Ajax Girl

Darren Barefoot voices his dismay over all the Second Life hype by creating a very, very funny parody site called “Get a First Life.”

The site describes itself as a “3D analog world” and suggests you “access your closet to build your First Life look.” My favorite line is “Fornicate using your actual genitals.” Hilarious.

No comment from Second Life at this point.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/79342450/

The Ad Generator is a simple site that’s kind of fun to watch. It’s not a business at all - it was created by Alexis Lloyd as part of his thesis project at Parsons The New School for Design.

He’s taken “words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans,” and remixed and randomized them to generate new ones. He then takes “related” images from Flickr (I assume using Flickr tags) and generates fake advertisements.

His goal is to “show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold.”

Yep, that pretty much sums up most advertising.

How long before real advertising creative is done by algorithm? Based on the quality of some of the results, it could be done right now.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/79077430/

Brazil-based booBox is preparing to launch a set of tools for bloggers and other website owners that will help them sell items they are writing about. They’ve submitted some basic information to us, but there is clearly a language barrier and we are still digging into the details.

For now, the best way to understand how it works is by walking through the working demo on the booBox site. Go to this page and click on one of the images. Clicking on the iPod brings up a lightbox above the blog content with a number pictures of related items. Clicking on any of the items then brings up Amazon, within the lightbox, where a purchase can be made. I went through the entire checkout process and completed a purchase, so the demo works. At any point the box can be closed by the user, and they will return to the original site.

It’s not clear at all how blogs will integrate booBox into their sites, and that will be a very important issue (I’ve asked the company for an explanation). However, sales occur with the blogger’s own affiliate code, and the images that appear are based on tags that the blogger associates with the image. The company says they will work with other etailers besides Amazon as well.

It’s clear that there will be a great deal of interest in booBox by bloggers currently monetizing their site with Google and other ads. I imagine Gadget and fashion sites, in particular, will be looking into this quite closely.

Conflicts of interest will always be an issue with sites both discussing/reviewing items and then taking a cut of any sales. However, today sites like CNET already have links to purchase items along with reviews. This tool will simply make that linking much easier and more user friendly, and sites will have to decide on what constitutes appropriate action themselves.

Since sites will be using their own affilate codes, booBox won’t be able to directly take a cut of transactions. It isn’t clear if they are launching this for free, or charging for the service. Pending their position on that, as well as details on how difficult this will be to integrate with websites, I’m giving this an early thumbs up. This may be quick acquisition bait for Amazon or eBay.

Sign up to be notified of the booBox launch here.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/78934390/

Internet security firm Finjan will confirm on Monday that Google’s much-discussed anti-phishing blacklist contained confidential usernames and passwords of individuals, including credentials for accounts at banks and other financial institutions. See the screen shot below for an example - click for a larger view.

Google’s current anti-phishing blacklist, which has no access protection, is here. It’s It used by the Google Safe Browsing for Firefox extension which is now part of the Google Toolbar for Firefox, according to Michael Sutton, who has spent some time analyzing it.

Google has not publicly discussed the error, although they quietly removed the offending data. They have, however, acknowledged it in email correspondence with Finjan, which was forwarded to me. Google has since removed the confidential data.

This is nowhere near as serious an issue as the AOL search data released in August 2006. However, a public statement by Google on the issue is warranted, along with confirmation that they have attempted to contact the affected individuals.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/78924603/

Some of the best data on the growth of social networks is coming out of the widget startups. People put widgets on their various social network user pages, and traffic is referred back to the widget companies. Other than policy changes that can have a significant impact on widget usage, it is the best traffic data available outside of the social networks themselves.

What I’m hearing from some of those widget companies is that San Francisco-based Hi5, already a big network, is surging. “Traffic is up 15% month over month, and Hi5 looks like it’s second only to MySpace at this point” said one executive at a large widget startup. He also said “They are clearly bigger than all the second tier social networks - Piczo, Bebo, Tagged, etc.”

The available third party data is mostly agreeing. Hi5 has a large presence in the U.S., but the bulk of its usage is in other countries. That may explain why Comscore, which puts them at the 79th largest website based on 23 million worldwide unique visitors in December (just ahead of Facebook, which is no. 83 overall), shows a declining U.S. audience. U.S. uniques declined to 3 million in December, down from a high of just over 4 million in July 2006. Hi5 claims to have 50 million registered users, which sounds about right given the 23 million monthly unique visitor number.

Alexa shows significant growth as well, although Compete has a different story, more closely mirroring Comscore’s U.S. data.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/78834672/

The last two TechCrunch parties were a great success, and I particularly enjoyed meeting people that I knew only through blogging at the New York event last November. We’re in the planning stages of the next TechCrunch event, to be held mid year 2007. The location will most likely be in the bay area, and we have a new format idea that I think will be really interesting to attendees and startups.

I want to thank the sponsors of the New York party, who paid for the venue, the tshirts and all the food and drink. Most of these companies are small startups, and they really value the chance to get to know the early adopter crowd that makes up the bulk of our readers. Below is a bit of information on each of them.

Sponsored Text:

Partner Spotlights:

HitTail is a new product that analyzes key search terms that lead visitors to your site and provides a list of future writing topics that will boost your websites’ natural search rankings. Unlike analytics programs that simply report the raw data, HitTail offers suggestions for future writing topics that will increase natural traffic. These writing suggestions can also be used as a guide for cost-effective pay-per-click campaigns. HitTail is a free service and was developed by a team at Connors Communications, a leading New York technology public relations and online marketing firm. HitTail will offer premium features and services for high volume sites after its initial beta period. See TechCrunch’s write-up on HitTail here.

Compete.com — “the smartest site on the Web” — is the first premium Web metrics tool made available for free. Compete.com’s services are used by those who have questions about the websites they visit and/or compete with.

Check out what people are saying about Compete.com:

“A quick, informal survey of consumer Internet VCs suggests that those that had heard of Compete.com were including its stats in their due diligence. So I pass it on to you.” - Alexander Haislip, peHUB.com

“Finally, Competition for Alexa”- Liz Gannes, GigaOm.com

“According to our analysis of data from Compete (www.compete.com), which provides more accurate user and page view data for small websites like TheStreet.com than comScore does, in our opinion…” – William Morrisson, JMP Securities

Product Launch Sponsor:

Me.dium is a Firefox add-on that reveals the hidden world of people and activity behind your browser. The current online experience is devoid of the insight you get from the day-to-day interaction with friends and strangers in the real world. Without having to change your online habits, Me.dium shows you your online world for the first time and allows you to communicate with friends and others in a natural, contextual manner. Me.dium lets you see, in REAL TIME, what people and Web pages are around you and relevant to what you’re doing. Just like the way you interact in the real world.

Use the following invite code to download Me.dium and reveal the hidden world behind your browser for the first time. Invite Code: T3CHR11NCH8

Entertainment Sponsor:

partyStrands is a free interactive music and entertainment service for bars and clubs, parties and DJs, and of course, party-goers. It utilizes screens, mobile phones and digital music to offer a new, eye-catching and fresh way to have fun. It offers party-goers several ways to interact through their cell phones while merging the party-goers’ physical, online and mobile worlds.

To check the music that was played at the TechCrunch NYC Meetup, as well as see photos and text messages, visit: http://www.partystrands.com/tc8

Keep updated through our blog: http://blog.mystrands.com/

Marketing Sponsor:

If you’re looking for a widget that’s cool…or, if your MySpace page needs some more attitude…buddylube

You don’t have to know Web 2.0 — Just click on the eye and you’re ready to go!

Special thanks to BuddyLube for the ultra cool T-shirt giveaways!

Product Demo Roundup:

AOL SearchVideo is a powerful video search engine which gives users access to millions of videos, including some of the latest and most popular on the Web. Additionally, a rich set of API’s are available are available for developers to customize third-party applications, plug-ins and mashups.

BlogTalkRadio is the first social radio network. BlogTalkRadio allows anyone to host or listen to a live radio show with call-ins. The shows are streamed live and then archived as podcasts complete with RSS feeds.

Citizenbay is a free, real-time Web community of users sharing all kind of local information (opinions, news, events, deals, etc.). Each day top contributors earn money, and those that are qualified as Ambassadors get a recurring revenue share from the advertising collected on the website.

Civil Netizen enables secure file delivery for serious files. Send up to 4GB free using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Transfers are 100% private and secure. Ideal for business documents, production files and multimedia assets.

Conduit is a breakthrough marketing platform for creating community toolbars that drive traffic and loyalty. Conduit enables site publishers to persistently connect and engage with their user community via the browser.

CozmoTV is like a video version of Pandora. We help you find great video through personalized TV channels that you can watch right in your browser. Special offer: We will be providing 80 Nintendo Wiis to the first 80 people that achieve 80% Rating Confidence by rating a bunch of shows.

DoubleClick enables agencies, marketers and publishers to work together successfully and profit from their digital marketing investments. This is realized through the integrated DART platform, a suite of products designed to meet the needs of the buy-side and sell-side of digital marketing.

Eurekster pioneered and leads the way in Social and Vertical Search; its unique swicki platform empowers publishers to easily create highly focused and monetizing search engines (with Buzzclouds) that learn from their community’s search behavior.

Freewebs.com guarantees anyone with an Internet connection can easily create and share a complete, high-quality website through its free and versatile Web publishing platform. We not only make it easy for our members to create, we also make it worthwhile. Freewebs also features what over 12 million users are doing online, showcasing them and driving traffic to their sites.

Genius, creator of SalesGenius, instantly delivers individual e-mail open information and Web-visit data directly to those who are responsible for customer engagement: front-line sales and marketing professionals.

Helium is a directory of real-world knowledge powered by people like you. This resource for finding and sharing information is described by Search Engine Journal as “About, Yahoo Answers & Wikipedia All Rolled Into One.”

Multiply is the leading “personal social networking” platform for people to share their life through media with friends, family and co-workers, in a controlled and meaningful way.

RMX Direct, from Right Media, is a publisher tool that allows you to auction your inventory on the Right Media Exchange, make your ad networks compete for each impression, and manage your overall ad network relationships.

Snap Preview Anywhere is a nifty, free technology that allows anyone visiting your Web site to see what your links point to, without actually having to leave your site.

Top10 Media operates: Top Ten Sources, which empowers Citizen Editors to share content from around the Web; Lisensa, which provides copyright licensing for UGC; and, StyleFeeder, which offers shoppers the ability to create virtual wish lists.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/78894393/