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Sites With Government Seized Domains Are Moving On, On Twitter
Nov 28, 6:27AM
Last week while everyone was waiting for the COICA bill to move through Congress, the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency one upped the Attorney General and seized domain names from a group of over 70 copyright infringing websites. A visit to the blacklisted domains now results in the below ominous looking message from Homeland Security.
Gmail Lite: If You Build It Google, We Will Come
Nov 28, 3:10AM
I've seen the future of messaging — it looks a lot like Facebook Messages. More specifically, it looks like the new version of Facebook Messages that the company began rolling out two weeks ago. But I'm not sure that the future is Facebook Messages. At least not for me. Because that's simply not how I have used Facebook and it's too hard to switch my patterns now. And that's why Gmail has a huge opportunity. We need a Gmail Lite. At first, I was underwhelmed by the new Facebook Messages. But that's just because I really hadn't been using Facebook Messages before. I would get a message every now and then, but mostly I would ignore the area. But in the past couple of weeks, probably as the feature gets turned on for more users, I've started to get more messages coming to me this way. And as that has happened, I'm seeing the absolute beauty of the system. Namely, I'm seeing the beauty in its speed.
NSFW: 404 Alcohol Not Found (Or, Social Media is Overrated, but it's Helped me Stay Sober)
Nov 28, 2:42AM
Earlier today, my friend Oli emailed me to say he'd noticed that one of my sites was showing a 404 message. Specifically, he was emailing to congratulate me. According to the site in question - ispauldrinkingagain.com - it has been 404 days since I last drank alcohol. And, for reasons I'll explain in a moment, I owe a large amount of credit for that to the power of social media. Making that admission is slightly awkward, given that on Tuesday you'll be able to watch me take part in a CNNMoney / Webbies debate with Gary Vaynerchuk where I argue in favour of the motion that "social media is overrated". And yet my reason for supporting the motion is simple: despite how much I owe it, social media is overrated.
Those Two LeWeb Tickets Now Include Lodging Thanks To Airbnb. Tell Us Why You Need To Go
Nov 27, 10:35PM
Yesterday, I noted that we were giving away two free tickets to LeWeb '10. But I was quick to point out that while the free tickets, normally priced at around 2,000 euros, are a great deal, you would still have to pay for your own travel to Paris and lodging for the conference, which takes place on December 8 and 9. Well guess what? You can cross lodging off of that list. Airbnb has graciously offered to cover the lodging in Paris for each winner of our ticket giveaway. Each winner would receive a $500 gift card from Airbnb which they could use to find a place to stay in or around Paris during the conference. Airbnb offers some great deals around the city, so you should be able to find something very nice with that money. And that means that if you win, you would only have to pay for your own travel to the conference. Yes, it's a killer deal.
The Myth Of Serendipity
Nov 27, 7:55PM
Editor's note: Henry "Hank" Nothhaft, Jr. is the co-founder and CMO of Trapit, a virtual personal assistant for Web content still in private beta that was incubated out of SRI and the CALO project (as was Siri, the conversational search engine bought by Apple). One of the most interesting concepts to emerge in media and tech lately is that of "serendipity"—showing people what they want even if they didn't ask for it. Despite its seemingly ubiquitous invocation, however, the concept of serendipity remains ill-defined and put forth as some vague panacea for a slew of emerging innovations hoping to attract new users in droves. What is needed is a closer look at what we actually mean when we talk about serendipity. 
The Good Old Days
Nov 27, 6:31PM
Navigating Apple TV and its various peeks into the presumed future has been a valuable waste of time. For $100 plus an HDMI cable I get to sample various media dead ends including NetFlix, iTunes rental, buy, and streaming options, YouTube, and other stuff I can't remember right now. In the past, I would have spent more time testing the work arounds for adding podcasts and ripped music to broaden the choices, but something about the device suggests we're in such a rapid shakeout it might be easier to wait. But for what? Google TV seems caught in little brother mode behind the next loser tablet wave. What ultimate value is there in trading Apple's dead ends for another set of second rate dead ends? The idea that we can replace the aggregate value of the Hollywood studio system with some loose coalition of rag tag revolutionary product ignores the tendency for the avant-garde to go mainstream. At some point, having everything work from one device is the best way of killing any possible interest in what's available.
The Best Of Google Demo Slam
Nov 27, 6:19PM
Back in October, we came across a mysterious site called Google Demo Slam a couple days before it actually launched. It turned out to be a fun site featuring demos of different Google products where you can watch two demos side by side and vote for the best one. Some of the demos are by Google engineers, but anyone can submit their own and vie to become a Google Demo Slam champ. Below are a few of the best demos on the site so far. The first one is four guys pretending to be Mount Rushmore and doing such a good job that they fool Google Goggles into identifying them as the real thing. The second shows two women using Google Translate to get their computer to order Indian food in Hindi. The third one demonstrates how to give yourself a haircut using Google Chat and two computers. And the fourth one recreates a road trip on Route 66 with Google Street View, a couple couches, and a projector. (Videos after the jump).
As Holiday Shoppers Flock To The Web, WatchMouse Tracks Performance Of E-Retailers
Nov 27, 4:45PM
Website monitoring startup WatchMouse is now monitoring the top 100 retail websites for availability around the holiday shopping season. The starup tested retail sites including Apple, Amazon, BestBuy, Borders, Overstock, Walmart and Zappos, for availability and performance during the month leading up to and including Thanksgiving Day, November 25 and Black Friday, November 26. WatchMouse says that 27 of the 100 sites had 100% uptime; 15 came in at 99.99%, and only American Eagle Outfitters, GiltGroupe, Footlocker.com, and Fry's Electronics landed in the "unacceptable" category. American Eagle Outfitters performed the worst during the monitoring period from October 25 - November 26, 2010 with nearly one full day of downtime. 
Google TV Already In Trouble? Sony Offering 25% Off Blu-ray Google TV Units
Nov 27, 3:50PM
Google TV might be in a bit of a pickle if a Best Buy and Sony sale is any indication. The platform launched a few weeks ago with the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV. Both are loaded with the same system and so both are suffering the fate of Big Media's blockade. It's a sad story, really. Google TV aimed to bridge the span between subscription-based TV and Internet content, but so far said bridge is still held up by bureaucratic red tape nonsense. Sony seems to be solving one of the platform's biggest deal breakers: the price. Google TV units are crazy expensive. The Logitech Revue launched at $300 and that price is still holding strong even at retailers like Amazon amidst nearly site-wide Black Friday sales. It's the Sony set-top box model that's uncharacteristically on sale right now even though it's less than a month old. This doesn't look so well for Google's living room takeover plans.
UK High Court Ruling Implies Headlines Are Copyright. Not a Good Idea.
Nov 27, 10:43AM
The UK's High Court has ruled that news monitoring agencies will have to pay publishing companies to use their web content, effectively re-classifying headlines as separate literary works subject to copyright. The moves follows a legal battle between the Newspaper Licensing Agency, owned by eight of the UK's largest newspaper groups, and Meltwater, a news monitoring agency. Meltwater plans to appeal against the decision, but if it's upheld, you can expect a wave of more legal actions, claims that links are copyright and the break down of the UK's internet industry. Well done High Court.
LeWeb '10 Nears. Want To Go? Tell Us Why, We're Giving Away Two Tickets
Nov 27, 4:14AM
On December 8 and 9, the LeWeb conference will descend upon the city of Paris for two days of non-stop tech. This year, the event will have a bit more TechCrunch flavor, as several of us are going, and the startup competition has been tweaked a bit to be more like our own TechCrunch Disrupt competition. It should be a great time. But we realize it's also expensive. So organizer Loic Le Meur has given us two tickets to give away to readers. Now, to be clear, these are tickets to the two-day event, they don't include airfare or lodging. But if you're at or around Paris and/or you don't mind paying for travel, this is a killer deal, as each ticket normally goes for about 2,000 euros.
iPad "Pad" Joke Finally Taken Too Far [Video]
Nov 27, 3:34AM
Just like Steve Jobs said we eventually stopped making fun of and just plain got used to the word "pad" in the name of his magical device, no longer thinking of that other thing also called a pad whenever we pass by an Apple store. In fact, we're already debating the hypothetical merits of the iPad 2 and nary an iTampon 2 or similar reference in sight. Until now... Iselle Slome and the ladies of ArthurORMartha have created just about the most ridiculous parody of a computing product I've ever seen ...
Twitter Users Make Snowstorm Map #UKSnow
Nov 27, 1:44AM
Industrious Briton Ben Marsh is turning the epic ten inches of snow forecast in the UK this weekend into a way to bring his fellow citizens together. On his site UKSnow, users who tweet about the weather in realtime can now have their location coordinates and snow descriptions plotted on a map, as well as streaming in a sidebar. Many are including photos (like the one above) for an even richer experience.
OMG/JK: Mistletoe, AirPlay, And Other Forms Of Near Field Communication
Nov 27, 12:23AM
It's Black Friday, which means that many of you woke up this morning at the crack of dawn, shrugged off your Thanksgiving food comas, and made your way to the dreary parking lots of electronic stores across the country. Right about now, you're probably just waking up from your recovery nap — and there's nothing better to get your sluggish mind back on track than this week's episode of OMG/JK. This week, we talk about The Daily, an iPad-only newspaper from News Corp that will reportedly be launching soon. We also discuss the latest iOS software release, which adds a slew of features to the iPad just in time for the holidays, including the aptly-named AirPlay. 
Ask a VC: Why David Hornik Invests Close to Home and the Dumbest Deal in the Valley (TCTV)
Nov 26, 11:14PM
Ten years ago, most VCs refused to invest outside of Silicon Valley. Now, most of them have funds in Israel, Europe, India or China-- and lately many of those Chinese funds are outperforming the US counterparts. But August Capital is still sticking with the kind of local venture capital that built this industry, and David Hornik explains why in this week's episode of Ask a VC. But, Portland? Yeah he'd invest in a Portland company and answers a reader question about what the local ecosystem needs to do to get his and other venture capitalists' attention. Hornik also (sort of) answers one of the best reader questions I've gotten in a while: What's the dumbest investment he's seen recently in Silicon Valley? (Hint.)
Vader Waves Hand. "There Is No iPhone." But There Is — In A Big Way In Japan.
Nov 26, 11:13PM
Remember back in 2008 when there was a lot of talk about how the iPhone would flop in Japan? 91 percent of Japanese would not be buying the device, said one survey. By 2009, that talk inevitably turned to how it had already flopped. With some even writing about how the Japanese people "hate" the device. Then something funny happened. That kind of talk abruptly stopped. And for good reason. As it turns out, the iPhone is actually a massive success in the country. Much like it did in the U.S., the iPhone is transforming the mobile landscape in Japan. Two stories today highlight this. The first, talks about the Japanese iPhone "craze" and details how app developers are rushing to get into the potentially huge market for Japanese iPhone apps. The second story notes how NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier, is turning to marketing to make up for the fact that they don't have the iPhone (it's sold there by rival Softbank). Marketing involving yes, Darth Vader.
Former Digg VP Of Engineering Lands At Gilt Groupe
Nov 26, 10:32PM
Well at least one former Digg engineer out there that had a happier Thanksgiving. We've gotten word that John Quinn, former Digg VP of Engineering, will be joining luxury discount marketplace Gilt Groupe as VP of Engineering come next Monday. Quinn will be working in the Gilt Groupe New York office under CIO Steve Jacobs. Prior to Gilt Groupe, Quinn had spent three years at Digg and before that was VP of Engineering at Squaretrade. According to our sources, Quinn was instrumental in the Digg v4 redesign and its problematic move over to a Cassandra versus MySQL database. 
>From The North Face To Vegas: A Facebook Deals Roundup
Nov 26, 9:42PM
It's been less than one month since Facebook launched its new deals service on top of its still-nascent Places platform. But that hasn't stopped it from lining up some of the US's biggest brands in time for the holiday season. A few minutes ago, the social network posted a note that shows just how many companies have already climbed on board to offer deals over the holidays. Note that some of these have already been announced (including the charitable Southwest Deal that donates $1 per check-in to the Make-a-Wish Foundation), but seeing them in one place makes it easier to gauge how much traction the feature is getting. So why is this important? As we've discussed before, these location services are in a race to snap up deals with as many national brands as possible, in addition to the longtail of local businesses. 
Our Favorite Singer/Songwriter Launches A Mad Libs-esque iPhone Song App
Nov 26, 9:38PM
Just in case you're unaware of our affection for singer/songwriter Jonathan Mann, see here, here, here, here, or here. But the relationship didn't start out so friendly. Initially, we ripped him for the Bing jingle song he wrote to win a competition. And Mann responded by writing a song about me. But it's all good. We're BFF now. And Mann keeps cranking out the hits. Now he's trying to see if his song-a-day success can transfer to an iPhone app. Songatron is an app that Mann and developer Iliya Yordanov dreamed up so that anyone could have fun with the songs Mann writes on a daily basis. Essentially, it's a lot like Mab Libs, but for music. You load up the app, say a word, and pick a song you want to apply it to. The song then plays (complete with Mann singing and playing the music) with your word inserted in key points.
Using Video Games to Burn all that Fat Caused by Playing Video Games (TCTV)
Nov 26, 7:37PM
HopeLab is a nonprofit video game lab founded by Pam Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. That's right, I said non-profit video game lab. It seeks to make the world better through video games, and it's hoping it has a new hit on its hands with Zamzee. Zamzee combats sedentary behavior by giving kids and teens points for moving more throughout the day and those points can be used to buy virtual goods or exchange for gift cards. Early research shows a whopping 30% jump in activity when people play Zamzee-- the equivalent of running a marathon every month. HopeLabs has decided to spin the game out into a for-profit company to help commercialize the game faster. Richard Tate of HopeLabs joined us via Skype to talk about the game that may be a solution if your kids ate too much Turkey yesterday.
The Seven Principles You Need to Know to Build a Great Social Product
Nov 26, 7:19PM
Social products are an interesting bird. For even the most experienced product designer, social products prove an elusive lover. While there are many obvious truths in social products, there are also alot of ways to design them poorly. Especially when you are deep in the moment making pixel-level decisions trying to remember what's important, things may not be so clear. The only magic I've found in designing compelling social products that have the best shot at breaking through the noise and capturing people's time and money is in being extremely clear on how your social product meets a few key design principles.
Death/Star (Episode 1): The Galaxy Tab, Instagram, and Boxee Box (TCTV)
Nov 26, 4:50PM
Welcome to Death/Star, a new show we are testing on TechCrunch TV. It's a product review show with a twist. My co-host, CrunchGear editor John Biggs, and I give our opinions on three hot products. In the inaugural episode we cover the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tablet, photo-sharing app Instagram, and the Boxee Box. To spice things up, we try to go beyond the traditional thumbs up/thumbs down to predict whether each product will end up in the graveyard (in which case we mark it for death) or become a bona fide hit (in which case we give it a star). Hence, the name: Death/Star. A surprise guest appears at the end and punks Biggs (the look on his face is classic).
Southwest's Feel-Good Facebook Places Holiday Promo Helps Kids Make-A-Wish
Nov 26, 4:25PM
The mobile check-in is not just a way to tell your friends where you are via FourSquare or Facebook Places, it is a marketing opportunity. Southwest Airlines is combining Facebook Places and charitable giving to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to encourage travelers to check into Southwest when they get to the airport. >From now through Christmas, Southwest Airlines will make a $1 donation in the form of free travel credit to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. Often these wishes involve travel, an Southwest will donate up to $300,000 in travel credit through this promotion.
Black Friday Is Almost Over: What Will You Be Spending Your Money On Next Year?
Nov 26, 3:47PM
To quote Dwight Hansen, I do know a thing or two about a thing or two and as such I'm allowed, sometimes, to prognosticate. Even as we thrust our fists into the air triumphantly when we snag the last tattered box containing a Kung Zhu hamster value bundle, the IT industry never sleeps and, like a shark, it must keep moving to survive. Based on what we've seen this year, let's take a look at what we can expect to see next year when we once again fall into the Black Friday Breech. 
11 Or 13? Today, Both MacBook Airs Cost The Same
Nov 26, 3:28PM
A recurring refrain in my Twitter feed is the coded question, "11 or 13?" Despite it's religious overtones, this is not a reference to passages in the Bible. It is a question familiar to any Apple-obsessed consumer: Should I get the 11-inch MacBook Air or the 13-inch? If you've been asking yourself the same question, today the price difference will not be the deciding factor. Although the cheapest 11" MacBook Air is still $999, a Black Friday deal on the the 13" models makes the lower-end one with a 128 GB flash drive the same price as the higher-end 11" model with the 128 GB flash drive. It is actually a dollar cheaper, $1,198 versus $1,199, and the battery lasts longer. 
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