On the right corner and weighing at 90 million lbs. is the Web 2.0 social network juggernaut, MySpace.com[1]. And on the left corner, we have TheGlobe.com[2], a company that had dominated the world of Web 1.0 in the late 90s. The battle is regarding spam.

MySpace claimed that in June 2006, TheGlobe.com sent out nearly 400,000 unsolicited messages to MySpace users from 95 or more fake accounts. MySpace accused TheGlobe.com Inc. for violating the CAN-SPAM Act and the California Business & Professions Code Section 17529.5.

MySpace was entitled to $5.5 million in damages from TheGlobe.com. According to the press release[3], “This is the first court ruling in the United States enforcing a liquidated damages provision such as that found in MySpace’s Terms of Use.”

“This ruling sets a new precedent enabling us to further protect our members from phishing and spam,” stated Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer at MySpace. “We hope it sends a strong message that MySpace will take aggressive steps to stop those who violate the law and damage our members’ experience.”

Currently, TheGlobe.com takes a user to the homepage of Tralliance (”travel alliance”), a company that owns the domains, www.search.travel and www.directory.travel.

[1] MySpace.com
[2] TheGlobe.com
[3] Business Wire: MySpace and The Globe.com Announce Settlement

“StumbleUpon[1] is a great fit within our goal of pioneering new communities based on commerce and sustained by trust,” stated Michael Buhr, a senior director at eBay Inc.[2] “StumbleUpon’s downloadable toolbar provides an engaging and unique experience to its users, but it is the similarities in our approaches to the concept of community that make it such a compelling addition to eBay[3].” Yesterday, eBay announced that the company would acquire StumbleUpon for $75 million.

StumbleUpon has roughly 2.3 million users and is known for the social network that revolves around the toolbar. The StumbleUpon community grew 150% and makes 5 million recommendations every day.

“We’re excited about joining eBay, as we share the same values around community and we look forward to working with them to accelerate our growth,” stated Garrett Camp, a StumbleUpon founder. Michael Buhr will now be serving as a general manager for StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon was formed in 2001 and is based in San Francisco. The other two founders of StumbleUpon include Geoff Smith and Justin LaFrance.

For those who do not understand how StumbleUpon works, the below screen shot should explain it:

Image credit[4]

[1] StumbleUpon.com
[2] eBay.com
[3] Business Wire: eBay Acquires StumbleUpon
[4] StumbleUpon >> Technology

Video Credit: Engadget

Update: Gizmodo has an interesting video embedded of Bill Gates going through a demo of the Surface

Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Corporation’s Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates will be taking the stage in Carlsbad, California for Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital[1]. Bill Gates will be seated next to Steve Jobs talking about consumer technology on stage, but Steve Ballmer will be plugging a new Microsoft product called Surface. The Microsoft Surface is in the shape of a coffee table and operates by voice, a pen, and touch rather than a mouse and keyboard.

The Microsoft Surface will initially have a 30 inch surface and will cost roughly $5,000-$10,000. The prices will start dropping to affordable prices after 3-5 years.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” stated Ballmer. “We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror[2].”

Other Microsoft Surface features include multi-touch (ability for over a dozen people altering content at once), multi-user (since the computer is in the shape of a table, users can face each other while interacting with the computer), and object recognition (physical objects placed on the computer table can be recognized and transferred digitally).

Microsoft has partnered with T-Mobile, Harrah’s Entertainment, and Starwood Hotels for the promotion of the new product. This combination between computing and furniture seems like an aesthetic way to decorate a room in a house or apartment. Once the price drops, I definetely have to get myself one of these.

Microsoft Zune
In related Microsoft news, Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division announced that the company has sold over a million Microsoft Zunes. This was achieved slightly faster than company projections. Microsoft expected to sell a million by the end of June 2007.

“In the category we’re in, the hard-disk-based category, we’ve got about 10 percent market share. It’s a good start. It’s not an overwhelming start. I’m not going to pretend it’s some gigantic move,” stated Bach.

[1] D5 Conference website: http://d.wsj.com/
[2] Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts

CBS Corporation[1] will be acquiring Last.fm[2] for $280 million. Last.fm has more than 15 million monthly users of which 4 million are in the U.S.

“Last.fm is one of the most well-established, fastest-growing online community networks out there,” stated CBS’ CEO, Leslie Moonves. “Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’ goal to attract younger viewers and listeners”[3].

Last.fm is based in London, England and was founded by Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, and Richard Jones. Last.FM competes among the likes of Yahoo! Music and Real Networks’ Rhapsody player.

The idea behind Last.fm is to provide users the ability to listen to 30 second clips of music and then socialize with others who enjoy the same song. Last.fm then also suggests related songs that the user may enjoy and has a “buy this album” button that links to Amazon.com’s listings. Last.fm also has the ability to tag and write a journal on songs and albums. One of the latest features is a widget that can be embedded on websites, blogs, and/or social network profiles.

There was a recent rumor that Viacom would acquire Last.fm for $450 million so if this is true, CBS got a great deal. CBS has also recently acquired WallStrip, a humorous financial video website. CBS plans on placing their own content within Wall Strip and Last.fm

[1] CBS website: www.cbs.com
[2] Last.fm website: www.last.fm
[3] L.A. Times: CBS to buy social network

Google announced a new feature for Google Maps earlier today.  The new feature enables users to get a better view of the streets of San Francisco, New York, and Las Vegas.  Now someone in Sri Lanka can get a glimpse of how the Las Vegas strip looks like without actually going.  How does it work?

First, point your browser to one of those cities.  I pointed it to Las Vegas[1]:

After that, a Street View button will appear and so will a camera icon.  Once you click on the camera icon, you will be asked to zoom in and an icon of a person will show up (I drew an arrow pointing at the person icon):

With your mouse, you can drag and drop the icon of the man anywhere in the blue-outlined streets.  Once you drop the man there, a screen shot of that location will appear.  As an example, I dropped the man at 3600 Las Vegas Blvd S., the location of the famous Bellagio hotel[2]:

As of right now, I do not know what Google’s plans are for expanding this feature to other cities.  But I can definetely say that the competition between Google Street View and Microsoft Live Search Maps[3] will probably intensify further, thus provoking both companies to expand such features faster.  Microsoft provides the same feature from the point-of-view of inside a race car, a sports car, and in person.

[1] Google Maps: Las Vegas
[2] Google Maps: Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas
[3] Microsoft Live Search Maps

Story Correction: It turns out that anyone can create widgets on the site using the Facebook Developers section.  I have deleted the portion of the post that was untrue.
As I was watching a streaming video of the Facebook event, F8, I couldn’t help but think that Mark Zuckerberg reminded me of Steve Jobs. Before Zuckerberg entered the stage, there was some hype music playing (Daft Punk’s Around the World for example), and then he started his speech about “Today, together, we’re going to start a movement.” Throw in some buzz keywords that people love hearing and you have just captivated an audience.

It’s like Zuckerberg came up on stage with something that will revolutionize digital music players like an iPod or a Zune, but it was actually an announcement that Facebook will be supporting hand-picked widgets of his choice. That is clearly great news for other companies out there that want more traffic, but does it really matter to the users? Who knows?

While I hope that many other third party companies benefit from such a partnership traffic-wise, I hope that this does not discourage entrepreneurs from thinking, we are just another shadow under Facebook and MySpace. I still think that the next big thing is out there.

Mobouy.com is an original idea that was developed by a few graduates from Eastern Michigan University. The idea was conceptualized by Mo Kakwan and was inspired by the audience reaction from Yahoo!’s Hack Day 2006. Mo’s Hack Day team had essentially disappeared overnight so Mo created an application that would synthesize audio patterns and match it with the mouth of Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek. Kakwan wrote a blog post of the event from his perspective on Pulse 2.0[1].

The idea is simple: Create an account, upload a picture, select the mouth area using a few dots, and then hit record. After you are satisfied, then you can save and share the widget on your blog or other website. The actual final product are code-named: “Blabbers.” Below are a few sample widgets. I made the one with Ned Flanders singing Joseph’s Coat from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat.

Mobouy is currently self-funded and is looking angel investors. A new version of Blabber is currently being created which I will cover again in the near future. Mobouy is based in San Francisco, Calif.
[1] Pulse 2.0: Funny Guy Mo on Yahoo! Hack Day – Saved by Patrick Stewart

There are very few companies out there that is leading the Internet towards Web 3.0.  AdaptiveBlue[1] is one of those few companies.  The plugin designed by AdaptiveBlue aims to have your computer recommend information relevant to your web surfing habits.  Recently AdaptiveBlue unleashed a new version of their plugin, BlueOrganizer Denim.

The new Firefox plugin is a bit cleaner than the last version and has a couple of extra features.  Below is a screenshot of the where the plugin is actually placed in the Firefox browser:

The new version of the plugin includes a new startup wizard that guides the user through preferred content personalization.  For example, if I want more sports content to be suggester than book content, than I would select sports during the set-up wizard.

Another new feature is the BlueMenu.  The BlueMenu pull-down is displayed on the picture on the left.  There is also a sidebar which has been condensed to a smaller size and displays thumbnails of relevant content. 

One of the features that AdaptiveBlue found users to be most excited about is SmartLinks.  The concept of SmartLinks is to take common consumption items like DVDs and then provide the ability to add it to wish lists or embed them into blogs and MySpace pages in the form of a widget.  This way a user can say, this is what I want or this is what I have.

Below is a screen shot of what happens when you click on the BlueOrganizer when you visit the Spider Man 3 DVD page on Amazon[2]:

In summary, I am impressed with the software and the semantics behind the plugin.  The only skeptics that people may have is the fact that there is a bit of tracking happening in the background while surfing the web, but it only makes your browser smarter.  Union Square Ventures invested in AdaptiveBlue in February 2007.

[1] adaptiveblue.com
[2] Amazon.com: Spider-Man 3 DVD

William Gorog should be worried. Gorog is the CEO of Napster and their direct competitor, Ruckus Network[1] just raised $10 million in funding. This is Ruckus’ second round of investment and the funding was led by Anschutz Investment Company LLC and Columbia Capital[2].

Ruckus’ membership grew 60% during the Spring 2007 semester and signed contracts with 40 new schools. Currently the company has 120 memberships. Ruckus service is exclusive to those who have a .edu e-mail address.

“Today’s funding announcement caps what is arguably the most significant, successful and exciting period to date for Ruckus,“ stated Mike Bebel, the CEO of Ruckus Network, Inc. “Ruckus has become the digital entertainment service of choice for college students and administrators alike, creating considerable interest among advertisers and marketers who recognize the vast potential Ruckus fulfills. With this investment round, we are poised for even greater growth.“

Ruckus established partnerships with OneNet and Merit, who are the Internet Service Providers for educational institutions Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, etc.

The new funding will be used to develop further advertisement partnerships. Ruckus also provides full length movies for streaming.

[1] www.ruckus.com
[2] www.colcap.com

During the time I worked for Infosys Technologies, I was able to explore the city of Mysore for about 5 months. One regret I have is actually not checking out the University resources in the city. I spent more time appreciating the nightlife in Bangalore and checking out the beaches in Goa. Now I hear that Google Inc. is interested in the University of Mysore resources. The company will be scanning 800,000 manuscripts from the University.

“Written in both papers and palm leaves, there are around 100,000 manuscripts in our library, some dating back to the eighth century,” stated J Shashidhara Prasad, the vice chancellor of Mysore. “The effort is to restore and preserve this cultural heritage for effective dissemination of knowledge.” The University of Mysore will patent the documents before they are made public.

In America, Google is already scanning books at the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia. Google is also scanning books in Spain, the U.K., and Germany.

The company has also opened a billion dollar facility in Andhra Pradesh, India and is now providing news content in the Hindi language. This effort further epitomizes the initiative Google has in establishing themselves in India.

Source:
[1] Ars Technica

Sam Sethi, a former TechCrunch U.K. editor heard from a very trusted source that Google will be buying Feedburner to get into the RSS ad market[1]. The delay in closing the deal and announcing it is because the DoubleClick deal is still processing.

Because a lot of people just read summaries of blog posts and new stories on RSS-powered homepages such as NetVibes and PageFlakes, potential customers may not see the advertisements embedded within websites since it doesn’t show up. Since Feedburner has a program that allows publishers to embed advertisements within RSS feeds and collect commission from clicks, Google has taken an interest in the company.

The deal has not yet been confirmed by Google, but has been confirmed by TechCrunch[2]. The amount is worth $100 million and will be in cash. The founders will work for Google for a couple of years and the transaction should be completed within 2-3 weeks.

The company had 2 rounds of funding: $1 million Series A by Portage Ventures[3] and $9 million Series B funding from Mobius Venture Capital[4] and Union Square Ventures[5].

Many blogs and publishing companies route their own XML RSS feeds to be powered by Feedburner. This way companies can collect statistics on which RSS feeds for stories and/or blog posts are the most popular among readers. Pulse 2.0 is no exception. Our RSS feed URL is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/pulse2 [6]. Don’t forget to subscribe to us. Congratulations to Feedburner founders: Dick Costolo, Eric Lunt, Matt Shobe, Steve Olechowski.

[1] Vecosys blog post
[2] TechCrunch blog post
[3] portageventures.com
[4] mobiusvc.com
[5] unionsquareventures.com
[6] Pulse 2.0 RSS Feed

“We are taking action because we believe the rights to the Skype and FastTrack technologies were swept out from under our feet, and our 28 million Morpheus users were stolen from us,” stated Michael Weiss, the CEO for StreamCast Networks Inc. “The real story needs to be told[1].”

StreamCast believes that Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, founders of KaZaa, Skype, and Joost secretly transferred away technology rights away to FastTrack technology. “The sale of Skype to eBay was made possible through a scheme by many of the defendants to misappropriate the FastTrack peer-to-peer technology that rightfully belongs to StreamCast[2],” stated the outside Counsel of StreamCast, Dan Woods.

According to CNET[3], Joost has just been added in the list of defendants that StreamCast is chasing after. KaZaa, a file sharing software, faced numerous battles against the RIAA. Mark Gorton, founder of Limewire and Tower Research Capital[4] is now facing a similar battle[5].

[1] StreamCast Networks press release
[2] StreamCast Networks press release
[3] CNET
[4] www.tower-research.com
[5] IEEE Spectrum / found via Digg

The Cable News Network[1] and Internet Broadcasting[2] have an alliance that will provide CNN.com a way to provide a larger amount of local news.  This would give CNN a chance to snag more local advertisements.  Internet Broadcasting is based in Minneapolis, MN and will now be partially owned by CNN.

This CNN-Internet Broadcasting deal is bad news for newspaper websites such as Detroit Free Press’ Freep.com[3] and The Chicago Tribune’s local news section[4]. 

“CNN’s global reporting attracts millions of online consumers to CNN.com for domestic and international news every day,” stated Jim Walton, President of CNN. “Partnering with Internet Broadcasting adds another dimension – enhanced coverage of local news and events – and brings CNN reporting to significantly more people online.”

Over the course of the summer, CNN.com will also be unveiling a new web site design that emphasizes free archive video content.  CNN will shift its focus to an advertising-model over its current subscription-based model.  The amount of dollars that are being spent on the acquisition of Internet advertising companies emphasize the need for news companies to adapt to advertising-centric models.

The largest acquisition this year for an Internet advertising company was made by Microsoft, who acquired aQuantive for $6 billion.  Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.  What we may see is a race to see who can outbid advertising deals for companies looking for advertising sources such as CNN.com.

[1] www.cnn.com
[2] www.ibsys.com
[3] www.freep.com
[4] www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/

Blinkx[1] is a video search engine company that aggregates video data from across the web. The company boasts an index of 12 million hours in video content. Blinkx plc was created when the company was spun-off from Autonomy and then set a price of 45 pence per share. As stocks were being traded, the price rose to 67.5 pence per share. This cause the video search engine to be worth £180 million ($355 million).

What the company will do with this much money now is still a mystery to me. But the company does have the advantage of striking partnerships with ChaCha, Quintura, the National Geographic Channel, Portfolio.com, Break.com, VideoJug, Motion.TV, YouAreTV, QVC, NBX, the World Fashion CHannel, and several other companies.

The company has headquarters in San Francisco, California and London, England. I found the financial information data on PaidContent[2].

[1] www.blinkx.com
[2] PaidContent article