Watch video and chat online with your friends at SeeToo

 

SeeToo is a web-based application that allows individuals to invite their online buddies to watch videos together with them in real time.

SeeToo allows Internet users to share videos stored on their computers without the burden of uploading them to another site.

Whether the video is generated by your digital camera, camcorder or webcam SeeToo has made it very easy.

Using SeeToo is simple, you select a video, or any multimedia file, from your computer. SeeToo can easily handle file of any size: 500Mb, 2Gb and greater.

Send an automatically generated invitation to your buddy over the instant message network of your choice (e.g. AIM, ICQ, Live Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, etc.) or simply send the link to your buddy in an email.

Your buddies don't have to install anything to start watching videos with you, all they need is a browser and an Internet connection.

Once your buddy clicks on the link in the IM or email, the simultaneous viewing experience begins.

Backed by Yossi Vardi, a founding investor of ICQ’s Marabilis, SeeToo is very simple to use and uses some great technology. We would be surprised if the site didn't gain rapid traction.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 8/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

.......................................................................................................................

DocStoc raises more finance to take the fight to Scribd

 

 

DocStoc has raised $750,000 in a Series A round of funding. This comes months after its angel funding which was for an undisclosed amount.

Docstoc is a user generated community for sharing professional documents. You can find legal, business, technology, educational, and creative documents for free. Docstoc allows users to upload their documents for all the world to share.

In addition, users can store their documents in their own personal online folders for anytime, anywhere access.

 

 

Since its official launch in September, DocStoc has seen a healthy amount of growth, with the company reporting that about 50,000 new documents have been uploaded in the past month. The graph above shows traffic growth for DocStoc and their competitor Scribd.

.......................................................................................................................

Amazon now wants you to subscribe to regular product deliveries

 

 

Subscribe & Save is a new option being offered by Amazon, and it’s a way to get you to spend more money up front.

When you order through our Subscribe & Save program, you automatically receive a new shipment of the item in intervals you select--every one, two, three, or six months. You also get a discount on our everyday price, get free shipping on every Subscribe & Save shipment and pay for each order only when the item is shipped.

This is a great idea and service from Amazon and the concept of susbscription shopping is a great model for Amazon. This service is likely to gain rapid traction from regular Amazon shoppers.

........................................................................................................................

Sputnik7, the first on-demand audio/video site is sold

 

 

Audiotube, a video-on-demand portal has acquired the Sputnik7 network from Palm Entertainment Properties LLC. The Sputnik7 network is host to on-demand audio/video Internet entertainment, sputnik7.com, and the world's first DRM free online indie music catalogue, Epitonic.com.

Sputnik7.com was founded in 1998 by Chris Blackwell (Founder of Island Records) and Les Garland (Founder/Originator of both MTV: Music Television and VH1). Credited as the world's first real-time audio/video Internet entertainment experience.

The acquisition will expand Audiotube's online reach by capitalizing on Sputnik7's search engine ranking and traffic. It will also fuel the growth of the company's network by linking the communities. The acquisition provides Audiotube with a large catalogue of pre-cleared content and routes into hundreds of indie music record labels as the Sputnik7 and Epitonic brands and online following hold major weight in the indie world.

Both sites will be migrated over to Audiotube's next generation platform, which is currently in development, giving them a host of new features including the ability to set up and join groups and networks where users can meet other music lovers, trade playlists, and share opinions about latest music.

Audiotubes brandable channels, which will be rolled out in the next beta, will feature a high level of customization unseen in the industry today and will give indie music labels an entirely new way to market and promote their media.

........................................................................................................................

Microsoft to launch data centre in Siberia to compete with Google

 

 

Microsoft has announced plans to build a data center in Siberia. The facility near the city of Irkutsk will be able to hold 10,000 servers.

Officials in Microsoft's Russian business unit said the region had a stable power supply, and will be able to support a 50 megawatt utility feed.

The average winter temperature is below zero in Irkutsk (which is perhaps best known to gamers as a territory in Risk).

Microsoft recently announced huge data center projects in Chicago and Dublin, Ireland, and is clearly ramping up its worldwide infrastructure platform as it competes with Google.

No doubt this will save a fortune on cooling costs - they can just crack a window.

........................................................................................................................ 

LinkedIn is growing faster than Facebook

 

 

These Nielsen statistics show 189% growth for LinkedIn versus 125% growth for Facebook.

LinkedIn is smaller than Facebook, so when you measure percentage growth, smaller sites have an obvious advantage.

LinkedIn has a clear value proposition to older business people who have a tougher time seeing the value of Facebook.

Building a profile on LinkedIn is no harder than inputting your resume. Setting up a Facebook profile that doesn’t embarrass you takes a little more thought.

.......................................................................................................................

Amazon sneaks one-click past the patent system

 

By changing the word 'a' to 'the' and adding the phrase 'purchasable through a shopping cart model,' lawyers for Amazon.com have apparently managed to reinstate two of CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click Patent claims that were rejected a month earlier.

'Patent Owner's Rep was informed that the proposed addition to the claims appear to place the claims in condition of patentability,' writes the USPTO in its Ex Parte Reexamination Interview Summary of the 11-15 conference call that was held with five representatives of the USPTO and patent reformer Amazon.

........................................................................................................................

Is Google changing its focus to product search

 

 

Google on their global homepage replaced the top-left link to Google Video with a link to Google Product Search, the former Froogle.

These navigational links are not consistent throughout Google’s services, so the change isn’t visible everywhere. The video link now moved to the “more” menu.

In August 2006, Google actually got rid of the Froogle link on their homepage to put the video link in. Now they seem to have changed their mind again. Google may be changing its strategy and focusing on product search.

.........................................................................................................................

Pornographic Ad on Facebook

 

Over the last 24 hours Facebook has seen a number of pornographic adverts like the one above. I saw two within the space of around 30 pages.

Maybe this was a present from Facebook on Thanksgiving!

........................................................................................................................

CatalystOffice provides you with an office anywhere

 

 

CatalystOffice is a new integrated suite of productivity software, including email, document management, calendar, contacts, and instant messaging.

The CEO Bob Mathew is a former telecom executive that worked on the software for 3 years, he created CatalystOffice because of frustrations he had working with Microsoft software at his old company

The main goal of the software is to take away a lot of the frustrations small businesses have trying to get things done with Microsoft Outlook and Windows

Like similar products it works right through the web and is compatible with other Microsoft products and you can import your Outlook contacts and calendar into CatalystOffice

The software was designed for the needs of small businesses, with multiple users in different locations, and has a lot of “little” features that are missing from Microsoft Outlook and Windows.

There are 4 pricing plans starting at $25 per month – companies can add as many users as they want and the price does not increase, it’s only dependent on how much storage you use for your files (for example you get 10 Gigs of file storage for $25/month)

The setup for the software is easy to setup and despite strong competition from HyperOffice, WebEx's WebOffice, Google, Zimbra and Zoho, the simple Catalyst interfaces should help them gain traction.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 7/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 8/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 8/10

.......................................................................................................................

Amazon Kindle sells out in 5 hours

 

 

Charlie Rose's interview with Jeff Bezos reveals that the Kindle sold out within just 5-1/2 hours of going on sale.

Amazon hasn't revealed how many it had in stock at launch, so it may just be that they didn't anticipate early demand.

A check of the Kindle's product page shows that more will be rolling out starting December 3rd.

........................................................................................................................??

Lending Club gains traction and adds multiple account functionality

 

 

Lending Club’s peer-lending network has introduced some new features, most notably the ability to create multiple accounts, thus enabling you to act as both lender and borrower.

Both a Borrower and a Lender Be: It is now possible to be both a lender and a borrower, either concurrently or consecutively.

Apply for Multiple Loans: You can now submit multiple loan requests if your credit profile allows it and if your total indebtedness (including loans that are still “in funding”) remains within the Lending Tree credit policy guidelines.

The borrower/lender accounts are considered separate, thus you will need to use a different email address for each account you open.

In an effort to be as open as possible about the performance of the Lending Club community, they will now be publishing performance data weekly, as can be seen here.

 

 

Lending Club is gaining some traction and after 6 months of operation there have been no defaults and only 2 late payments.

.......................................................................................................................

Phanfare receives $2.5 mn but can they remain competitive in the photo sharing market

 

 

Phanfare, a photo sharing website has received $2.5 million in additional funding. The funding was led by Azure Capital Partners.

Phanfare charges users a monthly fee for a service allowing you to store your photos — and videos — in an application on your desktop, that then syncs the content to the Web automatically.  You photos are then available wherever you go.  The monthly charge is $6.95.

 

 

As the graph above shows, the site has gained traction, but is still not profitable.  This is a cause for concern, especially given the high number of ad supported online photo websites. 

Given this funding we can expect to see some changes at Phanfare, most likely to be the business model.  While theya re unlikely to stop the subscription service, they will have to add some clever features to stay competitive in this market.

........................................................................................................................

Mac Fanboys Dream Mailbox

??

This photo was emailed to us and highlights how your Mac can go on forever! Thanks James.

 

If you enjoyed this post please use the logos below to add it to StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit.

.......................................................................................................................

Facebook is 2/3 women

 

 

Paul Francis has looked at the Facebook user data via an advertiser tool that facilitates audience targeting.

The data shows a total of 42,966,780 members in the top 31 countries. The U.S. leads with just over 18 million users, followed by the UK (6.8m), Canada (6.7m), Australia (1.9m) and Turkey (1.6m).

Forty percent of U.S. users are male, compared to 36% overall. If you are looking for women, head to China, Italy, Singapore and New Zealand.

The figures show that Facebook is very low in users in Asia. While Friendster is considered a failure in the US, it is worth remembering that they have a very large user base outside of the US. 

 ......................................................................................................................

Rudy Giuliani’s Google ads come under fire from the Reddit mob

 

...................................................................................................................

 

 

Earlier today at Reddit the users decided to abuse Googel Ads and play around with the conversion rate for Rudy Giuliani’s paid ads on Google. How many Google clicks does it take to become president?

Thousands of people clicked on the Google ad before it was pulled off Google.

Redditers asked everyone to click on Rudy Giuliani’s paid ads simply because they cost him money.

Although unethical and pointless it does show the weakness of Google Ads. Click an ad, and there goes a couple of dollars. Turn it into a meme or a viral joke and thousands go down the drain, together with the entire idea of click-based ads.

Google continues to try and stop click fraud but this event shows how open to abuse the Google ad model is.

 

If you enjoyed this post please use the logos below to add it to StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit.

.......................................................................................................................

Clickable raises more finance and adds former AOL Chairman to its board

 

 

Advertising technology startup Clickable has raised another $3 million from its lead investors Union Square Ventures and Pequot Ventures, in a follow-on round to the $3 million it raised last July, confirms CEO David Kidder.

Clickable has also announced former AOL Chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller has joined the company's Board of Directors.

In Miller's words, he joined the Board because Clickable's product--a Web-based online ad management platform--is at the forefront of the "next wave" in interactive advertising.

While major acquisitions like WPP's purchase of 24/7 Real Media and AOL's purchase of Tacoda helped make 2007 the "year of the ad network buys," Miller notes that those networks had been around for a while. The frenzy was a sign that the "first wave has matured," Miller says, "but there's another turn of the wheel coming, and I think Clickable is part of that."

Clickable's ad management platform monitors campaign performance across Google, Microsoft and Yahoo's paid search networks, giving marketers a simplified view of which ads are functioning well and which need to be tweaked. There are suggestions for raising or lowering bids, choosing better keywords or crafting new campaigns with just one click--as well as more in-depth analytics that track cross-network performance over time.

Clickable launched a beta version of the application in September with a client base of 50 companies, and has reportedly gained nearly 1,600 new customers since then.

........................................................................................................................

Brightspot.tv heads for the deadpool

 

 

BrightSpot.tv was a new advertising model that provides users with discounted (or free) subscriptions to content providers like Napster, MLB TV and Gamefly. The one stipulation was that they have to watch commercials on their site.

BrightSpot.tv has viewers watch and interact with advertisers so they can build up their ad-watching credit to apply to subscriptions.

For instance, you have to watch $15 worth of commercials to get $15 off on your monthly Napster subscription.

As the graph below shows brightspot failed to get any traction.

 

 

BrightSpot.tv had received funding from MLB and NBA owners Jerry Colangelo (Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks) and Jerry Reinsdorf (Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls).

 

If you enjoyed this post please use the logos below to add it to StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit.

.......................................................................................................................

Synthasite raises $5 million for AJAX based publishing platform

 

 

South African Internet startup Synthasite has received $5 million investment from Swiss-based Columbus Venture Capital.

Synthasite is a free Web 2.0 Publishing Platform that allows users to construct a website without any knowledge of HTML or programming, using drag & drop along with configurable dialog windows.

The Company recently launched its AJAX based platform into Beta and has attracted nearly 10,000 users so far.

Synthasite also plans to open it's platform to third party developers next year, in order to allow them to create widgets, templates & other plugins for the platform.

Synthasite will relocate certain functions from Cape Town, South Africa to California, USA in order to be closer to the key players in the Web 2.0 space.

.......................................................................................................................

Paypal launches 'Secure Card'

 

 

PayPal, is launching a convenient way for its customers to make payments on Web sites that don't accept PayPal directly.

The new service, called the PayPal Secure Card, recognizes when a user lands on an e-commerce checkout page and automatically helps the user fill out the payment form in a secure way.

Through a partnership with credit card issuer MasterCard Inc, Secure Card generates a unique MasterCard number each time a PayPal user arrives on an e-commerce sales checkout page that does not otherwise accept its payments.

Secure Card has been tested by 3 million PayPal customers in the past year. The plug-in will be available to U.S. customers on Tuesday, with international customers to follow.

When a PayPal customer wants to pay for something on a site that doesn't normally accept PayPal payments, users click a downloaded PayPal button on their browsers to generate a unique, single-instance Secure Card transaction number.

........................................................................................................................ 

Always use protection

 

 

.......................................................................................................................

23andMe launches personal genome service

 

 

23andMe, is a new web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA. After providing a saliva sample using an at-home kit, you can use the interactive tools to shed new light on your distant ancestors, your close family and yourself.

So how does the service work? 

In order to get going you need to place your order for a kit, costing $999 and sign the online consent form.

Once you get your kit, you spit in the tube provided and using the pre-addressed shipping envelope you send your sample to their contracted laboratory.

After receiving your sample, lab professionals extract DNA from cells in your saliva. Your DNA is then chopped up into shorter strands and copied many times via a process called amplification.

Next, your DNA is washed over a small microchip-like device that contains short strands of synthetic DNA. The synthetic DNA fragments latch onto the pieces of your DNA that are a complementary match. Then a laser-scanning step reveals which strands of synthetic DNA are stuck to your DNA to determine your genotype.

The chip used in our process is the Illumina HumanHap550+ BeadChip, which reads more than 550,000 standard SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) plus a 23andMe custom-designed set that analyzes more than 30,000 additional SNPs.

What this means is that the laboratory process reads nearly 600,000 data points on your genome.

23andMe is a great project run by established professionals and we expect 23andMe to gain traction.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 9/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 9/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 9/10

.......................................................................................................................

Microsoft purchases Musiwave for $46 million

 

 

Microsoft has officially taken Musiwave off of Openwave’s hands. The deal is for $46 million in cash, with Microsoft also assuming $4 million in Musiwave debt.

Musiwave offers music and entertainment content for wireless devices (ringtones, games, multimedia, etc.), so the acquisition will allow Microsoft to potentially provide easy access to such content through Windows Mobile and perhaps the Zune.

The deal marks a big dissapointment for OpenWave, who originally bought Musiwave for $121 million in 2005.

....................................................................................................................... 

TheStreet raises $55 million

 

 

Technology Crossover Ventures has purchased a minority stake in TheStreet.com, in a move to help the company continue its growth.

TCV has paid $55 million, which includes the purchase of preferred stock and warrants to purchase shared of common stock. TCV’s founding general partner has also joined TheStreet’s board.

TheStreet.com has seen strong growth after the last few years and now boast a loyal and wealthy customer base.

 

 

TheStreet will be launching a new site called Mainstreet.com, they describe this new site as follows:

"Here's our promise to you. Our editors will choose stories that matter. Stories that you can relate to learn more about yourself, your money, and your world. Stories that will make you think — really think — about major milestones in your own life, and how to manage them successfully."

TheStreet will also be re-launching TheStreet and Stockpickr, which is one of the companies it has already acquired.

We can expect to see TheStreet grow its social network capabilities as it moves forward over the next few years.

.......................................................................................................................

TheStreet raises $55 million

 

 

Technology Crossover Ventures has purchased a minority stake in TheStreet.com, in a move to help the company continue its growth.

TCV has paid $55 million, which includes the purchase of preferred stock and warrants to purchase shared of common stock. TCV’s founding general partner has also joined TheStreet’s board.

TheStreet.com has seen strong growth after the last few years and now boast a loyal and wealthy customer base.

 

 

TheStreet will be launching a new site called Mainstreet.com, they describe this new site as follows:

"Here's our promise to you. Our editors will choose stories that matter. Stories that you can relate to learn more about yourself, your money, and your world. Stories that will make you think — really think — about major milestones in your own life, and how to manage them successfully."

TheStreet will also be re-launching TheStreet and Stockpickr, which is one of the companies it has already acquired.

We can expect to see TheStreet grow its social network capabilities as it moves forward over the next few years.

.......................................................................................................................

High quality YouTube video streams are coming soon

 

 

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference confirmed that high-quality YouTube video streams are coming soon. Although YouTube's goal, he said, is to make the site's vast library of content available to everyone, and that requires a fairly low-bitrate stream, the service is testing a player that detects the speed of the viewer's Net connection and serves up higher-quality video if they want it.

Steve Chen said that the quality had been "good enough" for the site up to now but that he expects that high-quality YouTube vids will be available to everyone within three months.

he also said that YouTube's internal archive, all video is stored at the native resolution in which it was sent in. However, he said, a large portion of YouTube videos are pretty poor quality to begin with -- 320 x 240. Streaming them in high-quality mode isn't going to help much.

........................................................................................................................ 

YouBeTheVC, Your chance to choose the next billion dollar internet company

 

 

An interesting twist on American Inventor is coming and it is called YouBeTheVC an onine project from Bang Ventures.

They are making an open call for entrepreneurs to submit their ideas for new start-ups.  YouBeTheVC will then let the public decide on the next three companies they fund….after several rounds of tasks, analysis, and video pitches. That is You Be The VC in a nutshell.

Essentially the three selected companies get a company to run. Winners will get financing, programming/web development, mentoring, office space, legal, accounting, administrative and marketing support.

It is hoped that in the process, a vibrant 24/7/365 community for entrepreneurs, investors, and those interested in the hottest new technology companies will be created at YouBeTheVC.com.

Sounds fun, but can the public create the next billion dollar business.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 7/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 6/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 5/10

.......................................................................................................................

Going.com enters the ticket selling business

 

 

Event based social network Going.com has entered the ticket sales business.

Going helps you find fun things to do and fun people to meet.   As well as meet people with similar interest this new service will allow Going's members to purchase tickets online.

 

 

Given the recent growth in traffic this is a great way for Going to start earning revenue from its 300,000 monthly users.

 ......................................................................................................................

Billeo receives $7 million to help us with our online bills

 

 

Online bill pay service Billeo has announced a $7 million Series B round of funding. ATA Ventures led the financing, with additional contributions from all of Billeo’s existing investors including Altos Ventures, Claremont Creek and Pacifica Fund.

Billeo provides consumers a free service that is designed to make all online transactions convenient, simple and secure.

Billeo offers consumers flexibility in managing their online bills, as well as their passwords or any other information involved in online transactions.

Billeo is gaining traction and online Banking report has recognized Billeo with the ePayment "Best of the Web" award.

This space is getting a little crowded with similar sites Cake, Zecco, Wesabe, Covestor and Mint.

......................................................................................................................

MediaMelon launches high quality video delivery network

 

 
MediaMelon has launched a Video Delivery Network that enables content owners to deliver high-resolution videos on the Internet.

MediaMelon is also the first service to offer video downloads to be accessed and played from a web browser.

Unlike site like YouTube, where the video content is not great, since it is streamed MediaMelon’s technology is based on video downloads, which means that the videos you see are guaranteed to be at their original quality.

MediaMelon has signed up several key content providers, including Nettwerk Music Group, which manages some of North America's biggest artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne, among others.

Videos from MediaMelon's network will be available on mediamelon.com and several partner sites. MediaMelon ensures that videos, TV shows and movies can be played at high quality and can be securely syndicated across various websites, either on an ad-supported or paid basis.

We agree with MediaMelon's view that traditional streaming videos are sufficient for short clips, but it is important to have a jitter-free high quality experience for longer video content.

MediaMelon's technology must be expesnive to operate and so they will need to gain rapid traction or finance to see them through to profitability.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 7/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

.......................................................................................................................

ChaCha recevies $8 million funding for real time human search engine

 

 
ChaCha, the real-time human-powered search engine, announced today it received $8 million in private equity funding and a $2 million grant from Indiana’s 21^st Century Technology Fund resulting in total proceeds to the company of $10 million.

Morton Meyerson, a first time investor in the company who led the round, joins ChaCha investors Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer, and Jack Gill, veteran Silicon Valley investor, founder of Vanguard Ventures and current partner at Maven Ventures.

”It is rare to find a company offering such a game-changing disruptive equation, even in the context of giants like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Having had the opportunity to work with the entire ChaCha team, I am especially impressed with the caliber of people driving this groundbreaking company,” said Meyerson.

“I am excited for ChaCha’s future potential and think its plan to build upon its human-powered search engine to develop a mobile answers application is brilliant. ChaCha is absolutely in the right place at the right time in a multi-billion dollar industry that is ripe for innovation.”

Meyerson’s investment supports ChaCha’s plan to launch several unique services in early 2008. ChaCha is also pleased to announce Meyerson has been elected to its board of directors.

We disagree with Morton Meyerson. Firstly, as the image above shows ChaCha is not always available with a live guide.

 

 

Secondly the graph above shows the traction that ChaCha has received. Based on these figures they have a long way to go. The growth they have experienced is what we would expect from a blog or commerce website and not for a new approach to search. Both Yahoo and Google grew very rapidly.

ChaCha is going to need a great deal more money if it plans to service consumers with real time human-powered search results.

.......................................................................................................................

ON Networks takes $12 million Series B to produce new shows

 

 

ON Networks has taken $12 million Series B in a round led by Accel Partners. Also participating in the round were original investors Austin Ventures and AT&T.

ON Networks has set out to change the way traditional TV programs are created, distributed, consumed and monetized.

They deliver high-definition shows on-demand across multiple digital platforms, including the Internet, digital cable, IPTV, and various mobile and gaming devices.

ON Networks produces a range of original video content, with shows such as Play Value, The 5-Minute Drill, BackPack Picnic, Budget Health Nut, Cocktails on the Fly, Golf Tips, and Stump the Chef.

The funding will be used to expand ON Networks, including the development of its “virtual studio technology platform,” and for the production of new shows.

ON Networks previously took $4 million Series A in November 2006, taking total funding to $16 million.

........................................................................................................................

100,000 popups and counting

 

 

A Firefox user reported how he accidentally landed on a web page that attempted to load an insane number of popups. Lucky for him, none of the apparently infinite popups hurt his PC since he was using Firefox.

The popup attack was not intentional but the result of a nasty bug. Very nasty: The page opened in a tab and counted more than 100,000 blocked popups.

The screenshot above was taken a few minutes before.

.......................................................................................................................

Zillow.com partners with 11 newspaper companies

 

 

Real estate web site Zillow.com and 11 newspaper publishing companies representing 282 newspapers nationwide have created a partnership to extend local classified advertising such as for-sale listings and open house information to Zillow's online platform.

Local advertisers who place their print and online listings with the newspapers will be able to choose to have their listings and open house ads also displayed on Zillow, one of the largest online real estate sites.

 

 

Zillow is a very popular real estate site as the traffic above shows and this partnership will only add to Zillow's distribution, credibility and future growth.

........................................................................................................................

Amazon launches "Customer Video Reviews,"

 

 

Amazon.com has launched "Customer Video Reviews" enabling customers to use video to share their opinions and demonstrate the use of products on Amazon.com.

Customer Video Reviews are located within the Customer Reviews section of items in the Amazon.com catalog. For example, check out this video review in which Amazon.com reviewer "Anjana" shows the Fisher-Price T.M.X. Tickle Me Elmo toy in action.

"We are dedicated to offering our customers an information-rich shopping experience so they can know which products are right for them," said Colin Bodell, vice president, Amazon.com. "The chance to see product demonstrations as submitted by fellow customers is just the latest benefit to shopping on Amazon."

Amazon supports the upload of a .WMV, .MPEG, QuickTime or .AVI file to the Customer Reviews Section of any product detail page.

The new Flip Video camcorder from Pure Digital provides on-board software which allows users to upload a video to Amazon.com. A Customer Video Review shot with a Flip Video camcorder can be seen here.

........................................................................................................................

Wellocities Health Community receives $1M in seed funding

 

 

Wellocities, the Canada-based health site, has raised $1 million in seed investment from XDL Capital Group, which has also incubated the site for the past year. 

Wellocities was founded in 2007 and was created to improve the lives of Canadians with chronic conditions.

Wellocities missions is to help patients and caregivers find health information and services, monitor health conditions and learn from others.

....................................................................................................................... 

Northeastern University sues Google over patent

 

 

Northeastern University and a start-up company cofounded by an associate professor have filed a patent-infringement suit against Google Inc., claiming that database technology patented in 1997 was misappropriated by Google.

"This particular patent has to do with the fundamental database architecture, which they use to serve up every single result they serve to you," said Michael Belanger, president of Jarg Corp. in Waltham. Jarg is a privately funded developer of advanced search technology.

The company was cofounded by Northeastern associate professor Kenneth P. Baclawski and holds an exclusive license to the patent, which is owned by Northeastern.

The patent covers a method for chopping up database queries into multiple portions and having each part processed by a different computer. This allows for much faster searching of huge databases, like Google's vast index of Web pages on the Internet.

...................................................................................................................... 

Grouply puts your Yahoo and Google Groups in one place

 

 

Grouply is a new website that helps you aggregate and manage your activity across groups websites.

Grouply sets out to simplify life for the 300 million users of online groups—alumni associations, hobby clubs, youth sports teams, professional organizations, discussion boards, mailing lists, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups.

With Grouply, you can keep up with your existing online groups in less time. You receive a Grouply Smart Digest™ email each day that summarizes what’s going on across all your groups, highlighting what’s interesting to you and hiding what’s not.

Grouply aggregates all of your messages across all of your online groups into a single, easy-to-use website. Currently Grouply works with Yahoo Groups, but more systems will be supported in the future.

Grouply is similar to online email services such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AIM mail, and inbox.com. These services provide you with an email address, store copies of messages sent to that address, and offer you the ability to access your messages online through their website.

When you register with Grouply, Grouply assigns you a grouply.com email address and then automatically adjusts your membership settings in Yahoo Groups so that group messages will be sent to Grouply via this address.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 8/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

.......................................................................................................................

Are Facebook’s social ads illegal?

 

 

While Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg has promised a revolution in advertising there has some been some backlash and more importantly the social ads may be illegal.

According to the NY Times Facebook's ads may be illegal under a 100-year-old New York privacy law. The statute says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages. Moreover, such a use is also a criminal misdemeanor.

According to William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who wrote about these laws in a blog post today, the law would apply to Facebook users anywhere if the ad were displayed in New York.

While the lawyers will no doubt find a way to resolve the legal issues, the bigger picture revolves around a backlash from the internet community. If any form of backlash picks up momentum Facebook may find its new ad platform a thorn in its side.

.......................................................................................................................

Comparison shopping traffic increases 56 percent

 

 

Hitwise reports that comparison shopping websites saw an increase in the online market share of visits last week compared to the same week in 2006.

Online traffic to a custom category of leading comparison shopping websites increased 56 percent last week compared to the smae period last year.

Yahoo! Shopping received the highest market share of visits within the category at 20 percent, with their market share increasing 44 percent from the same week last year. Smarter.com and Bizrate followed with 15 and 14 percent, respectively.

• The retailers benefiting the most from the top comparison shopping websites were Amazon, eBay, Target, Overstock.com, Wal-Mart, and JCPenney in the percentage of downstream traffic from those same sites for the week ending Nov. 3, 2007.


• Search engines were the main driver of traffic to the top comparison shopping websites with Google referring 20 percent of visits and Yahoo! Search referring 14 percent for the week ending Nov. 3, 2007.


• The leading product search terms driving traffic to the comparison shopping websites were laptop computers, Nintendo Wii, LCD TV, digital cameras, iPods, and Xbox360 for the four weeks ending Nov. 3, 2007.

Baby boomers are the main visitors of comparison shopping websites and consumer electronics continue to be popular amongst these comparison shoppers.

The share of traffic from online users aged 45+ increased 38 percent across the top comparison shopping sites. Shopzilla experienced the biggest increase in traffic among visitors aged 45+ with a 58 percent gain. NexTag saw a 48 percent increase in traffic while Yahoo! Shopping received a 46 percent increase for the same week.

 ......................................................................................................................

Steve Ballmer says Google is only ahead in search

 

 

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in Tokyo to launch the new Windows Live services, said that Google was only ahead in terms of search.

Microsoft has this week launched its Windows Live programming package for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and photo-sharing.

Google has also this week launched its free software package for mobile devices, Android, scheduled to hit the market next year.

Google is offering its technology to handset manufacturers so consumers will be able to use Google's search engine, e-mail and maps on mobile devices as easily as on personal computers.

Ballmer said it was difficult to comment on Google's mobile plans because they were still "just words on paper" that had yet to begin.

Ballmer also acknowledged Microsoft expects to continue to lose money in its global online business for some time.

Although a dozen Japanese companies have signed on as partners for Windows Live, the momentum is clearly with Google.

Microsoft is fighting hard, but Google's continued innovation and business diversification is going to make it difficult for Microsoft to keep up.

.....................................................................................................................

CNET buys FindArticles for a cheap $20.5 million

 

LookSmart has sold FindArticles.com property to CNET in an all cash transaction valued at approximately $20.5 million.

FindArticles.com houses approximately 11 million resource articles from over 3,000 sources, including leading magazines, journals, trade publications and newspapers. The site lets users browse articles dating back to 1998 by category or by specific publication name.

“The sale of FindArticles.com improves the Company’s overall financial position, and enables us to focus and streamline more effectively on building value in our core advertising network and publisher services operations,” commented Ted West, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer. “Our strategy is to focus on the needs of advertisers and publishers in order to position the Company for future growth and profitability. ”

“CNET Networks understands that access to premium content is critical for our users' online media experience,” said Neil Ashe, CEO of CNET Networks. “The addition of this high-quality content from leading independent publishers allows us to further improve the experience for our users.”

 

 

Based on the high traffic figures, this looks like a cheap acquisition for CNET, based on US unique monthly traffic, the sale values each user at just under $3. This is certainly at the low end of valuations. The price is likely to reflect the lack of recent growth.

.......................................................................................................................

Digg for sale at $300 million - each unique visitor is worth $16.30

 

 

Digg is supposedly close to an announcement that it has sold to a big media player for somewhere around $300 million dollars.

The purchasing party is thought to be a more traditional media company, ruling out the usual suspects of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft - Digg's advertising partner. Valleywag speculates that it could be The New York Times or The Washington Post.

 

As the graph above shows Digg has shown exceptional growth over the last 12 months and would do well to sell while the buzz continues.  There has been speculation that Digg has been trying to sell for some time.

 

 .....................................................................................................................

Internet advertising to triple from $16.9 billion in 2006 to $42 billion in 2011

 

eMarketer projects that US online advertising will more than double as a percentage of total media, rising from only a 6% share of total media in 2006, to slightly more than a 12% share in 2010.

In roughly the same period, online spending will nearly triple, rising from $16.9 billion in 2006 to $42 billion in 2011.

To put the obvious into figures, online advertising contributes more and more to the total ad spending universe every year.”

That share will be 7.4% this year, approach one in ten dollars next year, and will likely reach at least 13% by the end of 2011.

 

 

The average ad spend per Internet user is also growing. In fact, 2007 marks the first year that marketers will spend more than $100 to reach each person online. And, by 2011, advertisers will be spending nearly $200 per user.

......................................................................................................................

New Gmail has issues, please wait 10 days

 

Gmail's move from "old" to "new" has not been as simple as hoped, much of the code has been re-written and as documented on the Gmail help discussion there are a few problems. Here is what Google has to say:

As GMail is under transition from its interface, various issues are being reported by several users on these Groups. Currently, there doesn't seem to be any straightforward resolutions available, and it may be worthwhile to wait for GMail to complete its transition from the "old" to the "new" interface for all accounts
before trying to deal with such issues.

Please wait for about a week to 10 days (or more), and keep an eye out on these Groups for any resolutions or workarounds of issues similar to yours.

Interim, to access the GMail UI on the "old" interface, please use the secure access URL https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1

And, for the "new" interface, which would work only with IE 7+, Firefox 2+, and Safari 3α+, please use the secure access URL https://mail.google.com

Also check whether updating your Firefox to 2.0.0.9 helps.

"Some" popular GMail-related extensions (Firefox add-ons and GreaseMonkey scripts) have been disabled and would not work till their developers "work out" with Google the best ways to make them work, cf. GMail Blog, http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/code-changes-to-prepare-gmail-f....

Definitely, the add-on Better GMail (a collection of GreaseMonkey scripts) does not work. Unsure about the add-on GMail Skins. But there's no reason why the add-on GMail Manager should not work, or at least, allow you to access GMail. Other GMail-related Firefox extensions like GDrive and GSpace would not work for now.

........................................................................................................................

Facebook Ads is based on trusted personal recommendations

 

 

Facebook Ads has finally launched and can be simplified into three parts:

1. Ads targeted at Facebook members using their profile data such as age, gender, relationship status, work history, and stated interests (Social Ads)

2. Ad widgets that advertisers can put on their own sites that allow Facebook members to become product endorsers, and spread that endorsement to all of their friends on Facebook through their personal feeds (Beacon).

3. Aggregated profile information that is exposed to Facebook advertisers that tells them what kind of people are getting their ads and who is clicking on them (Insight).

At the lanch press conference Mark Zuckerberg said “Once every hundred years media changes. the last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections.

“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than recommendations from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising."

........................................................................................................................ 

Apple working on Table PC

 

 

Crave reports that Asus will be manufacturing a tablet PC based on the same multi-touch technology of the iPhone/iTouch, as previously reported. Asus already manufactures iBooks, PowerBooks and MacBooks.

It will come from a completely new blueprint, possibly based on the patent Apple filed back in May 2005. The tablet is likley to be based on Intel Core architecture, a tweaked version of Leopard, and have all the multi-touch functionality we have seen with the iPhone and iPod touch.

Given the success Apple has had with the Pod and iPhone it would be a fool to bet against Apple´s success with a tablet.

 ......................................................................................................................

Alibaba now worth $22 billion

 

 

Alibaba.com more than doubled on its first day of trading in Hong Kong to become Asia's second-biggest Internet company by market value after Yahoo Japan Corp.

Alibaba is trading at more than 135 times next year's estimated earnings. Alibaba's IPO was the biggest by a Web company after Google Inc.'s $1.9 billion share sale in August 2004. Google, the owner of the world's most popular search engine, sold shares at $85 apiece. The stock has risen more than eightfold since.

Google trades at about 35 times estimated earnings.

Goldman Sachs estimates Alibaba will post 2008 earnings before stock-based compensation of 1.24 billion yuan ($166 million), according to a report. Including those costs, profit is estimated at 1.02 billion yuan.

Alibaba's profit will nearly triple to 622 million yuan this year, the company said in its listing prospectus.

Clients can advertise or buy products using Alibaba's Web site for free. The company charges suppliers from China and Hong Kong an annual fee to become so-called premium members, which enable them to gain preferential access to buyers.

The Chinese word for bubble is 泡沫 (paomo). It may be worth learning this word.

......................................................................................................................

IAC breaks up internet conglomerate to focus on high growth businesses

 

 

IAC will spin off four of its biggest divisions, including the HSN cable shopping network, and retain 30 of its fastest-growing businesses to better capitalize on the growth of Web services.

IAC's main businesses, of which HSN and LendingTree were the largest, have diverged in terms of growth and profitability HSN has conducted a lengthy overhaul of merchandise and television programming while the mortgage business has been hurt by a deteriorating U.S. housing market.

IAC kept its media and subscription-related businesses under its roof because their earnings allow the company to invest in emerging Internet businesses. They include the Ask.com Web search unit, Evite, Match.com dating service, online video site Vimeo and virtual world Zwinky.

Separating the businesses would make them easier for investors to understand and put them in a better position to hire talent and buy other companies.

The media and advertising business reported a 40 percent rise in revenue and $15.4 million in operating income during the third quarter, reversing a loss from a year ago.

Here is how the break down will work:

1. IAC will include: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, IAC Advertising Solutions, Evite, Excite, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti, Zwinky, Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications, ReserveAmerica, Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Gifts.com, Green.com, InstantAction, Primal Ventures, Pronto, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6, Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, Medem, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.

2. HSN: The Home Shopping Network, which includes HSN TV, hsn.com, and the Cornerstone Brands, Inc. portfolio of catalogs, web sites and retail locations.

3. Ticketmaster will include: Admission.com, Biletix, Billetnet, BillettService, Cottonblend, Echomusic, Kartenhaus.de, Lippupalvelu, LiveDaily, TicketService, Tick Tack Ticket, TicketWeb and Ticnet.se, as well as Ticketmaster’s current investments in Frontline and iLike.

4. Interval International will include: CondoDirect, Resort Quest Hawaii and VacationSource.com;

5. LendingTree will include: RealEstate.com, Domania, GetSmart, Home Loan Center and iNest.

.......................................................................................................................

MySpace to compete with Facebook with targeted ads

 

 

MySpace will today launch a new advertsiing service that allows it to sell advertisements targeted to the individual tastes and interests of its millions of users.

The advertising sales system is called "hyper targeting" because it uses the personal information which users input about themselves to tailor personalised online adverts.

This news will overshadow the recent news from Facebook who is also expected ot launch a similar ad network.

MySpace says click through rates on its hyper-targeted advertisements are 300 per cent greater than for other advertisements on its site.

More than 50 advertisers have signed up to the MySpace scheme, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Toyota.

Online advertising i presentoy experiencing a big boom in term sof new startups and as a sustainable business for many publishers.

.......................................................................................................................

WikiAnswers passes the one million question milestone

 

 

WikiAnswers.com has announced it has passed the one million question milestone.

The millionth question, placed in the Science and Environment category, was "Are there readily available substitutes for gold in industrial applications?". WikiAnswers currently contains over 2,100 categories of questions.

According to analysis using ComScore data (comScore Media Metrix, US Top 1500 Web Domains Report, January 2007 vs. September 2007, Ranked by % Change), for the first nine months of this year, WikiAnswers unique monthly visitor count in the U.S. has grown 317%, to over four million. This ranks WikiAnswers as the second-fastest growing domain of the top 1,500.

The site's features continue to improve, based almost exclusively on the requests and suggestions of the community.

......................................................................................................................

NBC´s DotComedy heads for the deadpool

 

 

NBC´s online comedy site DotComedy went live last November with a mix of NBC's late-night programming, snippets of classic comedy from the network's library, viral video and original content.

Mediaweek reports that DotComedy is now heading for the deadpool. Since its launch, DotComedy has struggled to gain any traction. The site's traffic twice fell below Nielsen Online's minimum reporting threshold over the last three months. DotComedy´s US traffic can be seen in the graph below.

 

 

 

Some of the site's original programming, which included original content produced by a team of video bloggers, will likely be redistributed to other sites within the NBCU family.

.......................................................................................................................

FrameChannel automatically sends images to your picture frame

 

FrameChannel is a free web-based tool that lets you select and manage image content for your wireless picture frame or desktop.

With over 200 channels of dynamic content, FrameChannel allows you to combine your own photos with news and entertainment channels, feeds from popular photo sharing sites, as well as photos sent by your friends and family who you can invite to contribute directly to your frame.

You set it up once, tell it your preferences, and it updates every fifteen minutes.

Nice idea, we want one.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 8/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

.......................................................................................................................

Google almost launches own PC at Wal-Mart

 

 

Although Google hasn't developed its own PC, it has come very close via the new ultra low-cost PC from Everex.

The Everex “gPC” is a Linux-based PC being sold through Wal-Mart, with a price tag of just $200. It comes with easy access to Google applications like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google’s now complete online office suite – Google Docs.

The computer has a 1.5-gigahertz processor, 512 megabytes of memory, and 80GB hard drive.

This is a basic computer for families that will allow Google to introduce users to the internet and computing via the Google applications.

Watch out, Google will soon take over your home.

........................................................................................................................

5min.com raises $5 million

 

 

Israeli video startup 5Min, is believed to have raised $5 million in cash, from Spark Capital.

5min is a place to find short video solutions for everypractical question and is also a place for people who want to share their knowledge.  5min's vision is simple: any solution can be visually explained in 5 minutes.

 

 

An Israeli (print) magazine called Globes recently got their hands on the capitalization table of 5min and published the details. The angels ended up with nearly half the company for that $300k (see above).

 

We like 5min.com because the content is viral and they will be able to build traffic quickly, something they are well on their way to doing (see above).

....................................................................................................................... 

 

Semantic search site Hakia launches 'Meet Others' feature

 

 
Hakia, the semantic search engine has added a social feature called Meet Others. Meet Others "who asked the same query" is a new social networking service that connects people through their common search queries.

To use the feature you simply submit a query thhen follow the MEET OTHERS link to jump to a room of people who asked the same query.

If the room is empty, you can create this room and be the first to post a message. You can also go directly to meet.hakia.com and search for matching queries.

To view the rooms or to post messages, there is no registration required. The posting process requires email confirmation for authentication.

If you post a message and want to be contacted, the email contact is done over hakia's network using anonymous addresses (such as 2343t65@hakia.com).

Hakia is a very exciting project and this new feature is excellent. Keep an eye on Hakia they are slowly gaining traction.

.......................................................................................................................

PayPerPost renames IZEA to organize bizarre mix of web properties

 

 

Social media marketing business PayPerPost has announced it is changing its corporate name to organize the multiple properties its has developed within the fast-changing world of social media.

In addition to PayPerPost.com, IZEA owns and operates Zookoda.com, BloggersChoiceAwards.com, RockStartup.com, RSSBrief.com, URLBrief.com and BlogInSpace.com, among others.

Looking at this list they have a poor selection of web properties operating some strange businesses such as BlogInSpace.com.

We feel they would be better off spending time working with bloggers to try and build trust, something they appear to have lost from the blogging community over the last few months.  PayPerPost still insists you need to operate archives to work with them, something that many big blogs no longer use.

Founded in June 2006, IZEA has somehow raised over $10 million in venture capital from venture firms including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Village Ventures and Inflexion Partners.

The name change comes just days before the scheduled unveiling of IZEA's Argus project. 

Argus is likely to provide both bloggers and advertisers more visibility into social media and allow them to interact with each other and the public in more immediate, transparent and accountable ways. Access to the alpha version will be by invitation only through the end of 2007.

.......................................................................................................................

ScratchBack launches cross between TextLinkAds and BlogAds

 

 

ScratchBack is a new online "tipping" system. It allows publishers, to accept tips and "give back" links or images in return. You name your price on your tips, and you earn money from every interaction through ScratchBack's automated system.

Setup by Jim Kukral, a long-time (since 1995) online marketing veteran, speaker, author, web entrepreneur and blogger ScratchBack was born out of years of his frustration as a blogger who was unable to find ways to make any decent direct money from his efforts.

Scratchback is a cross between textlinkads and blogads.

ScratchBack allows a publisher to accept tips and “give back” links or images in return. Each listing has a unique message; when a visitor mouseovers a listing, a custom message shows up in the form of a bubbletip.

Publishers name their price on tips, and earn money from every interaction through the ScratchBack system. The service is free to signup, and publishers get the code for a “TopSpot” widget in minutes. ScatchBack will be taking a small cut from each transaction, although the percentage hasn’t been finalized.

With the recent problems with Google penalising Text Links Ads, ScratchBack looks set to be a great way for blogs and publishers to earn revenue.

......................................................................................................................

THE FROSTFIRE BUZZ TEST

1. Is this a unique product? 8/10

2. Is this business/product difficult to replicate? 7/10

3. Is this something that can appeal to a large global audience? 7/10

.......................................................................................................................

Google rolls out GMail 2.0

 

 

Google are starting to roll out their new and improved new look GMail 2.0 to a few selected users. you may be one of those selected users. To find out, login to GMail and look for a "new version" link at the top of the page.

 

So what does GMail 2.0 do that the old GMail didn't? Well the main differences are a completely re-written Javascript backend to make GMail faster, and a whole new contacts manager to help you find those special people when you need to find them most.

 

 

The other new feature that i am especially liking is the filter. The old "more actions" drop down box now contains a "filter messages like these" option which will open a filter options box.

.......................................................................................................................

Facebook to launch ad network to rival Google Adwords

 

 

Mark Zuckerberg will be announcing the launch of Facebook’s new advertising system on November 6th. 

This news comes days after Facebook released an unannounced upgrade to their Flyers system, enabling users to view demographic data within the site. Interestingly, Facebook recently filed a trademark for “SocialAds” just last month.

It appears as though this is finally taking place next month. Facebook is also expected to launch an advanced analytics package and e-commerce features for the Facebook platform.

Imagine if Facebook, who now has access to over 50 million users’ personal information could target ads based on those profiles anywhere on the web. 

Facebook will be leveraging the cookies installed in users’ browsers after logging into Facebook in order to target them across the web. In the instance that the user doesn’t have one of the Facebook cookies installed, ads similar to those of what Google currently provides will be displayed.

This may well explain why Microsoft has invested $240 million in Facebook.  Thanks to their advertising partnership, Microsoft will now be able to provide targeted ads not only based on demographic data (location, age, gender, etc), but they will also know that the person visiting your site is interested in skiing and guitar.

All of this information will allow Facbook to make considerably more money that the standard Adwords.

Google may well have some serious competition.

........................................................................................................................