The Facebook Phone has arrived…sort of. Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Home, an Android-compatible integration that replaces the Android home screen with a Facebook-branded experience dedicated to providing easier personal communication than the current app model does. Apps are still easily accessible via an app launcher. Facebook’s clever move relieves them of the hassle of producing a hardware piece, while gaining them deeper hardware integration. The question remains: Will other companies create similar top-level integration packages for Android devices to promote their brands?
Tag: TechCrunch
Three cheers for Cooliris
Apologies to our readers for being down for a week. We had a mean hack that caused lots of disruption to our system. We’re back up though with some extra padlocks on our door and hopefully will stay that way.
One of our favorite browser extensions comes from our friends at Cooliris. We’ve been watching their product turn Web browsing on its head as it turns your browser into a 3D experience.
And, we’re all too happy today to see the launch of their publishing networks which enables advertisers to subtly integrate their images into the experience. As TechCrunch notes, this is an exciting step for the startup as it moves to solidify its business model…which in this economy is a good thing to be doing with that investment money.
See their first campaign execution after the jump.
Why Twitter has not jumped the shark
If I had a nickel for everytime someone asked me What is hot right now? I’d be twittering off my yacht in the Côte d’Azur.
In a recent meeting with some of my fellow digerati we were pitching ideas to get a client excited about what new’s in the media landscape and all of them declared, Twitter is dead…it’s over. But I think there’s plenty of life left in our friend Twitter.
We are at an interesting crossroads with Twitter, Facebook and a lot of other overly hyped platforms. In many cases, it’s not about the solution itself but about how people are leveraging the data and behavior surrounding that platform and hence, their API’s (application programming interfaces – see my recent article on using APIs for content delivery). Continue reading “Why Twitter has not jumped the shark”
OpenTable – business model to go?
Online restaurant reservation site OpenTable went public today. And at the prices it is trading at, it’s a startling sign of hope in the down economy (TechCrunch reported it surging to $30 a share as of 11am PST).
As the San Jose Mercury news reports, OpenTable and SolarWinds‘ debuts on Wall Street marks the end of a “15 month drought” for Silicon Valley start up companies. Venture capitalists are celebrating, and it’s a triumph no doubt for OpenTable they weathered the first dot-com bubble and now appear to be doing quite well in this recession. However, what is interesting about OpenTable is the way they are making their dough, so to speak. Continue reading “OpenTable – business model to go?”
