Facebook begins testing ad-driven polls
Facebook is testing a new form of advertising: Polls. Advertisers can run a poll on a member’s home page, and when a user answers a poll question — like “which team will win [the Super Bowl] this weekend” — they can see how this member’s Facebook friends and other people have voted.
The poll ads will begin running for CareerBuilder.com as part of a larger online and offline Super Bowl advertising campaign. Facebook says it … Continue Reading
Talari Networks raises $6.2 million for more efficient networking gear
Talari Networks has raised $6.2 million to fund further development of it enterprise wide area networking (WAN) gear. The San Jose, Calif.-based company will use the money to expand its research and development operations in Raleigh, N.C.
Menlo Ventures led the round and angel investors participated. The company tries to bring low-cost consumer internet technology to businesses, helping to lower bandwidth costs by 40 to 90 percent.
It has installed equipment for customers such as … Continue Reading
BrightView picks up $6M for improved solar manufacturing
BrightView, a solar tech firm that hopes to improve the production of photovoltaic solar cells, has raised $6 million in a first round of funding. (The company is not to be confused with BrightView Technologies, an optics company in North Carolina.)
Rather than manufacturing its own cells, BrightView plans to work with other companies to optimize its manufacturing and lower costs. Due to its proximity to Europe, the company plans to work there; one of … Continue Reading
A demo of Flower: The most inspired game for the PlayStation 3
Imagine the wackiest premise for a video game possible, and you probably still won’t come up with anything as crazy — or inspired — as Flower.
The PlayStation 3 game created by thatgamecompany for Sony’s PlayStation Network opens with a view of six flower pots overlooking a dank urban landscape. The flowers are sentient beings that have dreams. And inside their dreams, you play the role of a “consciousness” that takes its shape in the … Continue Reading
Mozilla to fund open-source web video tech development
Firefox browser-maker Mozilla is pushing a new set of video technologies that won’t require users to install software plugins, while offering developers lower costs and greater flexibility. The nonprofit is pledging $100,000 in grant money for third-parties who are building for an open-source video encoding technology called Theora. Mozilla already supports Theora in the 3.1 version of Firefox it is working on in beta now, along with open-source multimedia container software Ogg and open-source audio … Continue Reading
Apple and Palm continue the high stakes game of patent hold 'em
When Palm unveiled the Pre at CES a few weeks ago, it may not have been so obvious to casual onlookers, but it was taking a seat at a high stakes game where there is only one other player so far: Apple. You see, since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, no other company has released a mobile device that uses multi-touch — not even HTC with its G1, the first Google Android phone, … Continue Reading
Notebooks now make up over 70 percent of Mac sales
Four years ago, sales of desktop machines made up 60 percent of Apple’s computer sales, while notebooks made up 40 percent. Not only have those numbers now reversed, they’ve skyrocketed in the direction of the notebook for Apple. In its most recently quarter, Apple reported that its notebooks constituted some 71 percent of all Mac sales, while desktops made up just 29 percent, The Industry Standard notes today.
To be fair, sales of Apple’s notebook … Continue Reading
Coulomb vies with Better Place to build electric car charging stations
The field of companies looking to establish networks of electric vehicle charging stations has become quite the horse race. And a relatively recent addition, Coulomb Technologies, has taken on reigning Silicon Valley firm Better Place with a new, grassroots business strategy targeting gas stations, government agencies and shopping centers.
Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb is in the spotlight today, having raised $3.75 million in a first round of funding from German backer Estag Capital — a round … Continue Reading
The "secret" behind Hulu in a Super Bowl ad?
Video site Hulu sent an email out today telling people to watch Super Bowl XLIII (that’s 43 for you non-Romans) for the launch of Hulu’s ad campaign. That, in and of itself, is somewhat interesting because the video site backed by two television studios (NBC and Fox) is spending millions of dollars (or rather losing millions of dollars since NBC is airing the Super Bowl) to promote a medium that may ultimately kill television as … Continue Reading
Netflix Q4: Cheap DVDs are recession-proof
Online movie rental service Netflix just announced that profits rose 45 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008. Looks like consumers feeling the economic pinch aren’t having any trouble digging up $5 to $17 for their monthly Netflix subscriptions. The downturn makes Netflix seem particularly affordable compared to buying DVDs or heading to movie theaters.
The Los Gatos, Calif. company earned profits of $22.7 million, or 38 cents per share, during Q4, compared to $15.7 … Continue Reading
Independent Games Festival to pick the best of indie mobile games
For those interested in funding game startups, the list of nominees at the Independent Games Festival is always a good place to look for prospects. One of last year’s winners was The World of Goo, developed by 2DBoy, which went on to become a major hit for 2008. This year, there’s a mobile competition, dubbed 2009 IGF Mobile, for which the nominees were named today.
The winners will be announced during the Game Developers Conference … Continue Reading
Spotted in the wild — the Google Web Drive?
Hints continue to surface that Google may be gearing up for the launch of an online storage system, which could be known as “Web Drive.” Another reference was found today in a cascading style sheet (CSS) file for Google Apps. In it, is an icon (right) for a mini “webdrive,” notes Google Operating System.
Now, one of these references by itself may have meant nothing — after all, a web drive icon could simply be … Continue Reading
fbFund winner Weddingbook elopes with The Knot
Wedding media conglomerate The Knot has bought Wedsnap for an undisclosed amount. Wedsnap is the creator of a popular Facebook wedding-planner app called Weddingbook — an app that I don’t plan on using for at least a few years, although some 450,000 other Facebook users do a month. It lets you post a “wedding profile,” complete with a guest-list feature that lets you invite Facebook friends to your wedding (and so the app), a guestbook … Continue Reading
Active Network acquires online campsite booker ReserveAmerica
The Active Network, a network of sites targeting athletic and active-lifestyle users, announced today that it’s buying ReserveAmerica, an online service for booking campground space across the U.S., for an undisclosed amount.
It was formerly a subsidiary of IAC, a conglomerate of interactive web-based businesses (including CollegeHumor, Vimeo and eVite), which agreed to hand over 100 percent of its stock in Reserve America Holdings in exchange for 3.5 million shares of convertible preferred stock in … Continue Reading
New Internet Explorer 8 accelerates browsing
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, the latest version of the most commonly used web browser in the world, has left beta testing and is now available as “Release Candidate 1.” This isn’t the final release version per se, but it’s close enough that reviewers and users can really start kicking the tires and forming early judgments. I’d participate in that process too, except that IE8 isn’t available for Macs.
At the very least, I can say … Continue Reading
Roundup: Zune prunes, tech gets part of the stimulus, Sprint cuts a lot of jobs and more
Here’s the latest action:
Zune prunes — Microsoft’s Zune portable media player saw its revenue decrease by over $100 million, or 54 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Microsoft blames price cuts on the 30 gig model (you know, the one that had the massive failure) as well as a shrinking MP3 player market. Funny, iPod sales still went up during the same time period. mocoNews has more.
Yes. We (The tech industry). Can. … Continue Reading
Nolan Bushnell bets on raffle-gaming firm GameWager
GameWager is an online games site where you can play against others for a chance to win prizes. And one game icon who’s betting on it is Nolan Bushnell, the father of video games, who’s an executive advisor to the Austin, Texas-based company.
It’s not a strict gambling site like the old Ultimate Arena game, which faced regulatory hurdles. Rather, you can log into the site and play your own multiplayer PC combat games such … Continue Reading
DLD Conference: Europe and U.S. executives debate economy, politics
I’m here at the DLD conference in Munich, Germany, which has become one of the high-end meetups for the European business crowd — and I’m prowling for stories, which I’ll share if I get them.
DLD stands for “Digital, Life, Design.” The conference focuses on those themes and how they’re shaping our world today. It’s organized by giant European publisher Burda.
Here’s my observation so far: US attendees tend to be more obsessed about the … Continue Reading
Talend scores $12M for open-source data integration
Talend, maker of open-source data integration software, announced that it brought in $12 million in a third round of funding from Balderton Capital and AGF Private Equity to continue to scale its market presence around the world, especially in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the South Pacific region.
The Los Altos, Calif. company says its flagship product, Talend Open Studio, has a client base of 400 and is already used by big-name … Continue Reading
Awareness launches "best practice" templates for social marketing
“Social media marketing” is one of those catchphrases that sets off every right-thinking person’s jargon alarm, but the concept of engaging customers directly and interactively is becoming increasingly important to brand survival. Dave Carter, founder and chief technology officer of a marketing company called Awareness, says the strategy may even benefit from the economic downturn, since it’s faster, cheaper and more engaging than a traditional ad campaign. Now, Awareness wants to make social media campaigns … Continue Reading
