901am

New Media News Every Morning

Social Search Engine Aardvark Joins Google

By

Whenever I’m looking for an answer to a trivial question I normally type in the question on the Google search box. Yes, that’s how lazy I am. And so far Google search results are pretty much accurate and were able to give me some good links. Interstingly, most of the links to the answers given by Google are entries from Yahoo! Answers.

The point I’m trying to drive at here? Google badly needs a Yahoo Answers-like service. A crowd-sourced database of information that is of capable providing the best answer to the most mundane question that could possibly come up from anyone’s mind. And Google seems to be embarking on achieving that feat. To start off, it just acquired a social search engine called – Aardvark.

Aardvark’s model is pretty simple, you ask a question and Aardvark will find the perfect person to answer your question in minutes. Aardvark has several interfaces, via an iPhone app, IM, email and of course its web interface at vark.com.

Aardvark’s technology taps into the knowledge and experience of your friends and extended network of contacts. It analyzes your questions and determines what they are about until it is able to match each question to people who are knowledgeable about it to give you the final answer to your question. And it does that as quickly as it can.

Google has not announced yet how it is going to take to integrate Aardvark to its various products and services, but as soon as the deal was finalized, Google quickly put Aardvark into Google Labs.

With Google Buzz as a social sharing site and now this social search engine, Google is really getting into the social game.

Originally posted on February 12, 2010 @ 6:05 pm

Everybody Counts on Vevo to Salvage What is Left of the Music Video Industry

By

Pardon the momentary glitch a couple of hours after its official launch, but Vevo is up and running right now (if you’re in the U.S. at least since the site is not available in most countries). And judging by the way its launch gig went and the support it is getting from major industry players including music artists, it looks like Vevo is headed for big time success.

What if you have Bono, Lady Gaga, John Meyer, Mariah Carey  and Adam Lambert promoting it? Plus Google’s Eric Schmidt  allowing all views of Vevo videos on YouTube to be attributed to Vevo? It’s a clear shot to video site stardom, right?  It looks like Vevo might become the no.3 video site next to YouTube and Hulu perhaps.

Vevo executives expect their site to get more than 400 million video views in the site’s first month of operation. While Mariah hopes Vevo can help salvage something that used to be amazing. Advertisers are joining in as well with the likes of AT&T, McDonalds and other industry players coming on board.

Could Vevo give Hulu a run for its money? Only time can tell. What Vevo needs to do right now is to prepare its site for unsurmountable traffic in the days to come and avoid downtimes as much as possible because that will somehow determine the site’s future.

Originally posted on December 9, 2009 @ 5:07 pm

I Can Haz Blog Empire

By

The man who bought out I Can Haz Cheeseburger is slowly building one of the best content empires on the web.

i can haz cheeseburger

“The privately held company was launched in 2007 when Mr. Huh acquired I Can Haz Cheezburger; since then he’s built it through acquisitions (Failblog in 2008) and launches (It Made My Day), into a network of 30 blogs visited by 11.5 million people a month. Failblog’s video site just passed CBS as the 7th most-viewed channel of all time on YouTube. It now has 21 full-time employees and five part-timers and is profitable, though Mr. Huh wouldn’t discuss specifics.”

I love hearing these kinds of success stories although having seen the industry from all sides I don’t envy anyone having to run this type of machine. It’s a hard life that requires a lot of work and lots of tough decisions especially in this digital economy. But Ben Huh has done a marvelous job building an impressive empire of hilarious sites.

Source: Ad Age

Originally posted on October 12, 2009 @ 4:09 pm

Angels Want Startups To Pay To Pitch

By

Jason Calacanis get’s it right when he says that Angels shouldn’t be asking Startups for cash for the time to pitch to them. First off Angels have the cash, and the time to listen to startups, and if they don’t have the time they shouldn’t ask startups to pay.

jason calacanis

Jason Calacanis says it a lot better than I can, and in a rare moment I really agree with him on this.

I’ve been in the startup scene since 1994 and in those 15 years I’ve met, interviewed — and in some cases, pitched — the most powerful investors in technology. None of them have ever charged me a dime for doing so.
Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH!

It’s low-class, inappropriate and predatory for a rich person to ask an entrepreneur to PAY THEM for 15 minutes of their time. Seriously, what is the cost to the party hearing the pitch? If you answered “nothing” or “the cost of two cups of coffee” you win the prize!

Originally posted on October 10, 2009 @ 10:04 pm

Diverse investments boost VC funding in 2007

By

Many startups were blessed last year with more investments from venture capitalists. According to a news article, the total money raised in 2007 grew by 10.8% or equivalent to $29.4 billion, the most in the last six years.

While software, medical devices and biotech firms receive the chunk of investments in the past, the year 2007 showed a balance growth for the financial support were laid out in other growing industries such as telecoms, media and energy. It means a bubble burst is not expected at this point and that there are “interesting deals to be found across many sectors”.

Moreover, the VC firms in Washington state or Northwest raised $1.3 billion last year, making 2007 the best investment year in the area since 2000. Diversity was also quite evident as the investment shares of traditional sectors including software and medical devices fell. On the flip side, telecoms, media and entertainment have gained increased funding.

Originally posted on January 21, 2008 @ 2:26 am