mEgo, a startup that lets you create a portable Flash-based avatar that includes aggregated content from your social network profiles, has closed a $2.5 million funding round. The site has also announced that it has reached its 1 millionth registered user since launching at 2007′s TechCrunch40 conference, with a 20% growth rate month over month.
mEgo’s widgets allow users to import information from sites like Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter, which are then presented alongside customizable avatars (you can see an example below). Each source of information can be associated with a different button on the widget that users can place themselves. For example, in the widget below music buttons are positioned on the avatar’s ears and display the user’s Last.fm profile when clicked. mEgo widgets can be placed on blogs and most social networks, and see around 30 million impressions per month. → Read More
Well this was inevitable I guess. mEgo has been booted out of the DEMO conference. The reason? They showed their stuff at TechCrunch40 last week. Our coverage of them is here. That’s a bit rough on the company, since many of the presenting startups at DEMO are already launched and have tons of press out there about them. In this case, mEgo may have simply been the sacrificial lamb in DEMO’s desire to prove a point. The worst part about the whole ordeal is that mEgo has been told they won’t get the $18,000 back that they paid to participate in DEMO. mEgo says that while DEMO has the right to kick them out of the conference, they don’t have the right to keep the $18k under the contract. Frankly, this is probably good news for mEgo, who’ll now get far more attention than they would have if they had actually gotten on stage. But it’s also a warning to other startups: Don’t screw with DEMO – they hit back. Just an aside – mEgo was one of my personal favorites at TechCrunch40. Make sure to check out the service. → Read More
We’re live blogging each session, adding to the summary of each company direct from the floor of TechCrunch 40. Click Refresh to view. XRT3D XTR3D develops software that lets users interact with computers and gaming consoles using 3D human motions. Their real-time software analyzes 3D human motions using only one simple web cam. It will allow users to play games and interact in virtual worlds using natural human motions instead of keyboards, mouses and joysticks. They refer to their technology as a “3D Human Machine Interface” mouse movements in the air via a web cam…pretty damn cool. Demo includes moving around Google Earth by hand movements. As can be used for virtual worlds, games. Demo includes boxing, works well. Definitely one of the best product/ presentations of the conference. More at CrunchGear here. BroadClip BroadClip’s MediaCatcher for Facebook offers a way to search and listen to DRM-free music that is optimized to deliver music to portable media players such as iPods and cell phones. All users have to do is “clip” streaming music and they can transfer the recording to their portable media player in a legal way similar to other “time-shifting” technologies like TiVo, VCRs and tape recorders.Bizarre Star Wars demo…WTF? one line was this is very bad…he’s right, a shame thoough, I like the idea, even if the copyright side is a big question mark…they claim it’s legal yet the RIAA was demanding that webcasters put stream rip blocking software into place as part of the royalty negotiations…Broadclip is a easy to use stream ripping service.No one on stage…some sort of streamed presentation, not sure if they are even in the building. Sorry to be negative, but it’s not a good effect. mEgo mEgo lets users create personalized avatars that carry their online network aggregation profiles and can be integrated into users’ blogs, social networks, websites, and IM clients. The online profiles display user-picked content like profile details, videos, photos, feeds, and widgets. A couple of giggling chicks…Jason Calacanis notes that it’s great to have someone on the stage presenting. Tag team with the presentation which works well. Interactive widget, sample is shown in Facebook. Lots of features, provides social aggregation including pulling in RSS, Twitter etc.. can be any size as is vector based. Site will be live as at 4pm Wixi Wixi is a media focused social network where users interact with each other by privately → Read More
