MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Among the tech industry's up-and-coming, ad-supported business models appear to be out of fashion. Or at least that appears to be the trend among the companies that just graduated from the annual Boulder, Colo.-based incubator program TechStars. Representatives from some of those start-ups convened for an "Investor Day" at a Microsoft-owned auditorium here on Wednesday morning.
Founded by venture capitalists David Cohen and Brad Feld three years ago, TechStars accepts a total of 20 participants in both Boulder and Boston for a summer of development, seminars with industry veterans, and a small amount of seed funding. Thirteen of those 20 companies were advanced enough to earn spots at Wednesday's Investor Day, in which they offered short presentations to more than 100 members of the venture capital community who are actively interested in making early-stage investments.
And not a single one was offering a strictly advertising-supported business model, something that would've been pretty unthinkable not so long ago.
"(These companies) are the future of the entrepreneurial ecosystem as it evolves," Feld said to the audience midway through the morning. "We think these are all very fundable companies. In fact, most of the companies that you're seeing today are either well down the path of closing financing, or have closed financing, but for many of them there's still room."
Unlike the TechCrunch50 start-up pitch event earlier this month, none of these companies were actually launching out of a total stealth mode. Some had already experienced a sort of PR blitz--travelogue site Everlater generated some buzz when people were using it to map their plans for airline JetBlue's "All You Can Jet" promotion, and unofficial Twitter app store OneForty experienced the usual tech-blog mayhem earlier this week when it launched in private alpha and set off a flurry among the early-adopter crowd as people scrambled for invites.
But like TechCrunch50's array of start-ups, most of the TechStars lineup had productivity on the brain. Gaming and entertainment companies were limited to TakeComics, which aims to bring an iTunes-inspired business model to the digitization of comic books, and AccelGolf, a decidedly hardcore set of mobile and Web-based applications for avid golfers.
Business-focused applications were far more commonplace. Retel Technologies has built security-camera software enhanced with data and analytics, NextBigSound tabulates bands and musicians' popularity on social-media and music sites to roll up into a product sold to industry professionals; SendGrid offers e-mail marketing services to businesses at a variety of price points; and HaveMyShift, built by a former Starbucks barista, offers an exchange for hourly employees at major chain stores to swap and pick up shifts.
The companies were a mixed bag, and so were the entrepreneurs behind them: many fell into the young-entrepreneur stereotype of puppy-faced young men who could use a haircut along with that seed funding, but others strayed from the norm. OneForty's Laura Fitton is already a respected Twitter consultant; Raj Aggarwal, CEO of mobile data start-up Localytics, is an Apple veteran who had helped construct the original business model for the iPhone; and the founders of mobile contact management company Sensobi professed to earlier entrepreneurial experience in the chocolate industry.
Of the entire lineup, Everlater--founded by two childhood friends who had quit their Wall Street jobs to found the company--offered the closest thing to the typical ad-supported consumer model that was so ubiquitous in Web 2.0's heyday a few years ago, and even still, the founders plan to sell customized scrapbook and postcard products as well as offer branded packages to travel companies hoping to get their name out there.
A few other TechStars presenters said they hoped to use a free, ad-supported model as an entry point for the subscription services where they plan to make more significant money: video-based language learning system LangoLab, for example, hopes to strike deals with online video hubs like Hulu and then charge for access to lessons based around that "premium" content, and open-source forum software Vanilla charges for the hosted version of its product.
Granted, these business models still have their pratfalls: namely, the fact that they actually have to find individuals or companies who are willing to pay, something that often requires the formation of a solid marketing or sales department before profits can start to roll in. That was why many of them said they were looking to close early-stage funding rounds soon.
But those solicitations for funding were not lofty. Almost all of the TechStars presentations provided a target amount that they were seeking for their angel or Series A rounds (a few had closed rounds already), and the vast majority were south of $1 million--far south, in some cases.
If you saw "Star Trek" over the weekend, you might be wondering how you can use the Web to connect with other fans.
It's not as hard as you might think. From Ning social networks to Facebook groups, there are a variety of ways to connect with "Star Trek" fans around the world.
Social "Star Trek"
Star-Trek has some active discussions.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Star-Trek If you're a Twitter fanatic, the Tweetworks Star-Trek group might be worth checking out. It's not a vibrant community--there are just a few dozen members--but it's the largest "Star Trek" Twitter group on the Tweetworks network. You'll find other Twitter users to communicate with. And you can leave as many tweets as you want about the movie. But until it grows, consider it your last destination.
"Star Trek" Facebook group The "Star Trek" Facebook group is the place to go if you're a real "Star Trek" fan. It's that simple. The page has over 2,400 members. Its discussion board is brimming with messages about topics ranging from Spock and his mother to Captain Kirk. The page also has more than 100 Wall posts discussing the movie, commenting on the series, and much more. Definitely check it out.
"Star Trek" MySpace page The official "Star Trek" MySpace page is a must-see for any "Star Trek" fan. It features the movie's newest trailer. And if you want to see scenes from the film, it has a couple clips for you to watch. But it's the page's forums that will keep you coming back. More than 22,000 "Star Trek" fans are currently discussing the movie, the franchise, and everything in between. The "Star Trek" MySpace page is one of the best places to connect with other fans.
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Now showing on YouTube: Star Trek.
(Credit: Google)Google's YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.
"We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," Google said on its YouTube blog on Friday.
It's an experiment in video display and advertising, too, with ads for Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Intel's Centrino chip technology showing prominently on the videos I watched. The TV shows are preceded by a 15-second pre-roll ad, and YouTube will show mid-roll and post-roll ads as well, according to the blog posting. "As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows," Google said.
The shows also feature new display possibilities that set off the ads--no doubt the "in-chrome ads" that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt referred to earlier this year when discussing the high priority of making more money from YouTube. A new "theater view" sports bright ads against an otherwise darker screen, wrapping the video in deep red faux curtains. And the "lights-out" mode retains the traditional YouTube interface, but with the darker screen and relatively bright ad.
The TV shows are all from CBS, which owns CNET News.
The content is tagged with a new film strip icon to indicate that it's different from conventional YouTube videos. The icon shows in search results, too.
Update 3:23 p.m. PDT: YouTube's long-form move has been expected for months, and now Google will begin to see how well viewers take to the idea.
Milking more money from YouTube has been a top priority for Google this year, and the new content and ads clearly are a part of that. They also show the increasing sophistication of Google's relationships with studios, which with the exception of litigant Viacom, have been warming to YouTube in some cases.
Schmidt has said the right way to pair advertising with YouTube's vast and fast-growing video collection is the "holy grail."
YouTube features 'theater mode' that lends prominence to the video and the ads.
(Credit: CNET News)
Sprawling new-media conglomerate InterActiveCorp on Tuesday announced that it has acquired StarNet Interactive, an Israel-based company that operates GirlSense, a social site for teen girls. More specifically, GirlSense describes itself as "online dress-up games for girls with fashion sense."
Terms of the deal, which is part of IAC's Consumer Applications and Portals division, were not disclosed.
Other teen-oriented properties in IAC's arsenal, with which GirlSense will likely be intertwined, include virtual world Zwinky and profile customization site Webfetti. GirlSense counts its registered users at 13 million.
"Part of our growth strategy includes acquisition of products and companies that complement our core competencies," John Park, president and CEO of IAC Consumer Applications & Portals, said in a statement Tuesday. "Adding Girlsense.com to our existing teen-targeted product portfolio provides us with broader teen mindshare and access to the coveted tween demographic."
The ad-supported GirlSense--advertisements are currently served by women's-focused ad network Glam Media--is also aligned with IAC's broader restructuring.
Late last year, the company announced that it would be splitting into five separate corporations as an attempt to center its operations on ad-supported media rather than retail or financial services. And after lying low through the spin-off process and a boardroom battle, the Barry Diller-helmed IAC appears to be back on track with its historically aggressive acquisition strategy.
Last week, IAC's Ask.com division acquired the parent company of Dictionary.com.
(Credit:
StarWars.com)
On Friday, 30 years to the day after the first Star Wars hit theaters, the film's official Web site, StarWars.com, will relaunch with a new design. One of the hallmarks of the new site is a feature that invites fans to remix video and music clips from all six Star Wars movies, as well as add their own homemade videos. They'll then be able to share them on the Star Wars site with other fans and to embed the mashups in their blogs or profiles on social-networking sites.
Licensed remix tools have become popular promotional campaigns in recent months: not only are they essentially free advertising, but they also allow fans to play around with video and audio footage with a reduced potential for copyright infringement lawsuits. The remixing platform for the Star Wars Web site was created by Eyespot, which also created remix tools for a number of pop singers, comedian Stephen Colbert, and the Broadway musical Spring Awakening.
But the new video-centric Star Wars site goes beyond mashups. Additionally, StarWars.com--operated by Lucas Online, a division of Star Wars parent company Lucasfilm--will be adding a library of hundreds of Star Wars-related video clips. These include official documentary-style videos, selections from the Star Wars Fan Movie Festivals over the years, and user-generated videos inspired by Star Wars, like the "Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager" Web sitcom. Created by Matt Sloann and Aaron Yonda, "Chad Vader" imagines what would happen if Darth Vader had a less successful younger brother who worked in a grocery store.
In a press release Thursday, Eyespot also hinted that StarWars.com will be rolling out more multimedia features over the coming months, including more games and social-networking features.
[This post is from CNET News.com]
Slooh is a do-it-yourself stargazing service that puts you behind powerful telescopes in real time. With Slooh's help, you can see a disco-ball-like cluster of stars, a sunflower galaxy, Comet Lovejoy, and other wonders from an observatory atop a Canary Island mountain--all from the comfort of your chair at home.
The Slooh Launch Pad takes you to the moon, and more.
I found the most dazzling views by following Slooh's suggested astronomical points of interest. Guided missions happen at 9:00 p.m. (Universal Time) nightly. The longer you hang out, the riper the images get. Impressed by the blood-red Trifid Nebula, 5,500 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation? Slooh lets you snap, save, and show off three pictures at each stop in space.
By contrast, the HubbleSite, which just won a Webby Award, offers images that may be processed a million times to achieve jaw-dropping crispness, but they're not live. Slooh is more beginner-friendly than skywatching sites run by nonprofits and universities. It's also easier to use than a pricey telescope, especially for urbanites who can't see past the smog and city lights. Slooh's views may be 2 million to 3 million times clearer than what you'll see in a city, according to COO Tierney O'Dea.
Slooh can be pretty cool once you get the hang of it, but the Flash-based Mission Interface should be more intuitive. Pop-ups label the various features (unless you turn them off), which is somewhat helpful. But to no avail, I kept clicking arrows around the lens, and I couldn't satisfy the urge to drag around the view.
Nevertheless, Slooh is fun already, and its social networking element can add depth and education to the experience. Slooh's users include newbies and professional astronomers in 70 countries. You can chat, share images, and rate the current sky conditions. One amateur even identified a known asteroid. Slooh also offers podcasts on iTunes, hosted by luminaries, such as comet hunter David Levy and author Phil Harrington. Blogging is coming soon.
Unfortunately, Slooh is free of charge for only a week, and a bit costly at $99 per year thereafter. But a family full of science fans might find it a great value. Because Slooh's founder, Michael Paolucci, wants to make the service more accessible, he's working to give it away to school children in India and Iran.
Slooh is adding telescopes in Chile, with the long-term goal to provide 24-hour coverage of the Earth. Unlike so many dynamic Web services that allow you to network and navel-gaze with a select group of people, Slooh connects you to the vastness beyond our terrestrial, wired world. That's partly why Slooh co-sponsored the surreal Yuri's Night party that kept me up until dawn at the NASA Ames research center last month. That event, like Slooh, was built with the starry-eyed aim of getting more people to celebrate space exploration as an extension of caring for the home planet. I'm excited to see how the Slooh community will evolve around what O'Dea called the "celestial campfire."
Slooh puts you eye-to-eye with the Black-Eye Galaxy, among others.
Wireless router
General Motors and MapQuest have teamed up on a new service enabling drivers of GM's OnStar-enabled cars to use the Web to select and store destinations for their turn-by-turn guidance when out on the road. The new service, called OnStar Web Destination Entry, will allow drivers to find up to five destinations on MapQuest's Web site, then send them to the OnStar system directly from their computers.
The theory goes that these destinations can then be accessed while out on the road by connecting to the OnStar service center and selecting a stored destination via OnStar's automated voice-prompt system; OnStar will then guide you to said destination using a series of automated turn-by-turn directions.
Those who want to add a new destination while on the move will still be able to access the traditional OnStar trip advisers if they want to. The new service works only in models equipped with seventh-generation OnStar systems (2007 model year cars) or newer. A sample of 3,000 OnStar subscribers will take place in a pilot of the Web Destination Entry program this summer, and GM says that it expects 600,000 2007-model year cars--including all Cadillacs and Buicks--to come factory-installed with the service starting from "late 2007."
Over on our sister blog Crave, we post about the occasional stargazing gadget for amateur astronomers. But if you aren't willing to shell out the cash for a pricey telescope, night sky projector, or home planetarium, never fear--that's where the wonderful world of free webware comes in. Wikisky was described by the Wired Science blog as "Google Earth for space," which is essentially an apt description. You can use Wikisky (which isn't actually a wiki, for the record) to view and navigate the entire night sky either as a graphical representation, or in legit photographs courtesy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
(Credit:
Wikisky)
The interface isn't as easy to get the hang of as Google Maps or Google Earth's, but then again, I don't think very many of us are as familiar with the night sky as we are with a world atlas. It also was a bit slow to load, even in the graphical form, and it is more difficult to zoom in and out because Google Maps' quick keyboard commands don't apply.
This appears to be very much a project in the works--currently, only a quarter of the night sky is available--but I think it's ultimately a great idea. If Wikisky can keep growing and adding more functionality, I can see this being an awesome information resource, and an even awesomer time-waster.
See also: The downloadable app, Stellarium (for PC, Mac).
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