Ajax Girl

Google has licensed technology that will enable Google to map out 3-D versions of cities world wide.

According to a Mercury News report, the technology was developed by a team of Stanford University students and was used to run a robotic car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Although Google is the market leader in mapping, to date it has lagged behind Microsoft’s Virtual Earth in terms of 3-D functionality.

The new technology will allow photo-realistic 3-D maps of cities creating the possibility that the 3-D data could be used as a basis to launch a virtual world, or licensed to existing online worlds such as Second Life.

The technology differs from the existing 3-D rendering in Google Earth; the licensed technology will allow Google to model 3-D cities using computer power alone and without the need for developer input.

An official announcement is expected at the Where 2.0 conference May 29-30.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/117878212/

Rumored for some time, Google is now officially providing results for Chinese search engine Soso.com.

Spotted first by Search Engine Journal, the Google logo is now present in Soso.com search results, and joins 163.com in Google’s quest to conquer China.

It has been a difficult market for Google from the beginning. The ethical questions in relation to censorship caused Google to hold back on services such as gmail for Google.cn whilst the NASDAQ listed Baidu.com continued to dominate the local search market.

As of April, Baidu’s market share is reminiscent of Google’s domination in other nations, Baidu having 55% search market share in China to Google’s 21.7%.

Google’s traditional foe Yahoo is only just on the radar in China. Although rated in a 2006 market share report as being China’s No. 3 search engine, market share as of June 2006 was a low 5.7%. If Alexa data can be trusted, Yahoo.cn has since slipped to 7th place on traffic behind Baidu.com, 163.com (powered by Google, 2), Sohu.com (3), Google.cn (4), SoSo.com (powered by Google, 5) and Sina.com (6). It should be noted that a number of sites, such as Sina.com compete not only in search but services as well, Sina.com being best known in the West for offering a blogging platform.

Google’s China partners Soso.com and 163.com also use Google’s Adwords advertising platform. Google previously held a 2.6% stake in Baidu.com which it sold in 2006.

The importance of China to Google should not be underestimated. China has around 150 million people online and is expected to have more broadband users than the United States in the next 12-24 months.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/117868606/

The Pirate Bay, one of the largest and most controversial sites for downloading copyrighted materials via BitTorrent, confirmed today that they are preparing to launch a video streaming site. Some people are speculating that it will be YouTube without the DMCA take down notices, because those notices will simply be ignored. The service will likely launch at thevideobay.org.

This has to send chills down the spine of the MPAA and RIAA, who have been unsuccessfully fighting The Pirate Bay for years - in May 2006 the Swedish police raided the service and briefly shut it down, although within two weeks it was back online and (reportedly) located in the Netherlands. The site, like AllOfMP3.com, continues to be a major target for law enforcement agencies.

There aren’t many additional details available at this time. The Pirate Bay is also affiliated with a new music sharing site called Playable, which will let musicians distribute music for free but still receive financial support via advertising, donations, or some other means.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/117848907/

It’s always a little weird when a stodgy-sounding task goes all Web 2.0. Case in point, creating organizational charts. Software vendor Human Concepts makes OrgPlus, the go-to app for such an activity and
OrgPlus Live is the new Web-based version of said software. Don’t think you need org charts? Well, maybe it’s just that you don’t know any better.

Of course some of the goals for creating an org chart is to get a visual idea of your company’s structure, building project teams and keeping track of everyone’s role and contact information as your organization changes. But org charts can be used for laying out projects, setting up a bookmaking operation a gentleman’s NCAA office pool, beer-pong tournament (thanks Lisa!) and even planning out teams for a sports league—basically anything that needs structure and order. Think Visio online.

OrgPlus Live brings the org-chart strengths from the Windows-based software (with pricing that starts at $189.95) and applies them to a Web-based version that can be used on any platform thanks to the miracles of Flash. Drag-and-drop creation, easy text input and field editing, a simple, intuitive interface, solid security, the ability to import existing data from Excel and more is now available for fees as low as $9.99 a month. It’s in beta (like the rest of the Internets), but in my brief time with it, things appear to be pretty stable. And if you still don’t see how useful it can be, I dare you to try it out for yourself—there’s a 14-day free trial with nothing to install or download.

Read more at CrunchGear…

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/~3/117827957/

We’ve seen a lot of action around personal media players recently, driven by people’s desire to share their content with friends and family. Slide recently announced they’re creating over 200,000 slide shows/day, and newcomer Flektor is getting snatched up by MySpace.

MixerCast is a similar embeddable flash media player that’s not only remixing all of your favorite media, but also a lot of web trends.

Like Slide, RockYou, and Flektor, MixerCast is a slide show based player that also plays multimedia content (like SplashCast, Flektor). In their upcoming release, MixerCast will be incorporating live RSS updates to your player content (SplashCast) and finally let users make money through affiliate fees (FavoriteThingz, Amazon Affiliate Badge).

MixerCast allows users to mix together personal and licensed media (images, audio, video) into a slide show. Slide shows can be created by dropping the content into one of their 18 customizable templates, similar to a lot of the templates you get with Slide or RockYou. Content for your shows can be uploaded from your computer, recorded on a web cam, pulled in via url, or selected from their library of content made up of partners like Getty images, Nature & Wildlife, Muze Music, Muze Reels, and Pump Audio. In the future, they will be incorporating other partners such as Universal Music Group, Virgin Records, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, among others. See below for a sample of the player.

The upcoming release will make the players “fire and forget”, enabling users to use RSS feeds to update the content in their players so it shows the most recent images and videos from their online content.

MixerCast’s incorporation of licensed content and variety of supported media differentiates it from the other thematic players. RockYou currently incorporates photos and images, with music from Pulse, Nettwerk, and Bebo. Slide incorporates photos with stand alone video player themes. Flektor has the multimedia down, but currently isn’t mixing in third party content.

In another week, similar to other social commerce projects, MixerCast will finally turn on the shopping cart at the bottom of their player, allowing users to profit from the licensed content they share with their friends. Part of the revenues from purchases within the widget will get kicked back to each of the parties involved: MixCast, the user, and the license owner. The hope is that people are more likely to buy content recommended by their friends.

This distributed advertising model across a widget network seems like a probable model for the other players like RockYou and Slide, when they finally decide turn on the revenue spigot across the networks they’ve built.

MixerCast claims 20,000 users, 1 million views of their players since launch, and received $2.6 million in financing from CommVentures back in December of 2005, the same guys who invested $7 million into Filmloop. They are currently pursuing a second round of funding.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/117873106/

Our next Fireside Chat will bring together three innovative designer/artists who build engaging interactive experiences:

Jonathan Harris (Daylife, We Feel Fine, etc.)
Aaron Koblin (The Sheep Market, Flight Patterns, etc.)
Marcos Weskamp (Flickrgraph, Newsmap, etc.)

What question(s) would you like to see us ask them?

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/426-questions-for-harris-weskamp-koblin-chat

A new service from Portland based SparkPlug; TeamSnap brings amateur sports management to Web 2.0.

Anybody who has coached or managed a sports team knows how much work is involved. Managing team rosters, fees and event schedules is a time consuming chore. TeamSnap aims to simply the management of the various aspects of running any sort of team by providing an online destination, a CRM tool of sorts for amateur sports management.

It’s a well thought out and designed site. Built in is support for rosters, scheduling, player availability and payment tracking. Messaging includes a private forum and bulk email distribution lists. Photo sharing comes standard and for those who love their numbers, statistics can also be entered.

But let’s not forget the important things, like who brings the refreshments! They’ve got a section just for that as well.

The service is customizable, features can be turned off if not required and the interface can be skinned in team colors and a logo included.

It’s a substantial niche with few if any competitors. If you are a parent managing a kid’s team or managing something with grown-ups this could be a compelling service. TeamSnap is completely free during its beta stage, with a variety of affordable price plans (including a free version) available post beta.

If you’re not convinced, let Tom Cruise and Paris Hilton convince you otherwise.

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/~3/117779612/

Our little ad network that could is growing up. We’ve just added Matt Haughey’s brand new site Fortuitous to The Deck. Fortuitous is where Matt documents his “new career in professionally screwing around on the web.” Few people have screwed around as successfully as Matt, so his experience and wisdom is especially valuable.

These sites are The Deck:
A List Apart, Daring Fireball, 37signals,
Waxy.org, YayHooray!, The Morning News,
Design
Observer, Kottke.org, IconBuffet,
Helvetica: The Film, Computerlove, Vitamin,
Fortuitous, Zeldman,
Subtraction, swissmiss, Airbag,
& Coudal.

If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of creative, web and design professionals, check out The Deck. June-August inventory is now available.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/425-18-in-the-deck

Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog describes how some small-scale recording artists are succeeding on the web. One interesting bit mentions the “pay what you can policy” used by Jane Siberry. The result: People wind up paying more than they would at iTunes.

The Canadian folk-pop singer Jane Siberry has a clever system: she has a “pay what you can” policy with her downloadable songs, so fans can download them free — but her site also shows the average price her customers have paid for each track. This subtly creates a community standard, a generalized awareness of how much people think each track is really worth. The result? The average price is as much as $1.30 a track, more than her fans would pay at iTunes.

Choose an option and you see stats on what other customers choose:

Her store provides an open letter that explains the policy:

Like many, I’m restless and impatient with living in a world where people are made to feel like shoplifters rather than intelligent peoples with a good sense of balance. I want to treat people the way I’d like to be treated. ‘Dumbing UP’ (as opposed to ‘dumbing down’)….You decide what feels right to your gut. If you download for free, perhaps you’ll buy an extra CD at an indie band’s concert. Or if you don’t go with your gut feeling, you might sleep poorly, wake up grumpy, put your shoes on backwards and fall over. Whatever. You’ll know what to do…This is not a guilt trip. Feel no pressure. The most important thing is that the music flow out to where it could bring enjoyment. And THAT is the best thing you could give me.

The current pricing statistics listed at the site:
18% Gift from Artist
18% Standard
05% Pay Now
58% Pay Later

Avg Price/Song $1.17
07% Paid Below Suggested
80% Paid At Suggested
14% Paid Above Suggested

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/419-jane-siberrys-you-decide-what-feels-right-pricing

For the past few weeks I’ve been trying out Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks weekly Fresh Picks Box delivery. You can order a box for 1, 2, or the family size.

Fresh Picks offers year-round home delivery in the Chicago area of local and organic produce, meat, dairy and eggs. They work with local sustainable farms and know the farmers by name.

What’s great about the Fresh Picks Box isn’t just the produce, or the freshness, or the locality, or the great story. It’s all of those things plus on big thing: The surprise. Every week something new based on what’s in season. It’s a really great way to eat better (eat with the seasons), and try new stuff all the time. This last week my box included Burdock Root and Black Spanish Radishes—two things I’ve never had and probably never would have purchased on my own accord.

Each hand delivery comes with a description of what’s in the box, the farm it came from, and some suggested cooking/preparation instructions. A handwritten thank you is included sometimes. It’s really folksy and nice. Irv himself delivered my first order.

So if you’re in Chicago and looking for some good wholesome local organic produce (or meat, dairy and eggs), give Irv and Shelly a try. Yes, you can order online.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/424-why-irv-shellys-fresh-picks-gets-it-right