This is a scary use of ajax: to view the browser history of all your site's visitors. Spyjax exploits a simple feature of all browsers: changing the color of links for sites you've visited. A piece of javascript on a webpage can view the color of these links to determine whether you've visited a site.
A new look for Bebo today: the red interface is gone and replaced by a minimalist light blue design. The content and profiles are mostly unchanged. It's probably a smart move: content is king, and the less distracting interface elements there are, the better. The earless logo remains (it was reportedly meant to represent interconnected circles - not ears as many assumed). Bebo is a potential acquisition target for Yahoo, according to rumors (see Bebo-Yahoo).
Mobicious is an online directory for all things mobile. Search for videos, photos, ringtones, games and other applications that can be used on your mobile phone, including websites, Google maps, a mini Opera browser, and more. Images and videos can be uploaded to Mobicious as well, and added to the directory. You can preview the ringtones and videos, and see how other users have rated them before making the purchase (unless it's free).
Keibi Technologies, the company that assists businesses with the management of online user-generated content, has raised $6 million in its second round of funding led by Catamount Ventures and Hunt Ventures. Keibi was launched by Paul Remer, the former General Counsel for Piczo. As a media discovery and moderation platform, Keibi sets out to help communities and media become more introspective regarding the user-generated content being supplied to their networks, manage it, and grow the company.
It's official. Feedburner has been acquired by Google. The RSS management and advertising service is no longer a target for acquisition, but is part of the Google family, much to everyone's delight. It only made sense for Google to buy Feedburner, as it can be integrated with the Google analytics platform, and incorporated into its ads systems as well. Google's definitely been on a buying spree lately, looking to further bulk up its advertising offerings.
MSN's Soapbox is set to reopen to the public today, after being closed to new users back in March in order to implement and test out proactive filtering, utilizing Audible Magic for digital fingerprinting. Once Microsoft announced its willingness to work with content owners to provide copyright protection, testing began on Soapbox with existing beta users. The new filtering policy provides filtering tools and automated tools for content owners to better manage their own videos.
Best Buy and Blockbuster are both reportedly looking to enter the movie download business, and are working on a deal with Lionsgate Films, though there has been no official word on Best Buy's plans. Both Best Buy and Blockbuster have been reportedly named as companies in discussion with Lionsgate to offer its films to be downloaded, in separate deals.
A new toolbar is now available for Firefox users, and it will help you find Porn. StumblePorn is a new service that will let you "stumble upon" the best, user-rated porn sites on the web. I'll admit I didn't install this one to try it out, but it appears to work just like the bookmarking site it's taken its name from. You can choose, very precisely, what kind of content you'd like to find, and leverages community contributions to help you get the best results.
TravelPod, the travel blogging service, has created a Facebook application. This is the first travel blog to create an application for Facebook. The application has not yet been added to the Facebook directory, but you can find it here. You can now show your travels directly from your Facebook profile. Chart your photos and blog entries on a map, and collect donations to fund your next trip. They've also included links to your full TravelPod profile as well as an invite link for others to join TravelPod.
Yigg.de, the German clone of Digg, claims to have raised a round of funding led by Baytech Venture Capital and angel investor Rolan Metzger, for an undisclosed amount. Yigg launched in March of 2006, and is among the first of the Digg clones in Germany. The funding is planned to be used towards the formation of a GmbH, which is a form of a limited company. Angel investor Metzger is founder of JobPilot, which was acquired by Adecco in 2003.
-- See also: MY SOUL, AND 10 OTHER THINGS THAT GOOGLE OWNS -- Now that EMI's catalog is finally available DRM-free on iTunes and the whole world is talking about how cool DRM-free music is, the RIAA must be feeling mighty stupid. After all, they've advocated DRM for so long that even they forgot what their initial arguments were. And what, indeed, could they be? DRM is a daft, annoying way to prevent users from copying music and videos they've legally purchased.
Amnesty International is starting a campaign called Instant Karma to raise money for Darfur, the war-torn area of Sudan, using GoodStorm music widgets to sell re-recorded John Lennon songs. The widget will be used on social networking sites like MySpace, and on individual blogs, and will promote the "Instant Karma" album with Lennon tracks that have been redone by U2, REM and Green Day, among others.
AOL Latino has launched Latino AIM pages, the social network built on its instant messaging platform. The customization options that have been created specifically for the Latino market is in hopes that a unique online space can be carved for Hispanics to share and express themselves with others.
The creators of Lonelygirl15 have organized an in-person event for the popular video blogger, creating a multi-platform approach for fans to solve puzzles, chat with characters in a chat room at LG15's website, and inviting fans to a seminar location. At the seminar, fans will solve a final puzzle, and attendees are featured in the current episode on LG15's website.
Slacker, the digital music service that has executives from iRiver, MusicMatch and Rio, has reportedly raised $40 million in Series B funding, which comes on the heels of a Series A round that closed with $14.5 million in funding earlier this year. The latest round of funding is led by Centennial Ventures and Rho Ventures, and repeated investment from Austin Venture, Mission Ventures and Sevin Rosen Funds.
Sure, Google is great. I use it everyday and there is a good chance you do too, but their algorithms are not perfect, and sometimes your results are not quite what you were looking for. Well, that's were people-powered search comes in. Search results that have been provided or filtered by humans. The idea is that if a person is deciding what results you see rather than a computer, your results will be closer to what you are looking for rather than a big list of all possible related links.
Respectance, the site looking to create a new tradition for honoring those that have passed, has reportedly raised $250 thousand in venture capital, and is expected to announce another round of funding next month. The company has been backed by a prominent Dutch venture capital group. The site offers a community for those grieving and looking for an online way to respect the dead. Create a memory page for your loved one, which can include text entries, photos, comments, friends and images.
An opposition-aligned, Venezuelan television channel RCTV, creator of the news show "The Observer", has been banned from broadcasting over the airwaves by President Hugo Chavez, and has taken its show to the Internet, on YouTube. About a week ago, "The Observer" was forced off the air, but has continued to tape its programs and is uploading them to the popular video-sharing site.
The headlines just don’t stop for Google. But with the now complete acquisition of Feedburner, are there any parts of our online lives that don’t reside somewhere within the Googleplex? Through acquisitions and a few thousands of the world’s best engineers, the company knows more about you than you might be aware of. My Readers With its acquisition of Feedburner, Google now controls the leading company for managing RSS feeds.
See also: MY SOUL, AND 10 OTHER THINGS THAT GOOGLE OWNS -- On Friday, Kevin Rose spoke via video link at TheNextWeb conference in Amsterdam, outlining Digg's plans for expansion (update: see video below). The good news is that they plan to add images - one of the most demanded features. The mixed news is that they plan expansion into product reviews and more diverse topics.
Thembid is a new classifieds system that lets businesses bid over the services you request. With ThemBid, you can search requests, or post some of your own. When a business comes across a request that it might be interested in, it can post a bid and let the customer decide. In this manner, ThemBid is similar to the system adopted by LendingTree, but less automated.
Featured today on YouTube: Love 2.0, a tale of unrequited love told through the medium of Web 2.0 services (embedded below). Look out for references to Digg, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, del.icio.us and the Digg key. A full understanding of the lyrics probably means you need to go outside more often. See also our coverage of Facebook, MySpace, Digg, YouTube and the Digg key.
Update: And....it's down. --- Well, it took a lot longer than Zooomr founder Kristopher Tate expected, but the little photo-sharing site that could has finally launched its version III. After a much hyped launch, the site went down with server troubles and the team have fought hard to get more servers and get this version back online. This release has a lot of new features as well as a new look. Unfortunately, right now there are a few bugs and I had trouble getting most things to work.
Google Earth has just released new imagery, meaning the images we see from Google Earth's satellite shots are clearer and have better mapping techniques. Included in the improvements are special color mapping techniques and the addition of high resolution to many parts of the world that were previously not included in past updates.
X Me is the first native Facebook application built specifically for the Facebook platform, and it's had quite a ride in its still-short existence. X Me lets you replace the "poke" option for other Facebook members with the word of your choice. So now you can give others the option of "hugging" you, or "slapping" you, or a great many other verbs you can insert here.
Google has launched a Directions API at its Developer Day, allowing third-party sites to offer directions directly on their site. The API features include the ability to request directions between a pair of points or a longer sequence of points, and multiple language support like English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese. Support for the API is available in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia.
Most web services let you decide what information to publish...not so with Google Maps Street View, which can capture embarrassing or incriminating events with no chance of having the images removed. You'd better hope your butt cheeks don't get exposed to Google's all seeing eye. Word comes to us via email that the CEO of Plazes, Felix Petersen, has allegedly been caught in a white lie, exposed by none other than his own product: Plazes.
Bliin is a live community that lets you share images, audio, text and video from wherever you are, and it's shared with the world on the bliin Google map. You'll have to install the bliin software in order to be a fully active member, and bliin requires GPS software as well, so your whereabouts can be verified. Bliin also has software that can be downloaded to your mobile device, which should make live blogging much easier.
Apple has made a type of an announcement regarding the release date for its iPhone, setting the date as June 29th. During a commercial on CBS's 60 Minutes, Apple indicated that the iPhone will be available for purchase on June 29th. This hasn't been confirmed in its entirety yet, meaning we don't have any details regarding the areas in which it will be available, and when.
Protonotes is a collaborative annotation system that lets teams keep a wiki-like conversation flowing around a particular web page. Protonotes doesn't require any installation of any sort, which is good. However, this service currently works in Internet Explorer browsers only. Once you've registered for Protonotes, you're sent an email with a link that runs the program in a stripped browser window.
