Ajax Girl

Google will start offering YouTube videos as part of the Adsense Program starting Tuesday, according to several reports.

The Adsense “Video units” will display two kinds of advertising, ads contextual to the site and ads contextual to the video being played. Adsense users will not be able to pick from any YouTube video, but only videos from content providers who have signed an agreement with YouTube. Any revenue earned on the video will be split three ways between the site owner, content creator, and Google itself.

Although Google has previously offered video advertising on Adsense, and YouTube has previously been experimenting with video advertising, the new offering will be the first time Google has blended ads with YouTube content for display on third party affiliated sites.

The natural conclusion is that the move is part of Google’s efforts to get better returns from YouTube following their acquisition of the web’s most popular video sharing site in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. Without being able to test the variety of content being offered by Adsense it’s difficult to know how the new offering will be received, however anything that provides additional revenue options for website and blog owners can’t be a bad thing.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167261612/

Woodland Hills based search marketing firm ReachLocal has taken an additional $55.2 million in funding, brining total funding to $67.9 million on a valuation of $305 million.

The round was led by Rho Ventures, with original investors Galleon Crossover Fund VantagePoint Venture Partners also participating.

ReachLocal offers a local-focused search marketing product that targets SMBs. ReachLocal offers campaign management for online advertising on major services including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, and also provides campaign specific site building and click tracking to customers.

For what is basically a SEM firm, the valuation is staggering; however despite the direct to buyer model of advertising options such as Google Adwords there is a growing market for middle-man services such as ReachLocal. There will be many people in the SEM business who will be re-evaluating their company valuations following ReachLocal’s new round of funding, and I’d suggest that many of them may be sitting on a lot more value than they had previously thought.

(in part via LA Times)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167238971/

Highly popular Industrial Rock Band Nine Inch Nails have announced that as of today they are free agents, and will not be using the services of a record company in the future.

Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor wrote on the NIN site that the writing is on the wall for the traditional music distribution model, saying that the music business has radically mutated from one thing to something inherently very different today and that “it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as i see fit and appropriate.”

It’s expected that Nine Inch Nails next album will follow on from Radiohead’s Rainbows and be released directly to the public.

I think Gizmodo hits it right on the head when they write:

If two of the biggest acts in the industry can see the digital writing on the wall and totally embrace it—that the old way of doing business is broken—why can’t the labels? What Radiohead and NIN are showing is that the business model “of the future” feared by entrenched interests isn’t arriving some time in the horizon. It’s touching down now.

See also Michael’s take on the music industry here.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167229154/

When Facebook announced fbFund, a new program to give grants to Facebook application developers, at TechCrunch40, they clearly hadn’t thought through all the logistics of the program. Applicants were urged to simply email in their ideas for funding - see the video here.

Now they’ve rethought that process.

I can imagine they’ve been inundated with applications, which may be part of it. But as Facebook finds itself increasingly in competition with its own application partners, they probably also fear the inevitable lawsuits from applicants who will say Facebook simply stole their ideas. To counter the threat, they have deleted all email applications and have set up a Facebook application to take information.

In an email to all applicants today, Facebook notified applicants of the deletions and set forth the new method of submitting applications:

Thank you for your inquiry about the fbFund grant program, and for your support of the Facebook Platform. Our goal for this program is to encourage as many developers as possible to write innovative and engaging new applications on top of Facebook Platform. Additionally, we hope to enable an even broader class of developers to become entrepreneurs by giving you the financial resources necessary to pursue a new venture that relies on Facebook Platform.

It has become clear that we will receive proposals which contain similar or even identical ideas. As a result, and in order to protect other developers and us from claims that we or anyone else copied material without the creator\’s permission, unless we agree otherwise in writing, we can\’t promise that any materials or information you submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that we or others might not develop similar or identical products or services.

To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted. If you would like to submit an application for an fbFund grant or require more information, please see our website and grant application submission form at http://www.facebook.com/developers/fbfund.php. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope the online information and submission form will help you develop and structure your proposal. We are accepting applications from around the world.

Again, we are very excited to be offering this program and wish you the best of luck whether or not you are an fbFund grant recipient. We can only give a limited number of grants and not getting one does not mean that we don\’t believe in your application nor that it can\’t be successful – it simply means that we have a limited amount of resources and weren\’t able to give money during this cycle to you. You are welcome to apply as many times as you like as each funding cycle represents a new opportunity to receive a grant.

More information is available at http://www.facebook.com/developers/fbfund.php.

Thank you for your patience — we apologize for the delay in this response. We\’ve seen a tremendous response to fbFund, and look forward to reviewing great proposals.

Cheers,

the fbFund team

Allen Stern has a post on September 20 showing the original email that applicants received when submitting an application. That email says “we can’t promise that any materials or information you submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that we or others might not develop similar or identical products or services.” However, since this was sent in response to applications after they were already received, the legality of the clause was dubious at best. By rejecting applications and forcing applicants to agree to this statement prior to submitting an application, Facebook now stands on much firmer ground.

We’ve warned everyone before about the difficulty in building on the Facebook platform and quite possibly competing with Facebook itself. If you find yourself in that position, don’t look for legal remedies - you know what you got yourself into right from the start.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167225547/

Microblogging service Twitter, long questioned over its lack of an apparent business plan, is testing text footer ads below Tweets.

This Is Going To Be Big captured the following image:

The format is a one line tip directly below the Tweet. The message might be flattering to CNet’s Caroline McCarthy, but it’s a fair guess that this is a test message and that in future it might read something like “Tip: Orkut, not just big in Brazil” or something similar.

Buried at the bottom of a Guardian article is mention that Twitter is looking at developing “branded channels” where companies can connect with Twitter users via their own corporate Twitter page. Twitter’s Ev Williams is quoted as saying this is an alternative to “attaching advertising to a personal communications channel” which would suggest that Twitter isn’t focusing on footer ads, but the screenshot above would seem to suggest otherwise.

What form of advertising would you accept on Twitter? Cast your vote below.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167221792/

Sugar Inc., hot off their first acquisition (ShopStyle) two weeks ago, is announcing their second deal tonight - the purchase of fashion blog network Coutorture. Deal size is not being announced, but it was a mix of cash and stock.

Coutorture has a network of 230 blogs written by readers, who compete for headline space on the main Coutorture site.

Sugar Inc., with backing from Sequoia Capital and NBC Universal, may be paving the way for future blog and content rollups in the technology space. Fashion and celebrity gossip, the two content cornerstones for Sugar, drive massive page views. And the pedigree of the company’s investors allows them to pick and choose the best competing properties to acquire. How long, I wonder, before Sugar Inc. will it be before Sugar Inc. starts getting a few acquisition offers of their own?

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167209849/

Like many entrepreneurs, Brian Wilson began his tech startup in a garage. Unlike most others, however, his garage was an army depot in Baghdad. There he dreamed up and created Zolve—a social network for real-estate brokers designed to let them swap referrals. The site he built in Baghdad is self-funded, and was coded over the past ten months by an engineering team in India. Tomorrow morning, he is going to open it up to brokers and other real-estate professionals everywhere.

Wilson, a West Point graduate who was called to serve in Iraq in January, 2006, was forced to leave a thriving real-estate business behind in Colorado Springs. Before he left, he had never heard of LinkedIn or Facebook. But he discovered social networking sites during his downtime in Iraq trying to keep a bead on business back home. He also watched as real estate Websites like Zillow, Realty.com, Redfin and HomeGain took center stage. A former real-estate broker, Wilson sees Zolve as a way for his industry to fight the disruption it is experiencing from the Web and the improved access to listing and pricing information that it is creating. “It’s a way for brokers to take back their industry a little bit,” says Wilson. “We don’t have to pay Silicon Valley, and give them information they are just going to sell back to us, when the brokers have the information themselves.”

Here’s how he proposes Zolve will work: Brokers and other real-estate professionals (like title insurance agents, inspectors, etc.) across the country will be able to create profiles on Zolve and connect to their professional peers across the country. By clicking on their “sphere”of influence, they will be able to see every other Zolve member on a Google Map who is connected to them by two degrees of separation. The whole point of the site is to generate referrals between real-estate professionals. A broker can get 25 to 30 percent of a commission if she refers a customer to another broker. This is done all the time within the industry, especially if a potential home buyer is looking outside the first broker’s immediate geographical area of expertise. For example, a broker in San Mateo might sends business to another broker in Denver,and collect a referral fee of a few thousand dollars if the customer ends up buying a property there.

Brokers will be able to establish their real-estate cred by blogging on their profile pages (hopefully, this won’t end up like Active Rain). Each transaction also generates a reputation score similar to eBay’s. (Not only can the brokers vote on each other’s reputations, but so can the home buyers or other customers involved). By automating such referrals, Wilson thinks that he can create a system where real estate professionals can tap into each others’ detailed knowledge of their own markets to counter the Zillows of the world.

Since there is so much money involved, Wilson also thinks he can easily charge brokers a subscription fee to join Zolve—$395 the first year, and $995 thereafter. Typically, one real-estate referral should pay for the subscription. There are 1.3 million real-estate brokers in the country, and Wilson has a list of the top 40,000 he is going after. Already, more than 2,200 have signed up for the beta.

Brokers are so desperate to keep their commissions these days, they might just pony up the subscription fee without a second’s hesitation.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167174272/

By all accounts the DonorsChoose blogger challenge is doing extremely well - it took them just six days to reach $130,000 in donations, which will provide nearly 10,000 students from low income families with books, art supplies, technology, and other resources they need to learn.

Donations thus far coming through TechCrunch have put us in second place in the Technology group.

Now, helping needy children is great and all, but I hate any list that I’m not leading. In this case, Fred Wilson (a venture capitalist and part time blogger) is kicking our butt. That has to end, and I’m willing to pay to do it.

Some bloggers are pulling stunts like saying they’ll shave their head if they meet a certain goal, etc. Since I can’t talk Heather, our CEO, into shaving her head, we’re going to just pay to get what we want. For every dollar donated up to our goal of $25,000, we’ll match the donation dollar for dollar. That includes existing donations.

Donate to DonorsChoose here, and we’ll match your donation. So help the children help TechCrunch get to the top of the list.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167146643/

You may not have come to TechCrunch looking for love, but we might be able to help you out anyway. SpeedDate, which launched as public beta in the last few days, brings the concept of speed dating to the web.

Rather than asking its users to fill out surveys describing their interests and personalities, SpeedDate gets right to it by throwing you into 3-minute long “dates” with potential matches. All you need to do ahead of time is enter the basics: your zip code, your gender, the gender of the person you are looking for, the age range of that person, and how far you are willing to travel for them.

The dates are conducted by webcam so you can hear and see your date. Curiously, you can also communicate through a chat box. When you’ve made a judgment about whether you like the person, just click “Yes” or “No” to indicate whether you want to follow up with the person after your first three minutes are up.

Since the service has yet to gain a substantial user base, SpeedDate has been organizing “events” in which users are encouraged to come online at the same time. The first one took place this past Thursday while the service was still in private beta. About 230 San Francisco Bay Area singles went on 1,100 dates. The next one is tonight at 8:00pm and doesn’t appear to be meant for a particular region. The company says it has received positive feedback about these events from both men and women.

SpeedDate demoed at the TechCrunch40 conference and will compete with soon-to-be-released WooMe, which presented on stage at TC40.

Last summer we wrote about thirteen Web 2.0 sites to find love.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167074034/

Every software developer these days seems to be working on a Facebook app, but relatively few get any traction. Tim O’Reilly reports that of the more than 5,000 Facebook apps available today, only 84 account for nearly 90 percent of all the usage. Of those, only about half boast more than 100,000 active users, and only three have more than one million active users. For instance, Top Friends has 2.8 million active users, FunWall has 1.9 million, and Super Wall has 1.1 million. Then it drops off to 500,000 by the No. 10 app (Likeness), and to 270,000 by the time you get to No. 20 (Scrabulous).

Below are the top 20 apps as of October 5, measured by number of active users (For a complete spreadsheet of all top 200 apps that O’Reilly Media prepared for me with all the data, download this file:top_200_2007-10-05.xls):

Facebook Application

1. Top Friends (Slide)
2. FunWall (Slide)
3. Super Wall (RockYou!)
4. SuperPoke! (Slide)
5. Video (Facebook)
6. X Me (RockYou!)
7. iLike
8. Movies
9. Graffiti
10. Likeness (RockYou!)
11. My Questions (Slide)
12. Quizzes
13. Mobile (Facebook)
14. Free Gifts
15. Booze Mail
16. Compare People
17. Honesty Box
18. (fluff)Friends
19. Vampires
20. Scrabulous

As you can see, the most popular apps are dominated by some of the same developers. Nine of the top 20 apps come from three companies (Slide, RockYou!, and Facebook itself). Here’s a graph of the Long Tail distribution of the most popular Facebook app developers sorted by the total number of active users across all of their apps (the Top 5 are Slide, RockYou!, Facebook, iLike, and Flixster):

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/167053808/