Blake Lively Christina Applegate Shana Hiatt Tara Conner Drea de Matteo
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Forget Nationalizing: An Irish Renege on Bailouts?
Call it The Big Renege: Last month, I discussed what a horrific decision the Irish made when it came to their bank bailouts. They foolishly placed the entire liability for reckless bankers onto the taxpayers. Well, the Irish voters tossed out the entire lot, and the new government has been looking for an excuse to [...]
Video: The Cashmere Stylings of Yahoo Chief Product Officer Blake Irving
Yesterday, BoomTown spent a good part of the day at Yahoo's HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif., meeting with various product execs and seeing some cool new stuff in the works.
That included its Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, who got to the company a little less than a year ago with the goal of finally getting the company to actually get those innovations out the door.
That included its Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, who got to the company a little less than a year ago with the goal of finally getting the company to actually get those innovations out the door.
Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock Nichole Robinson Monet Mazur Rozonda Thomas
New Survey Offers Glimpse of SMB Ad Outlook
Earlier this month local advertising firm Borrell Associates released its annual Outlook survey for 2011, which attempts to gauge where small and medium-sized businesses fall with investing in online advertising. This year?s study was particularly interesting, noting that SMBs actually make up for 95 percent of all local advertising online. They may not spend much on average (the average SMB spends less than $12,000 on all advertising; of that, $2,300 goes to online advertising), but their sheer numbersRead More
From Small Business Trends
New Survey Offers Glimpse of SMB Ad Outlook
Robin Tunney Kate Groombridge Dania Ramirez Lucy Liu LeAnn Rimes
No MBA Mondays Today
I've spent the past two days in airports and on airplanes. I was hoping to write my MBA Mondays post for today on the flight yesterday. But there was no wifi or power. I punted and watched VCU beat Kansas...
Jennifer Sky Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner
Ideas Are Free, Execution Is Priceless
Ideas Are Free, Execution Is Priceless
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Giulianna Ramirez Ashley Greene April Scott Mia Kirshner Elisabeth Röhm
Curation
We largely invest in consumer web services with a large number of engaged users where the users create the content. Services like this can become messy and hard to navigate. There is always a signal to noise issue. I'm a...
Carrie Underwood Rosario Dawson Tricia Helfer Elena Lyons Brooke Burns
Forget swapping headphones: MyStream lets you share music wirelessly
Have you ever sat next to a friend on the train and wanted to listen to the music he or she was listening to, only to be forced to uncomfortably share headphones? MyStream, which is launching its free iPhone app today, wants to change this by allowing you to share your music wirelessly with friends.
MyStream allows you to see what other people in the same wireless or Bluetooth network are listening to. It lets you listen in on the songs other MyStream users are listening to, or 30 second clips from other songs on playlists they’ve created.
Says Richard Zelson, founder of MyStream, ?Imagine immediately being able to listen to a song stored on a friend?s iPhone at the same time as them without needing to share their headphones or be tethered to them using a splitter.?
Richard Zelson came up with the idea when he was traveling in Europe and wanted to listen to his friends? songs on the train. After being frustrated that the only way to do this was to share headphones, he set out to find a solution.
All audio is streamed via an iPhone?s WiFi or Bluetooth wireless technology, so the application works whether on a bus or plane and doesn’t require a connection to the Internet. When the application is being used it is public to anyone in the wireless network, and more than one person can listen in on the music. According to Richard, when the application is running there is an additional 20% battery drain on the phone.
With regards to potential copyright law violations, the company believes�it has a low level of liability. The application does not enable any music sharing that is not already possible through portable speakers or an audio splitter.
MyStream’s business model is based around revenue from 5% commissions it receives from songs sold through the application, advertising from the bar on the app, and in the future, potentially from money it will charge for the app.
MyStream was founded in June 2010 by Richard Zelson, who is a first time entrepreneur. The company, which currently has five employees, has raised $800,000 in funding, $300,000 of which came from friends and family and $500,000 of which came from the founder of Blue Water Capital.
Companies: MyStream
People: Richard Zelson
Kerry Suseck FSU Cowgirls Abbie Cornish Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere
State of Japan?s Power Grid
Nice graphic from the Washington Post: >
Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan Brittny Gastineau Ashley Tisdale
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Blogger outreach is something my marketing firm is passionate about. After all, bloggers are the voice for many brands (for better or worse) these days. With a positive brand review, your brand can receive a nice boost in Web traffic and sales.
Until now, my company has been manually visiting blogs and logging contact info for the blogger, traffic details, etcetera. It?s a lot of work. But then I discovered GroupHigh. GroupHigh is an online research tool thatRead More
From Small Business Trends
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Sophia Bush Megan Fox Michelle Malkin Charlies Angels Rose Byrne
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Interview: Nixing Name Invisibility on Google
Image: Lili Viera de Carvalho/Flickr If you're John Smith, you might be out of luck. On Google, that is, where a million other John Smiths are drowning you out, just when you want someone to find you. In today's media-rich economy, "even... Read more
Charli Baltimore Denise Richards Jennifer Sky Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton
Is QE3 Already Here?
We continue to watch the low volume levitation run as we head towards a denouement of the end of quarter window dressing, Friday’s NFP and the end of QE2 on June 30th. Earnings are good, analyst consensus for 2012 is very strong (too strong?). The hope is that the market might be able to “grow” [...]
Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey Gina Philips
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Blogger outreach is something my marketing firm is passionate about. After all, bloggers are the voice for many brands (for better or worse) these days. With a positive brand review, your brand can receive a nice boost in Web traffic and sales.
Until now, my company has been manually visiting blogs and logging contact info for the blogger, traffic details, etcetera. It?s a lot of work. But then I discovered GroupHigh. GroupHigh is an online research tool thatRead More
From Small Business Trends
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil Rachel McAdams Kristin Cavallari Brittany Murphy
Founder Labs NYC
One of the best things to happen to startupland in the past five years is the emergence of the startup accelerator. Programs like Y Combinator, Techstars, and many others have made the difficult phase of going from a founding team...
Gina Gershon Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller Cindy Taylor Halle Berry
Is QE3 Already Here?
We continue to watch the low volume levitation run as we head towards a denouement of the end of quarter window dressing, Friday’s NFP and the end of QE2 on June 30th. Earnings are good, analyst consensus for 2012 is very strong (too strong?). The hope is that the market might be able to “grow” [...]
Emma Heming Vitamin C Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci Missi Pyle
Do You Run a 24 Hour Business?
Do You Run a 24 Hour Business?
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Sanaa Lathan Ana Beatriz Barros Maria Menounos Shakira Leslie Bibb
Weekend Favs March Twenty Six
Weekend Favs March Twenty Six
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Julianne Hough Paula Garcés Genelle Frenoy Shania Twain Gwen Stefani
Weekend Favs March Twenty Six
Weekend Favs March Twenty Six
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Jill Arrington Tami Donaldson Padma Lakshmi Sarah Mutch Gabrielle Union
Viral Video: Funky Penguin CGI
Yesterday, BoomTown posted some pretty amazing CGI work for "Captain America," which managed to make a buff dude look like a sliver of a man.
But this dancing penguin thing at the end of this movie trailer for the upcoming "Mr. Popper's Penguins"--no, really, that's the title and it stars, of course, Jim Carrey--really looks even better.
But this dancing penguin thing at the end of this movie trailer for the upcoming "Mr. Popper's Penguins"--no, really, that's the title and it stars, of course, Jim Carrey--really looks even better.
Cinthia Moura Monica Potter Brittany Snow Lauren German Cindy Crawford
M&A Issues: Consideration
We are getting to the end of the series on M&A. Two more M&A Issues to talk about and then I am done. The final two are consideration and price. Today I'll talk about consideration and next week I'll talk...
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What?s Google?s economic impact? Google economist says $119B+
Updated
There’s no doubt that Google and Web search have had a huge impact on the economy, but how can you quantify that? Google’s chief economist Hal Varian took a stab at it on-stage today at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.
Of course, Varian is probably a little biased, since he gets a paycheck from Google, but he also had an academic career as an economist at UC Berkeley before going to work for the search giant, so he has some real credentials. And hey, his presentation had a lot of math in it, so it must be accurate … right?
There are three main pieces to Google’s economic impact, Varian said — and he seemed to define that impact beyond Google, so that it includes the Web search and online ad industries that Google has fueled. The first piece is the value of online advertising programs to advertisers and publishers, which is pretty straightforward from a financial standpoint, and which Varian calculated at about $54 billion per year.
Then there’s the value that Web search provides to users. This is harder to calculate, and Varian acknowledged, “I’m going to wave my hands a little bit here.” He pointed to a study where students were asked to find the answers to the same set of factual questions, and on-average the students using Web search found the answers 15 minutes faster than those using library books. The math gets a bit more complicated here, because many of the questions people ask on the Web just wouldn’t have been asked before, but using some other facts as well as something Varian called “the demand curve for questions,” he calculated that Web search saves people 3.75 minutes per day, which at an average wage of $22 per hour is worth $1.37. (Varian said you can also think of it this way: Would you pay about $1 a day to use Google? I would.) Multiplied across the US employed population of 130 million, that saved time is worth $65 billion per year.
For his final piece, which he didn’t bother to discuss, Varian said the value of ad-supported Web applications is $25 billion.
Add it up, and the total economic impact of search and advertising is more than $119 billion. (Varian said the third category overlaps with the first two, so you can’t add it to the total.) There are lots of other factors that Varian said he didn’t add, and the numbers are fuzzy, but even so, he said that when you look at “the value of search, the value of the Internet, of being able to get answers immediately, it’s a pretty big deal.”
Update: An earlier version of this post included a higher total, because I just added Varian’s three numbers together. But he warned TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis against including the third number, since it overlaps with the first two.
[photo by Dean Takahashi]
Companies: Google
People: Hal Varian
Susan Ward Emmy Rossum Kim Yoon jin Melania Trump Summer Glau
10 Most Inappropriate Celebrity Product Lines
Celebrities and celebrity news are everywhere. Even normally high-brow publications can?t help but occasionally be tempted to comment on Lindsay Lohan?s latest shenanigans or Charlie Sheen?s offensive outbursts. The problem with all this... Read more
Kat Von D Ana Paula Lemes Vanessa Simmons Chyler Leigh Julie Berry
Amazon Cloud Drive doesn?t spook competing investors
Amazon might have taken a first-mover advantage by beating Apple and other companies to the punch with a web-based music storage and streaming service ? but it wasn’t enough to floor investors in the same way companies like Apple have done in the past with these kinds of announcements.
Investor reaction to a dramatic change in company activity can sometimes be an indicator of how successful a new product might be. For example, when Apple announced the iPhone, its shares jumped around 8.3 percent. Amazon’s announcement led to a modest 3.1 percent bump in the company’s share prices. Despite being the first in the field, it wasn’t able to pull off an Apple.
The new service looks like it will face some stiff competition from a few companies. Google is rumored to be testing its cloud music service internally. Apple is also believed to be working on a cloud music service after picking up Lala.com. Spotify, an�extremely popular cloud music service in Europe with more than 1 million subscribers, is planning on moving into the U.S. market. Sony also announced its music service will be accessible through the Internet.
The announcement did not spook its competitors. Shares of Apple were about flat when trading ended Tuesday, and U.S.-traded shares of Sony edged up 0.8 percent to $31.91. Trading activity in both companies after the bell was also limited. The markets were up across the board after a less-than-harsh report from The Conference Board concerning consumer confidence in the economy ? which also likely contributed to gains in both companies.
That’s because the new music service wasn’t that significant of an innovation, nor would it advance the field enough to dramatically alter the music industry, said Mark Mulligan, an analyst with market research firm Forrester. That kind of functionality ? the ability to access music and other content from any device ? has basically become a requirement in the smartphone and tablet industry, he said.
Cloud Player allows users to upload their music and play it on a PC, Mac or any Android device.�The music playback is not restricted to a single computer. The first 5 gigabytes of storage are free with an annual fee for additional space. Anyone who buys an album from Amazon gets an additional 20 gigabytes of storage for a year. The service works with newer Internet Explorer browsers, along with Safari, Firefox and Chrome. It does not work with the Opera browser.
Companies: Amazon, Apple, Google, Sony, spotify
Thora Birch Jennifer Garner Poppy Montgomery Evangeline Lilly Lisa Marie
CHART OF THE WEEK: Small Businesses Lost Fewer Jobs
Data from the ADP Employment Report, a monthly measure of employment at U.S. businesses that use Advanced Data Processing?s payroll services, shows that small companies lost a lesser fraction of their workforce than big businesses during the Great Recession.
While large companies have yet to show much of a trend back to pre-recession employment levels, ADP?s figures show that small companies have begun to add back workers.� The smallest businesses –� those with one to 49 employees —Read More
From Small Business Trends
CHART OF THE WEEK: Small Businesses Lost Fewer Jobs
Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman Larissa Meek Gina Carano Sanaa Lathan
Groupon's Andrew Mason Talks About?No, Not Exec Shakeup, But Groupon Now
Yesterday, BoomTown had a cheap Chinese meal and a chit-chat with Groupon CEO Andrew Mason in Silicon Valley--but not about what most people want to talk to him about.
Instead of the departure of the Chicago-based social buying site's President and COO Rob Solomon, all he wanted to talk about and show off is Groupon's latest real-time deal innovation, which it is calling Groupon Now.
Instead of the departure of the Chicago-based social buying site's President and COO Rob Solomon, all he wanted to talk about and show off is Groupon's latest real-time deal innovation, which it is calling Groupon Now.
Tricia Helfer Elena Lyons Brooke Burns Lena Headey Ali Larter
Do You Run a 24 Hour Business?
Do You Run a 24 Hour Business?
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana
The Social Media Party Is Over
The Social Media Party Is Over
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Sarah Michelle Gellar Olivia Munn Melissa Sagemiller Roselyn Sanchez Soft Cell
Better is Only Better if it?s Different
Better is Only Better if it?s Different
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner Susie Castillo
Did Plosser and Bullard have impact on 2yr auction?
The 2 yr note auction was light as the yield was above the when issued and the bid to cover of 3.16 was below the 12 month average of 3.33 and the 2nd lowest dating back to last August. Impacting the bidding positively on one hand was likely the Japanese disaster and subsequent negative impact [...]
Square: We?re still Jack Dorsey?s top priority
I?m still trying to wrap my head around how Jack Dorsey will balance his role as chief executive of his new mobile payment startup Square with his just-announced job leading product at Twitter, the microblogging service that he created five years ago.
I don?t have many details, but I did get some comments from both companies. Square?s spokesperson Kay Luo told me, ?Jack will continue in his role as CEO of Square. Square remains his top priority.? That isn?t a surprise — the fact that Dorsey is still CEO at Square was part of the announcement, and Luo?s comment echoes a statement she made last November, when it was rumored that Dorsey was returning to a more hands-on role at Twitter.
Meanwhile, it sounds like Dorsey will be quite active at Twitter too. Twitter spokesperson Carolyn Penner described Dorsey’s new job (his official title is executive chairman) as an ?everyday role? and said CEO Dick Costolo ?concluded that having Jack involved day-to-day was in the company’s best interest.? So at this point, anyway, it sounds like Dorsey will still spend the bulk of his time at Square, but he?s going to be involved in any major product decision at Twitter.
I also wondered where this left Ev Williams, the Twitter cofounder who took over as the company?s CEO when Dorsey was pushed out in 2008, and who supposedly stepped down in October to focus on Twitter?s product efforts. It?s pretty clear that Williams and Dorsey don?t have a great relationship (in Vanity Fair?s recent profile of Dorsey, David Kirkpatrick reported that they barely speak to each other), so it’s hard to imagine the two of them working closely.
When I asked about Williams’ role, Penner wrote, ?Ev is a key advisor to Dick and the company on strategy and remains a very active board member.?
Companies: Square, Twitter
People: Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Worst Business Advice You Ever Received
The Worst Business Advice You Ever Received
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Vanessa Simmons Chyler Leigh Julie Berry Lori Heuring Nicole Scherzinger
Markets at Key Level
I have previously mentioned key levels to watch on various markets. I have been especially watching the S&P500 levels at 1310-15 — and we are right there. Today’s trading is going to be crucial . . .
Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Blogger outreach is something my marketing firm is passionate about. After all, bloggers are the voice for many brands (for better or worse) these days. With a positive brand review, your brand can receive a nice boost in Web traffic and sales.
Until now, my company has been manually visiting blogs and logging contact info for the blogger, traffic details, etcetera. It?s a lot of work. But then I discovered GroupHigh. GroupHigh is an online research tool thatRead More
From Small Business Trends
GroupHigh: An Easy Way to Research Bloggers
Lisa Snowdon Mariah Carey Taylor Swift Milla Jovovich Maggie Grace
Liveblog: Is Yahoo Still in Search? Indeed and It's Answers Not Links!
At least once a day, BoomTown gets a call from investors, analysts or other troublemaking types--you know who you are!--wondering why Yahoo is still plugging away in search.
With a declining market share in the arena and a search technology outsourcing deal with Microsoft, it's not a bad question to ask.
But Yahoo begs to differ, introducing a new feature called Yahoo Search Direct at an event in San Francisco today.
With a declining market share in the arena and a search technology outsourcing deal with Microsoft, it's not a bad question to ask.
But Yahoo begs to differ, introducing a new feature called Yahoo Search Direct at an event in San Francisco today.
Rose McGowan Bar Refaeli Jessica White Anna Friel Monica Bellucci
Viral Video: RIP Elizabeth Taylor
Of all the many entertainers in Hollywood, none was more authentically a star than screen legend Elizabeth Taylor.
Ailing in recent years, it's too easy to forget what a global sensation she was, in the days well before celebrities had the Internet and other digital means to become well known.
Taylor needed none of that to shine.
Ailing in recent years, it's too easy to forget what a global sensation she was, in the days well before celebrities had the Internet and other digital means to become well known.
Taylor needed none of that to shine.
Spring Startup Fever
I said earlier this week that in addition to spring fever in NYC, we have startup fever. There is so much good stuff happening in NYC right now. I'm not talking about fundings and such. The financial markets come and...
Catherine Bell Tessie Santiago Jessica Simpson Mandy Moore Shannon Elizabeth
10 of the Dumbest Political Parties
Ah, political parties, like a pimple on the face of America right before a prom. Oh, you can treat it, but the big ones never really go away and the little ones are just as annoying. Here is a countdown to 10 groups that are slowly destroying... Read more
Amber Brkich Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey
Intellectual property theft fuels underground cyber economy
It used to be that cyber criminals hacked into accounts to steal credit card numbers or social security numbers. Now they’re moving upscale, building a huge underground economy around stealing more valuable intellectual property.
The Underground Economies report being released today by McAfee and SAIC reveals that cyber thieves are now stealing secret company information so they can sell it at much higher prices to competitors and foreign governments. Once the data is stolen, the underground economy has become very efficient at exploiting it. The report concludes that companies have to make it a priority to protect their assets and anticipate rising attacks.
A company’s legal documents can fetch far more money than a list of credit card numbers, which go for something like $6 a piece on the internet.
The problem outlined by the report is that many companies have too little security protecting their secrets. Cyber criminals are making money selling trade secrets, marketing plans, research and development findings and even source code.
?Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from physical assets to data driven properties, such as trade secrets or product planning documents,? said Simon Hunt, vice president and chief technology officer, endpoint security at McAfee.
One of the most sophisticated attacks was Operation Aurora, a coordinated attack against Google and 30 other companies, allegedly orchestrated by Chinese authorities. Another was a less sophisticated but still damaging cyberattack known as Night Dragon. Starting in November, 2009, Night Dragon attackers conducted cyber raids against oil, energy and petro-chemical companies. Those attacks also allegedly originated in China and involved attackers observing and lurking within compromised systems for a period of months, collecting gigabytes of highly sensitive data. The latest incidents involving Wikileaks and the theft of Bank of America’s internal documents also highlight the trend. Those attacks demonstrated that hackers could penetrate some of the most well-protected companies in the world.
Often, insiders make the attacks much easier. In 2008, three people were convicted of stealing marketing plans from Coca-Cola, and in 2009, a former Goldman Sachs computer programmer was arrested for stealing computer code used to perform proprietary trading. On average, data breaches now cost $1.2 million, compared to $700,000 in 2008.
?A single mistake by an unaware employee can have dire consequences,? said Dinesh Pillai, chief executive officer of Mahindra Special Services Group, a leading corporate security risk consulting firm in India.
Antivirus vendor McAfee and engineering firm SAIC collaborated with marketing firm Vanson Bourne to survey more than 1,000 senior information technology decision makers in the U.S., U.K., Japan, China, India, Brazil and the Middle East. The study is a follow-up to a report released in 2008 called ?Unsecured Economies,” which found that companies lost $1 trillion due to data leaks.
?The distinction between insiders and outsiders is blurring,? said Scott Aken, vice president for cyber operations at SAIC.� ?Sophisticated attackers infiltrate a network, steal valid credentials on the network, and operate freely ? just as an insider would. Having defensive strategies against these blended insider threats is essential, and organizations need insider threat tools that can predict attacks based on human behavior.?
The results of the attacks have been severe. A quarter of the companies and other groups surveyed said they have had a merger or product launch disrupted, stopped, or delayed by a data breach. But not every company that was hit took corrective measures to stop a repeat attack.
One of the contradictions among security policies is, despite the risk of foreign theft, half of all organizations are considering storing sensitive information abroad. That’s because overseas storage options are often cheaper.
Companies in the U.S., China, and India are spending more than $1 million a week to secure sensitive information that is stored abroad.
The report says that the United Kingdom, Germany, and the U.S. are perceived to be the safest places for storing data. China, Russia and Pakistan are perceived to be the least safe.
Only three in ten organizations report all data breaches suffered, presumably out of embarrassment or the need “to keep things quiet.” Six in ten selectively choose which breaches to report. A large number of companies are failing to conduct frequent risk assessments. About a quarter of organizations assess their risks for data loss only twice a year or less.
One of the big challenges is protecting data that is stored on mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones and Android mobile phones or gadgets. Sixty-two percent of respondents agree that securing such devices is a challenge.
Companies: McAfee, SAIC, Vanson Bourne
People: Dinesh Pillai, Simon Hunt
Jennifer Garner Poppy Montgomery Evangeline Lilly Lisa Marie Keira Knightley
The Work Behind the 10 Most Creative Commercials Ever
Creativity is key to the advertising industry. When you?re selling something, you?re not just selling the product itself; you?re selling a concept, an idea, a lifestyle. The world?s most successful advertising companies realize this, and... Read more
Whitney Port Minka Kelly Carol Grow Erika Christensen Emilie de Ravin
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Video: The Pulse Boys-to-Men Talk About Huge Growth of Visual News-Reading App
Today, BoomTown braved the floods and skippered All Things Digital's S.S. Minnow through a Noah-like rainstorm in Silicon Valley to visit offices of Pulse.
Less than a year ago, the nifty visual news-reading app was publicly praised by Apple's Steve Jobs for innovativeness and slapped by the New York Times for misusing its RSS feed on the same day.
Dramatic, for sure, but they have made nice with the Times since then and have also raised more than $1 million in funding and grown to three million users since then.
Less than a year ago, the nifty visual news-reading app was publicly praised by Apple's Steve Jobs for innovativeness and slapped by the New York Times for misusing its RSS feed on the same day.
Dramatic, for sure, but they have made nice with the Times since then and have also raised more than $1 million in funding and grown to three million users since then.
Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie Erica Leerhsen Angela Marcello
Bloomberg Game Changers: Twitter
“Bloomberg Game Changers” profiles Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. This program features interviews with Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey; Mike Maples, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Floodgate; Tim O’Reilly, founder and chief executive officer of O’Reilly Media; Om Malik, founder of GigaOM; Meg Hourihan, co-founder of Blogger.com; Ryan Singel, [...]
Mila Kunis Samaire Armstrong Selita Ebanks Michael Michele Marisa Tomei
Viral Video: The Guiltiest Dog Ever
A chewed-up bag of kitty treats. Two canine suspects--one poker-faced and one, well, not so much.
It does not take Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective to figure this caper--and the video that has garnered more than 3.7 million views--out.
It does not take Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective to figure this caper--and the video that has garnered more than 3.7 million views--out.
Ashley Olsen Danneel Harris Veronika Vaeková Eve Brittany Lee
Viral Video: RIP Elizabeth Taylor
Of all the many entertainers in Hollywood, none was more authentically a star than screen legend Elizabeth Taylor.
Ailing in recent years, it's too easy to forget what a global sensation she was, in the days well before celebrities had the Internet and other digital means to become well known.
Taylor needed none of that to shine.
Ailing in recent years, it's too easy to forget what a global sensation she was, in the days well before celebrities had the Internet and other digital means to become well known.
Taylor needed none of that to shine.
Aaliyah Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova
Open and Closed
At Union Square Ventures, we pride ourselves on our transparency and openness. Wednesday's Airbnb post and Paul Graham's followup posting of our email thread on that opportunity is a good example of where being open benefits everyone involved, from Airbnb,...
Janet Jackson Georgianna Robertson Reese Witherspoon Jordana Brewster Laetitia Casta
Small Business News: The Startup Space
Arguably the toughest part of running a small business, the startup can be a tricky time. In fact, getting from idea to functioning business can be at times so misunderstood and so different for every entrepreneur that it becomes difficult to come up with definitive tips for getting through the process. Still there are plenty of resources out there and the best idea can be to sort through this stuff for yourself and see what makes cents to you. Here’sRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: The Startup Space
Sarah Silverman Larissa Meek Gina Carano Sanaa Lathan Ana Beatriz Barros
Spring Startup Fever
I said earlier this week that in addition to spring fever in NYC, we have startup fever. There is so much good stuff happening in NYC right now. I'm not talking about fundings and such. The financial markets come and...
Shannon Elizabeth Maggie Gyllenhaal Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic Cristina Dumitru
Fitango helps anyone share their self-improvement knowledge
When self-help startup Fitango launched in December, it offered a marketplace where users could learn about and commit to action plans for fitness, nutrition, and more. Now it?s adding features that help users share their knowledge.
The idea is that if you really want to get in shape or learn more about being a good parent (to pick examples from two of the site’s more popular categories), you need a detailed, step-by-step guide. So when you go to Fitango, you can purchase an action plan (which can include media like demo videos), track your progress, ask experts for help, and post messages and reminders to motivate other users. And there?s a fun badge system rewarding different behavior. (There?s a ?mother in law? badge for users who persistently nag their friends to do better.)
Until now, all of Fitango?s action plans came from experts who had been certified by the company. There?s still value in recognizing experts, said founder and chief executive Dov Biran, but regular users have something to contribute too. After all, people often follow self-help advice from their friends — I?ve been asking VentureBeat?s unofficial fitness guru Owen Thomas for advice as I started hitting the gym over the last few months.
So the New York City startup has added the ability for users to create their own action plans and share them with their friends. Biran said users will soon be able to offer their plans in the Fitango Marketplace. However, they won’t be able to charge money for them. Why the limitation? When users actually pay for an action plan, it’s important they know it?s coming from someone who knows what they?re talking about, because they?ve been vetted by Fitango.
Fitango has about 10,000 registered users and receives about 20,000 visitors per month, Biran said.
Companies: Fitango
People: Dov Biran
Cat Power January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart
Saturday, March 26, 2011
This Week?s Weird Jobs
Some employers expect perfection, but don't express that wish outright. Instead, they use phrases like "I run a million miles per hour and you need to run ahead of me" and "non-union, English-speaking plasterer with own tools and vehicle... Read more
Mandy Moore Shannon Elizabeth Maggie Gyllenhaal Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic
LinkedIn?s early users get bragging points ? on Twitter
After announcing earlier this week that it passed the 100 million user mark, professional networking site LinkedIn sent emails to its early users today thanking them and telling them exactly when they joined.
It’s an ego-flattering gesture, likely designed to provoke responses from eager self-promoters. And that in itself is notable from a site that often comes across as bland and functional — a major handicap in LinkedIn’s push to become a hub for news and conversation. That effort seems to be one of the company’s big goals recently, judging from its IPO filing and new products like LinkedIn Today.
VentureBeat?s Matt Marshall (#14,796) and Dean Takahashi (#73,885) both received emails congratulating them on being among LinkedIn’s first 100,000 users. Judging from the commentary on Twitter, other users are getting messages thanking them for being in the first million.
The email, which is signed by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, says ?In any technology adoption lifecycle, there are the innovators, those who help lead the way. That was you.? It looks like many recipients took that message to heart, because I?m seeing a lot of tweets proudly sharing user numbers.
One problem: Most of that commentary isn?t on LinkedIn itself, but rather on Twitter (or at least it seems that way after comparing my news feeds on both sites).
Twitter, of course, is the natural home for this kind of conversation — not only am I seeing tweets with user numbers, but also snarky commentary about those tweets. And Twitter has understood early adopters? interest in bragging rights for a while now, which is why Twitter clients, such as its iPhone app (but not Twitter.com), prominently feature people?s user numbers in their profiles.
On the other hand, I’m not sure how many Twitter users were really dying to know about their friends’ LinkedIn numbers. So maybe LinkedIn users (the ones who aren’t bragging, anyway) appreciate the relative peace and quiet.
Companies: linkedin, Twitter
People: Reid Hoffman
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In Defense Of Note Taking On Twitter
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The War For Talent
Steve Blank says in his New Rules For The New Internet Bubble: hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble I'm hearing this from everyone I know in Silicon Valley. And you can...
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?Now, Build a Great Business? Is a Business Owner?s Handbook
As I sit down to write this review, I?m getting this visual of an infomercial:
ANNOUNCER: Are you trying to run your business by reading every book on the ?how to be successful? shelf?
VIDEO PLAYS: A tired, stressed and overworked entrepreneur struggling to read a book that?s precariously piled on top of dozens of other books.� He?s got reading glasses.� He?s taking notes.� Business books are falling to the floor.� He?s trying to answer customer calls!� He looks
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From Small Business Trends
“Now, Build a Great Business” Is a Business Owner’s Handbook
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Silicon Valley is abuzz with bubble and recovery stories ? too soon?
The bulls are back in Silicon Valley in a variety of ways. Let’s hope reports of the recovery are true, and that the optimism doesn’t get overheated too fast and turn into a bubble of the dot-com era’s scale.
The front pages of the San Jose Mercury News and the New York Times both have stories today about the return of good times in Silicon Valley. They point to both hard figures in unemployment data as well as anecdotal evidence of a recovery, rather than a bubble.
One of the most astounding anecdotal signs of the good times is that Yuri Milner, the Russian investor who runs DST — which invested in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon — has bought a home in Silicon Valley’s Los Altos Hills for $75 million. The 25,500-square-feet home once belonged to chip pioneer Fred Chan. The good thing is that Milner’s spokesman denied rumors that he paid for it with Facebook stock. That would have been a sure sign of an overheated bubble. The purchase price was the largest ever in Silicon Valley’s history.
State data shows that Santa Clara County — which includes the greater San Jose region of Silicon Valley — saw new job growth that was stronger than usual for this time of year, with the unemployment rate falling to 10.3 percent, compared to 11.8 percent a year ago and the lowest level in two years. San Francisco county is at 9.5 percent and San Mateo County is at 8.4 percent. Overall, California’s unemployment rate is 12.2 percent and the nation’s is 8.9 percent.
So the region isn’t yet better off than the rest of the country when it comes to jobs. But tech led the local job growth in February. The jobless level is better than the peak unemployment rate of 12.1 percent for Santa Clara County in January, 2010. But it’s far below 4 percent in December 2006 and the 2.2 percent in November, 1999. As the numbers suggest, there are a lot of people out there who haven’t yet seen the fruits of any recovery in the region.
The improving economy explains in part why the tech job recruiting picture is starting to looks so good for skilled workers. The New York Times says the perks at places such as Google routinely include free meals, shuttle buses, and stock options. Zynga offers free haircuts and iPads to recruits. Instagram offers personal food and drink orders from employees. Starting salaries at Google for computer scientists are $90,000 to $105,000. HP, which had been stingy under its previous CEO Mark Hurd, restored pay cuts under the new boss Leo Apotheker to stay competitive.
This kind of competition has been accelerating for at least five months, when Google gave all of its employees a 10 percent pay raise in a war for talent. But that chatter is gathering speed. Steve Blank said last week “we’re now in the second internet bubble” and that “hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble.” (Based on the unemployment numbers we’ve cited, that’s not exactly true). Fred Wilson, a blogging VC at Union Square Ventures, said that you can see evidence of the war for talent in Silicon Valley all over the place, particularly as companies struggle to win the hearts and minds of independent developers to support platforms.
No wonder, since Facebook’s baby-faced founder was Time’s Person of the Year in 2010. And lots of young graduates want to follow in the footsteps of billionaire Mark Zuckerberg by starting their own firms. Shannon Callahan, a recruiter for the portfolio companies of Andreessen Horowitz, told the New York Times that a third of the engineers she calls upon ask for financing for their own startups instead of taking jobs at existing firms.
Exacerbating the shortage is the fact that a lot of foreign-born engineers are still having trouble getting visas to work in this country. Among startups, the valuations are starting to get big, with Zynga reportedly raising a round of $500 million at a valuation of $10 billion (that deal is still a rumor), and social pictures firm Color unveiling its $41 million this week. Others can laugh at such valuations if they want; but if that war chest is used to buy something with a lot of recognized value, it becomes much more real. That’s what happened in the last bubble when AOL bought Time Warner.
Tim Draper, managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said this week that there isn’t a bubble yet and that a recovery that could last five years is just getting started. I tend to agree that most people haven’t yet seen the fruits of recovery yet. The dotcom era, if you recall, lasted from 1994 to 1999. Lots of people who predicted a bubble in 1994 — and therefore stayed out of the frothy stocks and investments — didn’t get rich during those days because they were overly cautious, or “sitting around and biting our nails,” as Wilson said.
In other words, the period of recovery will likely last for some time before the craziness of a complete and utter bubble takes over. We don’t have to completely panic yet, since many of the hottest companies right now are nicely profitable. If we’re in a bubble, there’s still a lot of potential for the bubble to get a lot bigger based on continued momentum. Recognizing that you’re in a bubble shouldn’t paralyze you. Rather, you just have to be aware that there’s a game of musical chairs happening. When the music stops, you don’t want to be the one without a chair.
Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andressen Horowitz, wrote on his blog that everybody is overly worried about today’s bubble compared to the dotcom bubble. He says, “high valuations are fine if the underlying value is there.” He notes that the valuation multiples of the bubble era were ten times higher than current multiples, suggesting that the company valuations today are based on real revenues and profits. He also notes that the flow of money into venture capital today is a quarter of what it was during the dotcom bubble. What we have instead, he said, is the long-awaited arrival of the internet boom.
The dangers of a bubble are always plentiful. If this ball gets rolling too fast, we’ll surely head into some event that will trigger a bursting of the bubble. That would be a shame, since a bursting bubble would stifle a recovery and stop the fruits of that recovery from reaching the wider group of unemployed workers out there. Yes, don’t ruin the party for the rest of us.
On Google Trends, you can search on the words tech bubble and find that there are more people typing those search terms now, but not as many as in late 2008. In the meantime, check out this post on Quora (where there are a number of folks asking about whether we’re in a bubble) , the question and answer site. Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and one of the folks who popped the first internet bubble with the AOL Time Warner deal, explains what led to the bursting of the last bubble. Please take our poll below on whether we are in a recovery or a bubble, and leave a comment explaining your vote.
Online Surveys – Zoomerang.com
People: Fred Wilson, Steve Blank, Yuri Milner
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This Week?s Weird Jobs
Some employers expect perfection, but don't express that wish outright. Instead, they use phrases like "I run a million miles per hour and you need to run ahead of me" and "non-union, English-speaking plasterer with own tools and vehicle... Read more
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Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter
How cool is this? The Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter: An iPhone controlled quadricopter with a camera in its nose! Here’s Barron’s: “Parrots aren’t known for their flying ability. But the Parrot AR.Drone certainly is. It’s one of the most fantastically fun toys I’ve come across in years. A camera in its nose can transmit images of [...]
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Earnings the driver, real test though in 2 weeks
Solid earnings from ORCL and ACN are the main drivers of the morning’s market strength. With about two weeks to go before Q1 earnings releases begin and notwithstanding these good reports, the market has to prepare for what I believe will be a more challenging quarter relative to expectations on the margin side. ORCL and [...]
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Pretty Flipboard Fundraising at an Even Prettier $200 Million Valuation
Flipboard, the high-profile and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, is out raising another round of funding at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, according to numerous sources close to the situation.
The Palo Alto, CA, company declined to comment on its new funding efforts, which sources said had recently accelerated.
The Palo Alto, CA, company declined to comment on its new funding efforts, which sources said had recently accelerated.
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They Can Smell Fear
We all know that animals can smell fear and desperation. So can prospects and referral partners. If you want to slam the door on your business, behave with fear or desperation as your primary motivator.
What do I mean by this? Many small business owners and salespeople have their own needs in the forefront of their minds. This focus makes them frame their message from a position of fear. When the owner or salesperson is worried about meeting their financialRead More
From Small Business Trends
They Can Smell Fear
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Times, They Have A?Changed
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The Implicit Social Graph
John Battelle wrote a gushing post about Color and what it means for mobile/social/local/realtime, augmented reality, and more. There are most certainly some big ideas in the Color app. I've never put a mobile photo app on my phone but...
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Sulia CEO explains how to be friends with Twitter
There?s been a lot of negative talk recently about Twitter?s relationship with developers, but not every Twitter developer is struggling. In fact, New York City startup Sulia just announced that it?s partnering with Twitter to provide publishers with widgets featuring high-quality tweets on specific topics.
Sulia has already created ?channels? of expert tweets on its own site. Under the deal with Twitter, Sulia will be providing those streams to publishers including Flipboard, The Washington Post, WSJ.com, Gannett, and others. Those publishers pay Sulia a licensing fee or a share of their ad revenue, and then Sulia gives Twitter a cut of that payment.
I talked to Sulia chief executive Jonathan Glick earlier today about the deal. He acknowledged that there are challenges building on Twitter’s platform, as companies like UberMedia have discovered. Glick had his own issues with the platform — he was originally going to offer users a way to create lists of other Twitter users, but then he talked to Twitter and found out that the microblogging service was building that feature on its own.
So instead Glick realized that by looking at different Twitter lists, Sulia can figure out who the experts are in different fields. Then the service decides which tweets are and are not relevant to a given topic. For example, Sulia can filter the venture capital channel stream so that it includes all the experts’ tweets about venture capital and excludes all their tweets about their children. These filters are keyword based, and they?re adjusted on-the-fly — Glick said that until yesterday, the word ?color? probably wasn?t a relevant term in venture capital, but Sulia?s technology could see that a number of VC experts were tweeting about the new Color app, so it added Color as a relevant term.
Glick said Twitter noticed all the hard work Sulia put into sifting out the best tweets. In fact, it was Twitter that reached out to Sulia about a partnership. The way Glick sees it, Twitter wants to have a close relationship with a few select partners. That doesn’t mean you need don?t need to be buddies with Twitter executives, but you need to do something well that Twitter can?t do for itself. (This seems in-line with what Twitter says itself about how it sees the platform.)
?I’m not personal friends with them, I didn’t grow up with them, it’s not like we’re in the in-crowd or anything,? Glick said.
He added that he sees microblogging as a revolutionary new broadcast technology that?s ?on par with the invention of television, on par with the invention of cable.? Thinking about the platform that way is helpful, because ?like any kind of broadcasting, they?re going to need shows,? and creating the programming is ?a different skillset from building out the pipes.?
That?s where Sulia?s channels come in. Could Twitter build its own filtering service for tweets around different topics? Glick acknowledged that it?s possible, but ?it?s not something that they can do well without getting deeply into ? fairly non-technical judgment decisions that aren’t currently part of the culture.?
Investors seem to think there?s a business opportunity here too. Sulia has raised funding from First Mark Capital, Village Ventures, IA Capital Partners, Founder Collective, and others.
Companies: Sulia, Twitter
People: Jonathan Glick
5 Sick & Twisted Ways People Make Money
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Founder Labs NYC
One of the best things to happen to startupland in the past five years is the emergence of the startup accelerator. Programs like Y Combinator, Techstars, and many others have made the difficult phase of going from a founding team...
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No New Splashy Engadget Editor Yet, But AOL Site Cleaning Begins
AOL will begin rolling out its plans to overhaul its panoply of content sites as soon as today, a key part of its integration with the Huffington Post, sources familiar with the situation said.
The New York-based Internet portal, which paid $315 million to acquire the high-profile news and opinion site, will essentially close down dozens of its dedicated content sites--some being shuttered completely and others integrated with existing Huffington Post sites.
The New York-based Internet portal, which paid $315 million to acquire the high-profile news and opinion site, will essentially close down dozens of its dedicated content sites--some being shuttered completely and others integrated with existing Huffington Post sites.
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RIM opens up to Android, but will it be too late?
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion had a double dose of news today. It announced that its BlackBerry PlayBook would support Android apps, and the company also released financials that included a 36 percent increase in quarterly revenues.
The Canadian company hit its earnings estimates. But RIM’s stock price is down about 10 percent in after-hours trading today to $57.59 a share, presumably because RIM’s outlook was cautious for the current quarter. The company expects revenue to be $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion — a range that some consider to be too conservative.
That helps put the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook, a tablet with a 7-inch screen, in perspective. RIM really needs to hit a home run with the PlayBook, but it will be hard work to make the tablet stand out in a sea of competitors when it launches on April 19 for $499.
The support for Android apps is important, as the QNX operating system on the PlayBook is designed to run BlackBerry Java apps. This means that RIM will have access to a wider ecosystem of developers to get content for the Playbook. Since there are more than 200,000 Android apps available, RIM solves the problem of any shortage of QNX apps with the Android support. Right now, there are about 25,000 BlackBerry apps, so the Android addition is huge.
RIM is adding the new features with two “app players” that provide a software layer that can run BlackBerry Java and Android version 2.3 apps. These players will let users download BlackBerry Java and Android apps from the BlackBerry App World market and run them on the PlayBook.
RIM also said it has gained support from two makers of game tools: Ideaworks Labs and Unity Technologies, to enable games based on the engines created by those companies to run on the PlayBook. Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive and president, said the addition of Android would give users a greater choice of apps and showcase the PlayBook’s versatility.
The natural question is whether the Android apps will be able to run fast running through a software layer. But the PlayBook that I saw was quite capable of multitasking and was very responsive, so it seems like it should be able to run the Android apps without a problem.
Developers currently building apps for the BlackBerry or Android platforms should be able to quickly and easily port their apps to the BlackBerry Tablet OS (built on the QNX Neutrino software), thanks to a high degree of compatibility between the applications programming interfaces (APIs). For users, the app players will be optional and they will run in a secure “sandbox,” or walled off section of the PlayBook. RIM will disclose more info at its BlackBerry World conference May 3-5 in Orlando, Fla. The tablet will be able to support HTML5 and Adobe Air and Flash apps.
And developers will be able to write native apps for the BlackBerry Tablet OS as well. The company has a limited version of its BlackBerry Tablet OS Native Development Kit that will be in open beta by this summer.
As for the earnings, RIM reported a profit of $984 million, or $1.78 a share, beating analyst expectations. The cautious outlook recognizes that consumers have shifted to RIM’s lower-priced products. RIM also expects to incur new marketing costs as it pushes into the tablet market. The company also warned about potential supply-chain disruption from the Japan quake. For the full fiscal year, BlackBerry shipments were 52.3 million, up 43 percent.
Check out our earlier video demo of the PlayBook in action.
Companies: Research In Motion, RIM
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Weekend Favs March Nineteen
Weekend Favs March Nineteen
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
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ShareSquare?s QR codes helps brands connect the offline world to the mobile Web
ShareSquare, developers of a mobile platform that uses 2D barcodes, dubbed ?QR codes,? to connect offline media like posters to the mobile Web, is formally launching today after proving wildly popular at this year?s South By Southwest conference.
The big difference with ShareSquare, compared to other QR code competitors, is that it also offers a content management system to lets brands easily link QR codes to a customized mobile Web app. The company also offers real-time analytics with geolocation capabilities, allowing brands to instantly track the effectiveness of their campaigns.
As such, ShareSquare arguably represents the next evolution of QR code technology. Instead of just being a disconnected way for brands to link to web pages, they can now easily implement the technology as an integral part of their offline marketing campaigns.
At SXSW, over 100 bands and brands used ShareSquare?s private beta to connect festivalgoers with their Web presences. The company held a contest for the festival?s ?Most Scanned Band,? which led nearly 2,000 users to scan QR codes spread out across Austin. One intrepid band even placed QR codes on a tour bus. ShareSquare says that over ?1,300 artists, agencies and brand advertisers? participated in its private beta over the past three months.
The company offers several modules for its mobile content-management system, including a video module that instantly directs users? phones to play mobile video, a download module that points directly to an app, and a share module to instantly lets users share information via Twitter and Facebook. You can also hold contests using the ?Instant Win? module.
ShareSquare offers a free account for you to test out its service with five different QR codes and mobile web apps. A $100 a month Pro account bumps up that number to 10 QR codes and adds features like custom domain support. Larger organizations can opt for the $499 a month enterprise account, which offers 100 QR codes and the ability to earn revenue by serving ads.
Having researched many QR code-focused companies, I can say ShareSquare is the first I?ve seen that pushes the technology forward to the point where QR codes may finally get mainstream acceptance.
ShareSquare is based in Los Angeles, Calif., and is a graduate of the Founder Institute, a startup advisory and training program. The company has raised $150,000 from Los Angeles-area investors, including Paige Craig, Roy Rodenstein and Jeff Miller.
Companies: ShareSquare
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In Defense Of Note Taking On Twitter
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#startupvisa
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OutCast Agency Head Joins Facebook as Tech Communications Lead
Caryn Marooney, the co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's premier tech communications firms, OutCast Agency, is joining Facebook to lead its tech public relations strategy.
Marooney has actually led the Facebook account for OutCast, which she and Margit Wennmachers built and sold to Next Fifteen Communications Group in 2005 for over $10 million.
Marooney has actually led the Facebook account for OutCast, which she and Margit Wennmachers built and sold to Next Fifteen Communications Group in 2005 for over $10 million.
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5 Sick & Twisted Ways People Make Money
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