Written on August 5, 2008 – 8:47 am Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.
This time we’re interviewing Diego Fernández Domínguez, the co-founder of ipoki.com. Ipoki lets you get the most of your GPS by connecting you with others to share geolocation information. Ipoki lets you share your current location with others in real-time. Also, you can see where your friends are and track them on Google Maps and Google Earth. Ipoki lets you keep track of your routes and use it to geolocate photos in flickr automatically. Invite your friends to see where you are and find and follow them across the world.
How did you come up with the idea of your Ipoki?
“We started to work on Ipoki when the firsts GPS-enabled mobile-phones were put on the market. We notice that there were some services on the market about geolocation without its democratic internet version (open and free).
First, we started creating some location based services like put and get alerts fro users around specific places, but then we realize that we need to add social features to our services if we want to make it really massive, opened and easy for every possible internet user.
So, we decided to create a social network based on location sharing. People share photos, videos and a lot of things over the internet and we think that it would be very interesting to share your location in real-time with accuracy, like some pay-services plus social features.
Finally, we have added new services to our social network like integrations with Twitter, Flickr or Facebook.” (more…)
I hope you like that post!
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Written on August 4, 2008 – 6:03 pm Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Established blogs like ReadWriteWeb and Techcrunch proudly show a Feedburner chicklet that displays the sites popularity. But beware – since people are more likely to subscribe to a site with a bigger amount of readers, some sites manipulate the counter.
Every once and a while co-editor Patrick and I stumble on a shady looking website with a ton of readers. That made us wonder whether Feedburner is hackable. I’ve sacrificed my personal blog for a hacking experiment and the result; faking your subscriber count IS possible!
We found an easy way to hack Feedburner (Not the obvious hack that simply steals a chicklet from a popular site). Looking at the subscriber count at some sites, we’re not the first ones who found out, but we are the first ones to write it down. All it takes is an OPML file, a Netvibes Universe, and a good night’s sleep.
EDIT: While the hack still works, I am happy to tell you that Google and Netvibes are working on a solution to the problem. Steve Olechowski, co-founder Feedburner mailed me and said: “These things happen occasionally and are usually fixed in a couple of days”, he added that the feedburner counts do not influence advertisement measurement. Franck Mahon from Netvibes said: “We are working on a fix to filter out in the reporting the duplicates while still allowing people to add several instances of the widget to their startpage.” When things get fixed, it would be interesting to see the differences on some sites.
How to manipulate your Feedburner subscribers in two minutes
Moral of the story is: everybody can have a lot of Feedburner readers, which makes the service questionable as a measurement of performance. It’s up to Google/Feedburner to fix things up.
Once they do this, it will be very interesting to see which blogs suddenly lose a bunch of subscribers…
Written on August 1, 2008 – 12:01 pm Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Crowd Fusion is a revolution in online publishing, offering web publishers an unique combination of technology and strategy. Or at least, that’s what I understood from their temporary website, the company is still in stealth mode. But attracted some interesting investors and raised an initial investment last night. Crowdfusion is going to supply in:
Collaborative development tools & best-of-breed publishing templates
Google is ready to launch a venture capital arm, opening up the possibility to invest in startups, rather then just buy them. Senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond will lead the new investment part of Google.
“The move would make Google the latest technology giant to take on a more-formal role in seeding start-ups. Intel Corp. has had a large venture-capital arm for years, as have Motorola Inc., Comcast Corp. and many others. In the consumer-Internet area, Walt Disney Co.’s Steamboat Ventures has invested in a number of Web start-ups. So has Amazon.com Inc., which has funded a number of young companies without structuring a formal fund.” (wall street Journal)
With the formal venture capital arm, Google would start to compete with established VCs, the brand and the resources could make the investment arm an attractive choice for startups. The official blog of Google made no mention of the plans yet.
Investments are nothing new for the search and advertising company, as they launched Gadget Ventures in June 2007, and invested in Indian VCs before. Also, Google has made more strategic investments over the years, including investments in WiMax and Global challenges. Google also launched a number of informal funding programs, including contests for software developers.
The new funding venture coul help Google to formalize the investments efforts, and get the company closer to more software created by small businesses, a way to gain experience in new product areas and markets.
Written on July 31, 2008 – 12:34 pm Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Google has acquired Omnisio, a service that allows users to annonate video’s and mash-up videos. Omnisio was founded by three Australians about six months ago. Youtube had its own “remixing” feature before, but had been abandoned ever since. Google announced that the Omnisio team will join Youtube, to integrate the technology in a attempt to make Youtube more interactive.
Another cool feature that the service might bring to Youtube is the ability to synchronize Slideshare presentations. Users where also able to import videos from Youtube, Google video and Blip.tv.
Omnisio is a Y Combinator company, a investor in early stage ideas. They also successfully sold Reddit. TeaxtPayme and Anywhere.FM. Nobody mentioned any numbers about the Youtube deal, but Techcrunch heard whispers of a deal in the $15 (€10) million range.
Most functions on the Omnisio page have been disabled, with a notification that refers to the Youtube page.
Viddix also aimes at the same market by offering the possibility to show presentation slides next to video’s.
Written on July 31, 2008 – 11:53 am Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
This map represents how the Internet assets are distributed across the world; there is a lack of internet accessibility in big parts of South America, Australia and especially Africa. Without the web it’s hard to get online information, and social networking is even harder to do. Or is it? Juan Esteban Rios Delgado created a way for socializing with your network without the use of the Internet.
The humanitarian designer just graduated at the design academy in the Netherlands, and made a communication tool based on a FM transmitter. The goal is to create communities like Myspace and Facebook available to everyone. The transmitters are cheap, portable and mechanically powered.
The devices allow people to talk, write and podcast with others that have a device. Everybody joins the broadcast channel. Rios said: “The transmitter is a tool that brings people together. While new technology brings us further from those who can’t get online, makes the “Sharing culture, sharing media” alternative distribution for the people that are online and offline” -through Bright.nl
Written on July 30, 2008 – 1:14 pm Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Colombo-bt.org, has been closed down by police today. The site offered about 400,000 music files, a stunning 500,000 movie files and received about 800,000 unique visitors per month, making it the biggest Italian BitTorrent website. The site currently displays the text: “Access denied in execution of an Italian Court Authority injunction”.
The shutdown was coordinated with the Italian police and the FPM, an Italian anti-piracy group affiliated with the IFPI. The police froze two bank accounts and seized several computers. The three men that ran Colombo-bt were charged with copyright infringement and received heavy financial penalties. They could be sent to prison for up to three years.
Enzo Mazza, president of FPM, said:
“Colombo-BT.org was Italy’s version of The Pirate Bay. Its operators deliberately facilitated availability of copyright infringing content to line their own pockets. The gang of three now face potential prison sentences and hefty fines as a result of their activities. This police action sends a strong message that Italy will not tolerate serious online music piracy so criminals looking for get rich quick schemes should consider other options.”
Speaking of ThePirateBay, Torrent freak reports that the popular torrent site is facing troubles and downtime. The rumors state that that the site has been raided again, but it turns out that the site simply has trouble keeping up with ever-increasing traffic. Moral of the story? IFPI successfully puts the smaller torrent sites down, but Pirate Bay seems to thrive in these times.
Written on July 30, 2008 – 1:00 pm Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
myYearbook raised $13 (€8) million, and the social network gained remarkable growth in the teen market, exceptional given the established presence of Myspace.
A social website launched three years ago, myYearbook claims to be the third largest social network in the US. TechCrunch reports that the site is only a fraction of the size of Myspace or Facebook, and that the site may have more high school users than Facebook. According to Hitwise, the site enjoyed a 384% year-to-year growth.
myYearbook received its second funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, US Venture Partners and First Round Capital. Norwest Venture Partners’ Sergio Monsalve will join the company’s board of directors. The total funding is currently $18.6 (€12) million. The site is going to use the cash to add extra features and marketing to reach out to new members.
The site monetizes with advertisements, but also offers a way for users to decorate their profiles. They might be able to gain income from these virutal possessions on their network, simulair to Korean based Cyworld. Will these teens move on to Facebook when they go to college, or remain true to their first social network?
Written on August 5, 2008 – 8:47 am
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.
“We started to work on Ipoki when the firsts GPS-enabled mobile-phones were put on the market. We notice that there were some services on the market about geolocation without its democratic internet version (open and free).
Crowd Fusion is a revolution in online publishing, offering web publishers an unique combination of technology and strategy. Or at least, that’s what I understood from their temporary website, the company is still in stealth mode. But attracted some interesting investors and raised an initial investment last night. Crowdfusion is going to supply in:
David Drummond
Google has 
This map represents how the Internet assets are distributed across the world; there is a lack of internet accessibility in big parts of South America, Australia and especially Africa. Without the web it’s hard to get online information, and social networking is even harder to do. Or is it? 
Colombo-bt.org, has been 
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