VentureBeat

Spot Runner launches web-based TV ad exchange — finally

TV ad company Spot Runner has launched Project Malibu, their much anticipated web-based platform for buying and selling television advertising. The move comes after nearly two years of development, massive layoffs, a heated lawsuit from investor WPP and a whopping $120 million raised from more than a dozen investors.

Spot Runner originally focused on serving local advertisers, letting them use a web-based service to serve ads on TV. But Project Malibu spotlights a shift in technology to a web-based advertising exchange… Continue Reading

Android gobbles up 20 percent share of U.S. smartphone market, says AdMob

AdMob, the mobile ad network that Google plans to acquire for $750 million, today released their October 2009 Metrics Report examining market share for top devices and the operating systems that run on them.

One stat in particular caught our eye. In the US, Android had 20 percent share of smartphone traffic, up from only seven percent six months before. Now that there’s proof that these phones are selling, Android may solidify its spot as a… Continue Reading

Cloud Engines launches next generation Pogoplug

San Francisco startup Cloud Engines, maker of a box-like device called Pogoplug that makes external hard drives accessible from any computer or iPhone, today launched the next generation of the device, supporting more hardware and software capabilities.

Listening to customer feedback, the new Pogoplug now hosts four external drives for expanded data capacity as well as additional software features. With an emphasis on automatic synchronization of new content and advanced sharing benefits, the device allows users to… Continue Reading

Google creates automatic captions for YouTube videos

Google announced today that YouTube will be able to automatically include captions in videos. Previously, you had to enter the caption manually while the video was uploading, an option that was usually overlooked. That was also a problem for those impaired or might have language barriers that are looking to consumer video.

Google notes that the number of captioned videos does is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, but with the new automatic caption services, that should… Continue Reading

Runa’s new service looks to turn web surfers into sales

Last year, e-commerce retailers spend $21 billion, or 15 percent of their revenues, in online marketing to drive traffic to their websites. The end result — a dismal 2-3 percent conversion rate between visitors and sales.

Mountain View startup Runa, a provider of revenue growth and profit maximization solutions, is looking to help e-commerce retailers to change low conversion rates with the launch of their new conversion marketing solution. The new web application focuses on converting web traffic into sales while… Continue Reading

Placecast lands $5M more for location-triggered mobile advertisements

San Francisco’s 1020 Placecast, a company working on new mobile advertising technology, said today it raised $5 million in more funding to continue developing its opt-in location-triggered ad service.

Placecast, which previously raised $4 million, pushes advertisements from major brands to the consumer’s phone depending on their physical location, but allows users to opt-in to the system. Here’s a scenario: You’re shopping and have opted in to receive advertisement alerts from your favorite store, say GAP (you can… Continue Reading

YouTube Direct lets news organizations publish citizen videos

Did you know that every minute, some 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube? That’s a ton of content about everything from nights out on the town, to events or even breaking news.

With that in mind, Google announced this morning the launch of YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows news organizations (but really anyone) to request the right to rebroadcast YouTube clips made by other YouTube users. It also lets the news organizations review the… Continue Reading

All-in-one TV service Sezmi lands $25M

There are a few words that when put together are music to my ears — one of them being “all-in-one.” Startup Sezmi has just landed $25 million in third round funding and is hoping consumers are interested in just that — an all-in-one television service. As more and more companies begin to offer their own set-top boxes, the chances that consumers will bite are good.

Sezmi secured $33 million back in November 2008, equaling near $75… Continue Reading

Appirio launches interactive cloud computing map

Companies often realize the potential of cloud computing but lack the resources and knowledge to proceed with any kind of integration. Enter Appirio, a startup cloud solution provider, that has launched a public tool to bring some clarity to the sometimes daunting cloud.

Today, the company is launching an interactive map that it’s calling the first cloud computing ecosystem map. Leveraging its experience consulting with enterprises as they move onto different cloud services and originally built… Continue Reading

Google’s Sidewiki: The good, the bad and the ugly

Today, Google mentioned on its blog that it has been 2 months since the company officially launched Google Sidewiki – the feature that appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of any website.

50 days into the launch, Google felt compelled to share some of those entries. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

“We’ve been really excited by these uses of Sidewiki and wanted to share 10 of these great entries… Continue Reading

Vega unveiled as first in home Android device

For some time now Google’s been talking about having their Android operating system run on multiple devices, not just phones. In August, T-Mobile even suggested that Android would be appearing on a home phone and a tablet computer early next year, both running Android.  Today unveils the first in home device to run the Android OS and it’s even kitchen-friendly.

UK and Seattle-based Innovative Converged Devices (ICD), an engineering company focusing on the mobile and computing industry, today launched Vega,… Continue Reading

Google’s SafeSearch now locks out explicit content

Today, Google announced a new locking feature within SafeSearch, the filtering mechanism that keeps unwanted sexually explicit text and images out of our daily search results. While SafeSearch has been around for some time, users had no way of locking their settings. Allowing anyone say, a child looking for some risque material to easily access the Google search preference page and change the settings on a particular computer.

Now, with Google’s “Lock SafeSearch” feature, users can… Continue Reading

Kaon Interactive brings 3D to online presentations

Who hasn’t sat through a presentation that is utterly boring and has you thinking about what you’re going to eat for lunch. The ability to capture an audience, hold them spell bound and generate a call-to-action has been an elusive art-form. However, there are tools available that can help.

One such company offering these tools is Kaon Interactive, a Boston area company that specializes in 3D interactive sales and marketing solutions. Their v-brief platform gives presentations… Continue Reading

ClickFuel provides internet tools to small businesses

As a web generation, when we’re looking for a dentist, plumber, or other small business, our first instinct is to go online when we need these services. Sure, there’s Yellow Pages that can find a name, number and address, but as consumers we are used to more and these small businesses usually lack a formal online presence. However, there are several companies that have emerged with the tools to help.

ClickFuel, a Boston startup that designs,… Continue Reading

New tools use social data to find iPhone apps

Apple’s big news today is the historic accomplishment of over100,000 applications in their App Store. With those numbers, it’s no surprise that the evolution of the iPhone user and how they find and use iPhone apps have progressively changed. Most recently, users have found that a simple search just doesn’t cut it anymore. There are just too many apps!

To solve this, companies have begun to get smart about helping users figure out which iPhone apps… Continue Reading

Ribbit challenges Google Voice with Ribbit Mobile

Over the past year, Ribbit, a web-based service that provides a new way to manage calls, messages and phones, has had a flurry of activity, including their acquisition by British Telecom and most recently, their integration of several gadgets with Google Wave allowing voice calls, phone conferencing, text messaging and voicemail transcription. Today, Ribbit is at it again, this time with the launch of Ribbit Mobile — a free cloud-based service that enables users to… Continue Reading