Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Latest from TechCrunch

The Latest from TechCrunch

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AOL To Restructure Media Group Around Huffington Post – Here’s The Internal Email

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 09:23 AM PST

Earlier this morning AOL President Media David Eun resigned, leaving us wondering who we at TechCrunch work for now (I mean besides you, dear readers). Now we know.

In an email to all staff except us (I love writing that), CEO Tim Armstrong outlines his plan for AOL’s content business going forward. The bottom line is this: Arianna Huffington is leading editorial, and AOL exec Jon Brod will become COO of the group. This is largely the same message Armstrong sent when announcing the Huffington Post acquisition.

Here’s the email. There are other executive shifts happening as well. I really need to meet some of these people.

AOLers –

AOL is going to take some important steps this week to strengthen the comeback and our investment in the future of the content business and our best-in-class brands across the globe. We want to inform, entertain, connect, and help people — on a local and global scale.

We continue to put significant bets behind our strategy of high quality content and advertising at scale – on AOL properties and our growing network of publishing partners. We have improved our content properties organically, acquired leading properties with incredible talent, and partnered with some of the most creative people and brands in our industry. The world needs great content, video, and journalism and we will continue to grow our investment in brands and talent.

The Huffington Post and the AOL integration teams have been hard at work collaborating on eight separate work streams that contain over a thousand items that need to be integrated. Having done significant deals on the Internet in the past, it is clear that the combination of teams and brands will create significant value in many ways and the integration will move quickly once the deal is closed. We have focused our time and energy on the 80/80/80 model and The Huffington Post will accelerate our ability to serve women, local, and influencers in a more meaningful way on our properties and allow us to also focus on our growing network business.

As we do with important topics, we have an employees-first announcement on the organizational design we will be implementing after The Huffington Post deal is closed. The organizational updates below will deliver meaningful improvements to AOL's overall business agility and speed as we tackle the focused vision we have as a company. We will simplify the organization and leverage talent and ideas in a much more significant way. Here is a high level summary of the post-merger organization and we will be working with all of you to make sure you understand how any of these changes affect the current work we are doing. Here is a summary:

Huffington Post Media Group — Upon closing of the acquisition, we will be forming the Huffington Post Media Group to house all content and local experiences under the editorial leadership of Arianna Huffington, whose new title will be President & Editor-in-Chief. Arianna’s vision is clear: create real-time engagement and enlightenment for our millions of users, while continuing to build a comprehensive source of compelling news, entertainment, information, and opinion. Arianna will drive the content and production cycles for all editorial functions with all editorial staff reporting up through her.

With the formation of the Huffington Post Media Group, David Eun has decided to step down from his role as President, AOL Media. David and I discussed different roles for him in the new organization but came to the conclusion that there wasn't a fit for what he is looking for at this point in his career. David will be available throughout the integration planning process to help guide the integration of The Huffington Post and AOL Media. This deal could not have been possible without David’s stewardship of AOL Media over the past year, and the tangible progress he has made. He is a big reason that we were able to acquire The Huffington Post, and we will always count him as a member of the AOL family.

Jon Brod has been leading AOL's integration efforts since we announced the acquisition. In addition to his current role as President, AOL Ventures, Jon will take on the additional responsibility of COO of the Huffington Post Media Group once the acquisition has closed. As COO Jon will report directly to Arianna on all editorial matters and report directly to me on all business matters including distribution, business operations, marketing, analysis and partnership alignment. Jon will also, in conjunction with AOL Advertising, optimize profitability across the properties.

Networks/Publishers — We have acquired some of the best entrepreneurs in the industry and have realized that there is an opportunity to massively scale our network business. We have literally thousands of partners and customers in the publishing space that want to take advantage of our 80/80/80 expertise in content and advertising. We will seize this opportunity and build and develop the publisher business that includes the advertising network, video network, and scaled content production. Ned Brody will now be charged with overseeing all network B2B offerings including Ad.com, ADTECH, 5Min, Pictela, Seed, and StudioNow. GoViral in Europe will be highly coordinated with the networks team through Kate Burns who leads our European operations. Our networks will be the best in the business to scale out the internet and this new organization will be the first integrated publisher services group to serve combined content and advertising services at a massive scale, encompassing video, brand ads, content, and ad serving.

Advertising — The global advertising teams will remain business as usual under the leadership of Jeff Levick and will not be changing structure. The Huffington Post sales force will continue to focus on selling and servicing their customers and will be joining the AOL sales force following the close of the acquisition. Jeff is working closely with The Huffington Post sales leadership to plan the integration of those teams and we are expecting both teams to track to their goals during this transition. As we ramp up the publishing and network group, the global advertising teams will have more opportunity to innovate advertising and we expect to have more products like Project Devil to roll out across the combined properties.

Consumer Applications and Commerce — Brad Garlinghouse will continue to lead Consumer Applications, focusing on building inspired products for our users including all of AOL's Mobile (and tablet applications), AOL Mail, AIM as well as new additions to the team like about.me. These efforts remain critical to driving engagement for all of AOL's content experiences and Brad will work very closely with The Huffington Post Media Group and Paul Berry, the CTO of that group and current CTO of the Huffington Post. In addition, I have asked Brad to lead a newly constituted Commerce group for the company and look to develop new opportunities and initiatives across all of AOL’s sites. Finally, the entire Consumer Applications and Commerce team will champion how we can better embrace all of our users to be treated as members – all part of the AOL community.

Paid Services – Artie Minson will take on leadership of Paid Services in addition to his role as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. Paid Services will continue on its path to make more exciting progress in scaling the subscription services business that now serves hundreds of thousands of new customers and will also be instituting a new enhanced membership program. Our Paid Services customers are an important part of the AOL user base, and we will continue to look for ways to super serve their experiences going forward.

Corporate — Artie will also oversee the following corporate functions including human resources, corporate communications, brand marketing, business development, M&A, investor relations, finance, accounting and internal audit. By combining the corporate functions with the Paid Services business we will continue to focus on serving our most valued customers – our members.

International – International will become a more important part of the AOL business during 2011 and 2012 as we re-enter markets in our global platforms. The business leaders in The Huffington Post Media Group, Networks Group, Advertising, Consumer Applications & Commerce, and Paid Services will drive global plans in their verticals and be supported by the regional leaders in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Emerging Markets. We want our strategies and operational cadence to be global, but we are counting on strong regional leaders to drive execution and identify regional opportunities for growth. Ned Brody will lead our regional operational planning and analytics as well as run the Networks group. Ned will partner with the vertical business leaders and with international leads in local markets to plan and measure our strategies around the world.

Tech — As CTO, Alex Gounares will continue leading the engineering and tech teams globally. Technology is the bedrock that all the businesses rely on and we have made great strides to simplify and innovate in almost all areas of the company.

Legal – As General Counsel, Julie Jacobs will continue to lead the legal team including compliance and public policy. In addition, she will continue to work closely with our Board of Directors in her role as Corporate Secretary.

We will be holding a call at 12pm EST today to answer any questions you may have.

There is a detailed integration schedule by date and function and we are holding daily meetings with AOLers and The Huffington Post. Once we close the deal, we will send out more information on the overall next steps and hold interim team meetings to make sure everyone is informed and can ask questions.

We can help lead the next phase of the Internet and we will stay on strategy and focus on execution. Let's make magic – TA

Room 77′s Hotel Database Wants To Make Sure You Book A Room With A View

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 09:14 AM PST

When researching hotels for a vacation or business trip, a visit to TripAdvisor to check out reviews of a resort are a must. Pictures of rooms on hotel websites often misrepresent the exact size or luxury of a room and betting on hotels can be a bit of a gamble. But TripAdvisor reviews encompass all aspects of a hotel, including food, grounds, views, service and more. Today, Room 77 is launching as a comprehensive search engine and review site focused exclusively on hotel rooms.

The hotel room database and search engine has collected and indexed data on more than 425,000 hotel rooms in 2,500 properties and is also crowdsourcing reviews and ratings from travelers. For now, Room 77 focuses on three star hotels and above and features information on hotels in North America and the UK (but plans to expand to other markets in the future).

Currently accessible through both a website and iPhone app, Room 77 provides travelers with specific details about each hotel room at a property, including the room category, square footage, bed type, elevator proximity and if it is a connecting room. For each room, Room 77 also generates a virtual Room View, simulating the actual view from that room's window using Google Earth-enabled technology.

The best rooms for each traveler are automatically ranked using Room 77's proprietary Room Rank algorithm that adjusts to each individual's preferences for high or low floor, distance from elevator, view importance and need for connecting rooms. Each room is then scored with a color-coded match percentage indicating: "strong match" (green), "fair match" (yellow) and "weak match" (red). Room 77 also gives travelers insider tips on how to request desirable room(s) directly from the hotel and increase the probability of securing one.

Room 77 says that the majority of hotel room data has been collected through the legwork of its staff through official and unofficial means, but the company is already working directly with major hotel chains and individually owned properties to validate and expand data. The company tells us that is is currently in discussions with Starwood on working together.

Room 77 reminds me of TripKick, which rates individual hotel rooms. If Room 77 can partner with hotel groups to include specific data on hotel rooms, it will save the startup a lot of time and effort from actually visiting each room. I’m curious to see if the startup will be able to compete with TripAdvisor on the reviews/ratings front. TripAdvisor has become the ubiquitous destination for hotel reviews, and it may be tough to match the scale of the travel giant.



AOL Exec David Eun Out – Here’s His Email To Staff

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:18 AM PST

Update: Here’s AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s email to staff about the exec team reshuffling.

David Eun, my boss’s (Heather) boss since the acquisition, will shortly be leaving AOL. As President of AOL Media and Studios he oversaw the AOL homepage as well as all of the content brands and sites.

It’s clear that the Huffington Post acquisition was the catalyst for the change, and it’s something he talks about at length in the email below. Which, as usual, TechCrunch staff didn’t get (they think we’ll just post these, which we probably wouldn’t if they trusted us not to. Yes I get how confusing that is).

We liked to think of Eun as the “pointy haired boss” at corporate and started in on him from day one after the acquisition when he scheduled a 3.5 hour all hands meeting at TechCrunch – our first all hands meeting ever.

But as much as I made fun of David, I have huge respect for him. One thing he didn’t do was mess with TechCrunch. He never told us what to write, or not write, or in any way interfered with our editorial process. That’s all I really asked for when we were acquired, and he kept his promise.

Anyway, I wonder who we report to now? There must be press release or staff email around here somewhere.

Team,

I wanted to reach out to you personally about my decision to leave the company. I came to AOL last year to be the leader of the media organization. With the historic acquisition of The Huffington Post, my role and responsibilities as President, AOL Media are changing. Tim and I have discussed at length how I might continue within the new organizational structure, but ultimately there isn't a role that matches what I am seeking to do.

I believe this acquisition is great for AOL, and I’ve been happy to count Arianna as a friend for a number of years. This deal would never have happened without all of your hard work and accomplishments this past year. From our Homepage relaunch to massive video growth to significant increases in external traffic, you have been at the forefront of digital media- and this is only the beginning.

I am extremely proud of all that you have accomplished this year. Recent days have given me an opportunity to reflect on just how far we’ve come, and the progress is striking:

We started with a plan to win:
Within my first month, we implemented a high-level strategy that has remained our north star: High-quality Content at Scale
We created a roadmap showing how to equip our talented editors and writers (high quality) with the best practices, technology, tools and insights possible (scale)

We realized the need to focus and have done so aggressively, from managing 300 disparate URLs to today’s laser-focused efforts to prioritize 13 key Towns

We executed faster than ever:

We completed 11 Summer Sprints and Dashes against very aggressive timelines

We conducted 7am “Swarm reviews” of 33 sites and identified over 2,800 Product and Editorial bugs, 95% of which were fixed within weeks

Two core elements of our strategy, AOL.com and AOL Video, were re-launched in a matter of months. 22 other sites and sub-sites have been re-launched with 8 more in the Dev queue currently.

We rolled-out Project Devil with Sales and Eng colleagues in the Fall and are on our way of rolling it across every Town
We grew to over 40 mobile apps, working closely with our Mobile applications group, including the recent addition of AOL.com and Engadget for iPad at CES.

We doubled-down on our strengths and talent:

We successfully appointed or hired new leaders for the Platform, Entertainment, Homepage, News, Video, Programming, Health, SEO, and Marketing groups

We added TechCrunch into our AOL Technology group (Engadget, Switched, TUAW), making AOL the hands-down leader in Technology news and content

All of the top leaders of companies we acquired have been retained and/or have major roles within AOL Media (David Mason, Ran Harnevo, Tal Simantov, Heather Harde and Mike Arrington)

We demonstrated a commitment to high quality content by forming an Editorial Advisory Council comprised of some of the best journalists in the industry who developed and documented "AOL Editorial Standards" for the first time

We retained top performers across the entire organization — you, in the face of all the demands of our "start around"

We saw incredible RESULTS in key areas of focus:

External Entries: In the 9 months before February 2010, external entries to AOL Content sites declined 26%. Since February 2010, they have grown 23%. This means that we are executing against our key goal becoming less dependent on Homepage/Client traffic to drive the Media business.

Video: Through organic growth (+200% y/y) and the 5min acquisition, we have scaled the Comscore rankings from #11 in September to #5 in January. We now generate more UVs than Facebook, Hulu, Microsoft, Fox, and CBS. Since September 2010, AOL Video UVs have grown 62% and videos viewed grew 49% while the overall video market declined on both metrics.
AOL.com: The new AOL.com launched Nov 1 and all core metrics are up: search revenues are up 36% y/y (vs. -24% the year before), referrals to local are up ~200%, and video views are up ~600%. Engagement has improved, generating over 50mm incremental PVs from Dec to Jan alone, and increasing steadily to over 40min/vistor/month, significantly higher than all of our top competitors: MSN (37min), Yahoo (34min), the entire NYT website (30min)

This is just a small portion of what we have accomplished together because there are simply too many to note and too many people to thank individually here. I believe in the future of AOL in large part because of your incredible talent, professionalism and passion, and I am grateful that we had an opportunity to work together.

As I always say, "Keep going!" and know that I’ll be rooting for you. In the meantime, I'll be available throughout the integration planning process as we await deal approval and have offered to do whatever I can to insure a smooth transition.

It's been an honor to work with you.

Go AOL!
David



(Founder Stories) Tumblr’s David Karp: My Heroes Are Steve Jobs And Willy Wonka

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 08:03 AM PST

Some Internet wunderkinds don’t bother to finish college. Tumblr founder David Karp dropped out of high school, and now runs one of the fastest growing publishing platforms on the Web. In our final segment from this week’s Founder Stories (also watch parts I, II, and III), Karp answers some of Chris Dixon’s rapid-fire questions in the video above. He talks about his best business decision ever (shutting down Tumblr’s profitable, niche, Web development business), why he has trouble sleeping, and how hiring the youngest, most brilliant engineers will become Tumblr’s “biggest recruiting advantage.”

On this last point, Karp says when Tumblr gets to “Google-scale” and Google is still only hiring Ph.Ds, “I want to grab 16-year-olds that are going to be brilliant and help them get there.” What about engineers with at least a college degree? Karp isn’t anti-education so much as he isn’t seeing colleges churn out the talent he needs. “The bigger problem is college isn’t making very good engineers and that is what this industry needs,” he says.

We also learn that Karp’s biggest heroes are “Steve Jobs and Willy Wonka.” Jobs makes total sense. Karp grew up being “obsessed with Steve Jobs keynotes” and the art of “the reveal.” But Willy Wonka? “It’s sort of the same as Steve—the idea that there is this magical factory, and you can’t begin to imagine what went into these things,” he explains. And, by the way, he thinks “Apple is way scarier” than Willy Wonka’s factory.

In addition to the rapid-fire questions above, you can listen to the full interview below (which we’ve already posted as separate clips over the past few days):

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Storific Raises $200K From Kima Ventures To Let Customers Order In Restaurants Via iPhone

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:41 AM PST

Storific, the French startup that lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels via an iPhone, has raised $200k in a seed round financed by Kima Ventures. The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface where businesses can provide full menus, list their tables and receive notifications from customers ordering by an iPhone. Whilst the consumer-facing iPhone app is, of course, free.


After Twitter, LinkedIn Now Also Blocked In China

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:40 AM PST


It appears that LinkedIn has been blocked in China, after the professional social network became a platform for organizing anti-government protests. The report was first noted by Renmedia.

According to the WSJ article, protesters are moving from various social network sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to organize protests as the Chinese government blocks these sites. We checked out access to LinkedIn on both WebsitePulse and JustPing and both sites indicate that LinkedIn is being blocked from cities in China. It also appears that Twitter is blocked as well.

We’ve contacted LinkedIn for comment on the matter.

UPDATE: Here’s the response we received from LinkedIn: We are aware of the reports of a disruption to our service for our members in China. We are looking into the situation now.

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eMarketer On Social Networking In The US: 57% On Facebook, 11% On Twitter

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:18 AM PST

Research firm eMarketer estimates that more than half of adult internet users in the US were logging on to Facebook at least once per month at the end of last year. In 2011, the company forecasts that 132.5 million US web users will use the site monthly. Twitter, it adds, will enjoy faster growth rates in the near future but continue to attract ‘relatively few’ online Americans.

An increase of 13.4 percent in the number of users would mean Facebook will reach almost 9 in 10 social network users and 57.1 percent of Internet users this year.

By 2013, eMarketer estimates 62 percent of Web users and almost half (47.6 percent) of the overall US population will be on Facebook.

Twitter, in contrast, was used by 16.4 million US adults, or 9% of the adult internet population, at the end of 2010. eMarketer expects growth to surpass 26 percent in 2011 as Twitter reaches 11% of Internet users and 16.5% of adult social network users in the United States. By 2013, eMarketers forecasts nearly 28 million Americans will be tweeting.

The estimates are based on analysis of survey data and visitor statistics from over a dozen sources, and include US users who use any Internet-enabled device to access their Facebook and/or Twitter accounts at least once a month, including access through third-party apps.

Also see: Global Ad Spending On Facebook Will Reach $4B By Year's End

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MacBook Pro Battery Life Appears Shorter, But More Realistic (Using Websites And Even Flash)

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:09 AM PST

Now that the news about the new MacBook Pros is out there, one thing that may disappoint someone just reading the spec sheet is battery life. Across the board, the Pro is now rated at 7 hours. While still very solid, this is actually a step down from the previous versions which were rated at 8 to 9 hours for the 15 and 17-inch models, and 10 hours for the 13-inch model. So what gives?

Well, just as they sort of quietly announced with the new MacBook Airs late last year, Apple has begun using a new method of battery life testing. And they feel it’s much more accurate in real world scenarios. Specifically they call this the “Wireless Web protocol testing”.

Essentially what it means is that they set each device to 50 percent display brightness and go surf the 25 most popular websites. Apple tells us that they do whatever is the main function on those websites over and over again, including playing Flash video. Yes, real-world testing for Apple means testing Flash performance as well.

Apple notes that results may vary still based on configuration and your usage patterns. But unlike with previous ratings, that has the possibility to be a good thing too (as in battery life could actually be better than stated). ”We want this to be as realistic as possible,” a spokesperson tells us.

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Payvment Brings A Social, Virtual Shopping Mall To Facebook

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:59 AM PST


Payvment, a startup that allows anyone to create and operate a retail storefront on Facebook, is unveiling the first virtual shopping mall on the social network. Comprised of all the stores that use Payvment’s retail app for Facebook, the Mall offers over one million products from 50,000 retailers in a centralized place.

Payvment's Facebook App, which launched in November of 2009, lets anyone create a retail store on the social network. The app lets you set up products, categories of products (i.e. shoes, T-shirts, sweaters), import photos, list terms of service and shipping options and more. Once you set up your online shop on Facebook, it will show up in a separate tab on your profile or page under "storefront".

In the Payvment Shopping Mall, Facebook shoppers can access a directory of ecommerce
stores, from celebrity brands to local merchants. Visitors can “like products or retailers, and search for products on merchant-specific pages.

The Mall adds a personalized element by showing you what you and your friends are “liking” on the mall. A "Your Cart" feature holds on to your saved items in a universal and updates pricing and inventory information. Facebook users can also comment on any item and post comments to their News feed.

Payvment’s quick growth on Facebook is impressive. As we wrote above, the company has accumulated 50,000 merchants and is adding 250 retailers every dayThe idea of a virtual shopping mall on Facebook certainly makes sense considering how the social network is evolving as a destination for e-commerce. Of course, Facebook, which is reportedly ramping up e-commerce initiatives in 2011, could open its own shopping mall, and use Facebook Credits as a form of currency.

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GOGII Nabs $15 Million To Win At Social Messaging

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:44 AM PST

GOGII, maker of the social messaging app textPlus, is announcing a $15 million Series C round led by GRP Partners this morning. GRP will be joining existing investors Matrix Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

textPlus is in a super crowded arena, with upstart apps GroupMe, Fast Society, FreeText, and now even Facebook getting into the group messaging space. textPlus does have the advantage of being a first mover, at least in the free SMS space, having launched in June 2009.

Founder and former Activision executive Scott Lahman tells us that what sets the free app apart is its focus on social profiles, as well as its painting a wide stroke across all the competitive verticals. Says Lahman, “We’ve been at it for awhile and what we’re doing is taking on a broader canvas. So we compete with the group texting guys, we compete with the free texting guys.”

With textPlus you can join topic driven community chat groups (discussing anything from Lady Gaga to soccer) in addition to group conversations and good old person to person SMS. The app also has photo sharing, search and profile personalization features.

Right now textPlus sends almost 32 million messages a day, over 7 billion messages total since launch. And the app definitely has scale: With over 14 million downloads across the iPhone and Android platforms and 7.7 million monthly active users. And Lahman is only looking up and to the right from here, “There’s so many places group texting could go and we’ve barely started.”

You can find the textPlus app on the iPhone, iPad and Android and the service also works on any device that carries SMS messages.

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Enterprise Cloud Storage Platform Box.net Raises $48M From Andreessen Horowitz And Others

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:32 AM PST

Cloud storage and collaboration startup Box.net has raised $48 million in new funding led by Meritech Capital Partners with Andreessen Horowitz, Emergence Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Scale Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. This brings the company’s total funding to $78 million.

Over the past four years, Box has evolved from a simple cloud storage platform to a collaborative enterprise offering with mobile and social capabilities. The company now stores 300 million documents on its platform (more than the Library Of Congress) and has accumulated 5 million users (up from 4 million last year).

Enterprise customers include DreamWorks, Cisco and Dell and 60,000 other companies, or 73% of the Fortune 500, use Box to share, access and collaborate on business content online, as well as from iPads, iPhones and Android devices. In fact, Box has seen 400,000 downloads for its iOS and Android apps.

A month ago, Box unveiled a brand new version of its storage application, with a new UI, seamless document viewing experience and more collaborative features around file sharing and document storage. Box also added an application marketplace that include apps from Salesforce, Google Apps, NetSuite, Yammer and others. And last year brought storage plans, file syncing and more to Box’s platform.

So how is Box performing in terms of sales? CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie says that Box tripled revenue in 2010, which he says was in the eight figure range, and he fully expects to double, triple or even quadruple that number this year. While the company is not yet cash flow positive, Levie says that Box is approaching that milestone.

Levie clearly has big ambitions for Box. First and foremost, Box.net wants to take on Microsoft Sharepoint, and has aggressively campaigned for existing Sharepoint users to switch to the company’s cheaper, simpler option. Levie says, “Box is positioned to redefine an industry, much as Salesforce.com has done for CRM and NetSuite for ERP…We want to bring Box’s cloud content management to businesses of all sizes, all over the world…”

Box plans to use the funding for hiring talent and will double the engineering and sales teams this year (Box currently has 140 employees). Levie plans to do a few small acquisitions in the coming year. The funding will also be used to build a new data center on the east coast; Box currently operates two data centers in California. And the company plans to aggressively push sales outside of the U.S. and increase international capabilities. Currently, businesses outside the U.S. account for 15 percent of Box’s customer base.

We sat down with Levie a few weeks ago to talk about Box’s future strategy, mobile platform and war for talent.

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Yahoo To Shut Down MyBlogLog On May 24

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:17 AM PST

Yahoo will soon kill off MyBlogLog, the service it acquired from the eponymous company behind it back in early 2007.

Here’s the message that was just emailed to all users (myself included):

Dear MyBlogLog Customer,

You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011.

After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages.

We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team

MyBlogLog basically enabled you to track who was visiting your website or blog.

Not that the shutdown is much of a surprise. In a now-famous leaked internal slide, Yahoo already acknowledged that it would be ‘sunsetting’ the service (and others) at some point.

For your further reading pleasure:

Signal vs. Noise: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

RWW: Remembering MyBlogLog: It Could Have Been Even Bigger Than Delicious

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Apple Releases A Developer Preview Of OS X Lion — Through The Mac App Store

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:55 AM PST

Two days ago, we first reported that Apple was likely to release a developer beta of OS X Lion “soon”. Well, how’s this for soon? This morning, alongside their new MacBook Pros, Apple has announced the developer preview of the latest version of OS X. And the most interesting aspect may be how Apple is releasing this developer preview: through the Mac App Store.

Again, to be clear, this initial test version of the OS will be for developers only. The final version of Lion is still on track to be released this summer, Apple notes.

So what’s new? Well, we had previously heard about some of Lion’s features during a press conference last October. Today brings a few more of those features, including Auto Save, Versions, Resume, Mail version 5 (with a new threading feature called “Conversations”), AirDrop, and Lion Server (which itself has its own features).

As you can probably guess, many of these features borrow from what Apple has learned on the iPad/iPhone. That includes the ability to auto save documents and resume (even after you restart your Mac). The new version of Mail is also very iPad-like.

Overall, OS X UI has been altered to remove the standard side scrollbars OS X users will be used to seeing. Those have been replaced by scrollbars that only appear when you need them, again, just like iOS apps. Apple says that the UI is still called Aqua, but notes: “Aqua defines the look and feel that users come to expect from Mac OS X. Lion takes this experience and brings it to a new level with popovers, overlay scrollbars, and powerful Multi-Touch gestures and animations.”

AirDrop is a way to easily send files to any other Mac around wirelessly. It sort of sounds like DropBox, but peer-to-peer without the cloud element. Writes Apple:

With AirDrop in Mac OS X Lion, you can send files to anyone around you —  wirelessly. AirDrop doesn't require setup or special settings. Just click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar, and your Mac automatically discovers other people nearby who are using AirDrop. You'll even see contact photos for those who are already in your Address Book. To share a file, simply drag it to someone's name. Once accepted, the file transfers directly to the person's Downloads folder. When you're done with AirDrop, close the Finder and your Mac is no longer visible to others.

We’re told this works by way of WiFi, but you don’t need to be connected to a network for it to work, it’s all P2P.

Also a big change is that Server is now built in to every version of OS X.

And again, a hugely interesting aspect is that Apple is distributing this new version of OS X via the App Store. (This works via a redemption code.) Now we know why they wanted to get it out there before Lion. And yes, it’s another nail in the coffin of the compact disc. Officially, Apple says that it has decided whether or not to distribute the final version of OS X Lion this way to consumers — but my bet is that this is exactly what they’ll do, while still maintaining a limited DVD release for some.

When I asked Apple if these features are all of the major ones to expect from Lion, Apple said that yes they were, but there were a lot of other features that they haven’t gone into detail about yet. I’m sure those will start coming out any second now as developers download the preview.

Below, find the full release:

CUPERTINO, California—February 24, 2011—Apple® today released a developer preview of Mac OS® X Lion, which takes some of the best ideas from iPad™ and brings them back to the Mac® for the eighth major release of the world's most advanced operating system. Lion features Mission Control, an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac; Launchpad, a new home for all your Mac apps; full screen apps that use the entire Mac display; and new Multi-Touch™ gestures. Lion also includes the Mac App Store℠, the best place to discover, install and automatically update Mac apps. The Lion preview is available to Mac Developer Program members through the Mac App Store today, and the final version of Lion will ship to customers this summer.

"The iPad has inspired a new generation of innovative features in Lion," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Developers are going to love Mission Control and Launchpad, and can now start adding great new Lion features like full screen, gestures, Versions and Auto Save to their own apps."

Mission Control is a powerful, entirely new feature that unifies Exposé®, Dashboard, Spaces®, and full screen apps to give you a bird's eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps as well as your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a click.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single click, Launchpad displays all your Mac apps in a stunning full screen layout where you can launch, re-order or organize apps into folders. You can also arrange apps into multiple pages and swipe between them.

Lion brings the full screen experience that iPad users love to the Mac. With one click, your application window goes full screen, taking advantage of your Mac's brilliant display. You can swipe from one full screen window to another and even back to your Desktop or Dashboard.

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations give you a natural and intuitive way to interact with your Mac. New gestures include pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps and swiping up to enter Mission Control.

Lion also includes the Mac App Store, where you can find great new apps, buy them with your iTunes® account, and download and install them in just one step. Apps purchased from the Mac App Store are installed directly into Launchpad.

Additional features in Lion include:

a new version of Mail, with an elegant, widescreen layout inspired by the iPad; Conversations, which automatically groups related messages into one easy to read timeline; more powerful search; and support for Microsoft Exchange 2010;
AirDrop, a remarkably simple way to copy files wirelessly from one Mac to another with no setup;
Versions, which automatically saves successive versions of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, edit and even revert to previous versions;
Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
Auto Save, which automatically saves your documents as you work;
the all new FileVault, that provides high performance full disk encryption for local and external drives, and the ability to wipe data from your Mac instantaneously; and
Mac OS X Lion Server, which makes setting up a server easier than ever and adds support for managing Mac OS X Lion, iPhone®, iPad and iPod touch® devices.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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Apple Updates The MacBook Pro Line With Sandy Bridge Intel CPUs, AMD GPUs, FaceTime HD, and Thunderbolt

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:40 AM PST

Happy Birthday, Steve! Just like the rumors stated, Apple refreshed the entire line of MacBook Pros today, which just so happened to be Steve Jobs’ birthday. These new models aren’t exactly revolutionary with the same basic unibody casing, layout, and batteries. The updates are evolutionary in nature, just steps towards the next generation of MacBook Pros.

Gone are Nvidia graphics as the latest MBP models feature Sandy Bridge Intel CPUs paired with switchable graphics between an integrated Intel chip or a discrete AMD GPU. (The 13-inch only has integrated graphics) The mini DisplayPort interface now shares its port with Apple’s impentation of Intel’s Light Peak technology re-dubbed Thunderbolt. Base RAM levels remained the same, although 1333MHz chips are used rather than the 1066MHz type used in the previous generation. Besides the SD slot now supporting SDXC, the rest of the connectivity options are a carryover from the previous crop.

Read More

Airbnb Hits 1 Million Nights Booked As European Clone Emerges

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:17 AM PST

We’re quite big fans of Airbnb, the “community marketplace for space” here at TechCrunch, and we’re far from the only ones.

This morning, the young company announced that it has hit a fairly big milestone: one million nights have been booked through the service since its launch (including a couple by TechCrunch staff, I might add).

Airbnb also says it has registered month-over-month growth of 65% in January 2011 alone.

That comes off the heels of (self-reported) 800 percent growth in 2010.

More recent stats, provided by the startup:

- Guests have traveled from 182 countries to listings available in 170 countries
- 132,000 positive reviews submitted, representing 98% of all reviews
- Most expensive listing: $10,000/night
- Longest single reservation on Airbnb: 200 nights
- Most reservations by a single user: 28
- 281 million miles traveled by guests
- 160,000 iPhone app downloads
- Number of marriage proposals between guest and host: 1

For a neat infographic covering these stats and more, see below or click here.

Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO and co-founder of Airbnb, says the company will continue to focus on expanding its international operations to better accommodate its increasingly global community in 2011.

On that note, I’m reminded of a European rival based on the same idea that launched just yesterday (see The Next Web coverage for more): 9flats, which was established by Qype founder Stephan Uhrenbacher. (Update: there’s also My Friends Hotel).

Curious to see if 9flats, backed by an undisclosed amount of venture funding, will be able to steal some market share away from Airbnb in these parts.

Founded in August 2008, Airbnb has raised $7.8 million in venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners.


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Social Media Technology Company Syncapse Scores $25 Million Round

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 04:58 AM PST

Syncapse, which bills itself as a social media technology company, has landed $25 million in financing from growth equity investor ABS Capital Partners, $20 million of which has already been closed.

ABS Capital General Partners Ralph Terkowitz and Deric Emry will join Syncapse's board of directors.

This is Syncapse’s first institutional investment – the company earlier raised a $3.3 million round and $2 million in financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada.

Syncapse provides cloud-based software and services to help enterprises build, manage, standardize and measure their social media presence. The company says it will use the funds to invest in sales, marketing, and product development for its Syncapse Platform, which enables companies manage all social media marketing in a single, centralized environment.

Syncapse customers include RIM / BlackBerry, Unilever, Sony and EA.

The company’s board of directors notably includes includes Rob Burgess, former CEO of Macromedia, and Ian Giffen, Chairman of The Descartes Systems Group.

Syncapse was most recently in the news with its acquisition of London-based social media development firm Nudge Social Media.

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WebMediaBrands Buys Another Blog: Twittercism

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 04:16 AM PST

Mediabistro.com, a division of online media and conferences company WebMediaBrands, this morning announced that it has acquired the assets of the Twittercism.com blog from founder Shéa Bennett.

As you can tell from the name, the blog focused exclusively on micro-sharing service Twitter, providing tips, tricks, tweaks, tools and tutorials, as well as news, articles, opinion and rumors. The site has been around for about two years.

Bennett will continue working with and writing for Mediabistro, but other terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

WebMediaBrands already operates a Twitter-focused blog called AllTwitter, which complementes other social media blogs such as AllFacebook and SocialTimes, which the media company acquired back in December 2009.

About a year ago, WebMediaBrands bought social media news site Rotorblog.com, which appears to have been deadpooled now (i.e. folded into SocialTimes).

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ChaCha Sues HTC Over HTC ChaCha

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 02:52 AM PST

You could see this one coming from a couple of miles away: ChaCha, the questions and answers service provider, is suing smartphone maker HTC over trademark infringement. The lawsuit is obviously the result of HTC’s decision to name its recently unveiled ‘Facebook phone’ the ChaCha.

Sure enough, ChaCha Search, Inc., as the company is officially named, owns the ‘ChaCha’ trademark in the United States (and Europe for that matter).

ChaCha has a good case, as HTC’s branding of its new phone is sure to confuse people. After all, ChaCha has historically put a lot of focus on providing a service on mobile phones, with a mobile website and dedicated apps for iOS devices, BlackBerry and, well, Android handsets.

The lawsuit was filed last Tuesday in Indiana Southern District Court. Ironically, it was filed around the same time online payment company Xoom Corporation filed a trademark infringement suit against its rival Motorola after the latter named its new Android-based tablet computer, slated to launch in the U.S. today, the XOOM.

You have to wonder whether these hardware manufacturers don’t do enough trademark and branding research before they launch massive campaigns for products, or if they simply don’t care and deem the risk for infringement lawsuits an acceptable, calculated one.

We’ll keep an eye on how this one plays out. From where I’m searching, ChaCha.com still shows up in the first search results when I search for ‘ChaCha’, but the phone was only unveiled last week and the HTC website is already on the first page of search results, too.

The HTC ChaCha smartphone will be available to customers across major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011. In the United States, HTC said it plans to bring it to market ‘later this year’ exclusively with AT&T, probably before the end of the second quarter.

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Death By Air And Thunderbolt: Is It The End Of The Line For The MacBook?

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:15 AM PST

As you’re undoubtedly aware by now, tomorrow (in just a few hours, really), Apple is expected to unveil their latest line of laptops. News has already started to trickle out about what’s getting upgraded and what’s changing. Noticeably absent in this talk is the MacBook itself. And that begs the question: is it the end of the line for the product?

Simply put: it should be.

Given last year’s significant upgrades to the MacBook Air, the MacBook is now a lame duck. It’s not the smallest Apple laptop, it’s not the most powerful Apple laptop, and it’s not even the cheapest Apple laptop anymore (the 11-inch Air has tied it at $999). And given the specs leaking out about the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which someone would buy a regular MacBook anymore. Well, unless they’re really into white plastic.

Sure enough, one report has the white MacBook going away. And the truth is that Apple has seemingly been slowly phasing it out for sometime now.

It used to be that the MacBook was a flagship product. It was one that sold extremely well to students and first-time Mac buyers since it was introduced in 2006 to succeed the iBook. In 2008, it even got the aluminum unibody upgrade that enticed some MacBook Pro users (like myself) to get one. It really seemed as if it was more of a “Pro” machine — a natural successor to the old, popular 12-inch PowerBook G4.

And as such, by mid 2009, Apple essentially decided to elevate the 13-inch unibody MacBook into a MacBook Pro. That left the 13-inch white plastic model as the only remaining MacBook. Apple gave it a small makeover and continued to give it spec upgrades, but it clearly only existed to satisfy the bottom of market (well, the bottom of Apple’s market) — it existed so that Apple could say that had a laptop for under $1,000.

But again, the new MacBook Air models changed the situation. The 11-inch model was far more portable for the same $999 entry-level price. And the 13-inch model was just as powerful and also much more portable. These are now the low price-point models. But they don’t exist just to be cheap. Apple has effectively killed off that option while maintaining the “cheap” price point. It’s now a price point tied to arguably the best laptops Apple has ever made.

With the MacBook Pros now about to gain faster Intel chips and new technology like Thunderbolt (the Intel-created high speed port formerly known as “Light Peak”), but maintaining elements such as large (but slower) traditional hard drives and optical drives, they’re more clearly differentiated from the Air line.

At the same time, the 13-inch Pro model will likely keep the $1,199 price point (thanks to less powerful graphics options, among other things) and it will allow those who really want something like an optical drive, a chance to get one for relatively cheap. And again, it will be much more powerful than the 13-inch MacBook.

Just about the only reason Apple would have for keeping the MacBook alive at this point is if they wanted to offer a really affordable laptop. The MacBook only makes sense as at a price point around $700 at this point, in my mind. But Apple has been reluctant to go that low in the past; I doubt they will now.

And so we may be left with a MacBook line without an actual MacBook.

Update: Well the new MacBook Pros are out and sure enough, the MacBook wasn’t touched. It’s still available to buy for now, but it would seem that the writing is indeed on the wall.

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NEC Medias: Docomo To Offer The World’s Thinnest Smartphone In 3 Weeks

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:09 AM PST

On Monday, we've just shown you some leaked pictures, but we can now confirm the world's thinnest smartphone, NEC Casio Mobile's MEDIAS N-04C, is real. And provider NTT Docomo, Japan's biggest mobile carrier, doesn't want to lose time in bringing it to market: it will hit stores over here as early as March 15. Read the rest on MobileCrunch.


Online Freight Brokerage Open Mile Raises $6 Million

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:10 PM PST

A freight brokerage is a service that brings together someone who wants to to transport goods (like oranges, or iPods) with the trucking company that wants to transport them. Open Mile, which is today announcing a $6 million round of Series B funding, is the first such service that attempts to bring these relatively unglamorous transactions online, tapping into a $60 billion industry which is heavily phone and fax based. Read: It’s disruptive.

The financing was led by Globespan Capital Parters and rounded out by existing investor Charles River Ventures.

“The team has tapped into a real need in a market fraught with outdated manual approaches,” says Globespan’s Andy Goldfarb on the motivation behind the significant (for the relatively slow-moving industry) investment.

What makes the Open Mile platform different from other freight brokerages is that it uses mobile devices to connect thousands of truckers with thousands of shippers, managing the entire process from booking through delivery. And its emphasis on employing innovative technologies allows it to operate at a lower cost than traditional brokers.

Right now Open Mile works with over 5,000 trucking companies as partners, connecting them to a wide range of shipping organizations from small to large. Open Mile plans on using the funding to further expand on its engineering and core product efforts, as well as hire into its marketing and sales teams.

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Review: Motorola Xoom – The Android Tablet Redefined

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 06:06 PM PST


Few tablets have met with such widespread anticipation as the recently-announced Xoom. It is the closest anyone has come to an iPad equivalent for the Android set. I was impressed with the speed, design, and quality of the device, and although there are a few caveats, I came away optimistic for the new crop of Honeycomb devices that will follow this one.

It’s an impressive and attractive piece of kit, with a lot going on under the hood. But dangerous pricing and the threat of better and/or cheaper devices around the corner somewhat reduce its charm. If you can’t wait, though, the Xoom will probably satisfy your Honeycomb craving.

Continue reading at CrunchGear…

Disney Acquires Social Network For Kids Togetherville

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 06:00 PM PST

Disney has just acquired Togetherville, a social network for kids 10 years of age or younger, we’ve confirmed with the company. Terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed at the moment.

Togetherville, which exited beta last year, mimics the experience of adult social networking sites, i.e. Facebook but in an age-appropriate and parent-monitored environment. Togetherville promises a safer, more secure environment, where parents can moderate who their children are connecting with. Parents approve each of their child's friends, and can also connect with other parents using Facebook's social graph.

Parents can easily interact with their kids in Togetherville, while kids have their very own social community and login to engage with friends, play games, watch videos, and create art. Children create “neighborhoods” from Facebook friends, and can connect through School Communities, which allows parents and kids connect with school friends without requiring the parents to be connected via Facebook.

We were tipped off on the acquisition by a reader. The site’s terms of service, it states: “Welcome to the Internet sites of the Walt Disney Internet Group (“WDIG”). “WDIG Sites” include Disney.com, ABCNEWS.com, ABC.com, ESPN.com, DisneyShopping.com, Go.com, Movies.com, FamilyFun.com, and other Internet sites on which these terms of use are posted.” Another clue is CEO and founder Mandeep Dhillon’s LinkedIn profile, which now states he is “Vice President, Togetherville at The Walt Disney Company.”

Disney’s past acquisitions include Playdom, Tapulous, and Marvel.

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Foursquare’s SXSW Plan: “NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR”

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 04:15 PM PST

We’re now just over two weeks away from this year’s SXSW event in Austin, Texas. And just as is the case every year, there will be several startups jockeying to be the one that is the breakout hit. But one of those previous breakout hits, Foursquare, isn’t standing still either.

In a ridiculously awesome blog post on the matter today, Foursquare hints at their plan for the event this year. Here’s the entire post entitled “OMFG!”:

SXSW IS LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY! NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR FOURSQUARE. DETAILS COMING. OKTHXBAI.

Translation: there will be a new version of their app. There will be more badges to earn at the event. There will be a party (or maybe more than one?). And that party will likely feature a high-profile concert of some sort. And there will more that we’ll learn about shortly.

It was two years ago at the same event that Foursquare (and rival Gowalla) actually launched for the first time. And last year, the two fought to the death during the event for location-based supremacy. While the outcome wasn’t so clear at the time (helped by the fact that Gowalla is Austin-based), Foursquare now has far more users than Gowalla. And so we probably shouldn’t expect the same time of war this year.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t have a few new tricks. Both have numerous things planned for this year, we hear. The early whispers about Foursquare are that their app should feature significant speed improvements, and perhaps some new recommendation layer, on top of a few other new features.

Still, I’ll probably be more focused on the group texting app blood bath that is likely to engulf Austin for a week or so.

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Twitter Starts Hiring Sales People In London – But Stays Coy About A Euro HQ

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 04:06 PM PST

There’s been a lot of speculation in recent months about where Twitter would put down a European base in its efforts to expand its operation. Certainly I’ve been bugging them in the last few weeks about whether they would come to London. But now we have the answer: London it is – at least for five people whose jobs will be largely about sales and commercial partnerships.



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