Mashable: Latest 18 News Updates - including “One Million Calls Placed From Gmail in 24 Hours” |  |
- One Million Calls Placed From Gmail in 24 Hours
- No Parents Allowed: College-Exclusive Social Network Launches
- Google Simplifies Event Scheduling in Calendar
- Facebook Looks to Develop More Social Startups
- Facebook Alternative Diaspora Launches September 15
- Foursquare Now Tells You When You’ll Become Mayor
- Gmail Add-on Makes E-mail Smarter
- HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page
- “Bed Intruder” Gets Star-Studded Punk Rock Cover [VIDEO]
- Google Improves Realtime Search
- Why Smartphone Adoption May Not Be as Big as You Think
- Life After Google: 15 Startups Founded by Ex-Employees
- The Ballad of Cat Bin Lady: The Internet’s Latest Viral Villain
- Yelp Continues Roll Out of Daily Deals
- Google Street View Car Searched by French Regulators
- Garmin Nuvi Recall Affects 1.25 Million Devices
- HOW TO: Handle an Employee’s Controversial Online Behavior
- Morning Brief: Netflix for iPhone, Amazon Loses E-Book Deal, Why Users “Like” Brands
- Free iPad Scam Hits Facebook and Twitter [WARNING]
| One Million Calls Placed From Gmail in 24 Hours Posted: 27 Aug 2010 01:28 AM PDT      If you’re as big as Google, there’s no such thing as a small product launch. So when Google introduced voice calls into its webmail service Gmail, essentially launching a Skype competitor, it was bound to be a popular feature. How popular, exactly? Well, according to a tweet from Google, the users seem to love it, as over one million calls were placed in the first 24 hours since the feature went live. Let’s put that into perspective. Gmail itself is huge, with over 176 million users (according to comScore) as of December 2009, but voice calling is currently enabled only in the U.S. (*update: contrary to Google’s announcement, the feature was also launched in Australia, as well as some other countries,) so it’s reasonable to expect the number of users to grow as the service spreads to more countries. The key word here, however, is “free”: calls to the U.S. and Canada are completely free (and will stay so for at least the rest of the year,) while calls to other countries are billed at modest rates. Google has already tried to conquer several markets through Gmail – its instant messaging counterpart is very successful, while Buzz, Google’s competitor to Twitter, was much less so. Voice calls seem like a natural addition to Gmail, and if this first figure is any indication, Skype will soon have a very formidable competitor. More About: calls, gmail, Google, voice For more Tech coverage:
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| No Parents Allowed: College-Exclusive Social Network Launches Posted: 26 Aug 2010 09:29 PM PDT   This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Remember when Facebook was only for college kids? CollegeOnly is a return to those simple, pastoral days — with a whole lot more tech. Genius Idea: Facebook started out as a place for college kids to meet, greet and stalk crushes. Now the 500 million-member network is a haven for everyone from marketers to Moms to middle schoolers. Drag, man. Enter CollegeOnly, a new social network from the mind of Josh Weinstein, a New York-based entrepreneur who also created RandomDorm (Chatroulette for the college set) and GoodCrush (a university-centric dating site). While creating these school-oriented sites, Weinstein saw a need for more specialized social networks. “We’ve learned a lot from these experiences and realized significant opportunities, in addition to serving as proof points for the unmet needs and desires of college students,” he tells us. “Facebook has changed — for the better — but its original use case is currently unserved, as college students are less likely to upload photos or post what they are up to with parents and potential employers looking on. As such, we realized that the opportunity to ‘connect student bodies’ wasn’t just romantic, but social.” Like the recently introduced gated social community, The Fridge, CollegeOnly is a much more protected space. We couldn’t even sign on and try it out, because it’s… well… college-only. “Except for moderation and evaluating success of features, I’m not allowed on the site either,” Weinstein says. “One of our investors asked me yesterday how he can view the site, and I said he couldn’t. He asked if I was kidding, I told him I wasn’t.” (Sidenote: Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s early investors, is among those dishing out the money.) Down to the nitty-gritty. If you have a university e-mail address, you can join the site, where everyone in a school is instantly connected — no friending required (you can block people, though). Currently there are three schools on the site — Princeton, Yale and Cornell — but it plans to expand. Users can create profiles where they can include info like what dorm they live in, activities they’re into as well as their classes. They can also upload multiple profile pictures, as well as snaps from Facebook. Weinstein emphasizes that these pictures will only be visible to those on the site, keeping them away from the prying eyes of parents and school administrators. So, frat boys — go wild!  Perhaps most interesting are CollegeOnly’s posting abilities. Users can post general updates as well as updates in categories like “Events,” “After Party” and “Missed Connections,” and can do so anonymously. The option to go nameless could cause issues, but Weinstein says that the site will be monitored. “[We'll be] crowd sourcing moderation through ‘flags’ plus student moderators that scan every anonymous post before it goes live and review every non-anonymous post,” he says. “We want to have an awesome, fun and thriving stream and social experience, but it’s also important to make sure our users aren’t having a negative experience as a result of another’s post.” Right now, the site appears to be pretty basic (from what we’re told), but features like text chat, video chat (which Facebook still lacks) and geo-location will also be included. “In our social stream, you can tag posts with locations. For Missed Connections it’s completely intuitive (and was a required field on GoodCrush), so too with general posts and photo,” Weinstein says. “On CollegeOnly you can know which frat/sorority has the best parties, which class is the best or most boring, which restaurant is the most popular… and also do it in real time (as posts and/or pictures come from a party, if a professor did something crazy or is droning on, or if there’s a special discount or gathering at a venue).” Mobile is also in the works. While we wish we could have actually tried out CollegeOnly, the site sounds like a solid idea that fills an actual need. As more and more people join social networks, specialization becomes a thing of the past. It’s nice to see a return to the days of the close-knit social network. What do you think of CollegeOnly? Does it have a shot at graduating at the top of the social media class? Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Facebook, Missed Connections More About: chatroulette, college, facebook, social media, spark-of-genius, startup For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google Simplifies Event Scheduling in Calendar Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:48 PM PDT   Google is launching a revamped version of Google Calendar’s event page with a focus on simplicity and coordinating multiple schedules. The updated version of Calendar has already begun rolling out and will be launched to all users by tomorrow, according to Google. It’s sparser and simpler than the previous iteration. More importantly though, it adds several new features for easier scheduling. First, the repeating events interface has been overhauled. Instead of taking up a full block of space, the repeating event editor appears when you check the “Repeat…” checkbox at the top of the page. This will bring up a new repeat event editor where you can specify the parameters of the repeating event. The other new addition is the “find a time” feature, which appears as a new tab on the event page. Here’s how Google explains the new feature:
Today’s update is a set of simple but useful additions to Google’s popular schedule-managing product. The “find a time” feature is especially useful for companies or organizations using Google Apps on a regular basis. What’s your opinion of the new changes to Google Calendar? Let us know in the comments.  Reviews: Google, Google Calendar More About: Google, Google Calendar For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Looks to Develop More Social Startups Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:12 PM PDT   Y Combinator, an investment firm for early stage startups, will be upgrading its relationship status with Facebook today, as Facebook has just announced a partnership with the venture company. The Facebook-Y Combinator partnership is designed to be mutually beneficial for both companies. Y Combinator has a reputation for producing top notch startups that go on to attract high profile investors, including Justin.tv, Reddit, Scribd and Dropbox. Under the new partnership, Facebook will gain insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, an advantage that will help it build better social products and cherry pick the best startups before competitors like Google have a chance. On the flip side, Facebook will provide Y Combinator startups with a bevy of resources including priority access to Facebook Credits and other beta features, product and design support, and technical assistance for those interested in building social products or Facebook applications. Y Combinator will use its winter 2011 class to seek out social startups looking to benefit from the Facebook partnership. “In the near future, we think it will be hard to imagine a web experience that is not personalized. Startups that can build in these interactions from the beginning — not simply add them to existing products — will be the examples of transformative social experiences others will follow,” said Facebook Platform lead Carl Sjogreen. The strategic initiative is an interesting maneuver by Facebook and one that’s designed to help the behemoth social network stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social technologies. Reviews: Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Justin.tv, reddit.com More About: facebook, partnership, startup incubators, y combinator For more Business coverage:
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| Facebook Alternative Diaspora Launches September 15 Posted: 26 Aug 2010 04:15 PM PDT   Diaspora, the much-hyped open source alternative to Facebook, will release its code to the world on September 15, but promises that its creators are just getting started. Earlier this year, Facebook was embroiled in controversy after it made significant privacy changes. Users didn’t like having more of their information public, so they revolted. During the height of the crisis, four NYU students decided to create an open source alternative to Facebook. Their goal was to raise $10,000 for their summer project, but dramatic interest helped them raise over $100,000 through donations. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated to the project. Since then, the Diaspora team has been mostly silent, coding away on their project. However, in a blog post earlier today, they revealed that the project is on track for release on September 15. “We have Diaspora working, we like it, and it will be open sourced on September 15th,” the Diaspora team said in its announcement. Only the BeginningDiaspora was originally intended to be just a summer project, but the high interest in the project has changed the team’s plans. Diaspora’s development schedule has been extended. “We aren't going to stop working after we release,” Diaspora stated in its blog post. “Ilya and Raphael are taking leave from NYU, and we will continue to develop and maintain Diaspora as a long term project.” What will Diaspora look like? According to the team, it’s focusing on “on building clear, contextual sharing.” One of the open source social network’s features will be making it easy and intuitive for users to decide what content gets added and shared to their social circles. We’re looking forward to seeing the final product and trying it ourselves. What do you think of the Diaspora project? Reviews: Facebook More About: diaspora, facebook For more Social Media coverage:
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| Foursquare Now Tells You When You’ll Become Mayor Posted: 26 Aug 2010 03:21 PM PDT   Just when I was about to give up hope of ever becoming mayor of Mashable HQ on Foursquare, the location-sharing social network has launched a new feature that might help alleviate my checkin fatigue: "am I mayor yet?" According to the new feature, which launched this afternoon, I'm just four days away from becoming mayor of our New York City office. I know that because the service now tells you within the mobile app after each checkin (and with Mashable’s Brett Petersel on vacation, my dream might just come true). In a blog post, Foursquare reminds us how mayorships work, writing that "you need to have checked in more days than anyone else over the last two months (60 days), so only one check-in per day counts." Earlier this year, the service also introduced some new features to prevent so-called "gaming" of the mayorship system, an increasingly important issue as more brands begin to offer real world rewards for checkins. Third-party developers had already built a number of apps – like "When Will I Be Mayor" – that do essentially the same thing that Foursquare has just integrated into its service. For those that care about the mayorship aspect of the game, bringing the functionality in-house should go a long way in keeping users engaged. Reviews: Foursquare More About: foursquare, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Gmail Add-on Makes E-mail Smarter Posted: 26 Aug 2010 02:54 PM PDT   Rapportive makes an add-on for your Gmail inbox that instantly adds context to the people you e-mail, as you e-mail them. The Y Combinator startup demoed its social intelligence utility for Gmail at a Mountain View event on Tuesday. Rapportive exists as a Firefox, Safari, Mailplane and Chrome add-on for Gmail. Once installed, the section to the right of each e-mail message — typically occupied by Google ads — is replaced with rich information about the e-mail sender. The add-on is a clean and lightweight way to get an instant glimpse at who the e-mail sender is and what his/her online footprint entails. Rapportive displays a photo for each contact, highlights professional information, includes links to various social profiles and even pulls in a few of the individual’s recent tweets, should the contact in question be a Twitter user. As a Rapportive user, you can control exactly what your Rapportive profile shows to other Gmail users — perhaps the best motivation of all to download and install the utility. With Rapportive, you can also add and save notes about contacts and install Raplets, which are third-party apps that add additional context or information to your contacts. The service even includes integration with Tungle.me, so that users can check a contact’s schedules and organize a meeting without ever leaving the e-mail message. Rapportive exists in a growing space of applications and services that aim to add social context and web intelligence to contacts in the e-mail inbox. Xobni is a similar tool specifically for Outlook users. Gist, which offers a full-featured cloud-based contact management service, also offers sophisticated social integrations and a Gmail Google Apps tool of its own. To date, the early stage startup has raised upwards of $1 million in angel investments from notable names, including Paul Buchheit (Gmail creator) and Gary Vaynerchuk.   Reviews: Chrome, Firefox, Gmail, Google, Safari, Twitter, Xobni More About: email, gmail, rapportive, y combinator For more Social Media coverage:
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| HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page Posted: 26 Aug 2010 02:32 PM PDT
So you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebook Page for your business. You've got your press release links, photos and videos … but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now? You're on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don't even bother to create a page — they're simply not "on" Facebook. But it's all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too. Let's review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:
This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product. Facebook Pages Need Attention If you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you've probably stumbled upon a company's page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I'm guessing you didn't click "Like" on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company — don’t let yours fall by the wayside. The more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you'll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more. "Although I have a Facebook Page, I’m not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often," said Nguyen. "Utilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I’m not doing it frequently." People are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it's you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy. Creating a Facebook Strategy Maybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That's OK. Let's develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook? Write down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:
Once you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click “Like” on your page, you're going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week). Now determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it's you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don't forget to do them. In time, updating your Page will become second nature. Ginger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand. "Our intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare," said Anderson. "We receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it’s not always about us)." Practical Tips Just updating your Page won't make it fabulous — that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.
Once you've put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business? More Facebook Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter More About: brand management, branding, business, facebook, MARKETING, Photos, quetions, social media, social media strategy, video For more Business coverage:
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| “Bed Intruder” Gets Star-Studded Punk Rock Cover [VIDEO] Posted: 26 Aug 2010 02:07 PM PDT The Gregory Brothers’ “Bed Intruder” song has just got a punk rock cover, courtesy of Hayley Williams of Paramore, Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory and Ethan Luck of Relient K. The Gregory Brothers — of "Auto-Tune the News" fame — have been tearing it up with their viral jam lately, scoring a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling scads of copies on iTunes (it sold 10,571 copies in the first two days alone). The remix is basically an auto-tuned version of a news report during which Antoine Dodson of Huntsville, Alabama, speaks about the attempted rape of his sister. Now, apparently, the song has caught the attention of the punk set (we know, we know… punk is dead, but allow us this assignation as it is what the mainstream deems the above bands). Ethan Luck of Relient K uploaded the above cover to his YouTube page yesterday. The result is a pretty catchy song, which, along with the Gregory Bro’s original version, could just make “Bed Intruder” the most viral tune of the summer. Watch out, Cee-lo. [via The Daily What] Reviews: news More About: humor, music, pop culture, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Google Improves Realtime Search Posted: 26 Aug 2010 12:46 PM PDT   Since its December 2009 launch, Google has been making minor improvements to Google Realtime Search. Today, the offering has been refreshed with three key additions: conversation view, location refinements and Google Alerts for updates. With conversation view, tweets are organized from oldest to newest and are threaded to provide full context around real-time conversations. Conversation view includes replies and retweets. Users can click “Full conversation” below an update to access the threaded-view. In practice, it works as advertised with the occasional tweet or two appearing out of context. On the location front, instead of just being able to search nearby real-time updates, searchers can also now specify exact locations in the “Custom Location” box to narrow results to a particular city, state or country. Users can also click on the location listed below an update to filter results for that region. Google has also baked in support for Google Alerts. At the bottom of the results pages, searchers can now click the “Create an e-mail alert for [search term]” to setup a Google Alert for “Updates.” Updates is a new type of alert for the status updates that Google Real-time Search indexes. Users can now receive alerts for updates on an as-it-happens, once per day or once per week basis. Google Realtime Search, accessible via the left-hand search options menu, now also exists as a standalone product at google.com/realtime. It is currently being rolled out to users, but those who can’t access the page yet can do so here. Today’s updates are both handy and timely. Just yesterday, Bing, which also dabbles with real-time search, began powering Yahoo search and is now Google’s biggest threat in terms of search competition. Reviews: Bing, Google More About: Google, google real-time search, real-time search, Search For more Social Media coverage:
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| Why Smartphone Adoption May Not Be as Big as You Think Posted: 26 Aug 2010 12:45 PM PDT The mobile trends series is supported by Samsung. Read more about the Samsung Galaxy here.   For years now, forecasts have pointed towards a portable, mobile future. And now, hand-held mobile web and geo-location are being touted as the next steps in the evolution of social media. These predictions have been shouted from the rooftops and proven, for the most part, to be true. As technology gets faster and more efficient, our phones are becoming smarter and more important to our social lives. But if the mobile web and app explosion is really all it’s cracked up to be, how come so few of us have smartphones? Global adoption rates have been steadily (sometimes exponentially) increasing over the past several years, but the overall penetration is still relatively low.  A chart illustrating steadily rising worldwide smartphone penetration from 2008 to 2009. We looked at some recent North American and European smartphone adoption stats to find out just how quickly, and where, the "future" is being adopted. Adoption Rates in Europe The U.K., Germany, and France have the fastest growing smartphone adoption rates across Europe. The U.K. leads European countries in smartphone adoption rate, according to a comScore study from March, 2010. In just one year, the adoption rate has jumped 70%, to more than 11 million U.K. subscribers. Other major European countries like France, Germany, and Spain also had substantial growth, falling around the average adoption rate of 32%. France had the second-highest adoption rate with nearly 50% change over one year. Perhaps the most interesting trend shown in the study was the move to cheaper, more universal plans. Monthly subscription plans were split into two groups: Mid to low tier (less expensive plans), and high tier (more expensive, roughly £35). Across the board, the adoption rates of less expensive plans dwarfed pricier counterparts. In Spain, for example, cheaper plans grew by 31% more than high tier plans. While smartphones are considered the Rolls-Royce of mobile, their growth seems to be spurred by accessibility and affordability. The goal isn’t to build a hand-held super-computer but to create powerful, inexpensive devices to compliment the everyman/everywoman. Worldwide Penetration Italy, Spain and the United States lead in smartphone penetration across global markets. Adoption rates need to be tempered with penetration (what percentage of a population actually own smartphones) in order to make proper sense. A country’s adoption rate could shoot up by 100% if their penetration changed from one person to two people. Given this context, Italy has the highest penetration of smartphones at 28%, according to a 2009 study from nielsenwire. Spain ranks second, with a penetration of 23%, and the U.S. trails in at third with 17% of Americans toting smartphones.  A statistical breakdown of worldwide penetration demographics in 2009. Similarly, while the U.K. and France are both experiencing high adoption rates, they rank below the U.S. in overall penetration. The report also brought up some interesting insights: Smartphone users are predominantly male, and generally earn more than $100,000 a year. So much for affordability and inexpensive plans, right? Not entirely. The penetration statistics show that a majority of smartphone users still see the device as a Rolls-Royce. On the other hand, this only means that there is a huge, untapped market for casual users. The adoption rates show that less-expensive calling plans are growing at a faster pace while U.S. sales have seen a boost from discounted phones. North America Jumps on DiscountsThe U.S. saw steady growth with a 36% increase in adoption rate, according to The NPD Group in a mocoNews article from March 2010. Even though the U.S. didn’t grow as much as the U.K. or France, it ranked above other major European countries for a comparable timespan. Canada enjoyed a modest presence with 12% market penetration. The growth in adoption rate was again linked to discounts and cheap plans. Ross Rubin, NPD’s executive director, told mocoNews that as more and more smartphones enter the market, continued growth will depend on lowering the price of data plans. As mobile technology gets better, smartphones will get cheaper, more versatile, and more important for our day-to-day use. But what comes next? We'd love to hear your thoughts on where mobile tech is heading, the discussion of adoption rate versus overall penetration, and whether this pace can really keep up. Have your say in the comments below. Series supported by Samsung The mobile trends series is supported by Samsung. Read more about the Samsung Galaxy here. More Mobile Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, fotosipsak Reviews: iStockphoto More About: adoption, adoption rate, android, blackberry, ComScore, iphone, mobile trends, mobile trends series, Nielsen, penetration, RIM, smartphone, Symbian For more Mobile coverage:
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| Life After Google: 15 Startups Founded by Ex-Employees Posted: 26 Aug 2010 12:18 PM PDT   In the process of accumulating more than 10,000 employees worldwide, Google also accumulated a lot of former employees. Many of these Xooglers (yes, that's what former Googlers call themselves) have decided to scale down and start-up. Xoogler-founded businesses are making headlines everywhere as they are acquired by Google, its competitors, find funding from other Xooglers, and blaze new trails on the web. Here are 15 companies that have sprung forth from the minds of those who once staffed the web giant. 1. Ooyala Ooyala is a platform for online video publishing and monetization. Founded by ex-Googlers Sean Knapp, Bismarck Lepe, and Belsasar Lepe in 2007, it links ads to video content, and provides a host of additional enterprise-level features, including analytics and mobile delivery. Since launch, Ooyala and its video platform Backlot have been used by major companies to manage and monetize their video assets, including Dell, Electronic Arts, Hearst Corporation, and Telegraph Media Group. 2. Dasient Planting malware on innocent websites is a convenient way for cyber-criminals to distribute viruses without e-mailing each of their victims individually. The sites that they target often end up remaining on the blacklists of security software and search engines even after they've removed the problem. Dasient helps sites by monitoring for malicious code so they won’t end up on the dreaded blacklist. Two of the three founders who launched the company in 2009 are former Google employees. Neil Daswani was a Google security engineer manager and Shariq Rizvi was a member of Google's Webserver and App Engine teams. The third founder, Ameet Ranadive, is a former McKinsey strategy consultant. 3. Tell Apart Brought to you by the guys who founded the Google AdWords API team in 2004, Tell Apart works with a company’s own e-commerce data to identify their best customers and predict who will be their best customers in the future. It also creates customized display ads for those customers, and serves them off-site. 4. Cuil It’s not surprising that Anna Patterson, a former architect of Google's search index, went on to create a search engine. It is, however, unusual to find a search engine that departs from the standard list of blue links. Cuil algorithmically clusters results so that a search for "Abraham Lincoln" creates separate report pages for the "USS Abraham Lincoln,” "President Abraham Lincoln" and the "Abraham Lincoln Brigade." In addition to traditional search results, it combines the documents to create a "report" with information groups and key words within the topic. 5. FriendFeedFriendFeed allows users to share photos, articles, and other media in a news feed for their friends to "Like" or comment on. Sound familiar? After shamelessly borrowing the startup's key features, Facebook bought FriendFeed in 2009, taking with it FriendFeed co-founder and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit. 6. Redbeacon Redbeacon is like a souped-up version of Craigslist that helps users locate qualified service providers for nearly any job. Users submit the type of work to be done, along with the required time frame, and local professionals compete for the work with price quotes and availability. When a user chooses who they want for the job, Redbeacon allows them to book the service online. It’s not quite the startup you would expect from founders Ethan Anderson and Aaron Lee, who were responsible for launching Google’s video product before the YouTube acquisition in 2006, or from Yaron Binur, who led the development of Google News. 7. Mixer Labs The co-founder of Mixer Labs was also a co-founder of Google's Mobile Team, and was the first project manager of Google Mobile Maps. Mixer Labs’ GeoAPI service helps developers integrate location into their apps. Twitter apparently decided it could also use this kind of assistance; it purchased Mixer Labs in December 2009. 8. Howcast All three of the Howcast founders worked on the Google Video Team at one point or another. Their startup focuses on producing instructional videos — everything from "How to Cope With Boring Office Work" to "How to Induce Labor Naturally" — and claims to be approaching two million downloads across iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry phones. 9. MyLikes MyLikes gives anybody with an online social network the opportunity to sell advertising. Users sign up to give personal endorsements for specific products, which are posted on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Every time a friend clicks on an endorsed advertisement, MyLikes either pays the poster or donates to her selected charity. Co-founders Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan aren't the only ex-Googlers who believe in the idea. The company is also backed entirely by former Google personnel. 10. Weatherbill A lot of insurance companies offer umbrella insurance, but few offer rain insurance. Former Google employees David Friedberg and Siraj Khaliq created Weatherbill to cover companies with revenue streams that can be drastically impacted by an unexpected change in the weather. Event planners, ski resorts, snow removal services, and tourism-related businesses that live and die by weather conditions can use the service to save the day. The entire country of Barbados, for instance, used Weatherbill to offer visitors $100 for every day that the weather was considered anything less than perfect. 11. Doapp Doapps founder Joe Sriver was Google’s first user interface designer. The company aims to "develop consumer and business apps — for websites, desktops, and mobile devices — that help you do useful things, make you more productive, and enhance your online life." It also happens to be the developer behind the beloved Whoopie Cushion App. 12. reMail ReMail provides advanced e-mail search capabilities for the iPhone. At least it did, until Google purchased it from founder Gabor Cselle in February. Proving that you can never really leave Google, Cselle re-joined the Google team as a product manager after the acquisition. 13. Aardvark Another startup founded by ex-Googlers, only to be acquired by Google, Aardvark takes your questions and finds people in your own social network to answer them. Instead of spamming your inquiries to all of your online friends, which you could do without any help, Aardvark finds the friends and the friends of friends who are most likely to have the answer. That way, you can annoy a select few with questions about their favorite Denver restaurants instead of alerting those in your network who have never even been to Denver. Google paid $50 million for the company in February 2010 — the service is still a Google Labs project, but it could become an integral part of Google Search or Android. 14. Hawthorne Labs Apollo is a newspaper for the iPad, but cooler. It’s just one of the products from startup Hawthorne Labs, and features an algorithm that learns what articles and sources you enjoy, and helps you discover new content based on your personal preferences and viewing history. Co-founder Shubham Mittal previously worked for both Microsoft and Google, but for the purpose of this post, we’re claiming Hawthorne Labs for the Xooglers. 15. AppJetTwo of the three founders of AppJet were Google engineers. And since Google acquired AppJet eight months ago, they’re working for Google again. The team, which created real-time document collaboration software called EtherPad, joined the now deceased Google Wave group. There are certainly many more ex-Google entrepreneurs out there, so let us know of the ones who have caught your attention in the comments below. More Startup Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, skodonnell Reviews: Aardvark, Android, BlackBerry Rocks!, Craigslist, EtherPad, Facebook, FriendFeed, Gmail, Google, Google Labs, Google Wave, Google search, Redbeacon, Twitter, YouTube, iPhone, iStockphoto More About: Cuil, Dasient, Doapp, friendfeed, Google, howcast, Mixer Labs, MyLikes, ooyala, Redbeacon, startup, startups, tech, Tell Apart, Weatherbill For more Tech coverage:
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| The Ballad of Cat Bin Lady: The Internet’s Latest Viral Villain Posted: 26 Aug 2010 11:19 AM PDT   It’s a thin line between Internet Hero and Internet Horror, and it seems that for one woman in Coventry, England, that line has been clearly crossed — over to the “horror” side, that is. Mary Bale, 45, found herself caught in the crosshairs of the reputation executor that is the web this week after a surveillance video of her placing a cat in a garbage bin went viral. Now, the Internet is replete with parodies, groups and spin-offs dedicated to bringing Bale down. Ah, what we can achieve when we really apply ourselves… According to The New York Times, Lola the cat was discovered unhappily yowling in a garbage bin outside the home of owners Stephanie and Daryll Mann. In hopes of discovering who had trashed kitty, the couple looked at security footage of the area, which showed an unidentified middle-aged woman petting the cat, and then dropping it in the trash. The couple posted the vid online, naturally, in an attempt to find out who the woman was. It wasn’t long before her identity came to light. Gawker reports that Bale was outted, surprise, surprise, by denizens of the discussion board 4chan, specifically its /b/ board, which hosts topics of a more random nature. Subsequently, Bale received death threats, and information like her address and her boss’s phone number were spread around the web. Although Bale was placed under police protection (due to the aforementioned death threats) she did issue an apology yesterday after Facebook was forced to take down a group titled “Death to Mary Bale.”
The apology is basically in keeping with her previous statement as to why she chose to bin Lola: “I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat. I was walking home from work and saw this cat wander out in front of me. I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly thought it would be funny to put it in the wheelie bin, which was right beside me.” Gawker informs us that, because of 4chan, Bale is currently being investigated by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but that’s not enough for many Internet lurkers. No, Bale is currently subject to that most severe of modern punishments/forms of praise: Memeification. Negative memeification can be doled out for a variety of offenses: spilling some oil, comparing oneself to Shakespeare, interrupting a pop star, etc. Yup, there’s few things that the Internet will not latch onto if they’re funny/shocking enough to be spun. Still, as I mentioned at the start of this piece, the line between hero and hatred is pretty thin. One can also be memeified in a positive sense for committing atrocities/crimes: murder, thievery, acting like a jerk and putting an entire plane in danger. So if a murderer can get some Facebook love, why is Bale such a target of ire? You can blame it on the glorification of mobsters, gang members and other more “romantic” criminals (Bonnie and Clyde are favorites of mine), and you’d probably be on to something. What Bale did wasn’t romantic or daring in any way. It was just kind of… well, mean. And — lest we forget — utterly bizarre. And there’s the rub.
Now, do Bale’s actions warrant such a complete and utter character assassination? According to the web, hell yeah. Check out the carnage below: The Facebook Page: Cat Lady Should Do Time in a Bin The YouTube Parody: Revenge of the CatThe Game: Whack-cat-woman The Twitter Feed: @CatBinLady Reviews: Facebook, Internet More About: cat, crime, facebook, humor, pop culture, trending, twitter, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Yelp Continues Roll Out of Daily Deals Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:46 AM PDT   Yelp has unveiled a Daily Deal for its San Diego members, offering an official glimpse at the pending service-wide Daily Deals program that the company is readying for release. Earlier this summer, select Yelp users in the Sacramento area noticed Groupon-like deals appearing in the right-hand side of the home page. At the time, Yelp confirmed that a Daily Deals product was in the works. Today the company is revealing more about the initiative and promises to begin testing the program in New York and San Francisco soon. “We have been working with some of the best local businesses — as identified by the Yelp community — to highlight some great deals for our users,” said Director of Local Business Marketing Dylan Swift. The San Diego deal in question offers Yelp members five yoga classes at The Little Yoga Studio for $30, an offering that normally sells for $65. Yelp members can purchase the deal for a limited time period, as well as share it on Facebook or Twitter. Unlike Groupon, Yelp does not require a minimum threshold of users to purchase the deal before it is unlocked for everyone. Yelp may be entering Groupon’s territory, but group buying makes sense when coupled with Yelp’s core purpose. What’s smart about about Yelp’s implementation is how well-tied each deal is to the retailer’s Yelp listing, so Yelp users can find immediate context for the deal they’re considering by scrolling down and checking out the reviews and ratings of other patrons; in this case, the listed reviews for The Little Yoga Studio are stellar.  [img credit: roboppy] Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, Yelp More About: daily deal, group buying, MARKETING, yelp For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google Street View Car Searched by French Regulators Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:45 AM PDT   Google Street View is in trouble with authorities again. This time, one of its vehicles was halted and searched yesterday near Paris. Google’s Street View service became highly controversial when Germany learned that Google was (inadvertently, it claims) collecting publicly broadcasted SSID information and MAC addresses from Wi-Fi networks in the country. According to Yann Padova, secretary general of the French National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), the search was conducted to “verify that they stopped collecting Wi-Fi data." Furthermore, French regulators aren’t too happy about the fact that Google resumed taking photos around France before it was determined whether the company complied with the orders to limit Street View data collection. CNIL said it had inspected two other Google cars, but wouldn’t say what the inspectors found. From the very beginning of the Street View service, Google has maintained the position that photographing buildings from the street is perfectly legal, but a swarm of complaints from people asking to have their faces, license plates or entire houses removed from the service has created a huge problem from the company. The Wi-Fi collection incident caused even more concern, and Google’s Street View practices have been investigated in several European countries, Australia and the U.S. Judging by this latest incident, the controversy won’t disappear quietly; it will take a while for the public and regulators to start trusting Google again. Reviews: Australia, Google More About: Google, internet, privacy, street view For more Tech coverage:
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| Garmin Nuvi Recall Affects 1.25 Million Devices Posted: 26 Aug 2010 09:15 AM PDT   GPS device maker Garmin is voluntarily recalling 1.25 million of its Nuvi personal navigation devices, nearly 800,000 of which were sold in the United States. The Nuvi devices in question have a battery — manufactured by an unnamed third party supplier — that may be prone to overheating when used in models with a specific circuit board. Garmin released a statement yesterday saying that “in rare circumstances” the recalled Nuvi devices may be fire hazards. The company claims that less than ten cases have been identified and that there have been no injuries or significant property damage as a result of the overheating devices. The recalled devices include Nuvi model numbers 200W, 250W, 260W, and 7xx (where xx is a two-digit number). Model numbers are located on the back or bottom of devices. Affected owners can visit Garmin’s recall site to verify whether or not their device is subject to recall. Recalled devices will not be replaced and device owners should not attempt to replace the battery on their own. “Garmin will replace the battery and insert a spacer on top of the battery next to the PCB before returning the nüvi to affected customers free of charge,” according to the company’s statement. Personal navigation is big category for Garmin, albeit one where the company is facing stiff competition and declining sales. In the last quarter, sales of 4 million personal navigation devices accounted for nearly half of Garmin’s total revenue, according to Reuters. The recall is not expected to dramatically affect company sales, however, as the battery supplier is said to be sharing battery replacement costs. [img credit: Irish Typepad] More About: garmin, garmin nuvi recall, money-finance, recall For more Business coverage:
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| HOW TO: Handle an Employee’s Controversial Online Behavior Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:37 AM PDT   This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Even the best organizations make missteps. Whether it’s a product that doesn’t work correctly or an employee that makes an odd comment, let’s face it: Stuff just happens. In most situations, though, the most important factor is how the situation is handled. While no one wishes to deal with negativity, taking time to consider the various scenarios that could come up, as well as possible responses, can make businesses better equipped to handle matters of contention. The spread of social media has made it impossible for employers to completely control their employees’ online presences. As it is, mistakes and missteps are bound to happen. In the case of handling a controversial or inappropriate comment made by an employee via social media or elsewhere online, there are certainly steps that employers can take to make the process smoother. For starters, organizations should be proactive and define the distinction between acceptable and inappropriate behavior, emphasizing the link between employee behavior and company image. As the old adage goes, “the best defense is a good offense.” Here you’ll find specific tips on how to handle controversial online comments posted by your employees. If you’ve been in this predicament before, let us know how you handled the situation in the comments below. Set Expectations with Employees “To help prevent employee social media issues, as a best practice, a company should prepare and disseminate a social media policy to its employees,” says Eric B. Meyer, a labor and employment attorney with Dilworth Paxson LLP, a firm that provides council on many topics, including employee use of social media. He adds, “Depending on the company's objectives, that policy may consist of ‘rules’ or ‘guidelines’ (or both) governing social media use. Whatever approach the employer takes to protect the business, that policy should both educate employees about social networking and contain a warning that the employer reserves the right to monitor employee social media use, whether conducted in the office or during non-business hours.” Jennifer McClure, president of Unbridled Talent LLC, a talent strategy firm, agrees that setting expectations is essential. “By providing guidelines and expectations, employees are more likely to be enthused about using social media in positive ways versus communicating only what cannot be done, which tends to discourage use.” She noted, “I'm a big believer in creating and training employees on Social Media Guidelines versus policies and rules. Share with employees how to properly use social media and what is expected of them in regards to using social media in their jobs, or in their personal use that is consistent with your company's values, culture and employment brand.” If you’re trying to figure out how to conduct social media training while minimizing cost, consider lunch and learn sessions. Order a few pizzas, grab a laptop, and show employees how to properly set up their accounts, post properly, and use privacy settings. In addition, McClure suggested sharing some examples of appropriate (or excellent) uses of social media by existing employees at your company or employees at other companies, as well as some examples of inappropriate uses. “During the training process, open up discussions and share why these examples do or do not fit your guidelines.” And be sure to have discussions regarding what is considered to be confidential and proprietary in your company. Another option is to create job aids, such as decision trees that can help employees decide if they should respond to certain comments. Monitoring Employee Use of Social MediaNo matter how much you prepare, it’s almost inevitable that at some point you will have to deal with some type of social media snafu. So what can you do if an employee posts a controversial or inappropriate comment? The first thing to keep in mind is, in order to react to a situation, you have to know it exists. Many employers feel that the best way to control comments by employees is to prohibit access to social media sites. Avoiding a situation is never the best policy. Plus, with the rise of smartphones, many employees have access to social sites at their fingertips anyway. Instead of running from the problem and limiting your employees’ reach on the Internet, consider opening up access to all social sites and monitoring tools so that employees can take an active role in managing your brand’s online presence. Meyer shares, “For an inexpensive solution, employers can set up Google Alerts and use TweetDeck to conduct real-time Twitter keyword searches to monitor social media use by employees (or others). This approach is broad enough to allow companies to know what people are saying about them online. It also avoids the impression of companies targeting individual employees.” And when it comes to monitoring individual employees, Meyer cautions, “Generally, unless an employer suspects that an employee is misusing social media (e.g., productivity issues, inappropriate online comments, sharing proprietary information, etc.), it should avoid monitoring an individual employee's social media use. If a company decides to monitor individual employees, consider using a third-party — one with ‘no skin in the game.’” If a situation arises in which an employee has made a controversial comment online, let the impacted person(s) know you’re looking into it and that you will follow up with them. Even if you are lacking information on the situation, your message lets the impacted person (for example, a customer) know you care and that you are taking action. Your next move is to investigate. Find out what transpired and determine the context for which the comment was made. Get the Facts, Then React Anand Bhatt, executive producer at Sonic Wave International, an entertainment company and record label, shared a story about a crew member on one of his major tours. “Some dates were about to change, and the crew member posted the possible change in schedule on Facebook (which of course, prematurely alerted the public that dates they bought tickets to might change). Turns out the dates were left unaffected and there was no need for alarm. But we reprimanded and coached the employee, because staff have to be extremely careful about what they post.” As part of your investigation, be sure to talk with the employee. Get their side of the story. Meyer points out, “A recent, disturbing trend has been ready-fire-aim. That is, employer discovers an inappropriate online comment that employee has posted. Employer immediately fires employee.” He adds, “If the offending comment is defamatory or discriminatory, then maybe termination is the answer. Even then, maybe not. Either way, employers should not overact. Investigate the incident, talk to the employees involved, [and] follow company policy. And then discipline accordingly. The company should be consistent, and reasonably tailor discipline to best ensure that the offending employee doesn't do it again.” Follow Up, Follow Up, and Follow Up Some MoreOnce you’ve investigated the situation, be sure to follow up with everyone involved. Bring closure to the situation. Derek Johnson, CEO of Tatango Inc., a leader in text message marketing, discussed how following up makes a difference. “We had an all-hands meeting about a potential client and when we went back to our desks, one of the employees tweeted that we were close to locking up this specific client. Luckily, I found out about the situation immediately and was able to explain to the client about the mess-up before they saw the message on any social media channels. They appreciated the honesty.” But Tatango didn’t stop there; it used the incident as a learning exercise. In addition to implementing a training program, the company started using a “not to be shared” stamp on documents that weren’t supposed to be discussed on social networking sites. Johnson reports, “It’s worked very well so far. The rule is that everything can be tweeted, Facebooked, etc. as long as it doesn’t have the “This is not to be shared” stamp on it. Makes it a pretty simple system.” McClure reminds us that this also applies to positive comments. “In my opinion, it's important to determine how you will respond to both positive and negative comments BEFORE incidents occur. For example, I share the Air Force Blog Assessment Guidelines with my clients as a good framework for making decisions on how to respond – or not – to any social media "conversation". By starting with these guidelines, we can then either adopt a similar process or modify it to suit their expectations.” For employers who are unsure about what to do if and when an employee says something questionable online, preparation is key. Setting appropriate levels of involvement in advance and being prepared to respond should provide some level of comfort. Being involved in conversations about how employees should use social media provides an opportunity to thwart possible issues, but also enables managers to encourage positive social commenting from employees who are brand ambassadors and true fans. If your company publishes social media guidelines or policies, share them in the comments below, and let us know how you prepare for possible social media disasters involving employees. More Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, iodrakon [img credit: correabeto] Reviews: Facebook, Internet, TweetDeck, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: business, comment, controversial, employee, employees, social media For more Business coverage:
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| Morning Brief: Netflix for iPhone, Amazon Loses E-Book Deal, Why Users “Like” Brands Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:17 AM PDT This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today. Netflix App Now Available for iPhone and iPod touch The long-awaited Netflix app [iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch has finally appeared in the App Store alongside the existing app for the iPad. Users with a Netflix subscription (which begins at $8.99/month) can now stream video, browse movies and manage their Instant Queue straight from their devices [via MacRumors]. Amazon Loses Exclusive E-Book Deal to Random House A month after Amazon announced that it had signed a deal with The Wylie Agency to bring the e-book editions of 20 classic titles, including Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, exclusively to its Kindle Store for two years, The Wylie Agency has backed out of the agreement. When the deal was first announced, Random House declared that it would "not be entering into any new English-language business agreements" with the agency, which represents such illustrious authors as Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie, "until [the] situation is resolved." The boycott apparently worked; Random House will now distribute the e-book editions to retailers. The titles from the deal have been removed from the program and taken off sale, Amazon and Wylie revealed in a joint statement [via WSJ]. Consumers “Like” Facebook Pages to Convey Brand Affiliations [STUDY] A new study from ExactTarget and CoTweet finds that 39% of Facebook users who “Like” a brand’s Page do so to convey their brand affiliations to friends — a practice, the study claims, that is only half as common on Twitter. Another 1% become fans to receive special discounts and promotions. In addition, 17% of consumers surveyed said that they are more likely to purchase something from a company after becoming a fan of their Page on Facebook. You can access the full study here. Further News
Series supported by HTC EVO 4G This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology. Reviews: App Store, CoTweet, Digg, Facebook, Twitter More About: amazon, facebook, first to know series, iphone app, iPod Touch, netflix, random house, wylie agency For more Social Media coverage:
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| Free iPad Scam Hits Facebook and Twitter [WARNING] Posted: 26 Aug 2010 05:20 AM PDT   Have you seen a message on Facebook or Twitter offering a free iPad? If you have, it’s likely some of your friends have fallen victim to the latest scam, which spreads through hacked accounts. Twitter’s security-related account @safety recently posted the following message: “If you’ve received a message promising you a new ipad, not only is there no ipad, but also your friends have been hacked.” Twitter also said it will be “sending out password resets to hacked individuals.” The scam is also present on Facebook, but it has affected a relatively small number of users. The message “offering” the free iPad is similar to this one: “u have to check out this website its glitchin right now and sending out ipads to everyone for free!”  The messages usually contains a link, sending you to a website that tries to extract personal information from unsuspecting users. If messages similar to the one above have been sent from your account, you should change the password immediately. Furthermore, you should not follow the link in such messages, and you should not give away your personal information if you’re not absolutely sure why and who you’re giving it to. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: facebook, ipad, scam, trending, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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