Monthly Archives: October 2006
SideStep To Acquire TravelPost Today
According to Reuters, SideStep Inc. should be set today to announce that they will be acquiring TravelPost.com. SideStep is a traveler’s search engine that searches over 150 websites to find travel bargains. Every month, SideStep services are used by 5 million consumers. TravelPost is a website for consumers to read and review hotels and other resorts. “SideStep plans to combine TravelPost’s reviews with its own site in the coming months, matching travelers with hotels based on advice from people with similar interests [source].”
SideStep (#10 Travel website) is geared towards competing hyperactively against Expedia, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Orbitz, and Yahoo!
Private company, SideStep Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Santa Clara, CA. TravelPost.com was founded in San Mateo, CA and has generated over 250,000 reviews by users on 50,000 hotels. SideStep has previously raised over $17 million in funding from Trident Capital and other investors. Rob Solomon a former general manager of Yahoo! Travel took over as President and CEO of SideStep.
[Article Source: paidContent]
Google continues to dominate Silicon Valley – Surpasses Cisco and IBM as the 2nd most valuable technology company!
Google now has a market cap of around $145 billion. The only technology company with a higher market cap is Microsoft at $282.5 billion. Google’s market cap soared after it announced surprisingly strong third-quarter financial results last week. Google’s profits soared past analyst expectations by nearly doubling.
Yahoo on the other hand saw a 38% drop in profits primarily due to slowing ad sales and problems rolling out its own contextual ad network. According to comScore, Google held 45% of the online USA search market in September as opposed to Yahoo’s 28%. Yahoo’s share of the online search market is steadily dipping.
Google’s phenomenal growth is something very few technology companies see. Its surprising how fast Google blew past some of the oldest and most respectable technology companies around.
As you can see, Google continues to dominate Silicon Valley and eat small competitors alive. But everything good comes to an end. And eventually, some new startup will wow millions of Internet users and become the next Google.
Categories Google
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Zillow home estimates are allegedly inaccurate
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition has filed a complaint with the FTC against Zillow stating that the company is misleading consumers and real estate professionals that rely on the accuracy of its home valuation service.
Zillow has created a lot of buzz around its home value estimation tool. I know a number of real estate agents that use Zillow’s valuation tool on a regular basis. And nearly all those agents heavily rely on the accuracy of the valuation. Therefore, if Zillow is in fact misleading people, this could become a major issue.
You can check out the complaint PDF here. [link]
In the complaint, the NCRC states that Zillow misrepresents itself as the Kelly Blue Book for homes. It also states that  Zillow misrepresents the accuracy percentage of its home estimates. According to Zillow, its estimates are with-in 10% of a home’s selling price. Unfortunately, many consumers do not realize that they should take any online home valuation tool’s estimate with a grain of salt. Zillow should maybe add a disclaimer for real estate professionals stating that its estimates may be inaccurate.
I do hope that Zillow gets out of this complaint. I really like Zillow’s website. It’s intuitive and easy to use. And even if the estimates are not completely accurate, at least it’s a place to start.
MySpace & Facebook losing users because of spam and fake profiles
 
According to the Wall Street Journal, unique September visits to Facebook fell 12% and MySpace to 4% from August. The reason for the decline in visitors may be due to the prevalence of spam and fake profiles on these social networks. Marketers are now using MySpace and Facebook more then ever to promote their businesses and products. Hundreds of thousands of fake profiles are being created each month by spammers.
I think spam is a much bigger issue on MySpace then Facebook. Although we may start seeing more fake profiles on Facebook now that it’s publicly open.
Many users of these social networks are starting to get annoyed by spam, fake profiles and random friend requests from unknown people. This is most likely driving away users. In the beginning, its exciting to connect with a large number of friends, leave comments on people’s profiles, and even support businesses that have profiles online.
Eventually, users get sick of this routine. I know a few people that got sick of getting MySpace friend requests from profiles that linked to pornographic websites.
Even with all the spam and fake profiles, I am sure Facebook and MySpace will continue to see growth. Unfortunately, their steadily growing user-base and “cool factor†will keep attracting advertisers and spammers. However, a majority of users could probably care less at this point. Afterall, leaving a network that connects you to all your friends is not easy.
Online Video Editing Site Eyespot Gets $3.7 Million Funding
Eyespot is an online video editing and sharing website backed by Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com. The video website, which was launched in April of 2006, secured $3.7 million in funding led by Gabriel Venture.
Like Jumpcut, Eyespot is a video remix site that lets users edit and combine videos, photos, and music into a single video. The user-created videos are shared through email, cell phones, and blogs. Users can upload videos to Eyespot through cell phones as well as their PCs.
Tim Chang, a partner at Gabriel Venture Partners said “We’re still in the early days of user-generated video, and have long believed that a platform like Eyespot is needed to take user-generated content to the next level, beyond simple upload or pirated content to active creation and participation.” [source]
To its advantage, Eyespot has managed to build relationships with media companies that can provide legal content to its users. Its partners include Blip.tv, Veoh Networks, Current TV, and Lions Gate Entertainment. It has also partnered with artists from noteworthy labels like Columbia.
I am not sure how Eyespot plans to monetize its user-base. The site has no ads on it and they have no premium service options. Another problem I see with the site is the quality of videos on there. They are rather obscure. Browse through some of the videos and you will know what I mean.
I think a smart move for Eyespot would be to license their technology to other companies. There are plenty of companies that can use Eyespot’s video remixing technology. Therefore, I can see a good amount of this funding going into Eyespot improving their technology to license out. As for Eyespot’s own user-base, it’s hard to say how much growth it will see. We’ll just have to wait and see how this company does.
Categories Eyespot
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SkyRider Receives $12M For P2P Search Marketing
Skyrider, a Mountain View, CA based company has just announced that $12 million has just been added to the company bank account from investors ComVentures, Sequoia Capital, and Charles River Ventures. Skyrider has also raised $8 million within the last two months.
The way that Skyrider works essentially is by taking over certain search results for keywords in which there is an advertising opportunity. An example given by the Skyrider website is below:
In the above screenshot, it displays how Skyrider will add a link to a website that sells pop artist, Shakira’s concert tickets if a user searches for Shakira in P2P software, Limewire. Skyrider is aiming to make money from these ads similar to how Google is making money from search engine results.
The advertisement is part of the search results, but will be mainly depicted by all capital letters. This helps the advertisement differentiate itself from spam. The advertisement will be displayed in the top results and if a user clicks the ad, then the default Internet browser will open the ad.
Currently Skyrider is a first to market for P2P advertisements on a large scale. Skyrider is pulling together millions of search queries and will soon be processing hundreds of millions of queries per day. Statistics say that searches queries made on Yahoo! and Google are roughly the same number of searches made on P2P networks.
Skyrider was founded by Dr. Ori Cohen and Stas Khirman. Both of these founders previously created Narus, which is a leader of software and technology in the telecommunications and government agency industry.
FREE411.COM gets $30 million in funding
[Edit - Jingle has raised a total of $61.4 million, not $56.4 million. I missed a $5 million funding round they had in December.]
Jingle Networks has received a $30 million investment led by Goldman Sachs and Hearst Corporation. Jingle operates FREE411.COM, a service that provides free ad-supported telephone directory assistance.
This is the company’s fourth funding round. Jingle raised $400,000 when they started out, $5 million in December, and $26 million in April. So to date, Jingle has raised $61.4 million.
I would guess that investors own roughly 1/3 of Jingle. Therefore, Jingle’s valuation is possibly around $184 million. Not bad for such a young company.
FREE411 works like any other directory assistance service. You call 1-800-FREE-411 and are answered by an automated service that asks you a few questions about the business number you are looking for. And while you wait for the number, sponsored ads related to your listing are played. If the automated service is unable to help you, live operators are also available.
I think Jingle has a great thing going for it. Directory assistance services cost a lot. Sprint charged me something like $3.00 to use their assistance service last week which was ridiculous! I don’t mind having to listen to a few ads to save $3.00.
It’s projected that Americans use directory assistance services 6 billion times a year. Therefore, FREE411.COM has huge potential for growth. According to Jingle, its service handled 13 million calls in September. That’s a sizeable number. If Jingle keeps growing and capturing segments of the traditional directory assistance market, I can easily see it become a billion dollar company.
Categories FREE411, Goldman-Sachs, Jingle Networks
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Wikipedia Co-Founder to Open New Type of Encyclopedia Project
On January 15, 2001, Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales started Wikipedia.org, an open-source encyclopedia where users edit or add information on certain subjects. The project proved to be very successful, but Larry Sanger felt that it could improved. Sanger feels that the problem with Wikipedia is that users cannot tell when information on Wikipedia is outdated or if data is inaccurate.
This is why Sanger is planning on unleashing a new website called Citizendium.org. Sanger is calling this initiative an “encyclopedia project” which also will be open to the public, but will be headed by experts on subjects. Citizendium will be geared more towards users of Encarta and The Encyclopedia Brittanica. Participating as a contributor will be by invite-only.Â
In referring to Wikipedia, “Its content is uneven in quality,” Sanger stated. “In science and technology, the articles are rather good but in social science and humanities, they are rather amateurish.”
Since there were not any real restrictions about who can contribute to articles, a lot of vandalization has been taking place. “Widespread anonymity leads to a lot of trolling,” Sanger stated. “As a result, the whole system is off-putting to a lot of people, including the most valuable contributors: academics, scholars, scientists, etc.” Citizendium’s plan is to have contributors use their real names instead of aliases.
Many scholars and editors have been receptive to Sanger’s new idea and have willfully signed up. This includes Gareth Leng, a professor in Physiology at the University of Edinburgh. Other professors or professionals that will be able to sign on as a contributor to certain subjects on Citizendium will be required to have 3 years of experience along with other qualifications. However, as Citizendium progresses, the requirements for contributors will be less strict.
“Those are requirements for the pilot project but the plan is to allow editors to be self selecting,” Sanger stated. “We’ll post the requirements in terms of degrees on the wiki itself and when it is out of the pilot phase, people will be able to make the judgment themselves whether they have the qualifications. They’ll have to link that they have the qualifications but otherwise it’s going to be a very much a wiki. It’s a Web 2.0 approach to getting editors involved.”
Citizendium is a volunteer project and no one is getting paid for this initiative. Citizendium is currently being funded by donations and Sanger is exploring the possibilities of attaining corporate sponsorships.
For more information, make sure to check out the Citizendium link in the 2nd paragraph or refer to the Wikipedia content on [Citizendium]
Google earns 25% of total online ad revenue
According to an eMarketer report, it looks like Google may earn 25% of the total online ad revenue this year. Now that’s a huge number. The online advertising sector is by no means small. And it’s growing at a favorable rate. For a company to pocket ¼ of this sector’s entire revenue is a big deal. Yahoo on the other hand will pocket 18% of total online ad revenue this year. Its predicted that next year, Google will earn as much as 30% of the online advertising market’s revenue. This year, Google will see an increase of 65% over last year’s advertising revenues.
What does all this mean? Google is turning into an unstoppable monster. Thanks to its humongous market cap and piles of cash, Google has the available resources to crush almost any competition. The Internet is becoming Googlized. And I am not sure how I feel about that.
Categories Google
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If You’re Not Using DealMine, You’re Paying Too Much!
DealMine is the first comparison shopping site that displays personalized deals and aides consumers in finding the best deals based on their DealMine profiles. For those who of you who like to spontaneously window shop and see something you like, but don’t know if you’re getting the right deal, and don’t have access to a computer to see what the competitive prices are, flip open your phone and log on to http://m.dealmine.com/ because the man with the light on his head just up and went wireless last week.
So DealMine saves you some money, what other incentives are there? First of all the service is completely free. As far as I remember, free is good. Another reason to join is because DealMine also accounts for potential organization discounts that many of us are applicable for such as AAA, AARP, American Express, Visa, Upromise, Delta SkyMiles, Veterans Advantage, plus more. DealMine also does a great job of making these cost reductions more apparent. How does DealMine make it more apparent? Check out the screenshot below:
Right next to your search result above, it shows “brought to you by American Express 10% Off Your Order” on these Xvalla Jeans. Research indicates that an average consumer owns 9 credit cards and belongs to 4 reward programs. But these average consumers are not aware of the places (including Overstock) where they can claim these rewards, so this is where DealMine comes in. DealMine wants you to save as much money as you can.
Through DealMine mobile, travelers can search for the best deals and apply for these deals when they’re renting a car or checking into a hotel on the spot. In the ‘Travel’ section of DealMine, there are over 100 car rental deals and over 100 hotel deals categorized by brands and their parent companies.
Oh! And one more thing! Users can bookmark favorite deals to the personalized myDealMine page and also store frequent flier numbers for those users who forget to carry them to the airport. Through this service, DealMine is revolutionizing wireless technologies for the everyday consumer. Scott Cherkin, the CEO and Founder of DealMine really knew what he was doing.
“We are all members of countless programs designed to save us money; the hard part is keeping track of which deal is best. By making our discounts and rewards search wireless, we hope to make choosing the right deal much easier and more accessible” stated Cherkin in response to the media interviewing him about DealMine’s new wireless service.
The three founders of DealMine, Scott Cherkin, Eric Carp, and Amit Gupta have strong backgrounds in Internet business development and information security. Scott and Eric are Penn State University alumni and Amit is an Indian Institute of Technology-New Delhi alumni.
NetVibe users, make sure to check out the DealMine module.