TechCrunch

The Prickly Prince From Microsoft Strikes Again
Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:38:31 -0000
Dare Obasanjo, a Microsoft employee and the son of a former President of Nigeria, doesn't like it when people disagree with him. I found that out in 2007 when Obasanjo vandalized the TechCrunch Wikipedia page in response to a post we wrote that was mildly critical of Microsoft's hiring of a blogger to edit certain Wikipedia entries relating to Open Office standards. His actions as an individual and as a representative of Microsoft were outrageous. Today he writes a post accusing us of "encouraging...garbage" on TechCrunch because we've reported on the market fall over the last week, pointing to three examples (out of over 100 posts last week) where we chronicle the fall of Yahoo and Google stock, and the Seesmic layoffs. A number of other blogs jumped on the bandwagon, calling for the negativity to stop (obviously none of these writers read TechCrunch this last week). "The last thing we need is popular blogs AND the mass media spreading despair and schadenfreude at a time like this," he says.
Will Verizon’s New Three-Cent Hike Kill SMS Services?
Erick Schonfeld Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:39:35 -0000
On Friday, word got out that come November 1 Verizon Wireless plans to tack on an extra 3-cent charge for every SMS message sent by Web information services to any of its mobile subscribers. That hike will be on top of the 20 cents per message that Verizon subscribers already pay (even those with "unlimited" plans). Thus, in one fell swoop, Verizon is attempting to boost its SMS revenues by about 15 percent. While it may be good for Verizon, the additional charge is not good for any service that sends out millions of SMS messages each month. The move caught a lot of Internet companies, SMS aggregators, and media companies by surprise. For instance, I asked Twitter co-founder Biz Stone what impact it would have on the micro-blogging service, which lets users keep up with every Tweet they follow via SMS, and he didn't know: We're still investigating with Verizon so I don't have a definite answer for you right now.
Brightcove 3 (Leaked ScreenShots)
Erick Schonfeld Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:10:30 -0000
Brightcove, the Web video distribution platform used by media companies including Dow Jones, Warner Music, and the New York Times, is getting a massive makeover. Most people won't see it, but its customers will. A new version of the Web-based software that they use to upload, manage, and distribute their videos is rolling out soon. It will be called Brightcove 3. (For more background, read the preview of the Brightcove 3 beta we wrote last june, and our interview with Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire in August). We received the leaked screenshots below, and paired them with the corresponding current sections of the Web software. As far as we know, they've never been seen before. Judging by the screenshots, Brightcove 3 is much more visual, intuitive, and offers Web video publishers a ton more options than before. Click on each screenshot for a larger image.
MashLogic: Take Back The Web (By Getting Awesome Links)
Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:46:38 -0000
Bessemer Venture Partners is launching an incubated startup called MashLogic into private beta today, with the audacious promise of helping people "take back the web." They say (and they're not alone) that the web today is driven by page view economics and search engine optimization goals, which leads publishers to link to themselves too often. The result is a less than optimal web experience. There are Greasemonkey scripts that strip out these inefficient links, and various services like Adaptive Blue are adding browsing and link options for users via a plugin. Another startup, Sphere, acquired by AOL earlier this year, is a pop up window triggered by users that shows other content they might be interested in based on an index of the current page. It worked, well enough to get them acquired at least. MashLogic is a more direct approach. Users must download a Firefox plugin to use it, but there's no toolbar. Instead, you simply change the settings to tell it what kind of information you'd like to have included on web pages. Links to Wikipedia is an easy one. But it also has company links to LinkedIn to show you people there you might know. And a currency converter. Etc. It's like a frickin Swiss Army Knife for hyperlinks.
Profit Maximization V. Survival Maximization
Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:55:39 -0000
A lot of criticism has been aimed at venture capitalists the last few days. The VCs are telling their portfolio companies to get ahead of the curve and conserve cash right now, and companies are starting to take their advice. The criticism is coming from people who don't understand that the world has changed in the last week and that companies need to change with it. And so they're asking why VCs waited until now to tell everyone to conserve cash. Others are saying the boom is the VCs fault, and for them to lecture companies on conserving cash is ironic. Fred Wilson wrote about this issue today and says VCs have a responsibility to give their best advice to their portfolio companies: "It's all about acting responsibly and making sure we all survive to fight another day." But he doesn't address the issue head on. I will. What we're talking about is the goal of profit maximization, which is what every for profit business needs to aim for or go out of business. In the good times, that means growing intelligently. In the bad, it means maximizing your chances of survival.
Forget the Front Desk: Hotels Go High Tech
Greg Kumparak Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:24:16 -0000
There's nothing like a bit of luxury when staying at a nice hotel. Be it in-room dining or the staff waiting on your every need, feeling like a king for a day is a matter of taking advantage of the hotel's services. Unfortunately, the systems in place for requesting such things are years behind, teetering on the edge of archaic. You can stare at the minuscule writing on the phone handset in hopes that dialing the listed numbers won't throw you into an infinite loop of forwards and "accidental" hang ups or, at some hotels, you can click your way through a sluggish and ancient feeling TV interface. They may as well be using pneumatic tubes. Runtriz, a software firm out of Hollywood, CA, is aiming to bring hotels up to speed. Following a series of quiet test runs at other LA hotels, they've debuted a product called "Hotel Evolution" at the Malibu Beach Inn in Malibu, CA, which puts all of the hotel's offerings in the palm of your hand.

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