Webremixed Articles for tags: web-2.0

Mobile, Social Games Developer Digital Chocolate Takes Zynga To Court

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:36:56 GMT

Digital Chocolate , a leading publisher of casual games for the iPhone (and a bunch of other mobile phones), the Web, Facebook and Xbox LIVE, has apparently filed suit against its high-profile rival Zynga . We don't have any details on the specifics of the lawsuit yet, but the nature of the suit indicates that this is a dispute over intellectual property and/or trademarks.

Taboola Turbo Charges Revision3′s Video Uplift By 90%

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:01:07 GMT

Video recommendation startup Taboola has been having quite a year, signing up major Web publishers such as the Huffington Post and the online editions of Bloomberg and The New York Times. The driving force behind the company's continued traction is their Text2Video product. In fact, its most recent coup, Revision3 , has seen a whopping 90% video uplift since adding Text2Video to their non-video pages. It seems the benefits of increased engagement and additional inventory publishers can monetize at higher CPMs are not falling on deaf ears. Taboola tells me that it's now running on hundreds of millions of pages a month, doubling traffic every couple of months. Perfect timing for the video advertising 'Frenzy Point ' we recently wrote about.

Adblock Plus Extension Developer Raises Funding From Mystery Partner

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:48:40 GMT

Adblock Plus , the wildly popular Firefox browser add-on that, well, blocks ads, is not going to get the plug pulled out of any time soon, and might eventually turn into a self-sustaining venture, even. That's the gist of this blog post by ABP developer Wladimir Palant (hat tip to @CleverClogs ), who has apparently raised enough capital - courtesy of an unnamed Samaritan - to quit his day job at Songbird and work on the project full-time for the next two years.

Tim Draper: Meg Whitman Will Bring Silicon Valley Sensibilities To The State Capitol

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:01 GMT

Editor’s note: The following is a guest post and endorsement written by Timothy C. Draper, Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Seventy years ago, Stanford grads David Packard and Bill Hewlett took $538 dollars, opened up shop in a Palo Alto garage and, as they say, the rest is history. Ever since, Silicon Valley has been a place where talent and imagination spur innovation. It’s hard to believe that just 130 miles from Silicon Valley is Sacramento, home to what has to be among the nation’s most dysfunctional state governments; a place where partisan gridlock and status quo-thinking produce inertia. The most successful companies that have sprung from the valley have each exhibited a unique mix of visionary leadership, efficient teamwork, and timely execution of bold plans.

Yahoo’s Former Chief Data Officer On Their $800 Million Mistake (TCTV)

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:54:03 GMT

Dr. Usama Fayyad has worn several hats at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Microsoft , his startups DigiMine and DMX, and of course, at Yahoo where he was their Chief Data Officer for four years. It's a rich resume with one unifying theme: data . Few people have spent as much time as Fayyad ruminating on this one subject. From finding volcanoes on Venus to creating better algorithms for ad targeting, Fayyad has made a career on crunching massive data sets and creating elegant algorithms to make sense of white noise. It's somewhat ironic then, that for a man who lives in data, there is actually very little known about what makes Fayyad tick as an entrepreneur and how he shaped the companies he worked for. In a rare video interview, SGN founder, Shervin Pishevar , recently spoke to Usama Fayyad in Jordan for TechCrunch TV. During this entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur fireside chat, Fayyad opens up about his obsession for data, how he sold his company to Yahoo (after the 6th offer), how Yahoo made an $800 million mistake (that may have triggered the giant's ugly tumble) and how he almost became the CTO of Google .

Dude, I Am So High Right Now

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:48:06 GMT

Just in from WeedMaps (think Yelp for Pot ) CEO/owner Justin Hartfield: an email letting us know that Tim Draper at Draper Fisher Jurvetson isn't going to invest in his startup. That's ok, says Hartfield. He'll just keep "growing organically" for now. Har! Email is below. Just because it's awesome. Also, we have no idea if Tim really sent this email or ever even met with WeedMaps. But we like to think he did.

Did Facebook Kill Facebook Questions?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:59:22 GMT

The service is down for almost everyone we know, and many people we don't . The official response from Facebook :

"We have turned Facebook Questions off for some beta users while we conduct a few tests. You may be in the group that has it turned off, but it is still on for other users. We are running tests to ensure high quality of questions and answers and we hope to roll it back out to more users as soon as possible."

Facebook Questions mass rolled out to between 3-5 million users in late July and has fallen short of being a “killer app" of any sort.

TechCrunch Disrupt Hack Day Is Back: Caffeine, Pizza And Glory

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:42:34 GMT

Our experimental Hack Day at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York a couple of months ago was wildly successful - more developers than you can shake a stick at showed up, drank redbull and pizza (care of sponsors). A number of projects were featured on stage in front of a live audience of nearly 2,000 people, and tens of thousands more watched on the live stream. And at least one project has become an actual startup and received funding (more on that later). So we're going to make this a regular part of TechCrunch Disrupt. For the day and a half before the regular schedule begins on September 27, 300 developers will be admitted to the event to run amok and create something out of nothing. The marathon 24-hour hack will run Saturday to Sunday, September 25th – 26th. After a lightning round of demos and judging Sunday afternoon, the winning teams will present onstage at Disrupt on Wednesday, September 29th. This is a great opportunity to share the spotlight alongside the top startups chosen from Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield. The event is being organized by Daniel Raffel and Tarikh Korula - the same team of hacker experts that pulled off our New York Disrupt Hack Day. Participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects/apps/hacks in 24hrs. Anything goes as long as it’s created onsite.

Stream All Your Music, Photos, and Videos From Your Laptop To Your iPhone With Libox

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:31:06 GMT

The more computers you have (mobile, laptop, desktop), the bigger hassle it becomes to get your media when you want it, on the device you want it. Apple deals with this by making you constantly sync your iPhone with your laptop. It involves cables and transferring files. Microsoft's answer to effortless sync is Mesh , but that is still in beta after two years and is Windows-only. An Israeli startup called Libox thinks it has a better way and it is available right now on your desktop, on the Web, and on the iPhone. Libox is a peer-to-peer application that scans all the media on your primary computer (photos, videos, music) and then streams it to other devices with a Libox app or browser. The iPhone app just went live in iTunes a few hours ago. You can see all your photos, and play all your videos, and even listen to your entire music collection. It is all streamed from your laptop, which acts as a server.

Sketchy Startup Promises Facebook Stock To Investors

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:30:04 GMT

Oh, this is a huge mess in the making. A company called Freevi that has already had it's hand slapped for securities laws violations by the State of California is trying to raise funds from investors by promising to "secure" the investment with Facebook stock. How did I find out about this? Via a spam email that hit my inbox, which is a general solicitation if I've ever seen one (that's very relevant to the Securities Act of 1933). The founder of the company, Neil Chandran, spends a great deal of time talking up Facebook's value, saying that an IPO is "imminent" and noting that Google shot from $85 to $500 after their IPO. He also says that Facebook should hit $120, no problem. This is a general solicitation of securities by an underwriter under the Securities Act. But it's being done without disclosure of information required by the Act - namely, a prospectus. This is exactly the kind of thing that the SEC salivates over as they sharpen their legal claws.

Facebook Places Starts To Work In Canada. Just Don’t Try Telling Facebook That

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:59:09 GMT

Earlier today, we received a tip from a reader in Canada that Facebook Places had started to go live there. Considering Facebook had said the feature would be U.S.-only for the time being, we asked for screenshots to verify it, which the reader happily sent. Sure enough, Facebook Places appears to be working in Canada (or at least parts of it). The funny thing is, Facebook is adamantly denying that it is live at all in Canada. They suggested that perhaps the tipster was right on the U.S./Canada border -- or maybe he was fake checking-in by way of the U.S. He assures us that he's doing neither. He says that he was simply able to check-in at his local Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, Ontario a few hours ago. (See, the "centre" is even spelled the Canadian way.) This is roughly 80 miles from the U.S. border.

TappLocal Is A Platform For Foursquare-Like Deals Beyond Foursquare

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:55:27 GMT

If you've used Foursquare, you've likely seen the little badge that appears in the corner of your mobile phone's screen when a deal is nearby. It's a good way to alert someone to a location-based offer, and it seems to be working well for the company. A new startup, TappLocal wants to take that idea and expand upon it to create a new location-based ad network. The way this works is that TappLocal uses their backend to create a geofence around certain partner venues. When a user crosses that boundary and happens to be using one of the partner apps, a deal indicator will pop-up. A quick click on this area will open a larger area explaining exactly what the deal is. Simply click one more time to verify you wish to use the deal, show it to the store that it's valid at, and you're good to go.

Leftronic Dashboards Optimize Your Data Displays

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:23:47 GMT

YCombinator -funded company Leftronic launches today, offering up software that makes it easy for companies to aggregate data in their ambient displays, i.e. a displays mounted on a wall. Founded by Lionel Jingles, Rajiv Ghanta and Jyotindra Vasudeo, the company is in the same space as Geckoboard . While many companies will squander programming time and money building their own mediocre display software, Leftronic provides ready-made ways of visualizing various types of data aesthetically. In terms of future plans, Leftronic wants to be the leader in ambient displays, which have become more prevalent due to cheap monitors and more data streams and are valuable because they reduce complexity and aid people in understanding sometimes confusing data.

Elevation Moving to Acquire a Large Stake in Pandora

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:04:10 GMT

Elevation's strategy to own large-- even if late stage-- chunks of leading Internet companies continues. We've heard from sources close to Elevation that the firm has signed a letter of intent to acquire a large chunk of shares in a "leading online music company" from an early investor, and Pandora spokesperson Deborah Roth has confirmed, "We're aware that Elevation has been interested in buying Pandora shares." Earlier sources close to Elevation had told us that there was one more large secondary deal brewing to invest in a well-known, established Internet brand and that the deal size would be around $100 million. It's a decent assumption this is the deal in question. Especially considering how long some early investors have been in Pandora, and the general meh-ness of this year's IPO market. We'll report more details as we get them.

Y Combinator’s Biggest Demo Day Yet Draws Throng Of Investors

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:40:50 GMT

It's that time of year again: dozens of Silicon Valley's top investors have packed Y Combinator's offices in Mountain View, CA for the eleventh Demo Day, where the latest batch of YC companies show off what they've built (and look to secure their next round of funding). This is the biggest Demo Day yet, with 36 companies presenting — and the event has become so popular with investors that YC is now offering three different sessions spread across two days. My notes on the presenting companies are below, along with links to any relevant stories we've already written about them. Note that some of the companies presenting today are off-the-record, so they aren't listed.

‘Angry Birds’ iPhone Game To Get Line Of Toys, Possibly Movie

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:29:04 GMT

According to Variety , Rovio , the company that makes 'Angry Birds ' has been shopping the beloved iPhone game around Hollywood, and currently rolling out some franchising deals.

"Rovio, the Finnish creator of the hit iPhone and iPad game, which has sold more than 6.5 million downloads, wants to turn the property into a major franchise that crosses over to other platforms -- from TV shows and movies to toys and comicbooks."

While we can't say anything definite about the TV shows and movies part, TechCrunch has confirmed that the company will in fact be making 'Angry Birds' toys (Rovio representative Ville Heijari would not give us further info). Rumor has it that the toys will be in the form of stuffed Angry Birds, and the game, which follows a flock of birds fighting evil pigs, may be the first major intellectual property to go straight from iPhone to plush form.

YC-Funded MessageParty Ties Location With Chat Rooms

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:08:46 GMT

With the rise of GPS-enabled smartphones, developers are eager to integrate location-based functionality into whatever they can. So it's no surprise when MessageParty, a Y Combinator company that's launching this week, says that it's looking to tie location with chat rooms to let you communicate with the people around you in real-time. You can download the company's iPhone app right here . The app is very straightforward. Open it, and you'll see a list of chat rooms that have been created within 1000 feet of you. Once you hop into a room, it's a pretty standard chat channel. It's safe to say that the application is still in a very early form — you can't direct message users yet, and if your GPS signal goes out then you can't chat, either.

The Inevitable March of Progress: Facebook Soon Will Have More Visitors Than Yahoo

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:34:48 GMT

Yahoo thinks of itself as media company these days. (It finalized the handover of its search results in the U.S. to Bing today). But media companies are measured by the size of their audience and whether or not that audience is growing. Yahoo still commands the third biggest audience on the Internet after Google and Microsoft sites, with 622 million unique visitors worldwide in July. But if current trends continue, by year's end it will lose that spot to Facebook, which attracted 572 million unique visitors in July (see comScore chart above). Note that these are visitors, and not necessarily active members, which Facebook says just passed the 500-million mark in July. The gap between Yahoo and Facebook is only 50 million visitors, which has narrowed considerably since the end of 2009, when the gap was 125 million . In July, Facebook gained 20 million visitors from the month before, whereas Yahoo stayed completely flat. Looks like nobody is quitting Facebook over privacy or any other issues. Even with stops and starts, Facebook should pass Yahoo within three or four months unless Yahoo starts growing again.

Google Testing A New, Auto-Refreshing Version Of Gmail For iPhone

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:17:17 GMT

Google doesn't have a native app for Gmail on the iPhone. I know, it sucks. Thankfully, their mobile Safari-optimized version is pretty damn good. But it's not perfect. And they're working to make it better. This morning, I loaded up the mobile version of the site on my iPhone as was greeted by a shiny new version. The entire look and feel has been mildly revamped: everything is a slightly darker blue hue, and the buttons are now more rounded. But more significantly, buttons have been shifted around -- and one key one has been removed altogether.

GE Counting On Energy Monitoring And Solar To Cut Home Energy Usage By 70%

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:15:17 GMT

In an effort to push the limits of home energy efficiency, General Electric is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy on a $5 million project to connect homes in the Western U.S. to its energy management system, LED lights, appliances and solar panels. The purpose of the project is to research home energy efficiency and test new tracking systems. GE thinks participants will be able to save 70% on their electricity bills: 30% by monitoring and adjusting their energy usage, and 40% by installing solar panels. An average home in the U.S. pays $1,240 a year for its electricity, and GE believes the program could cut this sum by $850. Normally, these types of green energy upgrades take a number of years to pay for themselves.

Start Location-Based Conversations With Qilroy

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:57:23 GMT

Qilroy , a Qualcomm Service Labs-incubated project, launches today as a platform that groups tweets and other status updates by location. Like "calling a payphone at the mall," Qilroy introduces a concept called peer-to-place communication, which enables multi-platform conversations to take place from anywhere in the world. The name is a Qualcomm take-off of "Kilroy Was Here and the service lets users share their location with others and also see a visual of all the conversations happening around any location. Users can type in any zip code or place like "The Eiffel Tower" or "Athens, Greece" for instance and interact through the Qilroy platform, Facebook, or Twitter with anyone in that location who is sending open updates from Twitter, Foursquare, or Gowalla. Like, "I'm near [insert closeby restaurant here]. What's the wait like?"

Alibaba Buys eBay Auction Software Auctiva

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:53:48 GMT

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has just acquired Auctiva, a company that develops eBay auction management software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This deal comes off of Alibaba's recent acquisition of U.S. e-commerce company Vendio. Auctiva provides a variety of listing, marketing and management tools as well as image hosting and storefronts to sell on online marketplaces like eBay.

Apple Looking To Slice Up Cable 99 Cents At A Time

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:41:22 GMT

The wheels are in motion. The rumors have persisted for a while now that a new Apple TV (soon to be called "iTV") is approaching . It's thought to be a cheaper, smaller version of the current device that puts an emphasis on streaming rather than storage. The killer app of such a device could literally be apps -- as in, the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch variety. But don't forget about the iTunes content. While apps (and particularly games) will be great to have in the living room, that room first and foremost remains the place that people consume Hollywood entertainment. A ton of it. While Apple was successful in getting the music industry to bend to its will, they so far haven't been able to do the same with Hollywood. But they're going to need to with this new Apple TV. So now they're apparently calling on an old friend in their latest attempt to make that happen: the trusty $0.99 price.

Motorola Snaps Up 280 North For $20 Million

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:18:24 GMT

Motorola has acquired Y Combinator startup 280 North , we've confirmed. We haven't confirmed, but have heard from multiple sources, that the price is around $20 million. This is a sizable exit for the founders - the company has raised just $250,000 in a 2008 angel round. 280 North created a programming language and set of frameworks collectively known as Cappuccino that can be used to create rich web applications in the same way you’d create desktop applications for MacOS X. Developers we've spoken with have praised the framework, calling it one of the best ways to make applications with little programming knowledge.

Simperium Launches A Simple Data Syncing Platform

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:15:27 GMT

With more and more consumers using desktop, laptop and mobile devices in their everyday lives, there's a pressing need for syncing data across applications and devices. Y Combinator -backed Simperium is launching its platform for app-level syncing in the cloud. The best use case of Simperium's platform is in its recently launched note taking application Simplenote. Via web, iPhone and iPad apps, Simplenote allows you to take and save notes. It's sort of like a light weight version of Evernote. The applications will synchronize with your mobile device, your computer, and in a browser. Syncing takes place automatically within the applications.

Google Finance Now Looks Better In Your Mobile Browser

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:57:40 GMT

If you go to Google Finance on your iPhone or Android via the mobile browser, it looks a lot like an app. You can enter a ticker symbol or company name in the search box at the top to generate a current price and stock chart. Three buttons on top let you switch from a market view to your saved portfolio to news. The new mobile-friendly design just launched yesterday . (It is still catching up to Yahoo Finance , which has been mobile browser friendly for a while). The new mobile Google Finance presents most of the same information you can find on the main Website in a single, scrollable column: recent quotes, market charts, financial news headlines, a visual summary showing how different sectors are doing, and a list of gainers and losers.

GameCrush Is Crushing It. Investors Agree.

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:25:54 GMT

San Francisco based GameCrush is part happy hour at the local bar, part old school "900 chat line." Users come to the site to play games with others, and there's a video/audio cam. The only hitch is that you have to pay $.60/minute to do so. The site matches "Players" with "Playdates," and splits that $.60 with the playdate. There are a number of Flash based games on the site, or players can use the GameCrush video while playing XBox Live or games on any other platform. Usually, guys are paying women to play with them. But guys play with guys, girl play with girls, and sometimes girls pay to play with guys, says co-founder Eric Strasser . And despite the fact that the site is in a strict invite only beta, the money is rolling in. More than one player has spent over $10,000, says Strasser. And some playdates have made over $2,000 in the short time the beta has been live. Playdates can also get extra money from tips and virtual goods.

Research In Motion Buys Mobile Storefront Platform Cellmania

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:20:34 GMT

It looks like Blackberry developer Research In Motion has made a purchase today: Cellmania , a company that builds and licenses the software that drives many mobile phone stores. According to Cellmania's website, the company is "now part of Research In Motion." Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cellmania's technology powers mobile ecosystems for mobile operators, infrastructure providers and content owners. The statement on the company's website says that Cellmania will continue to bring it's expertise in Application Store Management to the Blackberry platform. So clearly, the company's technology will be used to boost BlackBerry's App World.

Panorama: Mozilla’s Awesome Tab Feature Gets A Name And Included In Firefox 4

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:15:31 GMT

Last month, we wrote a post giving a quick overview of a potential new Firefox feature called Tab Candy. 1,900 tweets, 2,000 Facebook Likes, and 285 comments later, it's clear that there is a lot of interest in the idea. Mozilla clearly recognized that as well, as they've already decided to make sure the feature is a part of the upcoming Firefox 4 release. And they've given the feature a new name: Panorama. A new post today by Mozilla's Asa Raskin shows off the polish they've added to Panorama in the past month. Included in the latest beta build of Firefox 4 (build 4), the feature seems much smoother and more stable than it was previously in the experimental early builds of Firefox. That said, the idea is the same: a way to easily organize clusters of tabs together in different windows. You can then zoom out with the click of this Panorama button (or keyboard shortcut) and see a macro-view of all your windows/tabs. Yes, it's a lot like the Expose feature that Mac users are accustomed to.

Preempting Search

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:04:23 GMT

This post was written by Alex Rampell, the CEO of TrialPay. Rampell is a regular contributor to TechCrunch - see his previous guest posts here. Outside of a tectonic shift in search results/quality – think how offering 100x more email storage encouraged people to switch webmail companies back in 2004 -- people are not going to ditch Google as their primary search engine. And Google isn’t taking any chances – by paying Dell $1B for their search toolbar to be pre-installed on new Dell PCs, or pushing Android (who’s the default search engine?), they are doing their part to make current habits continue and lock down their whole “supply chain.” For Google’s enemies, the best way of hurting the search goliath is not to build a better search engine, but rather to give people a reason to stop searching for a wide class of goods and services by preempting search on Google. Given Google’s dependence on harvesting “transactional intent” for its revenue, the key is to move transaction initiation off of Google. The ComScore search marketshare numbers at the top are somewhat meaningless; Google could lose massive revenue while their overall search share, for non-transactional search, stays strong or even grows.

Twitter Confirms Bain Hire And Nabs Another Googler (An Old Costolo FeedBurner Chum)

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:59:01 GMT

Yesterday, we first reported the news that Twitter had hired Adam Bain away from News Corp. to be their new president of revenue. Today, Twitter is confirming the news noting that Bain will be the president of "global revenue". They're also confirming the other hire we reported: Brent Hill , Google's former head of financial services in the Midwest. He'll be Twitter's new director of sales for the central (United States) region. We already talked about why Bain's hire seems like a good one for Twitter -- as President of Fox Audience Network (FAN), he was able to pump money out of the mostly dismal group of digital products at News Corp. Hill's hiring, meanwhile, follows the hiring earlier this month of Dan Coughlin from Facebook to head sales on the East coast, and Amanda Levy from Yelp to head sales on the West coast. Twitter's sales team now spans the U.S.

Lady Gaga Topples Britney As Queen Of Twitter

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:04:15 GMT

Oh, glorious day. Britney Spears is no longer the Queen of Twitter. She has been toppled from her thrown. A cultural milestone? Perhaps. But wait. The new Queen of Twitter is Lady Gaga . Is that any better? At least she is more entertaining, or at least more self-aware. And she gloated appropriately enough via Twitter and the odd YouTube video below.

Moonfruit Raises $2.25 Million To Accelerate Its DIY Site Builder Internationally

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:01:09 GMT

You would think most people know how to get a simple web site up and running these days just on something like Wordpress, but the fact remains that millions of people don't have these skills. As a result Moonfruit , the web site building business which has survived the dotcom bust to return in the age of Web 2.0, is on a charge. It's profitable, growing internationally and as a result has chosen to fundraise to really take the market on. It's just secured $2.25m from U.S. investment bank Stephens . The bank originally helped Moonfruit to buy Gandi.net, the domain registrar but since then Moonfruit has been spun out to go for accelerated international growth. Moonfruit competes with Weebly , Yola and Webnode , and many others that provide services for building simple but elegant web sites, as opposed to blogs. Clearly its drag and drop Flash interface appeals to ‘design aspirers’ who want to customise their own site styles. Moonfruit is a real blast form the past come good. It was founded in the UK in 1999, went through the whole VC-backed-to-bust cycle but fought back and now over 2.8m websites have been built using its DIY software. But it managed to re-invigorate it's brand last year by being among the first to trend on Twitter for a laptop giveaway contest. Try that now.

Apture Highlights Brings Instantaneous Search To Any Web Page

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:00:55 GMT

Apture , the startup that lets online publishers enhance content with rich media pop-ups from a variety of sources based on the context of linked words and terms, is launching a nifty new plug-in today that brings instantaneous search to content on the web. Called 'Apture Highlights,' the browser extension aims to plug the “search leak” that the company says is taking place with content on the web. Apture highlights a search leak as when a users is reading content, wants more information about a keyword or phrase and then opens another browser tab to search for the information on Google, Bing or Yahoo. The downside for the content publisher is that the user disengages with the actual content by leaving the page.

Rumor: Facebook Flirting With ARM Servers

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:30:07 GMT

According to a rumor on the Internet, Facebook may be rolling out a new data center filled with servers using ARM CPUs rather than the more traditional chips from Intel and AMD. ARM chips are less complex than x86 systems, and ARM is ubiquitous in mobile computing environments. The simplicity of the architecture makes the systems far more energy efficient, which is a pretty serious concern when you're a company like Facebook building a new data center.

AT&T Teams With Location-Based Game SCVNGR To Help Launch Samsung Captivate

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:32 GMT

A few weeks ago, location-based game SCVNGR launched a new feature called Rewards that makes it an increasing threat to the likes of shopkick , Foursquare, and every other company looking to combine the power of coupons and deals with location. The premise is simple: complete SCVNGR challenges to earn points, which you can in turn redeem for rewards at select merchants like Journeys. And today SCVNGR is adding a key new partner to its Rewards program: AT&T. Over 50 AT&T stores across the midwest will be promoting SCVNGR as part of the launch of the new Samsung Captivate. AT&T will be using SCVNGR to offer three rewards: if you earn two SCVNGR points, you'll get a free giftcard for a ring tone. Earn five points and you get 20% off accessories. And, in an especially compelling offer, if you earn 15 points at a store you get $50 off the phone — not too shabby. The deal is currently only running in the midwest, but SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch sounds optimistic about AT&T pursuing a wider deployment depending on how this goes. Oh, and SCVNGR is getting paid for the AT&T deal, though Priebatsch unsurprisingly wouldn't get into specifics.

Overstock.com Jumps On Private Sale Sites Bandwagon, Launches Eziba

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:17:57 GMT

The (in my opinion entirely justified) hype surrounding private sales sites like Gilt Groupe , Vente Privée , Beyond The Rack and One Kings Lane have prompted publicly listed Internet retailer Overstock.com to launch one of its own. Dubbed Eziba.com , the site will feature exclusive deals on the home decor products from major brands.

Barnes & Noble Q1 Sales Jump To $1.4B Thanks To Increased Digital Share

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:05:21 GMT

Barnes & Noble has reported earnings for its fiscal 2011 first quarter ended July 31, 2010. Total sales for the first quarter were $1.4 billion, a 21% increase compared to the prior year. Sales increased 42% as compared to the prior year to $145 million. Unsurprisingly, Barnes & Noble in-store sales decreased 2% to $1 billion. For the first quarter, the company reported a consolidated net loss of $63 million, or $1.12 per share. This was the result, the company says, of legal expenses of $9.5 million involved with B&N's dispute with Yucaipa over shareholder control. The company has been embroiled in litigation with private equity firm Yucaipa after the firm's CEO Ron Burkle recently challenged the company’s stockholders rights plan.

Scitable.com Goes Mobile

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:00:53 GMT

We covered Scitable.com , the social network for science education from Nature Publishing Group, back in May. At that time, I was told that a mobile-friendly version of the site was in the works. Today that mobile site is ready, as seen in the screenshot above. Scitable's Vikram Savkar has been studying broadband adoption, and has drawn some interesting conclusions. Obviously one of those conclusions is that a science education site like Scitable isn't a one-size-fits-all operation. As mentioned in our original review of Scitable, a large portion of the target audience that Scitable is courting may not have easy and regular access to a modern PC with a broadband connection. Instead, many will be using mobile devices.

Apple Shares iTunes U Stats: 350,000 Files Available, 300 Million Downloads So Far

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:37:41 GMT

Apple this morning said iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million , making it one of the world’s most popular online educational catalogs. The company also says over 800 universities throughout the world have active iTunes U sites, and nearly half of these institutions distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store . Currently, iTunes users have access to more than 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the globe, the company adds.

Facebook Follow: The Twitter-Eater, The Preemptive Google Me-Killer

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:29:15 GMT

Up until a few months ago, I was using Facebook the same way I was using Twitter. That is, I was allowing anyone to follow me. But it was different. With Twitter, anyone can follow me without my approval. On Facebook, everyone needs my approval. Though perhaps ill-advised, I was simply blindly approving anyone. Then I stopped. There was no single reason why I switched my Facebook habits, but I decided that I was going to start using the service the way Facebook made it seem it should be used: befriending only actual friends. I was a bit more lenient -- I friended anyone I've actually met in person. Everyone else? Gone. I purged several hundred people, cutting my "friends" in half in one day. But now I'm realizing that's not good enough. With the launch of Facebook Places, there's a lot of talk about it being creepy or a potential security nightmare. I think all of that is and will continue to be largely overblown . That said, I'm also sure there will be legitimate causes for concern with the feature -- but mainly because people aren't using Facebook the "right" way. Nor do I think Facebook actually wants them to.

Chatroulette Couldn’t Get It Up

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:12:35 GMT

At one point the Chatroulette V.2 anticipation was so thick over at TechCrunch HQ that even we were, how you say, premature. But not as premature as the folks over at Chatroulette themselves, who ominously lured us in yesterday in with, “The experiment #1 is over for now. Thanks for participating – Redesigned and updated version of the website will be launched tomorrow" and then well, nothing. The silliest part is that I've got some kind of update alarm on Chatroulette, so imagine my excitement when I heard the alarm go off at about 11p.m. "YOUR WEBSITE HAS UPDATED." Guess what the update was? Someone changed the word "tomorrow" to "shortly" on the site's cryptic "Coming Soon!" message. Now I'm not sure whether this means it will be launching in the next 30 minutes or the next three days (I've emailed founder Andrey Ternovskiy for an exact ETA), but rest assured, you'll hear about it here first.

Brand Affinity Technologies Raises $20M To Match Celebs With Endorsement Deals

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:05:03 GMT

Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), the company that creates a technology that matches celebrities with endorsement deals, has just raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Miramar Venture Partners , with existing investors Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital , CGI Opportunity Fund II, and Ad Pepper Media International also participating. This brings the company's total funding to $26 million. We've heard that the pre-money valuation was in the ballpark of $60 to $80 million. BAT’s technology includes a research engine that matches advertisers with more than 38,000 celebrities for endorsement deal. The company's proprietary technology will take into account the ambitions of an ad campaign and the particular brand of a celeb and recommend a deal with the appropriate athletes, actors and more.

Chart Your Growth With YC-Backed Chart.io

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:47:59 GMT

YCombinator -funded database analytics company Chart.io launches today, giving businesses access to enterprise level analytics tools that they need to rock their databases in realtime. In the same space as Metricly and Stats Mix , a tool like Chart.io would have been unnecessary 10 or so years ago, but now co-founder Dan Levine says, "It's easier than ever to have a database" so everyone and their mother seems to also need to interpret one. Levine, who used to work as a Research Analyst for TechCrunch, got the idea for Chart.io while managing our very own Crunchbase. Currently most companies view and analyze data in a pretty clunky way, by exporting their database into a file and then looking at it in Excel, which aside from being an unwieldy pain, is also bereft of the benefits of realtime and automation.

The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:21:04 GMT

When a service such as Facebook limits users' creative freedom, it is inevitable that other add-on services will overcome this limitation. This is why then, we see more and more Facebook tab apps that give us more control and freedom when it comes to customizing a fan page or a personal profile. I can't really understand why Facebook doesn't create an editor that lets users create a super fan page. I can only guess they don't want to deal with it and prefer their uniform design, which may be boring but at least it is consistent and familiar. Instead, Facebook lets other people get creative and offer an array of Facebook related apps built on the API. In any case, you must know this by now: A personalized page can drive more attention and probably, more traffic to your brand. In this post, I just want to give you a clear picture about the best services that are out there, by gathering all the information in one place so it's easier to save and use as needed. (Also check out AppBistro for more Facebook tab apps and reviews).

Chomp Sinks Its Teeth Deeper Into Search; Wants To Be The Google Of Apps

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:59:13 GMT

It was last November that we first heard about Chomp , a sort-of Yelp for iPhone apps. At the time, it was still very much in stealth mode, but we kept hearing they raised a seed round of funding from investors like Ron Conway insanely fast. Obviously, we were interested. By January, we had a sneak peak at the actual service. And about a week later, it formally launched as an app recommendation engine for Apple's App Store. Another larger round of funding quickly followed, and since then Chomp has been off and running with over 400,000 active users at this point. But now it's time to take things to the next level -- with search.