The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- SimulScribe Signs Exclusive $17 Million Partnership Agreement With Ditech Networks
- AIM Brings Your Lifestream To The iPhone
- Dropbox’s Web Interface Gets An Overhaul: Adds Bulk File Management, Search, And More
- TechStars Debuts Nine Startups In Boston
- Yeah Ok, So Facebook Punk’d Us
- Google Voice Creeps Me Out On My Mother’s Birthday
- Hot Or Not War: I’ll Put My Hottest Blond Against Your Brunette Any Day
- Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This
- Twitter Tweaks Terms Of Service, “Your Tweets Belong To You”
- Cerego Raises $3.4 Million For Smart.fm, Launches Facebook Friend Quiz
- Google Aims To Halve The Cost Of Solar power
- Facebook Lite: How Will Twitter Respond? Twitter Lite!
- Interview With The Pirate Party Of The United States
- Kickin’ It Old School: Facebook Lite Launches In The U.S. And India
- VodSpot Gives Publishers Easy Custom Video Portals; Now Powering TechCrunch Video
- Not Only Is Snow Leopard Trim, Its Update Cubs Are Tiny
- Job Boards Are So Over. TalentSeekr Targets And Recruits Through Ads Instead.
- The Motorola Cliq: An Android-Powered Social Media Smartphone
- Facebook Turns To Twitter For Inspiration Again, Brings @ Tagging To Status Updates
- Skimble Helps You Plan And Track Your Gym Workouts and Outdoor Activities
- South Carolina’s Joe Wilson Faces The Wrath Of The Web
- Zynga v. Playdom: The Documents
- Instant Karma! Reddit’s New Real-Time Karma Tracking App
- Zynga Accuses Playdom of Stealing Trade Secrets; Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order
- Facebook Open Sources FriendFeed’s Real-Time Tech
| SimulScribe Signs Exclusive $17 Million Partnership Agreement With Ditech Networks Posted: 11 Sep 2009 12:20 AM PDT SimulScribe, the scrappy voicemail transcription company, didn’t get acquired exactly, but it just signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Ditech Networks that could be worth as much as $17 million. The deal is $7 million in cash up front with a $10 million earnout, and gives Ditech teh exclusive rights to resell SimulScribe’s speech-to-text transcription services on a wholesale basis to telephone companies and developers. SimulScribe CEO James Siminoff will become the chief strategy officer of Ditech, and his co-founder Mark Dillon will also work there. It is a decent outcome for a startup that raised only $5.7 million and is already profitable on sales of about $4 million, according to SimulScribe CEO James Siminoff. But competition is intense, with Spinvox on the one hand, which has raised an insane $200 million, and Nuance on the other, the speech-recognition behemoth which is nearing $1 billion in sales. SimulScribe offers its own voicemail-to-text service called PhoneTag, which has about 20,000 paying subscribers, and reaches about 80,000 more subscribers through wholesale partnershps with Vonage and British Telecom. The big play is getting those deals with carriers, but with only 7 employees, SimulScribe didn’t have the resources or manpower to go after those deals. Ditech already has equipment sitting in nearly every major carrier’s network. It sells voice processing software that minimizes background noise on calls to the telephone companies. Adding a new service is a software upgrade. Ditech will resell SimulScribe’s service to its existing telephone carrier customers. The companies will also combine their two technologies for more accurate transcriptions. Background noise is one of the biggest contributors to auto-transcription mistakes Simulscribe still supplements its transcriptions with humans, but the more accurate the auto-generated text is, the easier it is to fix. If major telephone companies start adopting voicemail transcription services, it could quickly grow from what looks like it might be a $100 million market this year to a $1 billion million market. A lot of this adoption is being driven by a fear of Google, or more specifically Google Voice. Converting voicemails to emails is one of the great features of Google Voice, but its auto-transcription still needs a lot of work. Google Voice is using a homegrown speech recognition system developed for the GOOG-411 free directory information service (which is why it is not so great for conversational speech). But at least Google Voice is waking up carriers to the fact that the only thing voicemail is good for these days is converting it into emails so you don’t have to listen to them. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco           |
| AIM Brings Your Lifestream To The iPhone Posted: 10 Sep 2009 11:52 PM PDT
The new iPhone app will let you monitor updates from all the services supported by the desktop version of Lifestream. The app also lets you simultaneously post your AIM status updates to Twitter and Facebook — while the Lifestream was read-only until recently (you couldn’t post messages to services other than AIM), the service recently enabled this functionality. Other new additions to the app include photo uploading, photo viewing on the Lifestream, and various UI improvements. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Dropbox’s Web Interface Gets An Overhaul: Adds Bulk File Management, Search, And More Posted: 10 Sep 2009 08:32 PM PDT
Among the new features are the ability to select multiple files in the file browser and perform bulk operations on them. You can also select multiple files and have them placed into a new Zip file, which will make it easy to send multiple files at once. Other new improvements include a search feature, Gmail-style keyboard shortcuts, and a version of the site that’s been optimized for mobile phones. Of course, many people primarily use Dropbox through its desktop clients that integrate quite nicely with your operating system, but these are welcome additions for anyone who has to access their files when they’re away from their primary computer. For those iPhone users looking to get their fix, Dropbox submitted an iPhone application to the App Store about four weeks ago which still has not been approved by Apple. This is just one of the many iPhone developers that has been waiting for more then the usual two week waiting period to get their app approved. Dropbox launched almost exactly one year ago at TechCrunch50, and has grown quite a bit over the last year with over 1,000,000 users. Dropbox is based in San Francisco and has raised $1.5 million from Sequoia Capital. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| TechStars Debuts Nine Startups In Boston Posted: 10 Sep 2009 07:57 PM PDT Editor's note: The following report comes from Don Dodge, who blogs at Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing and is a business development executive for Microsoft. TechStars is a startup accelerator program that selects about ten companies and provides funding of $18,000 per team, as well as free office space, operational support, and mentoring from top investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. TechStars operates annually in Boulder, Colorado and Boston, Massachusetts. TechStars has now been operating for three years. Three of the original ten companies from 2007 have already been acquired (SocialThing by AOL, Intense Debate by Automattic, and Brightkite by Limbo). In February, we covered the news that TechStars had expanded to Boston. Today, TechStars debuted nine new startups from the inaugural Boston class. The teams presented on Thursday to about 200 VCs and Angel investors for the first time. These companies are about three months old and have two or three founder employees. Don was in attendance today and these are his notes on the startups that presented at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (MS-NERD) TempMine is looking to change the temporary staffing market. The company believes that they’ve found a way to make the temps, employers, and agencies happier with a single solution. Temp workers create a profile on TempMine that is automatically updated as placements occur, providing more transparency and traceability to the process. Employers can search directly for temps across the inventory of multiple agencies, finding the right fit. Agencies retain control over placements of their best temps. The temp agency only gets involved after the employer finds the exact temp they want. There is no cost to employers or temps to use TempMine, but they do take a 1% commission from the agencies. It is an $86B industry, so 1% can add up.
TechStars plans to bring about a dozen of the 19 companies from Boulder and Boston to San Francisco on September 30th for a “best of” repeat performance. Here is coverage of the San Francisco TechStars event from last year. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Yeah Ok, So Facebook Punk’d Us Posted: 10 Sep 2009 07:16 PM PDT
Today that changed. They punk’d us, and we fell for it. Hard. Earlier today TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid noticed something new on Facebook. When viewing any photo, it showed a “Fax This Photo” link on the bottom right of the screen. Ridiculous? Yes. But everyone in the TechCrunch network saw it. He fired off an email to Facebook at 5:05 pm. When they didn’t respond, he posted at 5:29: Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This. Things went downhill from there. At 5:47 Facebook PR emailed and said “We already faxed you a statement on this??? Didn't you get it?” Then they emailed again at 5:51, saying:
Uh oh. Our nose hairs started to twitch. Then we asked a bunch of people outside of our network. Not a single other person said they saw the fax-a-photo feature. Definitely not a good sign. Jason then called Facebook PR. Jaime Schopflin took the call and, apparently, couldn’t stop laughing for five minutes. Between laughs while catching her breath she mentioned something about this being a joke, that nobody but us could see it, and that they were placing bets around the office on how long before we noticed it and posted. And something else about teaching us to contact them before posting. So, bottom line, don’t expect to see this feature actually launch. Unless you come to work for TechCrunch, I guess. We still see it. You won this round, Facebook. Enjoy your victory. Oh, by the way, the feature works. Here’s what it looks like: Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Google Voice Creeps Me Out On My Mother’s Birthday Posted: 10 Sep 2009 06:41 PM PDT
Except that I didn’t catch her call. And then Google Voice, which I have recently adopted, took her voicemail and auto-transcribed it. And then things just got creepy. Her message, as translated by Google Voice:
I listened to the actual voicemail and, thankfully, my mother did not actually say “Gosh I’m gonna have to get up on you or something” to thank me for the flowers. What she really said? “I’m going to have to give up on you or something,” referring to me wasting money on flowers. I love you mom. But Google, this is just wrong. I’m probably going to need therapy now.  Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Hot Or Not War: I’ll Put My Hottest Blond Against Your Brunette Any Day Posted: 10 Sep 2009 05:59 PM PDT
The game takes two mindless classics and smashes them together. It’s the card game War and it’s Hot or Not, all in one very simple app. Except, the game really isn’t too much like War at all. Instead, you are dealt 5 cards face up, as is your opponent. You then pick whichever one you think has the highest Hot or Not rating (their average rating on a 10 point scale) and so does your opponent. You do this for 30 seconds and the person with the most victories, wins the round. The first side to win a set number of rounds (1, 3, 5, or 7) wins. But also unlike the card game War, when you pick people with the same Hot or Not rating, you don’t actually go to war (throw down more cards). Instead, that’s considered a tie and no side gets any points and you move on to the next set of cards. Also, if you lose, you don’t pick up your opponents cards as the number of cards you have doesn’t matter.
You can play either against a computer oppontent or against a friend on the same iPhone. You can’t, unfortunately, play online against other players. Also a bit annoying is the sign-up and sign-in process, which is several steps. Luckily, you only have to do it once. Just as with the Hot or Not website, you can set what gender you are interested in, as well as what age range. It’s more mindless iPhone fun, looking at attractive (or not so attractive) people. The game is free, available now in the App Store here. And remember: Always pick the girl in the bikini. She always wins. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This Posted: 10 Sep 2009 05:29 PM PDT Okay, so Facebook Punk’d us. This isn’t really going live for everyone — just for the lucky few members of the TechCrunch network. Wow, talk about a big day for Facebook. Hours after launching Facebook Lite, open-sourcing part of FriendFeed’s code, and launching @ tagging, the site has one more release in store for today: Fax This Photo, powered by efax.com. Now when you’re looking through photo albums, you’ll have the opportunity to send a photo you like to a friend’s fax machine. For price of $1.50 per photo. That’s one pricey fax. Maybe I’m missing something here, but I’m not sure why Facebook would do this. For one, faxes aren’t known for offering great quality — if you want to print a photo, you probably aren’t going to rely on your Fax machine. Second, if you have someone’s fax number, there’s a good chance you have their Email address too — why not just send it over Email? Update: As one of our commenters points out, this could make for a good way to send photos to relatives who may not be comfortable using computers. But $1.50 per photo seems expensive if you’re going to do this with any regularity. Update 2: This is a stupid idea.  Here’s a picture of the fax we received: Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Twitter Tweaks Terms Of Service, “Your Tweets Belong To You” Posted: 10 Sep 2009 05:17 PM PDT Twitter co-founder Biz Stone just posted news on an update on changes to Twitter’s Terms of Service, “leaving the door open” for advertising opportunities, clearing the air on ownership of Tweets, and updating guidelines around Twitter’s API. Stone also mentioned that the new Terms of Service address spam and abusive behavior on Twitter. The privacy clause about Tweets is big, considering this was a significant issue for Facebook. Twitter has deflected talk of advertising on on the platform in the past, but it seems pretty clear that they’re looking into it now as a real source of income as they strive for revenues. Stone addressed the issue of Twitter’s revenue recently, which is a complex issue. Here’s what Biz wrote in the post:
Privacy when it comes to Tweets is an interesting issue, considering the whole Facebook angle. Granted, Twitter’s information is contained in 140 characters, so the depth of the information is slightly less intrusive. The decision regarding revenue is a big one and has serious implications for Twitter’s valuation. Twitter is growing fast and the options are aplenty. But according to what Stone wrote today, it seems that Twitter is going to take it’s own sweet time to figure out the whole advertising strategy. The startup knows that it can make money with advertising if it needs to but obviously wants to figure out best one, considering the immense pressure. Twitter has tested text advertisements on the home page, ads in the stream, and text footer ads. Twitter also serves ads in the small box on profile pages for third-party Twitter apps, but doesn't seem to charge the apps for the promotion. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Cerego Raises $3.4 Million For Smart.fm, Launches Facebook Friend Quiz Posted: 10 Sep 2009 04:35 PM PDT Japanese company Cerego, the brains behind the social learning platform iKnow!, has raised $3.4 million in a round of funding from NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier. To date, Cerego has raised a total of $23.4 million in funding since its launch in 2000. Cerego originally launched iKnow as an online service for Japanese people to learn English and then expanded the platform to allow users to learn content in any language. Cerego has developed learning algorithms based on research in the fields of cognitive science and neuroscience that power iKnow. The learning engine is unique because it lets users set personal learning goals and then plans a curriculum and strategy around these goals. Cerego has launched a new Facebook app called Smart.fm Brainspeed, which basically scans the information in the profiles of all of your friends and then creates a quiz around their personal information (i.e. Where was Michael born?). Users who answer the most questions correctly about a particular friend, will “own” that friend until they are unseated by another friend. The company says the app is more of a poof of concept to show that Cerego’s technology can leverage structured information to help educate across different verticals and platforms, such as Facebook. The fact that mobile subscriber NTT DoCoMo has invested heavily in Cerega suggests that perhaps the company’s technology will be primed for mobile apps phone in the near future. Here’s a video about Smart.fm’s technology: Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Google Aims To Halve The Cost Of Solar power Posted: 10 Sep 2009 04:00 PM PDT  What a market leader and major dealer in capital does publicly with their money is revealing. One of the things I admire about Microsoft is that through their Labs and Research initiatives, they've done a lot of good work in fields only tangentially connected with Microsoft markets. Google has some initiatives of their own (if you didn't know), and green power has been among their favored funding targets for a few years now. Recently they've decided that solar power isn't efficient enough. Well spotted, Google! They must have Binged it. Of course, they're no stranger to the green. They've got millions invested in renewable energy, two solar power firms in particular (eSolar and BrightSolar), but they're also calling for backup from the government and other major investors.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Facebook Lite: How Will Twitter Respond? Twitter Lite! Posted: 10 Sep 2009 03:58 PM PDT So, we now have Facebook Lite in the U.S., a slimmed down, sexier version of Facebook. It’s been said for a while that Facebook may have a long term problem with Twitter because it was too bloated, while Twitter was so light and simple — talk of that should die down now. So how will Twitter respond? I have a feeling we’re about to enter a war similar to the war razor blade companies engage in. You have 2 blades? We’ll do 3! Then we’ll do 4, etc. Except here, less is more. So behold, my idea for Twitter Lite! Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Interview With The Pirate Party Of The United States Posted: 10 Sep 2009 03:10 PM PDT  Let's make one thing absolutely clear about the Pirate Party of the United States (PPUS): it has no interest in defending your ability to illegally download The Blueprint 3 from Waffles.fm. It just doesn't. If you had the idea in your head that the PPUS would somehow work to legalize your bad habits, well, tough break, kid: it's a legitimate political party whose goal is not to make it so that you can download the latest Lady Gaga release with impunity, but rather to effect change in the more general realm of copyright and governmental transparency. In other words, you may want to lower that skull and crossbones flag you've been flying. This past week I spoke to not one, but two officers of the PPUS. Ryan Martin, the party's Administrator, and Glenn Kerbein, the party's Operations Officer. The conversations were illuminating.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Kickin’ It Old School: Facebook Lite Launches In The U.S. And India Posted: 10 Sep 2009 02:28 PM PDT
Originally intended to be used in countries where high speed Internet connections are sparse or non-existant, apparently Facebook has realized there’s a real desire among all its users to have a smaller version of the service. [Update: More on that below] On top of a launch in the U.S., the service is also live in India right now, we’re told. As we wrote last month:
One great thing about Facebook Lite is that on top of being much cleaner, updates appear in real-time along the bottom of the page, something which is much nicer to look at then that ugly toolbar that is on Facebook Proper. This alongside the Facebook’s brilliant experimental desktop updater for Mac seems to show that the company is committed to user experience once again, rather than cluttering things up. Remember, keep it simple, stupid. This move into the U.S. market with Lite is also interesting because rival MySpace did a similar thing to remove bloat back in April. Thin is in, it seems. Of course, if you like applications on Facebook, you won’t like this version, as they are nowhere to be found. But the reason myself and many others started using Facebook in the first place was because of the social connections and data. I want to access this data as quickly as possible, I don’t care about playing games.
You’ll also see that current and upcoming birthday for your contacts are at the top of the Feed. So why India as well? Well, as we noted previously, India is one of the countries that was originally being targeted by Facebook Lite, and it was the first test space it launched in several months ago. India also represents an area where Facebook is growing very fast. So fast, in fact, that Yahoo may have shut down a social network of its own, SpotM, in response to it. Google’s Orkut remains the leader in the country, however. This is the third interesting development to come out of Facebook just today. This morning, it announced that it would open source a key part of the technology behind the recently acquired FriendFeed. And earlier this afternoon, it began using the “@ reply” syntax, mimicking the way people communicate on rival Twitter. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment as to why they decided to push this live in the U.S. so quickly. We’ll update when we hear back. Update: Here’s what Facebook is saying on the matter:
Update 2: And here’s Zuckerberg with the team that worked this banging the gong for the release. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| VodSpot Gives Publishers Easy Custom Video Portals; Now Powering TechCrunch Video Posted: 10 Sep 2009 02:27 PM PDT
We’ll be using the service to power our new TechCrunch Video site, which you can find at http://video.techcrunch.com or in the masthead above. The new site will feature a collection of recent video content from throughout the TechCrunch network, and we’re also opening it up to user submitted videos — if you have an interesting interview, demo, or other tech related video that you’d like to share with the TechCrunch community, here’s your chance. We last covered VodPod back in 2006, when the site launched as a YouTube competitor with some social bookmarking features. Since then the site has seen some major changes: CEO Mark Hall says that within a month or two after launching, VodPod decided to disable user-uploaded videos and to concentrate on its bookmarking functionality, which was quickly becoming the site’s most popular feature. The startup launched a widget that allows bloggers to include their most recently bookmarked videos into their sites, which Hall says is currently being used by over 40,000 bloggers. In 2007, VodPod launched an API that allowed sites to manage their video content, drawing from videos that they’d either bookmarked on VodPod or uploaded themselves. The API has been used by Second Life, NewTeeVee and a number of other well known sites. But up until earlier this year, using the API required developer resources, which prevented many sites that would have otherwise benefited from having their own video portals from using it. Around nine months ago VodPod launched an experimental version of VodSpot as a hosted solution that allowed publishers to build video portals with a minimal amount of work required (Hall compares this to WordPress.com’s hosted blogs versus WordPress.org). But at the time the customization options were limited, with only a handful of designs available. Today’s launch includes support for VodPod’s new template engine Laminate, which will allow publishers to fully customize the appearance of their sites.  Hall says that the company will monetize VodSpot by offering some premium features like custom domain mapping and control over advertising, which will cost $10 a month. He says that sites that draw lots of traffic will likely fall under a different pricing structure, given that VodSpot will be hosting the content. He also notes that VodPod is driving some impressive traffic now — it has quintupled since a year ago and now sees over 10 million monthly uniques — so the revenue coming in from advertising is significant. In conjunction with today’s launch, VodSpot is also open-sourcing the Laminate template engine, and is launching a new version of its API that adds support for finding the most popular videos in a given subject (say, politics) across the thousands of video sites that VodSpot indexes. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Not Only Is Snow Leopard Trim, Its Update Cubs Are Tiny Posted: 10 Sep 2009 02:04 PM PDT
Again, that is just for some users. Others are reporting it weighing in at a still small 75 MB (this usually depends on what system you have). But plenty, including myself clicked update and got the download in record time as it was under 10 MB. Snow Leopard itself, of course, made headlines for its svelte size, as Apple was able to trim gigabytes off of OS X Leopard’s footprint. Update under Leopard always seemed to be over 100 MB in size, with some much larger. You can find the new update now via Software Update. Find out more about the update here. Here’s a brief list of what’s included (yes, Flash has been updated):
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Job Boards Are So Over. TalentSeekr Targets And Recruits Through Ads Instead. Posted: 10 Sep 2009 01:58 PM PDT Even though unemployment is at the highest levels in a decade, companies are still finding it difficult to find the best qualified candidates to fill the positions that are available. The reason for that is because more often than not, the best qualified candidates are already employed and not necessarily looking for new jobs. Certainly not on job boards like Monster.com or HotJobs. So if the best candidates won’t seek out job openings on employment sites, the jobs need to seek them out. That is the idea behind TalentSeekr, which is essentially an ad network for jobs. Companies fill out what jobs they are trying to fill in what locations, then TalentSeekr creates and tests multiple ads across the Web—social networks, blogs, forums, search engines, you name it. Based on the response rate and quality of the applicants that come through the ads, TalentSeekr optimizes the mix of ad types (banner, text, video, creative elements) and placement. (Watch the video below to see how it works). If more qualified applicants are coming in through LinkedIn than Facebook, it readjusts the mix. (In fact, LinkedIn makes a lot of money through recruitment ads on its own site in much the same manner. TalentSeeker is attempting to apply the same principles in a more distributed manner across the Web). “What we are doing is what job boards did to newspapers. Everybody knows the space is about to shift big,” says Ryan Caldwell, the CEO of EnticeLabs, the company behind TalentSeekr. EnticeLabs was founded in August 2007, and funded with $1.3 million in angel money so far. It’s been operating in a private beta until recently, and already counts among its customers Dell, GE, IBM, Adidas, Rebock, Google, and Microsoft. In addition to TalentSeekr, which is aimed at companies looking to recruit, EnticeLabs’ other product is CareerAds, which is aimed at blogs and Websites looking to display job-focused ads. TalentSeekr’s approach takes longer than filling a job on Monster, but if you are looking for 3,000 SAP consultants, it could be a better approach. If you are looking to just fill a single position quickly, you are probably still better off with Monster or some other job board. Hiring managers get a dashboard (see screenshot below) which shows the number of ad impressions, clicks, and ultimate applications resulting from the ads, as well as the geographic distribution. The average clickthrough rates for TalentSeekre ads can range from 0.15 percent to 0.37 percent (see table below). Then among those who click, the application rate can be anywhere from 0.22 percent for medical jobs to 2.68 percent for tech jobs. But with an average cost-per-click of around $1, and an average cost per qualified applicant of anywhere from $200 to $2,600, it still beats hiring a headhunter. Job ad networks have been tried before by both large companies (Monster has its Career Ad Network) and small. A Y Combinator company called SnapTalent tried this before shifting over to career fairs, and ultimately deadpooling (their site is no longer online). Caldwell isn’t worried about the same fate happening to EnticeLabs because he’s gone after big enterprise with thousands of employees first, rather than the other way around. “This is not something where you can do a cute little startup,” he says, “you need scale.” The other thing that gives him confidence is that big employers like IBM and GE are talking about shifting large online recruiting budgets away from poorly-performing job boards. Since TalentSeekr already tracks the performance of its ads, it can also plug into applicant tracking systems used by HR departments to get feedback into how the people hired end up doing in terms of job evaluations, longevity and other factors. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| The Motorola Cliq: An Android-Powered Social Media Smartphone Posted: 10 Sep 2009 01:55 PM PDT  The Cliq might be the first Motorola device with Android, but with a 350-person team, it better be good. At least it looks solid on the surface with a custom Android GUI called MOTOBLUR, slide-down keyboard, 5MP camera, 24 FPS video cam, WiFi, 3.5mm headset jack and a screen that better be able to handle a massive amount of info. The phone's interface is built around what Motorola is calling "MOTOBLUR." Think of this as a social media aggregator kind of like Palm's Synergy. It syncs Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Picasa and others onto a customizable homescreen that displays info users want from any of the services.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Facebook Turns To Twitter For Inspiration Again, Brings @ Tagging To Status Updates Posted: 10 Sep 2009 12:54 PM PDT  Facebook has launched an interesting feature today: the ability to tag friends in status updates and other messages from the publisher. As with Twitter, you use the “@” symbol followed by your friend’s name (or the name of a Facebook Page or Group) to tag something, but the message shows up without the symbol and just a link to the person’s profile. The ability to “Tag” friends was one that Facebook popularized with its tagging feature in photos years ago. As Facebook notes in its blog post announcing the new “@” feature, tagging is one of the most popular features on the social network. I’d venture to say it’s probably one of the early features that made Facebook’s social technology so distinct. But Twitter, or at least its users, pioneered the “@” functionality to tag friends, which has long been missing from Facebook’s status updates. That said, there are some key differences both from a UI perspective and in the way tagging on Facebook works. Unlike Twitter, where you have to memorize your friends’ usernames (or use a third party client that features auto-complete), on Facebook when you begin typing in a friend’s name following the “@” symbol, you’ll see a drop-down menu that will let you choose from your list of friends, groups, events and applications. And while @replies on Twitter are often used for conversations, on Facebook the use-case is a bit different. When you tag someone in a status update, that person will receive a notification and a Wall post, which links the person to your status update. Similar to tagging in photos, the person has the option of removing the tag. Inside Facebook reports that the feature will be rolling slowly over the next few weeks. Facebook has been steadily growing its social network (at a faster rate that Twitter) and made a recent acquisition that is representative of Facebook’s aggressive tactics in the steady battle with Twitter. While the “@” feature addition to Status Updates maybe small in comparison to the acquisition of FriendFeed, it’s significant when it comes to the bigger picture of the ongoing rivalry between Facebook and Twitter. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Skimble Helps You Plan And Track Your Gym Workouts and Outdoor Activities Posted: 10 Sep 2009 12:40 PM PDT  For anyone who has wanted to run a marathon, hike a particularly challenging mountain or even simply learn a new sport, it can be helpful to plan and track your activities and progress to increase efficiency and productivity. Skimble is hoping to be the online destination for anyone who wants to plan and track an activity or workout goal. Skimble’s online tools let you discover activities, by giving you information on popular outdoor active trips, i.e. a hiking trip to Lake Tahoe; and gym workouts, i.e. indoor rock climbing. You can join one of these trips or you can create your own. When you create a trip, you can create a feed of news and updates about the trip and share the page with other friends. The feed also pulls in any Tweets about the subject of the trip. So if you are planning a trip to Tahoe, Skimble will pull in Tweets about rock climbing, hiking or canoeing in Tahoe. Once you create an activity or trip, you can begin tracking your progress. The tracking tool, which is particularly compelling, is easy to use and actually makes tracking a goal or activity really simple. Whereas many activity tracking tools on the web focus on weight loss, Skimble focuses on helping you create a calendar and schedule of your activities, and will chart out your performance based upon time spent on the activity. You can also compare your progress to a friend’s on the site. The focus is less on the weight loss and more on the accomplishment of finishing an activity. Skimble, which was incubated in The Funded’s Founder Institute, attracted over 1,000 outdoor enthusiasts that have praised the ability to track and compare their accomplishments. You can also share your trips and activities with Facebook via Facebook Connect on the site. Competitors to Skimble include DailyBurn. And Skimble plans to release a mobile app to let users plan and track on the go. Unsurprisingly, Skimble’s founders are both techies and experienced mountain climbers. In fact, Skimble’s co-founder Maria Ly is a former gymnast, who has extraordinary flexibility and strength. See her jaw-dropping performance in this video:  Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| South Carolina’s Joe Wilson Faces The Wrath Of The Web Posted: 10 Sep 2009 12:39 PM PDT
Joe Wilson Is Your Pre-Existing Condition couldn’t be more simple: Take Wilson’s name and insert it into some kind of problem the world faces. For example, “Joe Wilson Spit In Your Beer”, “Joe Wilson Used Your Tax Dollars To Pay His Medical Bills”, and “Joe Wilson Hit Your Car In The Parking Lot And Drove Off Without Leaving A Note”. Then of course they veer into the humorously absurd: “Joe Wilson Ate The Last Slice Of Pizza”, “Joe Wilson Hit On Your Mom”, and my favorite, “Joe Wilson Shit In Your Kitchen”. The idea behind the site is clear: In the lower right hand corner there is the message, “YOU DISSED AMERICA; WE’LL DIS YOU RIGHT THE FUCK BACK. HELP RUN JOE WILSON OUT OF OFFICE”. The last part links to a donation site for Rob Miller, the man running against Wilson for his seat in 2010. Since I loaded up Wilson’s result on Twitter just 15 minutes ago, there are already another 20,000 tweets. That’s fairly insane. Obviously some of it is spammers latching on to the trend, but much of it is pure hatred for the Congressman. The lesson? If you’re going to disrespect the President and Congress, expect to be disrespected a thousand fold on the web. Update: The site is the work of fellow tech journalist Mat Honan, inspired by his previous hit site, Barack Obama is your New Bicycle. Here’s a bit more on the new site from Honan. Watch the original video below (key part is about 2:13 in): [via LauraGlu] Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Zynga v. Playdom: The Documents Posted: 10 Sep 2009 11:51 AM PDT This is an update to our post earlier today on the Zynga/Playdom trade secrets litigation. Below are the three documents relevant to the case. The first below is the original complaint that outlines the entire lawsuit. The second is a memorandum authored by Zynga supporting their request for a temporary restraining order, the third is the order granting Zynga a temporary restraining order against Playdom and the other defendants. The documents are below: Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Instant Karma! Reddit’s New Real-Time Karma Tracking App Posted: 10 Sep 2009 11:31 AM PDT
RedditAddict Lite is a new desktop application run on Adobe Air, that allows you to track both your regular Reddit karma and your comment karma in real-time. Both are displayed on a graph with different color lines, and you can set the data points to tone your graph. It also easily allows you to take a screengrab of your graph for those moments when your karma is peaking. Also included in the app in a small dashboard widget that shows your karma stats, as well as if you have any Reddit mail messages pending. It also allows you to set a series of quirky sounds that are triggered based on movement of your graph. Kind of silly? Yes. Kind of pointless? Maybe, but if you’re a RedditAddict like the name implies, something like this should be right up your alley. Bigger picture: This is the second Reddit application (after the Firefox plug-in Socialite) that promises 75% of any donations made off of the landing page to the developer of the app. (Reddit contracts these apps out to third-party developers.) While the app itself is free to download and use, the Reddit apps page features a large “Support the developer” button, where users are encouraged to leave tips if they enjoy the app. Find RedditAddict Lite here. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Zynga Accuses Playdom of Stealing Trade Secrets; Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Posted: 10 Sep 2009 10:56 AM PDT
Now there’s a much more serious dispute between the companies. Yesterday Zynga filed a lawsuit against Playdom and a number of other defendants in California state court. Among the many causes of action: misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of the duty of loyalty, tortious interference with contracts, tortious interference with existing and prospective economic advantage and unfair competition. The defendants include four ex-Zynga, now Playdom employees as well. What this boils down to: Playdom has allegedly hired away a number of Zynga employees, and those employees have allegedly taken key information and documents from Zynga and have given them to Playdom. Among the most important documents that were supposedly stolen: The Zynga Playbook:
Zynga accuses Playdom of actively soliciting Zynga employees to turn over proprietary information:
Specifically, Zynga accuses an ex-employee of downloading 70 files to a USB storage device two weeks before leaving to join Playdom. Three of the files were proprietary Zynga documents. Another defendant mailed 22 proprietary documents to his personal email account before departing to Playdom. The Zynga Playbook was among them. The judge granted the request for a temporary restraining order against Playdom and the other defendants. Those defendants are prohibited from destroying any of the files allegedly misappropriated. Neither company would comment on this story. Update: The relevant court documents are here. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
| Facebook Open Sources FriendFeed’s Real-Time Tech Posted: 10 Sep 2009 10:42 AM PDT
Another new Facebook addition, Dave Recordon, explains the open-sourcing today on Facebook’s Developers blog. That Recordon is the one doing this post isn’t all that surprising given his central role in the open source community. Here’s how he explains Tornado:
FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor has more on his own blog. He notes that in open sourcing Tornado, FriendFeed and Facebook hope that others will use it to build their own real-time web services. They have set up a demo of how it works at its most basic (commenting) here. As you can see, it looks a lot like the FriendFeed commenting system (pictured below). Taylor lays out three key parts of Tornado:
But there’s more. Buried in Recordon’s explanation is the following:
I’ve bolded the key part there. That would seem to suggest that Facebook is now committing to activity maintaining FriendFeed. While the FriendFeed co-founders have more or less said that the service would live on despite the Facebook deal, Facebook has been pretty mum on the topic up until now. Of course, Facebook could simply be saying that it will maintain the technology (for its own uses), and not the service. Next question: How long until Twitter starts using some components of Tornado? You can download and find out more about Tornado here. [photo is an altered version of the great Toronado bar logo] Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco   |
A few months ago AOL 
So we’ve had our fun with Facebook over the years (
Like most children I think my mom walks on water. She’s beautiful and kind and makes really excellent cookies. So like any good son I sent her roses today for her birthday. And she called to thank me, because she is always very polite. Everything was just peachy. 
Hot or Not
So, okay, it’s really not anything like War, but still, it is fairly fun and addicting. It’s basically a game of, are your tastes in attractiveness in tune with those of the masses?
Well here it is. Just as 
You’ll also notice that an “Events” tab has been added to the top toolbar. Again, this is much nicer than Facebook Proper, where events are buried in a sub-section. Also along the top, just above the Feed is a way to “View Top Stories” as opposed to those listed in order. I hate to keep repeating myself, but again, a great change.
The first update to Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.1 has just been released by Apple. It seems that it’s mostly bug fixes, which is hardly surprising considering that the OS was just released a couple weeks ago. But one odd thing about the update is just how small it is for some users: 9.8 MB, to be exact.
It seems just about everyone on the web is talking about Joe Wilson, the Republican Congressman from South Carolina (yes, 
One of the best features of 
There’s no love lost between competing social gaming platforms 
When Facebook 
Real-time services – Tornado supports large numbers of concurrent connections. It is easy to write real-time services via long polling or HTTP streaming with Tornado. Every active user of FriendFeed maintains an open connection to FriendFeed’s servers.
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