SOMEWHAT FRANK

Knols Announced, Clearspring Widget Ad Network, YouTube Partnership Program, Mahalo Social Search & Coding Monsters

Photo of the Week: I witnessed the Penny Harvest first hand this past week in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City as they look to raise 100 million pennies for charity. The river of pennies was pretty amazing - I have never seen so many pennies in one place.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 12.16.2007

Google Gears Up Offline, Portal Futures Analyzed, Startup Search, Mahalo & Particls Launch, Mashup Editors Compared & Userplane Rev Sharing

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 06.03.07

Internet Video vs DVRs Advertising & Measuring Online Video
Nielsens release of commercial data has led to quite a bit of discussion in the advertising industry about what counts as a commercial worth paying for. Mark Cuban weighs in.

The New Portals: It’s the Bread, Not the Peanut Butter
David Sacks writes about web portals and where they are going.

Google Takes Desktop Feed Readers Head On
Google is announcing a new technology called Google Gears. The technology enables web applications to work both online and offline. One of the first applications of Google Gears that I have seen is its integration with Google Reader.

Startup Search: tracking the web startup ecosystem
Niall Kennedy unveiled a product he hinted at a few weeks ago while talking with him in SF. The new site tracks the startup ecosystem. It's a directory and analytics tool called Startup Search. Startup Search tracks Web startups, their products, key employees, investment firms, and investment partners. Startup Search also tracks the success of each product since it was first introduced to the world, using publicly available metrics pulled into a single page. It is a research tool, a discovery engine, and a fact-filled directory of the Web startup world.

Comparison of Yahoo Pipes to Microsoft's PopFly
Jay Neely compares Yahoo Pipes to Microsoft’s PopFly and also does an early analysis of Google’s Mashup Editor.

Userplane Launches Revenue Sharing Program
Web messaging services company Userplane has launched a new revenue-sharing program that brings monetization to online instant messaging and web chat.

Attention! Particls Launches Advanced Alerts Platform
Particls launched out of private beta this week. It serves as a proportioning alert filter that notifies the user via news ticker, pop-up alerts and mobile SMS messaging prioritized according to user needs. CEO Chris Saad calls it: "an attention management engine."

Jason Calacanis’ Human-Powered Search Mahalo Launches
Jason Calacanis’ ’Project X,’ Mahalo (meaning ‘thank you’ in Hawaii), has launched and it’s a human-powered search engine that’s to Google like what Citizendium is to Wikipedia.

Amp'd, another MVNO bites the dust
As a result of our rapid growth, Amp'd's back-end infrastructure was unable to keep up with customer demand. Amp'd has burned $360 million and is filing for bankruptcy.

Sketch your Dream House
Floorplanner take the best of Web 2.0 and bring it to home design. It is a wonderful application with professional tools and rich visual interface that allow users to sketch their own dream home and share their designs easily. Users are able to embed their designs on other sites or blogs.

Google Launches a Directions API
Google launched a Directions API that will allow third-party sites to offer directions directly on their site.