Monthly Archives: March 2009
Twitter Adobe AIR Application TweetDeck Raises $300,000
TweetDeck, an application built for aggregating content spread on Twitter and status updates on Facebook built on Adobe AIR has raised $300,000 in funding led by Betaworks. TweetDeck was founded by Iain Dodsworth.
Basically TweetDeck takes all of the information contained in Twitter and places them into manageable columns. For example, you can have a column that displays all the tweets your friends recently sent out, replies that you were tagged in, and direct messages you have received. You can also organize your Twitter contacts into groups using the software.
Most recently the software added a support for Facebook. You can directly update your status on Facebook using Tweetdeck and monitor a column of all the status updates that your friends have sent out. Currently TweetDeck is offered as a free download, but a Pro version may be created down the line.
Yesterday Betaworks announced that they have raised $2 million for Bit.ly. Part of Bit.ly’s growth is responsible by the automatic shortening URL feature built into TweetDeck.
Categories Betaworks, Iain Dodsworth, TweetDeck
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Hewlett-Packard Said To Be Testing Google Android For Future Netbooks
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) is rumored to be considering building a netbook with the Google Android operating system built-in. If proved to be successful, HP could cut costs by not using the Windows operating system in future netbooks.
Currently many netbooks have Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. Windows 7 may eventually be added to future netbooks as well. The Google Android platform was intended to work better for mobile phones, but people have been debating that it could work well for netbooks as well.
This would be a big win for Google if their open source operating system hits the market. This would open up a new set of opportunities for Google to license a more advanced version of their operating system to major corporations as discounted prices.
[via PCWorld]
Categories Android, Google, Google Android, Hewlett Packard, HP
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SeeqPod Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
SeeqPod.com was founded by Kasian Franks. SeeqPod is a music search engine that spun out of a project at the University of California Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. However the search engine has had a stroke of bad luck as they have had to file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of California.
SeeqPod had raised $7 million in funding from undisclosed investors and is doing this out of fear over some multibillion dollar lawsuits. Some of the music labels suing SeeqPod include Warner Music, Capitol Records, and EMI. Some of the music companies even went after developers simply using the SeeqPod API.
SeeqPod is similar to Napster in the sense that it never actually hosted files on their actual servers, but it still crawls illegally copied music from servers and across the web. SeeqPod encourages the adherence of the DMCA according to their copyright document.
[via TechCrunch]
Categories Seeqpod
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MySpace and IAC’s CitySearch Partner To Take On Yelp
Yelp is currently one of the leaders on listing reviews for restaurants and bars. However MySpace and IAC/InterActiveCorp are partnering to challenge Yelp directly using the millions of users already signed up with MySpace.
Soon MySpace users will be able to look up the addresses and phone numbers of local restaurants and post comments about what they think about those places. The directory of the businesses will be provided by Citysearch.com, a company owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.
In terms of the user interface, the MySpace/Citysearch combo looks very similar to Yelp’s. There is basic information of the business and it is followed by the comments from MySpace users. MySpace and Citysearch will sell ads to local businesses placed along the reviews. So far Coors and Outback Steakhouse have signed up as the pilot advertisers.
[via Forbes]
Categories Citysearch, IAC, InterActiveCorp, MySpace, News Corp, News Corporation, Yelp
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Disney Content Rumored To Be Arriving On Hulu, Leaving CBS As The Outcast
Hulu, the video website run by NBC and FOX has loads of popular shows that they allow people to watch. They have three seasons of Arrested Development, new episodes of Family Guy, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Chuck, Heroes, etc. Now a source at Silicon Alley Insider says that a deal for Disney content to appear on Hulu is basically done.
That means on Hulu we would perhaps see content from ESPN, ABC, and some Disney movies. If the deal works out with Disney and ABC shows starts to appear on Hulu, that only leaves CBS out as the outcast. ABC and CBS both currently steam shows on their website. CBS has very good quality, but ABC not as much.
[via BI/VentureBeat]
Categories ABC, ESPN, FOX, Hulu, NBC, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company
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Facebook CFO Gideon Yu Quits
Facebook CFO Gideon Yu is stepping down from the company. In the past, Yu worked for YouTube, Yahoo!, and NightFire Software. Facebook announced today internally that the company is looking for a new CFO that has experience with a public company.
Even though the company announced that they are looking for a more experience CFO, several sources within the company believe that Yu left out of a bitter relationship with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“At Facebook, you’re either with Mark or you’re not,” stated an AllThingsD source. “And, if you’re not, you leave.”
In another internal memo, Facebook confirmed that the company is not in any sort of financial weakness and needs to raise more funds. The company said that their revenue growed 70% in 2009 and EBITDA profitability this year. The company plans on being cash flow positive in 2010 and is getting closer to a potential IPO.
Many former Google executives were hoping for the company to have an IPO or sell to a larger company like Google or Microsoft. Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring Facebook in the past, but the social network turned it down. Yu and former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta were instrumental in getting Microsoft to outbid Google in the company at the $15 billion valuation.
Where will Gideon Yu end up next? Since he’s moving around some of the top different Silicon Valley, who knows maybe he’ll end up at Twitter.
Categories Facebook, Gideon Yu
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Mark Cuban Fined & Courtney Love Sued For Using Twitter To Vent
On March 27, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for writing his opinion on Twitter. He sent out two messages on two messages in particular about the handling of a game by the referees. Cuban was upset that the referees did not call a technical foul on Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith for taunting Antoine Wright of the Dallas Mavericks.
The first message was: “how do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground ?”
The second message was: “scary part of that play: Same crew chief from game in Denver where they missed call – last play of the game & 1st JRSmith/Wright issue.”
After finding out about the fine that did not stop Cuban from tweeting about the situation. He wrote:
“just found out got fined25k by nba. nice,” and then followed it up with a quip, “can’t say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does.”
Courtney Love is the lead singer of the alternative rock band Hole and was married to Kurt Cobain before he committed suicide. Love also has a Twitter account and she used it to complain about conflicts that she has with clothing designer Dawn Simorangkir. Simorangkir is suing Love for defamation.
[via LAT]
Google Pulling Tethering Applications From Android Market
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been reportedly pulling tethering applications from the Android Market. One developer claimed this happened to him at AndroidCommunity. The developer contributed to an application called WiFi Tether for Root Users app. Google referred to their distribution agreements with the carriers that they have partnered with as a reason to have the tethering applications removed.
Google enters into distribution agreements with device manufacturers and Authorized Carriers to place the Market software client application for the Market on Devices. These distribution agreements may require the involuntary removal of Products in violation of the Device manufacturer’s or Authorized Carrier’s terms of service” Google Developer Distribution Agreement
The above agreement was made between Google and T-Mobile. Android-based devices are already available unlocked so some users believe that blocking tethering applications are unfair. Tethering applications gives users the ability to use their phone as a WiFi device and have it counted as their phone provider’s data plan.
Categories Android, Google, Google Android, Google Android Market
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Jimmy Wales Decides To Shut Down Wikia Search, Focusing On Wikianswers
Wikia was a search projected founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. The company was founded in 2004 and has about 42 employees based in San Mateo, California. Since the company started, they have raised about $14 million in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, and Amazon.com.
Jimmy Wales pointed out that Wikia.com itself has seen tremendous growth. It was the fifth growing member community destination in February 2009. The top 4 were Twitter, Zimbio, Facebook, and Multiply. Wikia.com’s Wikianswers Q&A website was seeing the most growth and so the company has decided to pay more attention to that service. Basically Wikia Search wasn’t seeing the success that they were hoping for. Going forward the Wikia Search project will be shut down on March 31, 2009 and it will forward to Wikianswers.
Categories Jimmy Wales, Wikia, Wikia Search, Wikianswers
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Google Launches Venture Capital Division
Google has recently announced the Google Ventures, the company’s new venture capital fund. Google aims to use this division to take advantage of their own resources to support innovation and encourage other technology companies.
Google plans to invest in early stage investments across industries such as Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care, and other industries that they haven’t thought about yet. In some circumstances, Google will depend on some of their own employees to recommend early stage companies.
Google has no problem spending tens of millions of dollars on a company depending on the stage of the company. Google Ventures is willing to co-invest with other outstanding venture capital firms. There will be a Google Ventures office based in Mountain View, California and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
If you want your startup to be considered for funding, email is the best way to reach Google Ventures (ventures [[at]] Google.com). Bill Maris and Rich Miner are the first Managing Partners for the division.
In related news, Google recently invested in Pixazza, a service that connects advertising to images.
[via Google Blog]
Categories Bill Maris, Google, Google Ventures, Rich Miner
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