Ajax Girl

More than 28 million people who live in the U.S. speak Spanish as their first language (U.S. Census, 2000). They now have their very own version of MySpace at latino.myspace.com.

Before today, Internet users in the U.S., the UK, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico had access to localized versions of MySpace. Users were redirected based on the location of their IP address. With Latino.Myspace.com, users can choose to simply go to that site instead of the U.S. version.

MySpace also launched la.myspace.com, a pan-regional site for Latin American Spanish speakers.

These localized versions of the service don’t prohibit people from different MySpace sites becoming friends. Anyone can be friends with anyone in MySpace, even if they use different MySpace sites and speak completely different languages.

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/~3/111467264/

We first covered JS-Kit last November when we talked about their quick embed code that lets you add comments to any site where JavaScript is accepted. Since then, JS-Kit has been creating more widgets making adding user interaction to any site dead simple (2 lines of code per widget). JS-Kit has also grown from a one-man-show into a full company after adding 5 of the 12 engineers from Filmloop (which shut down earlier this year). Since then, they’ve been turning out a new widget every two weeks.

JS-Kit is growing a suite of widgets that will help site owners optimize their website content, eventually allowing website owners to easily optimize their site based on how people surf their site. Think Baynote, but for the little guys.

JS-Kit’s current widget suite consists of comments, five-star ratings, and a polling widget added this week. The new polling widget supports an unlimited number of questions, an expiration date, and only becomes visible after the site owner publishes it. Each widget has a fully customizable look through CSS and consists of two lines of code. The first line is a “div” tag brought to life by a second line of JavaScript code.

Each widget is by default differentiated by the URL of the page it is installed on, but can also be given a unique identifier by the user so that a page can have multiple instances of a widget, such as founder Lev Walkin’s photo site. JS-Kit is combating fraud by logging a combination of user cookies, IP, and user agent. The degree of this security can be throttled by the administrator. However, one major disadvantage of the JavaScript implementation is that it will not run on sites that break JavaScript code (MySpace).

Each widget also has administrative capabilities, assigned by cookie to the first computer to accesses the widget code. The administrator is able to moderate any comments that Akismet’s spam filter may miss or create new polls. JS-Kit has a user settings page that lets you view your activity across JS-Kit sites and reclaim administrator rights on a domain if you switch computers or lose the JS-Kit cookie.

To make these more than just website web 2.0 “bling”, JS-Kit is letting the widgets talk to each other. So far they’ve integrated comments and ratings into one widget that allows people to leave comments along with their individual rating, which combine on the server side into one overall rating for the object the widget is attached to. On top of these widgets, JS-Kit will be releasing a meta-widget later this week so that surfers can receive recommendations for your site’s top content (pictured right).

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/111445699/

Podbridge, makers of a podcasting analytics package that tracks audience demographics, plays, and ad rotation, just closed an $8.5 million series B round. A new investor Sutter Hill Ventures led the round, with the original investors Mayfield and Worldview participating.

We covered Podbridge in detail last March. Podbridge’s analytics tracker is an iTunes plug-in that gets downloaded and installed when a listener first downloads a Podbridge-enabled podcasts. When the plug-in is first installed, the listener is asked some demographic questions to help target ads. From then on, the plug-in-tracks a podcast’s online reach, frequency and playing time (anonymous), as well as the download count. Podbridge aims to have a plug-in for Windows Media Player as well.

The overall idea is that more detailed information on your audience will lead to higher ad rates. Targeting ads for the podcast is not a one time deal, with static ads embedded in the podcast. Instead, Podbridge allows for the dynamic insertion of ads that can change on each play. In a deal made last June, Podbridge opened their podcast advertising slots to Ingenio’s advertising network. Podbridge’s clients include Sports Byline USA, the BBC, Military.com, and Forbes.com, who started using the service last September.

iTunes has over 65,000 free podcasts and generated over 1 million subscriptions within two days of its 2005 launch. Research from a survey conducted last November by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found over 17 million people have downloaded podcasts, with 1.4 million saying they had heard or seen a podcast on a typical day (cited by MarketWatch).

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/111421019/

Online backup and storage service Mozy has quietly grown to 175,000 customers since launching in April 2006. That’s not bad for the Utah-based company that runs the service, Berkeley Data Systems, which raised just $2 million in venture capital back in 2005. The company went big time today, however, when they announced a multi-million dollar deal with General Electric, which bought MozyPro (the enterprise version of Mozy) for all of its 300,000+ worldwide employees.

MozyPro is similar to the consumer Mozy service, but includes server backups, 24/7 support and admin control for the IT department. The service launched last December and 3,200 businesses are now using. GE is now one of those businesses.

Mozy and MozyPro are administered through a desktop client and automatically backs up data on the PC every two hours. Thirty days worth of versions are retained, and users can go back and restore any of those versions.

Rate card pricing for consumers is free for up to 2GB of storage, and $5/month for unlimited storage. Businesses pay $4/month for each employee, plus $0.50/GB/month of stored data. Bandwidth is free.

The company is backed by Wasatch Partners, Tim Draper and Drew Major. They have 25 employees.

We first mentioned Mozy back in 2006 when we covered the major online storage providers. On the consumer side, Mozy competes with Carbonite and others. At the enterprise level, Iron Mountain and EVault are the entrenched competitors, although Mozy says they have a 10x cost advantage over those services. Google and Microsoft will also have products in this space.

A very large untapped market for online backups are the OEM PC manufacturers, who should be providing a free trial with every PC. Mozy is now positioned nicely to land such a deal. After a grueling due diligence process by GE, the PC guys should be confident that Mozy is as secure as their competitors. And charging 1/10 of what they do is great for the bottom line.

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/~3/111393726/

In case you missed your chance to present at O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Expo, which wrapped up yesterday in San Francisco, Kevin Werbach’s Supernova conference is gearing up for its own launch on June 20-22 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco under the theme Defining the New Network.

There is just one week left to submit your company for consideration for the Connected Innovators program, which is being co-sponsored by TechCrunch to spotlight the companies most likely to make a significant impact on the connected future of the Web. Twelve buzzworthy companies will have the opportunity to deliver on-stage presentations during a Supernova general session on June 21. TechCrunch will provide coverage of the presentations. The company submission form, along with additional details on selection criteria, marketing benefits and program features are available here. The submission deadline is April 27.

Last year’s presenting companies include: Attensa, Ether, Lifeio, Netvibes, PostApp, PROTOMOBL, Sharpcast, SoonR, StumbleUpon, Vpod.tv, Webaroo an Zixxo.

As a reminder, SuperNova has extended a $200 registration discount to TechCrunch readers through May 11. To receive the discount, email tcreg@supernova2007.com for the code.

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/~3/111389759/

Controversial startup PayPerPost will announce the acquisition of Zookoda, an Australian blog-to-email service, tomorrow.

We wrote about Zookoda last year, and the company put the product up for sale last September. There were reportedly a number of offers for the service when it was originally put up for sale, but the asking price of US$500,000 was too rich to close a deal. Now, nearly seven months later, PayPerPost has stepped in to acquire the company. PayPerPost is not disclosing what they paid for Zookoda, although CEO Ted Murphy did tell me it was a cash deal.

PayPerPost previously announced the acquisition of Performancing only to back out of the deal a week later. Murphy assured me that the Zookoda acquisition won’t suffer the same fate.

PayPerPost says that Zookoda has 10,000 blog customers sending emails to 2.3 million people. Like the Performancing deal, PPP will want to market their core service to those 10,000 bloggers. Murphy tells me that they are also looking for new distribution channels for their content, and email is a natural fit. PPP bloggers will probably soon be seeing pitches to join the Zookoda service, perhaps with the promise of higher payouts when they post.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/111372324/

This weekend Highrise had its one month anniversary. 30 days is a fun number, but we wanted to share some additional first-30-days numbers as well.

• Over 500,000 contacts (people and companies combined) have been added so far
• Just about 75,000 tasks have been added. That’s a lot of stuff to get done.
• 130,000 notes have been added
• Over 7,000 cases have been created
• About 40,000 emails have been forwarded into Highrise (email and Highrise get along great)
• And just over 9,000 files have been uploaded so far as well

Those numbers, the uptake, and the fact that Highrise is our fastest selling product ever tells us we’re off to a great start.

In the first 30 days we also made some significant improvements:

• Global search
• Significant printing improvements
• Significantly improved vCard import and email parsing
• Public contact cards
• Daily “what’s on my plate today?” task summary emails
• Avatars for cases
• Mass contact export and tagged contact export in single vCard, multiple vCard, and CSV file formats
• And a bunch of small things to polish up the UI and overall experience.

We’re working on some more flexible importing features now and have some other great stuff planned this year. Stay tuned.

And remember, for a limited time if you sign up for a Max or Premium Highrise account you get Campfire Premium for free. This also applies if you upgrade to a Max or Premium plan from any other Highrise plan.

Thanks again for making the first 30 days of Highrise memorable.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/388-highrise-the-first-30-days

Cover art by Mingering Mike (book at Amazon), imaginary soul superstar from the ‘70s.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/377-mingering-mikes-cover-art

DNS is boring, but OpenDNS has added a new Shortcut feature that lets you visit URLs without all that nasty typing. Shortcuts are short, multi-letter abbreviations for your favorite sites. Instead of typing “www.nytimes.com,” you can just type “NYT.” You can also create short-cuts for popular search sites (”g monkeys” to search Google for Monkeys, for example).

Read more about it at CrunchGear.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/111390243/

Brad Neuberg and the SitePen team has been working tirelessly to get this beta out of the door. Now we have the Dojo Offline Toolkit in beta, released to the world:

Dojo Offline is a free, open source toolkit that makes it easy for web applications to work offline. It consists of two pieces: a JavaScript library bundled with your web page and a small (~300K) cross-platform, cross-browser download that helps to cache your web application’s user-interface for use offline.

You can try out the Moxie demo, view source on the Hello World example, or go ahead and download the SDK.

Building offline apps isn’t simple. It isn’t a case of magically waving a “make my app work offline” wand. Developers need to re-think their architecture most of the time, and think about what it means to be offline. What can work. What can’t. How do I sync when I go back online. All tough questions for many applications. DOT gives us a nice playground to try out some of these ideas.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/dojo-offline-toolkit-beta-released