycle.

Another reason people don’t leave is that bar for social networking is so low. And there are no true standouts. So everyone just sticks to Facebook. Humorously, ACSI notes multiple times that perhaps MySpace can stage a comeback. That’s funny because the only site rated lower than Facebook in the social media space is MySpace.

“If people were satisfied with MySpace, it wouldn’t have fallen so fast,” the survey states. Okay, that’s obvious. But it’s also not necessarily true. After all, Facebook has nearly an identical ACSI rating — they they’re going up, not down.

When asked what MySpace users like least about the service, one of the responses was that “Facebook is better.” Okay.

The survey then goes on to give some tips for how MySpace can make a comeback. Tips like: “MySpace must focus on what customers want.” And it features an aside about “Why Satisfaction Matters.” Jesus.

Wikipedia and YouTube are the survey’s example of social media sites that are doing things the right way. Never mind that their scores aren’t exactly off the charts. Why do people like Wikipedia? Because it doesn’t have ads and is easy to use. YouTube? Because it’s funny and videos are free. This is really hard-hitting stuff here.

Meanwhile, 20% of people surveyed visit Wikipedia daily. For Facebook, that number is 57%. But remember, people hate Facebook and love Wikipedia. The stats don’t lie. They’re clearly just going to Facebook to get themselves worked up with more hatred.

Other fun data: FoxNews.com destroyed all the online news sites with an 82 rating. CNN.com was at the bottom with a 73. CNN.com does generally seem to suck, but come on. Clearly these results just speak to the fact that FoxNews caters so well to its intended audience.

Google leads all search engines with a rating of 80. But newcomer Bing is close with a 77. A lot of words are devoted to how Google fell from 86 to 80 this past year. This must mean something. Of course, Google inexplicably dropped to 78 in 2007, as Yahoo passed it for no reason.

If we all listened to this survey back then, Yahoo should be the king right now and Google, long since passed, should be all-but-dead. Instead, the next year Google jumped to 86 and was beating Yahoo again by 9 points. Why? Who knows.

Look, some of this data is undoubtedly interesting. And for other industries, these types of consumer satisfaction reports may be important. But all of the web sites mentioned above are free services. People seem to simply be using this survey to vent frustrations. They’re asked what they don’t like about something, so they give some things. But these users don’t appear ready to change their habits because they’re up in arms about say, “the technology that controls the news feeds” on Facebook.

The point is that you can basically make a survey say anything you want. This one says that users hate Facebook. All 500 million of them. Who log on everyday. Hate it.

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Will Apple’s Revenues Exceed $20 Billion In Q4? [Video]

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 10:41 PM PDT


After logging a record $15.7 billion in third quarter revenues, Apple says it is now on track to hit $18 billion in the next quarter. As any analyst on Wall Street will tell you, Apple is notorious for under-promising and over-delivering when it comes to guidance. The only question is, by how much will Apple beat in Q4?

On today’s episode of TechCrunch NOW, MG Siegler and I took one more look at Apple’s earnings. Siegler predicts that fourth quarter revenues will clock-in at above the $20 billion mark, or roughly double revenues for the year ago period (Apple recorded $9.87 billion in Q4 ’09). While his detractors might dismiss this forecast as just another rant from a self-described Apple fanboy, $20 billion sounds just about right, if not conservative. (See video above.)

With iPhone 4 and iPad sales truly revving up in the fourth quarter (and with Antenna-gate quickly disappearing in the rear-view mirror), Apple will churn out massive numbers. Even the Mac category, which many thought would see cannibalization as iPad sales picked up, strengthened in the third quarter. Sales rose 33% year over year, to record Mac’s best quarter ever with 3.47 million units sold. Regardless of whether you hate or love Apple’s products, it’s impossible to deny that momentum remains heavily in their favor.

Back to the initial question, by how much will Apple beat? It’s difficult to say, but if recent quarters are any indication Apple’s Q4 revenues will likely come in 20%, or more,  above the company’s forecast. In 2009, Apple’s revenues, on average,  came in at roughly 8% above guidance. That gap has widened significantly this year. For the first three quarters, Apple’s actual revenues were roughly 25.5% above forecast (with the smallest gain 18.9% in Q3). If this trend continues for the rest of 2010, Apple will easily surpass $21 billion in revenues.

(Note: Great news! You can now now subscribe to the daily RSS/Podcast feed of TechCrunch Now by clicking on these links: )

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Flickr Awards This Year’s Grant-Pattishall Award

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 09:46 PM PDT

I have to say that before today I’d never heard of the Grant-Pattishall Award given each year to the Yahoo engineer who “who breaks Flickr in the most spectacular way.” But today they awarded it to Daniel Bogan, and he has been added to the list.

What did Bogan do to break Flickr? We’re hoping to find out soon enough. Comments and tips with more information are appreciated.

Update: Well, the domain was only created in November 2009, so clearly they memorialized past winners more recently.

Readying For An IPO, Jive Software Raises $30 Million From Kleiner Perkins And Sequoia

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 08:55 PM PDT

Jive Software, the maker of an all-in-one social enterprise software, has just raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers with existing investor Sequoia Capital participating in the round. This brings Jive’s total funding to a whopping $57 million. Jive’s CEO Tony Zingale declined to reveal the valuation of the company but said that he was “very pleased” with the number. Ted Schlein, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins, will join Jive’s Board of Directors.

Modeled to offer Facebook-like features to enterprises, Jive’s software combines computing with social collaboration to offer fully-featured social networks for businesses. Its suite of applications help businesses collaborate on a variety of tasks, including holding discussions, communication, sharing documents, blogging, running polls, and social networking features and more.

Zingale, who joined Jive as CEO in February, also mentioned that the company is preparing for an IPO within the next twelve months. This isn’t terribly surprising considering the company’s growth trajectory over the past year. Jive just launched integration of LinkedIn profiles into the site, licensed the full Twitter firehose of Tweets and extended its service in Google's App Marketplace.

And Jive acquired social media monitoring startup Filtrbox, and expanded its operations to Silicon Valley with a new Palo Alto office. Customers using Jive’s software include Charles Schwab, Intel, Nike, and VMware. The new funding will be used for product development and innovations for the software.

In terms of Jive’s numbers, the company is seeing sales in the range of $75,000-$150,000 per customer, which is increasing. Jive has closed ten $1 million deals, four of which closed in the last two quarters. While Jive is not yet cash-flow positive, he company has 3,000 customers, 15 million users, and will end the year on a $100 million run-rate. This is impressive revenue considering Jive is competing against a number of worthy competitors in the social enterprise space, including Sociatext and Salesforce’s Chatter.

It’s no surprise that Jive is readying for an IPO; rumors have been swirling that Jive has been interesting in going public for some time. And with Zingale at the helm, it looks like this dream is becoming a reality.

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The HP Slate 500: Eight Models Of Windows 7 Tablet Goodness

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 04:19 PM PDT

Great news, Internet. The Windows 7 HP Slate isn’t dead. According to HP’s site, the Slate is very much alive — all 8 variations of it — and it seems like HP will indeed put it head-to-head against the Palmpad like I thought.

Don’t too excited just yet. These models are anything but official as they were simply found on some random HP product listing. However, the brief description — embedded below — should make some people’s day. It seems like the original HP Slate complete with Windows 7, 8.9-inch screen, dual cameras, and — this is new — some sort of stylus/pen input.

iSkoot scoots into a partnership with T-Mobile, Kalaida now on over 100 handsets

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 03:46 PM PDT

In our tech-obsessed bubble, wherein we obsess over how many millions of iPhones have been sold or how many tens of thousands of apps are in the Android Market, it’s easy to forget something: not everyone carries a smartphone. A massive number of people, from soccer moms to Arrington, still carry their good ol’ trusty feature phone.

For the past few years, iSkoot has been ensuring that these people can stay just as connected to their social network as their smartphone-carrying compadres with Kalaida, a cloud-based social network aggregator which OEMs and carriers can pre-load onto handsets before they hit the selves. Today, iSkoot’s announcing a new partnership with T-Mobile — and that with this recent momentum, Kalaida can now be found on over 100 different handset models.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Apple’s Billion Dollar Data Center Will Be Done This Year. iTunes In The Cloud, Anyone?

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 03:37 PM PDT

During Apple’s Q3 2010 earnings call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer fielded a question about the massive data center Apple is currently building in Maiden, North Carolina. The reporter wanted to know how it was coming, and if there were any updates? “It's on-schedule,” Oppenheimer quickly said. “We expect it completed by the end of the calendar year,” he continued, noting that it should be fully operational after that.

The questioner didn’t follow-up with perhaps the most important question: what exactly is Apple going to be using this billion dollar baby on? After all, when it was revealed that Apple was pouring $1 billion into the center, sites such as Data Center Knowledge noted that this was about twice what companies like Microsoft and Google invest in the data centers they use for cloud computing.

The official statement from last year seems to be: “The facility will provide Apple with a major East Coast infrastructure hub to support its iTune music store and iPhone app store.” But again,this thing is something like 500,000 square feet. That’s about five times the size of Apple’s other regional data centers. Instead, might this be the central hub of Apple’s often-rumored iTunes-in-the-cloud offering?

Again, the questioner didn’t ask. And even if they did, Apple most likely wouldn’t say. But both rumors and logic suggest that such an offering is in the works. Some rumors suggested Apple may launch such a service this Summer, but that does not appear to be happening now. Instead, might they preview what they’re working on during their traditional iPod event in the Fall? After all, they will likely need to counter Google’s impending Google Music offering. If this data center will be fully operational in early 2011, we might hear something. Again, if that’s what they plan to use it for.

I mean, just look at this thing. I find it hard to believe that it’s for MobileMe.

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Forget All These Android Tablets, Let Me At That Chrome OS

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 03:31 PM PDT


Hardly a day goes by when we don’t hear about a new Android-based tablet in some ever-so-slightly-new size, configuration, or spec. Chances are that every PC manufacturer out there is going to have one, and chances are they’ll all be more or less interchangeable — like the Windows 7 tablets that they often announce at the same time. With the clear exceptions of Apple and HP, most computer-makers don’t seem to be interested in doing anything but getting a product out the door that’s competitive.

This bulk approach to such a personal computer as a tablet has taken the shine off of Android for me — not that it had much to begin with, being an OS designed around a smaller form factor. I love my Android phone, but the idea of Android running on some stock Dell hardware with a little spritz of UI on top really isn’t that attractive to me. I say, bring on the Chrome OS tablets.

Continue reading…

Tim Cook: Only Thing Limiting iPhone 4 Sales Is That We Can’t Make Them Fast Enough

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 03:06 PM PDT

During the Q&A session at the end of Apple’s Q3 earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook fielded some questions about Apple’s new iPhone 4 product. Not surprisingly, there were a few about the antenna and the swirling controversy. According to Cook, it’s not dampening the demand for the product at all.

“Let me be very clear on this: We are selling every unit we can make, currently,” Cook stated. A follow-up question asked if there was a slow down in order rates or if there was an increase Apple was seeing in returns? “My phone is ringing off the hook from people who want more supply,” Cook said.

When pushed about returns specifically, Cook reiterated what CEO Steve Jobs said at Apple’s press conference on Friday. That is, returns of the iPhone 4 are less than they were for the iPhone 3GS. “For this specific issue, it’s extremely small,” he continued.

Someone else asked if Cook would respond to the thought that Apple purposefully creates a shortage of their products to build buzz. “We do not purposefully create a shortage for buzz. I’m not sure where that comes from,” Cook said. “Demand for iPhone 4 is absolutely stunning.”

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Google Energy’s First Purchase: 20 Years of Wind Power

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 02:50 PM PDT

Google Energy today announced an agreement to purchase 114 megawatts of wind power capacity per year for 20 years at a set price from an Iowa wind farm owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources.

A Google spokesperson Jamie Yood noted, “This is the first contract for Google Energy. We plan on exploring other opportunities to provide our data centers with environmentally friendly power [in 2010]. It isn’t limited to wind power.”

But the company isn’t planning to immediately use the wind power from the Iowa facility on its own operations.

Iowa is the second most wind power-generating state in the U.S. according to the American Wind Energy Association with existing power capacity of 3,670 megawatts and another 200 megawatts of capacity on the way. Texas leads with 9,505 megawatts in existing wind power generation capacity.

NextEra Energy Resources is the 18,000 megawatt power supply division — with 42% or 7,650 megawatts of that power from wind — of NextEra Energy, Inc., the Juno, Fla. energy company with revenue over $15 billion.

Overall, NextEra Energy employs more than 15,000 in 28 states and Canada, and has nearly 43,000 megawatts of generating capacity through wind, solar, hydro, natural gas, oil and nuclear.

Before it had established its energy subsidiary, Google invested $38.8 million directly in NextEra Energy’s large, utility-scale wind power generation projects in North Dakota.

Google also made significant investments in clean energy research and development projects, and startups — including AltaRock Energy, eSolar and AlertMe — through its “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal” (or RE<C) and other philanthropic, partnership and venture capital efforts.

The search leader won the federal government’s approval to buy and sell energy as of February this year.

Now Google Energy allows it to: get electricity at favorable prices, lock in these prices over the long haul, use the power it buys for its own data centers and operations, and sell surplus energy to regional markets. Through this strategy, Yood says, “We're partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices.”

Google also gathers RECs or renewable energy certificates along the way. In the laymen’s view, RECs are just like carbon offsets.

As the Environmental Protection Agency more stiffly defines them, RECs are sold independently of “physical electricity associated with a renewable-based generation source,” and “allow organizations to support renewable energy development and protect the environment when green power products are not locally available.”

Google could obtain RECs by just purchasing them from other companies who have invested in, or generated power from renewable sources. But then it wouldn’t have the operational advantage of predictably priced power.

Google Energy and NextEra Energy Resources declined to discuss the numbers behind the set pricing for their wind power deal.

But a NextEra Energy spokesman noted on Tue. “A long term commitment [by Google] to purchase a significant portion of the output from one of our wind projects is obviously a good thing for us.”

Google first established its goal of offsetting its own carbon footprint in 2007. This deal should bring it 114 megawatts per year closer to carbon neutrality.

Update: The total capacity of the particular Iowa wind farm from which Google is buying power is 150 megawatts. Of that, Google will be purchasing the power from 114 megawatts capacity. Jamie Yood of Google offered this detail: “Because the wind resource in this part of Iowa is amongst the best in the country, it is to early to tell what the long term performance will be. But wind farms in the region produce between 35% and 45% of nominal capacity, meaning [Google's] purchase would represent between 350 million and 450 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy annually for twenty years.”

[Image via Brooke Raymond]

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