SOMEWHAT FRANK

New AIM with Lifestream Launches

Since joining AOL in 2006, I have worked on the product direction and strategy of two AOL products. The first of these was the myAOL personalized start page, which I covered previously when it launched in 2007 and was rolled out to 78 countries. The other product I have worked on is AIM.

AIM has been around a very long time - launched in the 1990’s it assembled the first viable social graph with the AOL buddy list. So I was excited to jump on board with a team of internal AOL thought-leaders in January 2008 to map out the future of myAOL and determine how it could interact with AIM to offer users a streamlined social utility. During this process we identified that real-time data or the “lifestream”, is a necessity to any social experience on the Web. AIM had a similar "lifestream" concept since 2005 called AIM Buddy Updates which I covered previously, as we relaunched it on the Web in the summer 2008. We concluded our work and learnings from the project and proposed a direction and then went on to acquire SocialThing, which I connected with AOL via TECH cocktail Boulder 1 to join the AIM team and contributed to the effort. Being involved from its original ideation till now, I am pleased to see the new AIM with lifestream come to fruition.

Video: Andrew Hyde Startup Discussion

I got a chance to sit down and chat with Andrew Hyde, of TechStars and founder of Startup Weekend and VC Wear, while attending the TechCrunch50 conference. Andrew and I both love startups. We recently talked about startups and even gave some advice that startups might find helpful.

Check out episode 50 on SOMEWHAT FRANK an interview with Andrew Hyde (shown below) and help Andrew decide what to do for the next six months as he appears to be a crossroads.

Andrew Hyde Interview from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

Video: Somewhat Frank Meets NonSociety

Yesterday, I was in New York City and got a chance to meet up with Meghan Asha, one of the co-founders of NonSociety, a new online media play that lifestreams niche verticals (fashion, style and tech). NonSociety is a group venture with Julia Allison and Kate Rambin.

We took a walk in the park and got to chatting about startups, technology, electric cars, pets and even encountered a rather distracting making out session. Check out video episode 46 on SOMEWHAT FRANK with Meghan Asha (below).

SOMEWHAT FRANK Meets NonSociety's Meghan Asha from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

TechCrunch50: More Startups I Want To Try...

After highlighting startups I liked from the first two days of TechCrunch50 conference I wanted to follow-up with the startups that I liked on the final day of the event. The following startups are companies I was impressed by and would like to give a try:

fotonauts - images for humanity

videosurf - innovate video search product that can "see" inside videos and index them

bojam - unites musicians across the globe to make music.

atmosphir - free gaming platform which is like legos for game creation

playce - amazing looking 3D Web games

birdpost - very niche social network for bird watchers

closet couture - solid fashion social network - looks like a lot of work though which could be an issue with adoption

footnote - though a little gloomy this is a bit of a social network for the deceased - it will be interesting to see how social the dead really are

causecast - create a set of tools for raising money for non-profit causes

goplanit - auto suggesting travel planner online toolset

goodguide - an impressive presentation of the world's largest and reliable source of information for products you found in your home

iamnews.com - creates collaboration newsroom which open sources or crowdsourcing news reporting through syndication (won the demo pit opportunity to present)

TechCrunch50 was an exhausting three days. We saw a lot of new startups and saw some bad ones too. I got a chance to meet some great people and learned a few things along the way from the various panels at the event. Congrats to every company that particapted in TechCrunch50 from the main stage to the demo pit.

TechCrunch50: Startups I Want To Try So Far...

So I have sat through two days of startup launches demoing at TechCrunch50 for a number of different verticals from mobile to youth and entertainment, I am have to say my brain is a little numb right now. But I wanted to put out a quick post highlighting a few products that caught my attention.

OpenTrace - Trace products back through the supply chain
OtherInbox - takes a new approach to helping combat email inbox overload
Popego - social aggregator with sliders to determine most interesting items
Fitbit - sensor product for tracking your personal health stats
Tonchidot - location based mobile tagging application
me-trics - health stat aggregator
Emerginvest - finance news meets emerging markets.
iCharts - searchable easy create web charts
Swype - innovative data entry tool for mobile devices
Postbox - inbox reorganization tool

Overall, the question for many of the startups launching is:

Are these really products - or just features that could be added to existing products?

Tomorrow is the final day of startup demos and I hope to chat with a few more startups in the demo pit and in the hallways of the conference.

Yep, It's True, AOL To Acquire SocialThing

A few weeks ago Mike Arrington gave me a call asking me if, my employer, AOL, had acquired SocialThing. Though it struck very close to home, I had to bite my tongue since the deal had not yet closed and did not comment on the matter. Now that is has been officially released, I can. It is true, AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire SocialThing, the Boulder, Colorado based social aggregating lifestream startup. The terms are not disclosed and the acquisition is still subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

I met founders Matt "indiekid" Galligan, Ben Brightwell and the team as they demo'ed at TECH cocktail Boulder on March 6th. Matt is originally from Illinois, like I am, and moved to Boulder to create SocialThing as part of the TechStars incubator program. I got a preview of the SocialThing private beta at TECH cocktail (shown in the video below) which was a few days before they launched at SXSW Interactive and were written up favorably on TechCrunch as being easier to use than FriendFeed. I was impressed by what this startup had created as it offered a wrapper for all your social activities making it easy to post to multiple networks at once. SocialThing is integrated with 13 social media properties including Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Flickr and is currently still in private beta.

TripIt Mobile Version Launches

As a member of the frequent flyer club, I have used TripIt and previously reviewed when it first launched. Now TripIt has made traveling easier by adding some additional mobile support for users on the go with the TripIt Mobile release. With TripIt Mobile users can access what they need to know from their mobile phones including flight changes, and in my case cancellations, hotel addresses and phone numbers, and auto rental info. By adding additional integration components for your TripIt account, even restaurant reservations can be accessed.

Making TripIts applications available on mobile devices makes a lot of sense since when you are traveling you are most likely cannot as easily get on your computer.  TripIt offers applications to enable staying in touch with others in your social network, allowing you to schedule appointments if in the same area or at the same event. In checking out the mobile experience I snapped the photo shown here can be visited on your mobile device at: m.tripit.com.

Video: Email is Broken & AwayFind Could Help

Is email broken? I have been struggling to manage email for a long time as I attempted to liberate my inbox back in 2005 only to once again stare email bankruptcy in the eyes. Email is such a double-edged sword since I need email to communicate but get so much of it becomes difficult to use effectively. I am not alone, I have heard the same things from a number of colleagues and recently TechCrunch editor and founder Mike Arrington even called the communication crisis produced by email a opportunity for an entrepreneur.  

I recently met Jared Goralnick who is a bit of a productivity guru. Jared joined me on quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode number 17 (below). He recently founded AwayFind.com. AwayFind, a DC-based startup, is looking to help ease some of the email burden so you can focus on your day-to-day tasks without constant interruptions. With AwayFind, which is currently in private beta, users can setup a page (like this one I created) to include in auto-response messages to anyone that emails them. The auto-response offers a little explanation as to when you might get to the mail and a form which can contact the user directly via SMS text messaging and email if the item being sent needs to be handled immediately. You can sign-up for the AwayFind beta here and you can follow them on twitter here.

Facebook Chat Details & Video

As reported on TechCrunch earlier this week, Facebook is working on a chat functionality. They held a press conference today and TechCrunch recorded this exclusive video demo of Facebook Chat. The presenter in the video is Peter Deng, the product manager for Facebook Chat, who made it clear that this is a preliminary version of the product. Facebook Chat appears to be something that available when you are on Facebook with the ability to turn it on and off.

Caroline McCarthy also offered some additional Facebook IM details in her report on The Social which offered the photo below.

Photo Credit: Caroline McCarthy of The Social

Microsoft Backs DataPortability, Facebook Translates, Digg Tweaks, YouTube Mobile, Widget Kings, Mahalo Examined & Davos

Photo of the Week: The weather in California has been a bit moist this past week as this photo by Michael Risenhoover shows.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 01.27.2008

MacBook Air Unveiled, Yahoo Goes OpenID, Sun Buys MySQL, VC Funding At High, Facebook Plaxo Rumors & the 2007 Crunchies Awarded

Photo of the Week: Gabe Rivera of techmeme shows off his award for best bootstrapped startup at the 2007 Crunchies (more Crunchies coverage below). Photo taken by Zivity.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 01.20.2008

Video: Forbes Top 25 Web Celebs

The video I decided to highlight this week happens to showcase a friend of mine, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington as he appeared on the San Francisco Bay area local Fox affiliate discussing being named one of the Forbes top 25 web celebs. Other notables include Robert Scoble, Jeff Jarvis,  Jason Calacanis, Steve Rubel, Pete Cashmore, Kevin Rose, Ryan Block, Seth Godin and "Giga" Om Malik.

Google Apps Future, Mobile Phone Novelists, Edgeio Shut Down, Zuckerberg's $40m In Stock, MyStrands Funded & 100% Biodiesel Jet

Photo of the Week: This photo was taken by Joey Wan while she visited Laguna Beach recently. It had me California dreaming!

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 12.09.07

The Crunchies Are Coming

What are the Crunchies? No, these aren't little creatures. The Crunchies are a competition and award ceremony for the most compelling startups of the year. TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, GigaOm and VentureBeat have teamed up to bring the Crunchies which will be sponsored by Sun Microsystems. It appears that the Crunchies will include an actual physical awards ceremony proceeded by champagne popping. Who will you nominate of the Crunchies?

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Video Chat

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, sat down with TechCrunch co-editor Mike Arrington at the TechCrunch40 conference for a fireside chat. Mark talks about opening up the Facebook platform and announced the FBFUND is a $10 million grant fund from Facebook aimed at helping application developers. The grants range from $25K to $250K and Facebook takes no equity or debt.