Monthly Archives: May 2007
MySpace.com Vs. TheGlobe.com Lawsuit Settled
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
Categories MySpace, TheGlobe.com
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eBay Inc. Buys StumbleUpon For $75 Million
“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
Categories eBay, StumbleUpon
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Video: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at D 2007
Video Credit: Engadget
Categories All Things Digital, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation
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Microsoft Announces Surface & Sells 1 Million+ Zune Units
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
Categories Microsoft Corporation
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CBS Acquiring Music Social Network, Last.fm for $280 Million
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
Categories CBS Corporation, Last.fm
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Google Maps Takes It To The Streets
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
Categories Google, Microsoft Corporation
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Facebook: Honestly, How Useful Are The New Features?
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.
Categories Facebook
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MoBouy: One of Web 2.0′s Most Innovative Picture Applications
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
Categories Mobouy
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AdaptiveBlue’s New BlueOrganizer Denim: It’s Niiice
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.Â
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
Categories Adaptiveblue LLC
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Ruckus Network Raises $10 Million in Funding From Anschutz and Columbia
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