The battle for your address book: Will souped up contact apps monetize the data explosion?
[Editor's Note: Below, MobileBeat advisory board member Jason Devitt explains why we should care about new innovative address books. Not only are they key to a much better user experience, but they may greatly impact the way we pay to use our phones. He also... Continue Reading
Portable Contacts lets you get friends’ info on other sites
MySpace, Plaxo and now Google all support a new open standard for sharing social data across web services. Called Portable Contacts, it lets third parties securely access data like your address book in Gmail or your friends list for use on other sites. What are… Continue Reading
Roundup: Brin backs Parkinson’s study, iPhone gets shakable ads, and more
Google co-founder backs major Parkinson’s study – Sergey Brin says he plans to contribute money and DNA to a study run by his wife Anne Wojcicki’s startup 23andMe.
Dockers introduces shakable iPhone ad — Users can shake their iPhones to make urban street dancer Dufon perform his moves…. Continue Reading
Google, Plaxo offer simplified identity-sharing service
In an effort to make data-sharing easier to use, Google and social contact service Plaxo are showing off a simplified new way to sign in and synchronize accounts between them using only “two clicks.” The promise is that the average web user will eventually be… Continue Reading
Comcast buys Plaxo to make itself more socially viable
After months of rumors, Plaxo, the social contact service, finally announced today that it is, in fact, being purchased — by Comcast.
Aside from Comcast, both Facebook and Google were rumored to be purchasing the service at one point. Of all of those, Comcast may seem… Continue Reading
Facebook buying Plaxo?
Facebook is “one hundred percent” buying Plaxo, we’ve just heard from a source.
This follows a rumor previously published by Valleywag asserting that such a deal is underway.
While these types of rumors should be taken with more than a grain of salt, others have reported hearing… Continue Reading
Analysis: Plaxo and Friendfeed, pushing the “feed”
Facebook news feed has been a hit with users because it automatically displays the latest photos, newest friends, and other updates from your Facebook friends.
The problem, though, is that most people use any number of other sites as well — such as messaging service Twitter,… Continue Reading
Facebook, Google, Plaxo join DataPortability workgroup — lots of hype, even more work to do
In what is at least a brilliantly executed PR move, leading engineers from Google, Facebook and Plaxo have joined the Data Portability Workgroup — an effort by a number of web companies to develop best practices for sharing user data across sites and applications.
Google’s Brad… Continue Reading
I was about to get my friends’ email addresses out of Facebook….
Plaxo, the contact manager service, has been testing a way to 1) collect all of your Facebook friends’ names, email addresses and birthdays from their Facebook profiles, using optical character recognition technology, then 2) export this information to your Plaxo address book.
I was about to… Continue Reading
Plaxo reportedly hires bank to help it sell itself
Two updates!
Plaxo, a company that syncs your contacts’ details across your email and web services, has reportedly hired an investment bank Revolution Partners to help sell itself.
Update 1: The New York Times reports that the company is asking for as much as $100 million.
Update 2: PEHub reports… Continue Reading
Plaxo now syncs with Windows Mobile contacts and calendar
Plaxo keeps taking substantive steps towards creating one address book that syncs across your communication services.
Now, Plaxo is offering a way to share your contacts and your calendar information back and forth between Plaxo and Windows Mobile. You can synchronize between Plaxo and Windows Mobile… Continue Reading
Roundup: Alibaba’s ads, Flying cars don’t fly, Google’s switches, more
updated
Here’s the latest action:
1. Alibaba launches its own ad platform
2. SpiralFrog losing money rapidly
3. Viddler launches way to advertise at “tagged’ points within video
4. Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader receives mixed reviews
5. Advertising technology startup Clickable raising $3 million more
6. Hope you can afford a helicopter —… Continue Reading
Plaxo launching Pulse, its own social network
Plaxo, the online address book, will try to recreate itself as an open social network called “Pulse” beginning Monday.
In retrospect, you should have seen this coming. Plaxo is primed for this.
The Mountain View, Calif. company tells us it has 15 million people with registered accounts… Continue Reading
Plaxo’s surprise: An ambitious contacts-calendar service
updated
Plaxo, the contacts updating service, was popular briefly a few years ago but then started irritating people — it would constantly ping you with update requests from friends and solicitations to join Plaxo.
In short, it got a reputation of being “evil,” and then turned… Continue Reading
Roundup: Andreessen’s tips, Revver’s shakeup, Xing’s move, Yigg.de and much more
Here’s the (updated) latest action:
Marc Andreessen getting taste of what it’s like to be a blogger – The Netscape co-founder launched a blog last week. The NYT ran a story about one of his earliest posts. Then he did a good piece about how to… Continue Reading
Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund
The Founders Fund, the venture firm led by former PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel, has hired Sean Parker, the controversial entrepreneur, who has just turned 27, as a managing partner.
Parker somehow attracts attention wherever he goes. He has already launched three well-known companies. At… Continue Reading
“Young Guns” form secret Silicon Valley society
That’s what Rolling Stone wants you to believe, in its latest edition. In a story called “Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley,” Rolling Stone catches up with a group nine entrepreneurs who get together to strategize. This is another hype job, since none of these people… Continue Reading