« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »
SOCIABLE BLOG -- Aug 29 -- BluePont is a mobile social networking
application that sends alerts by playing music when someone right is
close. Users can then exchange private message and meet. FULL ARTICLE @ SOCIABLE BLOG
Mark Brooks: 'Toothing' software to help people meet. Would be good at parties. Beyond that, until Nokia makes such software standard on all their phones I doubt this will ever get to any level of critical mass.
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 30 -- In 1985, when he was fourteen, Anderson was
subject to one of the largest FBI raids in California history after
hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and subsequently
showing his friends how to do it. He was never arrested because he was
a minor, but the FBI confiscated all of his computer equipment.
Anderson, using the name Lord Flathead, was a computer hacker at least
since he was 13 years old. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
SNW INTERVIEW -- Aug 30 -- Mike Jones is now an advisor to Userplane and AOL and is CEO of Tsavo. What is this mysterious Tsavo? Here's my interview with Mike. - Mark Brooks
What's your role at Tsavo and AOL now?
With AOL I function as a Strategic Advisor, facilitating the transition to Sam Wick for daily management of the Userplane
business. The majority of my time operationally is setting up Tsavo and
finalizing the transition with some of our initial, undisclosed
acquisitions.
Tell us more about Tsavo.
Tsavo is focused on building
technology facilitating highly-personal and relevant experiences with
online content. I would like to see a world where, instead of browsing
through 30,000 blog posts a day, there is a system that actively
understands and learns my media consumption behavior.
What kind of media are you particularly going to be looking at and serving up to users?
Our
current focus is on a wide-reaching publishing network with niche
vertical focus. Overall we are viewing it from the standpoint that
Tsavo will be a multi URL network across a whole series of verticals.
Is there an official launch date?
No there’s not. Since
we’re starting off with a few acquisitions, we have active staff and
revenue today; my CTO Nate Thelen and his lead engineer Gabe Harriman
and our head of product Mike Macaadan focus primarily on building the
relevancy sub-structure. You will begin seeing our acquisition
announcements in the next few months, and the relevancy technology
begin surfacing in the next six months and beyond.
What kinds of sites and services are you looking to acquire at this stage?
We’re
looking for content sites that have strong editorial and original
content. We’re looking for a few back-end technologies that relate the
semantic web and content aggregation.
Are dating sites within your realm of interest?
Probably
not. I don’t believe it will fit initially with our focus on media
& relevance. I do have interest and am researching other types of
subscription services.
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 28 -- In 2006 Yahoo was unable to close a transaction with Facebook, despite being willing to pay up to $1.62 billion. Nor could they pull the trigger on a $1 billion Bebo deal. Now Yahoo has shut down Mash, which launched less than a year ago. Mash will be shutting down on September 29, 2008. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
See all posts on Yahoo
See all posts on Facebook
See all posts on Bebo
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 28 -- You'll
notice very few ad units while surfing YouTube but the homepage is different since it merely displays
thumbnails that may lead to infringing content. And it has capitalized
on that page by selling a video ad unit in the upper right-hand corner
for $175,000 per day. YouTube is about to focus even
more intently on leveraging its homepage for profit by selling large
format ads that expand to fill the whole page. The ad unit, expected to
come in the following weeks, will start at a price of about $200,000
per day with rates increasing in the Fall. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
CNET NEWS -- Aug 28 -- BuzzCity,
a mobile networking and advertising start-up based in Singapore, announced a $10m investment by South African media
company Naspers. BuzzCity has developed a mobile social-network
MyGamma, which is geared
toward "unwired" customers--those who have a mobile device but lack
access to either a PC or a reliable broadband connection. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET NEWS
PROMOTION WORLD -- Aug 28 -- Lin Dai and Michael Howard are the co-founders of Kiwibox, a social network for teenagers. The
site is designed to entertain and inform teens about the latest in
fashion, celebrity news, music, movies and anything else relevant to
their daily lives. A teen can connect with their friends and
participate in games and contests for prizes. Read the interview with Kiwibox co-founders
MERCURY NEWS -- Aug 28 -- Cal students can use StarRez, a
company that specializes in housing and conference software, in their
search for compatible roommates. Students create an online profile and complete a survey. But
instead of asking questions about majors and musical taste, the
questions focus on the issues that can make or break roommate
relationships: tidiness, sleep schedules and study habits. FULL ARTICLE @ PANTAGRAPH.COM
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 28 -- The judges in federal court in northern California are a lot more Internet-friendly than some other federal judges. Specifically, the court said that online video sites are protected under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA if they do the following:
- Provide adequate notice to users that uploading copyrighted material is prohibited.
- Swiftly comply with DMCA takedown notices "on the same day the notice is received (or within a few days thereafter).
- Use fingerprinting and other technology to detect copyrighted material.
- Take measures to control infringing user.
- Transcoding files to Flash format does not put the files in the site's control; they are still protected by the DMCA safe harbor.
- Sites are encouraged to spot check videos, and if they do, to remove content that is likely infringing.
- Sites are NOT required to check every video.
- It's important to have lots of non-infringing content.
FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
PRESS RELEASE -- Aug 28 -- Disney Family.com launched Disney Family.com Community, a new social network for parents. The site connects moms and dads with other parents through shared interests such as hobbies, age of children, family setup, parenting tips, geographic location and more. FULL ARTICLE @ THETOWNWALK.COM
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 27 -- The Active Network, a network of sites focused on getting people involved in sports and other activities, has raised an additional $80m in a Series F round led by ESPN and joined by Canaan Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Performance Equity Partners. The round brings to over $275m since its founding in 1998. We're told that The Active Network's total revenue in 2007 exceeded $102m. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 27 -- In a comparison of 16 European Internet populations by country, comScore reports that Russia's Internet audience for the month of June grew 27% YOY, compared to 21% growth in France and 15% in Spain. In terms of regional comparison, comScore counts 240m unique visitors across Europe in June, versus 190m in the U.S. and 327m in the entire Asia-Pacific. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
BUSINESS WIRE -- Aug 27 -- iovation, the device reputation authority' for the Internet, and IDology, a provider of identity and age verification solutions, partner to provide online businesses with a stronger, multi-layered authentication and fraud prevention solution. IDology verifies an identity in 'consumer-not-present' situations to determine if someone is who they claim to be. iovation determines whether a computer has been associated with fraud in the past and shares the reputations of more than 60m unique computers worldwide to protect businesses from all forms of online fraud and abuse. FULL ARTICLE @ AD-HOC NEWS
See all posts on iovation
E-CONSULTANCY -- Aug 27 -- Ning has offered third-party developers an API that enables them to develop applications, or widgets, that provide functionality that Ning does not provide natively. One of the companies is an outfit called WidgetLaboratory. On August 22, Ning removed WidgetLaboratory from its service and disabled all of its widgets. WidgetLaboratory received a response from Ning's general counsel: "Unfortunately, this is a black and white issue of WidgetLaboratory violating our Terms of Service after multiple warnings and negatively impacting the Ning Platform." According to WidgetLaboratory, it was never informed that it was "negatively impacting the Ning platform" and claims that in the past, it had always worked successfully with Ning to resolve any technical issues. FULL ARTICLE @ E-CONSULTANCY
PC WORLD -- Aug 27 -- The social networking website meant for Indian youth, BigAdda.com, can now be accessed via mobile phones. Users can sign up / sign in; receive, read, reply and send scribbles; use emoticons and shout outs; search profiles; etc. This On- The-Move application has auto-updates, alert and notifications and helpful tips. It also enables users to use the phonebook to send invitations to his/her closest network, since a Phone Book on individual devices is the closest replica of ones social & professional contacts, BigAdda says. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD
WASHINGTON POST -- Aug 26 -- Facebook says that it has put the brakes on the spread of a malicious software attack that was trying to propagate itself via the popular social networking site. In an e-mail sent last night, Facebook's director of communications, Brandee Barker, wrote: "Over the past few days, we have received reports from users of spam and phishing attacks. We have also detected and contained a worm. We are investigating every report, removing false content, blocking bogus links and addressing the concerns of our users." FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
BUSINESS WEEK -- Aug 26 -- Mixi may not have the global reach of social networking
giants Facebook and MySpace, but in Japan it's a king. The Tokyo company
had 15m users as of June, a 40% gain from 10.7m a year
earlier. In June, Mixi accounted for 12.4m, or 41%, of the 31m
unique visitors for all SNS in Japan, according to
comScore. MySpace was a distant second, with 1.2m visitors, followed by Orkut's 638,000 and
Facebook's 538,000. As Mixi draws more clicks, its clout with
online advertisers grows. That's important for Mixi because online ads
account for 85% of its $92m in annual revenues. Japan's Internet
ad spending is set to rise 20%, to $5 billion, this year, according to
Dentsu Communications Institut. By
2011, the figure could top $6.9 billion.FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK
See all posts on Mixi
See all posts on MySpace
See all posts on Orkut
See all posts on Facebook
MASHABLE -- Aug 26 -- DriverSide, the Web-based service for helping you keep tabs on your car health and maintenance, has acquired fairBenjamin in order to expand on its own technology and access to local mechanics in a given area. The amount of the acquisition has not been disclosed, but both services are fairly new, having been launched in 2007. One of DriverSide's main objectives is to connect users with mechanics and offering points of comparison for everything car related. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
MASHABLE -- Aug 26 -- hi5
mobile has arrived with 26
different languages. Users can update their status, share photos, and add new friends, to name a few
features. As hi5 already supports OpenSocial, and has just announced its
added support for Widgetbox's OpenSocial applications, it's clear that
hi5 is ready to offer more options to both its developer community and
user base at large. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
MASHABLE -- Aug 26 -- Shelfari, the social network for book lovers, has
been acquired by Amazon. As far as Shelfari's many competitors are
concerned, this acquisition is a tough
pill to swallow. It's tough enough to build a niche community as it is;
if you have to compete against a giant like Amazon, it's 100 times
tougher. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Recent Comments