VentureBeat

Mochi Media raises $10 million for Flash-based game ad and analytics platform

Mochi Media is making a name for itself, and it’s not just because of the Puzzle Farter game alone. That’s a cute game that appears in a lot of places on the web and Mochi Media makes sure that the game’s creators get paid when it gets played.

Mochi Media has created a lucrative ad and analytics platform for Adobe Flash-based online games. The San Francisco company now runs a network of online games that... Continue Reading

From MySpace to Facebook to Flickr to LinkedIn, here’s looking at you

Rapleaf, a company that provides people-focused search services to corporate clients, spends a lot of time mining social networking data. It has just released a survey studying the social networking habits of the 49.3 million people it has information about, divided by age. Sample sites include MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr.

Here’s some of the findings, lifted directly from the survey:

- 120 million social network profiles (total) were found, with each person averaging... Continue Reading

LucasArts tees up new Star Wars titles, addresses layoffs

[Editor's note: This post introduces a new VentureBeat contributing writer, John Gaudiosi, who has over a decade covering the video game industry for a wide variety of outlets. Gaudiosi is in Los Angeles this week for previews of games being announced at the E3 show in L.A. in July.]

LOS ANGELES—LucasArts Entertainment showcased playable versions of its two big titles for 2008, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” and Day 1 Studio’s “Fracture,” at a game... Continue Reading

Roundup: New York Social Times, a cleaner MySpace, and Wii Fit underwear girl

The New York Times adds social networking: The nation’s biggest daily newspaper is embracing Web 2.0 with the launch of its new online feature: TimesPeople. This beta program allows users to build up a friends list and view a news feed for stories that their friends are recommending. It shows that newspapers aren’t just sitting back and letting the Internet wipe them out. On a personal page, a user can save all of the content... Continue Reading

Friendster’s growth in Asia could make it the top social network in the world, once again

In the current international land-grab among leading social networks, Facebook is overtaking MySpace as the largest social network in the world. But there’s a big caveat — Asia — where a much-maligned older rival, Friendster continues to lead Facebook and everyone else by at least a two to one margin. The most recent data: This past April, Friendster clocked 36 million users in Asia, versus a distant second Facebook at 18 million.
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RateItAll gets $800K to pay users for reviews

RateItAll, a site that lets users write reviews of any topic and receive a share of ad revenue for doing so, has raised $800,000 in funding.

Co-founder Lawrence Coburn describes the company as “distributed Yelp for everything,” and the site’s front page shows off a wide range of topics — the “featured lists” include reviews of Barack Obama’s potential vice presidents, mobile social networks and NBA finals players. If users write a review, they get... Continue Reading

Bazaarvoice raises $7.1 million to provide brands with consumer-generated content options

Bazaarvoice provides technology for brands to utilize consumer-generated content. Now the company will have more money to do so following its 4th round.

The service has quite a few big name clients including Dell, Petco, The Home Depot, Kmart and many others.

The $7.1 million round was participated in by Austin Ventures and Battery Ventures.

Bazaarvoice is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Arcot Systems pulls down $23 million for digital authentication

As more people handle tasks that require personal verification online, digital signatures are increasingly important.

Arcot Systems, which does digital-based signatures has raised a second round of funding. The money will no doubt be used to expand its operations in digital authentication.

The $23 million round was participated in by Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs, ONSET Ventures, Granite Ventures and Vedanta Capita.

The Sunnvale, Calif.-based Arcot Systems recently developed a token that Google can give business... Continue Reading

Nanosolar blows a raspberry at other solar CIGS startups

Thin-film solar panel maker Nanosolar isn’t shy about tooting its own horn. The heavily-funded startup has made a series of advances over the past couple years, from building one of the world’s largest solar cell factories to printing its first cells, all the while claiming that it has the best technology around.

Well, maybe the claims are true. CEO Martin Rosencheisen today unveiled a new tool made by the company,... Continue Reading

Lehigh Technologies closes “substantial” funding round for rubber recycling

Lehigh Technologies, a Naples, Florida-based rubber recycler, wrapped up what its CEO called a “substantial” funding round in March that was led by new, heavyweight investors KPCB and Index Ventures, according to VentureWire. It previously raised $18 million from NGP Energy Technology Partners and some early seed money from Gulfshore Ventures.

The funds will be used to build a new $15 million recycling plant next year, the company’s second in its 5 year history. Dennis... Continue Reading

DaCast offers peer-to-peer video streaming broadcasts

We can all watch live video broadcasts on the internet thanks to content delivery networks (CDNs), which set up strategic points online where they can send streams of videos to internet users as efficiently as possible without clogging up the entire web.

But Andolis, a San Francisco startup with French roots, hopes to disrupt that business with a product called DaCast. It uses technology that can do the same thing as CDNs much more efficiently... Continue Reading

Can YouTube become a portal for free, independent movies in the living room?

A bunch of sites and publications are writing today about YouTube’s new inclusion of long-form video and how it could revolutionize Google’s video sharing service. In reality, it’s not all that new. Over a year ago, YouTube allowed two aspiring filmmakers to place their 71-minute feature, Four Eyed Monsters, on the site. But it still could be revolutionary.

The real question to me is if YouTube, in association with various set-top boxes, can become an... Continue Reading

Hitwise: Facebook gaining on MySpace in the U.S.

This just in from web analytics firm Hitwise. Social network MySpace continues to see the most U.S. traffic — 72.73 percent share of the social networking market — but that’s a slight drop from its April traffic and a five percent drop from the previous May.

Meanwhile, the only other significantly large social network in the U.S., Facebook, grew 42 percent this May over last, seemingly at MySpace’s expense. See graph below for more. As... Continue Reading

Firefox 3: Records are made to be set

Sometimes a race horse stumbles out of the gate and it wins anyway. Such is the case with Mozilla’s Firefox 3.

Mozilla put out a lofty goal of 5 million downloads for Firefox 3 on the first day. As of noon today, the number stands at just over 8.5 million. In the United States alone, over 2.6 million people have downloaded the browser. Very, very impressive.

While attempting to set a Guinness World Record for... Continue Reading

How long will those lines be at the Apple store on iPhone 3G launch day?

Are you going to buy an iPhone 3G on July 11, launch day? If so, how long are you prepared to wait?

A bit of information that started circulating after the WWDC launch of the iPhone 3G was that AT&T and Apple would now require buyers to activate their new phones before they left the store. The thought is that this would help curb the rather large problem the companies had during the first generation... Continue Reading

Xoopit continues to supercharge Gmail with new media search as Zenbe flies solo. Who’s gonna win?

Two young web-mail startups, Zenbe and Xoopit, have set out to rewrite the rules of web-mail. They see today’s leading web-mail services as dinosaurs, mired in the bureaucratic inertia of the sluggish internet titans that control them.

And they might be right. Sure, in major overhauls last year, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL added some horsepower and storage and pulled off some elegant face-lifts. Sure, the new Gmail runs faster, supports IMAP, and offers a contact... Continue Reading

Universal Robotics gets $1.035M for automation software

A Tennessee startup called Universal Robotics has raised $1.035 million in a first round of funding, according to a regulatory filing.

The company plans to release its first product — software dubbed Neocortex that will automate industrial robots and forklifts — in 2009, with more automation software to come. Universal Robotics was founded by three brothers, David, Alan and Jon Peters. Alan Peters, the the company’s chief technical officer, is also an Associate Professor of... Continue Reading

Biomimedica raises $2.4 million for joint repairs

Biomimedica has raised $2.4 million in a first round for its joint-repair business.

VentureWire reported that Emergent Medical Ventures led the round. Other investors include Asset Management Co. and Life Science Angels.

Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Biomimedica was started earlier this year. The company is developing a synthetic cartilage called Cartigel for joint repair.

Cortina Systems buys Storm Semiconductor

Cortina Systems has bought Storm Semiconductor to expand into home networking products. The price of the deal was not disclosed.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Storm Semiconductor makes chips for moving video and other data around the home. The company previously raised venture capital from three Taiwanese venture firms: TSC Venture Management, Birch Venture Capital and Faraday Technology Corp.

Cortina has now acquired three companies. Last year it bought ImmenStar and before that it paid $115 million... Continue Reading