Taptu, the mobile search engine, announced a partnership with OneRiot last month to provide real time search results in their mobile-friendly web site. This worked from any mobile client, not just the iPhone. But one of the points of using a smartphone is the use of native applications. Today Taptu announced that they’ve rolled the real-time search results into their iPhone app. → Read More
So it’s the end of 2009 and an appropiate time to take stock. We’re not going to bore you with a long analysis of the year. Suffice it to say that funding for Europen startup tech companies remains tight. And when VCs are running out of LPs to go to, you really know it is. The VC model is still finding its feet in a market where exits are still not that clear. For many companies 2009 was a nightmare – especially the first half. But anecdotal evidence I’ve been picking up suggests that confidence in the European tech scene re-started tentatively after the summer. Hopefully, conversations that have been going on for the last few months will see the light of day in new announcements, launches and, I daresay, one or two exits in the new year. → Read More
It appears that the wintry mess that hit the Eastern seaboard over the past weekend turned out to be a boon to online retailers. comScore says that e-commerce holiday spending showed an uptick thanks to the blizzards that hit the East Coast over the past weekend. The final shopping weekend before Christmas saw a 13 percent growth rate in online spending from the previous year. And the full week posted a 6 percent yearly increase in spending, setting a one-week sales record with more than $4.8 billion in spending.
For the holiday season-to-date, $25.5 billion has been spent online, which is a 4 percent increase versus the same days last year. Online spending has remained steady this year, following strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers. comScore reported that as of the week of Dec. 8, $16 billion had been spent online, which is a 3 percent increase versus the same period last year. Interestingly, comScore also took an in-depth look at the influence of social networks on online shopping and reported that 28 percent of shoppers surveyed said that social media has influenced their purchases. → Read More
A couple weeks ago, when we wrote about Blippy, the new startup that allows you to share your credit card purchases online, it caused quite a bit of controversy. That was expected. Sometimes good ideas do. Sometimes bad ideas do. So which one is Blippy? Well, why don’t find out for yourself?
The company has given us 250 invites to give away to TechCrunch readers. Even if you hate the idea, you should sign up to “if nothing else, reserve your favorite username now, before it’s taken,” co-founder Philip Kaplan says in a message to you, the readers. He also notes that you can easily choose just to share certain things, like your Zappos purchases, for example. That’s exactly what Michael is doing. Or you might want to only share your Amazon purchases. That’s exactly what Sarah is doing. Me? I’m sharing pretty much everything. Because I have nothing to hide. At least not on this credit card. → Read More
It’s another humanoid from Japan, it doesn’t have an official name yet, but it’s pretty cool: This new robot [JP] is the result of a collaboration between various Japanese companies and institutions, namely the Nippon Institute of Technology, Harada Vehicle Design [JP], ZMP and ZNUG Design. Based technically on ZMP’s Nuvo robot, it stands 1.26m tall and weighs 15kg. → Read More
We recently wrote about OneRiot’s foray into the advertising world, RiotWise, which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. Because people are becoming more and more interested in realtime search and getting access to information that is going on right now, OneRiot believes in the strong potential of serving relevant ads beside results. Today, the realtime search engine is launching RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web.
RiotWise will match trending topics with display ads that are highly relevant to the same topics within an application such as a Twitter client or iPhone app. OneRiot says the “realtime relevance” results in a higher click through rate on the ads. The system is enabled by OneRiot’s realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm. → Read More
Yesterday, Google published a long manifesto on the “meaning of open” in the form of an email to all employees republished as a blog post. In it, senior VP of product management Jonathan Rosenberg, makes an eloquent argument for why open systems always win and urges Google’s employees to always strive to be open when designing products. An open Internet spurs innovation and brings more consumers on board, which ultimately means more searches and increased use of Web applications.
The gist of his argument is that a bigger, better Internet is good for Google. He writes that Google employees should resist the impulse to create closed products and systems, and even makes a swipe at Apple for doing so (bold added for emphasis): → Read More
Yesterday, Google published a long manifesto on the “meaning of open” in the form of an email to all employees republished as a blog post. In it, senior VP of product management Jonathan Rosenberg, makes an eloquent argument for why open systems always win and urges Google’s employees to always strive to be open when designing products. An open Internet spurs innovation and brings more consumers on board, which ultimately means more searches and increased use of Web applications.
The gist of his argument is that a bigger, better Internet is good for Google. It all sounds great and Google certainly is a champion of open systems with Android and Chrome and countless other projects. Google is making a very public effort to claim the mantle of openness. But the battle for this mantle has been going on for a long time. → Read More
Fennec, Mozilla’s mobile version of Firefox, is “days away” from release. It will initially be available for the Nokia N900; don’t expect an iPhone version anytime soon. → Read More
A tale of holiday woe for your enjoyment. I just logged into my BestBuy.com account to make sure that the gift I ordered for someone on my list would indeed arrive by Christmas. It will not. Could be Best Buy’s fault, could be UPS’ fault – either way, the train went off the tracks. → Read More
Social network for chess fans Chesspark is merging with that other online chess community site, Chess.com, the two companies announced last night.
Chess.com is making the transition easy, as former Chesspark users can simply log on with their familiar credentials and find that their usernames, avatars and ratings have automatically been transferred. → Read More
Chorus, the recently launched iPhone app that helps you discover other apps, is revealing the most recommended apps from their community. Developed by envIO Networks, Chorus is sort of like a mobile social network based around the apps that your friends have downloaded and lets you tap into your existing social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share with your friends. The app features real-time feeds from your designated friends (those who have also downloaded Chorus and whom you have friended) displaying the apps they are downloading, and what they are saying about them in the app.
Chorus’ technology will match your favorite apps against those your friends use, building a personalized and relevant list of recommended apps. Chorus will also ask your a series of questions to determine the types of apps your like. And you can share your favorite apps through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and also invite them to test out Chorus. → Read More
Quick, which company was founded first: Facebook or Youtube? What year did Apple launch the Jesus phone? Can you name three of the biggest financial calamities of the past decade? The three-minute video after the jump from WatchMojo recaps the decade in business and technology.
The video strangely alternates between the fraud and financial crises of the general business world (Enron, the housing bubble, Bernie Madoff) and all the change and innovation of the tech world (Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the iPhone). It’s as though it is talking about two different worlds or two different eras. If the next decade is going to be anything like the last one, I’ll stay in the tech world. → Read More
Intel’s Pine Trail Atom processor (1.66 GHz Atom N450/unveiled earlier this year) is one of the key elements in the LifeBook MH380, Fujitsu’s latest netbook. The MH380 has a 10.1-inch glossy LCD screen with LED backlight, 200nits brightness and no less than 1,366×768 resolution. What’s quite unique design-wise is the tiny circle area (next to the trackpad), which enables circular motion scrolling. → Read More
Industry research and analysis firm DisplaySearch estimates notebook PC revenues to top $109 billion in 2009, down almost 7% year over year.
The company’s most recent Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report also shows a huge increase in the size of the netbook market, having grown its revenue share of the overall portable computer market to 11.7% in the third quarter of 2009.
This has increased the overall size of the portable PC market considerably, according to DisplaySearch, but not nearly enough to offset declines in revenue. → Read More
We recently wrote about gWallet, a startup that hopes to offer a legitimate virtual currency monetization platform, after OfferPal, and others have recently come under fire (a.k.a. “Scamville”) for scamming users of virtual games on social networks. The startup, which recently raised $10.5 million in funding, works directly with brands directly as opposed to adopting an affiliate leads model. gWallet claims that its proprietary technology and transparent platform allows game developers and social networks to see when and where exact offers are being presented within their ecosystems.
The startup wouldn’t reveal the details of what its platform would look and feel like, but today is giving us a little bit more insight into how it will work. gWallet is launching gLTV, a new metric that will aim to give publishers analytics on how they can measure and increase their lifetime value of users on their applications. gWallet says gLTV uses info about individual users to demonstrate specifically how it can increase the lifetime value of a user based on prior usage and transaction history. Currently, publishers cannot see how they are increasing the lifetime value of their users. Other virtual currency platforms can only measure yield through a CPM model, which measures how much revenue is generated after a thousand views on their offer wall. → Read More
Apple just dodged a bullet.
A New York federal judge dismissed a potential class action lawsuit which alleged that Apple propagated their popular iMac screens without disclosing certain manufacturing defects to its customers, saying that the allegations were too general to be considered.
The lawsuit stated that unwanted vertical lines would appear on the devices after the warranty period had expired and that Apple “internally recognizes and concedes” the defect, but did nothing to warn consumers. → Read More
Browser maker Opera Software has released its latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report this morning, which is based on the usage of its Opera Mini browser for mobile phones. They do this every month, and the conclusion is always the same: mobile web usage around the world keeps on growing and growing.
The Norwegian company says Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users, showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month and more than 154% compared to November 2008. In addition, Opera claims the number of page-views in November 2009 went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to the previous month. → Read More
Whether Twitter is at some point going to launch (or buy) a desktop client is subject to speculation, but it’s clear that their web and mobile clients garner a lot of the startup’s attention right now. A new hire reflects that.
Overseeing Twitter’s products, and primarily its web service, will henceforth be the task of Kevin Cheng, formerly Director of Product Strategy at Raptr, a social network for gamers. Cheng previously worked at Yahoo!’s Brickhouse incubator where he designed Yahoo Pipes and Bravonation, and at Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Local, Adaptive Path, and Trilogy. → Read More
As stringent (and arguably overzealous) as Apple’s App review policy is, things still slip through the cracks from time to time. I mean, who can forget the infamous baby shaking simulator slip-up? The latest bit of contraband to hit the App Store isn’t nearly as offensive – that is, unless you’re Nintendo. Earlier today, an application called “Nescaline” popped up on the App Store. Everything about the application, from the name, to the copyrighted icon, to the very functionality of the application rang of something that Apple would generally deny without batting an eye.. and yet, there it was – for all of one day, at least. → Read More
