The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Yellowsn0w Carrier Unlock Becomes ultrasn0w, Unlocks iPhones 3G
- Visual Search Engine SearchMe’s Visitors Plummet, Ad Platform Exits Beta
- SugarSync Makes File Syncing More Social
- Adgregate Markets Snaps Up Widget Maker Gydget
- Socialcast Offers New Freemium Version Of Its FriendFeed For The Enterprise
- New Funding For A New World: eRepublik Raises €2 Million
- Yeah, What Is A Browser Anyway?
- If Only The Hungry Used IE8, They Could Get $10,000 Rather Than $0.14 From Microsoft
- Phase 4 Of Facebook’s Systematic Attack On Twitter: The Everyone Button
- OpenAmplify Opens Up To The Semantic Web Community
- Your iPhone 3G S Is Here. But You Can’t Get It Until Friday.
- Fear Not, U.S. iPhone Fans, The 3.0 Update IS Coming Today
- MySpace Isn’t Done Yet: Big International Layoffs Come Next
- Is Twitter The CNN Of The New Media Generation?
- Let’s Not Put Tagged In The DeadPool Just Yet
- Facebook Fixes Search (But Only In Beta)
- MySpace’s San Francisco Office Remains Open Despite Reports To The Contrary
- Get Tgethr: A Simple Email Collaboration Tool
- Exclusive Video Demos Of The New Tweetdeck iPhone And Desktop Apps
- Apple: Yeah, About That Palm Pre iTunes Sync Feature…
- Memo from Rwanda: Eat Your Heart Out Al Gore
- Twitter Increases Capacity, Pats Itself On Back, Denies Being A Covert Government Agency
- TechCrunch Editor “Attacked” By Baboon In Rwanda
- The iPhone 3G S Pre-Orders Start Storming The American Beaches — But Will Apple Hold Them Back?
- Want To Pitch Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha or Marissa Mayer? Apply For Your Shot At TechCrunch50 By June 30
| Yellowsn0w Carrier Unlock Becomes ultrasn0w, Unlocks iPhones 3G Posted: 17 Jun 2009 07:14 AM PDT  iPhone OS 3.0? Pah! Baseband 2.30.03? Ain't got nothin'. This evening, the iPhone Dev Team displayed their inimitable talents with a live video demonstration of yellowsn0w's big, bad, unstoppable brother: ultrasn0w. They're keeping mum on the details to make sure it's all still working come Friday's iPhone 3G S launch, though there's no saying for sure whether or not this crack will work on Apple's latest hardware. For every other release to date, however, it should be a breeze. Be on the lookout for a release by the end of the work week. A video of the live demonstration is tucked away behind the jump.
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| Visual Search Engine SearchMe’s Visitors Plummet, Ad Platform Exits Beta Posted: 17 Jun 2009 06:00 AM PDT SearchMe, the search engine startup which presents search results as a stack of full-page previews that you can flip through, is bringing its ad network out of beta. The SearchMe ad platform, which was originally named AdView when it launched in February, is the visual search engine’s version of AdWords, except that instead of selling paid text links, it intersperses ads into results of clickable previews of entire webpages, videos, or other visual advertising. SearchMe’s advertising is appealing because the website becomes the ad itself, making the ad larger and more visually stimulating. So if you search for “Volvo” on SearchMe and if you flip through to the third result, it will be an ad that shows a landing page for Volvo’s latest models. Ad units can also be a YouTube video which can be played without leaving SearchMe. As we wrote in our previous review, SearchMe’s approach is similar to what StumbleUpon does, with ads placed in every 20 or so Stumbles.  During the beta period, SearchMe let 600 advertisers experiment with the network, with 50 of the participants being big-name brands, including Campbell’s and Volvo. SearchMe’s CEO and co-founder Randy Adams says that CPCs are $0.25 for the advertisers. And click through rates are high—at around 8%. While visually appealing landing pages could be a potentially effective form of advertising, there needs to be enough unique visits for the advertising to be valuable in the long term. In February, SearchMe had about 3 million monthly visitors in the U.S, according to Quantcast. In April, the site had grown to 4 million monthly visitors. But in May, the number of U.S. visitors plummeted to around 750,000 visitors in the U.S. SearchMe says that this drop in numbers is due to the fact that the search engine was spending $500,000 a month in advertising and driving a lot of traffic to the site. The startup is now spending little to no capital on advertising and is in the process of closing distribution deals to place the search bar in browsers and toolbars. SearchMe maintains that advertisers responded positively to the network and type of ads, and especially the click through rates. And the startup also says it’s not in competition with search engines like Bing and Google, who have the lions share of search traffic. Instead they are out to compete with other visual search engines like Middlespot, Viewzi and Snap. Sequoia-backed SearchMe originally launched the private beta of its search engine in 2008 and to date has raised $43.6 million in funding. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| SugarSync Makes File Syncing More Social Posted: 17 Jun 2009 05:00 AM PDT Sharpcast’s SugarSync, an application that synchronizes data across desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, and even televisions, is rolling out a a few features designed to make the service more interactive and social. The idea behind SugarSync is that it allows you to back-up any kind of digital file, including videos, spreadsheets, photos and documents, in the cloud and access it from virtually anywhere via a variety of devices. You can read our reviews of SugarSync here and here. Syncing is becoming a popular technology trend as people split up their digital lives across devices and the Web and are looking to the cloud to enable this across devices. Apple offers syncing through its MobileMe service. There is also competition from Windows Live Mesh from Microsoft, which won a Crunchie for best technology innovation earlier this year. Startups Dropbox and Mozy also provide popular syncing services in the cloud. SugarSync is stepping up to the plate by trying to add more interactive features. The service has improved folder sharing, letting users share files with anyone in their Gmail, Hotmail, AOL or Yahoo Mail contact lists. Users will also be able to directly upload photos stored in SugarSync to Facebook, with functionality for additional social networks to be rolled out in the near future. SugarSync is also trying to get users to promote the services by increasing the size of their accounts for free if the user refers someone to open a new account. Users can refer others automatically by sharing a SugarSync folder with them or by sending an invitation through Facebook or Twitter. SugarSync offers and free and paid service, with prices ranging from $25 to $250 a year depending on storage size. SugarSync is also enhanced the interface of its free mobile applications for Blackberry, Apple iPhone, and iPod Touch. SugarSync, which raised funding earlier this year, doesn’t release data on how many users the service has but did tell us that since its launch, more than 1 billion files have been backed up and synced to SugarSync, with 550 terabytes of total data backed up and synced in SugarSync’s cloud. If SugarSync continue to add useful features, like the ability to publish files to social networks and making mobile applications more user-friendly, the site could seriously compete with, and maybe surpass, the big guys, like Apple, and the innovative startups. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Adgregate Markets Snaps Up Widget Maker Gydget Posted: 17 Jun 2009 04:51 AM PDT
Gydget, which powers a platform for fan-driven, viral widgets primarily centered around entertainment and consumer brands, will be folded into Adgregate’s ShopAds, a fairly innovative advertising network that enables customers to complete secure transactions within Flash-based ad banners. Adgregate Markets seems to be onto something, recently proven by the fact that the company scored a distribution deal with Google’s DoubleClick, enabling advertisers on that platform to integrate ShopAds widgets with just a few mouse-clicks. The press release boasts about the Gydget ad network currently reaching more than 30 million impressions per month, and also mentions ShopAds widgets have currently been installed 200,000 times. While the acquisition makes sense on the surface, when you dig a little deeper you’ll note that Gydget seemed to be running out of fuel anyway (not surprising considering the economy we’re in and the general slow-down of the widget business): backed by over $1 million in venture capital from Felicis Ventures and Sunbridge Partners, its founder and CEO Gerardo Capiel recently bailed the company to become VP Product Management for MySpace (presuming he still has that job today, considering the massive lay-off round announced yesterday). The terms of Gydget’s acquisition were not disclosed. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Socialcast Offers New Freemium Version Of Its FriendFeed For The Enterprise Posted: 17 Jun 2009 04:00 AM PDT  True Ventures backed Socialcast is launching adopting the freemium model for its FriendFeed-like collaboration and social network SaaS for businesses. A finalist for the 2009 Crunchies Award for "Best Bootstrapped Startup," Socialcast is a communication tool businesses can use to incorporate social networking with real-time messaging to share knowledge across enterprises. Socialcast's software combines social bookmarking features, Twitter-like microblogging and FriendFeed-like streaming into one platform. And the software integrates with other social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Del.icio.us. Socialcast can also import activity from your iPhone, Gmail account and YouTube. The best part is that all of this activity is private, making Socialcast a competitive program for real-time, internal communication within businesses. The new version of Socialcast will become even more like FriendFeed, including real-time activity streams complete with real-time track functionality that allows user's to stay updated on subjects of interest, groups, projects, keywords, etc. Socialcast will also be rolling out an Adobe AIR desktop app, as well as the in-browser software. While the app is useful, we’ve complained in the past about the strange quirks and bugs in Adobe AIR. The software, which used to be $1 per user per month, will now be completely free for an unlimited amount of users but businesses can choose to add paid features to Socialcast. This includes the ability to see analytics and mine data from a group’s network, providing a tag cloud and stats on which employees communicate most and least often. Another premium feature is a consultancy service provided by Socialcast on how to help employees adopt and deploy the technology (which doesn’t seem that difficult so this may not be worth paying for). For a extra fee, users can also choose to put Socialcast behind a firewall for extra protection. Socialcast is similar in some ways to Yammer, a winner at last year's TechCrunch 50, is a similar Twitter-like microblogging and communication platform for businesses that has gained popularity. But Socialcast seems to have a lot more bells and whistles than Yammer in its interface. Cubetree also offers a social network and microblogging platform for the enterprise. And of course there’s the mysterious and hyped Google Wave. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| New Funding For A New World: eRepublik Raises €2 Million Posted: 17 Jun 2009 04:00 AM PDT
eRepublik, its first MOSS, is set in a browser-based mirrored version of the real world in which players (called citizens) can participate in politics, set economic policy, start businesses, engage in wars with other countries and interact socially with other players while they’re at it. The company pitches the virtual world to have an edge over other strategy games played online because it’s not nearly as time-consuming; 15 minutes per day they say should suffice. According to the company, traffic numbers are going through the roof: the eRepublik website is said to have received over 3.7 million visits in May, with citizens from some 200 countries having spent over 55 million minutes and generating 95 million page views navigating the virtual world during that month. Pretty impressive for a small European company (eRepublik Labs only has 30 employees). The fresh funding will be used to extend eRepublik in terms of new features: eRepublik co-founder and CEO Alexis Bonte says they’re only at about 25% of what the game should become in the near future. The company is also expanding the eRepublik platform into other languages - the company just launched a Spanish language version this month - and is busy preparing the launch of multiple new games. Here’s a video of Bonte interviewing Guillaume Latour, a partner at AGF PE who will be joining the startup’s board: Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Yeah, What Is A Browser Anyway? Posted: 17 Jun 2009 03:01 AM PDT
But do the browser wars us geeks follow so closely matter to John Doe at all? Here’s a video some NY-based Google employees put up on YouTube a while ago, titled ‘What is a browser?’: Pretty funny, and as Orli Yakuel said on Twitter, it kind of puts these browser wars (IE8! Safari! Firefox! Chrome! Opera!) in a whole different perspective. Note the difference in culture, though. While Microsoft is trying to lure people away from using browsers like Firefox or Chrome with cold hard cash (or at least a chance to get some of that), Google employees don’t make a big fuss about letting people use the brand names of competitors in their videos and they humorously handle the fact that none of the people interviewed knew what Google Chrome is to begin with. And by the way, the guy that said he’s probably not the right one to ask because he’s not into computers that much, is not that far off:
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| If Only The Hungry Used IE8, They Could Get $10,000 Rather Than $0.14 From Microsoft Posted: 17 Jun 2009 02:41 AM PDT
I think we all know my feelings about Microsoft using charity in a misleading way to drive IE8 downloads, but this latest promotion is just kind of pathetic. Microsoft has a campaign in Australia to give away $10,000 that it has buried “somewhere on the Internet.” But the catch is that in order to find this money, you need to be using IE8. Apparently, if you stumble upon the site where Microsoft placed it using that browser, you’ll get some sort of notification and the money is yours. Sadly, I don’t have IE8, so instead I get this rather rude message on the page: “But you’ll never find it using that browser. So get rid of it, or get lost.” That’s a nice FU to Mac users who don’t even have the option to use IE. Not that it should be surprising. What else is interesting about this campaign is that it’s also directly tied to Twitter. Microsoft is suggesting that users who wish to play this IE8 treasure hunt also follow @tengrand_IE8 on Twitter to get daily clues. Finally, at the bottom of the page it reads, “Tell your friends. It’s not as stupid as it sounds.” At least they acknowledge that it sounds stupid. Actually though, it’s not that stupid, it’s just kind of desperate. If Microsoft really wants to get people to use IE8 it should rely less on tacky gimmicks and more on making a great product. If you do that, the users will follow — and you won’t even have to pay them. [thanks Andy] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Phase 4 Of Facebook’s Systematic Attack On Twitter: The Everyone Button Posted: 17 Jun 2009 02:09 AM PDT
And while Twitter isn’t exactly posing much of a current threat, Facebook isn’t taking any chances. Just as Friendster and MySpace tried to buy Facebook in the early days (and nearly did), Facebook is now trying to take Twitter out. First was the acquisition attempt. Then came a focus on real time content streams. Today we saw phase 3 - a search engine for public status updates and other content that a small percentage of users are able to test. Next week, we hear, phase 4 of Facebook’s systematic attack on Twitter is scheduled for beta testing: the Everyone Button. Facebook currently has complicated privacy settings to let users control who sees what content they post. There are 27 different settings for most Facebook content, plus another 17 for applications. Most users don’t bother. If Facebook is going to leapfrog Twitter and become the place for the real time news stream, they need more than a new user interface and a search engine (they must be livid to see things like this - Twitter will forever be associated with the civil unrest in Iran, just the most recent example). They need public content as well. And that means encouraging users to post at least some of their content publicly. The current privacy settings don’t allow for specific status updates and other messages to be treated differently than other messages. That’s going to change. Users will be presented with a variety of privacy choices every time a message is posted to Facebook - everyone, friends and networks, friends of friends and friends. They’ll also be allowed to customize the settings further. But the top choice, and the one most people will choose, is “Everyone.” That means you can have an entirely private profile but occasionally choose (or, Facebook hopes, always choose) to have status messages, links, photos, events, etc. be public and findable in that shiny new search engine. It’s not clear that Facebook will be able to quickly convince its users to make content public. Just a couple of years ago there were revolts over the launch of the news steam itself, and it wasn’t all that long ago that college students were super not happy about all the old people being let in. But none of that matters. Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg’s world, and we just live in it. He’ll bend us all to his will. Watch your back, Twitter. I hear Phase 5 is a doozy. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| OpenAmplify Opens Up To The Semantic Web Community Posted: 17 Jun 2009 01:22 AM PDT  The semantic web platform, OpenAmplify, is today launching its new community area to encourage more collaboration in developing semantic tools for the web. And alongside the launch, it has a new promotion to hopefully improve Gmail. The community area is exactly what you'd think it would be: An area for people with like-minded thoughts about the semantic web to gather and hash out ideas. The semantic web, of course, deals with looking beyond simple links that make up the web, to try and understand a deeper meaning and context behind that content. The development of the semantic web has been what OpenAmplify is trying to foster using its Natural Language Processing technology. So far, OpenAmplify highlights three things that its members have built:
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| Your iPhone 3G S Is Here. But You Can’t Get It Until Friday. Posted: 17 Jun 2009 12:49 AM PDT
Earlier, several reports came in of disappearing delivery dates from online shipping trackers. That missing date has now been replaced on numerous people’s invoices with the following:
Yes, you are the receiver, and no, you probably didn’t request the hold. Instead, this is likely Apple’s way of telling the delivery service not to deliver the package early. Not surprisingly, reports indicate that the “date requested” for delivery is Friday, the official iPhone 3G S launch day. A lot of people who had pre-ordered were excited to learn their new devices may be here early, but Apple, it seems, is one step ahead. Perhaps if you’re able to track down the UPS warehouse where yours is being held, they’ll let you pick it up early. Let us know if you successfully do that. At least you can still play with the 3.0 software today and tomorrow, despite earlier rumors that it may be held back too. [photo: flickr/darin moran] [thanks Gee-Hwan] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| Fear Not, U.S. iPhone Fans, The 3.0 Update IS Coming Today Posted: 17 Jun 2009 12:19 AM PDT Well, that was a close call. I’ll admit, I was tricked too at first by a link going around on Twitter right now stating that the iPhone 3.0 software’s launch was pushed to tomorrow. It’s an Apple site that lists the launch date for the update as June 18, tomorrow. The only problem is that the site is Apple’s Singapore website, where the update was always scheduled to be released on that date. If you go to Apple’s actual U.S. website, you’ll see that the launch here is still slated for sometime today. So ignore the tweets that are undoubtedly filing up your screen right now. iPhone 3.0 will be released at some point today — though those hoping for a midnight launch were disappointed — and the iPhone 3G S will be out on Friday. The online pre-order units have already shipped, and are in the U.S., but word is they may still not get delivered until Friday. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| MySpace Isn’t Done Yet: Big International Layoffs Come Next Posted: 17 Jun 2009 12:10 AM PDT
But MySpace isn’t done yet. The press release clearly stated that the layoffs only applied to U.S. employees: “This restructuring plan crosses all U.S. divisions of the company and lowers the total number of domestic staff at MySpace to 1,000 employees.” Next up are international employees, and we hear that 100+ more will be cut across the nearly 30 offices MySpace has around the world. The delay is due to legal requirements for notice in some countries, we’ve heard. But cuts are coming. And based on how poorly MySpace has done internationally against Facebook, those cuts may be far deeper than the 30% U.S. rate. Our best guess is that MySpace currently has 300 or so employees not based in the U.S. I’m guessing those employees will be busy updating resumes and downloading every file they have access to onto portable hard drives. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Is Twitter The CNN Of The New Media Generation? Posted: 17 Jun 2009 12:08 AM PDT This past weekend the Twitterverse spoke-out in exasperation and opposition against traditional media networks (CNN specifically) and the absence of instantaneous coverage of the Iranian election and the resulting fallout. "We the people" wanted real-time information regarding the violent protests that erupted on the streets of Iran and the stories probing potential foul play in the results. We took to Twitter to express discontent and to also uncover the real story as it was unfolding live through citizen journalism. The world was watching . . . and it did so on Twitter, not on CNN or any other news network. At the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) in New York, Robert Scoble hosted a fervent discussion with social-media-savvy traditional news personalities to explore how Twitter was transforming the process of news gathering and lead sourcing. Joining Scoble was Ann Curry (@AnnCurry)—News Anchor on NBC’s Today Show and host of Dateline NBC, Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn)—host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom, Ryan Osborn (@todayshow)—producer, NBC Today Show, and Clayton Morris (@claytonmorris)—anchor, Fox News. In the case of Iran’s election, Twitter once again served as the lifeline to news and information for a monumental and historical event. Conference organizer Jeff Pulver calls this the era of "now" media, fueled by new and social media and the people who power Twitter and other popular networks. The pursuit of "now" is conditioning us to expect information as it happens, whether it’s accurate or developing. The question is, how will this latest example of community-powered news consumption and distribution effect how traditional news organizations gather and report on news. Robert Scoble said of his inspiration for the session, "I wanted to learn more about the election in Iran and the crisis and the violence that was spilling onto the streets. I couldn’t find anything on CNN. In fact, all I could find was Larry King talking to motorcycle mechanics." His frustration was shared by many, which served as the groundswell for the powerful Twitter storm that ensued. In the words of Twitter creator and co-founder Jack Dorsey during his morning keynote, "Twitter is about approach, transparency, and immediacy." If media is fragmented and distributed, perhaps what we’re now witnessing is that the framework for publishing news is physically and financially constraining its ability to evolve and adapt in "Twitter time." Rick Sanchez expressed frustration with his fixed time schedule for reporting news. As an avid user of Twitter, he also acknowledged that things have to adapt: "Is news judgment changing? Yes!" He continued, "This is the first time we can connect directly with citizens who could be a reliable source aside from the talking heads and pretty faces that serve as news anchors.” The crowd booed and hissed in response. While he’s partially correct about Twitter serving as the catalyst for the evolution of news judgment and connecting directly with citizens, the methodology associated with embracing Twitter or social media in general is actually in direct response to its insurgence and the competitive threat it represents. Media is reacting simply because of the authority associated with Twitter and other emerging social networks. Ann Curry cleverly countered, "While I may not be another ‘a pretty face,’ we have to look at whether or not mainstream media is covering the world fast enough and the answer is no." She then concluded, "Should we be? Yes. But, right now, we can’t keep pace." She’s right. News media can’t keep pace with the new world of media consumption and the insatiable appetite for information—especially when it has yet to understand the true promise and opportunity that Social Media represents. This isn’t about adapting an existing model to new, popular broadcast channels. It’s about expanding and forcing a fundamental renaissance within the news machine itself—transforming and creating how these media giants can monetize new streams and platforms. Ann also echoed Dorsey’s tenet of approach, "With social media, we can empathize with our subjects in order to see and report on a story truthfully." Her next statement made us stop and reflect, and earned Curry enthusiastic applause, "My mandate for news teams is that I want them to shoot every story like it’s about their mother, brother, sister, father, and cousin. Tell it that way. That’s the road to clarity, truth, understanding and fully becoming global." What she is saying celebrates not only the foundation for exceptional journalism, but also the spirit of social media. It’s about real people. It’s about emotion. It’s about empathy. News is global and Twitter is one of the leading social networks that connects us to other human beings through the stories that affect them and us. Clayton Morris of Fox News injected reality into the discussion and emphasized a point that underpinned Andrew Keen’s highly debated book, "The Cult of the Amateur." "There’s a tipping point right now with new, traditional, and social media. It’s conversation versus fact checking. No one has answers to where this convergence is leading," he exclaimed. Fact checking is a vital part of the news business and is ultimately what separates amateurs from experts. But researching fact from hearsay or even opinion is almost impossible on Twitter for most users. Keen believed that citizen media is corrupting the very institution of news media because most of the individuals publishing information using social tools, he argues in his book, are "grossly misinformed.” While Morris didn’t make the sweeping assertion that Keen expressed, his point is noteworthy and deserves further examination. But we have the power as consumers to also become informed fact checkers to intelligently sort fact from fiction. Perhaps however, what Twitter represents has less to do with the integrity of information and more to do with the culture it’s defining. As I wrote in a previous post, Can the Statusphere Save Journalism:
This is particularly significant as it starts to redefine the parameters and platforms for creating and distributing information and in turn, monetizing that content. Scoble again asked, "Where was CNN on that day, at that time?" Rick Sanchez, responded, "We had people in Iran watching the events unfold, live. Our people were tear-gassed. We were there." And here’s my point as stated by Scoble in response to Sanchez, "How would we know that? Why didn’t you share that side of the story with us as it was happening? You couldn’t because your show wasn’t on!" Curry agreed, "There are other stories that are important for people to hear, but don’t make broadcast." This is true. We are seeking more human stories and aspects of news that connect with us as individuals. However, these other stories don’t necessarily fall within formulas and packages that represent sellable or subsidized media products. Curry demonstrated the opportunity for media to create entirely new channels that augment traditional news reporting, "I learned about the last missile test in North Korea on Twitter. I turned on the TV and no one was reporting the story. I thought to myself, ‘this sucks.’ So, I jumped on Twitter and reported the facts as I found them in real time." As her story continued, she also unearthed one of the factors why traditional media is hesitant to expand participation and engagement through social channels, "I had to be careful however. I was receiving reactions and questions. The trick is communicating solid information without misleading anyone. One word can change how people interpret anything. I feel a great obligation to never twitter something that is wrong." Credibility counts for everything and as Curry noted, "once you lose that, you’ve lost." Fear is an obstruction. Guidance and experience is the only way to establish the rules of engagement in order to cultivate a vibrant, monetizable community associated with these promising new channels for mainstream and unpublished content. The panel then traversed into a tense, but necessary discussion of traditional journalism versus citizen media. Now the audience was involved and outbursts and comments were escalating. Curry captured the essence of the debate by shedding light on the middle ground that exists between traditional and new media producers, "Judgment is not taught in ‘J’ school. Judgment is learned. Judgment has to change with the times." As she observed, reporting news is a service job and also a business. But ultimately, reporters and bloggers serve the people. The session went into overtime and continued to explore this new ecosystem where traditional media, new media, and citizens could create a valuable and collaborative ecosystem. In the end, conviction, passion, investigation, accuracy, diligence, and striving for truth are the attributes of any good journalist, blogger, or micro-blogger. Crusading for higher standards in reporting and championing them into creating and growing new channels represents our collective crusade. In revisiting Dorey’s keynote, he spotlighted "transparency." Understanding who we’re trying to reach and how they discover and share information not only makes us more empathetic as content creators and story tellers and participants, but it also inspires sincerity and a genuine approach to what we say and how we say it. As each panelist professed, it is this transparency that is missing from so many media organizations as it’s deeply misunderstood and underestimated. Sanchez observed the lack of transparency across Twitter and media in general, "I’m bothered by people who use Twitter as shtick and people who think they’re going to change the world just because they’re using it. The race with Ashton, news teams that ‘go to the twitter boards’ while on TV to see what’s happening, it all seems contrived, like they’re trying to be part of the community, but instead they’re cheapening it." Curry jumped in and held nothing back, "Here’s what’s pissing me off. The reason I fight to go to places that are struggling and in need of help is to tell these stories, to get to the truth and to get people to care!" Clayton added, "There are old parts of new media that they [publishers and broadcasters] are comfortable with and aspects of new media that represent new ways to seem like they ‘get it." It all feels disingenuous though. Somewhere in the middle is the future. There was a point where fax bulletins were part of the breaking story." Sanchez quipped, "Companies that don’t assign managers for social media will fail!" Ultimately the panel and audience agreed that strong passionate journalism was needed now and that Twitter and social media represent a new, powerful platform to broadcast news, crowdsource leads and stories, and expand the media’s role and earned relevance in the new age of media. If you can’t get it on the air or in print, use Twitter, blogs, and social networks to get information out there. Curry declared, "My [Twitter] followers give me a newspaper to publish stories I care about. We have a responsibility to not only tell stories for financial gain, but we need to publish information that people need to know." Who’s to say what "we" want or need to know? The answer is: All of us. As a community, we wield power that the media has yet to fully grasp and holistically embraced. Traditional media as an industry, one that is represented by individuals for individuals, is not largely part of the community it wishes to serve. Instead it uses these tools mostly as extensions of its broadcast networks. For some, on the other hand, Twitter and social media helps create a more "media-literate" society, including those classically trained journalists diligently seeking to understand the new media landscape. Sanchez expressed his gratitude for what the community has taught him, "Twitter has made me a better journalist." While the panel explored the disruptive nature of Twitter, it also exposed its weaknesses and opportunities. Scoble compared this disruption to that of CNN’s impact on the news industry when it first debuted. All concurred that citizen media was going to push journalism to transform and adapt. Just now as I write this, CNN Live is reporting that people in the U.S. are increasingly getting their news and information from Twitter, Facebook and other social networks and are crediting the escalating and influential online conversation with forcing a deeper examination of the results in the Iran election. As Paul Saffo recently said, "News doesn’t break, it tweets." Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Let’s Not Put Tagged In The DeadPool Just Yet Posted: 16 Jun 2009 10:53 PM PDT
On the spam issue: Tagged has always been aggressive about “encouraging” users to add their address book and invite new users. It’s sadly a proven way to get lots of new users, as Plaxo showed to everyone’s dismay earlier this decade by turning invitation spam into an art form. Back in 2007 I noted that Tagged was very aggressive with address book imports: “Tagged is also very aggressive with signing up new users. At registration users are strongly encouraged to invite their entire address book as friends. It's a highly viral, albeit controversial, way to quickly add lots of new users.” The fact is though that this is largely standard practice now. Facebook, Microsoft, MySpace, Google, and everyone else encourages users to sign in to their email accounts and invite everyone they know to try out their services. Tagged definitely went overboard this time, forcing email recipients to open an account just to see pictures. But CEO Greg Tseng told me today they shut it down almost immediately (after a few days) based on user complaints. They definitely deserve a slap on the wrist. But the picture peHUB paints, wtih fleeing board members distancing themselves from the company:
They added “What anyone is still doing on the board of this company mystifies me, honestly.” Here’s the story of Tagged as Tseng sees it: Peter Thiel was never on the Tagged board of directors because of the conflict with his Facebook board seat. Scott Banister left to focus on his startup, Zivity. And Reid Hoffman, as the article noted, remains on the Tagged board. Tagged has less than 40 employees and has been profitable for more than two years. They’ve raised just $13.5 million in capital and have revenue in the $10 million - $20 million range. And the site is growing. Comscore says nearly 32 million people visited Tagged in April 2009, up from 14 million a year ago. And they’re not just hitting the site and bailing. Those visitors racked up over 5 billion page views in April 2009, up from less than a billion/month a year ago (chart below). Clearly, they aren’t dead. Here’s hoping they keep the spam down to reasonable levels in line with competitors. But in the meantime, this small social network isn’t anywhere near the deadpool. Update: Tseng apologizes for the email spam on the Tagged blog, and links to this document showing exactly how the process worked. Points for transparency. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Facebook Fixes Search (But Only In Beta) Posted: 16 Jun 2009 09:36 PM PDT Facebook rolled out a limited test tonight of a new search interface which for the first time lets people search their News Feeds and brings up results chronologically from their streams. The new search interface is still experimental and has only been turned on for “a fraction of a percent of the people” on the social network. I am one of the lucky few. My initial impression is that this is the first time I’ve actually been able to find anything on Facebook without having to jump through 25 hoops to get the results I want. The ability to search my personal stream with results coming back in chronological order is key. This is how Facebook will do real-time search. For instance, if I want to see what my friends think about the new TweetDeck apps which just launched tonight, I can see all their comments on the subject, followed by comments from everyone with a public feed whether they are my friend or not. In the right-hand column are page and people results. Facebook explains in a blog post:
This is a much better search experience than what most people must suffer through currently. When most people type in a keyword in the search box, Facebook will still default to searching their friends or all of Facebook. Search results favor people’s names or pages which contain the keyword (see screenshot below). If you want to search for an application, for instance, you have to click on application search specifically. The new experimental search results are more unified. The central results are from your feed, and results from the rest of Facebook (people, pages, groups, applications) are presented on the side when relevant, or you can filter the results by type. Facebook cannot afford to cede real-time search to Twitter. Search becomes a form of navigation when information is thrown at you in a fleeting stream. The only way to recover the past or discover something you missed is through search. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| MySpace’s San Francisco Office Remains Open Despite Reports To The Contrary Posted: 16 Jun 2009 09:18 PM PDT
The report is based on an anonymous MySpace employee who told the site “San Francisco MySpace offices have just been obliterated. (Staff is) all just getting phone calls in silence and staring at each other, one by one. All fired. Even higher ups. One by one.” That statement was interpreted as “we’re told that every San Francisco-based MySpace employee has been laid off this afternoon.” MySpace won’t comment on whether their San Francisco office remains open (you read that right, they will not answer the question “Do you still have a San Francisco office?”) but other sources close to the company say the office remains open and that layoff rates weren’t materially different than at MySpace headquarters in Los Angeles. We’ve heard that MySpace will likely close the San Francisco office eventually, but as of now everyone who’s willing to talk says it either isn’t closing or isn’t imminent. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Get Tgethr: A Simple Email Collaboration Tool Posted: 16 Jun 2009 07:45 PM PDT The founders of Inkling Markets, a prediction market platform and a Y Combinator alum, found that their staff needed a secure chat room every day to work together on private issues within their business but most of the collaboration apps send an email when they’re updated with a message, which while is convenient, is not necessarily secure. They also wanted an uber-simple email collaboration tool that was secure across all email clients and could be accessed from a laptop or an iPhone. The looked into Basecamp and Google Groups, but found the interface too clunky for simple email correspondence. So they created Tgethr, a simple, easy-to-use secure, free email collaboration platform that can be used between family members or within an enterprise. All you have to do is set up a group name, i.e. “techcrunch@tgethr.com” with a distribution list of whomever you want to participate, and write to it. You can write from your own email client or from Tgethr’s interface. Tgethr will keep a private archive of everything you write on the web. You can cc: or bcc: to it, tag your correspondence, search for emails and keywords, and it’s secure with both ssl and email encryption. And the interface is sort of like a chat room. Nathan Kontny, co-founder of Inkling Markets, says that the tool is aimed to be the anti-fancy email collaboration app. Most importantly, Kontny, says was to build in security capabilities so both email and web traffic would be encrypted and users could feel better about sharing sensitive information - something that is missing in other collaboration solutions. Ideal users could be project teams, families, friends, and clubs, or enterprises whose staff work remotely. Startups which have launched similar applications include Cc:Betty (which we wrote about here) and FamSpam.  Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Exclusive Video Demos Of The New Tweetdeck iPhone And Desktop Apps Posted: 16 Jun 2009 05:39 PM PDT Earlier today the news broke that TweetDeck, the most popular Twitter desktop client, is coming to the iPhone. I tracked down TweetDeck investor John Borthwick of betaworks at the 140 Characters Conference in New York City. Sure enough, he has a version of the new TweetDeck app on his iPhone (which just hit the iTunes store). He was kind enough to give me a demo, which I captured with a Flip video camera. He showed how TweetDeck on the iPhone handles different groups (which filter Tweets by followers or topic), as well as most of the other features as well. These include integration with Twitpic and yFrog for uploading pictures, integration with bit.ly (another betaworks company) for shortening links, and a GPS feature which lets you Tweet out your location. The best feature, though, is if you want to refresh all the columns, you shake the iPhone. Also there is a hidden, undocumented feature which allows you to reorder the columns by simply holding your finger down for five seconds on any column. Not only that, but TweetDeck is pushing out an entirely new desktop client today as well which will sync with the iPhone app and include a mess of new features, including support for multiple accounts, unlimited columns, tag clouds for each column, recommends followers from a pre-selected group of 300 accounts. I went to TweetDeck CEO Iain Dodsworth’s hotel to get a video of that as well. I am with him now. A few minutes ago, he received an email from Apple telling him the iPhone app is “ready for sale.” Here is the direct iTunes link to download the iPhone app. I guess all those blog posts sped things up. Apologies in advance for the less-than-steady camera work and blurry-at-times focus, but this is the first look at the apps. The first video is of the iPhone app, the second one is of the new desktop app. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| Apple: Yeah, About That Palm Pre iTunes Sync Feature… Posted: 16 Jun 2009 04:47 PM PDT
In a rather odd update on the support area of its site today, Apple has an entry titled: iTunes: About unsupported third-party digital media players. While it never explicitly mentions the Pre, or any other device, it doesn’t take an Apple Store Genius to figure out what it means. Here’s the full text of the article:
So basically, if you have a Pre and are syncing iTunes with it, enjoy it while it lasts. You may want to back up your data elsewhere, because very shortly, that syncing will very likely no longer work. I like how Apple sort of implies that it’s okay with these third-party leaches using iTunes, but that it simply can’t support them. Yeah, right. Hope you enjoyed that few weeks of functionality, Palm. [via Daring Fireball] Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Memo from Rwanda: Eat Your Heart Out Al Gore Posted: 16 Jun 2009 04:43 PM PDT
This is my second trip to Rwanda this year, and it's clear there are many ways this country stands out from much of Africa, and many ways it's still very challenged in terms of foreign investment. Many of the greatest achievements have been social and societal. The country has admirably rebuilt itself since the 1994 genocide. It's one of the only times in recorded history the victims of a genocide had to go live in the same land with the perpetrators, which was no easy feat given how much of the general population was guilty of the crime. Rwandans have amazingly pioneered a practice of accountability and forgiveness, which is all the more striking now that many of the killers are finishing their prison sentences and re-integrating themselves into the small, densely-populated country. A better write-up of that side of Rwanda is in a recent New Yorker, when Philip Gourevitch who wrote one of the more famous books on the genocide revisited the country 15 years later. But the business side of the country is more nuanced. On the plus side, Rwanda has almost no corruption, an impeccably clean capital city, wide access to basic health care and primary school education, boasts some of the best roads in Africa, better cell phone access than much of Silicon Valley (cough, cough, Sand Hill Road, cough) and almost zero violent crime. On the negative side, it has one of the weirdest economies I've ever encountered. This trip has cost several times what my two weeks in China cost me last month. Even though Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in Africa, a modest hotel with no air conditioning, an elevator that routinely breaks, and an outlet that started smoking when I plugged something in will cost you about $200 a night. Think that's bad? A nicer one quoted me rates of up to $700 a night. A car and driver will cost a minimum of $80 a day—several times what you pay in China. It's not inflation, as far as I can tell, it's largely because landlocked Rwanda has to pay so much to import goods and a lot of raw materials. No doubt, there's a bit of speculating thrown in, too. (The nicer hotel I mention above quoted me half that price just a few months ago. Did their costs really double? I doubt it.) These inflated costs—whether because resources are scarce or suppliers are gouging—reinforce one another. Internet access, while more plentiful than you'd expect, costs hotels and businesses thousands of dollars a month for one megabit speeds, according to Eugene Nyagahene, CEO of Tele10, a local satellite ISP provider. (Another entrepreneur told me he only pays several hundred dollars a month for EVDO access, still, in a country where jobs pay an average of $100 or so a month, that's pricey.) That might explain part of my steep hotel bill. Currently Internet access comes from satellites, and the best news for the country may be the huge spools of fiber optic cable I keep seeing by the side of the roads and trenches being dug even in the middle of the night to accommodate them. But while Rwanda may not yet be on the other side of the digital divide, the country is surprisingly progressive when it comes to the environment, especially for an emerging economy entering the industrial age. President Paul Kagame has a strict ban on plastic bags—to the point where customs But the coolest green application I've seen in the country is for energy. The Rwandan-Congolese boarder runs through one of Africa's biggest lakes, Lake Kivu. This is a so-called "exploding lake." That's not a commentary on the tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo—it's a result of a huge trove of methane trapped at the bottom of the lake. For years, the local brewery, Bralirwa, which is 70%-owned by Heineken, has extracted some of the gas to power its There are varying reports on how far along this project is, but I went down to check it out a few days ago, and indeed there's a big pump in the middle of the lake that runs out to large pipes that in turn runs out to power lines. (See photo to the left.) My driver was a bit confused about my excitement exploring and photographing the whole operation, given there was also a stunning sunset happening over the lake that I was mostly ignoring. Maybe my electric car series for TechTicker is making me into a cleantech nerd, but there are so many things to like about the potential of this project. First off, the rarity of an emerging country fueling its ascendancy into the modern age with cleantech is enough to make Al Gore swoon. But the idea that a potentially life-threatening exploding lake could prove a low-cost solution for the landlocked country and even a new cash-generating natural resource is an apt metaphor for Rwanda's ability to rebuild itself so admirably in the aftermath of one of the ugliest chapters in modern world history. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Twitter Increases Capacity, Pats Itself On Back, Denies Being A Covert Government Agency Posted: 16 Jun 2009 04:20 PM PDT
Stone goes on to give a verbal pat on the back all those involved. But the interesting part of this post comes towards the end, when Stone writes, “However, it’s important to note that the State Department does not have access to our decision making process.” He mentions this because it’s being reported that the U.S. government asked Twitter to reschedule its downtime to allow the tweets about Iran to keep coming through in the daytime hours there. You’ll notice he doesn’t exactly deny that the government asked for this, or that Twitter complied. And in fact, he links to a story that confirms the State Department did speak to Twitter. Instead, Stone seems to simply be stating that as a general rule, Twitter will not be influenced by government requests — something that is always a touchy subject when it comes to startups that control some of your data. Stone concludes with, “Nevertheless, we can both agree that the open exchange of information is a positive force in the world.” Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| TechCrunch Editor “Attacked” By Baboon In Rwanda Posted: 16 Jun 2009 04:03 PM PDT I just got word from TechCrunch editor at large Sarah Lacy, who’s currently writing very little for us while working on her new book in Rwanda. Her excuse? A “baboon attack” which is really just a baboon eating her breakfast. The fascinating video is above - I bet she could have written two posts in the time it took her to edit it, though. Glad you and Geoff are safe, Sarah. Come home soon. And yes, the main reason for this post was just because I really wanted to write a title like “TechCrunch Editor Attacked By Baboon” Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| The iPhone 3G S Pre-Orders Start Storming The American Beaches — But Will Apple Hold Them Back? Posted: 16 Jun 2009 03:47 PM PDT
Okay, they’re in Alaska, so not exactly at the local FedEx for many of us. But still, the stated date of delivery on these orders remains tomorrow. So everyone who pre-ordered their’s from a store can commence their bitching. At least until we all find out that AT&T won’t activate these early iPhone 3G Ss until Friday. Update: It looks like something fishy may be going on. Now people are reporting [protected tweet, sorry] that the delivery date on their phones is disappearing. In the HowardFoums, the conspiracy is starting that Apple may have them held back from delivery until the 19th, the official launch date. [photo: flickr/karen2020] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Posted: 16 Jun 2009 03:44 PM PDT
If you’re a new startup, and want a shot to launch at TechCrunch50 and pitch our expert advisors on stage, you have until June 30 to submit your application. No need to wait until the last day, we’re actively reviewing companies and extending offers now. We want to hear from you. The only rule at TechCrunch50 is that you have to launch your product for the first time on stage at our conference. We showcase a diversity of technology verticals (consumer, enterprise, mobile, hardware, etc), including funded and unfunded companies from all corners of the world. All the details for the conference are here. TechCrunch50 is an action-packed conference where fifty new startups launch over two days. The event will be held at the San Francisco Design Center, a huge and beautiful venue where we packed nearly 2,000 participants last year. Tickets for the event can be purchased here courtesy of Eventbrite (extra early-bird pricing is available until June 30). More on the TechCrunch50 blog.
We’re really lucky to have the corporate support of some of the best names in the business. Sequoia Capital, Charles River Ventures and Perkins Coie all returned quickly to support us for the third year in a row. Google, Founders Fund, MySpace and Microsoft are back for their second year of partnership. Additional partners will be named in the months leading up to the conference. Want to learn more? Partner and exhibitor details here. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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Transactional advertising network provider 
Madrid, Spain-based 
My esteemed colleague MG Siegler just posted about an admittedly quite in-your-face campaign from Microsoft down under, criticizing Redmond for a ‘pathetic’ attempt at trying to make people switch from using whatever browser other than IE they’re using at the moment 
I love the range of Microsoft’s campaigns to get people to use Internet Explorer 8. They spread from 
If you were to distill Facebook down to its core magic, you’d have Twitter’s real time news stream with a really 
Following up on 
MySpace announced 
Harsh words from 
Right before the launch of the Palm Pre, the 
GISENYI, RWANDA– I'm out of the country again, and this time I'm in Rwanda, and no, it's not vacation. I'm meeting with entrepreneurs. The day before I left Michael asked me how I was going to piss off a whole country this time. You'll note instead, I've been remarkably quiet. (Although 
officers will take them away from you at the airport. Its largest textile manufacturer, Utexrwa, produces garments and fabrics start-to-finish in-house using all natural cotton, silk and soon, fabrics made from locally-grown banana fibers. Even the dyes are made from natural ingredients. (See some of Utexrwa's beta silk worms munching on mulberry leaves to the right.) Local governments are teaching subsistence farmers– near 90% of the population– courses on organic farming. And the country takes great pains to terrace its rich agricultural land preventing erosion and to protect its greatest tourist asset, the silverback gorillas made famous by the movie "Gorillas in the Mist." Armed guards follow each tribe 24-hours-a-day to make sure they're protected from poachers and the landscape stays pristine. Like a society trophy wife, Rwanda knows its beauty is one of its greatest assets and the country isn't about to screw with that in the name of industrialization.
plant, and now the country is extracting enough to power three of its cities with more planned. Experts say there's enough Methane to power the entire country for 400 years. And the Rwandan government has ambitious plans to eventually sell the excess energy to other African nations.
As just about everyone reading this likely saw, 
Last night, we noted that iPhone 3G S pre-orders started leaving their point of origin in China yesterday, and many had 
Ning’s 
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