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Welcome To The Hostel Microsoft. Such A Lovely Place.
Dec 30, 7:58AM
It was almost exactly a year ago that we wrote about the Googlle Institute of Software Studies, a cleverly-named online university based out of India. After our post on the institution offering students such degrees as a "GCPA" — Googlle Certified Professional in Advanced Computing — it didn't take long for the website of the school to be shut down. But the person who originally tipped us off to those shenanigans is now back with another fun one. And apparently, it's based out of the same city in India. Say hello to the "Hostel Microsoft".
Skype's New App Brings Video Chat To The iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch
Dec 30, 6:35AM
We've been hearing reports that Skype is debuting a mobile video chat service and D-Day has arrived. The company is launching a brand new version of its iPhone app that includes the ability to turn on video in any Skype chat. The beauty of the app is that it brings free video calling to iPhone 3G devices, iPad and iPod Touch, all of which couldn't run Apple's video calling feature Facetime (the feature only works with iPhone 4 devices and Mac computers). Of course, iPad owners won't be able to initiate a video call, but these users can receive any video chats from contacts.
What The "Great Delicious Exodus" Looked Like For Pin-Sized Competitor Pinboard
Dec 30, 6:25AM
When word got out two weeks ago that Yahoo is not 100% committed to Delicious, people who still use the bookmarking service started to panic and look for alternatives. One competing bookmarking site that some people turned to is Pinboard, a barebones bookmarking site which looks a lot like Delicious did in its early years: lean, no-frills, and very useful. The company saw an influx of traffic and activity. The chart above shows requests per minute to its servers in the three days following the Delicious news compared to the week before. A couple hour ago, Pinboard Tweeted out a link to the chart:
Actually, Groupon Already Closed Half Of That Billion Dollar Round
Dec 30, 3:59AM
Yesterday we reported that fast growing ecommerce startup Groupon was in the process of raising nearly $1 billion in new venture capital at a $4.75 billion valuation. "The deal should be closed in a few weeks," we heard from a source. And in fact the deal hasn't closed yet - at least, not all of it. But the company has raised a healthy half billion dollars in new venture money at that valuation in the last couple of weeks. Documents signed, checks cashed, the whole nine yards. Now they're talking to other investors about filling out the round. So who invested?
This Year, Apple Has Two Fangs To Suck The Blood Out Of CES: iPad 2 And Verizon iPhone
Dec 30, 3:10AM
Every year, it seems the buzz starts building around now for CES, the giant consumer electronics expo in Las Vegas. And every year at CES, much of the buzz seems to be around the one company that isn't there — perhaps the most important consumer electronics company these days: Apple. And this year will be no different. Except that this year, the CES buzz-kill may be more intensified as there are not one, but two key Apple products expected to be announced shortly after the expo: the iPad 2 and the Verizon iPhone.
Yext Organizes The Anti-Google Local Advertising Alliance (Screenshots)
Dec 30, 2:49AM
Google, as you may have heard, is making a big push into local advertising. It is currently offering $100 million in AdWords credits to new small businesses that sign up and promotes Google Places results for all local searches. Quite frankly, this is scaring the shit out of competitors like Citysearch, Yellowbook, SuperPages, WhitePages, and Yelp. They all rely on Google search results for people to find a good portion of their listings, and if Google displaces them collectively for local business listings, their businesses will be destroyed. In local, Google is already a big snowball getting bigger and bigger. So how do they fight back? They enter into an anti-Google alliance, of course. The company organizing this alliance is Yext, a New York City startup which specializes in pay-per-call advertising for local businesses and dashboards to help them manage their reputations and listings online. On Monday, it will launch a new feature called "Tags" which will let small businesses highlight their names with a little tag and customizable message across about a dozen local listings sites. Launch parters for this "Tag Alliance" (I like my name better) will include MapQuest, Citysearch, Yellowbook, Local.com, SuperPages, White Pages, MerchantCircle, and Topix, with more to come.
Thanks In Part To The Northeast Blizzard, Online Holiday Spending Surges To Record $30.8 Billion
Dec 30, 2:38AM
Online holiday spending continues to set records. comScore is reporting that retail e-commerce spending in the U.S. for the first 56 days of the November to December 2010 holiday season has reached a record $30.81 billion, which is an 13 percent increase versus the same period last year. The past week before Christmas saw $2.45 billion in spending, an increase of 17 percent versus the corresponding week last year. As expected, comScore reports that the massive snow storm that hit the Northeast region of the U.S. over the weekend helped push post-Christmas spending to record levels. The company also reports that in terms of specific products, Computer Hardware ranked as the top growing category for the holiday season with a 23 percent increase versus last year. Interestingly, handheld devices (such as iPads and e-readers) and laptop computers have driven much of the growth in this sector. 
Drag2Up Lets You Drag Images Into Text-Only Forms
Dec 30, 2:19AM
Drag2Up is Google Chrome and Firefox extension that allows you drag and drop image and other files into any website input box. The extension streamlines the file uploading process by uploading your file in the background and then adding a URL link to the input box of your choice. This saves a boatload of time says the extension's creator, a 15-year-old developer who goes by the name Antimatter15. Drag2Up also supports multiple files and has support for a multitude of URL shorteners. Depending on the type of file and whether you're using Chrome or Firefox, files can be uploaded to hosting services Dropbox, Cloudapp, imgur, Imm.io, Imageshack, Flickr, Picasa, Github Gist, Pastebin.com, Mysticpaste, Chemical servers, Dafk and Hotfile.
TextualAds Raises $650K For Facebook-Fueled, Targeted SMS Campaigns
Dec 29, 11:43PM
Facebook holds a trove of information about its hundreds of millions of users, and many of them are more than happy to hand over some of that data — like a list of their personal interests — so that they can connect with their favorite companies or play a new game. Thing is, despite the targeting opportunities afforded by this data, many businesses have still failed to take advantage of it. TextualAds is a firm that's changing that for text messaging campaigns, by allowing businesses and large brands to push highly targeted SMS messages to their customers. The service launched in September, and today it's announcing that it's closed a $650K seed round. The round's investors include Dave McClure (500 Startups), Peter Boboff & Chris Redlitz (Transmedia Capital), Marcus Segal (Zynga), Shawn Simpson (former Googler), and Erik Moore.
Hitwise: Facebook Overtakes Google To Become Most Visited Website In 2010
Dec 29, 11:05PM
According to Hitwise data released today, Facebook.com was the top visited website in the US in 2010, taking up 8.93 % of site visits between January and November 2010. Google.com came in second at 7.19%, Yahoo Mail is third with 3.52% and Yahoo.com is fourth at 3.30%. YouTube came in fifth at 2.65 %. While this is the first time Facebook has been named most visited site of the year (crowding out last year's winner Google), the visits to Google properties combined still cover 9.85% of all site visits, making Google still a formidable opponent. "Facebook" also ranked #1 for most searched term of the year directly in front of the hilarious "Facebook login" at #2.
Google Targets Small Businesses With $100 Million Worth Of AdWords Credits
Dec 29, 11:01PM
Google is going after local businesses in a big way. It is promoting Google Places any time someone does a local search, it tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion, and it put star exec Marissa Mayer in charge of local products. Since the middle of December, it's been running a $100 million marketing promotion aimed at small and medium-sized businesses to try to get them to sign up for AdWords. Small businesses that sign up by December 31 have until mid-February to spend $100 on AdWords, after which they will be given another $100 credit. The promotion is good for "the first one million businesses only." If one million businesses sign up and spend that $100 the total value of the campaign will be $100 million. Of course, the campaign won't really cost Google anything. It is spending $100 to acquire these small local business as new customers. It has offered similar promotions in the past. But Google's efforts go beyond offering these credits.
Lookout Identifies Advanced Android Trojan (But You're Probably Safe)
Dec 29, 10:06PM
The future of computing is mobile, and, unfortunately, the future of malware will probably lie there too. Well-funded mobile security startup Lookout has just posted a blog entry detailing what it calls "the most sophisticated Android malware to date": a Trojan that's being "grafted" onto legitimate applications. Fortunately, the odds of you being affected are quite low. The Trojan in question has only been seen on third-party Android app marketplaces in China, which aren't accessible without turning on "Unknown Sources" from Android's settings menu (the vast majority of users only download applications via the official Android Market). And the infected applications request access to far more of the user's data than they normally would (users have to approve these requests before installing an app), which can tip users off that something is amiss. 
Delicious In Purgatory
Dec 29, 9:45PM
On December 16 Yahoo accidentally told the world they were shutting down popular bookmarking site Delicious. They fired most or all of the Delicious staff. Then they untold that story, saying they intended to sell it off and that the press got it all wrong. Ok great. So how's that sale process going? Not so well, according to a handful of interested buyers I've spoken with. I know of five companies and venture firms that have reached out to Yahoo to talk about buying Delicious. Three of them have confirmed to me that Yahoo either hasn't responded, or hasn't responded with any serious level of engagement. According to one source, Yahoo has told people that they are planning on starting a sale process in mid-January.
Next New Networks Raises $1 Million Amid YouTube Acquisition Rumors
Dec 29, 9:12PM
While Google's YouTube is reportedly in talks to buy Web content producer Next New Networks, the New York-based startup has just raised $1 million in debt financing. According to this SEC filing, the fledgling company is raising a round totaling $1.2 million. Listed as investors are Ross Levinsohn from Fuse Capital, Bijan Sabet from Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs and Saban Capital Group. The potential acquisition of NNN, which also manages a network of independent filmmakers alongside producing its own channels, would give YouTube its first step into producing Web videos in-house.
Back off SEC: Let's Put the "Risk" of Secondary Markets in Perspective
Dec 29, 8:00PM
Back in early 2009, I was concerned about the development of private stock secondary market exchanges. I was concerned that it would affect retention of top executives if people were able to cash out before an IPO too easily. I worried companies wouldn't be careful enough about who they would allow to own chunks of them. I thought it would be just a band-aid for a larger industry problem of companies not wanting to go public early and often. And in the wake of the financial meltdown, I was concerned about people getting burned who were buying the shares on a loosely regulated market. We've seen shades of all of these, but mostly my fears were allayed once we saw these markets in practice. Why? Because it was clear these aren't shadow public markets. 
More Lawsuits In The Land Of Electronics: Sony Sues LG Over Patent Spat
Dec 29, 5:08PM
In the electronics industry, it often seems like everyone is pretty much suing everyone over something, somewhere. This morning, I caught that Sony Corporation has apparently filed suit against LG Electronics (right before CES, no less). LG Electronics is the division of the LG conglomerate that markets and distributes the group's home entertainment devices (TVs, Blu-ray disc players, DVD recorders and whatnot) as well as its mobile phones and home appliances.
The Lumimask: A Mask That Wakes You As Gently As Mother Nature
Dec 29, 4:55PM
There are plenty of clocks that "light" the room slowly, flooding your optic nerves with crisp morning luminosity in order to wake you the way Madre Natura wanted us to. But until now there's never been a mask that will wake you with the same soothing change in luminosity. This device, called the Lumimask, is currently on Kickstarter and $50 gets you a pre-order unit while $100 gets you the device and a pair of pajamas (pre-washed). If it doesn't get funded it doesn't get made, so this guy is sending out his heartfelt entreaty to you, the Internet, in hopes that someone out there will help him.
Outsourcing Platform Freelancer.com Hits 2M Users – Guess Where Most Are Based?
Dec 29, 3:13PM
Outsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com (formerly known as GetAFreelancer) has hit a milestone: 2 million professionals have registered for its service to date. That's up from 1 million in October 2009. The New York-based startup says the 2 million users (which I seriously doubt are all active) hail from 240 countries. The largest country represented is the United States, with over 21% of users. Second to the U.S. is India, with 19%.
eBay's Gross Mobile Sales For The Holiday Season Up 166 Percent To $230 Million
Dec 29, 2:44PM
eBay's mobile sales continued to grow during the holiday shopping season, according to a release issued by the company today. eBay is reporting that gross merchandise value (also known as GMV, the total sales dollar value for merchandise sold through eBay) was up 166 percent to $230 million from Nov. 25 to Dec. 25 from the same period last year. In the U.S., sales from eBay's mobile apps grew 134 percent over the same period last year, generating nearly $100 million in GMV.
Irony: Read Kindle Books On Your Rooted NookColor
Dec 29, 2:32PM
Just when we thought the NookColor was just a B&N reading device, hackers have rooted the devices and ported the Kindle reading app to the platform, ensuring plenty of migraines around Barnes & Noble HQ this week.
Flight And Hotel Price Tracking Startup Yapta Is Raising A $6.4 Million Round
Dec 29, 2:04PM
Yapta, which helps travelers book airline tickets (and hotel rooms) as cheaply as possible, has raised close to $3.5 million of a $6.4 million financing round, an SEC filing reveals. According to the information we've gathered through CrunchBase, the round will bring the company's total amount of funding to $14.4 million.
Skype Reveals A Bug In Its Windows Client Was What Crashed Its System
Dec 29, 1:24PM
After suffering a massive outage last week, Skype CIO Lars Rabbe has now detailed what went wrong. One of the root causes? A bug in the Skype for Windows client (version 5.0.0152).
SCVNGR To Hover Over Times Square This New Year's Eve
Dec 29, 1:00PM
In a few nights, an estimated 1 million people are going to pack into New York's Times Square for New Year's Eve (brrr). And amidst all of the confetti, snow, and alcohol, they're going to see a whole lot of ads, which is what Times Square does best. One of them represents a win for location-based mobile game SCVNGR: the service will be prominently featured on American Eagle's Times Square billboard starting today and running through the new year. To mark the occasion, American Eagle will be offering New Years-themed challenges on SCVNGR (for example, entering what your resolution is for 2011). For each challenge that's completed, American Eagle will be donating $5 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America — and SCVNGR will be matching that donation. As people stand outside in the frigid cold waiting for the ball to drop, you can bet a good number of them are going to check out the app. 
Stealthy Mobile Games Startup Wild Needle Is Raising $3 Million In Series A Funding
Dec 29, 12:54PM
An interesting startup called Wild Needle that will be entering the social mobile gaming space soon, is raising $3 million in funding, $2.5 million of which it has already secured, according to this SEC filing. Self-proclaimed to be in "super sneaky stealth mode", the company, which was founded earlier this year and is based in Mountain View, boasts that its mission is to "stretch the boundaries of the mobile game experience farther than it's ever gone before". 
Energy Literacy Platform: Track And Turn Off Household Appliances With Your Phone
Dec 29, 12:04PM
Using the web to track power consumption at home is something several companies are working on at the moment (including Google). Tokyo-based startup Sassor is developing a solution that offers two big selling points: their so-called Energy Literacy Platform (ELP) [English link] lets you track each household appliance individually and makes it possible to turn these devices off remotely, for example by pushing a button on your smartphone. The Energy Literacy Platform is based on the idea that by empowering consumers with a tool that informs them how much energy their appliances really use, they will start saving energy. The platform consists of three parts.
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