Blog startup Six Apart wants to help you build social apps like Pownce

Blog startup Six Apart wants to help you build social apps like Pownce

Six Apart said today that it’s ready to expand its TypePad hosting service beyond blogs — now it wants to power “the next Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.” As an example of what developers can create using the TypePad Platform, Six Apart is unveiling a new microblogging application called TypePad Motions, which is based on Pownce, the startup Six Apart acquired last year.
Companies can use application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect to the online infrastructure TypePad… Continue Reading

Six Apart acquires and shuts down Pownce

Six Apart acquires and shuts down Pownce

Blogging company Six Apart has acquired micro-blogging startup Pownce for undisclosed financial terms. It looks like one of those acquisitions where the buyer was more interested in the people than the product — the Pownce service will shut down in two weeks.

The San Francisco startup was the brainchild of Digg founder Kevin Rose, Leah Culver and Daniel Burka (also a Digg employee). It’s a micro-blogging service kind of like Twitter, but it allowed users to… Continue Reading

Blogging company Six Apart lays off 8 percent

Blogging company Six Apart lays off 8 percent

Blogging may have been invented during the last recession, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune from tough economic times. Six Apart, the San Francisco startup that offers Movable Type blogging software and TypePad blogging services, just announced it’s laying off eight percent of its staff.

The news comes just a couple weeks after chief executive Chris Alden told Portfolio.com that a down economy boosts blogging. The layoffs don’t invalidate that claim, but they do undercut some… Continue Reading

Six Apart to launch social networking features for blogs

Six Apart to launch social networking features for blogs

Blog software company Six Apart is hoping to make its publishers’ sites more like social network. Tomorrow morning, it will launch a new version of its popular Movable Type blogging software that will include profiles, message boards like the “wall” on Facebook, and other features designed to increase social interaction between bloggers and readers.

Certainly, for some publications, this is a great way to increase the time people spend on the site — if you feel… Continue Reading

ComScore’s June US numbers: Facebook still gaining on MySpace while blog platforms, news aggregators, niche social networks also grow

ComScore’s June US numbers: Facebook still gaining on MySpace while blog platforms, news aggregators, niche social networks also grow


Facebook gained nearly two million new US users from May to June of this year, while MySpace lost about a million, according to the latest data from comScore. MySpace is still nearly twice the size, though, at 72.8 million national users versus Facebook’s 37.4 million. Facebook has, meanwhile, grown 34 percent since June 2007, while MySpace has grown only two percent. A range of smaller, niche social networks — and related social web sites —… Continue Reading

Roundup: Six Apart launches ad network, Microsoft acquires Xobni…maybe and more

Roundup: Six Apart launches ad network, Microsoft acquires Xobni…maybe and more

Here’s the latest action:

Six Apart evolves into an ad network — The blogging company behind MovableType, TypePad and Vox is offering a new advertising program which will give publishers more control over ads and revenue from their sites. The company claims its ad network will be better than the many others out there (with more popping up everyday) because it has the best experience with advertisements specific to blogs. The company also launched Six Apart Services… Continue Reading

Roundup: The Classmates.com IPO flop, two acquisitions, and more

Roundup: The Classmates.com IPO flop, two acquisitions, and more

Here’s the latest action:

1) Classmates.com IPO called off
2) Microsoft buys Multimap for $50M
3) StyleHive picks up StyleDiary
4) Toshiba’s new lithium-ion released
5) Venture Hacks on legal fees and VCs
6) Zoho Show adds on functions
7) Six Apart sets Movable Type free
Guardian Analytics launches product

United Online cancels Classmates.com IPO — One less for the story books of internet success: United Online has nixed the nearly $180 million Classmates.com public offering, planned to take place on the Nasdaq. PaidContent… Continue Reading

Russian media company buys online community LiveJournal

Russian media company buys online community LiveJournal

SUP, a Russian media company, has bought online blog community site LiveJournal from San Francisco blog company Six Apart.

LiveJournal claims to have more than 18 million unique visitors per month, worldwide, with 28 percent coming from Russia. Six Apart previously cut a deal with SUP in 2006, where SUP was allowed to manage LiveJournal in Russia.

The links between Russia and Silicon Valley are growing, along with Russia’s economy. We’ve recently covered the increasing number of… Continue Reading

Six Apart, a blogging service switches CEOs

Six Apart, a popular blogging service, announced it has appointed Christopher J. Alden as chief executive of the San Francisco company.

Alden replaces Barak Berkowitz, who was the company’s chief executive since 2004.

Berkowitz joined the company when it only a had a few employees; it has since grown to around 150 employees under his leadership. Now, he’s looking to work on other things and slow down for a bit, board member David Hornik, with August Capital,… Continue Reading

KnowNow and WordPress partner for enterprise blogging & RSS

KnowNow and WordPress partner for enterprise blogging & RSS

KnowNow, a Sunnyvale company that has made early inroads selling RSS technology to companies, has agreed to help sell and support WordPress blogging software.

The deal is significant because KnowNow has quietly been selling nicely priced software systems — both hosted and server systems — to companies that help those companies track transactions, news and other events via the RSS protocol. KnowNow has lacked its own blogging software, and this gives San Francisco’s Automattic, the company… Continue Reading

UPDATE: Intel confirms investments in Socialtext, SpikeSource, Six Apart, Simplefeed, Newsgator & Topio

See our stories here (scroll down) and here (on Topio). Total amounts of Intel investments are undisclosed.

(Update: To clarify, Intel has made equity investments in Six Apart and SpikeSource, but has only signed warranty deals with the other companies, essentially giving Intel the right to purchase equity once the companies meet certain peformance criteria).

Web 2.0 investment booms (data on big players & note on Intel)

Web 2.0 investment booms (data on big players & note on Intel)

Updated

Web 2.0 start-up activity is hot, and here’s the latest data.

Venture capitalists invested $455.5 million into Web 2.0 companies in the first three quarters of the year, more than twice the amount invested over the same period last year.

This comes from the latest survey by Dow Jones VentureOne, which continues to do the best research on the Web 2.0 area. It gets help from accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Overall, more than $1.63 billion has been… Continue Reading

Roundup: FON’s gambit, Obvious, Zachary’s blog, Vox & more

Roundup: FON’s gambit, Obvious, Zachary’s blog, Vox & more

Roundup in Silicon Valley:

FON exploits opportunity to stir up WiFi interest in San Francisco — Search engine company Google is having a heck of a time getting “crazy nut job” local SF residents to agree to its plans for a city-wide WiFi project. So while big Google is stymied, another company, FON, is hoping to slip under the regulatory radar with a grassroots campaign: Offering hundreds of its La Fonera wireless routers at an event it… Continue Reading