Ajax Girl

Office Snapshots has posted a picture of the clever sign hanging on the door of Twitter’s old office. The sign was posted by the office’s current inhabitants, customer service startup Get Satisfaction.

Twitter switched offices in early July, and the move seems to have done them well. Since then the service has been unusually stable, with relatively few periods of downtime - though this may be on account of the functionality that seems to be slowly disappearing.

Update: Get Satisfaction’s Thor Muller comments that in celebration of Twitter’s increased reliability, the sign has been updated:

Credit: monstro

Thanks to Jason Moser for the tip.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YF7z6d1lf5Q/

The twenty one startups from Y Combinator’s summer session are presenting their ideas and creations to investors in Boston this afternoon. Below are descriptions of the nine startups we haven’t covered and who don’t wish to remain in stealth mode any longer. See our prior coverage of Posterous, Anyvite, ididwork, Popcuts, and Slinkset - all of which are part of this batch and have launched already.

TicketStumbler

TicketStumbler can be described as Kayak for sports tickets. It aggregates tickets from sites like StubHub and RazorGator, making them searchable by keyword and allowing for the filtering of results by maximum price, quantity available, provider, etc. The site is live, fast, and gets extra points for not spelling “stumbler” without the “e”.

People and Pages

While yet to launch, the founders of People and Pages describe their service as “a better Google Groups”, although the screenshots show that it’s part WYSIWYG website creation tool as well, making it competitive with Google Sites, Weebly (also a Y Combinator startup), and others. Group organizers can use People and Pages to manage email lists and publish to the web in one place.

MeetCast

MeetCast is a WebEx and GoToMeeting competitor (yes, another one) that is marketing itself on ease of use (no downloads) and playback (all conferences are saved and indexed for later viewing). The founders draw comparisons to Tokbox for its simplicity.

CO2Stats

For a flat monthly fee, CO2Stats will measure the overall electricity usage of websites and then automatically buy renewable energy certificates for them to offset their effective emissions. Founded by academics from Harvard and Yale, CO2Stats has already turned a profit by signing up 2,500+ sites in over 25 countries. See our review from earlier today.

Youlicit

Youlicit is a service prepping for relaunch that will generate Mahalo-like search guides by scouring the web for user generated content and compiling it into topics algorithmically instead of relying on human editors. These search guides themselves are intended to show up highly in the results of more traditional search engines like Google.

Job Alchemist

Job Alchemist is the parent company of two online services: Startuply, a job site for tech startups that we covered last month, and a new job affiliate network called JobSyndicate that launches today. Publishers can place JobSyndicate’s widgets on their sites and earn half the bounty set by employers when visitors click through and get hired.

Frogmetrics

Frogmetrics isn’t a pure web venture: the company wants to place touch screens in restaurants, stores, and other brick and mortar establishments that can be used to collect customer feedback on the spot. The devices ask customers a few questions at the point of sale about their experience and can collect contact information about customers to generate leads. The information gathered across physical locations is aggregated and analyzed for trends and other statistics.

Snipd

Snipd appears to be another web annotation service, one that allows users to “snip” page content such as images, videos, and text to share them with others and save for later. These snips are also used to generate so-called heat maps of pages that help users find the best content on a page. The service has yet to launch.

BackType

BackType is a search engine for comments that crawls the internet for blogs and indexes their user generated content regardless of the platform (WordPress, Moveable Type, etc). These comments are not only keyword searchable but can be followed by author, allowing you to keep track of what your friends are saying online.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LnFVTaxruEM/

YUI 3 has a preview release for us to check out.

The goals are:

• lighter (less K-weight on the wire and on the page for most uses)
• faster (fewer http requests, less code to write and compile, more efficient code)
• more consistent (common naming, event signatures, and widget APIs throughout the library)
• more powerful (do more with less implementation code)
• more securable (safer and easier to expose to multiple developers working in the same environment; easier to run under systems like Caja or ADsafe)

What’s New

• Sandboxing: Each YUI instance on the page can be self-contained, protected and limited (YUI().use()). This segregates it from other YUI instances, tailors the functionality to your specific needs, and lets different versions of YUI play nicely together.
• Modularity: YUI 3 is architected to use smaller modular pieces, giving you fine-grained control over what functionality you put on the page. If you simply want to make something draggable, you can include the dd-drag submodule, which is a small subset of the Drag & Drop Utility.
• Self-completing: As long as the basic YUI seed file is in place, you can make use of any functionality in the library. Tell YUI what modules you want to use, tie that to your implementation code, and YUI will bring in all necessary dependencies in a single HTTP request before executing your code.
• Selectors: Elements are targeted using intuitive CSS selector idioms, making it easy to grab an element or a group of elements whenever you’re performing an operation.
• Custom Events++: Custom Events are even more powerful in YUI 3.0, with support for bubbling, stopping propagation, assigning/preventing default behaviors, and more. In fact, the Custom Event engine provides a common interface for DOM and API events in YUI 3.0, creating a consistent idiom for all kinds of event-driven work.
• Nodes and NodeLists: Element references in YUI 3.0 are mediated by Node and NodeList facades. Not only does this make implementation code more expressive (Y.Node.get("#main ul li").addClass("foo");), it makes it easier to normalize differences in browser behavior (Y.Node.get("#promo").setStyle("opacity", .5);).
• Chaining: We’ve paid attention throughout the new architecture to the return values of methods and constructors, allowing for a more compressed chaining syntax in implementation code.

Some example snippets

Very exciting stuff to the team. I look forward to seeing a full up code repository too!

Source: Ajaxian » Front Page
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/364946780/yui-3-the-goals-are-lighter-faster-consistent-power-secure

Aaron Newton has relaunched clientside.cnet.com with a cleaner, leaner, look and feel. The news for the launch is:

• The Mootorial (the MooTools tutorial) is now updated for MooTools 1.2 and on it’s own domain www.mootorial.com
• The wikiTorials(tm! - not really) for all of CNET’s codebase have been updated for our updated 1.2 code (which launched in June)
• The MooTools book (Apress) is available for sale! You can get the PDF today, and you can pre-order the paper back which should ship in just a few days time.

Source: Ajaxian » Front Page
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/364942012/clientsidecnetcom-relaunched-with-new-tutorials-and-more

Mark Pilgrim has released his second This Week in HTML 5 episode that covers window.navigator, a new Worker, talk on alt, and more.

Navigator standardization

The navigator attribute of the Window interface must return an instance of the Navigator interface, which represents the identity and state of the user agent (the client), and allows Web pages to register themselves as potential protocol and content handlers.

Currently, HTML 5 defines four properties and two methods:

• appName
• appVersion
• platform
• userAgent
• registerProtocolHandler
• registerContentHandler

This is only a subset of navigator properties and methods that browsers already support. See Navigator Object on Google Doctype for complete browser compatibility information.

More content-language’s

Content-Language. No, not the HTTP header, not even the <html lang> attribute, but the <meta> tag! As reported by Henri Sivonen,

It seems that some authoring tools and authors use <meta http-equiv='content-language' content='languagetag'> instead of <html lang='languagetag'>.

This led to revision 2057, which defines the <meta> http-equiv="Content-Language"> directive and its relationship with lang, xml:lang, and the Content-Language HTTP header.

In the continuing saga of the alt attribute, the new syntax for alternate text of auto-generated images (which I covered in last week’s episode) has generated some followup discussion. Philip Taylor is concerned that it will increase complexity for authoring tools; others feel the complexity is worth the cost. James Graham suggested a no-text-equivalent attribute; similar proposals have been discussed before and rejected.

Switching to the new Web Workers specification (which I also covered last week), Aaron Boodman (one of the developers of Gears) posted his initial feedback. This kicked off a long discussion and led to the creation of the Worker object.

Source: Ajaxian » Front Page
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/364935820/this-week-in-html-5-navigator-standardization-worker-and-more

Facebook’s controversial and widely-disdained Beacon service, which it originally introduced in November, has led to the company behind slapped with another class action lawsuit. The suit alleges that Facebook never sought user approval before collecting personal information, and was also keeping tabs on people who weren’t even signed up for Facebook.

The class action lawsuit was filed on August 12 in the California Northern District Court, and includes the following passages (you can see the full text below):

“The Beacon program sent information regarding specific user transactions on Facebook Beacon Activated Affiliates’ websites to Facebook regardless of whether the user was a Facebook member or not. Thus, no consent was sought, nor was any consent obtained from persons who utilize the Facebook Beacon Activated Affiiliate’s website who were not Facebook members…”

“It was deceptive because, in almost every instance, the information sharing was contrary to the stated privacy policies of the Facebook website and every other Facebook Beacon Activated Affiliate that had signed up for the program.”

A number of Beacon affiliates besides Facebook are named in the suit, including Blockbuster, Fandango, Hotwire, Travel Inc, Overstock, Zappos, and Gamefly.

Beacon’s launch last November was quickly met with waves of criticism, as users were automatically signed up for the ad system. Facebook eventually change its policies to make the ad system opt-in (effectively killing it for most people), but the damage had already been done. Earlier this year, a woman sued Blockbuster for sharing her rental choices with her peers.

Beacon hasn’t been Facebook’s only privacy misstep. The social network instituted a system earlier this year that added images of a user’s friends to some advertisements, confusing and upsetting many users. Our own $25 million suit against Facebook for the unlawful use of Michael Arrington’s likeness to endorse shoddy products is still pending.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XL6FbuIpeAE/

An electric knife:

A juicer:

An iron:

More disassembled appliances in this Flickr set.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1199-beautiful-disassembled-appliances

Farhad Manjoo (who wrote a cover story on 37signals for Salon.com a few years back) is now writing for Slate. This time he wonders about the Google Black Hole.

Farhad plays “Where Are They Now?” with some of Google’s recent higher-profile tech acquisitions. He focuses on mojo-heavy companies and products like Jaiku, Jotspot (Sites), Dodgeball, Measure Map, and Grand Central. Some of these died, some of these slowed down, some of them were still not open for new customers a year after the acquisition. Some people are wondering if Feedburner (Google), Upcoming (Yahoo), and Delicious (Yahoo) might belong on this list.

The astute Dare Obasanjo wrote about this phenomenon in detail a few days ago. His Application Rewrites after Acquisitions: How Large Software Companies Destroy Startup Value article is well worth a read.

Of course there have been success stories. Innovation at big companies often comes from the small companies and teams they swallow whole.

But with the odds of a big-co buyout nearing lottery proportions, a good chance of neglect awaiting your product on the other side, and a “I can’t wait until my employment contract is up,” feeling lingering your every work day, I hope entrepreneurs think twice about building to flip.

Related: David’s The secret to making money online talk at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2008.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1197-big-companies-are-where-small-companies-go-to-die

Farhad Manjoo (who wrote a cover story on 37signals for Salon.com a few years back) is now writing for Slate. This time he wonders about the Google Black Hole.

Farhad plays “Where Are They Now?” with some of Google’s recent higher-profile tech acquisitions. He focuses on mojo-having companies and products like Jaiku, Jotspot (Sites), Dodgeball, Measure Map, and Grand Central. Some of these died, some of these slowed down, some of them were still not open for new customers a year after the acquisition. Some people are wondering if Feedburner (Google), Upcoming (Yahoo), and Delicious (Yahoo) might belong on this list.

The astute Dare Obasanjo wrote about this phenomenon in detail a few days ago. His Application Rewrites after Acquisitions: How Large Software Companies Destroy Startup Value article is well worth a read.

Of course there have been success stories. Innovation at big companies often comes from the small companies and teams they swallow whole.

But with the odds of a big-co buyout nearing lottery proportions, a good chance of neglect awaiting your product on the other side, and a “I can’t wait until my employment contract is up,” feeling lingering your every work day, I hope entrepreneurs think twice about building to flip.

Related: David’s The secret to making money online talk at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2008.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1197-big-companies-are-where-startups-go-to-die

CD Baby founder Derek Sivers interviews Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. Fascinating stuff. Below are some of the most interesting Ferriss bits from the interview.

Why you shouldn’t view changes as permanent:

So what would happen if you eliminated this? Let’s just say 48 hours, seven days, one month? What would happen if you did the opposite? Those are two very, very useful questions. Most people avoid certain actions because they view changes as permanent. If you make a change, can you go back to doing it like you did before? You can always reclaim your current state in most cases. If I quit my job in industry x to test my artistic abilities in a different industry, worst case scenario, can I go back to my previous industry? Yes. Recognize that you can test-drive and micro-test things over brief periods of time. You can usually reclaim the workaholism that you might currently experience if you so decide to go back to it.

He tested titles for his book via Google Adwords campaigns:

Then I ran a Google Adwords campaign, where your ad appears based on keywords that people were searching for. I ran a dozen different ads with a dozen different potential titles as the advertising headline, with the potential subtitles as the ad text. The click-through page was nothing, but I wasn’t concerned with the conversion or cost per acquisition. I was only concerned with the click through rate – which of those dozen headlines was most popular. So for less than $150 in one week using keywords as a fixed variable, I was able to identify “The 4-Hour Workweek, Escape 9-to-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich” as the most successful title by far.

On scratching your own itch:

If you have something that you would like to make and you just don’t know how to test it, make sure you’re scratching your own itch. Like Twitter: Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey created it in two weeks as a way to scratch their own itch. He said, “At least that way you know that one person is interested in having it.” It’s amazing how many otherwise smart, well-funded companies will use awful statistically-invalid focus groups, then say, “Well, no one in this room likes the idea, but our focus groups tell us that we should make it,” so of course the product comes out and it fails.

You can’t fix an overwhelmed feeling with more work:

That’s a good point – recognizing you can’t fix an overwhelmed feeling with more work. Overwhelmed is not due to lack of time – it’s due to lack of priorities, right? Another flaw in most time management systems is they focus on filling your time – every minute of every day should be filled with a work vision of some kind. Or they don’t instruct you on how to minimize the work. Especially if you tend to wear overwork ethic as some kind of badge of honor, which I know many artists do. Laziness is not less action. Laziness can mean blurred priorities and indiscriminate action. You can be very busy running around with a cell phone to your head 24 hours a day and still be very lazy because you’re not taking the time to prioritize.

Don’t try to make everyone happy:

Polarizing is very important. Don’t try to make everyone your customer and don’t try to make everyone happy. Be very, very honest. Don’t be offensive for the sake of being offensive. Don’t start problems for the sake of starting problems. Be honest, like three glasses in with a group of friends. If most people presented their opinions as they do in that environment to the public they would be much more successful in everything they do, because they’ll polarize people. People will say, “Damn that guy’s a riot.” So few people are honest and direct.

And below are a couple of Sivers’ most interesting comments…

Give yourself a 10-day deadline:

When friends talk about starting a business I say if you’ve got idea you want to do, don’t sit there for a whole year trying to raise funding or whatever before you can put it out in the world. Just give yourself a 10-day deadline. If there’s something you think the world wants, try it within 10 days. If you don’t have a programmer, do it with a piece of paper and a telephone. Start it even with only one customer, because then you can start the feedback loop, finding out what your customers want. Then you can incrementally improve it over the months. A year down the line you’ll be doing so much better than the guy who is still being secretive in his second round of VC funding. Just get it out there and start to get feedback.

Pick the one or two most important things and then stop:

I heard this beautiful bit of advice once that said, “If you’ve got a list of 20 things you should be doing, pick the most important one or two and then just let go of the rest. You will never upload your music to every one of these sites. You will never contact every person. You will never enter every contest. Just take the one or two things that would make the biggest difference in your career, do those one or two, then stop. Turn your attention to the next one or two most important.”

Read the whole thing.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1196-siversferriss-interview-that-will-make-you-think