VentureBeat

Nine months ago, we were nodding in agreement that Genius, a San Mateo company that lets Web site owners track every move of their customers, was spooky.

Pundit Rafe Needleman called the service scary. Here’s what we wrote at the time.

Now Genius has raised $10 million more in a second round of funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. Also participating are Emergence Capital Partners and Walden International, who in 2005 invested $5.1 million.

We’ve moved on in our thinking. First, increased dependence of companies on the Web for their business justifies more sophisticated tracking tools. Second, most valley companies have engaged in the privacy debate — it helps if a company goes out of its way to explain its policy. Here, Genius has narrowed its focus, and makes clear it doesn’t track consumers. It sells its tracking software to companies doing business with other companies, i.e., their vendors. It’s just another marketing tool. Even consumer Web retails sites are tracking all kinds clicking data as their customers move around their site, which most people appear to be accepting — so Genius looks comparatively tame.

There are other companies that do this, including Eloqua.

Genius says it has more than 100 customers, helped by its integration into Salesforce.com — traction that Mohr Davidow partner Nancy Schoendorf cites as the reason for her firm’s investment. Last year, most of Genius’ sales were to companies wanting only one copy of the software, whereas recent deals have seen companies buying copies for 30 or more of their employees, says Felicity Wohltman, Genius.com’s VP of Marketing.

San Jose start-up Broadlogic launched today a new video processing chip it says is a “secret weapon” for cable companies hold their own against phone carriers in delivering video to households.

While companies like Verizon is building out its fiber-optic networks — transferring data at lightening speeds — cable companies have been slowed by all their analog content clogging their network. Broadlogic’s ship is supposed to let them send TV signals over their networks in a 100 percent digital form. The company apparently prepped the Merc’s Dean Takahashi for today’s launch, who writes a lengthy story about it.

Question is, will the technology really deliver? This is a company that has flailed somewhat, having been washed out once in 2002 (perhaps understandable, though, given the tough times), and receiving $20 million more in 2004. Investors include in that round included heavy-weights August Capital, Cisco, Intel, Time Warner, Walden International and others. Perhaps the video revolution will save it?

Danial Faizullabhoy, a former venture capitalist at Walden, became president and chief executive last month.