Creating a ‘Facebook for spies’
The CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency are reportedly testing a social-networking site designed for use by analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.Only 40% Of Web Video Is Smut, Advertising
We know porn helps drive adoption of many new technologies. But as video delivered over the Web takes off, how much of that is attributable to smut? Difficult to say; companies on all ends of the value chain benefit from the traffic but don't like to talk about it.
But here's a clue: each month, comScore and Nielsen estimate the size of the U.S. web video market. They have vastly different methodologies, but both the biggest difference is one of philosophy: Nielsen's VideoCensus excludes porn and advertising, while comScore includes all video.
That's one reason comScore's numbers are consistently 30% to 40% higher than Nielsen's. In June, for example, Nielsen measured 7.5 billion unique video streams in the U.S.; comScore had 10.8 billion streams. The difference: 44%, which seems as good a ballpark figure as any.
It also helps explain how YouTube can have a dominating 51% market share in one estimate (Nielsen -- no porn and ads) and 39% share in another (comScore -- everything).
Of course, deciding what's porn -- or what's advertising, for that matter -- isn't easy. Nielsen and comScore would both have counted the 2.8 million YouTube views for this porn parody from These People. And is "Cherry Chocolate Rain," the viral promotional video that Tay Zonday shot for Dr. Pepper -- which has been watched some 5.8 million times on YouTube -- counted as an ad?
See Also:
YouTube Crackdown On Sexy Videos Sweeps Up Illumistream
The Porn Business Goes Public
Google: Louisville, KY Is The Most Obscene City In The U.S.
Meet YouPorn: The X-Rated YouTube
Playboy Searches YouTube For Naked Ladies: Viewers Yawn.
Google’s Android GPhone Already a Flop
Google's forthcoming GPhone is critical to helping Google unlock the dreamy $50 billion market for mobile advertising that Eric Schmidt keeps talking about. It's critical to proving that Google can be successful at something besides search. It's critical to re-inflating Google's droopy stock price. And it's finally almost here!
Are critics and analysts waiting breathless on the edge of their seats? No, says the FT's Richard Waters. Why? Because they've already panned it.
When the first of Google's long-anticipated Android mobile phones hit the stores in a matter of weeks, they will land with a fizzle rather than a bang.
That is the overwhelming verdict of internet developers and mobile industry executives who have closely followed Google's progress and, in some cases, worked with early versions...
For Google, comparisons with Apple are turning out to be both inevitable and damning. If the iPhone has been a text-book case of how to develop and market a new consumer electronics product, Android is the opposite, according to industry experts. 'It ain't no iPhone,' said John Jackson, an analyst at Yankee Group, echoing a widely held view.
Disparagement of Android has touched on everything from an alleged lack of sophistication and stability in the software, to the fact that successful devices such as the iPhone and the BlackBerry are based on a different technology model. 'The best experiences out there today are vertical' experiences, where the hardware and software come from the same company,' said Tom Conrad, chief technology officer of Pandora, whose internet music service is one of the most popular applications on the iPhone.
More important, according to some critics, has been Google's lack of clear consumer focus, in marked contrast to Apple, whose iPhone was designed and marketed to meet very specific needs.
See Also: Google Still Dreaming of a $50 Billion Mobile Ad Market
No ChaChing For ChaCha Guides
ChaCha used to be a ridiculous human powered web based search engine that’s best use appeared to be for killing time when bored.
They raised a boatload of money from Jeff Bezos and others and eventually switched to an all-mobile interface. They also began offering their platform to third party marketers.
But now there are indications that the company is having cash flow issues, even after a recent pay cut to guides. As before, the information is coming from their poorly-paid and poorly-treated human guides.
Employees are simply not being paid, says one guide, asking to remain anonymous. And he sends several screen shots of ChaCha’s internal forum for guides, which show dozens of complaints about slow or non-existent payouts. A selection of comments:
I have been with ChaCha since the end of July and still haven’t gotten paid. I’m not even getting the runaround because I’m not getting a response from anyone…I have kids to feed and need to be paid. I’m not even tripping about the cut in pay…
I became a guide on August 6. I submitted my paperwork that day and then faxed my signature card on August 18. I heard nothing. I email FIB on August 28 and they wanted utility bills as I have a P.O. On the 28th of August I emailed them again as I had heard nothing. I still have no account!
ChaCha doesn’t seem to care about taking care of their Guides, which is really sad. It’s only due to our work, they are able to grow and make money. You think ChaCha would take better care of us. It’s pathetic to see them spend so much time on stupid hot minute contests and such things, while they don’t take a single second out to help us guides who are long past getting paid what we worked hard to earn.
For the love of God. It’s been 5 weeks and no pay me now button. No response, no anything. What’s going on here? I want my money. Can I get any help at all?
I have been waiting an extremely long time for them to get back to me over my earnings which I WANT NOW! And I am thinking about small claims because I contacted them MORE THAN enough times for them to respond, and gave them soo much time.
The comments go on. The guide who sent them to us also says the complaints are being deleted from the forum almost as fast as he can take screen shots.
I’ve emailed ChaCha for a comment.
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Everyone Needs To Calm Down
I haven’t had a lot of time to jump into the fracas this weekend emerging about TechCrunch50 because the team has been busy organizing the conference, working with the Expert Panelists on scheduling issues and spending hours and hours working with the 52 startups that will be launching at the event to make sure their demos properly reflect what they’ve worked so hard to create.
But I do have a few things to say.
First, thanks to Chris O’Brien at the San Jose Mercury News who wrote such a great article on TechCrunch and the conference. What a wonderful, positive way to kick things off as we go into the craziness on Monday. He really gets what we’re trying to accomplish and how honored we are that these startups have chosen to launch at our event.
Second, some of the press out there is starting to go a little crazy with the drama between TechCrunch50 and the competing DEMO conference. But there’s nothing new here. We’ve stated from the beginning, in early 2007, that we think the DEMO format is unethical. If you are going to parade out a bunch of startups on a stage that paid you $18,500 each, you simply can’t say they’re the most qualified companies to be at the event. It’s just a lie. Here’s what they are: Sponsors. And here’s what’s going on: Payola.
We’re approaching the market in a straightforward and honest way. We aren’t charging companies to get on stage. We are charging people to attend. And we also have sponsors (really kick ass sponsors who get what we are trying to do). All of the economics are transparent, there is nothing hidden.
That honesty is why 1,700 have chosen to attend the event. That honesty is why these great industry leaders are spending their time to judge and discuss the launches. And that honesty is why over 1,000 startups spent time applying to the event and going through endless rounds of interviews for the chance to get on stage (thank you to every one of you who applied).
Most of the press gets this, even though DEMO organizer Chris Shipley sounds like she’s about to blow a fuse over the fact that their business model is finally being questioned.
Third, CNET really needs to chill out about press coverage of the event. This $1.8 billion company has published at least four articles complaining about the fact that we are not disclosing the companies launching at the event until Monday morning, and/or about the fact that TechCrunch the blog has some sort of unfair advantage in covering these startups launching at TechCrunch50.
We aren’t disclosing the names of the startups because we want the press to actually attend the event, not cover it from their office. We want them to hear the ooh’s and ahh’s (and maybe boo’s) from the audience first hand as they write their stories. We want them to actually participate. And based on last year’s coverage, the model works very well. I’m sorry if it doesn’t suit CNET, but it suits us and it suits the startups launching there very well. And when it comes to TechCrunch’s coverage, we’ll be sure to link out to all the quality third party coverage out there. Also, we’ll have critical company information on each launching startup available on CrunchBase starting Monday morning. CNET and everyone else is free to grab that data and use it however they like, with no requirement of attribution (it’s not our data, it’s the startups’ data).
Finally, Can we please remember what’s important? There are 52 companies launching at TechCrunch50 this week, and they deserve their brief moments in the spotlight. These people have put their hearts and souls into creating whatever it is that their entrepreneurial spirit compelled them to create, and they only get to launch once. We’re putting on one hell of a show for them, and my sincere hope is that we can get all this political garbage out of the way today so that we can focus on what really matters at the event: the startups.
If you want to focus on the news at the event as it unfolds, complete coverage of the conference from start to finish will be at this link and on the TechCrunch50 blog.
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Google-focused satellite enters orbit
The search titan has exclusive rights among online mapping sites to images from the new GeoEye-1 satellite, which launched Saturday.Google-focused satellite enters orbit
The search titan has exclusive rights among online mapping sites to images from the new GeoEye-1 satellite, which launched Saturday.In NFL deal, an extra point for Adobe’s Flash
Football fans will get to see live streaming of NBC's Sunday night games via Flash--not NBC's Olympic teammate, Silverlight.Family Tree Wars Continue: MyHeritage Raises Big Round, Shows Impressive Growth
It’s been just a few days after our post on Geni’s big growth numbers - and now big news from Israeli competitor MyHeritage.
The site has grown from 180 million profiles a year ago to 260 million today, they say. Registered users have also grown, from 17 million to 25 million. Compare that to 680,000 profiles and 40,000 users almost 2 million users for Geni. 230 million photos have been uploaded to the site, which is available in 25 languages and has 5 million monthly unique visitors. Support for ten more language will be released this month.
Investors have certainly noticed MyHeritage’s stellar growth. The company has raised a new round of funding - $15 million in a Series D round led by Index Ventures and joined by current investor Accel Partners. That brings their total capital raised to $24 million.
New Features - Recognize Those Faces
MyHeritage’s facial recognition, which works a little like recent Picasa enhancements, lets you train the service by tagging a few photos of an individual. MyHeritage then starts to auto-tag other photos that you upload of that person, too. Users don’t have to upload photos directly, either. They can sync from Picasa, Flickr, Facebook, etc. And once the photos are properly tagged with people’s names, MyHeritage will re-sync them back to the original services.
Just to reiterate that, MyHeritage has created a heck of a tool to let users auto-tag photos with people’s names on the services they already use.
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