So, we have launched video comments on TechCrunch UK & Ireland, integrated with Seesmic. I’m going to test this out now. Feel free to have a go yourself… → Read More

The Angel-backed, social decision-making tool, Skimbit has won agreement with widget distribution network Gigya to include Skimbit in their Wildfire tool. UK-based Skimbit says it is also in talks with AddThis, the bookmarking and sharing tool. The Addthis button currently appears 20 billion times per month, but Skimbit would potentially be the first social decision-making tool in its network. → Read More

An ‘enterprise 2.0′ price war is looming as the UK’s Huddle starts to creep up on the incumbent in the space, Basecamp. The former says it is “growing like crazy”, adding 50% more users in the last month, while the latter recently dropped its prices to remain competitive. However, at $24-$149 a month, Basecamp remains pricier than Huddle’s $20 to $100 a month… → Read More

The BBC has quietly joined the OpenID Foundation, announcing the move on its BBC Internet blog. The BBC is the first large media company to join the foundation. Microsoft, Verisign, Google and IBM joined in February. Google,Yahoo, Digg, Technorati, AOL, Plaxo and WikiPedia have previously announced their intention to support the standard, seen as an easy way for users to use a single digital… → Read More

HubDub, a fantasy league for designed to monetise news content better for publishers (review), has introduced the ability for users to challenge their friends in making predictions. Here’s how it works: A user sends a challenge to a friend to make a prediction on a particular question. Their friend then gets an email and whenever they complete the challenge they compete on their own… → Read More

DotHomes, the UK-based real estate search engine which now covers the US, UK and South Africa, says it has doubled its number of nationwide real estate listings in the US, bringing its database up to two million residential properties for sale and rent. By contrast, Yahoo Real Estate, Roost, Trulia and Zillow (and others) get feeds from brokers and MLS services in the US. But DotHomes reckons it… → Read More

Making social networks work inside companies is a difficult nut to crack. Who wants to update their status all the time to tell everyone what they are working on? BEA Systems launched a social network for enterprise platform recently and Oracle’s AppsLab is working on a social network internally. But much of the intelligence in the system requires users to tag things manually. So Trampoline… → Read More

Note: Please see update below. It’s just morning here in SF so I have just seen this post. The below is my initial response, but I have to go offline imminently (I am in San Francisco on the trip in question) so I’m just rattling this off now…. I think it’s rather strange of Carsonified’s Ryan Carson to go “attack dog” now when he could have called any one… → Read More

So day two of WebMission began with plenty of recovery time following the previous evening’s partying, which took in the tad pricey Clift Hotel bar, and the Slide and Le Colonial clubs. I gather. I of course turned in with a nice cup of cocoa. In the morning the WebMission crew jumped on a bus and headed over to the rather nice house belonging to Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist who very… → Read More

Smart-up, a great blog about Central and Eastern European startups has been covering the TMT.Ventures’08 conference in Kiev. It sounds like a fascinating event. Blogger Michal Faber has also shot some video of the presenting VCs which includes the London-based Greg Marsh, of Index Ventures and Sean Seton-Rogers of Benchmark Capital, below. → Read More

So, the WebMission trip to take 20 startups to visit Silicon Valley got off to a flying start. All 29 of our party turned up on time for the flight, which took off on time as planned. Astounding. The ten hour flight to San Francisco was notable only for the vaguely 1970s feel of the 747, helped by those overhead TV screens which have seen better days. But moving around to avoid deep vein… → Read More

UK-based small business software startup Business IT Online has released an improved import feature to complement Plaxo’s import widget, enabling premium members to import any CSV file with contact information (including header row or not) into contacts list. They previously offered the service, but it was limited.The startup offers integrated online business software for small businesses… → Read More

Here’s a rag-tag rundown of UK/Irish/Europe events related to startups and Web 2 that might be worth checking out. Feel free to pimp more in the comments. For a previous list which has even more upcoming events in April/May/June etc see here. The picture was taken at the recent DrinkTank event in London, which put a lot of startups and potential investors in one room. Over drinks… → Read More

From Saturday through to Friday next week I’ll be accompanying 20 UK startups on a trade mission to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, dubbed Web Mission 08. We’ll also be taking in a bit of Web 2 Expo. Here’s a list of the 20 startups going (add WebJam, a last minute entrant) and here’s the schedule. In particular we’ll be having drinks (you’ll have to buy you… → Read More

When Facebook was created I daresay the last thing on Mark Zuckerburg’s mind was the idea that one day it would be used to fight crime. But that’s what’s happening, at least in Manchester, UK. It seems Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has twigged to the idea that Facebook is as much a distribution platform as breaking items on the evening news. So their new Facebook application… → Read More

Admittedly, asking who should be the next director of future media and technology for the BBC in an online poll was a slightly flippant move. However, the results are kind’ve interesting – even though they probably say more about the TechCrunch audience than anything else. So the winner is Ian Forrester of BBC Backstage who has a sizable Geek following (perhaps accounting for his… → Read More

In an expected move, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading has greenlighted the merger of LoveFilm and Amazon’s UK rental operations, giving the merged entity control of about 90% of the online DVD market. It also bring in the and German DVD business. The OFT said LoveFilm had no incentive to degrade its service as there is plenty of competition in the video market, especially from emerging… → Read More

It turns out that Cuill, a stealth search engine company which just raised $25 million in a Series B round (taking its pot to an estimated $38 million), was founded by Tom Costello from Louth on Ireland’s east coast (says PaidContentUK). He started the company with his wife Anna Patterson, ex of Google. The company is based in Menlo Park in Silicon Valley. Cuill claims to be able to index the… → Read More

UK-based Truphone, a VoIP service provider for mobile phones, has announced a £16.5 million ($32.7 million) Series B round of financing, adding to the £12.5 million ($24.5 million) raised a year ago. The round was led by private investors, with all of Truphone’s existing backers – Burda Digital Ventures, Eden Ventures, Independent News & Media and Wellington Partners –… → Read More

Ok, so I have taken the bait, but I am slightly stunned by today’s “PR masquerading as a legitimate survey” from Infosecurity Europe that says women are four times more likely than men to give out their passwords in exchange for chocolate. Now, let’s try to not go into the whole caricatured, stupid “debate” about women supposedly doing anything for chocolate. → Read More

London-based venture capitalist Paul Fisher today blogs (partly in response to my tweet) that TheFunded, a largely US site which rates VCs on their performance, will ultimately be as tough for entrepreneurs as for VCs. He contends that entrepreneurs will “read the funded.com and either believe it to be truly representative or treat it as proper advice. This is very far away from the wisdom… → Read More

Vipera is a new mobile social network with a twist – it’s aimed at people in developing countries. That makes a great deal of makes sense. We are talking about places where to say “Facebook” would make people think of a book with faces in it, not a social network. But ask them about a mobile phone, and they will show you a charging point. Vipera, in beta, employs a… → Read More

Dopplr has quietly added content from Mr & Mrs Smith, the boutique and luxury hotel guide, to help users find hotels as they travel. As users create trips on the site they’ll see content from Mr & Mrs Smith’s site on high-quality lodging and “quirky city boutique hotels”. It looks like it’ll be right up the Dopplrati’s street. Here’s the write-up… → Read More

Following the heated debate surrounding my post about how the BBC should now pick a head who can open up the corporation’s massive platform to outside developers and startups, I’ve decided to run a poll listing a very wide field of internal candidates (since we don’t know who will apply from outside as yet). So get voting! Who should be the next director of future media and… → Read More

As per its long-term game-plan, TheFilter, a music recommendation service backed by Genesis founder Peter Gabriel, is adding film and web video recommendations via a private beta for existing users of the service (get an invite via TechCrunch). The existing Filter application works on Mac, PC and Nokia mobiles. TheFilter currently operates most in Europe as a music discovery service and is run by… → Read More

Scotland-based games company Realtime Worlds has raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Maverick Capital and existing investors New Enterprise Associates and WPP also participated. TechCrunch broke the story in March. That’s a lot for a games company. Admittedly Realtime has an exclusive partnership with Microsoft Game Studios and its first title, Crackdown for Xbox 360 in early 2007… → Read More

RecommendBox, the new UK startups built around recommendations instead of reviews, has secured angel funding from Brendan McLoughin, the co-founder and CEO of Fubra, who joins the team as a non-executive director. The amount was not disclosed but is believed to be in the five-figure range. McLoughin, according to his blog, considers his stake a “conservative” investment compared to… → Read More

As Ashley Highfield leaves the post of the BBC’s director of future media and technology to head up Project Kangaroo (the joint online video platform for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4) one wonders what a startup – or even several startups – could do with the £400m budget he controlled at the BBC. Highfield had a £131 million to digitise the BBC’s production and multiplatform… → Read More

AlertThingy, the Adobe AIR desktop application for FriendFeed that TechCrunch previewed last month, has just launched. It was created by UK strategy/development house Howard/Baines, better known for building the platform for the ill-fated BlogNation, and corporate sites for the likes of Faber Music and Reuters. TechCrunch US has the story on AlertThingy, one of the first applications built on the… → Read More