Ajax Girl

Flock, the so-called “social browser” built on top of Mozilla technology, has raised $15 million in a Series D round led by Fidelity Ventures and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Catamount Ventures, and Shasta Ventures.

The round (the company’s biggest) more than doubles its total to over $28 million, an amount that has been gradually raised over the past three years even though Flock 1.0 launched only this past November.

CEO Shawn Hardin speaks about Flock’s mission in very sweeping terms: enabling users to express themselves, participate in online communities, have voices, and engage their peers. As he sees it, the web is experiencing a paradigm shift from consumption to participation, and it needs a new type of browser to go along with that shift.

Flock is basically a suite of browser extensions with ties into web services like Facebook and Twitter. A personalized homepage called MyWorld and a special sidebar serve as feed readers and friend update aggregators. You’re given quick access to Gmail and Yahoo webmail accounts and any blogs that you administer. And a media bar along the top makes for quick searching on Flickr, YouTube, and other social media sites.

When asked whether regular browser extensions pose much competition for Flock, Hardin suggests that very few people actually enjoy personalizing things enough to set up the breadth of functionality provided by Flock. Plus, Flock already has a proven revenue model where these do not; it earns money the same way Mozilla does, through search placement deals with the engines (Yahoo and a few others in Flock’s case).

Almost 4 million people have downloaded Flock, and users are said to use it for over 4 hours per day on average.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/295538181/

On Thursday and Friday (July 10-11) before this year’s Foo Camp in Sebastopol July 11-13, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures will be hosting OATV Startup Camp for 6-8 startups.

The camp will focus on fundraising, PR and viral marketing, working with investors/directors, and other issues relevant to running a young company. There are a number of discussion leaders that will be participating: Caterina Fake (tentative), Mark Fletcher, Marc Hedlund, Howard Morgan and Evan Williams. I’ll also be there, focusing on press strategies for startups. Sessions will be led by 2 startup veterans/leaders in a roundtable discussion on topics important to founders.

Application details are at the main site for the event. And good news - participating companies get to stick around for Foo Camp, which occurs right afterwards. There’s more information about the event here. Applications are due by June 6, 2008.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/295535553/

We’re fast approaching our super fun CrunchNetwork Prague Meet-up and getting ready for the big night. We’re going to have some surprises coming up so watch this space but until then feel free to RSVP by email or on Facebook.

Remember the event is on Friday, May 23, 2008 from 7pm until ?? at Restaurace Zvonařka.

The program will be fairly basic but I’m planning an elevator pitch face-off, allowing 10 start-ups the chance to do a 2 minute presentation to the entire audience using limited tools. We’ll then pick the best pitch and that team will get an as-yet-to-be-undetermined really great prize (think Macbook). If you’re interested in participating, please contact Jack DeNeut at jack @ nelso dot com.

Start-up folks: If you have something you want to discuss with me for consideration on TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, or CrunchGear, please have a paper presentation handy with a detailed description of your project — powerpoint and business plans are right out. Consider creating a press-release for the event that I can read over and discuss with you later this month.

Special thanks to all these sponsors:

Nelso - Multi-language local search for Europe

Geewa - Multiplayer games for PC and mobile

Newstin - Connecting people through news to create global communities
of interest

Wirenode - Simple-to-use tools that allow anyone to create a mobile website

GoodData - A complete, on-demand business intelligence platform

Ataxo - More from your SEM campaigns!

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/295501280/

Jingle Networks has already captured a six percent market share of directory assistance calls with its 1-800-Free411 service. But, with IPO rumors swirling, that might not be a big enough business. What if Jingle expanded into a voice ad network? I have learned that it is preparing to do just that. Confirms CEO George Garrick:

At this point I’d call it the Jingle Ad Network. We have advertisers that want to get into more environments, and have technology to serve ads. We are talking to publishers about acquiring enough inventory to be significant. We are starting to sign deals with companies that have large numbers of calls. I imagine it will be a few months yet before we bring anything live, probably later in the third or fourth quarter.

Today, Jingle offers free directory assistance calls in exchange for playing two audio ads, one before the caller asks for the number and one before the number is given. Its Free411 service gets 20 million calls a month. That is 40 million advertising opportunities a month. Not every call can be matched with an ad, but a very large number can. Already, Jingle has more than 150,000 advertisers, many of them local. National advertisers include McDonald’s, Earthlink, AMC Theaters, FordDirect, Allstate, Cablevision, Columbia House, Days Inn, Miller Brewing Company, and Travelodge. Its top categories include stores, restaurants, banks, and doctor’s offices.

Jingle can use the call volume and ad inventory on Free411 as an anchor for a broader voice ad network. Any information line, movie line, or call center could hook into the ad network to lay ads while people are on hold. Most companies look at their call centers as a cost center. Being able to generate one to two cents per call in revenue would be significant for many companies. And as voice apps take off on the Web, that could present another opportunity, although Garrick says the call volume is not there yet. As with any ad network, it is a numbers game. The more call volume Jingle can fill with ads, the better its economics.

Does this mean, Jingle is preparing for an IPO. Garrick doesn’t rule it out. He says:

We expect to become profitable before the end of this year. If we look at the public markets, it won’t be until next year.

Jingle is not the first company to try to do this. Already, it faces competition from startup VoodooVox, which is building its own voice 2.0 ad network. VoodooVox claims that it currently powers 320 million ad-supported calls per month, and reaches 30 million consumers. But Jingle does have a leg up in that it already generates a lot of ad inventory on its own, and it is expanding its own free ad-supoprted calls to include driving directions, weather, and other information services.

Of course, there is always the specter of Google, which offers its own free Google411 directory assistance service. Google411 does not even have ads yet, and is treated more like a research project to test voice recognition algorithms. But Google could jump on the voice advertising train any time it wants.

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/~3/295380128/

A group of Swedes has grown tired of emailing documents around when they need editing help. So they’ve formed a company called TextFlow that’s working on a Google Docs competitor of sorts.

Their Flash-based product is still in a very early stage, and there’s quite a bit of discrepancy between what they’ve built so far in private beta, and their vision as laid out in a demonstration video (click through to it from their homepage).

But eventually, authors will be able to drag Word documents right into the browser where they’ll get automatically ported into TextFlow. Once there, they’ll be shareable via email and edited by collaborators. All changes will show up in the original author’s view of the document as suggested changes, which can then be approved or rejected.

TextFlow’s certainly not the first company to provide this type of functionality, and like other collaboration-focused startups, it faces an uphill against Google and Microsoft. But it sure looks pretty, doesn’t it?

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/~3/295361534/

Meet SmallWorlds, a free browser-based 3D virtual world that integrates YouTube, Flickr, and a number of other Web 2.0 services. The site is aimed at the teen market, and is designed to be more casual than Second Life. SmallWorlds will be entering a public beta on June 2, but the first 1000 users to register herewill be able to start using the site on May 26.

SmallWorlds revolves around a characters’s room, which resembles a house one might find in The Sims. Users can furnish their rooms with TV sets that feature YouTube videos, posters of Flickr photos, Twitter messageboards, and stereos blasting tunes from Last.fm and SeeqPod. Then they can invite their friends over to their rooms, where they can view videos, photos, and songs together - a feature that will likely have mass appeal. The site facilitates meeting up with friends by assigning each room with a unique URL that will immediately transport avatars to their destination.

The site has a lot of potential. The virtual world looks impressive, featuring a 3D isometric perspective and highly customizable avatars. SmallWorlds is also releasing an API that will allow developers to create widgets that can be shared with friends (like games or other media offerings). The site was designed with Flex, and the company says it should work in any browser that supports Flash 9.

Users have been clamoring for a service that lets them view and comment on web media simultaneously, and SmallWorlds’ approach may be ideal for their target youth audience. We’ve seen a recent wave of similar services from the likes of Userplane and Videophlow, but these are basically just chat windows that sit next to a media viewer - there isn’t any of the interaction you get from a virtual environment.

On the other hand, there are already a number of well-established virtual worlds aimed at the youth market, including IMVU and Habbo Hotel, which may make it hard for SmallWorlds to gain traction.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/295262467/

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is now giving the closing keynote at the Advance08 Conference in Redmond, Washington. The big news is Live Search Cashback, announced earlier. The live stream began at about 10:30 am PST.

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/~3/295198188/

Facebook has invited a group of bloggers and journalists to its offices on Hamilton Street in Palo Alto today to discuss the details of its upcoming profile redesign, which we’re told will launch in a few weeks.

Keep checking in here as I share my notes from the event.

Elliot Schrage has kicked things off by saying today will be more focused on Q&A than the last event, which was about Facebook Chat.

Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Product Marketing, is discussing the vision behind the profile redesign, and the mini-feed/news feed in particular.

Goals for new design:

• For users: Make profiles cleaner and simpler, give users more control over their profiles, and emphasize recent and relevant information
• For developers: Create more meaningful engagement with users, offer new integration points in profiles, and provide distribution for engaging applications

Going to give developers a beta period to step into sandbox and play with new design, so they’re ready when profile gets rolled out in coming weeks.

New design takes advantage of tabs; goal to split up different types of information, make it simpler to navigate.

The basics: feed, info, photos, boxes, and custom application tabs.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/295192113/

More details on Steven Spielberg’s upcoming ghost and UFO based social network, which we first wrote about in early March and followed up with additional details a week later. The site will reportedly be called “Rising” or “The Rising” (our understanding is that they have acquired both .com domain names), and the logo above and animated logo below are at least preliminary versions of the final.

We originally heard that The Rising is being created in partnership with Windsor Media, Terry Semel’s investment firm, but we still haven’t gotten confirmation of their involvement. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo, was put on hold during his tenure there, and fired up again after his departure last year.

The Rising will have original video content with a permanent host in addition to the social network where users can share stories and experiences, tapping into serious demand for this kind of thing. There are thousands of forums dedicated to paranormal and UFO topics today - among them is, yes, a Meetup site for ghost trackers.

Rumored launch date is this summer.

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/~3/295151836/

The Zend Framework aims to be a top notch framework for building next generation Web applications in PHP. Dojo has similar aims on the front-end side, so they decided to join forces to provide an integration layer. If you like the combination you will have a better, tighter, way to build your applications.

What we see in the initial release is:

• JSON-RPC Server: We are re-working the Zend_Json_Server that has
  been in our incubator since, oh, what? 0.2.0? and never released to
  actually follow a specification:
  JSON-RPC. This
  will allow it to work seamlessly with Dojo, as well as other toolkits
  that have JSON-RPC client implementations. I have actually completed
  work on this, though the proposal is waiting to be approved; if you want
  to check it out, you can find it in the
  ZF svn.

  The original Zend_Json_Server implementation will be abandoned. It was
  never fully tested nor fully documented, which has prevented its
  release. Additionally, since it implemented its own ad-hoc standard, it
  did not provide the type of interoperability that a true JSON-RPC server
  implementation will provide. I am excited that we will finally be able
  to provide a standards-compliant solution for general availability.

  One final note: there are currently two different JSON-RPC
  specifications, 1.0 and 2.0. My goal is to support each, though for the
  time being, only version 1.0 will be supported, as that is the version
  Dojo currently targets.

• dojo() View Helper: Enabling Dojo for a page is not typically as
  trivial as just loading the dojo.js script — you have a
  choice of loading it from the AOL CDN or a local path, and also may want
  or need to load additional dojo, dijit, or dojox modules, specify custom
  modules and paths, specify code to run at onLoad(), and
  specify stylesheets for decorating dijits. On top of this, this
  information may change from page to page, and may only be needed for
  a subset of pages. The dojo() view helper will act as a
  placeholder
  implementation, and facilitate all of the above tasks, as well as take
  care of rendering the necessary style and
  script elements in your page.
• Form Element implementations: One area that developers really
  leverage javascript and ajax toolkits is forms. In particular, many
  types of form input can benefit from advanced and rich user interfaces
  that only javascript can provide: calendar choosers, time selectors,
  etc. Additionally, many like to use client-side validation in order to
  provide instantaneous validation feedback to users (instead of requiring
  a round-trip to the server). We will be identifying a small group of
  form elements that we feel solve the most relevant use cases, and write
  Dojo-specific versions that can be utilized with Zend_Form.
  (One thing to note: Zend_Form’s design already works very
  well with Dojo, allowing many widgets and client-side validations to be
  created by simply setting the appropriate element attributes.)
• dojo.data Compatibility: dojo.data defines a
  standard storage interface; services providing data in this format can
  then be consumed by a variety of Dojo facilities to provide highly
  flexible and dynamic content for your user interfaces. We will be
  building a component that will create dojo.data compatible payloads with
  which to respond to XmlHttpRequests; you will simply need to pass in the
  data, and provide metadata regarding it.

Of course, you can continue to any Ajax library in conjunction with the Zend Framework, and ditto for Dojo…. but why did this match happen?

There are many synergies and similarities between the two projects and their communities, including:

• Licensing and IP: Both projects are very business friendly.
• Design affinity: Similar philosophies, including a strong emphasis on use-at-will architecture.
• JSON format used strongly in both
• Comprehensive Ajax Solution: Dojo has it all
• Standards: “Dojo not only implements published standards, but also drives them”
• Communities and support: Strong communities, with support offerings behind them

And, here is some code from a JSON-RPC demo:

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/295103209/dojo-and-zend-framework-integratation-released