Crazy Guide to the Internet

We’re hearing whispers that retail review site Yelp is raising $30 million in a third round of funding, at a valuation of a cool $200 million. The latest round is rumored to be lead by DAG Ventures, whose other investments include contact management service Plaxo, social network Friendster, and super-expensive geek scooter manufacturer Segway.

Yelp could not be immediately reached for comment.

Yelp has previously raised two rounds: between $3-8 million from Bessemer Ventures in November of 2005 and $10 million in October of 2006 in a round lead by Benchmark Capital.

Max Levchin is also an investor; Levchin is the founder of Slide and co-founder of PayPal, where Yelp co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russ Simmons (pictured) worked before founding their site.

We heard from lots of angry eBay sellers yesterday who passionately argued that the boycott –which began on Feb. 18 — is delivering a serious blow to the online auction site.

Many commenters pointed to listings data from third-party sites that illustrate a significant decline in activity on eBay over the last four days.  We’ve also heard a variety of arguments as to why listings aren’t down more dramatically — including several sellers’ theory that listings are being artificially inflated by eBay with test bids. (An eBay spokesman refused to comment, calling the notion “absurd.”)

Still, it’s not clear that a migration of sellers — even if there are thousands of them — will lead eBay to reverse the changes made to the fee structure and feedback system.

eBay is already anticipating a modest hit as a result of the changes — management warned during last quarter’s earnings conference call that it expects its margins — as well as its take from transactions — to drop as a result of the fee structure change.

“[We] believe the modest take rate reduction will more than pay for itself over time as we stimulate long-term growth in our marketplace,” said CFO Bob Swan, during a conference call on Jan. 23.

And as the company grows its business in new directions — and increases emphasis on fixed-price sales — it’s reasonable to assume that eBay made the conscious choice to scale back on the part of its business it couldn’t control, especially since it hopes to replicate the level of customer service provided at Amazon.com.

“My [eBay] account manager told me to evaluate Amazon as an alternative,” one seller told us a couple weeks ago.

It may have been a reasonable suggestion.

Photo: Flickr/InertiaCreeps

It doesn’t matter what operating system you use, everyone wants to change their desktop background from time to time. So, we’ve gathered you up a sampling of the programs out there that can automate the whole process for you; some of them are using online sources for images, and some combine several online/offline possibilities.
(more…)

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Aaron Stanton, 26 year-old CanGoogleHearMe.com blogger and founder of Novel Projects Inc., says his idea got a yellow light from Yahoo.

“It was bad timing. We got  down [to Silicon  Valley], and two days later they had a bunch of layoffs,” Stanton says. “It’s okay, because we didn’t originally target Yahoo . . . When we release our idea, it will be obvious why we targeted Google and not Yahoo.”

Although Stanton wouldn’t disclose details about Novel Projects, which is scheduled for release on March 10, he did hint that the project involves books. Given the context, it makes sense that he would pursue talks with Google, which has been digitizing libraries of books over the last few years.

Stanton says he’s still not sure how his team will proceed after the March 10 release, but they may choose to open source the project or to accept venture capital funding, depending on feedback.

“My original plan was just to get my idea in front of Google, and to have somebody there hear it. Then we put together a team and started developing it. After we release it, we’ll have to decide. If people think we’re idiots, and that’s always a possibility, we’ll have to go from there.”

CanGoogleHearMe.com, an entrepreneurial blog launched as a lark by Stanton a year ago, has since inspired copycats (CanYouTubeHearMe and CanMySpaceHearAnyone), a theme song, and even a poem from a 13 year-old tech blogger.

Photo: CanGoogleHearMe.com

Hollywood’s role in deciding the ultimate HD format winner shouldn’t be underestimated. But Yankee Group’s Carl Howe points to another important factor that may very well have sealed the fate of HD DVD before the war was even underway. In a follow-up to a discussion we had with Howe about Apple’s potential plans for Blu-ray, he made one particular point that’s spot on:

…Two of the big supporters of HD DVD were Microsoft and Intel, each of whom could account for exactly zero million HD DVD drive sales. Whenever I see “Barney alliances” — ones where no money changes hands, but all the partners agree to love each other and their technologies — I always consider it a sign that the partnership is going to fail.

At a time when “I love you, you love me” partnerships are flourishing in the tech industry, this observation is key. Even when the two biggest names in software and hardware get behind a specific technology (or format), if there’s no money at stake for either company, you can bank of that technology not lasting long — or at least not being helped in any discernable way by their “support.”

All indications are that the Blu-ray camp paid a lot for studio support it received — a hell of a lot more than Toshiba anyway. Precise numbers still aren’t known, but Warner Bros. is rumored to have received $500 million clams to go Blu-ray exclusive. Fox was also reportedly paid an undisclosed amount to remain exclusive to Blu-ray after it threatened to switch to HD DVD.

There were other factors at play in the HD format war, too, like the Blu-ray Disc Association’s adoption of BD+, an anti-copying, re-lockable DRM technology that HD DVD ultimately rejected, and that studios happen to love. But if the you want to gauge the success of any alliance or coalition, there’s still no better way than to look at where money is coming from, and who’s giving and receiving it. As Howe reiterates, anything worth doing in business, is worth doing for money.

“When there’s no money at stake, there’s no business. The death of HD DVD proved that rule again,” he said.

Photo: Flickr/discopalace

Should the old adage “more money, more problems” be changed to “more open, more problems?” An article in Inforworld this week speaks of a heightened security risk in which social networks may be placing themselves, in part due to their open platform approach. Especially as those applications on various networks don’t always have to be approved by the networks themselves, their ability to integrate into sometimes deep aspects of a social network’s inner workings is a danger that we should all pay attention to.

What’s more, the article in Infoworld points out that such integration lures in users in a way that’s not easily recognizable as malware, given their ability to connect with users on a very personal level. Such is the case with a number of Facebook applications, one of which, Secret Crushes, was found out and banned by the popular social network.

When it’s all said and done, what can we do about it? There will always be a push and pull effect between spyware and filters against malware attacks, but is the open direction in which social networking headed going to be heavily influenced by such fear against malware? I think that while such fear is warranted (it brings about the innovation necessary to keep such malware at bay), it should generally be understood that every new development with online interaction is going to be piggy-backed for malicious purposes. It’s the dark side of human nature, and it’s part of a market that most would be ashamed to be associated with.

Just as social networks were used for spreading malware before open platforms, and just as people figured out how to scam poor old lady’s with typed letters instead of emails, dealing with malware is par for the course. The biggest concern at this point is knowing how to deal with malware once it shows up. The biggest difference between then and now is the ability for malware to spread faster and further than ever before, so being prepared for such an incident will help curb any negative affect malware may have in the end.

[image via travels of distinction]

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There’s a lunar eclipse tonight..anyone watching?

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

Maybe it’s just us, but the integration of Bluetooth into a CB radio is long, long overdue. Thankfully, Cobra is stepping up to the plate and introducing the 29 LTD BT, which will go down as its first ever CB radio to include integrated BT technology. Essentially, it allows users to accept and terminate calls with a simple button press on the radio itself, and also enables handsfree conversations — undoubtedly littered with 10-4s and good buddies — via the noise canceling microphone and five-watt speaker. Granted, the transmission was a touch fuzzy, but we heard it’ll be available at travel centers and dealers this summer for $189.95. Copy?

[Via Blast Magazine]

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LiveUniverse publicly launched its video site LiveVideo.com today, days after purchasing video site Revver for reportedly around than $5 million. 

LiveUniverse was founded by Brad Greenspan, the former CEO of Intermix, the parent company of MySpace before it was sold to News Corp (got that?).

LiveVideo.com appears to be a mashup of a video-sharing site and a social network. Users can stream content live from their webcams (not just upload prerecorded video clips as you can on YouTube), create both video and text blogs, embed widgets, as well as see and communicate with anyone else who is online on the LiveVideo.com site. It joins a long string of startups attempting to capitalize on the internet video boom.

The site is starting off with a big-name contributor. NBA star Steve Nash has signed on with his own page, and is planning to show a livestream of all of his drives home from basketball games, beginning tonight after the LA Lakers/Phoneix Suns duel. The press release promises that Nash will answer viewer’s questions while he makes his way through traffic. (We hope answering these questions doesn’t inhibit the former MVP’s ability to keep his eyes on the road.)

LiveVideo.com made waves last year when it tried to entice top YouTube talent to its site by offering cash incentives. Revver tried to attract content creators in a similar way, by promising a cut of the advertising revenue, and Revver succeeded in drawing names like Ze Frank, Ask a Ninja, and Lonelygirl15 to its platform. Such incentives may be a thing of the past: The newly-launched LiveVideo makes no mention of payments to content creators, though we strongly suspect Nash’s bank account will be a bit fuller after his contributions.

Godrej and Boyce manufacturing company, part of Godrej Group, has forayed into the mattress industry.

Original post by Sanchit