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Posts Tagged ‘craigslist’

As the presence of television content on the web increases, the entertainment industry needs applications to measure the content’s performance. Wiredset’s Trendrr, a comprehensive digital data tracking platform, is launching a new realtime dashboard catered to TV networks.

The new tracking platform, which is available to any Trendrr Pro users, allows film studios, networks and record labels to track and aggregate data surrounding their properties and gain instant insights on location, gender, volume, sentiment, and influence as the conversation takes place. The application gathers data from over 50 of the web’s social destinations, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay, and delivers users a realtime view of data within a dashboard.

The idea behind Trendrr’s entertainment-focused dashboard is that it will allow the film and television industries to gain actionable intelligence to determine future content decisions. For example, the new application will show a television network is gaining the most reactions by city, if the chatter is positive, and what aspects of a show are gaining traction among viewers and which segment of the population is most receptive to their content. Not only will this data help users determine where to place certain content, but can also help with advertising and marketing strategies. The application is already being used by TV Networks such as NBC Universal’s Oxygen, which is using it for the show, Bad Girls Club.

The application will undoubtedly be useful to to measuring engagement on the web, especially on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. However, Trendrr is entering a space where many others are attempting to launch innovative applications. Scout Labs, Viralheat, PeopleBrowsr and Radian 6 are just a few of the startups that are helping companies, including media organizations, attempt to track movement across the web.

Canon appears to have an actual sieve in charge of holding their secrets, since not a day goes by that I don’t hear about this or that new patent or camera just around the corner. Maybe it’s just their canny marketing division seeding leak sites, and if so, bravo

Originally posted here: 
Rumors a-swirling: Canon to put out revised 1D, L lenses next week?

According to a Tweet just sent from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Google has donated $2 million to the Wikimedia Foundation. Wales says the official announcement will be made tomorrow.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit that focuses on the development of free, multilingual content to wiki-based projects. The Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia, but has also helped develop Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikinews, and Wikiversity.

Earlier this year, Wikimedia announced that it has raised $8 million for the 2009-10 fiscal, exceeding its goal for the year by $500K. The Foundation has received over 230,000 donations, up from 125,000 donations received during the 2008-09 campaign. It’s unclear if the $2 million from Google is bundles into the $8 million but I’m sure we’ll find out tomorrow.

The foundation recently added Craigslist founder Craig Newmark to its advisory board, which also includes tech visionary Mitch Kapor.

This guest post was written by Erik Fikkert, Lead Reviewer, AppVee. Also check out AppVee’s previous picks of the best apps in the App store

The iPhone and iPod touch have become immediately recognizable names around the world. Apple recently announced that the iPhone is the most popular mobile phone in the US. In addition, the iPod touch is generally regarded as the media player of choice, offering much more than just music. Perhaps the key to their success is the ever-growing app store which currently boasts over 100,000 apps. For those of you not crazy about math, that’s a huge number—you would have to purchase and download over 11 apps an hour, every single day for a year to test them all. While it is safe to say the majority of apps available are less than appealing, there are a few gems that stand out from the rest. We took a look and compiled a list of the best apps 2009 had to offer.

2009 brought some of the best apps to the iPhone and iPod touch to date. Gaming has now advanced to a point that rivals the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS. As the mobile market grows and hardware continues to improve, we are going to see some amazing things come our way. If 2008 was about experimentation, 2009 was about innovation. In 2010, developers will push this innovation to enhance our mobile experience—whether through augmented reality, cloud-based computing, or something completely new.

Below you will find our top 10 overall apps, our top 15 games, and top 5 innovations. Tell us which apps are on your top 10 list in comments.

TOP 10 APPS

Facebook 3.0
Access your friends, notes, pictures, and events using almost every feature the actual site offers. This app, based on the enormous social networking site, has seen many changes and just keeps getting better with time.
LINK: AppVee’s Facebook 3.0 Review

Fandango
View trailers, see showtimes, purchase tickets and read reviews using this free movie app. This is a must have for any moviegoer, giving you all you need to know about movies in your area at your fingertips.
LINK: AppVee’s Fandango Review

Beejive 3.0
One of the first applications to take advantage of push notifications, this multi-client instant messaging app is in a class of it’s own. Using its push features, iPhone and iPod touch users can easily hold IM conversations with their friends anywhere.
LINK: AppVee’s Beejive 3.0 Review

LogMeIn
Brings your desktop to your iPhone or iPod touch. Link up with your computer and access your computer screen from afar. The interface is easy and feature-filled, delivering the best VNC experience to your device.
LINK: AppVee’s LogMeIn Review

Mobile Navigator
Filling the void left by the default maps application, this app offers turn-by-turn directions from your device just like any dedicated GPS would. It provides a landscape GPS with plenty of features and a user interface that makes sense.
LINK: AppVee’s Mobile Navigator Review

Dropbox
Sync up with your Dropbox account and have access to all of your files right from your device. You can download files, upload photos, and maintain control of your folders.
LINK: AppVee’s Dropbox Review

Textfree Unlimited
No one likes paying to text. This app offers free texting via push notifications. The interface is similar to the default SMS app and is a great alternative to paying your phone company.
LINK: AppVee’s Textfree Unlimited Review

Google Mobile App
This app has revolutionized search on the iPhone with its voice search and in-app browsing. Speak a search query and the app will accurately recognize it and do a Google search. Not a Google fan? Check out the Bing app.
LINK: AppVee’s Google Mobile App Review

TweetDeck
All the wonderful features that can be found in the TweetDeck desktop app are packed into this iPhone version. With a sleek interface and great features, this app is one of the best of the many Twitter apps out there.
LINK: AppVee’s TweetDeck Review

Craigsphone
Offers the entire Craigslist experience in one easy package. Buy, sell, and save more by searching through posts and bookmarking ones for later use.
LINK: AppVee’s Craigsphone Review

Ustream
One of the first apps to bring live television to the iPhone, Ustream gives you the ability to see many live streams of all types of content on your mobile device.
LINK: AppVee’s Ustream Review

TOP 15 GAMES

Flight Control
The line drawing game that started it all, this app is very simple but insanely addicting. Each level gets harder as you play and keeps you coming back for more.
LINK: AppVee’s Flight Control Review

Peggle
Combining awesome graphics, addictive gameplay and a little bit of randomness, Peggle is an exciting mix. This game brings a casual experience to the iPhone that has yet to be rivaled.
LINK: AppVee’s Peggle Review

Rolando 2
The sequel to the hit game, this app takes the Rolando tilt formula and cranks it up. This game is an improvement in almost every way to the original and really shows what iPhone-specific gaming can provide.
LINK: AppVee’s Rolando 2 Review

Pocket God
The king of all time-wasting games, this app puts you in charge of some prehistoric pygmies who are completely at your mercy. Regular updates and features make it a pleasure to continue feeding them to the fishes.
LINK: AppVee’s Pocket God Review

Enigmo 2
Taking the puzzle genre to new heights, this app gives players everything they loved in the first game and puts it all in three dimensions. And you thought the first one was hard…
LINK: AppVee’s Enigmo 2 Review

N.O.V.A.
One of the best first person shooters that can be found in the app store, N.O.V.A. puts the Halo formula into your pocket with a complete single-player and four-player multiplayer experience.
LINK: AppVee’s N.O.V.A. Review

Labyrinth 2
Building on the app that started it all, this version gives you more than just holes to worry about as you will have to solve puzzles and dodge all sorts of objects. The game also offers the option to create your own boards and share them with the world.
LINK: AppVee’s Labyrinth 2 Review

Skeeball
Everyone loves skeeball. Now it has been brought to the iPhone in a fun way. One of the most recognizable arcade games, this app is simple and addictive.
LINK: AppVee’s Skeeball Review

Zenonia
As a full-fledged action RPG, this app brings the complete role-playing experience to the iPhone. Zenonia features attractive graphics and rewarding gameplay.
LINK: AppVee’s Zenonia Review

Real Racing
Arguably one of the best racing games for the iPhone, this app has great graphics, tight controls and immersive sound, making it one of the coolest racing experiences ever on a handheld.
LINK: AppVee’s Real Racing Review

Sims 3
Start a family and watch them interact in this full-featured Sims experience tailored specifically for the iPhone.
LINK: AppVee’s Sims 3 Review

Rock Band
EA’s answer to the popular Guitar Hero franchise, this app employs some big names in the music industry and lets you tap your way to fame.
LINK: AppVee’s Rock Band Review

Super Monkey Ball 2
This exciting balance game gets a small overhaul and some great new maps making it the king of its kind.
LINK: AppVee’s Super Monkey Ball 2 Review

Doodle Jump
Another highly addictive game that sells for cheap but never grows old. The game is casual and simple, a perfect addition to any iPhone.
LINK: AppVee’s Doodle Jump Review

Words With Friends
A Scrabble clone with a great interface, this app allows you to play multiple games against players all over the world by alerting you via push.
LINK: AppVee’s Words With Friends Review

TOP 5 INNOVATIONS

Red Laser 2.2
A step forward in innovation, this app scans barcodes using the iPhone camera and then returns pricing from various online sites. While still in its infancy, this app could revolutionize the way we shop.
LINK: AppVee’s Red Laser 2.2 Review

Hitchcock
Storyboarding in your pocket. Hitchcock allows aspiring cinematographers to create movie layouts while on the go.
LINK: AppVee’s Hitchcock Review

I Am T-Pain
Impress your friends by altering your voice with autotune. This app was an instant hit and gives you the ability to be a star the next time you are ‘on a boat.’
LINK: AppVee’s I Am T-Pain Review

Mailtones
Ringtones for email. Mailtones allows you to identify who just emailed you by their individual sound tone. Offers a new level of customization for your inbox.
LINK: AppVee’s Mailtones Review

Leaf Trombone
Leaf Trombone is a fun app that lets you play a slide instrument on your iPhone. Create your own songs and share them with the world.
LINK: AppVee’s Leaf Trombone Review

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

This week’s big story – unless you count news that matters outside the world of TechCrunch – is the End the CrunchPad. Killed, says Arrington, by ‘greed, jealousy and miscommunication’. Basically the same things that killed Jesus, New Coke and Haley Joel Osment at the end of Pay It Forward.

Dick Move Of The Week
This week marks the start of a new regular feature. Entitled ‘Dick Move Of The Week’ it will celebrate people or companies who go out of their way to shatter dreams, waste time and effort or generally move in the manner of a dick. This week’s recipient is Craigslist, for reasons perfectly articulated in this story by Jason Kincaid…

“Developers take note: if you’ve got a mashup built off of Craigslist’s data, don’t even think about showing it to anyone who works there. At least, that’s the lesson learned by developer Romy Maxwell, who says that Craigslist has blocked both his mashup and every single project built on Yahoo Pipes a few days after a friendly Email exchange he had with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.”

To be fair to Craig, this seems to be less of a problem with Craig (who denies any personal knowledge of the decision) and more a decision by ‘Slist – but the fact remains that anyone who uses Yahoo Pipes to hack their Craigslist experience has now completely wasted their time. Dick Move Of The Week.

Acquisitions Of The Week
In happier news, it seems that the Internet giants are indulging in some earlyish holiday shopping with Google buying AppJet, Amazon à acheter Vente-Privee and Apple reportedly in talks to acquire music service LaLa. The latter provided a particularly colourful TechCrunch post with Jason heading down to LaLa’s office to get the scoop.

“I walked over to the Lala office, which is only a few blocks from us, to see if I could gather any more details. They didn’t seem particularly happy to see me. I knocked on the door and a Lala employee answered, keeping the door half shut so that I couldn’t see in. I asked if any of the company’s executives were around. He looked over his shoulder, asked if they were, and a second later said they weren’t (it was not a particularly convincing effort). He promptly shut the door, and I’m pretty sure I heard someone inside say something to the effect of ‘Are you serious, don’t answer it!’.”

Cowards! You can’t hide from the news.

Jugaad Of The Week
Editor at Large Sarah Lacy continues to live up to her entirely made up job title this week with the last of her dispatches from India. First up she taught us a new word, asking Can India “Jugaad” Its Way To More Angel Investing? “Jugaad”, Sarah explains, describes “an innate creativity for problem solving, and it’s what’s allowing a small group of Indian entrepreneurs to shortcut years of market evolution to bring angel investment to Indian technology startups.

It’s also a quality much in evidence at SMSONE – a micro-local news service that uses basic SMS to bring vitally important news to un-wired rural communities. For those commenters who whine every time TechCrunch writes  another story about Valley-focused smart phone driven playthings like FourSquare, these two posts are for you.

Plastic Fantastic Of The Week
Speaking of Valley-focused smart phone driven playthings, December kicked off with the unveiling of ‘Square’ – a new mobile credit card payment service by Jim McKelvey and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Finally the age-old problem of hookers accepting credit cards has been solved – no wonder the company has a $40million valuation before it has even launched. Hell, if McKelvey and Dorsey move fast, there’s still time for them to win an Obama-style pre-emptive Crunchie.

Goodbye Of The Week
And finally, in Good-News-Bad-News-news, Chicago-based group-buying site ‘Groupon’, which sounds like the name of a medical clamp, has raised $30million from Accel. This is of course great news for the company, but it’s also bad news for TechCrunch HQ as it means the brilliant Leena Rao is moving to Chicago where her husband Suneel has just accepted a job as Groupon’s VP of Product Development. Congratulations Suneel – but we’ll miss you, Leena.

Happy Digg.com day everyone!

Seriously.

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

We’ve had a chance to play SGN’s Skies Of Glory WWI person-to-person dogfighting game for the iPhone. But now they’ve released this trailer for the game to really show off what they’ve built. Look for a launch date shortly.

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

Our last Friday Giveaway was a Sonos S5 Wireless Music System. This week Kodak was kind enough to hand us a Zi8 pocket video camera, and one of you is going to have it in your hands shortly.

CrunchGear’s overview of the Zi8 is here. This is a Flip-like picked video camera that records in 1080p high definition. The device includes a SD/SDHC card slot for expandable storage. And the best feature is this – the Zi8 has an external microphone jack to help get decent audio into the device. Poor audio has plagued the Flip cameras.

Here’s how you can get the device. Just do one of two things: either retweet this post, and make sure to include the #crunch hashtag, or leave a comment below telling us why this device must be yours. The contest ends at noon California time on Saturday. Please only tweet the message once, anyone tweeting repeatedly will be disqualified. We’ll pick a winner tomorrow afternoon and contact you for more details. Anyone in the world is eligible. Kodak is generously donating the device and we’re covering the shipping costs. If you aren’t lucky enough to get the free one, you can buy the Zi8 for $177 here.

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

Last month we saw the launch of TechCrunch50 winner RedBeacon, the startup that lets you book local service providers directly from the web. Today it’s getting some strong competition from a new startup called Thumbtack, a local service booking engine that’s looking to offer both a comprehensive directory of providers and a greater degree of trust than you can find elsewhere.

Featurewise, Thumbtack is a mix between RedBeacon, Yelp, and OpenTable. Like RedBeacon, it lets you sign onto the site and issue a request for a service, which service providers can then bid on. CEO Marco Zappacosta says this portion of the service is nearly identical to RedBeacon, complete with a bidding engine for providers to set pricing. But Thumbtack also offers provider profiles, where these providers can list some of their specialties and price points. There’s also a section where you can book a service directly from a profile page as you would on OpenTable, complete with an availability calendar.

One of the biggest issues with local services like Thumbtack is the chicken-and-the-egg problem. These sites generally launch with a relatively small number of services, which means that users can have a hard time finding what they need (and without users, providers have little incentive to join the site). Thumbtack has tried to address this by spending the last year recruiting providers – at launch, the startup says it already has 10,000 of them, ranging from tutors and handymen to rap teachers and henna artists. Thumbtack is also using some clever incentives to get companies to sign up, like offering discounted business cards and other marketing materials. Zappacosta explains that Thumbtack can order these goods in bulk because they work with so many companies, and then pass the savings on to businesses that sign up.

The other big issue with this kind of site is the creepiness factor – many of these services involve inviting these people into your home (say, to fix a sink) or to a private event (wedding caterers). Along with user reviews, which are standard for this space, Thumbtack is taking a few extra steps. If a service provider is licensed they can post that in their profile, which Thumbtack will verify for free. Thumbtack is also giving providers a handful of premium verification options, such as electing to undergo a background check by a national agency (prices vary from $8 to $49 depending on the level of verification). Providers who successfully pass these checks are rewarded with badges on their profile pages, giving users more confidence in their service. Every provider is also run through the DOJ sex offender registry.

Thumbtack plans to make money by building a payment system off of PayPayl’s adaptive payments API. They’ll take a cut out of each transaction that occurs on the site, and for services that require in-person estimates (like plumbing) they’ll take a lead-gen payment. They’ll also be taking a cut every time a provider elects to get verified through one of the third party background check services. Thumbtack is offering its service nationwide beginning today, but as with RedBeacon their primary focus is the Bay Area, with plans to expand down the road.

Thumbtack is doing a lot of things right with its site – I particularly like the idea of having providers verified through background checks, which helps differentiate it from sites like Angie’s List, Craigslist, and RedBeacon (which lets providers display their licenses but doesn’t do background checks). That said, Thumbtack faces the same challenges that RedBeacon will have. For one, it’s going to have to train users to turn to their computers rather than their yellow pages for these local services. And while 10,000 businesses is a good start, it’s going to take a long time for the service to build up a robust community of users and reviews. The background checks are a nice touch, but they don’t do much for helping users discern which providers offer a high quality service.

For another service that’s taking a different approach to matching users with trustworthy service providers, check out Workstir, which provides suggestions based on your social graph.

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

The brains behind Yahoo Boss, a young engineer named Vik Singh, is leaving Yahoo to become an entrepreneur-in-residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. Earlier this year, Singh was named to Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 list at the age of 24. Singh is exactly the kind of talent Yahoo should be trying to hold onto, but that is hard to do now that it is ceding search to Microsoft.

Singh is more diplomatic. Contacted for comment he confirms, “I’ll be starting next week actually. I’m really pumped but I’m going to definitely miss Yahoo! It’s been such a great company to work at but I just got this really bad case of the entrepreneurial bug.”

Yahoo Boss, which was largely Singh’s idea, is one of Yahoo’s most successful projects among developers. It “>opens up the power of Yahoo’s search index and algorithms to other sites. Yahoo Boss is a set of APIs and Web services which let people build their own customized search engines. (We use it for our search engine here at TechCrunch). Since it launched a year and a half ago, upwards of one billion search queries a month are powered through the service.

Prior to Yahoo, Singh cut his teeth at Microsoft Research in the lab of computer scientist Jim Gray, who was tragically lost at sea two years ago.

Singh already has some ideas about what he wants to work on at Sutter Hill, but he is keeping them close to his vest at this point. He does offer this: “There’s a line my mentor Jim Gray used to say to me all the time: ‘We gotta party on the data!’ I know it’s vague, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Party on, dude.

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

Moments after Craigslist founder Craig Newmark joins the Wikimedia/Wikipedia advisory board things start to go crazy.

Way back in 2006 Jason Calacanis, then an executive at AOL, was trying to convince Wikipedia to puts ads on the site. It would generate $100 million a year in revenue, he said, which could fund the project and other charities:

I sat next to Jimbo at a Wikipedia dinner over the summer. I begged him to put a leaderboard on Wikipedia and told him I would get AOL to sell it and host Wikipedia–for free. He declined saying there will never be ads on Wikipedia. I then explained to him in detail how that one leaderboard could make over $100M per year. I told him that they should take the $100M and give it to charity. They could help fund MediaWiki, the EFF, Firefox, and dozens of other open source projects.

Agree with them or not, Wikipedia has held firm to their no-ads philosophy, struggling through with donations instead. But today Rex Hammock noticed something on Wikipedia – a banner ad.

These aren’t “real” ads promoting third party sites, products, etc. They’re just in house ads reiterating the policy that Wikipedia will never have ads. But they clearly are ads. As a commenter notes below, Adblocker even filters them out.

“Knowledge Forever, Ad-Free Forever, Wikipedia Forever,” say the ads. They link to this page asking for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Update: Readers point out that this is an annual effort by Wikipedia.

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