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CrowdFlower Raises $7M, Launches E-Commerce Tool For Data Categorization
Mar 22, 11:58AM
CrowdFlower, a startup that helps businesses outsource mundane or repetitive tasks to the cloud, has raised $7 million in new funding led by Harmony Partners with Trinity Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners participating in the round. This brings the startup's total funding to $12 million. CrowdFlower, which launched at TechCrunch50 in 2009 and is a product of Dolores Labs, prices tasks and jobs based on the amount of time it takes to perform the assignment per unit (the user does the sample task). The startup mainly focuses on helping businesses complete tasks relating to data collection, content moderation and product search relevance. 
Meltwater Group Buys Social CRM Startup JitterJam For $6 Million
Mar 22, 11:57AM
Social media monitoring company Meltwater Group has acquired JitterJam, a startup that develops CRM software. Meltwater purchased JitterJam for $6 million, and all of JitterJam's employees will join Meltwater. JitterJam blends email and social media with your contacts database to provide an intelligent layer on top of sales functions to convert conversations into customers. Core features include social profiles of contacts, analytics, notifications, social search and more. JitterJam will be integrated into Meltwater's Buzz product. 
Googlers Buy More Junk Food Than Microsofties (And Why Rapleaf Is Creepy)
Mar 22, 11:31AM
If you weren't creeped out by data-mining startup Rapleaf after reading about their ways in a relatively unsettling Wall Street Journal article published last October ("The San Francisco startup says it has 1 billion e-mail addresses in its database"), chances are you will be now. For its latest 'study', Rapleaf has tapped its database of identifiable information to extract a sample of 6,000 Google employees (email addresses ending in @google.com) and 16,000 Microsoft employees (email addresses ending in @microsoft.com) and subsequently analyzed their grocery purchase behavior in partnership with an unnamed loyalty cards aggregator.
Boom! Professional Social Network LinkedIn Passes 100 Million Members
Mar 22, 10:43AM
2011 has proven to be a monumental year so far for professional social network LinkedIn. The company filed its S-1 for a public offering, released a number of data-focused products and unveiled a social news reader for professionals. And today, the professional social network has hit an important milestone: 100 million users. LinkedIn, which launched in 2003, says that it is now being used in over 200 countries, with more than half of its users originating from outside the U.S. To be exact, the U.S. has 44 million LinkedIn members, and there are 56 million members outside of the U.S. Brazil is seeing the highest growth rate, with new user adoption rising 428 percent year-over-year. Mexico is also seeing major growth, with membership growing by 178 percent year-over-year. 
Kutiman Killed The Video Star (Again)
Mar 22, 9:22AM
It was two years ago when Ophir Kutiel, who goes by the stage name 'Kutiman', became an Internet sensation with a phenomenal video music project called Thru-You. The project comprised of seven tracks composed entirely of YouTube video footage that was sliced and diced over a 3-month period in Kutiman's home studio. He's now back with a brand new track with a jazzier groove called 'My Favorite Color'... Enjoy!
It Worked! HuffPo Ends Up Hiring Creator Of Viral Infographic Resume
Mar 22, 8:51AM
Sister site The Huffington Post just went on a journalistic hiring spree (hide your bloggers/hide your editors), scooping up New York Times editor Maura Egan, who will be Deputy Entertainment and Culture Editor under recent hire and fellow NYT alum John Montorio, along with Reason's Radley Balko who joins as a Criminal Justice Reporter, Rebecca Carroll who comes on as Culture Editor of Black Voices, GOOD's Amanda Millner Fairbanks as Education Reporter, and Jaweed Kaleem as Religion Reporter.
RIM Reveals BlackBerry PlayBook Versions, Pricing (Starts At $499), Retail Partners
Mar 22, 8:16AM
In case you were holding out for a BlackBerry PlayBook: good news. Research In Motion this morning announced (expected) plans to make the tablet computer available in more than 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Indeed, pricing starts at $499. In the U.S., outlets include AT&T, Best Buy, Office Depot, RadioShack, Sprint and Staples. Best Buy has already announced that the tablet computer is scheduled to be available from all Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores in the United States, as well as Best Buy and Future Shop stores in Canada, on April 19.
Amazon's Android App Store Launches: Test Drive Apps Directly From Your Browser
Mar 22, 7:05AM
This morning Amazon is officially launching its Android App Store — a storefront for apps that will compete directly with Google's official Android Market. We first broke the news about the impending App Store back in September and had some thorough coverage on the details in January when it opened to developer submissions. But now the store is finally going live to consumers (it will be rolling out over the course of the day, so you may not be able to access yet). And while there were leaks abound about this morning's launch, there are still a few details that Amazon managed to keep quiet. The biggest one: Amazon will let you 'Test Drive' nearly any Android application in the App Store directly from your browser using some very interesting technology. Click the 'Test Drive' button, and Amazon will launch an emulated instance of Android on its EC2 cloud, which you'll be able to control directly from your browser (it uses Flash). Some features won't work right now (like functions that take advantage of the phone's accelerometer) but you should be able to at least get the gist of what you're buying. Amazon was unable to give me early access to this prior to today's launch, but I'll update with my impressions as soon as I get to try it out. 
Happy Birthday Twitter. Yes, You're Awesome. Now Back To Work (On Search And Archives)
Mar 22, 3:09AM
I woke up this morning and my Twitter stream looked like a Facebook Wall on a teenager's birthday. "Happy birthday, Twitter!" "Twitter, you're the best, happy bday!" "Can't believe you're five Twitter!" These messages came in fast and furious from folks in the tech sphere, folks not in the tech sphere, celebrities, Twitter employees. On and on and on. And that's great. Twitter is awesome. Even if you're unwilling to admit that it has changed the world, there's no denying that it has drastically changed the tech landscape and the way information is created and consumed. And it continues to do so. So yes, happy birthday, Twitter. And now it's time to get back to work. 
NYTimes Paywall Limit To Extend Beyond Google To "All Major Search Engines"
Mar 22, 2:53AM
When the details of the New York Times paywall/fence were announced on Thursday, Times PR representatives told press that it would be placing a five article a day limit on Google referrals, and only Google referrals. This policy has somehow changed over the weekend, as the Times' Communications Manager Kristin Mason tells me that the five article limit will now extend to "all major search engines." Apparently the Google-only clause was only specific to the Canadian roll out and will be lifted during when the paywall launches worldwide on March 28th. 
Local E-Bike Start-Up Clean Republic Makes Good In Seattle
Mar 22, 12:30AM
We cover electric bikes every now and then at CrunchGear, but while millions are sold in Asia and Europe, they remain a rarity here in the US, even on the mean cycling streets of Seattle. Certainly the convenience of cars and our highway-orientated infrastructure is partially to blame for the lack of interest in these extremely effective transportation tools, but I also think that accessibility has been an issue. The Eneloop bike I rode last year at CES, for instance, I have never seen nor heard of since, and the major conversion kits and full bikes seem like too great of an investment for the chary, green-curious consumer. Clean Republic, a local Seattle start-up literally run out of a garage, seems to be of the opinion that what matters is simplicity, modesty in design, and of course low cost. In 2010 they've gone from prototype to 1,000 kits shipped and although they're not bucking to be a billion-dollar company, they are building a sustainable business and could be trading in millions pretty soon.
Amazon Gives Kindle Book-Swapping Service Lendle The Axe
Mar 22, 12:13AM
It was an idea as brilliant as it was shortlived: let people swap their eBooks with strangers free of charge using Kindle's new 'lending' feature. And now, after around two months in operation, Amazon has given Lendle the boot. A little background: earlier this year Amazon gave Kindle a new lending feature that will let you give an ebook you own to a friend for 14 days (Barnes and Noble has offered a similar feature on the Nook since 2009). The feature will only let you lend each book once, and only certain books even support lending in the first place. But it's still a great feature for bookworms who have grown accustomed to swapping their favorite new reads with friends. 
Sendoid: Finally, Sharing Big Files Isn't A Huge Pain
Mar 21, 11:28PM
When it comes to files, we love to share. No, we need to share. Thanks to the massive capacities of Gmail and other email services, it's become remarkably easy to share files. Of course, most email services limit the size of the file you can share. Gmail's, for example, is 25 megabytes. But if you want to share a larger file or multiple files -- and even want a little privacy in doing so -- you have to go elsewhere. As a result of these limitations, many peer-to-peer file-sharing services have popped up in an effort to fill the demand for transferring those hulking files you've got lying around.
Drunk On Licensing Fees And Patents, Microsoft Has Become A Joke
Mar 21, 11:00PM
Earlier today, it was revealed that Microsoft was suing yet another company for infringing on their patents. The target this time? Barnes & Noble. Yes, Microsoft is suing a book chain. Why? Because they claim the Nook e-reader (which runs Google's Android OS) copies status bars from Windows CE. Or something. If you'll excuse my bluntness, it's all a bunch of bullshit. Devin has a good overview on CrunchGear of what the patents in question actually are. The whole thing is laughable. And everyone knows that except one party: Microsoft. The company has become completely drunk on their patents and subsequent lame lawsuits. And as a result, they're quickly losing the hearts and minds of just about everyone that doesn't work in Redmond.
VeriFone Keeps Up FUD Campaign Against Square With Pathetic Facebook Ads
Mar 21, 10:42PM
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -Mahatma Gandhi A couple weeks ago, VeriFone went after a much smaller competitor in a very public way. It accused Square, Jack Dorsey's mobile payments startup, of a serious security hole which turned out to be not particularly serious at all. VeriFone was trying to spread major FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and use it to promote its own competing, late-to-the-party PAYware Mobile product. Dorsey responded and there was a huge backlash against VeriFone on Twitter, obviously, and elsewhere. Well, apparently the backlash wasn't so bad because VeriFone is still trying to market PAYware by bashing Square. An ad on Facebook reads:
Google And China At It Again With Government Gmail Block
Mar 21, 10:14PM
After weeks of Gmail issues in China, Google has confirmed today that the problems stem from Chinese government-interference. The search engine gave this statement to us and other media outlets, "There is no technical issue on our side; we have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail." Gmail users in China are reporting having no trouble logging into the service, but are experiencing issues sending and receiving messages as well as performing routine actions. The problems are also erratically distributed amongst users, so one user sitting in a cafe could be having issues with the Gmail while a user next to him could be just fine.
Check-In Wars Reborn? Google And Facebook Both Making Big Pushes
Mar 21, 9:19PM
Today brings two different news items from two huge companies both related to the same thing: check-ins. This morning, All Facebook found an area of Facebook's site pointing to the ability to check-in to events. And just now, Google has pushed an update to their Latitude iPhone app to allow users to check-in for the first time also. Is a new check-in war brewing? Well, yes and no. Neither of these updates today by themselves are huge — just yet. Facebook has had the ability to check-in via their Places service for several months now (though the feature is still rolling out worldwide). Google, meanwhile, added check-ins to Latitude on Android this past February (and noted that it would be coming for the iPhone too). But both of the subtle updates today point to big things.
The Council For Accountable Advertising Hopes To Make Ad Technology Less Confusing
Mar 21, 8:49PM
The advertising technology world is confusing. There are hundreds of ad tech startups and technologies, but few standard ways or APIs for marketers take data from one and mix it with another. The Council for Accountable Advertising, a new industry trade organization I first caught wind of in January, hopes to change all that. It is now about to formally launch. The Council's goals are to create standards for data integration and transparency, define standards of accountability for the online advertising industry, suggest best practices, and provide original industry research. "You can't even download reports from two different tools and put them next to each other and know what they mean," says Stephen Messer, one of the founding members of the Council and vice chairman of Cross Commerce Media. The ad tech industry needs to simplify things and make them less confusing.
Interview With Digg CEO Matt Williams On Future Of Digg
Mar 21, 8:42PM
I spoke with Digg CEO Matt Williams today about the departure of founder Kevin Rose to work on a new startup, and where Digg goes from here. Williams is extremely bullish on Digg. Traffic stabilized in January, he says, at about 20 million unique monthly visitors. The company has just 35 employees, he says, after 40% layoffs late last year. With the decreased burn rate the company is approaching cash flow positive, he says, and should get there this year. This is clearly a big priority for Williams, who is about to celebrate six months with the company. But he also has big product plans for Digg, he says. "A year from now Digg will look very different. It will have a fantastic zeitgeist of the news product but it will also be many other things to news readers," he told me.
Shutterfly Acquires Online Stationery Company Tiny Prints For $333M In Cash And Stock
Mar 21, 8:40PM
Shutterfly has acquired Tiny Prints, a company that online publishing company that sells cards, invitations, personalized stationery and photo books. The deal includes $141 million in cash, and approximately 3.9 million shares of Shutterfly common stock. In addition, Shutterfly will reserve approximately 1.4 million shares (valued currently at $60 million) of common stock as consideration for the vested and unvested Tiny Prints employee equity awards assumed by Shutterfly. The entire Tiny Prints team will join Shuterfly. Founded in 2004, Tiny Prints raised funding from Technology Crossover Ventures and Summit Partners in 2008 and has been profitable since its launch. Through TinyPrints.com and WeddingPaperDivas.com, Tiny Prints offers stylish stationary, greeting cards and more online. Users can pick from a vast variety of styles and customize printed invitations and cards with images, text, and colors. 
Facebook Secondary Stock Just Surged To $34 — That's An $85 Billion Valuation
Mar 21, 8:32PM
Just 10 days ago, we noted that Facebook had hit a new valuation record as shares on the secondary markets surged some 5 percent to $31.50 a share. That auction was through SecondMarket and put the on-paper valuation of the company at roughly $78.75 billion (based on roughly 2.5 billion shares outstanding). Today — again, just 10 days later — we have another Facebook share auction that has closed. And unbelievably, the price now is at $34 a share. That's an even $85 billion valuation. I repeat: $85 billion.
Microsoft Alleges Patent Infringement On Barnes & Noble E-Reader Devices
Mar 21, 8:17PM
Microsoft has filed suit against Barnes & Noble, creators of the Nook and Nook Color e-readers, as well as the manufacturers of those devices. The companies allegedly infringe on a number of patents filed between 1998 and 2005, generally applying to UI elements associated with browsing and downloading information. Like many patents from that period (for example those cited by Paul Allen in last year's omnibus suit) these are quite broad in their specificity, claiming methods that seem now to be no-brainer approaches to the task described. The larger question is, as before, is whether these patents are legitimately unique intellectual property — but as before, the larger question is being deferred for now, and in the mean time, we're suing each other over the placement of download status bars. Microsoft's line is that Barnes & Noble, unlike game HTC, Amazon, and others, has failed to license these methods (yet uses them anyway, bold as brass), and now faces stern reprimand.
All Blog Links To The New York Times Will Be Freebies. This Could Get Ugly.
Mar 21, 7:22PM
It's not news that the New York Times payfence isn't much of a fence. We've already written about the Facebook and Twitter loophole, but it turns out that the loophole is more like a loop chasm. NYT head Martin Nisenholtz told AllThingsD's Peter Kafka on Friday that all blog links will render stories accessible for non-subscribers. And while blog and social media referral visits will count towards the 20 free articles a month allotted, Times articles will not be blocked if a user goes over their limit and clicks on a Times link from an aggregator like Digg or Reddit or a blog like TechCrunch. Users will, however, be out of luck if they subsequently try to go to the Times' website directly that month. 
What A #MarchMadness Bracket Would Look Like If It Were Decided By Twitter
Mar 21, 7:20PM
The NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments are fully underway and have been providing us with an ample dose of March Madness. As per usual, there have been plenty of upsets and buzzer beaters, and, true to form, my bracket was hosed by the end of the first round. There has been plenty of excitement, but something feels like it's been missing. I wasn't quite sure what that was until I saw the above bracket provided by Empire Avenue, a "social media exchange" that allows you to buy and sell virtual shares in any social media profile out there. Finally, we can turn off our TVs and put away our lucky rabbit's foot, because we now know who the true National Champion is -- the National Champion of Twitter. 
Andreessen Horowitz Adds New Venture Partner To Go After Enterprise Computing
Mar 21, 7:00PM
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz continues its expansion today, bringing on former Veritas and Citrix Exec Peter Levine as a venture partner. Most recently, the firm added entrepreneur Scott Weiss as general partner. With Levine, Andreessen Horowitz, which is just shy of $1 billion under management, gets a seasoned executive in the areas of virtualization and data storage. As a venture partner, Levine's role will include most of a the activities of a general partner (i.e., joining boards, working with entrepreneurs, driving deal flow, full access to the Andreessen Horowitz network) but not necessarily with a full-time commitment. Levine also lectures at MIT's Sloan School of Management and will continue to serve as senior vice president of Strategic Development at Citrix.
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