Ajax Girl

Seattle-based Redfin, a real estate website that allows users to bypass most of the fees associated with using real estate brokers, has closed a $12 million Series C round of financing. This is on top of the approximately $8 million they raised in their previous two rounds. The round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Previous investors Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, BEV Capital and The Hillman Company also participated (see all funding history here).

Redfin is doing their best to completely remove real estate agents and brokers from at least half of a home sale. The company combines MLS listing information (homes for sale) with historical sales data (homes already sold) into a single map. If you find a home you like and want to place an offer, Redfin will represent you in the buying process (they have a call center with licensed real estate professionals to guide you). They then reimburse 2/3 of the buy-side real estate fees to you on closing. The average home buyer saves around $10,000 on a transaction. The company will also represent sellers in home sale transactions.

The company has irked the real estate industry enough to get maintream attention. In May they were featured on 60 Minutes. Since then, the company has completed more than $350 million in real estate transactions and has saved customers around $6 million in commissions.

Realtors are fighting back mainly by trying to limit the MLS data that the company can show on its site, and trying to stop the company from showing customer reviews alongside that data. They’ve also seen an increasing number of realtors refuse to accept offers from Redfin customers, and a few “for sale” signs have been chopped down from yards.

I’m not surprised by any of this, given the disruptive nature of their business. Some of the comments left by realtors in our previous posts on the company have been venomous. Still, I have the feeling that the really big fight between realtors and Redfin is still to come.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/134792465/

A new version of coComment, the online conversation tracking platform is being prepared for launch.

The new version includes a stronger emphasis on community and groups, moving away from strictly being a blog conversation tracking tool to one that in centered on topics, in a not dissimilar way to Tangler.

coComment 2.0 expands its sharing capabilities, by providing the ability to join other people in conversations anywhere with just two clicks.

A sidebar browser allows users to navigate, link & discover, and get a complete view of all discussions as they surf the web. A comment anywhere feature allows users to leave comments on any web site via coComment, even if those sites do not allow commenting.

We have 100 free pre-launch passes for TechCrunch readers wanting to check out the new version of coComment. Simply login to the test platform as follows, then register your details.
Link: http://beta.cocomment.com
Platform Username: betatester
Platform Password: cocommentv2

Swiss based coComment has come a long way from an initial product that tracked half a blog conversation (but not a full thread). The company now offers hosted commenting, plugins and various other tracking tools that provide an interesting product. The new release builds on that and is bound to put the company back on the radar for many in the blogging community who may not be using the product, or had previously tried it (like myself) and weren’t all that fussed.

The video below explains the new features in more detail. Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

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/~3/134778138/

There’s only one other group online as obsessive about constant feeds of information aside from Silicon Valley’s power geeks, and that’s sports fans. Geeks have RSS, sports fans have SMS. Tech heads have podcasts to their highlight reels. Fans have even spurred the development of their own kind of virtual world, the $2 billion cottage fantasy sports industry. There are a host of sites helping some 15-18 million fans follow their leagues, including Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, and a host of smaller operations. Fans play on 3 different teams on average.

Atlanta-based ScreamingSports is a new service from FSDashboard creating a social network for fantasy sports fans where they can manage their teams, regardless of where they are hosted. FSDashboard is releasing the site fresh off a $1.25 million round of financing from Mangrove Partners.

ScreamingSports lets you create your own personal fantasy sports profile (blog, pics, friends) and aggregate all of your fantasy sports teams by just dropping in your credentials. You can connect with other players, compete for points, and get updates on general sports news. For your teams, SS will let you know how they’re performing, what games are coming up, as well as last minute game breakers like injuries or expulsion. Any changes you make to you teams in ScreamingSports are reflected in the hosting site and vice versa.

ScreamingSports also adds features some fantasy sites don’t have. You can access your teams from a mobile phone for last minutes tweaks and even automate updates to your teams based on injuries.

We’ve seen a cadre of other startups cater to this crowd for big payoffs in the past. Wikia reportedly purchased ArmchairGM for $2 million. Time and Sports Illustrated acquired FanNation and paid about $25 million for a 40% stake its parent company. Rivals allegedly sold for a whopping $100 million.

Since they depend on third party sites for their users, Screaming Sports stands in a more tenuous spot than these other sites, who went it alone. However, it’s easy to see ScreamingSports launching their own network after reaching a critical mass, similar to Meebo launching their IM network after aggregating the major players.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/134772275/

I had a chance to visit music social network iLike’s Seattle offices yesterday to meet with co-founder Hadi Partovi. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the office was a flat panel display showing key real time stats for the company - see image to the right. I took a picture as Partovi looked on nervously. These stats haven’t previously been publicly disclosed, but he agreed that I could publish them.

iLike launched last October. In the nine months since they’ve gathered 3.5 million users (the orange stats in the picture), up from half a million in February. Not bad. But what’s really impressive is the fact that in less than two months nearly 5 million more people have signed up for the service on Facebook, where it is the third most popular third party application.

The difference will only become greater - 2,800 Facebook users are joining every hour, whereas the main site only gets 652 new users/hour.

Much of the popularity of the iLike Facebook application is driven by something called the iLike Music Challenge, where users try to guess songs or artist names based on listening to a 30 second snippet from a song. Users get points for correct answers (and more points for fast answers), and compete with their friends. It’s highly addictive and viral - Partovi says the average user session last a whopping 80 songs. Since points are public, I can see that a lot of my Facebook friends are totally addicted to this. See the screen shot below, and click for a larger view.

Two Sets Of Users

But iLike has a bit of a problem, because it has two distinct sets of users using two different products. There isn’t much overlap between the two groups, he says, because the Facebook application isn’t promoted on the iLike website.

The company is currently dedicating resources to merge the user groups and make the functionality between the products identical (or at least more similar). They’ll start by comparing cookies to find cross-users. If cookies from both products are on a user’s browser, they’ll ask if they have accounts at both and optionally merge them.

While their in the process of doing that, they continue to support the two products separately. All new beta features are released on both platforms, so its just the legacy stuff that needs to move. The most important features are the data gathered from the iTunes plugin - users want to show playlists and the music they are listening to on Facebook. All of that is coming soon, the company says.

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/~3/134721433/

AOL has a slew of new beta products all powered by Dojo. The portal piece differs from iGoogle and the like by not using iframes. At first I was surprised at this (security concerns), but then you see that the portlets are fairly locked down.

Mgnet is an interesting product that helps you find content that suits you. First you click on images that show off categories (e.g. soccer, gadgets, politics), and then you are taken to entries from blog feeds that you thumb up and down. It is certainly a new way to go about finding content, and there are nice examples of Dojo usage throughout.

The site appears to currently be powered by 0.4.3 so it will be interesting to see it when it boots up to 0.9+.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/134630234/aol-mgnet-with-dojo

We’re opening the final 100 tickets to our second annual TechCrunch meet-up on July 27 on the fabulous outdoor patio of August Capital. Register here. This is the last batch of tickets we’re releasing, and the list is full.

Only sponsors and TechCrunch20 registered attendees will be able to get in after this batch. If you’ve bought a ticket to TechCrunch20 and aren’t on the party list, email us and we’ll find a way to squeeze you in.

We still have entry-level sponsorships and a number of demo stations available for start-up companies. We also entertain creative sponsorship ideas that will help make the evening memorable for all. If you are interested in supporting the event, please contact Jeanne Logozzo.

Traditional and new media will be there to see what’s new. Confirmed press include Wired Magazine, Business Week, Business 2.0, CNet, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, GigaOm, Robert Scoble and PodTech.

Reminder, 100% of the $10 ticket proceeds will be donated to Kipp Bayview Academy, a public elementary school in southeast San Francisco, for the purchase of computer-related equipment.

UPDATE 10:23 am PST: Tickets are now officially sold out.

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/~3/134627024/

Wow. This has been a long time coming. It’s time to finally begin building up to the launch of the new Backpack.

We originally hoped to have this out at the end of 2006, but a variety of circumstances pushed it back and back and back. Technical challenges, strategy changes, and the launch of Highrise all played a part in the delay. We apologize. We learned our lesson about pre-announcing releases that aren’t truly right around the corner.

Familiar yet all new

One of the challenges of developing the new Backpack was to maintain familiarity yet make the product feel brand new. While the standard tools remain mostly the same, the experience of interacting with the tools is all new. It’s something you’ll feel when you use it.

Anywhere

The first major change we want to preview is the “items anywhere” feature. The current version of Backpack segments the page into fixed compartments. To-do lists always at the top, then notes, then files, then photos, etc. Not anymore. the new version allows you to put anything anywhere. A file on top of a list. A list below a note. A photo gallery in at the top of the page, etc. It’s up to you.

Same content, different order

To illustrate, here’s two screenshots of the same content in a different order.

Coming soon

The new Backpack is coming soon. Thanks again for your patience and stay tuned for more previews and the launch announcement.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/515-preview-1-the-new-backpack-items-anywhere

Some recent activity at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:

Paying attention to users

Mark I.	You Mean There’s a Better Way?: “There’s a good lesson here that’s often missed; pay attention to what users are doing with the provided system and by unblocking minor bottlenecks you can become the hero.”
Mark I.	Great anecdote about paying attention to users.
Ryan S.	nice story MI
Ryan S.	i love the software-designer-as-sleuth angle
Mark I.	It always fascinates me how reluctant some users are to report issues and just work around things.
Mark I.	While others are amazingly willing.
Ryan S.	i bet 90% don’t even notice issues like that
Ryan S.	they just assume what they’re trying to do is hard
Ryan S.	/ a pain in the ass
Mark I.	They’ve been trained to silently work around problems.
Ryan S.	yeah. and “i bet this could be easier” is a designer mindset
Ryan S.	more than a user mindset. if a user is thinking like that, they’re probably wearing the wrong hat
Mark I.	Those are the best kinds of issues for developers though. Low hanging fruit that has an immediate positive impact to the users. Very satisfying.
Ryan S.	totally

Mow the lawn vs. cut the grass

Mark I.	I just quickly cut the grass about 5 minute ahead of a torrential thunderstorm.
Mark I.	I did the front yard the same way yesterday, I was literally running for the last 3-4 rows while I was getting rained on.
Jamis B.	your use of “cut the grass” made me wonder about dialectical differences in the US (I say “mow the lawn”), so I googled it and found a really cool site that plots different uses and pronunciations of various words and phrases across the US
Jamis B.	http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/lingu…
Jeremy K.	that’s a really fun survey
Jamis B.	here’s the results of “mow the lawn” vs. “cut the grass”
Jamis B.	http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/lingu…
Jeremy K.	so many phrases I’ve never heard
Ryan S.	that’s awesome
Mark I.	Mow de lawn is how they say it in France.
Jamis B.	haha
Ryan S.	fun to find examples with a clear geographic split
Ryan S.	http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/lingu…

Chowder

HTML forms

Jamis B.	HTML sucks all the joy out of programming for me
Jamis B.	HTML+CSS, that is
Jamis B.	I’m so glad I don’t have to do the design work for our apps
Jamis B.	I’m trying to design a simple form
Jamis B.	and I’m hating life
Jamis B.	It’s seriously making me want to not work on this anymore
Jeremy K.	aw, man
Jamis B.	html makes it so easy to write forms that look like crap
Jamis B.	and SO HARD to write forms that look nice
Jamis B.	that’s so backwards
Matt L.	maybe this is helpful: http://wufoo.com/
Matt L.	“Wufoo is the easiest way to collect information online. Our innovative HTML form builder helps anyone create beautiful forms, online surveys and invitations without writing a single line of code.”
Jamis B.	oh, awesome, thanks matt
Jamis B.	I’d totally forgotten about tools like that
Jamis B.	I’ll check it out

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/495-fly-on-the-wall-paying-attention-to-users-mow-the-lawn-vs-cut-the-grass-chowder-html-forms

iPhone development is continuing to sprint. We are seeing apps sprout out every minute or so, and various tools are coming online.

Here is a short update that touches on some items that we have found of interest:

PickleView

PickleView is an application that mashes up twitter and baseball. If you are out somewhere with your phone, login and chat about the game with others.

Google AJAX Search

This iPhone specific site runs an Ajax tabbed control in a form factor for the iPhone itself.

TinyBuddy IM: Instant Messaging for iPhone

James Burke (who will be speaking at The Ajax Experience on xdomain issues) has released TinyBuddy, which is an IM client for the iPhone that differs from others in that it:

• Uses only HTML/CSS/JavaScript. No server-side languages or proxies.
• I do not see your password ever — sign in securely using the AIM OpenAuth servers.
• Uses Dojo 0.4.3, but I’m porting it to 0.9. The 0.4.3 version is around 90KB gzipped including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• It uses AIM’s Web AIM API: a Comet API that uses long polling so that it works cross-domain. I shorted the polling and added a delay between polls to help with the sometimes unreliable network on the phone.
• You can specify your own CSS file if you want to style the UI differently.

Diamenty

The games, the games. Diamenty gets you some bejeweled fun for the iPhone.

iPhone Link Directory Generator

The iUI generator takes an OPML file and will generate a simple iUI layout for you.

Leaflets

Leaflets is another application homepage for the iPhone.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/134611135/iphone-update-pickleview-dojo-chat-iui-generation-and-more

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the latest and last of the wildly popular Harry Potter books, has hit BitTorrent. Various torrents of the novel consist of photographed pages (as above) with reading quality that isn’t perfect, but for desperate fans readable enough. Whilst the validity of the hype surrounding Harry Potter may be subject to debate, what the leaking of the book does demonstrate is that the days of the mainstream media and publishers strictly controlling the dissemination of information has well and truly past; simply where there is a fan with a will, there is a way.

For educational purposes only, the Harry Potter book can be found by searching The Pirate Bay.

(via Torrent Freak)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/134568944/