Blog van Jayme Rotsaert

Microsoft Live Maps Drinks Google Maps’ Milkshake

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:02:32 UT

Last night, Microsoft pushed out a Windows Live Maps, including a face-lift to some of its 3-D cities (Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix), the ability to export your collections to GPS devices and GeoRSS feeds (which means I can make custom maps for my Dash GPS), support for 3D-map video tours, better directions and traffic information, and also one-click directions that change the route on a map based on what direction you are coming from.
[url=http://www.google.com/]

But there was one feature that really caught my eye. You can now import KML files into Live Maps. KML stands for Keyhole Markup Language, and it was invented by Keyhole, the acquired startup behind Google Earth that is now part of Google. KML has become a standard for describing maps hosted on the Web.

What this means, though, is that Live Maps can now drink Google’s milkshake. Because all the customized maps that people have made and share on Google Maps can be grabbed as a KML file. So now Microsoft can benefit from all that work done by Google Map users by simply slurping all of those maps into Live Maps.

For instance, here is a Google map created by a user named Matthew B. titled PA & NJ Winter Camping that shows camping sites in those states:

Now, here is the same map sucked into Windows Live Maps. It is the exact same information with the same pushpins and descriptions layered into Live Maps:.

Of course, this is a two-way street, since any customized map on Live Maps or in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth can now also be exported as a KML file. Google can take out its straw and slurp right back from the Live Maps glass. The difference is that Google’s glass is a lot more full and is more yummy because so many more people have created customized Google Maps than customized Live Maps.

So right about now, Microsoft is wielding an old wooden bowling pin, wiping its chin, and ranting, “I drink it up!”

(Milkshake photo by Dion Gillard).

And here is a picture of an enhanced 3D Las Vegas:

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CrunchNetwork May 1 Meet-up in NYC Update: More room, pendin

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:58:37 UT

With the excitement brewing about our Meet-Up on May 1 in New York, we’ve decided to slowly open up RSVPs to about 200 more people in the expectation that we’ll have a bigger venue picked by the middle of next week. Sponsorships are lining up quite nicely and we look forward to some amazing giveaways and a bunch of cool demos at the show. That said, pop over to Eventbrite to RSVP.

Gold Sponsor

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Stats: Obama Still Winning On the Web

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:55:03 UT

We all know by now that if you could vote on the Internet, Barack Obama would already be president. His Website has always attracted more traffic than those of other candidates. Unaffiliated video-endorsement site YouBama popped up spontaneously to collect video endorsements from supporters. MoveOn.org is getting its constituents across the Web to rally behind him. Even Silicon Valley digerati like Marc Andreessen love him.

Today, Compete shares some more numbers (in table above) that show Obama beating Hillary Clinton 2 to 1 in Web traffic, 4 to 1 in Wikipedia article readers, and 10 to 1 in time viewers spend watching their videos on YouTube. Compete also measures something it calls “FaceTime,” which is teh amount of time spent with each candidate across several leading social networks and media sites (Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, MeetUp, YouTube). Obama trounces Clinton there as well, with 78 percent share versus 21 percent. And among Web surfers in Pennsylvania, which is holding a big primary next Tuesday, twice as many people are visiting Obama’s official Website than Clinton’s.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Obama is going to win Pennsylvania. The Web population still skews younger than the general electorate, but his strength on the Web is definitely one of Obama’s competitive advantages.

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V-Enable Adds Real Humans For New 411 Pitch

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:18:58 UT

San Diego based V-Enable, a free 411 service provider we first wrote about in December is celebrating April 11 (4/11) with a new product that adds real humans to the mix.

FreeMobile411 (available at both freemobile411.com and fm411.mobi) expands on V-Enables previous handset only offering by providing any mobile free 411 service complete with the regular features, such as residential and business search.

Where the product differs from others, such as 1-800-Free-411 and Google’s Goog411 is the option of operator assistance, allowing consumers to speak with a live operator when they need one. V-Enable claims they are the first free 411 service to offer operator assistance.

Using real people to assist with free 411 calls seems like a step back into the past, but it’s a point of differentiation that may appeal to some people, like baby boomers.

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Gartner Says Vista Will Collapse. And That’s Why The Yahoo

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:57:29 UT

Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald told a conference audience yesterday that Microsoft’s Windows product is collapsing and must make radical changes to its operating system or risk becoming a has-been.

They specifically pointed out the slow adoption rate by businesses - just 6% to date - and the fact that the Vista code base is so large. That means changes take years, and only high end computers can really take advantage of it anyway.

For most early adopters (and all Mac users), the browser is increasingly the only operating system that matters anyway. Windows isn’t really that relevant any more just because of the increasing utility of online applications like Google Docs, which competes with Microsoft Office. Vista could be perfect and it still wouldn’t matter. The fact that it is flawed only makes the situation worse.

Microsoft makes a ton of revenue on sales of software that sit on the computer. $15 billion a year for Windows alone, and another $16 billion for Office and Exchange Server in 2007. That’s 60% of Microsoft’s total revenue, and profits from those groups float the rest of the company. Microsoft isn’t a viable company without their consumer and business desktop software profits.

The real question isn’t “What can Microsoft do to fix their Windows product?” but rather “Even If Windows and Office were perfect, would it be enough to keep Microsoft relevant in the medium term?” I think the answer to that latter question might be “nope.” And that, of course, is why they want Yahoo so badly. Online advertising revenue is their only real hope of long term survival.

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Google Launching ToDo List Product?

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:09:16 UT

TechCrunch reader Nicolas Hoizey noticed a blog post on the official Google Docs Blog today written by Andrew Cheng, a Google Marketing Manager. Hoizey sent us the NetNewsWire screen shot above (click for large view).

The post, based on the screen shot, appears to be a simple to do list. But the post was removed from the blog and the feed, and that means it’s time for conspiracy theories to blossom.

It is certainly reasonable to assume Google would consider launching a simple to-do list product to complement its office suite, and would post about the new product on the official blog. One reason to remove the post - they may have simply posted too early and pulled it down because the product wasn’t ready to launch.

But the post itself is literally nothing more than a list of things to do over the weekend. No additional features or functionality, or any description of the product, is mentioned in the post.

So maybe Google is doing it, maybe they aren’t. Or maybe Hoizey just had a little fun with photoshop this evening and sent over the results of his work. Can anyone out there confirm that this post was published?

We wrote a post comparing various to do list applications back in 2006, and added to it in 2007. But really, how much can really be done to create an even better way of creating a list, organizing it, and removing finished items? Perhaps this is yet another niche market that Google intends to dominate, and I’m not sure anyone will really care.

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Google Calls Quattrone For Yahoo/Microsoft Advice

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:18:58 UT

Google has hired boutique investment bank Qatalyst Group to provide advice on the ongoing battle between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Qatalyst Group is headed by colorful Silicon Valley investment banker Frank Quattrone, who as we noted in March has returned to the Valley after spending years in the wilderness fighting obstruction of justice charges.

Quattrone was head technology banker for Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley before that, during the first internet boom and had a hand in practically every major Internet IPO during the 1990s, from Amazon to Netscape. Notably Quattrone was one of the first investment bankers to show an interest in Google.

Amid daily reports of Microsoft’s attempted takeover of Yahoo, it comes as little surprise that Google has turned to an outside advisor for guidance. That it is Quattrone’s Qatalyst Group shows that Quattrone may climb back to his prime spot in Silicon Valley faster than his detractors would have expected..

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Do You Support Video On Flickr?

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:28:27 UT

In fine Flickr tradition, users are protesting against the latest change at Flickr, Tuesday’s introduction of video. Over 24,000 members have joined the We Say NO to Videos on Flickr group and NO VIDEO ON FLICKR!!! has 10,000 members.

Complaints against video on Flickr range from slowing Flickr down, lack of community consultation and video diminishing Flickr’s photo focused purpose.

We’re interested in what you think, do you support video on Flickr? Poll below or leave a comment.

Do you support video on Flickr?

Yes
No
Undecided

View Results

(above image credit: (CC) Franzi on Flickr)

(image credits, (CC) Mike Licht

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Delicious Not Shrinking, But Another Problem Looms

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:53:08 UT

Earlier today, venture capitalist Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures wrote a post expressing concern that Web startups tend to languish after they are bought by big companies. To help make his point, Wilson reproduced the comScore chart above, which suggests that the number of people visiting the bookmarking service del.icio.us, which is owned by Yahoo, has dropped off considerably over the past nine months. Wilson was an investor in del.icio.us and profited from its sale to Yahoo in December, 2005. Yet he still laments its apparent struggles under Yahoo’s ownership.

But how bad is del.icio.us struggling really? Yahoo execs always point to it as an internal success story. We asked founder Joshua Schachter, who still runs the service as a Yahoo employee. Despite the stats bandied about by his former investor, Schachter responded by e-mail:

We continue to grow normally.

Unique users is not a good measure of our growth, though.

Much of our traffic is through the Firefox and other browser extensions, which is not measured by these systems.

Additionally, we cut off search indexing several months ago, which also hurts the UU [unique user] numbers.

Since our goal here is not to grow traffic but instead provide a way for people to save things, it’s not something I am really worried about.

That certainly is plausible. Whenever I use del.icio.us I simply save Web pages from the plug-in on my browser, and rarely actually go to the site. I’d estimate that my ratio of saving things to going to the site is 10 to 1, maybe even 20 to 1. As long as people keep saving things to del.icio.us it could prove to be a boon to Yahoo in better search results alone—no matter what the traffic situation is.

But del.icio.us has bigger problems. It has not changed much in years and cannot seem to get its 2.0 version out the door. This despite the fact that Schachter’s team of engineers has been working diligently on improvements since last September. The new version looked like it was ready to go in January, but then the launch was mysteriously pulled. There are rumors that scalability issues were plaguing the project. Hell, it’s been so long that Delicious 2.0 is news again (and, oh yeah, the periods are going away).

While I still do find del.icio.us a useful service, I don’t use it as much as I once did. The Web has evolved and del.cio.us, for whatever reason, has been held back. Here’s to hoping it can push out Delicious 2.0 before Yahoo gets acquired. Because, although Wilson probably won’t be shedding a tear for Yahoo, it is not only small companies that get stifled in acquisitions.

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MyDataIsMyData: An Anti-Facebook Beacon Plug-In That Nobody

jayme — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:22:25 UT

The Facebook Beacon controversy may not be making headlines any more, but the privacy concerns it raised still linger. According to this post about MyDataIsMyData, an upcoming privacy-monitoring service sponsored by classifieds site Flugpo, Beacon may still monitor traffic and personal data, even if a user has opted-out of the system. In response, MyDataIsMyData is creating a plugin for Internet Explorer that enables users to eliminate any traces of Beacon from their system.

Facebook Beacon tracks usage information by monitoring cookies on a client’s computer. As users browse various participating websites, such as Blockbuster and eBay, their activities are relayed back to Facebook, where it can be shared with friends. Many users find such notifications to be intrusive, and much of the original controversy stemmed from the automatic inclusion of all users in the system.

The MyDataIsMyData plug-in notifies users via their browser toolbar when Facebook or one of Beacon’s participating affiliates creates or accesses these cookies. The plug-in can automatically delete these cookies at regular intervals, and also allows for users to individually select which (if any) sites will still function with Beacon. Finally, the toolbar will feature a constantly-updated list of sites that participate in Beacon, allowing users to boycott them, should they choose to do so. MyDataIsMyData will soon be available for Internet Exporer, and plans to expand to offer functionality for both Firefox and Macintosh-based browsers.

It should be noted that while the plugin offers some value in terms of a sense of security, it is fairly easy to monitor cookies with a number of extensions using the Firefox browser. Furthermore, by installing the free toolbar, the users will be placing their trust in MyDataIsMyData—the same type of users who presumably would be put off by installing any sort of monitoring software on their computers.

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Cheers: Amazon To Enter Wine Business

jayme — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:52:06 UT

Amazon is to starting selling wine from its site to US customers.

According to FT.com, Amazon is currently looking to recruit a senior wine buyer who will be responsible for “the acquisition of a massive new product selection.”

Online alcohol sales have been a difficult market in the United States due to the multitude of laws in relation to online alcohol sales in different states. The market though is somewhat easier to enter today than during the first web boom, with the US Supreme Court having ruled that state governments may not prohibit residents from ordering directly from out-of-state wineries in 2005.

Amazon invested $30 million into Wineshopper.com in 1999. The site lasted one year. Sales of wine in the United States totaled $30 billion in 2007.

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iPhone 2.0: Enterprise Ready. Developer Ready.

jayme — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:52:06 UT

Apple made a number of major announcements today around the iPhone. We live blogged the event if you want to see all of the details. But if you want a summary of the important parts, read on.

Two things happened worth noting. First, the iPhone is no longer just a really fun phone/Internet device. It now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, meaning it can hold its own against any other business device out there (more on that below). Second, Apple gave more details on its previously announced software development kit that will allow third parties to get their software onto the iPhone. From the demo’s shown today, developers by the thousands will be clamoring to jump on board.

The iPhone still has a tiny 0.14% market share in the mobile world. But even so, Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that 71% of web browsing on smart phones occurs on iPhones. As someone who’s used many mobile devices over the last couple of years, that’s a believable statistic. Surfing the web on an iPhone, with the high resolution screen and touch interface is a superior experience.

iPhone: Enterprise Ready

Last summer we compared the iPhone to the BlackBerry 8820 on business features, and it lost hands down. The iPhone still has big limitations that make it less useful for business users, particularly battery life. And many users cannot adapt to the iPhone touch screen, preferring physical buttons. But announcements made today make the iPhone’s core office functionality as good as any other device out there. And the iPhone still has, by far, the superior browsing experience and user interface.

Version 2.0 of the iPhone software now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That means much better syncing with the desktop, and not just when the iPhone is physically connected to your computer. If you use Microsoft Exchange, you can now easily set up the iPhone to work with it so you enjoy push email, calendar and contacts.

Business users will also have VPN connectivity, certificates and identities, enterprise WiFi, enforced security policies, device configuration, and remote data wipes.

While users can only configure one Exchange account at a time, setup takes only about 20 seconds (assuming your company already has an Exchange server running). The iPhone applications relevant to Exchange - such as Mail, Contacts, and Calendar - will all retain the same look and feel.

Apple has been working with Nike and Disney to test the new Exchange Server support.

Hi Developers, Come On In

Before today the iPhone was a closed platform that only gave third party applications access via the browser (or though hacks). The company says that over 1,000 iPhone specific websites have been created.

Now Apple is opening up all of its internal APIs and tools for 3rd party software developers. These include a version of the Cocoa programming environment called Cocoa Touch that focuses on the idea of touch as an input. It allows for multi-touch events and controls, use of the built-in accelerometer and camera, and other things like hierarchy views, localization, alerts, web views, people pickers, and image pickers.

There is also now a version of Xcode that can be used to build applications for the iPhone. It can code completely to the APIs in the iPhone SDK, and it can handle both project management and source control management. It has a debugger that can be used remotely on a Mac (plug your iPhone into your desktop and debug from there).

There are also three other new tools: Interface Builder, Instruments, and iPhone Simulator. Interface Builder lets you drag-n-drop an interface together for your new iPhone app. Instruments is a suite of performance analytics tools. And iPhone Simulator simulates the entire API stack of the iPhone letting you test an iPhone app from your Mac.

The SDK kit is available immediately. Go here to learn more. You have to join the Apple developer program ($99) to start making iPhone apps. Or iPod touch apps, for that matter, since the SDK applies to that device as well.

Application Demonstrations

Both Apple and its launching partners demonstrated new applications for the iPhone. Apple demonstrated a program called Touch Effects that let you easily distort photos you have taken and even erase them by just shaking your phone (think Photobooth for your handheld). A game called Touch Fighter was demonstrated to show how the accelerometer could be used as controls.

Among the launch partners, Electronic Arts debuted the highly-anticipated game Spore on the iPhone. Salesforce showed how iPhone users will be able to track sales leads, AOL showed off an instant messaging client, Epocrates demoed a drug lookup application, and SEGA played a Super Monkey Ball game.

Application Distribution

Apple confirmed the rumor that iTunes would be the only way for users to buy and download iPhone applications. Customers will be able to browse and search for applications, some of which will be provided for free. Developers will get 70% of the sales revenue paid monthly and with no credit card fees. Restrictions, however, have been placed on the type of applications that can be sold: no pornography, nothing illegal, no bandwidth hogs, and nothing that could cause “unforeseen” problems. VoIP will also not be allowed over cellular connections, just WiFi.

Even though application development starts today, users will not be able to download them until June. And companies who want to distribute applications internally will have to wait for Apple to come up with a solution for that.

iFund

Jobs’s “one more thing” today was the announcement of a so-called iFund by Kleiner Perkins that will dedicate $100M to companies who want to develop new applications for the iPhone or iPod touch. John Doerr called Jobs the “world’s greatest entrepreneur” and “supreme commander of the rebels” from onstage. See our post about the fund for more details.

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Zopa to launch in Japan

jayme — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:52:06 UT

Social lending site Zopa is to launch in Japan, following its expansion to the US and Italy from its UK base. The site, three years old today, has attracted around £18 million of funding, including that from Benchmark Capital, which has also invested in US competitor Prosper. Zopa is an online marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money. With no bank in the middle, both parties can potentially get better rates. Since March of 2005, Zopa has handled more than £20m in unsecured personal loans in the UK. However, although Zopa was the first, there are now more than 20 person-to-person online social lenders around the globe. GlobalFunder is a yet-to-launch competitor. Gartner predicts that by 2010 social banking will make up 10% of the banking market. More on TechCrunch UK.

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Microsoft Mix Keynote Two, Live From Las Vegas

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:00:29 UT

1:48: what will happen to php apps post Yahoo SB: obviously we cant have two of everything, they’ll pick the best from both.

1:45 Q: how did IE get left out of the .Net development path SB: it happened, there are things to learn from it etc…

1:43 audience questions: what about Adobe. SB: big competitor of ours, Silverlight v Flash/ Flex etc

1:41 GK Microsoft is a different company today, arrogance is gone, great to work with, I want to complement Microsoft on that, no bullshitting on that (and yes, he used that word) SB: thanks GW: where as MS was an evil company, now it has nice facilities (why he’s talking about the buildings is beyond me). Starts talking about touching things.

1:40 GK why not just use MSN SB: we have 100’s million of users GK: why not open it up, offer API’s so it can be built on.

1:39: GK: Microsoft and social networking, SB: the way people interact has changed for ever. Xbox live people interact, form of social networking, Social networking is not a fad, Zuckerberg has done a great job. Fox/ MySpace….

1:38 GK: lets talk about Firefox and IE. SB: we’re heavily investing in the browser. We still have the biggest marketshare. Expect to see a lot of browser innovation from us. GK: how bout IE/ Mac development? SB: that “lower volume” machine…we feel like we should be doing new things other than bringing another browser to the Mac

1:36: GK you dodged the Vista Question SB: been very popular, there has been feedback, issues with compatibility, drivers etc, MS has listened, SP1 shipped etc.

1:34 GK what do you say to Microsoft losing its focus, doing to many things SB: we’ve built two skill sets, enterprise and desktop. Building two new ones, mobile/ devices + online. Most companies only have one core skillset

1:32: GK: what’s the issue with Vista (laughter) SB: it’s the second most pop OS. SB spots GK’s Apple Air, lots of joking, Ballmer says the Air is twice as heavy as his Toshiba and lacking parts.

1:30 GK: tell us more about Silverlight, SB: 1.5m downloads a day, lots of opportunities to fan out and broaden presence

1:29: SB: 10-11m Xbox live subscribers

1:26 GK: tells a story about his kids winning a halo tournament. Then goes on to say that his kids think Microsoft is a cool company that makes Xbox + Halo. Not enough people know that Microsoft makes cool stuff. There’s a marketing opportunity. SB: the key is to keep making great products. Kids don’t know about the OS wars, they simply use what’s cool, doesn’t matter who it comes from. 25m Xbox users, 1b Windows users

1:24 Gk: what’s the pitch to get new employees given the stock is now high, no startup like growth ahead of it. SB: pitch is still pretty much the same, the stock/ get rich angle has never been big at Microsoft

1:22: GK what’s the story with Bill (Gates): SB: transition in June, goes part time, not sure how that will work until that happens

1:21: GK: so you have no one filtering you email, no secretary, no VA? SB: no, and I answer my emails

1:20: GK how many emails do you get SB: not alot, email address is steveb@microsoft.com, jokes that he’ll have a lot more email tomorrow

1:18pm GK: describe your day (more softball questions). SB: days outside of Redmond, excited talking to customers. GK: do you fly Southwest? SB: smiles, no, definitely no GK: why hasn’t Microsoft bought you a G3 SB: that’s another company

1:17: GK: what motivates you? SB: best company in the world, innovating. Enjoys a challenge

1:14 GK: what’s the deal with the FB deal. SB: it’s all about advertising, partnering sites, big partners are very important

1:13 GK suggests Microsoft should sue Google for anti-trust. laughter. GK then asks whether Microsoft treats apple like a yapping dog that can be kicked out of the way. Ballmer makes a dog yelping sound, then says that Apple is doing a great job.

1:12 SB Microsoft has four core businesses: desktop, no Google, enterprise, no Google SB makes a sound like neh neh neh neh neh. Mobile: Google is an aspirant, but no presence. 4th is online, and its all Google. Ballmer is cracking jokes, he’s certainly animated

1:10 GW asks about “The Big G” SB responds that ultimately search is where it’s at. GK jokes that Ballmer won’t say the Google word. SB responds to laughter

1:09 Yahoo provides the critical mass. GK asks what’s the current status of the deal. Ballmer jokes “we’ve made an offer” lots of laughter. GW says to Ballmer don’t go monkey on me

1:08: Balllmer responds: we want to be big online, advertising is THE next big thing, the only thing. Search is the key to advertising. Microsoft isn’t where they’d like to be now

1:07: some friendly Apple/ Microsoft banter with laughter. Kawasaki says he’s suppose to be a shill and ask soft questions. Then asks “why does Microsoft want to buy Yahoo”

1:05: running slightly late, Kawasaki and Ballmer come on stage

Join us here from 1:00pm PST for a live blog of Steve Ballmer & Guy Kawasaki delivering the second keynote from Microsoft’s Mix conference in Las Vegas.

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Kleiner Perkins Anounces $100 Million iFund for iPhone Appli

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:00:15 UT

John Doerr took the stage today at Apple’s announcement of its iPhone software developer kit and announced a $100 million fund to invest in startups that create apps for the iPhone. “”i can’t wait to see the great new companies that we build together,” he says. The fund will be led by Matt Murphy at Kleiner.

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Live Blogging of Apple iPhone SDK Event Begins Soon

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:27 UT

Head on over to CrunchGear to follow our live coverage of the Apple iPhone SDK event, which is being held at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino and will begin at 10am PT.

We’ll be sure to report back here about all the juicy details once things are all done, but CrunchGear is the place to follow the minute-by-minute action.

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Yahoo Maps Get More Local

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:27 UT

Yahoo released an update to Yahoo Maps with more data at the neighborhood level. The Yahoo Maps team added 12,000 new neighborhoods in 300 cities. The maps now denote neighborhood boundaries with subtle changes in the background color. And points of interest such as schools and subway stops are marked.

Yahoo Maps has always had a different look than Google Maps, but these changes help define that difference even more. The background colors are lighter and there is an attempt to provide a lot of information visually. I like being able to see the neighborhood boundaries, but there is a risk of being presented with too much information. The best UI for maps is to keep it simple and then offer different layers of information that can be turned on or off depending on what you are looking for. That said, too much information is better than too little. I’ve become completely addicted to online maps, even in my car.

What can Yahoo (or Google) do next to make their maps even more indispensable?

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InstantAction and Cafe.com: Browser-Based Games Growing Up,

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:27 UT

I’ve recently had the chance to preview two new websites that promise to significantly advance the quality of social gaming as delivered through the browser.

The first is a project led by GarageGames and backed by IAC called InstantAction that brings straight into the browser graphically complex games that appeal to competitive gamers.

The second is a site called Cafe.com by an international company called Boonty. It is intended more for casual gamers who want to use gaming more as a way to meet people and socialize online rather than compete.

InstantAction is going live today so anyone can go and check it out (they’ll have four games available to start and more coming soon). Cafe.com will remain in private beta for awhile longer, but the company has given us 10,000 invitations - just go here and enter “techcrunch” as your invitation code. You’ll also start off with 10,000 CafeCoins, the site’s virtual currency, which are worth about $10 and can be used to buy virtual goods.

InstantAction

With InstantAction, you can play games in-browser that look more like Xbox or PC games. To fully appreciate the quality improvements, you have to see them for yourself:

What’s especially impressive is that these games are not even based in Flash or Silverlight. Rather, they run on top of a cross-browser compatible, 150k custom plugin that only has to be downloaded once. The plugin, which has been developed for two and a half years, works with games that are programmed in pretty much any language (C++, Java, Python, etc.).

Right now the following four titles are available - Marble Blast, Screw Jumper, Think Tanks, and Cyclomite. The first two are actually popular Xbox games that have been ported over to InstantAction’s platform. While these games have single player versions, the focus is on competitive multiplayer games. And inviting your friends to the service is easy; you only have to give them a URL and they can join you quite quickly, even if your game has already begun.

The site does use a good deal of Flash and Ajax to manage game lobbies, friends lists, and chat. When playing games, you’ll always see a list of the people in your party and a chat room on the right-hand side of the screen. You can use this area to communicate with others and quickly switch over to new games while keeping the same group of people participating.

The games to be included on the site will come mostly from smaller game studios run by veterans of the bigger studios who have escaped their more corporate environments. These include Wideload Studios, run by the same guy who founded Bungee and came up with Halo.

Among the advantages of running games from the browser is the ability to make updates and fixes without imposing downloads on users. Producers can also make money from new revenue sources such as the sale of virtual goods, subscriptions, and tournament fees.

I suspect that over time we’ll see even more advanced games run through InstantAction; ones that appeal even more to hardcore gamers who just don’t have the time to buy, install, and learn new games anymore. The next game to be added - Fallen Empire: Legions - is particularly impressive and will certainly take the platform in that direction (see a sneak preview of the game here).

Cafe.com

Browser-based casual gaming is nothing new (see Kongregate, the gaming networks on Facebook, and the astronomical popularity of Scrabulous in particular). But Cafe.com is the most developed social networking-gaming hybrid that I’ve seen so far, both in terms of the integration of social features and the quality of gameplay.

In contrast to InstantAction, Cafe.com will appeal to a broader audience that includes housewives and females in general (who actually make up the primary audience for online casual games). CEO Roman Nouzareth says that the target demographic is Generation X, which consists of 25-40 year olds.

The design and functionality of the site reflects that it was designed for a less “gamer” audience in mind. The tone is lighthearted and only mildly competitive. Games include pictionary, chinese checkers, Sodoku, and billiards.

As with InstantAction, the focus is on multiplayer games that can be played instantly with friends (Cafe.com bases its games primarily in Flash and HTML). But Cafe.com has also been constructed with an emphasis on member reputations and personas. Users can build out profiles with highly customizable 3D avatars (called “MiniMes”) that will be loaded into games themselves to represent characters there. As with other social networks, you can make friends with other members and message them. Nouzareth says that he wants Cafe.com to be the place where people manage their online gaming personas, while they go elsewhere to manage their more generic personas.

Virtual currency and the purchase of so-called “boosts” are particularly central to Cafe.com’s ecosystem. Members can purchase CafeCoins using real money and then use them to buy three main types of goods: attacks, defenses, and social items like virtual flowers. Gaming-specific goods can be purchased outside of gameplay and added to one’s collection for use when the time comes during gameplay. CafeCoins can also be used to buy things like new clothes for your avatar.

Two APIs are being worked on for Cafe.com: one that allows for the integration of games into the site, and one that will allow for the exporting of data elsewhere. The former is already available and being used both by the company’s own developers and by the handful of outside developers that it has worked with so far. The idea with the latter API is that users eventually will be able to export their Cafe.com profile information elsewhere, for example, to display their gaming reputations other social networking profiles.

Nouzareth says in reference to Pogo.com, one of the biggest social gaming sites in the United States: if Pogo were to have a baby with Facebook, that baby would be named Cafe.com. Grab your invitation and CafeCoins (see above) to find out yourself how that comparison holds up. This will give you a taste:

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Report: EU Could Approve DoubelClick Deal As Early as Next W

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:27 UT

The last barrier to Google acquiring DoubleClick may be about to fall. Bloomberg and others are reporting that antitrust officials in the European Union “plan to rule that the purchase may proceed without changes” as early as March 11 (about a year after the $3.1 billion deal was first announced). The FTC approved the acquisition here in the U.S. last December, but if there was going to be a stumbling block everyone expected it to be at the EU. If Bloomberg is correct, that stumbling block is about to be removed.

Microsoft won’t be too happy about that. It was lobbying heavily against the deal, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Meanwhile, Redmond has been building its own online advertising business through its aQuantive acquisition. You’ve got to wonder whether Microsoft’s ongoing attempt to buy Yahoo helped convince the EU that online advertising is an extremely competitive industry after all that doesn’t need to be regulated.

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Ziff Davis Media Takes A Dip In The Deadpool

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:00:40 UT

Ziff Davis Media, the Web 1.0-era magazine publisher that should have died years ago, has finally declared bankruptcy. It owes creditors $225 million. They are trading that in for 89 percent of the company and an IOU for $57.5 million. Here’s pretty much all you need to know, from the AP:

The bursting of the Internet bubble hurt publishers like Ziff Davis, which said its print advertising revenue dropped to $40 million last year from $215 million in 2001. Its total revenue fell to $76 million last year from about $300 million in 2001.

The company, which is a remnant of the original Ziff Davis media empire that was bought and sold three times over during the past two decades (to Forstmann Little & Co., Softbank, and current owner private-equity firm Willis & Stein), currently publishes PC Magazine and a couple gaming titles. It also runs 16 Websites, the best of which is 1Up . During the 1990s, it launched a bunch of Internet-related print magazines which no longer exist. Over the past few years,it’s been trying to transition to the Web. Although it plans to emerge from bankruptcy intact, for now we are placing Ziff Davis in the deadpool.

Read this doc on Scribd: Ziff Davis Bankruptcy Filing

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How Can You Make Money From Web 2.0?

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:01:29 UT

How can you make money from Web 2.0 was the main question put to the Web 2.0 and Beyond: What Is the Business Reality panel at Microsoft Mix yesterday. Featured in the video is Frank Arrigo (Microsoft), Bryan Biniak (CEO Jacked), Tim Kendall (Facebook), Loic Le Meur (CEO Seesmic), Chris Saad (Particls).

The responses from Kendall were interesting. Kendall argued that Facebook is failing because the majority of the audience put their hands up when asked the question “have you seen ads on Facebook?” Apparently Facebook believes the best ads are the ones users don’t know are ads. There’s some talk about beacon and open access as well.

My question about Web 2.0 business models (or lack there of) is the second question in.

The video quality isn’t great, slow internet aside we should have a better copy up soon.

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Microsoft Blews Brings Back Memories Of Rocket Pops At The B

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:00:32 UT

Ok, so that isn’t an actual picture of the new Microsoft Blews news aggregator that was announced by Microsoft Research today, but tell me that the screen shot (see below) doesn’t bring back memories of eating Rocket Pops on the beach as a child (or wherever you ate them).

But back to Blews. It’s a news aggregator (see Techmeme and about 45 others, including this gem), but it goes beyond mere clustering of stories to show what’s important right now based on who’s linking to what in near real time. Blews, which is only looking at political news, also tells you the bias of the links in to a story:

BLEWS uses political blogs to categorize news stories according to their reception in the conservative and liberal blogospheres. It visualizes information about which stories are linked to from conservative and liberal blogs, and it indicates the level of emotional charge in the discussion of the news story or topic at hand in both political camps. BLEWS also offers a “see the view from the other side” functionality, enabling a reader to compare different views on the same story from different sides of the political spectrum. BLEWS achieves this goal by digesting and analyzing a real-time feed of political-blog posts provided by the Live Labs Social Media platform, adding both link analysis and text analysis of the blog posts.

Here’s what all that looks like:

Liberal links are blue (rasberry) and on the left, conservative links are red (cherry) and on the right. The middle is the story itself in white (lemon). The dots around the edges suggest the emotional charge of the commentary, which can drip off of the Rocket Pop in very hot weather.

Putting aside the UI, which is hard to do, the artificial intelligence behind Blews could be interesting. It is very hard to get a machine to decipher emotion and meaning from raw text unless they are doing mere keyword searches (see, for example, Powerset). Microsoft is calling this hard bit “detecting emotional charge.” If they’ve got it right, or are close, there are an unlimited number of potential applications for the technology.

As an aside, this somewhat reminds me of ScoutLabs, a startup we wrote about last December. Scout Labs helps brand marketers track commentary on their brands, and tries to decipher emotion towards that brand as well.

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Federated Media Weighing Its Options

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:00:32 UT

CNET is reporting that tech-focused advertising network Federated Media (which sells advertising on our behalf) is looking for a new round of financing. CNET is basing this partially on our previous report that they hired investment bank Savvian to represent them after they turned down a $100 million acquisition offer, plus a new source that says the company is looking at term sheets now.

From what we hear, Federated Media is looking at both financing and new buyout offers, but wants a valuation way beyond the $100 million floated to them last year. Founder John Battelle is said to be looking for more of a Glam-like valuation, in the $400+ million range. Glam has a similar business model to Federated Media, but focuses on womens sites. Glam also guarantees significant revenue to its partners, which resulted in a loss last year of $3.7 million on $21 million in revenue. Federated Media doesn’t guarantee revenue, and is reportedly profitable (they better be, with how much of our revenue they keep).

Federated Media is reportedly generating gross revenues in excess of $2 million per month, and they keep 40% of that after the split to partners.

It’s unlikely the company will get buyout offers in the price range Battelle is looking for, so a new financing is likely. But part of me wonders why they’re doing this at all. A new financing means a bigger valuation, which means they need a much higher price down the road when they do eventually sell. And with competitors springing up all over the place, margins can take a hit.

Perhaps Federated Media intends to take the Glam approach and go in the red for the sake of growth and begin to guarantee revenues. That’s a slippery slope, but it may also get Battelle his payday.

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Federated Media

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Jangl Turns On Audio Ads

jayme — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:00:32 UT

Jangl is finally turning on a revenue stream across its network of social calling widgets, which reach a potential 80 million social networking profiles (the company hasn’t announced actual active users). People generally use Jangl to place calls or SMSs to other web surfers without exchanging your real number. The new advertising initiative is called Mobile Media Platform and provides a set of APIs for publishers and ad units for advertisers. The strategy is similar to steps other widget providers have taken to finally make some money off their network by tying in advertisements.

Through the APIs, developers can integrate bits of Jangl’s SMS and VOIP calling functionality into their applications. In exchange, Jangl expands its advertising reach a bit further. The monetization side is being handled in partnership with Pudding Media, and Ogilvy’s Digital Innovation Group. Jangl will have several different types of ad units for advertisers, such as SMS ads tacked on to messages users send and pre-roll audio ads that play during the time you’d normally spend listening to the phone ring. Advertisers can target the ads by keyword, category, location, and demographics. Jangl’s been running tests of the SMS and pre-roll format on Facebook and Bebo with Pudding Media earlier this quarter and feels confident enough that they won’t turn users off to the service.

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Jaxtr

Jangl

Pudding Media

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