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Hulu's Identity Crisis… And Who Is Scott Gibson?
Dec 10, 4:14AM
In the last fifteen minutes we've gotten a slew of tips that indicate that something is off at popular video streaming portal Hulu. According to our tipsters, and numerous reports on Twitter, Hulu users are logging onto the site to find that their playlist queues have been replaced with another user's. That's strange in and of itself, but, in a bizarre twist, the majority of these reports seem to indicate that the same mysterious user profiles keep popping up in place of their own. I've seen at least ten reports of Scott Gibson; Joel Nesbit's account is similarly pervasive.
US Military Bans Physical Media To Curb Leaks
Dec 10, 2:46AM
In the wake of recent high-profile leaks, some branches of the US military have taken a step that may be end up being as controversial as its cause. Ironically, the news comes via a leaked memo obtained by Wired's Danger Room that insists that everyone from grunts to techs "immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET," under pain of court-martial. SIPRNet would be the 
Google Hits 'Send' On Priority Inbox For Android's Gmail App
Dec 10, 2:06AM
Back in August, Google launched Priority Inbox, a feature that automatically flags messages that Gmail believes you'll be most interested in. It's a great feature — Google says it cuts down the amount of time users spend reading email by 15% — but until now it hasn't really been available on Android, which features an otherwise great Gmail app. Today, that changes, as Google brings Priority Inbox to Android. If you've used Priority Inbox on the web, this will be pretty familiar. Messages in your inbox that Gmail thinks are important are tagged with arrows in the normal 'inbox' view. And if you want to only look at the important messages, you can jump to the 'Priority Inbox' label (you can also set this to your default). 
Uber Launches Car Service In Paris (For a Day)
Dec 10, 12:22AM
If you're an Uber, previously UberCab, user you're used to getting door to door car service simply by ordering it up on your iPhone. But only when you're in San Francisco, since the service is only live there for now. I'm very bullish on the service. If you're in Paris like me right now for the Le Web conference you're out of luck and have to wait in long taxi lines. BUT, if you're in Paris and hanging out with a cofounder of Uber, say Travis Kalanik then things might work out for you.
Can ShoeDazzle Finally Make Celebrity Co-Founders Pay Off? (TCTV)
Dec 10, 12:19AM
According to CrunchBase, we have never written about 18-month old ShoeDazzle despite the fact that the company has raised $23 million in two rounds of funding, expects it'll do $100 million in revenues next year and has Kim Kardashian as a co-founder. Ok, maybe it's partially because of that last factor. The Valley has always had an issue with LA and vice-versa. Let's be honest: We loved it when MySpace fell to Facebook and love it even more when a celebrity fails at our game. But I don't think we'll have that guilty-pleasure with ShoeDazzle. 
TechCrunchTV After Dark: So Kincaid, Lacy and Dennis Crowley Walk into a Bar…(TCTV)
Dec 09, 11:45PM
There is no reason in the world I should have been invited to a dinner with Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley. It's already one of the most written about companies on TechCrunch, and I am the only TechCrunch reporter who has never written a post on them. That's in part because I am one of the only TechCrunch reporters who has just never been a big Foursquare fan. I get it, but a mayor badge isn't enough to make me want to give up my whereabouts. For the record, Crowley sort of agreed with me and said that's going to change in the video below. Logic aside, I was invited to said dinner along with Jason Kincaid and a handful of other reporters, and we captured the beauty of the moment on camera, just before Crowley hopped over to Le Web with seemingly the rest of the TechCrunch staff. We bring you the first (and possibly last) installment of TechCrunchTV After Dark. A few disclaimers: None of us were actually drinking. Jason is swirling grape juice in a wine glass, I just sound tired, and Crowley just likes to steal cameras from reporters and then pretend he's a morning shock-jock then force them to eat persimmons. Enjoy.
Twitter's Year In Review Begins With A Tweet Tree
Dec 09, 11:35PM
It's that time of year, just before the holidays, when every Web company feels the need to sum up the year. Google has its Zeitgeist as captured by our collective searches and Twitter . . . well, Twitter has the Tweet tree. Twitter is preparing its own year in review and so far the Tweet tree is the only part that is live. What is the Tweet tree (my name)? It' s a tree highlighting some of the major figures of Twitterdom who joined the service this year, along with their first Tweets on different branches for each month. Some of the people featured on the "Who's New On Twitter 2010: celebrity Edition" (actual name) include Bill Gates (January), the Dalai Lama and Conan O'Brien (February), Queen Noor and Billy Idol (March), Kanye West (July), . . . you get the idea. Yeah, it's pretty lame. 
Hashable Starts Measuring The Strength Of Your Relationships
Dec 09, 10:16PM
Last night, social introduction service Hashable rolled out a new site design to members. While the site is still semi-closed (you need an invite or introduction from an existing member to get in—the first 500 readers to follow @hashable on Twitter will get one), it is playing with some very interesting ways to rank your online social connections. One of the new features on the site allows you to see your contacts by the strength of your relationship on Hashable. The more interactions you have with that person, and whether or not they reciprocate, determines whether you are "tight,", "connected," or merely "acquainted." Hashable is taking on LinkedIn in a very lightweight way. Instead of static degrees of separation, you can see exactly who you are connected with has the strongest connection to someone else you might be seeking an introduction to. Hashable is also now starting to show "hashbits" whenever you post a connection. A hashbit is just a serendipitous bit of information showing how one person you know is also connected to someone else you know. 
Windows Phone 7 Developers Can Finally See How Their Apps Are Selling
Dec 09, 8:53PM
When it comes to selling things -- be it apps, t-shirts, or clumps of hair -- you've gotta be able to monitor sales. You've have to know what's working, what's not, and most importantly, whether or not your efforts are going to put bread on the table next month. It was a bit surprising, then, that Windows Phone 7's app market launched without any sort of sales monitoring tools. Since its European launch back in mid-October, most WP7 developers have sort of been in the dark as to how their applications were doing. Fortunately, Microsoft is doing away with this rather nasty hang-up; as of this morning, developers are getting their first look at how their apps have been performing over the past few months. 
WearTheShift Hopes To Create Custom, Algorithmically-Sized Dresses
Dec 09, 7:05PM
Two women in Pittsburgh, PA have gotten together to offer custom dresses for all the ladies of the world. The project, called WearTheShift, allows you to select the style, size, and color of your shift dress and have it hand-made by artisans in the good old US of A. The service currently has a Kickstarter page and they are offering half-off beta dresses for those who are interested. This idea is obviously not new as it's been tried with shirts, chocolate, and kicks. However, this is the first I've seen that specifically targets women and their need for shapely, flirty shift dresses. Obviously if you're a guy and are into this, it could be a good way to get a dress made for your frame.
Little Bookrenter Is Narrowing The Gap With Chegg
Dec 09, 6:12PM
When it comes to the quickly growing online textbook-rental market, Chegg is the young giant to beat. But its smaller competitor, Bookrenter, is making some impressive gains. If you look at traffic to each respective website, you can see spikes at the beginning of each semester (see chart above). Last January, Bookrenter's traffic was only 12.6 percent of Chegg's, whereas by the August peak, it was 32.5 percent. From peak to peak, Bookrenter's traffic grew 167 percent to 446,000 unique monthly U.S. visitors, according to comScore. Chegg's August traffic, however, was about the same as during the January peak: 1.3 million. The chart below, supplied by Bookrenter, shows how Bookrenter's traffic has been growing as a percentage of Chegg's. In October it was 58 percent, but that number is not as meaningful as the percentage during the peak rental months earlier in the semester.
8D World Gets $5.25 Million More To Teach English As A Foreign Language Online
Dec 09, 6:07PM
A startup based in Shanghai, with United States headquarters in Woburn, Mass., 8D World, has attracted a series B investment of $5.25 million for their educational take on massively multiplayer online games, the company announced today. Their flagship product, Wiz World Online, uses sophisticated speech assessment features to teach mostly kids and teens English as a foreign language. The founder and chief executive of 8D World, Alex Wang, learned English as a kid in China and was good enough to get a high score on standardized tests. He found, however, when he came to the United States for university...
If Chatroulette Had Facebook Connect, People Would Keep Their Pants On
Dec 09, 6:04PM
Wine Library founder Gary Vee took the stage at Le Web today to talk about the importance of the human element in business. It's really easy to not take the extremely quotable Gary Vee seriously, because he spits out more platitudes than anyone you've ever met.
Initial Google Cr-48 Chrome Notebook Impressions Have One Refrain: Flash Sucks
Dec 09, 5:55PM
As we noted earlier today, Google has wasted little time getting their Cr-48 Chrome notebook machines in users' hands. Less than two days after Google unveiled the device, there are a ton of reports of users getting them. Humorously, some people who thought they signed up for Chrome stickers are also receiving them — quite a bonus! But the Cr-48 hasn't been a totally pleasant surprise. A number of reports have come in saying that trying to play Flash videos and apps on the device more or less sucks. The experience ranges from buggy to not working at all, apparently. This includes YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, CNN — basically all of major video sites on the web.
YouTube Begins To Remove Its Video Time Limits
Dec 09, 5:50PM
Ever since it rose to popularity, most YouTube users have been hampered by one pretty major restriction: the dreaded time limit, which limits how long your videos can be. For years it stood at 10 minutes, then in July YouTube bumped it up to 15 minutes. The reasons for the limit were obvious: YouTube needed a way to prevent people from throwing up television shows and movies that they didn't have the rights to, and the time limit afforded a pretty easy way to do that. But today, YouTube is announcing that it's removing the limit entirely for some users. At this point it's unclear just how many users are having the time limit removed — YouTube says that it's going to "begin allowing selected users with a history of complying with the YouTube Community Guidelines and our copyright rules to upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes." 
The Walls Of Jericho Have Fallen: Amazon Now Giving Authors Bookscan Numbers For Free
Dec 09, 5:22PM
Hear that? That's the sound of thousands of authors' hearts stopping mid-keystroke as they open up their Bookscan numbers and keel over dead of disappointment. Amazon just added Nielsen Bookscan numbers to their Author Central pages, the pages authors use to add content to the Kindle/Amazon book store and, more important, track their book sales on Amazon. Nielsen offers geographical breakdowns of sales for the past few weeks. In my case, above, I haven't sold a book since Bush was president so I have no data. However, folks who are just releasing books right now can see how many and where their books were sold, with the obvious caveat being that these statistics are often woefully inaccurate. These woefully innacturate stats are extremely expensive, as well, costing multiple thousands per year for access, depending on the package selected. That said, agents and the industry treats this data like pure extruded gold mixed with ketamine so what Amazon has done is fairly impressive. 
Birch Returns To Help Re-Invent Bebo, Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is
Dec 09, 4:40PM
It's not quite on the level of Steve Jobs returning to Apple, but every time a founder comes home it leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy. This time it's the turn of Michael Birch who has re-joined Bebo as a strategic advisor, along with investing in the social network which he co-founded with his wife Xochi in early 2005 before selling the company to AOL in 2008 for $850 million. Since then, of course, Bebo has seen another change of hands: After being left to languish by AOL, who eventually shut it down for tax purposes, the social network was sold to Criterion Capital Partners for about $10m in June of this year.
Google Zeitgeist 2010: iPhone Beats Android, Twitter Beats Facebook, Chatroulette Beats All
Dec 09, 4:33PM
It's now nearly the end of the year, and you know what that means: end-of-the-year lists. Apple has just released a bunch, and now Google has too. As they do every year, Google has unveiled their "Zeitgeist 2010". And they have some nifty interactive data visualizations once again — and now they're in HTML5. Google singles out the Olympics, the World Cup, earthquakes, the oil spill, and Lady Gaga among others in their post on the matter. But their charts focus mainly on the fastest-rising queries. Of note in the top queries, the top iPhone (iPhone 4) beat the top Android phone (Evo 4G), Twitter beat Facebook, and Chatroulette beat everyone. In fact, the service (which no one seems to talk about anymore) was far ahead of every other fast-rising query expect for the iPad, which was a close second.
Three startups, not just one, win the Le Web startup competition
Dec 09, 4:05PM
The Le Web startup competition filtered over 400 startups down to a final 16. We covered a few of the companies here, here, here and here. Today the last three finalists got the opportunity to pitch their startups to the assembled crowd at the conference, after which the judges judges retired to deliberate live their pick for the winner. Chairman of the judges David Hornik said the judges changed the format of the awards and decided they wanted a winner with great originality, technology and virality. But decided all three finalists should win. 
Contest: J-List Wants You To Have A Happy J-Christmas
Dec 09, 3:56PM
Our buddy Peter at J-List doesn't have a lot of Yule Logs or mistletoe in Tokyo but he does have some Japanese goodies for you and yours. He's offering one of the following prizes to one lucky commenter which, in theory, could reduce your overall shopping list by a few percent. Below you'll five five items. Check them out and report back to me. First up: Itazura Cat Coin Bank A little cat who steals money you put on the box. It's cute, and a huge hit this Christmas. 
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: The Hilariously Over-The-Top, Strange Animated Video
Dec 09, 3:53PM
Well, we all knew this was coming. Like they've done time and time again, NMA.tv has delivered a hilariously over-the-top, strange animated video about a current event. This time, it's WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. Yes, the man everyone in the entire world is talking about. And, naturally, we have plenty of tech companies making a cameo in the video. PayPal, Amazon, etc.
Microsoft: "Yeah, We Tried To Acquire Facebook."
Dec 09, 3:31PM
While on the "How To Get Acquired" panel here at Le Web. Microsoft exec Fritz Lanman just admitted it on stage here at Le Web, "Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day." "Yeah we tried to acquire Facebook" Lanman responded to Le Web founder Le Meur, Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day."
Breaking European M&A News: XING Buys Amiando For Up To €10.3 Million
Dec 09, 3:23PM
Germany-based business social networking site XING is acquiring also Germany-based online event management and ticketing services company Amiando, we've just learned. XING is paying 5.1 million euros initially, and an additional payment of up to 5.25 million euros will be made on March 31, 2013, provided various conditions are met (such as the current management team remaining within the company and the achievement of specific financial performance targets).
Two Days After Unveiling, Cr-48 Chrome Notebook Already Showing Up On Doorsteps
Dec 09, 3:16PM
Ben Kessler woke up to an unexpected surprise on the doorstep of his New York home this morning: a Cr-48. Yes, the just-unveiled Google Chrome Notebook is already rolling out to those who requested one. It was only two days ago that Google unveiled that the Cr-48 would be the first computer featuring their new Chrome OS. Google was quick to note that the 12.1-inch machine would feature no branding and was simply meant to be a test machine for developers, students, and a few other demographics. They asked people to fill out a form here to request one of the limited-quantity Cr-48s.
Everyone at Le Web is Wrong: Wikileaks Should be Condemned not Celebrated
Dec 09, 3:03PM
Le Web. I'm still unclear on the unique selling point of Europe's "leading technology conference", and yet here I am, for the third year in a row, hanging out in a snow-bound venue four hundred miles from the centre of Paris, watching a succession of American entrepreneurs being interviewed - in English - by journalists who have flown in specially from California. I'll say this, though: the food is good this year - really good. Now, having satisfied my annual obligation to be snarky about Le Web, I'm free to talk about what passes for the big story of the conference, and indeed the biggest story of the world right now. Wikileaks. Specifically, the continuing DOS attacks against companies who are perceived as enemies of Wikileaks.
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