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If Ambition Were All It Took, YourNight Would Be Sitting On Gold - 01/10/2009 12:56 AM

There's not a lot of information to be found about YourNight.com, a currently invite-only portal that's slated for launch this quarter, but the information we've received about its parent company Extreme Enterprises raising a relatively small amount of cash for a valuation of tens of millions of dollars made us curious, so we looked a little closer. Here's what we know about the service: YourNight.com will be publishing "dozens of internal search engines in an array of online services located within one portal", and ultimately hopes to give "every person and business in the world a free web presence, multiple free search engine placements, free advertisement, and free entertainment from TV, radio, email, chat, games, networking, dating & more …" The company is certainly ambitious enough, openly boasting about becoming a serious threat to "companies such as Google, Yahoo, MySpace, eBay, Amazon, Yellow Pages, Microsoft and several more" and billing itself as "The World’s Largest Interactive Entertainment, Information & Shopping Search Portal".

Packed House For The Crunchies, See You Tonight - 01/10/2009 12:53 AM

Tonight's Crunchies award ceremony in San Francisco is now totally sold out. We're sorry if you didn't get a chance to grab a ticket, but you'll still be able to watch the show streamed live via Ustream (click here to start watching once the show begins at 7:30). The awards show, which is co-hosted by GigaOm, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, and TechCrunch, highlights some of Silicon Valley's best startups, technological innovations, and breakthrough leaders of 2008. The nomination process saw nearly 170,000 total votes to pick out the finalists in each category, and then another 350,000 to pick the final winners.

CES Video: Interview with Dr. Dre - 01/10/2009 12:14 AM

Peter and Greg got a chance to sit down with Dr. Dre on the first night of CES. We asked him when his next album would drop, what he though of DRM, and if he could help us install Windows 7.

Make Your Photos Talk Smack With Storyblender - 01/09/2009 10:57 PM

Storyblender, the casual animation site that launched at TechCrunch40 that lets you put together customized goofy video clips, has just opened up a fun new side project called Make Me Talk. The new web app lets you stick some fake lips on the photo of your choosing and make them move realistically in sync with a voice recording.

Twtvite Makes Organizing Tweetups Easy - 01/09/2009 10:19 PM

From the developer who brought us twtpoll, Felipe Coimbra, now there is twtvite, an easy way to use Twitter or Facebook to create a micro-invite for your friends and followers. You create an invite on the twtvite site, and then micro-message with a tiny URL on Twitter or Facebook. The link takes people back to the site where they can RSVP. (See screenshot below). I just created one for the Crunchies here.

Wiki Service AboutUs Secures $2.5 million From Voyager Capital - 01/09/2009 10:06 PM

Portland-based AboutUs has secured a $2.5 million round of financing from Voyager Capital with the VC firm's managing director Erik Benson joining its board, reports TechFlash. The company operates a wiki for information primarily about small businesses, organizations, and 'anything that has a website'. Yes, that includes TechCrunch. This is different from our own wiki Crunchbase, which featured detailed profiles of companies, products and people even if they don't have their own websites. The wiki service attracts a very decent 7 million unique visitors per month to its network of over 12 million pages, and has plans of turning it from a mere resource of information to a full-fledged collaborative work space. In that regard, it's different from Wikipedia, although both wikis use MediaWiki to power the network.

TechCrunch Poll: What Would Make You Switch Search Engines? - 01/09/2009 09:38 PM

Although Google keeps gaining search engine market share, people's loyalties are far from locked in. J.P. Morgan Internet analyst Imran Khan recently conducted a survey to see if Web consumers would be willing to switch search engines. He found that 62 percent would. The biggest reason that would cause them to change? Better search results (45 percent of all respondents said this would make them switch, and 48 percent of respondents who use Google as their main engine). I've recreated the poll below so that you can take it.

Google Gets A New Favicon, Again. It’s Uh.. Colorful - 01/09/2009 08:32 PM

Generally when a site changes its favicon (the tiny image that typically appears next to the URL in your browser) nobody really notices or cares. Unless you're Google. Back in June the company unveiled a brand new stylized 'g' icon with a blue background. It was sleek, but a big departure from the classic G logo that everyone was familiar with. The blue icon made appearances elsewhere, too, and can now be seen on the Google iPhone Mobile App. Now it looks like the company has switched again, this time to a logo that incorporates the same stylized lowercase g, but one that also includes the company's classic yellow/blue/green/red color scheme.

Ex-MySpacers Launch Corkin, A Social Classifieds Portal - 01/09/2009 08:03 PM

Corkin is a new web service that combines classifieds listings with a set of social tools that the company says differentiates it from juggernauts such as Craigslist and eBay's Kijiji. Like corkboards you'd find outside of local supermarkets, libraries and on college campuses, Corkin wants to be the website everyone uses to post free classified ads about anything. Every aspect of Corkin has a social element to it; users can comment on listings, comment on photos, reply to comments, send direct messages, etc. and the company founders believe this makes them a better service than Craigslist, eBay / Kijiji and the countless other classifieds sites you can find on the net. The site sports the same spartan look Craigslist does (but including annoying in-your-face ads), and the founders of Corkin realize that they're going to have to fight an uphill battle trying to beat them.

CES: Interview with Mark Cuban and Bud Mayo - 01/09/2009 07:41 PM

We had a chance to chat with billionaire entrepreneur, Mark Cuban, and CEO of Cinedigm, Bud Mayo, about their work together to bring live 3D entertainment into movie theaters across the country. The technology promises to be a completely different theater-going experience. Cuban even went as far as to call it “the LSD of 2009.”

Leaked Investor Email From Tapulous Say Breakeven December, More Funding, New Products - 01/09/2009 10:40 AM

Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem sent out an email to investors yesterday updating them on the status of the iPhone/Android focused company. It was forwarded to us, and we reprint it below. The company makes the popular Tap Tap Revenge application as well as Tweetsville and others. Like competitor Social Gaming Network, everything they touch seems to turn to gold. In the email Decrem says they have had 5 million unique installs of Tap Tap Revenge and claim it is the third most popular application for the iPhone, after Facebook and Pandora. He also says that they have 100,000 customers who've paid them for apps and they went from no revenue in September to break-even in December, an important milestone. On December 31 the company closed an additional $1 million in funding, Decrem says, adding to the $1.8+ million they had previously raised. He also says Tap Tap Revenge II will release in early February.

Tweetvisor A Contender For Best Alternate Twitter Interface - 01/09/2009 08:17 AM

New site Tweetvisor, created by Nelu Lazar, offers users an alternate interface to view and interact with Twitter that some users will really like. (unlike Tweetree, for example, which I think lacks unique and compelling features). The site places messages from other users directed to you (replies and direct messages) in the sidebar, and offers search in the middle of the screen. Users can save searches and see when new results pop up for that query. But the compelling feature is the ability to easily administer and switch between multiple Twitter accounts. Some users control their business and personal accounts, or just handle lots of different brands. Tweetvisor is the best browser based solution we've seen. It just launched, so don't be surprised if there are hiccups.

For Sale: Germany’s “TechCrunch” - 01/09/2009 06:02 AM

We've been getting quite a few tips about this, and German media outlets are picking up the story like crazy, so here goes: if you were ever in the market for a German blog, now would be a good time to put your money where your mouse is. Robert Basic, famous in German-speaking countries for his blog Basic Thinking, has put the site up for sale on eBay reportedly because he wants to start from scratch again. Basic Thinking is a technology blog which has actually been dubbed the 'German TechCrunch' by some; we'd be honored but we're not sure since we haven't been following it and our German is a little rusty. Basic is really straightforward about the incoming revenue of the blog on the auction listing: it made him about €37,000 gross from display and text link advertisements in 2008. He hasn't been actively selling advertising on the site so he's confident that it could bring in way more revenue, especially considering his status as the German ICT blog and that his Google PageRank could be brought back from 4 to the former 6 by simply removing the text link ads.

Security Risks Force Meebo To Remove Unapproved Facebook Support - 01/09/2009 05:47 AM

Last month meebo, the web-based chat startup that supports nearly every IM protocol, announced that it had added support for both MySpace and Facebook Chat. Meebo's post on the new features was a little strange - while they explicitly thanked "the folks at MySpace who encouraged and helped us to test and gave us their support", there was no such mention of any support from Facebook's side (instead, thanks went out to Eion Robb, who created a Facebook Chat Plugin for Pidgin). And while it's easy to assume that Facebook was simply unwilling to help meebo, it turns out that meebo never asked. Tonight Meebo is announcing that they're removing support for Facebook Chat. From the company's post on the change:

MySpace And Wall Street Journal Partner (?) to Send One MySpacer To Davos - 01/09/2009 05:39 AM

MySpace, like YouTube, is holding a contest to send one MySpace user to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland later this month. MySpace has teamed with the Wall Street Journal on the contest, which is fascinating because (I imagine) there is exactly zero overlap between the stuffy WSJ readership and the hip, chaotically cool MySpace crowd. But they are sister companies under the mammoth News Corp., so maybe they thought it was a good idea to partner up. Anyhow, the contest will make one MySpace user a "special correspondent" to the prestigious event. The winner will be chosen by a panel of experts and given a press pass to Davos.

LogRhythm Joins Effort to Secure Online Payments–Increases Focus On Log Security - 01/09/2009 05:15 AM

LogRhythm just joined the Payment Card Industry Security Council (PCI) with the goal of making log info more secure. While the PCI group is focused on payment security--it was founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc.--the addition of LogRhythm will extend the focus toward making logs across all organizations more secure.

Trusty’s: Yelp Meets LinkedIn For Blue-Collar Workers - 01/09/2009 05:07 AM

Trusty's is a new local search engine/review database for blue collar service workers, aiming to help small businesses establish reputations while giving consumers an easy way to find the services they're looking for. While there are a number of sites out there that allow users to rate their experiences with local services (including countless niche communities), most of them are purely user-generated, and don't give businesses any control over their profiles. Rather than leave all content creation to consumers, Trusty's is taking a different approach. Each company is invited to create their own profile, where they can list their contact information, credentials, and other information that is effectively forms an online resume. Users can visit these profiles and leave ratings and comments that business aren't able to edit without contacting Trusty's (as they would in the case of profanity or obviously misleading reviews).

Slacker for iPhone coming “as soon as tomorrow” - 01/09/2009 04:50 AM

Hungry for some Slacker streaming radio on your iPhone? The BlackBerry app just became available earlier today, and it looks like they're already prepped to go live on Apple's finest. We ran into a Slacker rep tonight at the ShowStoppers CES event, said some magic words, and were presented with Slacker for iPhone in all of its glory - and we've got the screenshots to prove it.

@BreakingNewsOn: From Twitter Account To Public News Wire Service - 01/09/2009 02:50 AM

If you're a news junkie and you're on Twitter, there's a good chance that you're following @BreakingNewsOn, an account that often actually breaks news before any other media organization does, ranging from political news to natural disasters and other noteworthy events from across the globe. As one of the 16400 followers of the account, I caught an announcement last week about the impending launch of BNO News, an extension of the news service to a separate website and a Pledgie entry where people can donate in order to contribute to the launch. I was intrigued and got in touch with founder Michael van Poppel, who set up the account back in May 2007 when he first found out about Twitter and the potential of releasing short news announcements quickly to people opting into it.

CES 2009 omnibus post for Thursday - 01/09/2009 01:57 AM

The CES posts have been coming out like machine gun bullets at CrunchGear, so much so that even we can't keep track of them. But that doesn't mean you should miss the highlights, hands-ons, and sneak peeks that have been going on all day here in Vegas on the first day on the show floor. Here are a few noteworthy posts from today: We got hands-on with:

Rochambeau For The iPhone Almost As Good As Rochambeau With Your Hands - 01/09/2009 01:00 AM

Zerion Software has just released an iPhone version of the playground classic Rochambeau (aka Rock-Paper-Scissors). And while it has some of the worst music I've ever heard, it's actually surprisingly cool. You can download the free app on the App Store here. The game allows you to play against the computer (which is about as fun as flipping a coin and guessing heads or tails), or against one of your friends through network play. Using your phone's network connection (Edge, 3G, or Wi-Fi), you can either tell the phone to pair you up with the first available random opponent online, or use use the AIM instant messaging network to play against your buddies. Players can customize how many rounds each match should last, and can also choose if they'd like to be represented by goofy cartoon characters like cows and chickens. And if you're using AIM, you can use an integrated chat feature to talk smack during the game.

“Hands on” with the Palm Pre - 01/09/2009 12:21 AM

Seeing as everyone in the blogging world is scrambling to get up a Hands-on article on the Palm Pre, I'll go ahead and say this now: if anyone claims to have gotten a true hands-on, they're probably lying. We just got back from a post-announcement, closed doors Palm event where a handful of Pres were being demonstrated. While we could touch the phones, we couldn't actually hold the phone, making it kinda tough to get a real sense of the phone's weight and feel. Regardless, I still want one. Boy oh boy, do I want one. Read on for our experiences. (Video is on the editing rack, by the way - we'll have it up momentarily.)

Hands On With Mattel’s Weird Mindflex Game - 01/08/2009 11:48 PM

Now here's something that will end up at the bottom of the toy box next Christmas. The Mindflex lets you control a floating ball around a little obstacle course. Air bumps and pops the ball through hoops and tubes and ends up frustrating you more than anything else. Click through for a short video.

There Were So Many Votes For The Crunchies, We Needed Some Extra Help Counting Them - 01/08/2009 10:44 PM

The votes for the Crunchies are in. But there were so many, 350,000, that we needed some extra help counting them. In the video above, Mike explains the voting procedures and reveals who we hired to count the votes to make sure nothing goes wrong. These guys are the best at what they do. (Okay, maybe the second best after this guy, but they were all we could afford). All the votes are counted. We won't announce the winners until the award ceremony on Friday night at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. We have some great entertainment lined up, including more videos, the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra, the Richter Scales and a few more special guests. The after-party will be at City Hall, with DJ ZTrip, a game room, a photo gallery, and some gadget giveaways. There are still a few tickets left.

Revamped SoundPedia May Die Before It Ever Sees The Light Of Day - 01/08/2009 10:36 PM

SoundPedia, a Pandora-like music startup that launched back in 2006, just got a brand new UI that puts its dated interface to shame. It's too bad it may never see the light of day. The site, which we once described as A Decent Pandora Substitute For International Listers (Pandora is US-only), has turned into a prime example of what can go wrong when founders lose interest, ownership changes hands, and thousands of miles separate designers from developers.