The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Online Holiday Spending Reaches $25 Billion; Shows Strong Growth In Consumer Electronics Sales
- Nuance Finally Picks Up SpinVox For $102.5 Million
- Top Ten Mobile Voice Searches Of 2009 Are Action-Oriented
- Appsaurus Looks To Outsmart Apple’s App Store Genius
- The 100 Millionth Deviation on DeviantART Is A Gay Sex Story, But I’m Going To Show You This Arctic Unicorn Instead
- Flixster Users Name Top 2009 Movies: Avatar, Star Trek And The Blind Side
- Outside Puts The iPhone Weather App To Shame
- Siebel’s Stealth Carbon Startup C3 Lands $26 Million And Condoleezza Rice On Its Board
- Is The Nexus One Bringing A New Android Backup Service With It?
- The Apparent Cost Of Nexus One Freedom: $530. Why It Still Matters.
- Qik Releases Local Video Recording For Older iPhones (They Already Can Do It Live)
- OnLive Streaming Game Service Demonstrated On Video At Columbia
- TenYears: Biggest Losers In Tech
- With Nexus One, Is Google Eating Its Own Dogfood Or Its Own Children?
- Groovle Beats Google In Domain Battle With Groovy Defense
- The Sad Tale Of Totlol And How YouTube’s Changing TOS Made It Hard To Make A Buck
- TenYears: Unexpected Success Stories
- TC50 DemoPit Company Row27 Launches iPhone App for University Sports Teams
- Mplayit Releases Most Shared Mobile Apps On Facebook Application
- Google Announces Press Gathering On January 5th – Hello, Nexus One.
| Online Holiday Spending Reaches $25 Billion; Shows Strong Growth In Consumer Electronics Sales Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:54 AM PST The numbers are in. And they look good. It appears that online holiday spending rose slightly this year, by 5 percent, to $27 billion for the shopping season from November 1 through Christmas Eve, according to comScore. For the time period from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, sales showed a slight uptick, rising 3.5 percent. With respect to individual product categories, consumer electronics saw yearly sales growth of slightly over 20 percent, while sales of jewelry and watches also rose. From reports over the past few months, the numbers indicated that the total online spending would be higher this year than last, when the U.S. spending was blindsided with a crippling recession. The final shopping weekend before Christmas saw a 13 percent growth rate in online spending from the previous year, thanks to the wintry mess that hit the Eastern Seaboard. And the full week posted a 6 percent yearly increase in spending, setting a one-week sales record with more than $4.8 billion in spending. Online sales numbers from Black Friday and Cyber Monday also appeared to be stronger than last year. ComScore also reported that larger e-retailers like Best Buy and Walmart outperformed the smaller online shops. The web analytics company says that sales from larger retailers were buoyed by promotions, and offers of free shipping later in the holiday season. Social media was also used as a strategy for retailers. 28 percent of shoppers surveyed by comScore reported that social media promotions from retailers influenced their purchases. Of course, it’s important to note that these sales numbers are being compared to those from last year, when spending was at a low thanks to the bleak conditions of the economy. While it’s a good sign that online spending is growing, retailers still need to dig themselves out of the hole from last year’s season. But there’s still a little less than a week left of the holiday season, and sales could rise even more. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Nuance Finally Picks Up SpinVox For $102.5 Million Posted: 30 Dec 2009 08:23 AM PST SpinVox, a London-based technology startup that transcribes voicemails to text so that they can be more easily digitized, searched, and manipulated, has been acquired by speech recognition company Nuance for $102.5 million. We reported on the rumors of the acquisition a few weeks ago, when a $150 million price tag was floating around. Nuance will integrate SpinVox's services with its speech recognition platform. SpinVox, which has raised close to $200 million in funding, develops both web apps, including Spin-My-Blog and Facebook and Twitter integration, and mobile technologies. SpinVox has partnerships with a number of mobile carriers, mostly in Europe, including O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, 3, and Virgin Mobile. SpinVox’s investors ended up with $0.50 cents on the dollar; the company raised too much money and didn’t deliver. A competitor in the space SimulScibe, just struck a deal worth $17 million with Ditech, which seems to be more of a rational value for the transcription service. The last round of funding valued SpinVox at $500 million and there were rumors of the startup heading for an IPO. It turns out that was all spin. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Top Ten Mobile Voice Searches Of 2009 Are Action-Oriented Posted: 30 Dec 2009 06:55 AM PST Mobile search and general Web search are two different beasts, especially when it comes to voice search, which is becoming increasingly popular. The list of the top ten mobile voice searches below by mobile voice app startup Vlingo confirms that people are much more action-oriented when they are on the go. The top search, curiously, is “YouTube,” which suggests more people than you might think are watching videos on their phones. But the next two, “Facebook” and “MySpace,” are social networks, suggesting that people want to stay connected to their friends on the go, which is what phones were originally intended to do. “Twitter” is No. 6 on the list. Facebook and Twitter are also on Google’s list of top searches for 2009, but that list is dominated more by news, entertainment, and celebrity related searches such as “Michael Jackson,” “New Moon,” and “Lady Gaga.” The Vlingo list is dominated by more specific, action-oriented searches such as “Weather” (Is it safe to go out?), “Movie Times” (What can I see right now?), “Yellow Pages” and “White Pages” (I need to call someone right now and want to avoid 411 fees). Vlingo’s mobile voice apps are used by 3 million people worldwide across a variety of devices, including iPhones, Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and Nokias. Voice search represents about 20 percent of the usage of the apps, which can be used for speech-to-text dictation for emails and text messages as well. Top 10 Mobile Voice Searches for 2009
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| Appsaurus Looks To Outsmart Apple’s App Store Genius Posted: 30 Dec 2009 06:00 AM PST
Co-founder Luke Iannini says that Apple’s Genius for Apps doesn’t really have many advanced algorithms working in the background to determine what users will like. Instead, he says it’s based on a straightforward metric: when you choose an application to use as a seed, it takes the top ten applications other users who have that app installed are most likely to have. That works pretty well, but it doesn’t necessarily make smart recommendations based on a longer term analysis of the apps you like. Appsaurus does. After launching the application, you’ll be presented with a handful of semi-popular apps from the App Store and asked to pick the one you like best. Once you pick your favorite, it shows you another round of apps. After four rounds or so, the app begins to learn your preferences, and you keep ranking more apps to help fine-tune its recommendations. In essence, it’s trying to build a profile based on your entire library of apps, not just one. If you’re presented with an application that you’ve never heard of (which happens frequently), you can hit an arrow to read its summary and see screenshots. Unfortunately Apple won’t let applications access the App Store’s reviews and star ratings, so you’ll have to do without those. But Appsaurus has one severe disadvantage: it can’t actually look at the apps you have installed, at least not yet. That means you’ll have to manually tell Appsaurus your favorite apps, which only takes a few minutes but certainly doesn’t make things easier. You don’t have to rely exclusively on the app’s algorithm though — you can run custom searches if you already know what kind of application you’re looking for. You can fine-tune these searches by category, maximum price, and keyword. And the app itself is quite well done, with polished design and animations. This is actually the Appsaurus team’s second attempt at making an iPhone app recommendation engine. Last year, they launched Appalanche, which shared some similarities with Appsaurus in that it was meant to help surface interesting apps, but was a web app rather than a native download. The precursor to Appalanche is an ad voting engine called Adpinion. The company was funded by Y Combinator back in 2007.
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| Posted: 29 Dec 2009 11:18 PM PST On deviantART, the site for anyone who thinks they are an artist, member submissions are known as “deviations.” The site’s been around since 2000, attracts 33 million monthly visitors (comScore), and just recently passed its 100 millionth deviation. It is, appropriately enough, a short story about gay sex. I could quote from it, but it is more of a deviation from good writing than anything else. I might as well just show the “Blizzard” drawing above featuring some sort of black unicorn frolicking in the snow with an arctic fox. How should I put this? There are some creations which are better left in a drawer and maybe shouldn’t be shared with the world. Seriously, would you pay $150 for a print of this drawing? I’m sure there’s some great art on deviantART among the 100 million submissions of drawings, photos, videos, and stories, but they are hard to find among the 99.9 million pieces of mediocrity which seem to fill up the site. It’s as though every kid from your high school art class who dropped out to draw dragons is on the site, telling the other drop-outs how amazing their art is. Some of it is so bad that it’s given rise to parody blog divineART, whose slogan is, “When art becomes visual pollution!” But, hell, what do I know? Those 33 million visitors a month are enough to classify the site as mainstream (shhh, don’t tell). Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Flixster Users Name Top 2009 Movies: Avatar, Star Trek And The Blind Side Posted: 29 Dec 2009 11:02 PM PST
The year's lowest-rated movies were Whiteout (35%); Year One (32%); Dragonball Evolution (30%); Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (30%); and Transylmania (25%). I’d add Transformers 2 to that list of terrible movies, which is the top grossing film so far this year. Here are the top ten:
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| Outside Puts The iPhone Weather App To Shame Posted: 29 Dec 2009 09:18 PM PST I typically use the Weather iPhone app once a week, at most. The only reason I would ever use the application is if a friend asked me the weather for a certain day of the week. Outside is trying to change the way we see weather applications on the iPhone with their new iPhone app developed by Robocat. Outside combines current weather and local forecasts with custom push notifications on the iPhone. With Outside, you can setup push notifications to for various weather conditions and get alerts when the weather matches your criteria, even when the app isn't running. To get the notifications, you have to sign up for a subscription service. You get 30 days of push notifications when you purchase Outside, and then for $1, you get another 90 days of notifications. A yearly plan is in works as well. Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >> Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Siebel’s Stealth Carbon Startup C3 Lands $26 Million And Condoleezza Rice On Its Board Posted: 29 Dec 2009 08:36 PM PST What do Thomas Siebel, Condoleezza Rice and $26 million have in common? They are all connected to stealth energy startup C3, which may be entering the business of managing carbon cap-and-trade systems for corporations. In the past two weeks, C3 has filed three Form Ds with the SEC disclosing financings totaling almost $26M. Very little is known about the company publicly, and the company declines to comment on its future plans (or anything else). But from other publicly-available sources, an interesting story can be pieced together. C3 is the brainchild of Thomas Siebel, former CEO of Siebel Systems which was bought by Siebel’s previous employer Oracle for $5.7 billion in 2005. Siebel has brought in a lot of familiar talent, including former Siebel Systems and Oracle executives Patricia House and Edward Abbo. House is a star, serving on a number of boards and in the past being named one of Fortune’s 50 most powerful women. Abbo is the former CTO of Siebel Systems, among other positions. The holdover team from Siebel, including its CTO, points towards enterprise software. Also among the C3 board of directors are former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Both are powerful Republicans, which comes as no surprise as Siebel played a role in introducing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to California. Far more interesting is the role each might play. C3 is focused on energy management and a former Secretary of Energy is a logical (and valuable) asset in that business. More interesting is the potential role of Rice. Rice’s most visible experience is as America’s lead representative to the world, suggesting that C3 is planning an international play. Another key Director is Jay Dweck, a Managing Director and Global Head of Strategies and Technology for the Institutional Securities Group at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Dweck’s insider knowledge of institutional securities and the underlying technology at least raises the possibility that C3 will seek to securitize and/or create a market for some kind of carbon security. So what does an enterprise-software, energy-management company with international ambitions, $26 million in capital, and sophisticated financial securities software do? Besides make a lot of money of course. One logical answer is that the company is planning to create software/platforms for the management of carbon emissions. What makes the space potentially so valuable is cap and trade. These systems substitute a market for regulation; an enterprise’s carbon emissions are measured against a specific amount, the cap. Companies with emissions below the cap can sell their extra “space,” while companies whose emissions exceed their cap need to purchase permits for their overage. Cap and trade is not currently in use in the United States, although it has been proposed and is being pushed by the Obama Administration, but it is being used to reduce carbon emissions on a cost-efficient basis elsewhere, notably in the EU. Two large and related problems plague cap and trade systems. One is measuring emissions (in an officially sanctioned manner) and the other is pricing them, and those two problems could very well be C3’s targets. The goal in this scenario would be to get licensed or approved to create and run cap-and-trade markets. If cap and trade is ultimately adopted as the way to control carbon emissions in the name of reducing global warming, it will be a multi-billion dollar market. C3 bills itself as an “Energy and Emissions Management” company. Limited information about it is currently available at c3welcome.com, itself an unlikely website. The company also appears to own c3-carbon.com, and may be shopping for a more euphonious domain as it has chosen to remain at the welcome site as opposed to the longer term c3-carbon.com, which redirects. There are other companies tackling this problem such as Greenstone Carbon Management, Carbon Hub, and Carbon Trust, but the glowing board/leadership pedigree on top of nearly limitless access to capital make C3 a diamond in the rough, so to speak. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Is The Nexus One Bringing A New Android Backup Service With It? Posted: 29 Dec 2009 07:54 PM PST
Under the section for Optional Accessories, the Nexus One will apparently have a docking station available (as did the Droid). The description for the dock is as follows: “Charge your phone while streaming music and backing up your data“. Now, that text isn’t terribly specific. In the case of the streaming music, I think Google is probably referring to an app like Pandora. In the case of backups, Google could be referring to using one of the third party backup solutions available on Android Market, like the top rated MyBackup Pro. Or it might just be saying that you can manually back up your phone to your computer while it’s charging. Or, it could be referring to a natively supported backup option. I’m guessing it’s the latter. But what would an Android backup service look like? Google obviously favors the cloud, so it seems logical that it could back up your essential data wirelessly. Then again, Android already does that for much of your data, like Gmail and Contacts, because it’s tied to your Google Account. The fact that this backup is done while the phone is docked seems to imply it’s more time consuming. Perhaps it’s something that involves a desktop client — something that Google has avoided until now and would be at odds with their cloud-based strategy. We’ll likely know for sure by January 5th — the date that the Nexus One is rumored to make its public debut. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| The Apparent Cost Of Nexus One Freedom: $530. Why It Still Matters. Posted: 29 Dec 2009 06:45 PM PST
So what does this mean? Well, at first glance, it’s pretty standard, really. For example, you can buy an iPhone without having to sign up for a contract, but it will cost you $599 or $699 depending on the storage size of the device. With a contract, those models run $199 and $299, respectively. The difference is that those phones, and many of the others you can buy without a contract, are still carrier-locked. That means that even if you buy them without a monthly contract, you will eventually have to sign-up for some kind of plan through that carrier, if you plan to use that device. That is, unless you plan to manually unlock it, something which in most cases voids the warranty — if it works at all. But Google is supposedly selling this $530 Nexus One completely unlocked. That means that you can use it with any carrier — provided that carrier is running a compatible GSM network, which the Nexus One is built to run on. In the U.S., that basically means the device will be able to run on T-Mobile or AT&T. Though given earlier leaked specs, it would seem that if you do run it on AT&T, it may only work with EDGE data, and not the faster 3G variety. In other words, the thing still is rather locked down. In order to use it to its full potential in the U.S., you’ll likely want to be using it with T-Mobile anyway. But that’s not so bad since T-Mobile offers pay-as-you go SIM cards, though they are not a great deal. Still, the fact remains that this in an important moment in the mobile industry in the U.S. While unlocked phones are common abroad, they’re almost unheard of here where the carriers rule with an iron fist. The iPhone was able to break this domination somewhat, but they’re still only tied to one carrier (AT&T). Google directly selling an unlocked phone, even if it’s limited, is a big step in the right direction. As we noted earlier, the next step for them is to sell an unlocked device that is compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks, then things will really start to get interesting. And even if they don’t do that, in the next couple of years, the next generation LTE networks will come into play, and those promise a more unified mobile experience from a hardware perspective. So yes, while it’s true that Google is unlikely to be selling a $530 phone in droves, its existence means something. It points to a future where the carriers don’t dominate the mobile scene with their ridiculous contracts and lock-in policies. And that’s a good thing. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Qik Releases Local Video Recording For Older iPhones (They Already Can Do It Live) Posted: 29 Dec 2009 06:16 PM PST
Qik has, of course, made its name building live streaming apps that allow users to broadcast their video directly from their phones to the web. Their live streaming app, which is called Qik Live, was released less than a week ago. You’re not exactly going to be grabbing high quality video with the the Qik VideoCamera, but it could be worse. The first application to enable video recording on the older iPhones was iVideoCamera, which captures a mere three frames per second at a 160×213 resolution. Qik claims to record at 7FPS and 352×288, which is obviously a big step up. But it still pales in comparison to the iPhone 3GS’s 30FPS and VGA (640×480) resolution. Just to recap, Qik now has three applications available on the App Store. First, is Qik for 3GS, which was the company’s ‘workaround’ for Apple’s ban on video — it was for 3GS users only, and would upload videos after recordings were completed. Second is the live streaming app released last week that lets users broadcast from any model iPhone directly to the web. Today’s release is Qik’s third on the app store. Also see Ustream’s Live Broadcaster (covered here) which offers both live streaming and local recording in the same app. Here’s a demo the Qik app’s video quality, recorded using an iPhone 3G: Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| OnLive Streaming Game Service Demonstrated On Video At Columbia Posted: 29 Dec 2009 05:41 PM PST  You remember OnLive, right? The service, which lets you play any game remotely on a distant server, has produced much skepticism and much interest, and is now in public beta. We got a good look at it back in March when we were at GDC, and it appears that things are much the same. However, the combination of crowd noise and my bad playing made for a less-than-optimal viewing experience. This video is much clearer and much longer (it's essentially a guest lecture at Columbia), so if you're still interested in the OnLive thing, it may be for you. This video deals with some of the technical issues that have been brought up. I haven't watched the whole thing (skipped around to get the interesting bits) but he does address some of the compression and packet loss issues they have to deal with.
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| TenYears: Biggest Losers In Tech Posted: 29 Dec 2009 03:36 PM PST  It's almost January 1st, 2010 and we've been mulling over our favorites of 2009 – and the previous decade. Here we present another installment of our "Of the Decade" lists. It was a decade of upheaval and of settling into niches. It was a decade of unexpected successes and, consequently, the losses they caused. This is by no means a complete list of the fallen, but we have put our heads together and decided on the few which truly represented the losers of the 2000s. Now let us never speak of them again.
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| With Nexus One, Is Google Eating Its Own Dogfood Or Its Own Children? Posted: 29 Dec 2009 02:40 PM PST
Google is unveiling the Nexus One just two months (nearly to the day) after the Verizon Droid was released. The Droid, of course, was seen as the Android platform’s Messiah by some, and the one phone that could maybe hold a candle to the iPhone. Sales have been good, and the general consensus is that the phone is a winner. But now, just two months later, we have a new Android phone that by just about every account is better than it. In fact, the only real upsides for the Droid over the Nexus One is that it runs on Verizon’s network, and that it has a physical keyboard. The Verizon point is certainly a fair one — there’s a reason why everyone is clamoring for a Verizon iPhone. But the physical keyboard argument seems moot, as the consensus is that the Droid keyboard is a pretty poor one. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty annoyed if I just shelled out my money for a Droid, and locked myself into a 2-year contract (even one with Verizon). It reminds me of when Apple first unveiled the iPhone for $599 then slashed the price just a few months later, leaving all the early-adopters bitter. Apple eventually gave a partial rebate to those buyers, but it still was a curious move. And Google’s is arguably worse here, as it’s not just about the money, but about the unveiling of a superior piece of hardware so quickly after it put a lot of its own marketing muscle behind the Droid, trying to convince customers that it was the Android phone to buy. Of course, after news of the device got out, Google’s official stance was that this new Android phone was simply an experiment that it was using internally. But the “eating your own dogfood” excuse quickly evaporates when you open these devices to the public less than a month after writing that. Instead, this looks to be a situation where Google is eating its own children, or at the very least, its own tail. All that said, while I feel for the early Droid buyers, I admire what it looks like Google is doing here from bigger picture perspective. They don’t seem to care that they’re potentially alienating their existing mobile partners by bringing their own phone, that they will sell themselves, to market. This has long been the exact argument as to why Microsoft would never make its own hardware. (Of course, that stance is not working out so well for them right now as Windows Mobile market share continues to fall.) It would appear that Google realizes that the best way to make a truly great mobile device is to take control of most of it themselves.
I have no doubt that at their event, Google will have plenty of spin for why they are taking the reins on this device. I’m sure we’ll hear about the dogfood aspect, I’m sure we’ll hear about how great this device is for developers, and I’m sure we’ll hear about “choices” (as in, there are a huge range of Android phones on a wide range of carriers). But make no mistake, the Nexus One will be the Android phone to get. And I suspect that will be the case until Google comes out with the Nexus Two. Hopefully, that won’t be in a couple months from now. And I hope Google continues down this path. If they do, they’ll be taking power away from the carriers and traditional mobile handset manufacturers, and giving more of it to consumers in the U.S. Those guys have had their time; they have failed. The next logical step for Google along this path is to create a device that can run on both GSM and CDMA networks, so any consumers can pop in any SIM card from any carrier and use their device as they see fit. Of course, obtaining a SIM card without a contract from some of the carriers will still likely be an issue, but moves like this from Google can help pressure them into that. And further down the line, as we move into the 4G networks, interoperability might actually be something that we see. Imagine a U.S. where the carriers have to have the best network or customers will just leave and join another one as they see fit. Androids may dream of electric sheep, but that’s what I dream about. Update: For more on the supposed Nexus One pricing, see here. [photo via] Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Groovle Beats Google In Domain Battle With Groovy Defense Posted: 29 Dec 2009 02:08 PM PST
Google initially sent Groovle an Email on July 29 demanding that they hand the domain over. In response to Google’s initial complaints, Groovle modified the site design to make it more distinct and added a disclaimer to explicitly say it was not affiliated with Google, but that wasn’t enough to placate them. It’s not hard to guess why Google was concerned. Groovle, while not simply a typo away from Google’s name, does share quite a few letters in common, and the primary purpose of the site is to search Google’s index. Groovle’s defense includes a number of arguments, but the one that resonated with the NAF is that its name stems from the words “Groovy” and “Groove”, rather than “Google”. It may not sound like a big difference, but those extra letters proved to be enough to win the case. From the decision:
Groovle also notes in the filing that Google has brought forty-nine UDRP complaints to the NAF, and another sixteen to the World Intellectual Property Organization, over the Google trademark. It has only lost once before now, in the case of “Froogles.com” (which is what the decision quoted above refers to). Of course, Google can simply cut off access to its Custom Search if it really wants to. Its Terms of Service includes relevant passages like “Google may change, suspend or discontinue all or any aspect of the Service, including their availability, at any time, and may terminate Your use of the Service at any time.” But even if that happens, Groovle can switch to use a different search API, like Yahoo’s BOSS or Bing. Other options for customizing your Google experience include WebMynd, which lets you tweak the appearance and layout of your Google search results (Groovle only affects the initial landing page — your search results have the standard layout). Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| The Sad Tale Of Totlol And How YouTube’s Changing TOS Made It Hard To Make A Buck Posted: 29 Dec 2009 12:35 PM PST For developers, the Web is increasingly becoming a rich trove of data which can be plucked and used as the foundation to build new services and applications. The data on the Web is becoming increasingly accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs), and some of the richest APIs come from the biggest sites on the Web: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. But just as these APIs give life to tens of thousands of developers, they can also be limiting. Ron Ilan, the developer and entrepreneur behind the children’s video site Totlol, learned the hard way that if you live by the API, you can also die by the API. Totlol is a site filled with children’s’ videos from YouTube curated by parents. Think of it as a safe, white-listed, children’s version of YouTube. It is built entirely on top of YouTube’s APIs. But a change in the terms of service (TOS) of those APIs caused Ron to shut down the free version of his site six months ago and move to a subscription model which never really became a going concern. Ron clearly blames YouTube for his woes. You can read his version of the whole sad tale, which portrays YouTube as conspiring to change its API terms of service in response to Totlol. Whether or not there was any actual malice on the part of YouTube, or the change was just a coincidence in timing, as someone who was on the YouTube API team told Ilan via email, the episode is a cautionary tale for anyone trying to build a business on another company’s APIs. The gist of what happened is that Ilan developed Totlol using YouTube’s APIs. The service wrapped YouTube videos in Totlol’s own player on its site, where people could create collections and do much more. YouTube noticed the app and even featured it in its Google Code widget on July 7, 2008, after some delay. That also happened to be the exact same day that Google changed the terms of service for its API to disallow commercial use without “YouTube’s prior written approval,” including for the following:
That pretty much killed Totlol’s revenue model, which was to place ads on the pages where the videos were played. Just bad luck, right? Ron asked YouTube for permission to run ads on his site, but he never got a response. Ron was understandably frustrated buy this turn of events. The site was his livelihood. In his post, he sums up what he thinks happened this way:
Maybe there was a connection, or maybe this conspiracy existed only in Ron’s mind. It is hard to believe YouTube would modify it in response to a single developer. In a statement, YouTube responds:
And YouTube did at least try to reach out to him. In June of this year, he was approached by a director of product management at YouTube who wanted to know what YouTube could do to prevent such failures in the future. In an email, the YouTube director asked Ron:
The questions make it clear that YouTube knew there were things it could do to make its APIs more developer-friendly. The two even met at a Starbucks, but nothing came of the meeting. Ultimately, it was up Ron to build a site that not only attracted users but was also economically viable. But like many developers, he was at the mercy of YouTube’s rules. Live by the API, die by the API. Ron is now looking for a regular 9-to-5 job to support his family. YouTube has no problem splitting revenues with bigger partners such as Vevo, which show their videos on both their own site and on YouTube. But maybe YouTube is making a distinction between splitting revenues with content creators and with content aggregators like Totlol. Is there not enough value in content aggregation when done creatively. The executives in charge of Google News, at least, would answer in the affirmative. YouTube is not a kid’s site, yet Totlol was able to create a kid’s site out of YouTube, with different features and a different look and feel. YouTube wants to control the economics surrounding its videos, whether they are watched on YouTube or on another site. The last thing it wants is to encourage a bunch of spam sites filled with Youtube videos and AdSense. That’s fair enough. But Totlol was a legitimate site, even an innovative one. It was the kind of site YouTube should do everything it can to encourage. Tales like this one make you wonder how hard it is for developers who want to play by the rules to build businesses on top of those APIs. Is YouTube helping developers or thwarting them? Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| TenYears: Unexpected Success Stories Posted: 29 Dec 2009 12:30 PM PST  It's almost January 1st, 2010 and we've been mulling over our favorites of 2009 - and the previous decade. Here we present another installment in our "Of the Decade" lists. Sometimes, when a device or service is introduced, you're confident of its success. The iPhone, for one, or GMail. But the Snuggie? Here we present the products which we felt defied popular expectations. You are in fact reading one of our choices right now.
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| TC50 DemoPit Company Row27 Launches iPhone App for University Sports Teams Posted: 29 Dec 2009 11:35 AM PST
The Kansas University app is just the first iteration of this platform, which can be re-purposed for any other NCAA sports program. According to Creative Director Jonathan Dusing, due to Row27’s close relationships with other NCAA sports teams, their iPhone app will probably soon be appear under many other college sports names. Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch >> Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Mplayit Releases Most Shared Mobile Apps On Facebook Application Posted: 29 Dec 2009 11:00 AM PST As more and more social app directories launch, data concerning the most shared and recommended mobile apps is beginning to emerge. We recently wrote about Chorus, an iPhone app that helps you discover other apps, which revealed the most recommended apps from their community. Today, Mplayit, a recently launched Facebook app that allows users to discover, share and recommend a variety of mobile apps, is releasing a list of its most shared apps on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Mobile (Java) devices. Mplayit's directory of apps includes a dedicated page for each app where Mplayit will post videos of the app (created either by the developer or pulled from YouTube), a detailed description of the app and reviews. You can also click to buy the app from various app markets, including Apple’s App Store and the Android Market. Once you start clicking on various app and downloading apps, Mplayit will begin to recommend apps to you based on your behavior on the site. And you can share apps on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page also shows the activity that's taking place in other app marketplaces, such as Apple's App Store or the Android Market, to show users what apps are receiving the most downloads, reviews and more. Users will also be able to see the "apptivity" within their social network, so they can clearly see what apps their friends and family are most interested in. Over the past few months, Mplayit says that iPhone owners were recommending apps to friends that help manage stress during the holidays or entertain themselves or children. Blackberry users were more focused on sharing info about apps for work or travel. And Android users were into shopping, as two barcode reading apps both landed in a list of the 10 most shared apps for the platform. And there are some just plain odd apps that were also driving chatter and sharing in the social networking world. On the iPhone, the SuperCam app that allows users to monitor home surveillance systems was getting shared the most often. The Bible application for Blackberry was among the 20 most discussed and shared apps on that platform. While on the Android platform, an application that mimics Google reader was getting the most chatter probably because Google has not yet made available an Android version of this popular service. On the feature phone, its games, games and more games. Interestingly, Tiger Woods holiday troubles seemed to have had a positive impact on the mobile game that bares his name. It was the second most shared and discussed java mobile app over the holiday weekend. Below are the respective lists of the most shared mobile apps on Mplayit: IPHONE 4. Sony Music Holiday Yule Log 6. MotoX Mayhem 9. Catan ANDROID 1. ReaderScope 6. Amazed 8. Aloqa 9. OI Update 10. Pinball BLACKBERRY 4. Vlingo 5. TIME Mobile 7. Sudoku Lite 10. Bible MOBILE (JAVA) 1. CafeSolitaire 2. TigerWoods09 3. SonicJump2 4. Dealor No Deal 5. TheSims3 6. Skate 7. Guitar Hero 8. Harry Potter and the 9. Half-BloodPrince 10. Bejeweled 11. CookingMama Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Google Announces Press Gathering On January 5th – Hello, Nexus One. Posted: 29 Dec 2009 10:03 AM PST  There have been whispers around the rumor mill for roughly a week now that Google was planning on throwing a press shindig right before CES - and sure enough, the invites just went out. Google doesn't outright admit what the event is for - but is there really any question?
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Earlier this evening Gizmodo 
After 
Two weeks ago, Apple 
January 5. That’s the day we’ll learn all we want to know about the 
The single biggest reason that the iPhone is great is because 
Back in 2007, we 
Everybody has a damn iPhone app nowadays, and why should NCAA programs be any different? Row27 Studios, a design firm that has 58 NCAA clients including the Cal Bears, UNC Tar Heels and Florida Gators, has begun to fill that void. They’ve created an iPhone app that is perfect for University sports programs, and provides them with a way of reaching their fans through the mobile device we all know and love (or not). They launched their first app for the Kansas University Jayhawks, and it boasts great features such as live scoring, RSS feeds of team news and a couple cool minigames to occupy you during half-time. 
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