Last June, Google first launched a beta of its long-anticipated social network, Google+. And it raised plenty of eyebrows: despite Google’s history of flubbing ‘social’, Google+ actually shows a lot of promise. Google says the service has grown to 40 million users (I’m more interested in engagement numbers, but that’s another story) and it’s doing everything it can to get it in front of more users.
But there’s been one very large group of people that’s been left out in the cold: Google Apps users. Google Apps is the suite of products that Google sells to businesses and schools, and allows for custom domains, administrator controls, boosted security, and other key features (for a price). Some apps users understandably took offense to the lack of support, as they’re actually paying Google money.
→ Read More
I’m drinking a lot of coffee today because I was up well past my bedtime last night playing around with the test build of the newly launched ShoeBox iPhone application from 1000memories, now live in iTunes. This simple app provides a much-needed function: a way to scan old photographs using your smartphone and post them online.
Oh, sure. I know you don’t necessarily need an app to scan a photo – you can just take a picture of the print and post it to Facebook. But the ShoeBox app provides a handy set of tools to complement and improve upon that process, including buttons to quickly crop, flatten and rotate photos, plus fields for filling in captions, dates and tags. → Read More
Topguest, the hot loyalty program which rewards users for engaging with brands on social networks, now has 5 million Facebook users in its database, the company has just revealed. These customers are collecting airline, hotel and other travel rewards points for their social networking activity, like Foursquare and Facebook check-ins, for example.
Today, the company is announcing a new product that will make Topguest not just a social loyalty program, but a full-fledged social loyalty SaaS company. This fall it will debut a white-label service that will allow brands to customize their communication with each of their customers, based on their social networking activity. Topguest’s first partner with this effort will be Hilton HHonors. → Read More
Motorola fans may still be riding high on the announcement of the Droid RAZR, but Droid-Life has just gotten their hands on images of yet another Motorola handset in the works: the DROID4.
The DROID4 apes some of the RAZR’s industrial design (like the funky corners and non-removable battery), but it sadly isn’t quite as svelte thanks to the spacious slide-out five row keyboard. → Read More
It seems like Tariq Krim, founder of the early ‘organise your digital life’ play that was NetVibes has been on a journey – a journey to tackling fundamental problems about our online life, like how to interface and organise it all. Seems like he just can’t let go of that idea. And the Atomico-backed Jolicloud has been an ambitious evolution of this, to create an apps-based interface to the cloud, as well as a Netbook OS, which 600,000 users responded to. But today Krim unveiled a major pivot for Jolicloud in the form of a new product which seems to bring all of that learning into a new place which very much speaks to the proliferation of social networks, photo apps and other services. → Read More
Social media analytics firm Socialbakers has acquired Social RSS, a popular feed reader app for Facebook. The deal follows on the heels of the company’s earlier acquisition of Checkfacebook.com, which was completed last month. Looks like they’re putting that $2 million they just raised to work.
The company, which says it’s already profitable, is also announcing support for the Google+ service (in addition to previously supported social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). → Read More
Hyperink, a next-generation digital book publishing platform, has raised $1.2 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, Launch Capital, Cyriac Roeding, Jack Abraham, and others.
Simply put, Hyperink, which was a graduate of Y Combinator’s Winter 2011 class, wants to disrupt the book publishing world. The startup is a digital book publishing platform and full-service agency that will help any aspiring author write, design, publish, market, and sell a book without any up-front fees. Hyperink wants to represent the long-tail of book demand. → Read More
Snip.it, a startup that lets you create and share collections of content on the web, has raised a round of funding from Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and SV Angel. While the service is still in private beta, TechCrunch readers can use the invite code ‘techcrunch_500′ here to use Snip.it.
Snip.it lets you create collections of content and opinions (called “snips”) and share them with anyone or everyone. Snip.it allows you to pull the content that matters to you in one place, add your voice to it, and discover interesting content from like-minded people. It’s sort of like bookmarking meets content collection meets self-expression meets discovery. The startup allows you to collect content from around the web, personalizing it with one’s voice, and also discovering content.
→ Read More
Google has just announced a set of new partnerships with over a dozen niche daily deal providers, which will now be integrated into the Google Offers service, both on the Web and in the Google Shopper mobile applications for iOS and Android. The new Google Offers partners include Dealfind, DoodleDeals, Gilt City, GolfNow, HomeRun, JuiceInTheCity, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, PlumDistrict, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR, and zozi.
Initially, these deals will be only available to those in the San Francisco Bay area, but this feature will soon arrive to other areas, says Google. → Read More
It has begun. Some eight hours ago, eight more members of the TechCrunch team landed in Beijing. Giddy and jetlagged, we are spending every minute between wheels down today and curtain up Monday morning working on the Hackathon, shooting videos, meeting with Chinese speakers and showing Western speakers a bit of this amazing country. Most important, we’re working with the startups competing in the Battlefield to hone their pitches for their six minutes of International glory early next week. → Read More
With the new Call of Duty game hitting shelves soon, Gunnar Optiks has released a limited edition pair of Modern Warfare 3 gaming glasses that promise to please the eyes of even the most obsessed gamers.
Well, that’s the claim, anyway. You see, Gunnar Optiks peddles special glasses meant for people who find themselves in front of screens all day. They’re said to reduce eye strain by filtering out artificial light, and their gaming-specific models are design to keep players in the game for even longer than usual. → Read More
We’ve shown you the “Leaf Grip Remote Controller” a few weeks ago, but its maker, Japanese tech company Murata, decided to wait until the CEATEC 2011 exhibition to present it to the public. The device can theoretically be used for a number of applications, but Murata is pitching it first and foremost as a remote control for TV sets.
The Leaf Grip Remote Controller lets users change channels with a twisting motion while the volume can be adjusted by bending it. Shake the device, which doesn’t require batteries to work, to turn the TV on or off. → Read More
Exclusive: Mobile advertising company 4INFO has raised an additional $14 million in funding led by Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Capital, with Mitsui Global Investment and existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Gannett, Mezzanine Capital and U.S. Venture Partners participating. This brings 4INFO’s total funding to $52 million.
Founded in 2005, 4INFO has dominated the SMS ad space, with roughly 3,000 publishers on its msgHaven platform. For those unfamiliar with their B2B product, 4INFO’s publishing platform helps publishers manage their SMS content and delivery. MsgHaven delivers around 400 million text messages each month (which has doubled in the past year).
→ Read More
Real estate is a market that’s full of inefficiencies, headaches, and price gouging. Thankfully, there are a handful of startups looking to fix it, one of which is Seattle-based Redfin.
Today the company — which has proven to be so disruptive that angry real estate professionals were harassing the startup in its earlier days — has just raised another $14.8 million for its quest to turn the industry on its head, saving both buyers and sellers money in the process.
The round was led by Globespan Capital Partners, with participation from previous investors Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Greylock Partners. This round brings Refin’s total funding to nearly $46 million (its last round was a $10 million Series D in November 2009). → Read More
We hear Radionomy, which provides a platform for creating and broadcasting online radio stations here in Europe, is out raising a $15 million round of funding with the help of French investment bank Bryan Garnier.
The financing round is expected to close later this year. → Read More
MoPub, the mobile advertising startup founded by former AdMob and Google employees, has been known as kind of a ”Doubleclick for mobile” until now. Today, the company is expanding its offerings with the launch of the MoPub Marketplace, which will serve as a virtual trading floor for mobile ads, allowing app publishers to connect with ad buyers in real-time.
→ Read More
Social discovery service Banjo, which launched its cross-platform mobile application for iPhone and Android earlier this summer, has just introduced a new way to keep track of where your friends are and what they’re doing: automatic friend alerts. Unlike the alerts you see on Foursquare, which ping you every time a friend checks in somewhere, this friend alerting feature works across social networks. And more importantly, it only bothers you when your friends are actually nearby.
→ Read More
No one knows what the future will look like, but it’s always fun to guess, right? Microsoft has an entire position dedicated to the task, titled “Director of Envisioning,” which is held by David Jones. In an interview with GeekWire, he claimed that the future holds “an expanded definition of productivity where it’s not just about getting things done. It’s also about doing the right things, and doing them well and enjoying the process with other people in a very natural way.”
And that’s just what the sequel to Microsoft’s “Office 2019” video shows.
→ Read More
Few people know failure better than venture capitalists. Even the most successful fail much more than they succeed and the best are those, like Vinod Khosla, who acknowledge that their successes are much rarer than their failures. Another venture capitalist well acquainted with failure is Peter Gardner, Managing Director of Wavepoint Ventures, a Menlo Park shop that primarily invests in software, medical technology and clean tech start-ups.
I caught up with Peter earlier this week at the engaging FailCon conference where he spoke on the Failure of Business Models panel. “We’ve had our fair share of failures,” Gardner confessed to me, stressing that one of the greatest assets of Silicon Valley was its tolerance of failure. Sharing Ron Conway’s view on failure, Gardner explained that rather than being born to succeed, great entrepreneurs are born to be able to deal with failure. → Read More
A Japanese company called Humanix [JP], in cooperation with Hiroshima University, has developed a small electric car that “wears” airbags on the body. I am not really sure if the result can be called pretty, but Humanix is claiming that (perhaps rightfully) their ”iSAVE-SC1” is the “safest electric vehicle in the world”.
The three-wheeled car offers enough room for three people and comes with inflated airbags on the front and rear, while the body is covered with tent cloth. Upon collision, the idea is that the air released from the bags will soften the impact. → Read More
