Ajax Girl

Social travel network TripUp has announced the launch of CouchSwap, a new social travel application developed specifically for Facebook.

CouchSwap gives Facebook users the ability to offer their couches to friends and other travellers, as well as being able to find available couches offered up by other members.

CouchSwap features include a ratings service that allows users to rate couches like a hotel room, and a credit system for swapping couches. Users must offer a couch in order to take advantage of other people’s couches; a Bartercard style system of sorts for cheap accommodation.

CouchSwap will compete directly with the Couch Surfing Project, a stand alone site that has over 270,000 members.

Counchswap’s parent company TripUp was acquired by Sidestep July 9.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139434611/

A new study being published by the University of Texas and Chitika says that the top 50,000 blogs may have generated around $50 million in aggregate 2006 revenue. The data behind the study is rather thin - They are looking at the Chitika blog advertising network, which includes 12,000 blogs, and estimating that most blogs would have three distinct revenue sources. Blog rankings are determined by Technorati rank.

The study results are embedded below. An interesting conclusion is that blog revenue may defy the “80/20 rule”, with even more revenue going to top blogs than usual, with 20% of total revenue going to the top 1% of blogs. “Upon closer observation, it was found that model tends to overestimate the revenue at less popular blogs, but underestimates it at more popular ones” the study says. And:

Summary of Findings: Ad revenue in a blog is more sensitive to the rank of the blog than what one would expect in a typical Zipf Law 80/20 curve situation. One reason for this may be the social value of advertising in a blog. If online advertising is like advertising in a mall, advertising in the blogosphere is like advertising in a country club.

• The top 1% accounted for approximately 20% of the total revenue.
• The top 5% accounted for approximately 50% of the total revenue.
• The top 10% accounted for approximately 80% of the total revenue.
• The top 15% accounted for approximately 90% of the total revenue.

Again, the data behind the study is very thin, and using Technorati to determine the top 50,000 blogs may not be a perfect indicator either.

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/~3/139384022/

“Street style community” StyleMob will go public Thursday with a product that is part Hot or Not, part fashion magazine and part MySpace.

Like Hot or Not, StyleMob encourages users to upload photos to be scored by other users. The concept is that users share their fashions with other users, be that store clothing, created clothing or a combination therein.

StyleMob also takes on aspects of social networking sites such as MySpace. Users have profiles, comment walls and friends. StyleMob members can post advice questions (examples provided include “Should I keep plucking my eyebrows?” or “What should I wear to my interview?”) to their own personal “StyleCouncil”, a team of personal stylists made up of friends and Specialists they find on StyleMob.

Co-founder Sasha Cagen describes StyleMob in a way that I can’t possibly do as a man, “Our early members tell us StyleMob is more than a website, it’s a mindset and a way of life. StyleMob is about injecting creativity into getting dressed every morning. It’s about getting inspiration from other people whose taste and budgets match their own.”

See our previous coverage of other sites in this space here.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139370085/

Anybody know who the guy in the blue shirt with blond hair is below (looking left, with glasses, back to camera)? Someone saw him at TechCrunch 9 and wants to meet him. See Scott Beale’s post and the related “missed connection” post on Craigslist.

hi! this is crazy. thought you’re cute. you’re the tall blond guy with your back to the camera, wearing glasses, 3rd or 4th person from the left, in picture number 11? on laughingsquid. wish i’d talked to you.

I’m seriously thinking that we need to launch some sort of dating site.

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/~3/139369277/

The FCC released the auction rules on the 700 MHz spectrum today. Google formally requested (and we supported) that the new bandwidth have four requirements: open applications, open devices, open services and open networks. Together these rules could quickly make the U.S. wireless space competitive with European and Asian markets that we have long trailed.

The auction rules include much of what Google requested, including open devices and open applications. But open services and open networks are out, meaning third parties may not get access to the networks at fair wholesale rates. Will we see a tidal wave of innovation in the space? It’s too early to tell. The FCC hedged its bets to keep AT&T, Verizon and other incumbents happy. New players like Google may or may not participate.

This is clearly a compromise decision. History will decide if the FCC commissioners made the right choices. Perhaps their feeble attempts to stand up to AT&T, Verizon and their army of lobbyists will have been enough to get the U.S. back in the race with the rest of the mobile world. Or perhaps not. Just for record keeping purposes, Kevin Martin (Chairman) and commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps are willing to fight for openness. Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell, who are parroting much of the nonsense that AT&T spewed last week, are clearly lining up with the incumbents.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139349252/

A strong second quarter by IAC saw a 78% increase in profits, mostly driven by assets sales and reduced costs.

The positive headline results did not flow through to the struggling 4th ranked search engine Ask.com, which saw a decline in revenues. The second quarter decline comes despite a $100 million Crispin, Porter + Bogusky advertising campaign that should be resulting in increased traffic and revenue to the site.

The exact amount of the decline was not disclosed.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139298185/

Australian startup Tangler has created a next generation forum product that allows real-time discussions to occur without page refreshes. Their forum product is both synchronous and asynchronous - meaning it competes as much with Meebo (web based chat) as it does with existing forum applications. Users can also easily embed rich media into the discussion.

We first wrote about Tangler in February 2006, when it was deep in a development. They’ve been quietly working with beta partners for the last six months, and recently opened their doors to allow anyone to create a new forum. Last week, the 1,000th forum was created on Tangler.

Tangler forums are also decentralized. Any discussion/forum can easily be embedded in a third party website or websites. The discussion occurs simultaneously on all instances of the forum. See here for an example of an embedded forum.

See our recent coverage of Meebo Rooms as well. It is interesting to see web chat and forums colliding towards the same end product.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139278822/

Facebook is down, and has been so since at least 10 am PST. Anyone notice it down earlier than that? We’ve emailed the company for their comment.

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/~3/139284146/

Jeep is iconic but “crap”?
From: Will Duderstadt

Thought you guys would enjoy a retort to the Jeep being called “crap” in an MIT publication: Branding Lessons from Jeep: Designed For A Purpose.

He recognizes that the look, feel, and design of a Jeep is iconic, but fails to see those traits are only responsible for a fraction of its status. The Jeep has become an icon because you aren’t just buying a steel tub with removable doors, you are buying into an experience, an adventure, a lifestyle.

Now, the average Joe never says to himself, “Gosh, I wish I could take the doors off my BMW 750i”. But ask the next fella you see in a Jeep what summer means, and “top down, doors off” is going to rate very high on that list.

Dyson Airblade

From: Paul Campbell

With your previous Dyson posts, I thought you might be interested in the Dyson Airblade [hand dryer for bathrooms] – apparently it’s a rip of an earlier model from mitsubishi, but I “experienced” it tonight and it was a trip!

Blogged about it here: The Dyson Airblade – out XLing the XLerator

The device works by shooting a thin stream of air ( apparently .3 mm ) at 400mph. It claimed my hands would be dry in 10 seconds, but it took far less than that. The other bonus was that because you put your hands in rather than under, there’s no pool of water underneath.

Modern design lessons from ancient architecture
From: Josh Clark

I just got back from my first trip to Greece, and I spent a lot of time scrambling among ancient ruins. I was surprised and delighted to find that the Acropolis held some very 37signals-y lessons in design, and I figured I’d share…

The Acropolis turns out to be an object lesson in design subtlety within the scope of a colossal project. It’s a 2500-year-old example of clever user-experience design, where quietly considered design flourishes abound.

As a guy whose working materials are modern bits and bytes, I found the marble-and-limestone structures of 25 centuries ago to be inspring. My visit to the Acropolis gave me a renewed sense in the importance of getting the quiet parts of design right, that there’s real value in taking time and care to create a sense of calm order and symmetry in your creations. The details matter.

For what it’s worth, I thought you might enjoy my blog write-up about it.

Penultimate?
From: Ben Sekulowicz

First Direct, (a UK based online bank owned by HSBC) use the following within their two-part log in process, (along with security question).

Please enter the 4th, penultimate and last characters from your electronic password…

How many users will know what penultimate is, really?

Have an interesting link, story, or screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Contact svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/521-mailbag-jeep-dyson-the-acropolis-etc

“The hole and the patch should be commensurate.”
-Thomas Jefferson

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/546-spot-on