Ajax Girl

RingCentral provides phone system integration and utilities to a traditionally under-served category, small to medium sized businesses. Similar to GrandCentral, RingCentral (founded in 1998) uses a virtual number to offer more services to their users existing mobile, fax, and landlines. RingCentral numbers can feature an auto-attendant, multiple extensions, call forwarding, voicemail, click-to-call, screening, logs, and Outlook integration.

On Monday, the company will announce they raised $12 million in financing from two highly respected firms, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia. RingCentral is also adding a new CFO, Dinesh Lathi, who was an ex-VP of eBay. They have currently provisioned over 100,000 numbers and serve over 40,000 paying customers with plans ranging from $9.99 per month to $24.99 per month.

With the recent acquisition of GrandCentral, VOIP as a utility instead of as a means for cheap calling rates has been a more successful strategy for the new telcos as of late. Virtual numbers, while requiring people to switch numbers, allow customers to use their phones without needing to download or adjust their calling behavior with new programs.

RingCentral is based in Redwood City and currently has 8 employees.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159695381/

Yesterday a select group of fifteen or so industry luminaries attended a highly confidential meeting at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View to discuss the company’s upcoming plans to address the “Facebook issue.”

The meeting was so secret that all attendees had to sign confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements strictly forbidding them from discussing what was shown to them at the meeting. Notwithstanding that NDA, I’ve now spoken with three of the attendees off record to get an understanding of what Google is planning. Google’s goal - to fight Facebook by being even more open than the Facebook Platform. If Facebook is 98% open, Google wants to be 100%.

The short version: Google will announce a new set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to leverage Google’s social graph data. They’ll start with Orkut and iGoogle (Google’s personalized home page), and expand from there to include Gmail, Google Talk and other Google services over time.

On November 5 we’ll likely see third party iGoogle gadgets that leverage Orkut’s social graph information - the most basic implementation of what Google is planning. From there we may see a lot more - such as the ability to pull Orkut data outside of Google and into third party applications via the APIs. And Google is also considering allowing third parties to join the party at the other end of the platform - meaning other social networks (think Bebo, Friendster, Twitter, Digg and thousands of others) to give access to their user data to developers through those same APIs.

And that is a potentially killer strategy. Facebook has a platform to allow third parties to build applications on Facebook itself. But what Google may be planning is significantly more open - allowing third parties to both push and pull data, into and out of Google and non-Google applications.

In the long run, Google seems to be planning to add a social layer on top of the entire suite of Google services, with Orkut as their initial main source of social graph information and, as I said above, possibly adding third party networks to the back end as well. Social networks would have little choice but to participate to get additional distribution and attention.

Google has a number of heavy hitters engaged in the project. Amar Ghandi, who apparently wasn’t at the meeting and whose title is the rather unassuming “Product Manager, Orkut,” was previously at Microsoft where he unsuccessfully tried to integrate social networking features into Vista. Brad Fitzpatrick, the chief architect of Six Apart until he joined Google in August, is leading the charge to make the Google project as open as possible. Patrick Chanezon, Google Evangelist, is herding the cats.

Lots of people noticed Fitzpatrick’s social graph post (linked in paragraph above), connected the dots to his new job at Google, and speculated that Google’s has been working on something really, really big in this area. This is now confirmed and, unless Google changes the launch date, we’ll be seeing the beginning of it on November 5.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159639697/

We’ve wondered previously who was going to use MySpace News (if ever), and now we’ve found the traffic source: Google.

Framed pages of blogs and news sites, complete with MySpace News branding and MySpace URL, are being indexed by Google as original content, stealing search engine placement and direct links from content creators.

A search of Google found thousands of MySpace News pages presenting story headlines with a MySpace url that led directly to a framed page that uses content from other sites.

The legality of passing off content as your own is questionable. The case most frequently cited in content framing cases is Washington Post vs Total News where the Washington Post argued that this was unfair and harmful use of their trademark and there was a danger that the user would be confused concerning whose content was being displayed. Unfortunately that case was settled out of court; notably MySpace today is framing content from the Washington Post as well (example here). Some refer to the practice as stealing, and even Chilling Effects notes that the legality of serving framed content is questionable.

The practice may also be in breach of Google’s TOS; MySpace is leveraging its position of strength to promote your content branded as their content in the Google search results, a practice that looks like search engine manipulation from a distance.

No matter what the legalities and moral dimension, if you’re a publisher and MySpace is hijacking your search results and throwing up a frame with their branding around your content, it’s not a good thing. Given what little traffic MySpace News is doing on their main site, there is little new traffic benefits from the service, instead the traffic from the MySpace News pages on Google cannibalizes existing search traffic.

Here’s hoping the Washington Post and the other big media outlets who are having their content framed and presented as MySpace News content take the matter further.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159653291/

Caring.com, a website community about elderly care, just announced a $6 million Series A round of financing from DCM and Split Rock Partners. It’s yet another one of the subject-specific knowledge communities to pop up over the last year.

The site, as you can guess, is about caring for your parents in their “Golden Years”. It provides articles about dealing with your parent’s healthcare, financial, legal, housing, and life issues written by professionals or other users.

Details on the site are sparse, as the site is only now opening its beta. However, it will likely have the usual forum features and social networking profiles.

The team shouldn’t have too much trouble setting up the site since the founders, Jim Scott and Steve Fram spent eight years at BabyCenter, another community site targeting raising children. Sites like Caring.com seem to have a simple formula, find an underserved vertical, put up a community driven content management system, get some editors, and own the Google search results. Most of these sites are taking on specific verticals, but Wikia is spreading horizontally, using mediawiki as the CMS.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159640794/

Exactly a month ago we reported on Microsoft’s new experimental, Silverlight-based search site named Tafiti.

Our verdict then: it’s visually attractive but not functional enough to make many people use it on a daily basis.

Well, Microsoft hasn’t been doing much to change that opinion. But they have been making it even prettier (if you consider well-rendered Master Chiefs pretty).

The company has launched a Halo 3 themed version of Tafiti for next week’s release of that highly-anticipated game. You can still access the original theme, but Halo 3 will be the default theme for the meantime.

Aside from further showcasing Silverlight’s visual capabilities, the theme also allows users to search within Halo-related sites using a “Live Search Macro”.

If you’re getting excited about these Halo 3 “enhancements” to Tafiti, you’ll probably be interested in CrunchGear’s recent Halo 3 coverage (how’s that for an ad?).

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159631836/

Earthlink is stepping back from its investment in Helio, stating that they will not be putting any more money into the company.

At the same time, Earthlink’s joint venture partner in Helio, SK Telecom, has invested an additional $270 million and will likely take a majority share holding. According to an Infoworld report, Helio is expected to lose between $340 million and $360 million this year.

In a statement, Earthlink said that Helio ended August with 130,000 subscribers, and expects to end the year with between 200,000 and 250,000 subscribers and revenue of $140 - $170 million.

EarthLink said that it will amend the Helio partnership agreement “to reflect the additional investment by SK Telecom and their future governance of Helio.” SK Telecom said Helio may be able to raise funds from the market without drawing further investment from either partner.

Helio is one of the few large MVNO’s still standing after the spectacular failure of Amp’d Mobile in July and the failure of small MVNO’s from ESPN among others.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159625559/

If you think you’ve seen bizarre lawsuits before, check this one out. Pennsylvania resident Dylan Stephen Jayne is suing Google for crimes against humanity and is asking the court for $5 billion in damages. The charge: his social security number, when turned upside down and scrambled spells Google.

A copy of the complaint is below. And even though it is handwritten, it’s a real lawsuit. The original can be found at Justia here.

Dylan lodged eight filings with the court, including an accusation that the Philadelphia 76ers play a key role in the code to unscramble his social security number to spell Google.

I don’t think Google will have a lot to worry about with this case, but it does make you wonder why mental health services aren’t more readily available in the United States.

(via El Reg)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159617448/

Amanda Congdon, best known as the original host of Rocketboom, has been let go by ABCNews.com.

ABCNews.com said in a statement:

“It’s been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions and know that she’s about to embark on new endeavors and expect there will be times in the future that we can again work together.”

During her time at ABCNews.com Congdon did a number of projects, including “Amanda Across America,” which as the name suggests was a traveling video blog.

As much as we wish Amanda the very best in her future endeavors, her failure to move from online celebrity to mainstream media company successfully does bring into question the ability of online stars to go mainstream. I’m not quite sure that I’d agree with Fark’s focus on the news, but there will be those who miss seeing Congdon video blogging regularly.

(Media Bistro via Fark)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159610583/

Google is planning a multi-terabit undersea communications cable across the Pacific Ocean for launch in 2009, according to a report from Commsday.

The Unity cable has been under development for several months, and Google is said to have met with Telstra (Australia’s largest telco) and Asia Netcomm in Sydney last week. The cable would run to Australia via Guam and Hawaii.

Interchange cable fees have always been a large issue for Australasian telco’s, with accusations from Australia and Asian countries that they are treated unfairly by US providers in terms of cost for data. In Australia at least, the cost of internet access is significantly higher that in the United States. Google’s move to provide a competitive Pacific Cable service could slash data costs for countries including Australia, Indonesia and even Singapore and Malaysia.

In the United Kingdom, Google is considering a move into the U.K. wireless market after Ofcom (the U.K.’s telecommunications regulator) unveiled plans to liberalize parts of the country’s mobile phone radio spectrum.

According to a Guardian Report, acquiring the spectrum in Britain would allow Google to launch its own full mobile phone service or push for the sort of open standards-based wireless broadband network it is seeking to provide in the United States.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159593045/

Adam Curry’s Podshow will formally announce an alliance with TiVo next week that sees PodShow content becoming available to TiVo’s 10-12 million users in the United States.

According to our source, the news is planned to be formally announced the day before the Podcast and New Media Expo to maximize Podshow’s coverage during the event. At this stage there is no word on the deal from Podshow itself, although others have noticed the tie-up prior to today, and a TiVo page for Podshow is already available here.

We’ve also heard rumors that Podshow may announce a new round of funding next week alongside the TiVo announcement. There is no confirmation at this stage and we are waiting on a response from Podshow.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/159580413/