Flux Launches Self Service Product; Full On Ning Competitor
Flux, a new social network joint venture between Viacom and SocialProject, had a limited launch in September.
The platform is the cornerstone of Viacom’s social network strategy. Instead of building independent networks for MTV and its hundreds of other brands, they’ve built a distributed platform that shares users, infrastructure and content, but allows for distinct branding and community building around each property. And Flux isn’t just for Viacom - third parties are using it as well.
When Flux launched it had only a few hand picked non-Viacom partners. Today they are opening up the platform for anyone that wants to join.
Like Ning, it’s fairly easy to create a Flux social network. The look and feel can be customized via templates or by uploading your own CSS, and the network can be mapped to your domain name.
Once created any Flux member can join your network with a single click. Since Flux is already gaining users via their launched Viacom and other properties, this gives young communities a deeper pool of users to draw from. And the fact that new users do not need to create a new profile, friends list or login credentials gives them a greater incentive to join. User data is exportable, Flux says, if the partner creates a privacy policy stating that.
Partners have three integration choices. fShare, the basic integration, allows users to take content from the site and easily embed it into other social networks. Flux Lite allows partners to create a basic social network. Flux custom gives nearly full control over the look and feel and has additional features. Partners can choose any integration, it just takes a little more work to use the custom features. Flux will add new developer features over time as well. The chart to the right (click for larger view) shows the various options.
We’ve created a test social network on Flux, at techcrunch.flux.com. And we’re also integrating their fshare functionality into the main TechCrunch site as an illustration of how it works - see the button below each post.
Flux partners can choose to show Flux ads on the site, or use their own. Flux says they are currently selling at a $1.50 CPM and will split that 50/50 with partners. If a partner chooses to display their own ads instead, they must split revenue with Flux 50/50 as well.
Flux v. Ning
Flux and Ning have very similar features and will compete for communities looking to build a social network (and there are lots of other choices as well). Ning has an established platform, lots of money, and 130,000 existing communities (including Playboy). Flux also has a great platform, and the leverage of all the Viacom properties to promote it.
Ning sees the threat from Flux. CEO Gina Bianchini wrote a fiery point-by-point comparison of the two services earlier this week - Flux disputes some of the facts.
Ning is currently supporting Google’s Open Social platform. Flux says they will fully support Open Social beginning in January.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/193175927/
Doodlekit Brings Advanced Functionality to Easy Website Creation
Website-creation tool Doodlekit is over a year old but has somehow managed to fly under the radar, even after releasing its free version this past October.
Several similar services are out there: Weebly, Synthasite, Jimdo, Google Pages, SiteKreator, and Sampa to name a few. They all intend to make it possible for non-techies to make modestly attractive and functional websites without touching a line of code.
Doodlekit succeeds in this respect, but it goes even further by providing a suite of advanced features, all of which can be set up with a few clicks of the button: forums, customizable forms, shopping carts, advertising, user accounts and profiles, restricted areas for approved members, file uploading, full site search, RSS feeds, photo albums, blogs, basic site statistics, and domain mapping. Some of these features are available for free, but many will require that you pay $15 or more per month. See this pricing sheet for how the service packages break down.
All in all, it’s nice to see a website creation tool that appreciates the fact that many low-level users won’t be satisfied with flat pages anymore. They want to collect data from their users, support small online communities, publish rich media, etc. Doodlekit is moving in the right direction while others (with the possible exception of SiteKreator) continue to provide a fairly limited range of dynamic content possibilities.
As the WYSIWYG market develops, I’d like to see companies like Doodlekit leverage easy database creation/management tools like upcoming Blist. Then, a wider range of people will be able to collect, manage, and publish their organizational data online without needing to rely on web developers. As for more short-term improvements to Doodlekit, it would be nice to see an even better WYSIWYG HTML editor (I have yet to find any online that doesn’t end up frustrating the hell out of me). They could also take some tips from Weebly and implement drag-n-drop editing functionality, which I find more intuitive and satisfying than clicking through several pages to make changes.
Suggestions and long-term visions aside, Doodlekit strikes me as a solid offering in its current incarnation. The company says it has reached 1,700 hosted sites since starting to offer a free version six weeks ago. I expect that number to increase substantially as the word gets out.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/193120632/
Zopa To Launch In U.S.
U.K.-based peer to peer lending startup Zopa is gearing up for their U.S. launch. Reports of the launch have been circulating for some time (WSJ), but now it seems only days away. The service will be available at us.zopa.com, but is currently under password protection.
Zopa’s peer to peer lending service differs from U.S. rivals by working with credit unions to offer person-to-person loans instead of a loans coming directly from lenders on the service like Prosper and Lending Club (works through Facebook). GlobalFunder.com is a yet-to-launch competitor. With Zopa, lenders will place their money in Zopa branded CDs that are then loaned out online. Borrowers apply for loans through their online community by posting their case for the loan and filling out relevant details about their credit risk. Interest rates on five year loans can range from 8.75% to 16.99%, depending on their credit risk.
It’s worth noting that Zopa’s investor, Benchmark also invested in Prosper. The lending market is anticipated to be very large. According to the research firm Online Banking Report, around $100 million in new P2P loans will be issued this year, mostly by Prosper, with new loans growing to as much as $1 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2017. Prosper already registered an S-1 with the SEC and reported $96.4 million in loans.
Adding further details to the launch, Allen Stern received an email outlining some differences between the U.S. and U.K. (which TCUK covered) versions. The key differences listed are:
- No risk for investors.
Your funds will be federally insured. No more worrying about whether your borrowers will pay your loan back. - Pick who you want to help.
Investors will choose exactly who they want to help. - Set your rate.
Investors will choose how much they want to earn, up to a ceiling. - No waiting.
Borrowers will get their loans immediately upon approval. - Lower your monthly payment.
Borrowers can actually reduce their loan payments after they’ve borrowed. They’ll do that using rich profiles…
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/193094987/
Redonkulous unsubscribe delays
In a quest to clean up the inbox I’ve been unsubscribing from a bunch of lingering newsletters and merchant email alerts.
Annoying: Some big name brands (J. Crew, FTD, BestBuy, etc.) say it will take between 5-10 days to be removed from their list. During that time they can still send you emails. And they have.
I can order a shirt today and have it waiting at my door tomorrow afternoon, but it takes 10 days to remove my email address from a database? That doesn’t seem like a genuine effort.
I feel like I get emails starting the next day when I sign up for a list. But 10 days to be removed? Something isn’t right.
I realize that many of these companies outsource their mailing lists to third party providers. Perhaps they provide a list of changes to the provider once a week or something, but it sure feels like the unsubscrube process could be swifter if someone cared a tiny bit about the customer experience.
Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/723-redonkulous-unsubscribe-delays
VCs: What’s Your Failure Rate?
This morning, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures discloses to the world his failure rate as a venture capitalist of 17 years (20 percent over 32 investments, which is enviable in VC circles). He’s also had 11 deals (40 percent) with 5X+ returns, so it more than balances out.
Wilson is more at ease talking to the world (through his blog) than most VCs. But all venture capitalists should have to disclose their personal failure rates. After all, measuring performance should go both ways between VCs and entrepreneurs, not to mention venture investors. Sometimes, you can learn a lot more from failure than from success. Wilson shares what he’s learned from his failures. Either a business turns out to be a dumb idea, he says, or, more likely:
It was a decent idea but directionally incorrect, it was hugely overfunded, the burn rate was taken to levels way beyond reason, and it became impossible to adapt the business in a financially viable manner.
. . . Of the 26 companies that I consider realized or effectively realized in my personal track record, 17 of them made complete transformations or partial transformations of their businesses between the time we invested and the time we sold. That means there a 2/3 chance you’ll have to significantly reinvent your business between the time you take a venture capital investment and when you exit your business.
So it’s pretty clear to me that most venture backed investments don’t fail because the business plan was flawed. In my experience at least 2/3 of all business plans we back are flawed.
Most venture backed investments fail because the venture capital is used to scale the business before the correct business plan is discovered. That scale/burn rate becomes the cancer that kills the business.
We’ve all heard variations of that be-nimble-or-die philosophy, but it bears repeating.
What have you learned from your business failures? Comments, as always, are open.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/193016712/
Sunspots: The elephants on acid edition
- Laptops designed by 7-9 year-olds
- “Both heartwarmingly personal and frighteningly tied to pop culture. A close study reveals keyboard buttons assigned to ‘Barbie.com,’ ‘best friends’ next to ‘friends,’ ‘HP [Harry Potter] trivia,’ and ‘werd games’ as well as ‘rily werd games.’”
- How to write magnetic headlines
- “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece. The better the headline, the better your odds of beating the averages and getting what you’ve written read by a larger percentage of people. The Magnetic Headlines series will provide you with concrete guidance that will have you writing better headlines in no time.”
- New Scientist: Top 10 bizarre experiments
- “Here are 10 of the bizarrest experiments of all time – which, it must be said, mostly fall closer to madness than to genius.” #1: Elephants on acid.
- Why I hate Twitter
- “There’s more of a chance that my dog will type Ulysses than that I’ll get an intelligent Twitter message… Why? Because WRITING IS THINKING. Good writing reflects good thinking. It’s why we go through multiple drafts of anything… to get to what we REALLY want to say. (And, for many writers, to discover what it is they really want to say… most of us don’t know what we think until we start writing.)” [via zk]
- Getting started with IMAP for Gmail
- “IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through its two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web Gmail. If you’re trying to decide between using POP and using IMAP with your Gmail account, we recommend IMAP.”
- The case against hyperblogging
- “Words have relative values. Someone who talks a lot has less value to their words than someone who rarely speaks. But when that quiet person speaks, people listen. When you publish 20 posts a day, your individual posts lose value. And when you finally do have something important to say, it gets lost among the clutter. Your signal to noise ratio is too low.”
- Interview with James Victore from "How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer"
- “The Internet is changing things in the same way that the invention of ink on paper did. And there is this wonderful, funny question that people like to ask all the time: ‘Are posters dead?’ It’s like asking Twyla Tharp, ‘Is dance dead?’ People try to reorganize and rename things and change them and qualify and quantify them. I just want the spirit of design to remain. I feel now the way Tibor did: People have not fucked with the printed page as much as we still can. I want those opportunities. But I think those opportunities get fewer and fewer. And there’s too many of us. But there aren’t not enough crackpots and artists in the business—they’re all MBAs.”
- Workday game plans
- “Use your first hour at work to concentrate on a high-priority task. That will help you begin the day with a clear head. Free of mental debris from the start, you set a good precedent for the rest of the day.”
- New from the Elsewares team: Supermarket
- “Supermarket is a curated collection of awesome design products.”
- Why do we work on things that don't matter?
- “When it comes to software, no wins are ever as quick as we think they’re going to be. And, when it comes to everything, we’re never going to get as much done as we think. So it’s important, especially early on, that the entire team knows what your biggest bottleneck is at any given time so they can be focused on that”.
- Nabaztag wi-fi rabbit
- “A Wi-Fi-enabled toy rabbit from France that changes color and moves its ears to provide real-time information about weather, traffic, stock price movements or incoming e-mail.”
Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/722-sunspots-the-elephants-on-acid-edition
Thomas Fuchs uses Script.aculo.us 2.0 on his own site
Thomas Fuchs is back in the consulting game and his new site gives us another glimpse of Script.aculo.us 2.0 abilities.
The photo zooming?
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Effect.PhotoZoom = Class.create(Effect.Element, {
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setup: function() {
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var currentHeight = $('text').getHeight();
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var newHTML = this.element.next('div.text').innerHTML;
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var left = Thomas.photos.indexOf(this.element)*120 + 90;
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var color = $w('ffa ffa ffa ffa ffa')[Thomas.photos.indexOf(this.element)];
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$('text_contents').show().update(newHTML).setStyle({height:'auto'});
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var newHeight = $('text_contents').getHeight()+22;
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Thomas.clearTextBox();
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$('text').setStyle({height:currentHeight+'px'});
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$('text').morph('left:'+left+'px;height:'+newHeight+'px;background-color:#'+color,{
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duration: 1.2,
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transition: 'linear',
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propertyTransitions: {
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left: 'bouncePast',
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height: 'bouncePast',
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backgroundColor: 'sinusoidal'
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},
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after: function(){
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$('text_contents').show();
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Element.update.defer('text_contents', newHTML);
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}
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});
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this.animate('zoom', this.element, {
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propertyTransitions: this.options.propertyTransitions || { }
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});
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}
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});
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Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/192995894/thomas-fuchs-uses-scriptaculous-20-on-his-own-site
Placeshout: New Rails based Geo-cool site
Andre Lewis has a new site out there, Placeshout which offers a way to quickly call out your favourites place in various locations.
You could argue that we have other places for this... Yelp for example, or My Maps themselves. So, why Placeshout?
Sometimes, you just want a quick suggestion
When Andre and I are looking for a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant or a park with a softball field, we usually just want a quick suggestion, not a lengthy review. We want to know if a place is worth visiting in 30 seconds.
Placeshout isn't about volume - it's about trying to express the positives and negatives of a destination in as few of words as possible. If people agree, that "shoutout" moves up...if they don't, the shoutout moves down and begins to disappear.
We hope Placeshout makes it easier for you to find local destinations.
There are some interesting features in this, very Web 2.0-looking, site. One that stands out is the enhanced mapping experience on top of Google Maps. As you move around, directional arrows tell you how far various other cities are away. It is kinda fun to watch:
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/192992375/placeshout-new-rails-based-geo-cool-site
Google Confirms Spectrum Bid
It is now official. Google has confirmed earlier reports that it will bid in the upcoming wireless spectrum auctions. Already, it is toying with other prospective bidders, waiting until next Monday, the last possible day, to file its application with the FCC.
In mid-December, the FCC will release its list of eligible bidders. The auction itself begins on January 24, and could continue through March. Google exec Chris Sacca also notes that because of anti-collusion rules, Google will not be saying anything else about the auction until it is over.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/192990333/
Brendan Eich: JavaScript 2 evolution and the myth busting Tracing JIT
I love watching Brendan Eich speak. You know that before long you will be deep into a topic, and if you slip up for a minute you will be hopelessly behind. You have to listen closely. Even if you do, you will probably think that you missed a lot of it.
Brendan has posted his slides on JavaScript 2 and the Open Web as a narrative.
The presentation starts off having a bit of fun with the characters behind the JavaScript 2 debate such as Douglas Crockford (Yoda above). You can argue about the politics of ES4 but the piece I found most interesting was Brendan taking code that is written in current JavaScript, and evolving it via iterations. In fact, I would love to have seen that as the bulk of the talk as it really shows you what JS2 is all about.
Here is the sample webmail code in JS1:
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function send(msg) {
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validateMessage(msg);
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msg.id = sendToServer(JSON.encode(msg));
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database[msg.id] = msg;
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}
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function fetch() {
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handleMessage(-1); // -1 means "get new mail"
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}
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function get(n) {
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if (uint(n) !== n) // JS1: n>>>0 === n
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throw new TypeError;
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if (n in database)
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return database[n];
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return handleMessage(n);
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}
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var database = [];
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function handleMessage(n) {
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let msg = JSON.decode(fetchFromServer(n));
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if (typeof msg != "object")
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throw new TypeError;
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if (msg.result == "no data")
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return null;
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validateMessage(msg);
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return database[msg.id] = msg;
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}
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function validateMessage(msg) {
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function isAddress(a)
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typeof a == "object" && a != null &&
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typeof a.at == "object" && msg != null &&
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typeof a.at[0] == "string" && typeof a.at[1] == "string" &&
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typeof a.name == "string";
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if (!(typeof msg == "object" && msg != null &&
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typeof msg.id == "number" && uint(msg.id) === msg.id &&
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typeof msg.to == "object" && msg != null &&
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msg.to instanceof Array && msg.to.every(isAddress) &&
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isAddress(msg.from) && typeof msg.subject == "string" &&
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typeof msg.body == "string"))
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throw new TypeError;
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}
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And here it is after a set of evolutionary steps. You will see that this looks like a very different beast. Before you eek, we have to realize that most of the code that will be written won't be cleaned up like this, but rather hacky JS like we have now.
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type MsgNoId = {
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to: [Addr], from: Addr, subject: string, body: string
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};
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function send(msg: like MsgNoId) {
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msg.id = sendToServer(JSON.encode(msg));
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database[msg.id] = copyMessage(msg);
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}
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function handleMessage(n) {
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let msg = JSON.decode(fetchFromServer(n));
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if (msg is like { result: string } && msg.result == "no data")
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return null;
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if (msg is like Msg)
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return database[id] = copyMessage(msg);
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throw new TypeError;
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}
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function copyMessage(msg) {
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function newAddr({ at: [user, host], name })
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new Addr([user, host]: [string, string], name);
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let { to, from, subject, body, id } = msg;
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return new Msg(to.map(newAddr), newAddr(from), subject, body, id);
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}
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Another interesting myth that Brendan busted is the notion that:
Optional typing is required to make your applications perform
Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/192937926/brendan-eich-javascript-2-evolution-and-the-myth-busting-tracing-jit