Since February, Google has been quietly testing a new type of search functionality: AJAX search. Basically, Google uses more advanced JavaScript to make search result pages load even faster by only loading new information as needed on new queries. And while it doesn’t appear to be rolling out on a large scale yet, more users are starting to notice it.
One such user is Mike Stoppelman, a software engineer at Yelp. But Stoppelman’s take on it is interesting, and worth noting because before he worked at Yelp, he was an engineer at Google for four years. As Stoppelman sees it, Google is bringing out AJAX Search to combat Microsoft’s Bing search product, which has garnered quite a bit of attention since its launch a few months ago. Some claim that Bing is faster than Google, but an AJAX Google would undoubtedly be faster than Bing. → Read More
I love this! A guy cobbles together something totally cool in his own home, it blows up on the internet, and now he’s (apparently) got backing and it’s working with every console and the PC.
Yes, apparently you will be able to buy the GameGun in a retail package by Christmas, though pricing hasn’t been announced. I’m hoping that since the “TheRedneckTechie” isn’t a major corporation, he won’t be trying to ding us too hard for this thing. If I’m reading him right, he just wants everybody to have one because it’s awesome. → Read More
Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday – presumably my body’s reaction to the fact that San Francisco has suddenly become sunny – I decided to take a jaunt around the Internet for column ideas. My deadline was a whole 24 hours away, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?
My first find was this story about a bear who had got trapped in a Colorado skate park, presumably after breaking in to practice his Ollies, or whatever it is bears do on skateboards. The bear was finally rescued when townsfolk dropped a ladder into the park, allowing him to climb to freedom.
To any normal person, a bear trapped in a skate park would be little more than a heartwarming newsbite; a quirky story to distract from another week of war and terrorism and kidnapped children living in back yards in Antioch. But not for the lazy tech columnist looking for inspiration… → Read More
The Tick isn’t the only celebrity PC hired in his never ending fight against Mac. Now he’s turned to Robert Loggia. But, yeah, you probably know the outcome. → Read More
Years from now, when the history of BitTorrent-related Internet piracy is written, there will have to be at least one chapter devoted to The Pirate Bay. It showed up just as the likes of Suprnova and LokiTorrent were being shut down, and quickly became the go-to place for, shall we say, the less savvy BitTorrent user. It also became a symbol of the copyright reform movement, though the site’s cavalier attitude toward any sort of authority ultimately led to its undoing. (The whole “we’re untouchable!” gimmick the site had played up was, we can now say, ill advised.) → Read More
Amazon’s got a fully-loaded Garmin nuvi GPS unit for $310 after a $53 discount, good today only. The 885T features traffic, weather, Bluetooth, and even “directs you to the preferred lane while driving.” → Read More
It’s no secret: there’s some Benjamins to be made on the App Store. In fact, the App Store is now a $2.4 billion dollar per year business, according to AdMob’s monthly mobile metrics report. Here’s another fun fact you probably already know: most app developers fade into the App Store abyss long before they ever find fame and fortune. Even if you ignore the junk apps and the million e-books each published as a separate app, you’ve still got a solid 5-10,000 apps clamoring to grab a piece of the App Store pie. Many developers feel like the App Store is akin to high school: an anarchic and ruthless popularity contest to see who’s got the biggest, well, um, you know what I mean. That brings us to the $2.4 billion question: how do you succeed on the App Store? We’ve spent the last few weeks trying to answer that question and have come up with a list of tips and tricks that’ll help you edge your way into App Store glory. Now, none of these will replace making a good product or compensate for a million-dollar advertising and PR budget, but they’ll likely help you get noticed or keep your current momentum. → Read More
Farhad Manjoo has a nice “what-if” story up on Slate about what Sony can do to beat the Kindle. Sadly, what Manjoo is doing here is akin to helping a little old crazy lady across the street – at best his advice will be ignore and and worst he’ll be cursed out.
He basically writes:
Anyone looking to beat the Kindle, then, should look to the iPod: Study everything that Apple’s rivals did, and do the opposite.
Our 50 companies are locked and loaded. We’ve got magic lined up, a power panel of experts and a big exhibitor hall DemoPit that will be filled with lots of start-up energy and chaos.
TechCrunch50 celebrates entrepreneurship, and we want as many start-ups involved as possible. There is still time to participate in TechCrunch50 with prices that can’t be beat:
$2,995 DemoPit Tables include 2 tickets to TechCrunch50 and one day to demo (that’s cheaper than 2 tickets to the conference) → Read More
Back before we had Web 2.0 and cleantech to obsess about the Valley was abuzz about nanotech—the idea that sub-atomic particles would suddenly be the building blocks of, well, everything. It would make the paint on our houses last longer, the non-stick on our pans stick less, and our pants impervious to wrinkles. Somewhere, someone was probably promising their board they could use nanotechnology to make Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak a reality.
It seemed like a great investment thesis for a few reasons: There was actually real patentable science there and because the possibilities seemed so limitless, it was a huge market. A February 2005 BusinessWeek cover pegged it at nearly $300 billion by the end of the decade. (You know, now.) → Read More
I just came back from the CNET Japan Innovation Conference 2009 [JP] in Tokyo, where Cerevo, currently one of the most ambitious tech start-ups in Japan, showed its self-developed digital camera aimed at heavy social media users for the first time.
The company has just seven employees (two of them are part-timers) but big plans: Cerevo intends to dramatically simplify the process of uploading and sharing pictures online by providing both an extra-easy to use camera (the “CerevoCam”) and a photo sharing site (“CerevoLife”) specifically geared towards owners of that camera. And the company wants to bring its idea in front of a global audience. → Read More
A few months ago we wrote about the growing number of Twitter-focused conferences that are taking place around the world. Many were informative, with thought-provoking and compelling insights made by VCs, pundits and entrepreneurs. At Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference in New York in June, Twitter investor and VC Fred Wilson expounded on Twitter as a power-distributor of passed links. Of course, this particular conference was not without glitches, as noted eloquently by TechCrunch’s Paul Carr.
It looks like the trend of Twitter conferences is growing, with more events popping up around the country. As we’ve said in the past and will continue to say, there are tremendous opportunities for businesses, brands, non-profits and individuals to use Twitter as a tool for customer support, fund raising, brand management, advertising, job search and much more. → Read More
We may be doing the founders of ErnestMarples.com a disservice, rather than a favor, in drawing attention to their site. Why? Because in the quaint world of Ye Olde Englande, Her Majesty’s Royal Mail still owns all the zipcode/postcode data. Unlike the US, where web apps and Google Maps have thrived on free to access zipcodes, the UK remains far behind. To license it requires hard cash, something innovative, early-stage startups rarely have. But ErnestMarples is basically a postcode database with an API sitting on top. It allows developers to build cool projects without having to pay Royal Mail (or Her Majesty) an arm and a leg for the privilege of the data. Boston Tea Party anyone? I met Harry Metcalf, one of the guys behind ErnestMarples, at Young Rewired State (a project whose goals were very similar to ErnestMarples.com’s). “We’ll undoubtedly get shouted at severely by the Royal Mail eventually,” he said. “But before we do, it would be great to have lots more people write useful apps that use the ErnestMarples API. If we get shut down, we’ll make lots of noise, and lots of useful apps would make for a much more powerful argument for more open data.” Fighting talk. → Read More
I just came back from the CNET Japan Innovation Conference 2009 [JP] in Tokyo, where Cerevo, currently one of the most ambitious tech start-ups in Japan, showed its self-developed digital camera aimed at heavy social media users for the first time.
The company has just seven employees (two of them are part-timers) but big plans: Cerevo intends to dramatically simplify the process of uploading and sharing pictures online by providing both an extra-easy to use camera (the “CerevoCam”) and a photo sharing site (“CerevoLife”) specifically geared towards owners of that camera. And the company wants to bring its idea in front of a global audience. → Read More
Unanimis, the UK-based digital advertising network specialising in branded and performance-based display ads, is to be bought by Orange France Telecom. Orange confirmed today that it has acquired 100% of the company, which claims to reach 69% of the online UK population and enjoyed revenues of over £21m in 2008. The acquisition means that SPARK Ventures will realise its investment in Unanimis and receive proceeds of up to £4.7m, subject to a 50% earn-out arrangement. If the full earn-out targets are reached, SPARK will make a 2.4x return in 2012 on their original £2.1m investment. → Read More
Struq, an exciting start-up about which I’ve written before elsewhere, just launched its online advertising platform, promising hyper-targeted ads based on prior behavior but without, or so it claims, the privacy violations ascribed to the ill-fated Phorm. “Unlike Phorm,” CEO Sam Barnett told me back in June, “We don’t partner with ISPs and we don’t use ‘deep packet inspection’. We use standard cookies and work with websites that allow users to opt out of our service, enabling us to both protect user privacy and deliver relevant content that adds value to users.” → Read More
Chris Sacca, a prolific Silicon Valley angel investor, is closing on a new venture fund he’ll call Lowercase Capital, we’ve confirmed. The fund size will be in the $5 million range, and will make investments ranging from $50,000 – $150,000 per deal.
Sacca was previously the head of strategic initiatives at Google (he left Google in 2007), has invested in at least twenty or so startups in the last three years. Investments include Photobucket, Twitter, bit.ly, Someecards, Posterous and others.
Our understanding is that the fund is partially closed, and some or all of Sacca’s previous investments, including Twitter, will be moved to the new fund. Meaning new investors in the fund will start off with stock in Twitter. → Read More
Unanimis, the UK-based digital advertising network specialising in branded and performance-based display ads, is to be bought by the France Telecom-owned Orange mobile carrier. That’s an interesting deal because Unanimis claims to reach 69% of the online UK population and enjoyed revenues of over $34 million (£21m) in 2008. One of Unanimis’ strengths is the network of exclusive deals it has secured with sites like Shopping.com as well as other partners.
The acquisition means that SPARK Ventures will realise its investment in Unanimis and receive proceeds of up to $7.7 million (£4.7m), subject to a 50% earn-out arrangement. If the full earn-out targets are reached, SPARK will make a 2.4x return in 2012 on their original $3.4 million (£2.1m) investment. → Read More
We may be doing the founders of ErnestMarples.com a disservice, rather than a favor, in drawing attention to their site. Why? Because in the quaint world of Ye Olde Englande, Her Majesty’s Royal Mail still owns all the zipcode/postcode data. Unlike the US, where web apps and Google Maps have thrived on free to access zipcodes, the UK remains far behind. To license it requires hard cash, something innovative, early-stage startups rarely have. But ErnestMarples is basically a postcode database with an API sitting on top. It allows developers to build cool projects without having to pay Royal Mail (or Her Majesty) an arm and a leg for the privilege of the data. Boston Tea Party anyone? → Read More
Confirming what we saw yesterday on Amazon.de, there is indeed a new 250GB model of the Xbox 360 called, disappointingly, the “Super Elite,” unless that’s just what this particular South African retailer decided to go with. Forza 3, two controllers, no HDMI cable. Seriously? at this point, I should be getting HDMI cables in my Multi-Grain Cheerios.
Oh, there is one wrinkle. The advertisement has the price at 4700 Rand, which translates to… about $600. Let’s hope that’s just the local price. → Read More
