VentureBeat

Ditched by potential parents, Digg grows up on its own

When it comes to web 2.0 startups, the social news site Digg is like an old man. Launched in 2004, it quickly exploded on to the scene and became both a web and media darling in relatively short order. So now it seems like it has been around forever, and for at least the past year or so, has been pretty quiet when it comes to product buzz. Instead, the biggest news about the company... Continue Reading

Twitter has real business partners — and fake ones

Like a lot of people, I read the story about Twitter backing its first UK ad partner yesterday and thought it was a pretty big deal. Names like Universal Pictures, Virgin Media and Gorillaz were all mentioned as using the service known as Twitter Partners to market themselves on the popular micro-messaging service. But something about it seemed a bit fishy — and for good reason. Twitter isn’t actually backing them at all.

Twitter co-founder... Continue Reading

12seconds crowd-sources commercials for a business model on top of Twitter

While Twitter itself may not have a final business model yet, the hot thing these days is for third-parties to use the service to create their own business models. Short-form video startup 12seconds is the latest to do this, rolling its users’ likelihood of tweeting their videos into some corporate sponsorships.

Specifically, 12seconds is launching a new type of product called “12omercials.” These are essentially regular 12seconds video posts focused on specific products or causes.... Continue Reading

FriendFeed’s redesign has given them something to talk about

When FriendFeed launched its redesign on Monday, some users (like me) applauded the move as a step in the right direction towards a more real-time web experience. Others, simply put, hated it. But initial reactions are well, initial. Now that everyone’s calmed down a bit, and as more users are testing it out, what does the data have to say for how it’s doing?

Very well, if a chart (below) released by FriendFeed co-founder Paul... Continue Reading

The race to a million Twitter followers is on

As of today, three Twitter users have over 750,000 followers: CNN Breaking News, Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher. With Twitter’s growth continuing to explode, one of them is likely to surpass the million follower mark sometime soon.

Yesterday, Don Dodge wrote that based on current growth rates, he thinks Kutcher will surpass the mark on April 21. Kutcher still trails Spears but has been gaining users faster than she has recently. This is probably due... Continue Reading

Twhirl goes into a user feedback cocoon and is reborn as Seesmic Desktop

I’m here at headquarters of San Francisco video blogging company Seesmic for the launch of Seesmic Desktop, the next step in the company’s product offering.

The product is a revaming of the popular Twhirl, which was one of the first third-party Twitter clients, and which Seesmic purchased last year and has continued development on. Twhirl is another one of those services that makes it easier to tweet, for example letting you shorten URLs in your... Continue Reading

Video: Trent Reznor’s insights into the future of music as a business

By now, everyone realizes that the major music labels have royally screwed up in the transition to digital distribution over the Internet. Digital rights management (DRM) and suing consumers among other errors in judgment seem only to exacerbate problems like piracy. Even today, we’re seeing another potential problem arise with the change in pricing structure for songs on iTunes. Let’s be clear: Apple didn’t want to do this, but the music labels forced its hand... Continue Reading

Video recording looks to be a go with the new iPhone. What about the old ones?

One of the hot rumors about the next version of the iPhone is that it will feature video capturing capabilities. Some new features today found buried within the iPhone 3.0 software seem to confirm this once and for all.

MacRumors was able to grab a screenshot of what looks to be the interface Apple will use for capturing video on the device. It looks a lot like the regular camera application but has a switch... Continue Reading

Twitter makes its commercial debut thanks to Sprint

Twitter continues to expand into the mainstream. It’s already being used by a number of celebrities, it’s all over news channels, and its founders have even started making the rounds on various television shows like The Colbert Report. Now, Sprint has released a commercial, running across the country, that features the service — and also pokes a little fun at it.

“233,000 people just Twittered on Twitter,” Sprint says before continuing, “26 percent of you... Continue Reading

Don’t like FriendFeed’s real-time speed? Eat my dust.

People hate change. That’s as true on the Internet as it is in real life. For proof, look at any Facebook design tweak over the past several years. Today, FriendFeed rolled out a major change of its own, moving its aggregation and conversations from a slow stream to real-time (which had existed on the site previously, but wasn’t emphasized). Now a lot of users are freaking out, saying it’s way too fast to digest. I... Continue Reading

Microsoft makes yet another HP commercial

As expected, Microsoft released its second “Laptop Hunters” commercial today. But rather than the bubbly actress Lauren, this one features Giampaolo, a “technically savvy” shopper. Once again, the ad pits a PC versus Mac, with price being the key issue. Simply put, this ad is better but still odd.

I say it’s better because at least this time, the shopper isn’t looking for a computer that doesn’t exist. Last time around, Lauren went to the... Continue Reading

Roundup: Twitter rumor frenzy, AT&T prepping for a new iPhone, Yahoo Music opening up and more

Here’s the latest action:

Twitter is selling/no it’s not/but it should/no it shouldn’t — There are lots of rumors flying around out there about Twitter right now. While Google isn’t buying it anytime soon, the two sides are talking. And they should be — or maybe they shouldn’t. There’s no lack of opinions here.

AT&T priming the network pump for a new iPhone? — That’s what AppleInsider is hearing. Specifically, AT&T is rushing to get... Continue Reading

Microsoft’s second “Laptop Hunter” commercial airs tomorrow sans Lauren

While I found Microsoft’s first “Laptop Hunter” ad a bit odd and misdirected, it certainly got a lot of folks talking. Some said it rightly pointed out that Macs are more expensive than PCs, while others claimed the entire ad was faked. Now get ready for round two.

The second installment of “Laptop Hunter” will appear tomorrow morning on Windows.com. It will also air on television during the NCAA March Madness tournament game around 3PM.... Continue Reading

The DiggBar features sponsored links as well

In reviewing Digg’s new DiggBar yesterday, I noted that it did feature advertising if you activated certain drop-downs such as a list of other stories from the same source. That seems like an okay way to make some money, but ultimately, Digg users probably aren’t going to be clicking on those ads too often. But I just stumbled upon another monetization model for the DiggBar: sponsored links.

If you click on the DiggBar’s “Random” button... Continue Reading

Take the guesswork out of expanding your business with new ZoomProspector tool

A lot of startups have to start small and focus their businesses on specific areas rather than do a national or worldwide roll out. But if that startup is having localized success in one region, how does it choose where to expand to next? The online business location service ZoomProspector has a new tool that should help with that decision.

The feature, called “Find Similar Communities,” lets you input a city, rate the importance of... Continue Reading

New FriendFeed interface to roll out Monday

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some website hits coming from beta.friendfeed.com. This is the domain for the beta area of FriendFeed, which we reported on the existence of last year and which was eventually opened to everyone. But then FriendFeed moved all of the changes there over to the regular site and closed the beta area. But now it’s back in operation internally, being used to test a new user interface for FriendFeed,... Continue Reading

With DiggBar, Digg wants to be central to sharing content on the web — and it could work

The main problem I have with Digg these days is that I have to go to digg.com to use it. Sure, there are other ways to see stories on the site, such as RSS. But if you want to Digg a story, you have to go to the site. Not anymore.

Today, Digg has launched its DiggBar tool. Simply put, it looks amazing.

It’s a toolbar overlay that can be attached to any web page... Continue Reading

Netflix delivers its 2 billionth movie — and it’s a Blu-ray

“I can tell you I never want to see the movies that come by mail,” is what Blockbuster chief executive Jim Keyes had to say during his company’s most recent earnings call. Well, apparently, someone does.

Netflix announced today that it has delivered its 2 billionth movie by mail — a huge number for a service that launched a decade ago. Meanwhile, Blockbuster, a name that has been synonymous with movie rentals for much longer... Continue Reading

Palm announces availability of webOS Mojo SDK — but it’s limited

Today at the Web 2.0 expo in San Francisco, Palm announced the availability of its Mojo software development kit (SDK). Third-party developers will be able to use this to build applications for its webOS software which will run on the Palm Pre device.

It’s important that Palm got this SDK out to developers before the device launches. As we saw with the launch of the iPhone 3G and App Store last year, it exploded right... Continue Reading

Confirmed: Major Veoh restructuring, layoffs

Online video service Veoh is said to be undergoing a major restructuring tomorrow, a source close to the company tells me, that could include large layoffs and a potential change to its product strategy. [Update: We've since confirmed the layoffs and restructuring, more at the bottom of the post.]

Back in October of last year, the company denied a report that it was laying off 40 percent of its workforce, and instead announced cuts of... Continue Reading