Ajax Girl

New statistics released by the Chinese Government show that China is due to surpass the United States as the nation with the most internet users in the coming months.

The state-owned China Internet Network Information Center said that China’s total number of Internet users rose 53% to 210 million at the end of 2007 up from 137 million at the end of 2006 and 162 million in June 2007. According to the WSJ, China is now just five million users shy of surpassing the United States as the world’s largest Internet market.

Chinese internet stocks listed in the United States and elsewhere soared in 2007 has the market continued to grow at massive rates. Notably though most Chinese access the internet via internet cafe’s, although home or business internet use is also rapidly growing.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218635297/

Rumors popped up here in Silicon Valley that Yahoo is in negotiations to buy Israel-based FoxyTunes.

The Foxytunes core service is a Firefox plugin that allows users to control their favorite media players from the browser. It has a small but loyal following, who also use their tangential services (an email/blog signature tool and FoxyTunes Planet, a site that aggregates music information).

The acquisition makes some sense given Yahoo recent overt signals that they are shaking things up in music. Last week they launched a new, stripped down, easy-to-use web based MP3 player as well. The technology that FoxyTunes has created could certainly be used to further that agenda.

FoxyTunes won’t return emails asking about this. Unsurprisingly, Yahoo also chose not to comment.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218577109/

Some language will offend some viewers, but this video manages to effectively ridicule just about every high profile web startup in Silicon Valley and beyond. Feel free to share your favorite characters in the comments. From Cracked.com.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218668248/

Google’s Blogger hosted blogging service has suffered a major outage this afternoon (PST) with Spammers bloggers flooding forums to complain.

Users affected by the outage were presented with a Blogger error message that included the code “bX-uxu3fu,” and were unable to read their blogs, or log in to the backend. No further details are available as Blogger employees have not responded to the official Blogger forum at the time of writing with a response. We’ll update the post if we find out more.

I did try clicking on a few of the blogs highlighted as being updated from the front page of Blogger, and from five attempts I managed to visit five spam blogs, so at least some of the biggest users of Blogger don’t seem to be affected by this issue

(via Paris Lemon on Twitter, who’s blog is also down)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218547882/

TechCrunch isn’t written by cats?

Thanks to a tip from Ryan Kuder let me introduce LOLinator, a site that combines the still hot LOLcats phenomenon with any site of your choosing. The service comes from Malevolent Design and turns any site into one designed by cats. You can visit TechCrunch designed by cats here if you want the full version, or a screen shot below.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218539234/

It’s not as good as “What a comment stream would look like in real life,” but it’s another hit from College Humor nonetheless. Who needs the Hollywood writers anyway.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218521930/

In Google we no longer trust.

A new study from the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future has found that a growing number of people no longer believe that search results are reliable and accurate.

The survey found that only 51% of people trust information provided by search engines, down from 62% in 2006. Google, as the most popular search engine in the United States, isn’t trusted by nearly half (49%) of the people who use it, an interesting result.

A standout was a finding that after seven years of studying online behavior and attitudes, the Digital Future Report “found that the Internet is perceived by users to be a more important source of information for them — this over all other principal media, including television, radio, newspapers, and books.” An outstanding result, however the trust levels for all media aren’t particularly high, with only 46 percent of Internet users saying that most or all of the information online is generally reliable.

You can read the full results 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/~3/218497547/

Electronic agreements have greased the wheels of commerce, causing businesses to push a lot of digital paper these days. Several startups have popped up to help manage these contracts (mostly through eSignatures): EchoSign, DocuSign, VeriSign, Entrust, amongst others. And people are using them. DocuSign claims to have completed over 5 million eSignatures alone.

Austin-based Mumboe, originally founded in 2005 as FineTooth, has recently relaunched as another SAS contract management tool. It doesn’t handle the signatures. FineTooth’s original software solution used natural language analysis to help manage contracts by extracting the important details from contracts. Mumboe, short for the mumbo jumbo found in most contracts, lets companies create contracts from templates, share, search, and track important milestones. The company currently has a three month free trial.

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/~3/218496226/

Now that I have your attention, Compete has released a list of the fastest-growing (and fastest-declining) sites of 2007. Some of the fastest growers include Veoh, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Six Apart, and WordPress. Some of the notable sinkers are Bolt, Xanga, Netscape, and Autobytel.

TechCrunch has the distinct honor of taking the No. 5 spot in the fastest-growing list, right behind YouPorn and in front of DateHookup. I am not exactly sure what to make of that. I guess Compete thinks we’re hot.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/218437615/

Fifth Generation Systems, the company behind social homepage creator Zude has taken $5.3 million Series B in a round that includes Irwin Lieber and Barry Rubenstein of Wheatley Partners, Persistency Capital, and Gund Investment.

Zude offers a “social webpage network” that allows users to create their own personalized webpage from modules that hold personal content or clips grabbed from the web. Each module can be placed anywhere on the canvas, edited, layered, and have its transparency adjusted.

As part of the deal, Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, and Barry Rubenstein of investment firm Wheatley Partners, will join the Fifth Generation Systems’ board of directors.

Roslyn Heights, NY based Fifth Generation Systems said they would use with new round to accelerate product development and expand its user base.

Read our April 2007 review of Zude 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/~3/218437191/