Host Analytics gets funds for financial management software
Host Analytics, a Redwood City, Calif.-based maker of financial performance management software, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding to expand its product portfolio and to strengthen its marketing efforts. Advanced Technology Partners, Trident Capital and StarVest Partners participated in the round.
The company says it already has 8,000 paying customers. Its current products are designed to help executives streamline their budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting processes. They also help companies measure employee performance.… Continue Reading
Latest list of Top 50 Twitterers is as wrong as the others
After two weeks at VentureBeat, I’ve finally made the very bottom of the latest blogger A-list. Too bad BTS411 editor Tom Blue’s Top Bloggers/Twitter Users/Authors for Traffic chart doesn’t make me feel statistically relevant. Here’s why:
Blue’s list is restricted to “bloggers/writers/Twitter users that regularly discuss Web startups and profile them.” That’s a mere tidal pool next to the big sea of the Internet. If you run or invest in a startup, your PR contractor
Google Android phones ready to invade Asia — with a stylus
Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Google’s mobile phone system Android, has emerged from relative silence with a CNET interview entitled “Android a ‘revolution,’” which reads like the speech of a victor.
Rubin’s confidence comes coincidentally just as VentureBeat learns that John Lagerling, Google’s head of mobile in Japan, has left the company. He’s left to become vice president and general manager of Japan for Admob, a mobile advertising company.
Rubin has been relatively silent over … Continue Reading
Google Suggest delivers speed, speed and speed
Google users can now try new changes to the search engine’s auto-completion of search terms.
The changes were announced in detail late yesterday on the company’s official blog. Unlike many websites, Google’s engineers have proven yet again that interactive Web content can be made both better and faster. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
To see the new suggestion features, which the company calls Google Suggest, type “venturebea” into Google. The popup auto-suggest panel will now … Continue Reading
Dave Matthews Band to stream Hulu's first live concert
Hulu is taking its first serious step toward expanding from video clips of already-aired TV shows to live webcasts of entertainment events.
Yesterday VentureBeat broke the story that iPhone app maker Tapulous was releasing a Dave Matthews Band version of its highly popular iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge. Today the band’s announcing that it will perform in free online video service Hulu‘s first live entertainment feature since Hulu webcast the New Year’s Eve ball drop … Continue Reading
Former Rockstar developers form 4mm Games startup
Jamie King and Gary Foreman, co-founders of Rockstar, the maker of the Grand Theft Auto series of games, have launched a new game studio, 4mm Games, to focus on making web-based video games.
The New York-based team has a bunch of talent and is funded by investment firm CEA Autumn Games.
King will be president, while Foreman is chief technology officer. Chief executive is Nicholas Perrett, former general manager of face-animation firm Image Metrics. Paul … Continue Reading
Roundup: YouTube must pay songwriters, Queen Rania loves Twitter, and more
Here’s the latest action:
YouTube ordered to pay $1.6M to US songwriters — The fees are only temporary as YouTube and the ASCAP songwriters association go to court to reach a more long-term settlement.
Queen Rania of Jordan believes Twitter can change the world — TechCrunch has a full interview.
Project Playlist buys Total Music — However, Total Music still hasn’t resolved its lawsuits from Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.
Air-filled battery
Twofish adds new tools for measuring the economics of social games
As companies implement virtual goods on applications in Facebook and other social networks, they need better tools for analyzing how people are buying and selling these goods and how to make more money.
Today, Twofish is offering these companies a set of e-commerce analytics services, called EasyElements, that can be integrated into Google Analytics or into its more comprehensive Elements analytics program. It may help them make more money from their users.
Virtual economies are … Continue Reading
Intuit GoPayment lets you process credit cards on your phone
Want to process a credit card payment on your smartphone? There’s an app for that.
Okay, to be more specific, there are actually several apps for that: There’s Credit Card Terminal from developer InnerFence. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is working on something similar. Now financial software maker Intuit is introducing its own offering, called Intuit GoPayment.
GoPayment can be used on any phone with with a mobile web browser — customers just enter their credit … Continue Reading
Tapulous churns out Tap Tap Revenge Dave Matthews Band iPhone game
It’s time to get out your tapping finger again, as Tapulous has just released Tap Tap Revenge Dave Matthews Band game for the iPhone.
You may not care about this game. But there are a ton of iPhone users who probably do. And it’s interesting to watch Tapulous and how it manages the iPhone’s first bonafide mega-hit entertainment property. The company has a killer game on its hands, and it’s milking it for all it’s … Continue Reading
American Idol and crowdsourcing: Can 100 million votes come up with the wrong winner?
TV show American Idol came to a conclusion tonight with an upset result. (Spoiler alert) Adam Lambert, the screaming rocker whose voice range had no limit, went down in defeat to the folksy but cute Kris Allen. In my house, jaws fell open. Entertainment Weekly was so sure that Lambert was going to win that they put him on the cover last week.
Clearly the voting system doesn’t work (indeed, how can I possibly have … Continue Reading
Yahoo adds voice search for iPhone, and it works . . . kind of
Yahoo’s oneSearch voice search feature for mobile phones, which I’ve been test-driving on my BlackBerry, is now available in the company’s free iPhone app, too. It works surprisingly well for the specific use cases on which Yahoo focused. It’s targeted at travelers searching for flight numbers, locations, Web site names, and local restaurants or businesses.
For now, the app handles your speech as input, but doesn’t talk back to you. It displays search results onscreen, … Continue Reading
Game industry trade group fights to protect violent games, readies for big show
Mike Gallagher, who runs the video game industry trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, has to worry about a lot of things as the big game trade show, E3, approaches in a couple of weeks. Among them is a legal battle with the Terminator himself.
As head of the ESA, Gallagher is at odds with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over a legal battle concerning violent video games that could be headed to the U.S. Supreme … Continue Reading
SolarWinds ends the long, IPO-less nightmare for venture-backed companies
SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas-based maker of network management technology, has ended a nine-month stretch where the market saw zero public offerings from venture-backed companies. The company just finished its first day of trading as SWI on the New York Stock Exchange, and while that probably won’t (and shouldn’t) end all the wailing about the IPO market, at least it shows that the door isn’t closed completely.
In the IPO last night, SolarWinds and its investors … Continue Reading
Hi5's latest virtual moves: Another games deal, flirting and ad-blocking services
Hi5 is in the middle of a big transition. It’s trying to be more of a “social entertainment site” and less of a social network. Part of that means more games for its gaming section — yesterday, it announced a deal with Playdom, a company that builds gaming applications for social networks, following another recent announcement with RockYou. These games are using Hi5′s virtual currency, and could make money for the company eventually, but they … Continue Reading
Axcient adds $2 million for data backup and recovery services
Axcient, a San Jose, Calif. provider of data backup devices and services, says it brought in $2 million more to bring its first round of funding to $8 million. It raised the first $6 million in September from Allegis Capital and Peninsula Ventures among others.
Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company will use its new funds to add more features to its products. It says its userbase has grown more than expected in the … Continue Reading
Efficient lighting maker Fulham shines with $10M from Braemar
Braemar Energy Ventures, a regular backer of energy-efficient lighting startups, has given $10 million in equity to Fulham, maker and distributor of all kinds of lighting systems, which recently entered the light-emitting diode market.
Based in Hawthorne, Calif., Fulham also specializes in fluorescent ballasts and LED fixtures that regulate the flow of power in lamps. It will use its new financing to shift even more focus to newer technologies and to expand its sales organization … Continue Reading
NComputing's green computers qualify for energy rebates
NComputing, maker of greener computing devices that consume only 1 watt of electricity per user, has qualified for purchase rebates and rate discounts from several major utilities in the U.S. and Canada. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company has already qualified for reduction-energy incentives via institutions like the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
The new wave of rebates cover amounts up to … Continue Reading
iPhone market share doubles to more than 10%
A fresh report from Gartner is good news for Apple, bad news for Nokia. iPhone sales keep climbing, even as the overall mobile phone market shrinks.
“Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009,” says the report, “a 8.6 per cent decrease from the first quarter of 2008.”
Nokia is still number one by more than two to one over second-place Samsung, at 39% versus 14% market share. Among … Continue Reading
StartUpHire says venture-backed startups really do create jobs
When entrepreneurs and venture capitalists ask for better treatment from the government, they love to talk about how startups create jobs. But can small companies really make a difference in the bigger landscape? Well, a study from the Kauffman Foundation earlier this year says they do. And now the National Venture Capital Association is teaming up with StartUpHire, a job site for venture-backed companies, to track how many jobs startups are creating.
As a group … Continue Reading
