16 September 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

WEB NEWS Other important new features include password management, and better
optimization for touchscreen phones, meaning that at the bottom of the
Opera Mini 5 Beta Brings Tabs, screen you now have larger icons for important commands: back,
forward, refresh, tab management and settings. There’s also a very
Speed Dial, Better Performance functional virtual keyboard for entering text, something that was sorely
missing in the previous version.
[Mashable]
SEP 16, 2009 05:18A.M. What everyone probably wants to know is: are the web pages displayed
better, and is it faster than the previous version? The answers are yes,
and yes. When it comes to web page rendering, although Opera Mini 4.2
was already miles ahead of the built-in mobile IE, it still wasn’t the
perfect browsing experience. On the new version, it’s comparable to the
iPhone, which is pretty much the highest praise I can give it. As far as
speed goes, it feels snappier, although not drastically faster than before.
But, when it comes to speed, any improvement is very welcome.

If you want to try Opera Mini 5 beta out, visit the address
m.opera.com/next using your phone’s default Web browser.

Reviews: Opera, Safari

Tags: Mini, mobile browser, opera

Opera Mini, the Java-based mobile browser from Opera (which means it
can run on any phone, regardless of platform, that runs Java ME), has a
new version out: Opera Mini 5 Beta.

It brings a number of improvements compared to the previous major

version, Opera Mini 4.2; if your phone is not an iPhone (which uses the
fantastic Safari for web browsing), you should try the new version out, as
it blows away most built-in mobile browsers.

The most important new feature is tabbed browsing; I’ve tried it out on
my Sony Ericsson P1i, and it looks really slick, taking cue from the way
it’s done on the iPhone. Fans of Opera’s Speed Dial feature (which lets
you quickly open your favorite websites from a grid of thumbnails) will
be happy to see that it was included as well. I’ve never used that feature
before, but I have to admit that on a phone like the P1i, being able to
quickly access 9 sites that you often use is great.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS

Alibaba Turns 10 – Aims To

Create 100 Million Jobs,
Employ 10 Million People
[TechCrunch– Aims To Create
100 Million Jobs, Employ 10
Million People]
SEP 16, 2009 04:00A.M.

Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma, a former English teacher, founded Alibaba

in 1999 out of his Hangzhou apartment. Ten years later the company has
grown to China’s second largest Internet company, after digital
entertainment giant Tencent. His company Alibaba.com’s 2007 IPO on
the Hong Kong stock exchange was the second largest Internet offering
ever after Google’s debut on NASDAQ in 2004.

Since 2005, Yahoo! is a strategic shareholder when it acquired 39% of

Alibaba Group for US$ 1 billion. In return Alibaba operates the portal
Yahoo! China, but the secondary role Yahoo! China plays for Alibaba
became evident when Ma shared his vision for the next 10 years of
This is a guest post by Shanghai-based entrepreneur George Godula.
Alibaba during this weekend’s press conference. This was once again
His company Web2Asia partners with Western Internet companies for
underscored yesterday when Yahoo! sold $150 million worth of shares in
market entry in Eastern Asia, and also does early stage investments in
Alibaba.com.
local tech startups.

George had the opportunity this weekend to attend Chinese e-commerce

behemoth Alibaba Group’s 10 year anniversary celebration, dubbed the
“Alifest”.

Alibaba is best known for its international B2B e-commerce and sourcing
market place Alibaba.com, but also operates Taobao – the “eBay of
China” and largest C2C Internet retail web site, Alimama – an online
advertising exchange and affiliate network – as well as Alipay, China’s
most popular third-party online payment system modelled after Paypal
but offering additional features such as escrow services.

Jack’s dream is to focus on empowering and encouraging small and

medium sized enterprises (SME’s) across the globe and it centers around
3 major goals for the next 10 years:

Goal 1: 10 million people “work at” Alibaba

By “working at” Jack symbolically referred to millions of SME

entrepreneurs that will not literally be employed by Alibaba but are
turned to “netrepeneurs” and independently utilize and work online with

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Alibabas trade platforms and software solutions: world’s largest economy, even the third proclaimed goal by Jack Ma can
seem plausible:
Alisoft was established in January 2007 and offers software as a service
solutions for SME’s. In July 2009, Alisoft was merged with Alibaba Goal 3: 1 billion people trading on Alibaba Group’s platforms
Group R&D Institute to lay a solid technology foundation to further
develop Alibaba Group’s businesses. At the same time Alibaba Group The roadway to Alibabas most eager goal was visualized to us
this weekend announced the establishment of a new subsidiary focusing impressively when Alibaba.com’s CEO David Wei gave us an exclusive
on cloud computing. In the medium run, it is evident that Alibaba will tour of his company’s new headquarters. (Which by the way also has a
strive to emerge as a leading software solution provider for SME’s, basketball court inaugurated by another of Jack Ma’s friends Kobe
eventually competing with Western players such as Salesforce.com. Bryant, who was also present in Hangzhou this weekend)

David presented us Alibaba’s realtime trading statistics generated from

the three pillars of its business: international trade, domestic Chinese
wholesale and domestic Chinese retail. (the according graphs can be seen
in the picture above from left to right).

During the time of our visit last Friday evening at around 7pm Chinese
time, 2.87 million concurrent users were active on Alibaba.com’s B2B
portal. According to David the daily average concurrent user number is 4
million, around 10% of its 42.8 million worldwide registered users. The
groups domestic C2C e-commerce marketplace Taobao holds around
78% of the online consumer market in China. As of mid-2009, it served
156 million registered users. Transaction volume on Taobao reached
nearly US$ 11.8 billion in the first half of 2009, and by that exceeded the
largest retailer in China in transaction volume during the same period.

David continued to say that “Alibaba’s combined trading statistic give us

Goal 2: 100 million new jobs created worldwide by Alibaba
3-6 months lead time to predict Chinas domestic trade and export
volumes”. These are without doubts immensely powerful insights to
A megalomaniac target at first glance, this could very well become reality
possibly the biggest driver of our current world economy. Not without
when considering Alibabas resources and Jack Ma’s obviously wide-
reason, Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma was one of the first to recognize the
reaching personal connections that became more apparent to me
economic downturn in February last year, when he predicted “a though
through the course of Alifest.
(economic) winter is coming, dark clouds are forming and the thunder is
coming closer” during the annual Alibaba all-employee conference.
In May 2007, Alibaba.com introduced the Ali-loan program offering
“Today, the darkest period for Chinese exporters is over”, Alibaba’s CEO
financing to small Chinese businesses in partnership with leading
David Wei confirmed to us.
Chinese banks. This model was now hinted to be extended across other
countries in cooperation with Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen bank. The
I asked David to tell us more about AliExpress – a new international
second corner stone to achieve this goal involves Alibabas training
wholesale platform for small-sum orders from its Alibaba.com database
department, Ali-Institute that was upgraded this July to become a new
of Chinese manufacturers. He confirmed “the platform is still in beta but
profit-oriented business unit under Alibaba.com.
bound to launch in rather weeks than months from now”. The service
offers minimum orders as low as 1 item, escrow payment and delivery
During the cleverly staged Alifest program speakers such as Nobel prize
with full tracking. Advertising “factory prices on even the smallest
winner Muhammad Yunus, former president Bill Clinton (both over
orders” the service is de facto a B2C marketplace just like Amazon and in
video) and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz underpinned the importance
part eBay that connects the Chinese manufacturers on Alibabas existing
of fostering SME development across developing nations and endorsed
B2B portal Alibaba.com with the US consumer market. It will also be the
Alibabas global efforts. This is quite remarkably for a Chinese company.
first international roll out of Alibaba’s online payment and escrow
Provided, you still consider it as such: “In 10 years we wont make
system Alipay now competing with PayPal China in fight for Chinese
differences between local or international companies any more, but only
SME merchants. Alipay currently facilitates about 4 million online
between differences in integrity”, Jack Ma said during his speech this
payments worth up to US$100 million per day. It surpassed 200 million
weekend.
registered users in early July 2009.

All points considered Alibaba is indeed in a powerful position to shape

the worlds economy in the coming decade. Taking Alibabas already
undisputed status among SME manufacturers in what is soon to become

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications,

Delivered Daily.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

With AliExpress the company for the first time attacks eBay directly in
its home market. In China the US company already lost against Alibabas
Taobao, giving up its domestic eBay platform and partially selling it to
Chinese Internet group TOM Online in 2006. Not included in that sale,
however was eBays and PayPals cross-boarder business of Chinese
merchants selling to US consumers, that continues to be operated by
PayPal China itself. This remaining eBay asset is now under serious
threat, with Alibaba entering the B2C export business.

The move nevertheless comes with many risks for Alibaba. Only in
December last year, Alibaba’s competitor Global Sources Direct, a
division of NASDAQ-listed online sourcing platform Global Sources,
announced it would discontinue its wholesale services. The platform was
established in 2005 as a joint venture between Global Sources and eBay.
A major part of the failure was attributed to the fact, that in such a cross
national market place setting, it is impossible for its operator to
guarantee quality, availability and delivery times. Instead it has to rely
on the goodwill of its merchants, which in a developing market like
China is a huge challenge. It remains to be seen how Alibaba can solve
this problem better than its competitors.

Additionally to its international challenges Alibaba Group is under

constant attack from rising Chinese rivals such as Baidu’s new C2C e-
commerce platform Youa. Since the end of last year China’s number one
search engine Baidu.com has blocked all Taobao merchants offers in its
natural search results, leading to a huge loss of search volume. In
retaliation Alibaba Group, previously one of the biggest ad spenders on
Baidu, stopped all its PPC campaigns.

In the “Art of War”, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu writes

“concentrate your energy and hoard your strength”. However, Alibaba’s
Jack Ma seems to ignore this advice by competing on multiple
battlefields both at home and abroad, potentially stretching his
company’s resources too thin. Yet the man reinforced his modesty in
yesterdays closing speech when he said “looking back we are now a big
company, but looking ahead we are still a very small company”. Having
seen Ma passionately in action this weekend, it is clear that he’s lost none
of the tireless energy that has made him successful, instead gaining in
charisma and determination that will be necessary for the next 10 years
ahead.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS

Zune HD’s UI: The Full Tour

[TechCrunch]
SEP 16, 2009 03:13A.M.

The Zune HD is upon us, and whether you love it or hate it, you have to
admit that it is devilishly good-looking. I happen to think it’s also a great
media player, based on my day with it and on previous demos, but the WEB NEWS
final judgment will come in a day or two with the full review. In the
meantime, I’m sure a lot of people have been waiting on a decent The Onion Launches a News
walkthrough of the Zune HD’s interface. I’ve got just that for you, in HD
no less, so click that play button and get an in-depth tour of the music iPhone App … Without Any
and video navigation, browser, and marketplace.
News [Mashable… Without Any
TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San
Francisco News]
SEP 16, 2009 01:04A.M.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

There is nothing like The Onion in print, on the web, or anywhere else.
“America’s Finest News Source” has provided us with constant laughs
from its satirical writing, witty headlines, and of course, hilarious video
shorts.

Until now, The Onion was limited to print and that square rectangle you
call a computer screen. As of today though, it has become available on
the iPhone app store: The Onion Microfiche. But we’re talking about The
Onion here, so of course it doesn’t work like a normal news application. WEB NEWS

What’s so different about The Onion, you ask? How about this: you TC50: The Video [TechCrunch]
can’t read any articles. There’s a reason they call this thing The SEP 16, 2009 12:58A.M.
Onion Microfiche: it’s all headlines. Yes, you flick your finger and a
new headline comes up. No longer is there the need (or ability) to read The conference is over, the winner has been announced (RedBeacon),
full-length stories. It’s the ultimate in time-saving news technology! and the drinking has begun. Thank you so much to all of the companies
(both the finalists and in the Demopit), the sponsors, and the attendees
who made this year’s TechCrunch50 possible.

We’ve put up more than a hundred posts in the past two days, covering
every single launch, and then some. So there’s a lot to absorb. But for
now here’s a video that captures some of the spirit of the event.

Video by Animoto. Song by Chamillionaire (who jumped in as a judge at

the last minute).

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
Job2.0

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

As The Onion told us in an email today, “clearly, it will revolutionize the

news business.” Oh, and did we mention that the app has some random
background sound? We think it’s a printing press…but it could be
anything, knowing them.

In all seriousness though, the core of the $0.99 app is the headlines, but
it does also offer an easy way to share stories via Twitter and Facebook,
the ability to favorite stories, and easy access to The Onion’s audio and
video podcasts so you won’t miss another segment on how to stalk your
kids on Facebook.

It’s a simple app, but at under a dollar, it’s likely worth your money just
so you can be witty (or get blank stares) at your next cocktail party.

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: iphone, the onion

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Sponsor

WEB NEWS

No Joke, The Onion Releases

iPhone Microfiche Reader
[Read Write Web]
SEP 16, 2009 12:21A.M.

Will this “flip through the stories” application end up making more
money than Google’s too-serious (yet light-weight) Fast Flip, launched
yesterday? That doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibilities.

Discuss

Comedy website The Onion has released an iPhone application called

The Onion Microfiche Reader. It’s pretty cool. The app lets you flip
through very short joke-headlines in an interface that looks like the old
microfiche readers. There’s no satire news stories associated, just funny
headlines. The Onion understands that “you must be very busy to have
such an important phone.”

The app also offers easy download of the company’s video and audio
podcasts and easy sharing on Facebook and Twitter. It’s definitely worth
the 99 cents they are charging for it. Unless you’re broke, in which case
don’t bother.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS Discuss

CitySourced gives Ranters an

iPhone App [Read Write Web]
SEP 15, 2009 11:46P.M.

Are you pissed off about potholes, graffiti or broken street lights? Similar
to the Federal government’s efforts with Data.gov and Google’s recent
Public Sector release, CitySourced is offering users a chance to take
government matters into their own hands. This year’s TC50 third place
runner-up, CitySourced is a crowd pleaser on a number of levels. If
you’re the type of person who writes letters to congressmen, editors and
counsillors, you’re likely to help power this app.

Sponsor

WEB NEWS
CitySourced offers citizens a chance to photograph their local pet peeves
directly from their iPhones. Users send their pictures and complaints to Top 10 Kanye West Interruption
their local municipalities with a couple clicks. From here, governments
are recognize the needs of their constituencies and are forced to take Parodies [Mashable]
action. SEP 15, 2009 11:28P.M.

While programs like Apps for America and Apps for Democracy work to
crowd source programmer-driven applications, CitySourced can be
utilized by a non-technical user. In addition to the decision-making data
being generated from this service, cities also offer users an active outlet
for their frustrations. Instead of sending out arbitrary rants and
suggestions to their Twitter accounts, users still get a chance to complain
while receiving a direct line to their municipal reps. If cities have the
courage to make these complaints public, the site could become as
entertaining as Craigslist’s Best Of page while still maintaining its
usefulness.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock that doesn’t have Wi-Fi or a 3G
signal, you’ve probably heard about Kanye West’s outburst at the Video
Music Awards.

Being the bizarre and wonderfully creative place that it is, The Internets
quickly came to the rescue with a slew of parodies, mashups and
Photochops of even better Kanye interruptions.

In this feature we’ll take a look at some of the best and brightest an
always-on culture with way too much time on its hands can deliver when
faced with viral video of celebrities behaving badly.

10. Yo Shaq

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

7. Yo Jesus

[Tommy Oliver via rocdiesel]

[WeeGee, via rocdiesel] 6. Best Single Serving Website

9. Yo Mario

This one really speaks for itself.

5. Yo Keyboard Cat
[I’mma Let You Finish]

8. Twitter Twibbon

What’s better than giving Kanye a way to interrupt absolutely everyone

on Twitter? Not much.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Surely one of the very few odes to the Magna Carta witnessed in recent
memory.

1. Yo Obama
[I’mma Let You Finish]

4. Hitler Reacts
Kanye even managed to one-up Congressman Joe Wilson by interrupting
President Obama’s health care reform speech. Obama still had the last
word, though!
Not an interruption per se, but this adaptation of Downfall still deserves
a spot on the list of Kanye interruption parodies. Do you have a favorite Kanye Interruption remix or mashup? Let us
know in the comments! You can even make your own thanks to the
3. Yo Palin Kanye West Apology Generator — link us to your version when you do!

Tags: funny, internet memes, interruptions, kanye west, mashups,

parodies, remix culture, vmas

Tina Fey is a better Palin than Palin.

2. Yo Declaration of Independence

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS Francisco

RedBeacon Wins The Top Prize

At TechCrunch50 2009
[TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 11:04P.M.

The 50 startup presentations are over, the judges votes are in, Michael
and Jason chewed over the top contenders, and the winner of this year’s
TechCrunch50 is RedBeacon. The startup aims to help consumers find
local service providers such as plumbers, bakers, and contractors. As we
described in our initial write-up:

RedBeacon is a new service making its public debut today at

TechCrunch50 that further streamlines this process by
bringing the OpenTable model of online transactions to much
broader spectrum of services.

Using the site will be easy for anyone who has used a local
review service like Yelp. Simply type whatever service you’re
looking for (be it plumber, gardener, or hair stylist), and the
site will present a list of recommended service providers in
your area. RedBeacon also employees natural language
processing so it can figure out exactly what you’re looking for
(for example, “Cupcake maker” would search for any bakers
in the area). The site will then present a list of profiles for
each match, featuring reviews and comments from other
users, basic information like their hours, and star reviews
imported from Yelp.

The founders of RedBeacon—Ethan Anderson, Yaron Binur, and Aaron

Lee—are former Google product managers and engineers.

This year’s TechCrunch50 was much closer than in previous years, with
the quality level of the companies being high across the board. The three
runner’s up for the top TechCrunch50 prize are Threadsy, AnyClip, and
CitySourced.

The best presentation goes to iMo, and the best international goes to
Trollim

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications,

Delivered Daily.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS Tags: facebook, fans, nonprofit, youtube

YouTube Races to Be #1 … on
Facebook [Mashable… on
Facebook]
SEP 15, 2009 10:08P.M.

WEB NEWS

TC50: Demopit Winner Chyngle

Creates In-Pocket Mobile
Marketing Apps For Stadiums
[TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 09:12P.M.

First we had the race to 1 million followers on Twitter (let the history
books show that Ashton won). But did you know that a similar battle is
brewing over the most Facebook fans?

YouTube thinks they can take the title, and to make things more
interesting they’re also allowing their Facebook fans to choose which
nonprofit’s videos the site will feature on its homepage at the end of the
race.

With 14 days left to go in a 60-day Facebook fan-off, YouTube has gained

more than half a million new fans so far but has even farther to go to
reach the top spot, having dropped from #12 to #16 thanks to faster
growth from some others near the top. Google’s popular video-sharing What if the next time you went to a football game, there was an iPhone
site apparently faces still competition from Michael Jackson, Barack app for that stadium that listed all the bathrooms nearest you, all the
Obama, Vin Diesel, and Facebook itself, not to mention pizza and, well, food stalls (with menus and the ability to order from your seat), a button
sleep. to contact medical assistance, and the ability to find car pools back
home? One of today’s Demopit winners at TechCrunch50 is Chyngle, has
YouTube appears to be a good sport though, and regardless of their created a branded app for the University of Michigan which does just
position at the end of the campaign on September 28 they’ll be featuring that.
a nonprofit organization on their homepage that day. If you become a fan
of YouTube you can use the poll in the left-hand sidebar to vote on which Chyngle’s branded apps use GPS to find out your location and discover
organization should be featured. services and people nearby. It shows them as red dots on a seating chart
of the stadium. If you want to order a slice of pizza, you can send an SMS
Let us know if you help out YouTube’s cause and who you vote for in the message to one of the pizza vendors and they will deliver it to your seat.
nonprofit featured poll. Please also let us know why Vin Diesel has so CEO Todd Sullivan calls it “in-pocket marketing.”
many Facebook fans.
If you want to find tickets for sale by other fans or a ride home, the app
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube lets you call them anonymously (the calls are routed through Chyngle).

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

The company charges the venue a $2,000 a month for the app, and can WEB NEWS
create custom apps for any event location.
TC50 Backstage: Reid Hoffman
During the Q&A, the judges suggest changing the name. “My second
company was called Plaxo,” says Sean Parker, “people thought it was a on a LinkedIn IPO and What
dental problem.” They also suggested making it a free app and creating
different ones for every big venue like Madison Square Gardens Startups May Beat Him Out
Todd Sullivan [TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 09:12P.M.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology
companies, people, and investors

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

Here’s the thing I love about Reid Hoffman. There’s no “We-don’t-

comment-on-rumors-and-speculation” BS with him. You ask him a
question and he gives you an answer.

So you don’t need a bunch of words from me, just go to the jump and
watch our final backstage interview of the conference where Hoffman
talks about whether LinkedIn will buy Xing and whether it’ll file to go
public this year.

Also, Hoffman names the three other tech companies he thinks can price
pretty much whenever they want. (And lucky him, he’s an investor in
two.)

CrunchBase Information

Reid Hoffman

Information provided by CrunchBase

CrunchBase Information

LinkedIn

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and
hardware.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San WEB NEWS

Francisco
TC50: Demopit Winner
Socialwok Lays A Great Social
Layer Over Google Apps
[TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 09:09P.M.

Google Docs has changed the landscape of computing office suites. By

moving everything to the cloud, accessing documents is easier now than
it ever has been. But unlike a lot of the other things Google is working on,
Google Docs isn’t particularly social. Socialwok, a startup that won the
demopit competition today at TechCrunch50 adds a great social layer to
Google Docs.

Right now, if you want to share a document via Google Docs, most
people do it by emailing it to other users. The process to do this is very
clunky — even though Google obviously runs not only Google Docs, but a
hugely popular email service, Gmail. If you try to IM a document to
someone, you either have to make it fully public, or put a persons email
address in to make sure they’re on a safe list for that document.
Socialwok simplifies all of this immensely because its a social network
that wraps around these documents.

But it’s not just Google Docs, it’s really a lot of Google Apps. You can see
YouTube video, and Google Calendar events from Socialwok too. And
Calendar integration is particularly nice because you can update and post
items right from your stream.

If you are a FriendFeed user, Socialwok will look very familiar — the UI
is nearly identical. The difference is that rather than having YouTube
videos, tweets, and the like in your stream, you have all the various kinds
of Google documents. This even includes the still-in-beta-testing Google
Wave.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

You can leave comments on these items (or if it’s Google Wave, pull in
the whole Wave), as well as easily share via the various social networks
including Twitter, Facebook and yes, FriendFeed. There is also a Twitter-
esque, “What are you doing now” box to input messages.

Obviously, security has to be a concern here. Not all of your documents

have to be shared with everyone in your Socialwok network. But there
are groups you can create to limit document sharing.

Socialwok has a mobile interface that is just as robust as the web

interface. They built the mobile website relying heavily on HTML5, so it
works as well as Gmail’s mobile web app works, we’re told.

But what’s really great with Socialwok is that rather than having to sign
up for yet another social network, you sign in to Socialwok simply by
using your Google credentials (the ones tied to your Google Docs
account). The company has been working pretty extensively with Google
to get all of this working so seamlessly.

Simply put, if Google doesn’t buy these guys, they should seriously
consider emulating many of the things they are doing or at least heavily
promoting what they’re doing. (If there isn’t enough Google tie-ins for
you already, all of Socialwok runs on Google App Engine.)

Until then, the business model for Socialwok is a freemium model. There
will be a basic free version and paid subscriptions will get additional
administrative features and dedicated support.

Watch more in the demo video below:

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
Job2.0

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications,

Delivered Daily.
TC50 Backstage: Why Dick
TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San
Costolo Joined Twitter and the Francisco

Magic Acquisition Number

[TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 09:01P.M.

It’s 5 p.m. and we’re in the homestretch! The experts and the Twitterers
seem to be less impressed with the companies this afternoon than the
ones this morning. That or we’re all just getting tired after 40-something
demos.

So lucky for us that some of the most influential and interesting judges
were left for the final panel. I caught up with one of my favorites, Dick
Costolo, who most people know as the new COO of Twitter, others know
as the former co-founder of Feedburner and far fewers know as a former
improv comedian.

Costolo and I talked about why he gave up a plush post-acquisition

Chicago life to move to Silicon Valley and run the day-to-day Twitter
operations, when it’s a good idea to hire your friends and when it isn’t,
Twitter’s magic acquisition number, and why startup M&A is like
teenage crushes.

Also, Twitter CEO Evan Williams has been outspoken about not enjoying
his time at Google after the Blogger acquisition. Others have cited that as
a reason Twitter may not sell to Google in the future. I asked Costolo
whether he had the same experience.

Video is on the jump.

CrunchBase Information

Dick Costolo

Information provided by CrunchBase

16
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS meaningful recommendations virtually in real-time. This will

support the discoverability of new entertainment experiences
Facebook Envy? MySpace across music, videos, friends and more.

Open-Sources Recommendation There could be a lot of useful applications of this technology, but just like
Facebook, MySpace hopes that it will get companies connecting to
Framework [Mashable] MySpace more often. Who will use the newly released code and how they
SEP 15, 2009 09:01P.M. will use it remains to be seen.

Reviews: Facebook, FriendFeed, Google, MySpace

Tags: facebook, myspace, Qizmt, Tornado

WEB NEWS

TC50: Meet The Whuffie, A New

Currency That’s Based On Your
Online Reputation
[TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 08:41P.M.
Facebook made waves last week when it released the code behind
Tornado Web Server, the framework that powers some of the
functionality behind FriendFeed, which Facebook acquired last month.
While the move was a nice gesture to the development community, it’s
not as if Facebook did this without a purpose. Specifically, they hope
Tornado will get more websites connected to Facebook using higher-
speed connections.

MySpace is probably looking to get the same result from Qizmt,

MySpace’s MapReduce framework. In an interesting move, the company
open-sourced the code behind the environment, which powers
technology such as MySpace’s “People You May Know” feature.

What’s a MapReduce framework, anyway? MySpace explains that, as

well as the benefits of Qizmit, in an announcement earlier today: It’s a sad fact of life that many of the most insightful and helpful people
on the web (and in real life, for that matter) aren’t financially rewarded
MapReduce environments are used by sites with large for their efforts — they may well be satisfied with the good they’ve done,
amounts of data, such as Google and Amazon. Similarly, but that doesn’t help to pay the rent. The Whuffie Bank, a new non-profit
MySpace’s millions of users consume and produce video, organization that’s launching today at TechCrunch50, wants to fix this by
music and other content every minute, which constantly launching a new currency that rewards people for their positive
results in very large sets of new data. Qizmt can process both contributions on the web.
data generated by our users (active data) and data generated
by our analytics system (passive data) and transform it into The startup is hoping to promote change in the web by rewarding users

17
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

with a positive impact on the web with this karma-like digital currency.
The service will monitor your activity across various websites, including
things like comments, posts, and more. When you complete positive
actions, you gain Whuffies, and you lose them when you do something
that the organization deems to be detrimental. The company hopes that
as we use the web more and more in our day-to-day life this positivity
will extend beyond the web.

To get started you enter your username on Twitter (Facebook support

will be coming). The site displays how many Whuffies you have, along
with a graph of your progress over time. The site ranks its users by
Whuffies, in the hopes of helping surface the top users in different fields.

The algorithm takes into account ‘public endorsements’, or the number

of times a user’s tweets are retweeted, or a Facebook post is Liked. It also
takes into account who is making the endorsement, and the content in
the messages that are being posted. You can make offers to other users
using Whuffies as payment (for example, I could ask someone to help me
draw a logo, offering 100 Whuffies as payment).

The company says it was inspired by the Creative Common nonprofit

model.

Q&A with panelists Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman, Sean Parker, Mike
Schroepfer, Chamillionaire, and Robert Scoble:
RH: The problem with this kind of currency is you need banking
system… There are people on the web whose political views mean
nothing to me. This will be very difficult, but as a concept I think it’s
cool.
DC: I was thinking about Reid’s comment and the interesting thing
about virtual currencies is that even when they’re not scarce, you can
make people think they’re scarce. In Zynga, chips cost a certain amount
of money. It’s a challenge to incite scarcity, but you can do it. We’ve seen
things like this before.
Chamillionaire: I want to hear in one line, what do I get? Seems like a lot
of work..
A: We try to have ways to detect people who are trying to exploit the
system. This project isn’t sustained on accumulation of work or capital.
In order to be wealthy, you have to be respected by other people that are
important.
Calacanis: Mike, doesn’t Facebook have a social currency going on that’s
unspoken?
MS: I think the devil is in the details. It depends on context. I could say
they have lots of likes and comments. It means they post interesting
things, but what does that mean.
A: Purpose of making this non-profit. Guaranteed that it would make
this independent of any social platform out there, ensures transparency.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and
hardware.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

18
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS

Going Viral in 6 Questions, Part

One: Spymaster [Read Write
Web]
SEP 15, 2009 08:38P.M.

In your opinion or experience, was it media coverage,

influencer buzz, or both that contributed to a large group of
users signing up?

“Especially on Twitter,” said Abad, “everyone is really big on ‘influencer

buzz,’ but I don’t feel that was a very big factor with Spymaster. There
really wasn’t as much as we were hoping for in that area.”
Many web apps claim virality; very few actually find it.
Even without top Twitter users getting into the app, however, Abad said
other factors were at work to create the viral effect, the first being media
In a new series exploring the anatomy of truly viral apps, our first attention.
specimen is Spymaster, the Twitter- and Facebook-based social game
that exploded with tens of thousands of users within hours of the “The media buzz (there was a lot in the first few weeks of Spymaster)...
creators throwing up a simple page and absolutely no media coverage. provided the fuel. And some of the intentional viral mechanics built into
From creating addiction to managing site traffic, read on to learn how Spymaster, things such as public activity updates, DM invites, common
they did it and what they’re doing next. hashtags, etc., were really the vehicles through which the word of
Spymaster spread.”
Sponsor
Some of those mechanisms were not too appreciated by users; and as the
tide of Spymaster-themed, auto-generated tweets swelled from users
What kinds of outreach did you do during the early days? who were given in-game incentives to keep on tweeting, irritation
became a public outcry and threats of unfollowing circulated.
Chris Abad, CEO of Irata Labs, the company that developed Spymaster,
revealed that their early promotions were extremely minimal Still, back-and-forth banter and “assassination” plots were the guilty
pleasure of many an early adopter and even a few tech bloggers (guilty!).
“We threw up a splash page, but didn’t talk about it too much. Really, our
first ‘outreach effort’ was sending out some invites to a few of our
friends, and things ended up taking off on our own from there.”

To give some context, Abad told me that I personally had signed up for
the game within a couple hours of its launch; by that point, I had already
seen a few tweets and a DM about the site and was completely intrigued.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

What about Spymaster do you think made people want to sign Most important to apps that aim for virality, he continued, is that the
up and start using the app? push for user adoption and ever-increasing traffic can never stop or slow.
Especially when your app unexpectedly explodes out of its petri dish and
Abad said that design, fun, and a certain addictive factor made takes over the lab, “That’s no time to let up on the gas.
Spymaster irresistable to early users.
“Critical mass is often one of those things where you don’t know what it
“People wanted to try it because it was an interesting, well-executed is until you’ve already passed it, so you push even harder.”
game. For a web-based, social game, the creative around Spymaster was
phenomenal. [Read our interview with Spymaster designer Eston Bond Abad also said “social” apps should be social by design. “This doesn’t
for more background on designing web apps.] Also, as people played it, mean throwing an inviter screen in there a few days before launch...
they found the gameplay to be interesting (even addicting at times). Work the tools into that process that make it easy for your users to
spread the word to their friends.”
In short, it was something fun to do.”
Also, he said, “Your most passionate users are often your best marketers.
Also, he noted that there was a particular novelty to Spymaster. It was Treat them well, and reward them for evangelizing your brand.”
the first massively scaled Twitter-based game, and within a day or two of
its launch, he said, “It quickly got to the point where it felt like everybody
was doing it, and a lot of people would check us out just to see what all
the buzz was about.”

What did you learn about handling massive amounts of

traffic? In your case, were there unexpected traffic spikes?

Spymaster lead architect Ben Myles said, “We had some huge traffic in
the early days of launch from all the press we garnered. It wasn’t
completely unexpected, but it was also a
week of non-stop optimizations and maintenance.”

So, what did the Spymaster technical team do to counterbalance a

massive wave of user traffic?

“We did some obvious and simple things,” said Myles, “like moving the
majority of our static assets to [Amazon] S3. When we first launched Bonus round! What’s next for the Spymaster team?
Spymaster our data store was primarily MySQL. We started hitting some
concurrency issues with MySQL, and over the period of a few weeks we “We do have some pretty exciting stuff we’re working on right now,” said
moved most of our data into a key/value store (Tokyo Tyrant). The Abad. “It’s still a little early to get too far into it, but we do hint at the
success we had with Tokyo Tyrant exceeded our expectations and our new project here.” Our guess is as good as yours for the moment, but
scaling since we made that shift has been relatively painless.” we’re guessing at a deep-sea adventure that, like Spymaster, will test our
limits and exceed our expectations.
What are your future plans for scaling, including
internationally? “More than anything,” Abad concluded, “Spymaster was about
innovating in the social gaming space. It was about answering the
As most users have noticed, Spymaster has expanded over the past few question, ‘What can we do that’s unique and outside-the-box?’ We
months to include Facebook, MySpace, and iPhone apps in addition to pushed a few boundaries with Spymaster, and had a lot of fun doing it.
the original Twitter game. With our next project, we’re taking a lot of the ideas and lessons that
came out of Spymaster and pushing that mentality even further.”
“We also proactively advertise, and have a growing user base in other
English-speaking countries,” said Abad. If the web 2.0 dictum “Once, you’re lucky; twice, you’re good” holds
water, this next app will show whether Abad and his team have found a
If you could pass on one piece of advice to the founders of the pathway to Internet virality or whether Spymaster was simply a lucky
Next Big Social App on how to get a critical mass of users, what strike. But after dissecting this truly viral blockbuster of a game, aspiring
would you tell them? startups might put less weight on luck and make a study of the
Spymaster method.
“Experiment,” said Abad. “Try different things until you find something
that ‘catches.’” Discuss

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

WEB NEWS

iPhone Recession Case Is Just a

Buck [PIC] [Mashable[PIC]]
SEP 15, 2009 08:26P.M.

Of course, the case makers did have to skimp on a few features in order
to meet their price point, so watch out for water, flames, and paper cuts.
If you don’t believe us, just read a few of the product Q&A’s. Funny thing
is, I still kind of want one. Don’t you?

Q) Is it waterproof?
A) No, so dont put it in the dishwasher
If you spent your entire discretionary income on a new iPhone 3GS, or
any iPhone for that matter, and don’t have enough funds left over for a Q) Is this case flammable?
spiffy protective case, then Case-Mate has the perfect solution — the A) If you light it on fire it is
iPhone recession case.
Q) How does this case stay together?
The cardboard case is totally legit, getting rave reviews (okay there’re A) It has locking tabs at the bottom and top of the case, as
only 3), and will only set you back 99 cents. You can even buy the well as an adhesive strip to keep the case held together
“BAILOUT BUNDLE,” which comes with 10 cases for just under 8 bucks.
Q) Can I use this case to microwave my frozen pizzas?
The recession case essentially puts your iPhone in a protective cardboard A) I dont see why not, although we cant insure quality taste
box that you assemble using the locking tabs and an adhesive strip.
“Sharpie Script” customization is a free additive, so you can have the case Q) Will this case make me awesome?
makers personalize your purchase with the hand-written text of your A) I think that goes without saying
choosing.
Q) Is there a warranty?
A) no, it is cardboard afterall

21
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Q) Can I get a paper cut on my ear while using this case? WEB NEWS
A) My first guess would be no, but anything is possible, we
dont promote unsafe use of the recession case TC50: Clixtr Launches
Q) How long will the case be sold? Location-Aware Photo Sharing
A) as long as it needs to be to get us out of this recession! or
while supplies last For The iPhone [TechCrunch]
SEP 15, 2009 08:26P.M.
Q) Does it come with a screen protector?
A) no we are in a recession!

Q) How long will the product last?

A) forever as long as you don’t destroy it!

Q) Is this case made from recycled cardboard?

A) 100% of only the best for you!

Q) Will the product scratch my device?

A) no! its cardboard not brick!

[via Geekologie]

Tags: iphone, iphone recession case

We’ve all been there: the classic group photo, with twelve friends side by
side doing their best to look as happy as humanly possible. The first shot
is easy — but wait, the guy next to you has their own camera, so it’s time
for another one. And then another. Soon muscle fatigue kicks in, and
those happy smiles fade into grimaces as everyone wonders why isn’t an
easier way to share their photos. Cue Clixtr, a new location-based photo
sharing platform that’s launching today at TechCrunch50. The app is
available on the App Store now, and you can download it now for $2.99
here.

Clixtr’s service is primarily designed for concerts, weddings, and other

major events where lots of people are taking lots of photos, with no good
way to aggregate them all together. The service revolves around an
iPhone application that uses the smartphone’s integrated camera, data
connection, and GPS to faciliate quick photo uploads to a shared album.
Using it is simple: take a photo, and upload it to Clixtr. If the app detects
that you’re near where a lot of other people are uploading media, it will
group them into an album.

You can browse these albums directly from the iPhone app in a stream
view. You can also use an ‘explore’ function, which uses the phone’s GPS
to locate any events that are going on at any nearby events. To create an
event, you simply enter a descriptive name, and then invite friends who
are nearby to view and participate in the album.

Of course, photo sharing sites have been around for ages. But few of
them are really based around location — instead, you usually have to
create an album and manually invite each of your friends. If you don’t
have someone’s contact information they’re out of luck, and the whole
process can be time consuming and tedious.

22
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Q&A with panelists Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman, Sean Parker, Mike
Schroepfer, and Robert Scoble:
MS: I think that was awesome. I’m curious how you can do mapping to
events. Do you have to be invited.

Michael Arrington: full disclosure for MS, at some point, you will have
location. MS: It’s something we’d like to do…
A: When you launch the application, we show events that are nearby.
Events are server side and sent back donw.

RS: My phone doesn’t let you do anything while it uploads the photo. But
it’s a nice install. Don’t have to do signup.

Q: How does it make money

A: Costs less than a cup of coffee at 2.99. Possibly location based
advertising.

RH: I think doing local photo could be good. I would up incentive for
participation. One thing that could be distinctive for when Facebook app
starts doing their own. If all my friends are already on graph A
(Facebook), that’s hard. You’ll need to up level of incentive to participate.
DC: I would look at what Foursquare is doing, with the game element.
People want to be mayor of a certain place. WEB NEWS

Video: TC50: Simply Add A Social

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology Network To Any Site With
companies, people, and investors
Stribe [TechCrunch]
TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San SEP 15, 2009 08:15P.M.
Francisco

The idea of adding a social network to any site is a compelling one.

Currently, most sites do this by creating their own networks using service
like Facebook Groups and Ning. But those obviously aren’t actually your
own site, they are other sites set up under your site’s name. Stribe’s goal
is to move the network back onto your site.

The service, opening to the public today at Techcrunch50, provides a free

and easy way to place a social networking layer over any site. This layer
exists on your site in the form of a bar at the bottom of the page. This is
not unlike the Meebo chat bar that you may have seen on this site and
others recently. But Meebo was really only about chat (and sharing),
Stribe wants this bar to be a full-fledged social network on your site,
including members, comments, and yes, chat.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect offer some of this

functionality, but again, that’s not actually your social network, it’s
Google or Facebook’s social layer laid on top of your site. As such,
neither of those are very customizable, at all. Stribe is completely
customizable if you know what you’re doing (or have a developer who
does). Maybe you don’t want the bar at the bottom of the site — you can
move it. Maybe you don’t want it to be the default black — you can
change it. But if you just want the defaults, it’s as easy as installing one
bit of JavaScript code onto your site to get it working.

People who register to be a member of your site by way of Stribe also

become members of the larger Stribe community. This means that if you
have a friend who is a member of another Stribe-powered network, you
can still chat with them even when you’re on different sites.

Stribe will run on the “freemium” model, offering much of their service Video:
for free, but charging a fee to those customers who are of a certain size
(according to site traffic). That will range from $10 to $50 a month to use Other Coverage
Stribe to create a social network for your site. Connected communities matter: Introducing Stribe Stribe.

CEO Kamel Zeroual and CTO Gael Delalleau presented at the conference CrunchBase Information
today.

Stribe
Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased)

Information provided by CrunchBase

The experts: Robert Scoble, Sean Parker, Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman,
Mike Schroepfer, Chamillionaire Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
Job2.0
MS: No integration with any social network there now? Was that
intentional? TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San
Francisco
KZ: The point is that you just need to control and see what is going on,
on YOUR website.

DC: 37Signals says that sometimes products do too much, you should do
less. With many product, you can do too many things, and it becomes
difficult to figure out what to use it for.

KZ: The low-hanging fruit is the community, but we’re trying to reach
out to different markets.

C: Are you saying, if I’m Walgreens, this will turn it into a social
network? This is different from Twitter, you are just at a site and you
want to interact.

KZ: That’s exactly the point, man.

RS: Enterprises already have tools like this thought. What makes this
different?

KZ: There are a lot of sites that don’t want to use someone else to become
a social network.

Images:

24
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

separate environment, where they could also share other professional

information. As more and more companies wake up to the idea of using
Twitter as a means of communication, a service like this could be
compelling to them.

Of course, there is a lot of competition out there for the business Twitter
market. Aside from startups like CoTweet, (TechCrunch50-alum)
Yammer, and Blellow, Radiusly could be looking at both LinkedIn and
Twitter itself making more moves into this arena shortly. We already
know that Twitter is gearing up some professional tools for businesses to
use, but whether those will be things similar to what Radiusly offers, no
one is sure yet. Meanwhile, if LinkedIn wanted to, it could easily make
itself Twitter-centric. It doesn’t appear that they are going to do that, but
you never know.

Radiusly plans to using a subscription/freemium model, offering some

services for free, while charging a subscription fee for others. There will
also be sponsored search listings, job listings, and banner ads to bring in
revenue.

CEO Chris Sel and VP of Business Development Adarsh Pallian

presented it today at the conference.
WEB NEWS
Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased)
TC50: Radiusly Aims To Put
The experts: Robert Scoble, Sean Parker, Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman,
Twitter In A More Professional Mike Schroepfer, Chamillionaire

Setting [TechCrunch] RS: I think you’re aiming at the right target, but you hit the wall. Brands
SEP 15, 2009 08:04P.M. tell me they won’t want to advertise on Twitter. You’re just not there yet,
I’m not sure why.

Q: Reid your thoughts?

RH: In a rare position, I agree with much of what Robert was saying. The
real key is how do you exchange information on Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn, not that they need a new way to search for some of this.

While Facebook continues to grow, and some companies are getting DC: I agree with Robert and Reid, I don’t really get why I would go there.
more comfortable with using it for things like Pages, LinkedIn still fills I kept trying to figure it out, to be fair when Twitter first launched I
the gap for users who want a more professional setting for social didn’t get it either, now I work there.
networking. A new service launching in public beta today at
TechCrunch50, Radiusly, wants to take the idea of Twitter and put it in C: I gotta be Simon Cowell too. I can’t see why someone would need this.
more of a professional setting, as well.
Images:
But unlike Facebook and LinkedIn which exist as two totally separate
networks, Radiusly wants to integrate its service with Twitter. Users will
be able to publish an update they leave on Radiusly to Twitter (and
Facebook, as well). But the key selling-point is that in the Radiusly
environment you can also do much more, such as have a professional
profile, resume, sample works, and photos.

Ideally, a Radiusly users would be someone who loves the concept of

Twitter, but wants to be able to maintain their work-related tweets in a

25
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected] 16 September 2009

Video:

Other Coverage:
TC50: Radiusly says companies should forget Twitter, microblog with us
instead VentureBeat.

CrunchBase Information

Radiusly

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and
hardware.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San

Francisco

26