VentureBeat |
- DEMO: Fetch Fans helps holding companies create social profiles
- DEMO: eLive Entertainment turns online videos into a social experience
- Web training site Grovo gets a facelift and revenue model
- Unity Technologies brings browser-based 3D graphics to Android devices
- Microsoft’s Bing overtakes Yahoo globally (again)
- FarmVille 2? Why Zynga needs to start making sequels, fast
- Artsicle makes it easy for anyone to become an art collector
- 3 ways to avoid costly customers
- Deals & More: Funium gets $1.2M for family-focused Facebook game
- Guardian Analytics raises $11M to ferret out cyber fraud
- Internet-on-your-TV startup Boxee raises $16.5M
- Fusion-io broadens its reach for super-fast memory devices
- Bigfoot Networks launches super-fast wireless networking card for PCs
- Source: LegalZoom in early stages of preparing to go public
- Cooliris shows off its cool 3D ads for the iPad (video)
| DEMO: Fetch Fans helps holding companies create social profiles Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:16 AM PST
Fetch Fans is launching a new service at today’s DEMO conference to help companies that own multiple businesses or locations create Facebook Pages and Twitter profiles. The service lets users create individual custom tabs within their Facebook Page. A tab is similar to a blank canvas and uses FBML — Facebook’s version of website language HTML — to create customized images, fonts, colors and even widgets like sign-up forms. The company also give users the ability to create simple backgrounds for Twitter using a logo and description. While there are dozens of companies that will help you create a social profile, like Involver, MiproApps or Pagemodo. Fetch Fans is differentiating itself from the competition by targeting companies that are in need of keeping specific brand guidelines across multiple businesses. For example, a hotel chain or fast food franchise might use Fetch Fans to set company guidelines and then allow end users for each business to log in and customize each page, but not break those guidelines. The Singapore-based company, founded in 2010, currently has seven employees and has not received any funding to date. Companies: Fetch Fans, Involver, Miproapps, Pagemodo
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| DEMO: eLive Entertainment turns online videos into a social experience Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:10 AM PST
French startup eLive Entertainment offers us a glimpse at what the future of online video may look like, and not surprisingly, it's a lot more social. The site, which is being shown off at today’s DEMO conference, turns watching online videos into a social experience with your friends. You can record audio commentary over a video and invite friends to chime in with their own commentary as well. The site handles the tough job of keeping your conversation synchronized with the video, allowing you to easily create and share group commentary for videos from sites like YouTube, Justin.TV and Ustream. The potential uses for a service like eLive are widespread: you could use it to create a group commentary on a sports play, or as a way to test your karaoke skills. Its ease of use is a big selling point, as it's much more difficult to synchronize videos with voice chat over services like Skype. Founder and chief executive Zhong Liu "MK" Fan says he would like to work together with online video services to get access to features they don't normally make available, like timestamps. The company is trying to avoid building a streaming video platform of its own. Instead, it's using the platforms created by YouTube, Ustream and others. That's likely a wise move, as building a propriety streaming video platform would be an expensive endeavor, and it also makes more sense to offer something that works across more established video sites. Fan points to NicoNico, a popular Japanese video sharing site that's famous for its ability to let users add their own subtitles to videos, as an example of how a service like eLive could take off. NicoNico has found success by focusing on a geeky niche community in Japan, whereas eLive has broader ambitions. Currently there aren't any other sites that offer similar features. elive Entertainment was founded in February 2009, and it currently has four employees (Fan, plus CTO Pierre-Emile "Mat" Ferron, a web developer and a web designer). It's currently self-funded. V3 Systems is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective. Companies: eLive Entertainment People: Pierre-Emile Ferron, Zhong Liu Fan
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| Web training site Grovo gets a facelift and revenue model Posted: 01 Mar 2011 08:43 AM PST
The changes make Grovo an even more compelling option for those interested in teaching themselves how to better use the web. It will help power users get up to speed on emerging sites and service quickly, and it offers businesses and organizations a simple way to keep their employees trained. The site's redesign puts the training videos in a YouTube-like interface that general users should find familiar. Previously, the training videos were cordoned off in a special interface that was needlessly complex. Now Grovo's videos will be discoverable by search engines, and users can move between them like YouTube videos. The new video training pages sport features that will help users better absorb the lessons, including quizzes, takeaways and glossary terms. Everything users do on the site is tracked on Grovo's new activity feed. The site is also making 50 percent of its training content free, which will allow casual visitors to get a taste of its offerings without signing up. The free videos can be embedded on websites and shared directly on social networks. With Grovo's premium offering, which costs $19 a month or $190 annually, you'll get access to all of its training content. The site is currently offering premium lessons for topics like Basecamp, Google Apps and Analytics, Facebook Pages and Twitter for Business. New lessons will be added weekly. As I've written previously, Grovo will certainly appeal to users who've always wanted to learn more about certain sites or services, but don't want to bother their geeky friends. The site's videos are clear, informative, and professionally made. As somebody who used to train users of all sorts of skill levels, I can attest that there's something for everybody on Grovo, and the site will surely add more lessons over time. It's also worth noting that using Grovo is a lot less demoralizing than owning one of the Dummies series of how-to computing books. Grovo is planning another major release later in March. The New York City-based site was founded in 2010, currently has six full-time employees, and is privately funded. Companies: Grovo
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| Unity Technologies brings browser-based 3D graphics to Android devices Posted: 01 Mar 2011 08:00 AM PST
The Unity plugin is already available to create cool 3D graphics on Apple devices. But now it is casting a wider net and the net result is that mobile computing devices will get closer to matching the PC when it comes to visualization. It also means that 3D graphics will likely run equally well on a lot of different smartphones and tablet computers, regardless of who makes them, because they all tap the underlying Unity 3D browser plugins. The company made the announcement at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today. Games with cool 3D graphics must often be loaded onto a computer via a DVD. Or they can be downloaded over the web in a very long transfer of gigabytes and gigabytes of data. That means anyone with a weak computer or a slow broadband connection can't play those games on their desktops. And forget about playing on a laptop or netbook. But Unity makes a plug-in for web browsers that allows them to display high-end graphics without the disk loads or time-consuming downloads. If developers fashion their games using Unity's development kit, their games will be able to run in web browsers. Today’s announcement means it will be much easier to create 3D games and get them to run on Android devices, not to mention other devices running Unity software. Unity's technology will likely always lag the performance capabilities of games that are stored on computers, but if it becomes good enough for most games, it could have enormous implications. One of them is the removal of friction from online games. Many online games with sophisticated 3D graphics can't reach broader audiences because of the limitations of users' computers and broadband connections. If those barriers are overcome through Unity's plug-in technology, (which could eventually be built into browsers), then a lot more people would be able to play online games. That’s why Unity has 400,000 developers using its development kit. Upcoming Android devices that will be supported by Unity include Nvidia Tegra 2-based tablets and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Smartphone.
If developers can build games with 3D graphics in Flash, then it might seem like there is no need for developers to use the Unity 3D engine anymore. But the Adobe solution doesn’t come with many of the developer support tools that Unity provides. And Unity has argued that its plugin will be better suited for some tasks than the Flash player. The same goes for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which is moving from high-end desktop PCs to mobile devices as well. That means that the whole space is becoming more competitive and that there could be multiple ways to do 3D on the web and mobile devices in the future. The end result will be that consumers will soon be able to enjoy eye-popping 3D without a lot of the bad side effects such as requiring a more expensive device or waiting for long downloads. Another potential rival is Web GL, an emerging standard supported by Google Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. That technology will enable web browsers to display 3D graphics without a plugin. Unity has 100 employees. It has raised $5.5 million from Sequoia Capital and angels Diane Greene and David Gardner. Unity was started in Denmark and moved to San Francisco. The company's platform is compatible with a wide number of systems, including the iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android, Wii, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Game publishers using the platform include Electronic Arts, Disney, Cartoon Network, Bigpoint and Nexon. So far, users have downloaded the plug-in to play games based on Unity tens of millions of times. The company was founded in 2003 by Helgason (pictured, right), user experience chief Nicholas Francis (middle), and chief technology officer Joachim Ante (left). Their goal was to democratize game development by making tools that anyone could use to create a cool 3D game. “Since its introduction in 2005, Unity has gone from bedroom geekery to truly mainstream and won dozens of prestigious awards and accolades,” said Helgason. Companies: Adobe, Google, Unity Technologies People: David Helgason
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| Microsoft’s Bing overtakes Yahoo globally (again) Posted: 01 Mar 2011 07:37 AM PST
The company touts the accomplishment as the first time Bing has ever surpassed Yahoo, but that's only according to its data. In September 2010, the research company Nielsen found that Bing ousted Yahoo as the second place search engine worldwide. It's not unusual for web analytics companies to have differing data, but it's definitely worth take note when their disparate data ultimately reaches the same conclusion. Now Bing is clearly even more of a threat to Yahoo. Statcounter found that Bing accounted for 4.37 percent of searches globally, while Yahoo only held 3.93 percent. Their single digit traffic also goes to show just how powerful Google is with its 89.94 percent of the market. In the US, Yahoo still holds a slight lead over Bing at 9.74 percent versus 9.03 percent. Earlier this month, Hitwise noted that Bing’s usage saw a significant bump in January — going so far as to take search share from Google in the US. Bing also powers Yahoo's search in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico, so Yahoo's success in those markets is still helping out Microsoft. Bing will completely replace Yahoo's search back-end globally in 2012. Yahoo announced in July of 2009 that it would be giving up on its own search technology and teaming up with Microsoft to take on Google. Companies: Google, hitwise, Microsoft, Nielsen, StatCounter, Yahoo
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| FarmVille 2? Why Zynga needs to start making sequels, fast Posted: 01 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PST
Do your best impersonation of a movie-trailer voice-over artist and say it: “FarmVille 2. This time, it’s agricultural.” That’s right: Like the Hollywood studios of old, like the stodgy makers of console games before it, Zynga, the San Francisco-based publisher of social games like CityVille, Mafia Wars, FrontierVille, and FarmVille, is inevitably going to get into the sequel business. Zynga has been a phenomenal success story with continuing growth, incredible profits, and big investments from major players. If things continue, it will soon be the most valuable gaming company — even though it’s still privately held and rivals like Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard are publicly traded. Despite the carping from some corners, Zynga’s success is well deserved, as it figured out the twin precepts of the new era of casual gaming: incremental gameplay through virtual-good acquisitions and asynchronous cooperative gameplay with friends. Zynga has added phenomenal gaming talent to its ranks, and although it had some missteps such as Treasure Isle, it evolved the gameplay from FarmVille, its first breakout hit, into CityVille, an even more successful game in terms of user ramp and monthly active users. CityVille reached 100 million users in just 43 days last month. However, CityVille is now quickly peaking after its stellar initial growth, and lost almost 5 million monthly active users in February alone, just three months after launch. CityVille is still increasing daily active users, but the writing is on the wall: CityVille will follow FarmVille’s decline, only faster.
Entertainment is entertainment. Even Hollywood movies go through waves like this. In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a wave of movies glamorizing competitive professions. What started out as great movies like Chariots of Fire that featured runners moved on to average movies like QuickSilver that featured bike messengers, and then quickly degraded into Over the Top, with Sylvester Stallone starring as a professional arm wrestler. After shaking itself off, Hollywood went back to the staples with movies featuring cops, firemen and lawyers. So what should Zynga do now? It has completely mastered social gameplay and the launch of new social games. Its titles, even after declining, dominate the social gaming scene, with four of its titles totaling up to 202 million monthly users. However, as the fast cycle on CityVille from launch to massive growth to decline, all within 3 months shows, perhaps another simulation game will not maintain sufficient momentum to sustain Zynga’s growth. As I pointed out last May, the answer is gaming franchises. It is useful to see how previous generations of entertainment companies handled this problem for a taste of the future. Rather than inventing yet another first person shooter, Activision Blizzard revamps an existing franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with new graphics and gameplay, and hits $1 billion in sales within three months. Zynga is sitting on multiple gaming franchises that are seriously due for graphics and gaming refreshes: Mafia Wars, FarmVille, and Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. Each of these games has an audience that has played it before and would be very willing to check out a new version. Just when you thought FarmVIlle would go away, here comes FarmVille 2! [Image via Games.com] Companies: Zynga
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| Artsicle makes it easy for anyone to become an art collector Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST
And for New York City residents, Artsicle offers a truly unique service: original art rentals that let you try out a piece in your home before you commit to purchasing it. The site allows you to explore original art without dealing with stuffy galleries who may not take new collectors seriously. Artsicle seeks out relatively unknown artists for its collection, with most pieces selling between $500 and $1,500. Rental pieces cost $50 per month for NYC residents. Artsicle joins other online art marketplaces like Art.sy. It differs with its focus on up and coming artists and its rental option. The latter is something that certain high-end galleries offer their best customers, but it’s rarely an option for new collectors. It’s a particularly great option for those who refuse to commit to bigger art purchases, or who just need a classy piece of art for a dinner party. The site was founded by two young New York City entrepreneurs, Alexis Tryon (who serves as CEO) and Scott Carleton (who serves as CTO). They’ve been working on Artsicle since last summer, and it was officially founded in November 2010. It’s entirely bootstrapped so far, and the staff consists of the founders and an intern. Photo via Kenneth Paul Lesko Companies: Artsicle People: Alexis Tryon, Scott Carleton
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| 3 ways to avoid costly customers Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST (Editor's note: Clate Mask is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conquer the Chaos and CEO of Infusionsoft. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.) Ambitious entrepreneurs push hard to acquire more customers and grow the business. But too often, we push forward in our business growth initiatives without realizing the cost of acquiring the wrong customers. These are the ones who complain often, demand extra resources and erode employee morale. They might add to the top line, but they certainly don't add to the bottom line—or the balance sheet—of the business. So, how can you weed out these bad customers and protect your bottom line? Here are three suggestions I've learned the hard way. Get totally clear on who the target customer is. This is the most important thing you can do to avoid hemorrhaging cash on costly customers. The entire company must understand the customer profile in terms of the demographics, the reasons he or she buys and the benefits they receive from your solution. This clear understanding informs every function of the business. Marketing works to attract these target customers. Sales qualifies in and screens out according to this profile. Product tailors the solution to deliver the desired benefits to the target customers. It goes on and on. Generally speaking, entrepreneurs don't invest nearly enough time and effort clarifying target customer – and they pay a tremendous price when their growth ambition outstrips their target customer clarity. Put metrics in place to measure the cost of a customer. The old adage of "know thy costs" is important for aggressive entrepreneurs because it's easy to acquire customers and think the business is doing well, only to find out that too many of those new customers are subtracting from instead of adding to the bottom line. A few key metrics can help you steer clear of this trap. These will vary, depending on the type of business you run, but a few common examples are cost of goods sold, lifetime customer value and net promoter score. Once you have average numbers for your business in these three areas, you can measure any given customer against these metrics. Sometimes the individual customer measurement is more art than science, but experience has taught me that the costly customers begin to stand out pretty quickly once you have average numbers for your business. Re-negotiate with or terminate costly customers. Most entrepreneurs shy away from this game. Sometimes there may be short-term reasons to serve unprofitable customers, but usually, a business engages in unprofitable business because they haven't gone through Steps 1 and 2 above. Assuming you have, it's time to evaluate the bad customers (and every business has them). Here's how best to analyze (and react to) the various types of customer relationships:
If this all seems like too much hassle, you'll understand why most businesses continue serving costly customers. I wish I had learned these lessons earlier in my career because it would have saved my company a lot of grief.
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| Deals & More: Funium gets $1.2M for family-focused Facebook game Posted: 01 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST Today’s funding announcements include one company that brings real people into a virtual world and another that brings them into stores:
SnapRetail brings in $6M for digital marketing system: The Pittsburgh-based software company has raised a first round of funding led by Adams Capital Management, an investment firm also based in Pittsburgh. The company helps independent retailers reach customers through social media and digital marketing, helping to bring new customers into both online and brick and mortar stores. ProspX grabs $8M for insurance software: The Austin-based software developer has raised a second round of funding led by Adams Capital Management to streamline commercial insurance sales. Co-founded by a veteran of the commercial insurance industry, the company was started in 2005 and connects agents, brokers and carrier partners online. DynamicOps gets $11M for cloud automation software: The Burlington, Mass.-based company has raised a second round of funding led by Sierra Ventures with participation from Next World Capital. Founded by Credit Suisse in 2008, the company helps businesses deploy IT services through its private cloud automation software. Companies: Adams Capital Management, Credit Suisse, DynamicOps, Funium, Next World Capital, ProspX, Sierra Ventures, SnapRetail
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| Guardian Analytics raises $11M to ferret out cyber fraud Posted: 01 Mar 2011 05:30 AM PST
The company's Guardian Analytics FraudMAP captures data about the typical habits of online bank users so that it can predict their behavior and detect anomalies that may be attempts by cybercriminals to break into bank accounts. The funding reflects a spate of interest in security technology, which is enjoying a resurgence thanks to the spiraling security problems both in online and mobile markets.
In the fourth round of funding, the company added Split Rock Partners to its investors. which include Foundation Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures. Jim Simons, managing director of Split Rock Partners, is joining Guardian’s board. In 2010, Guardian expanded its customer base by 2000 percent and saw 134 percent growth in the second half compared to the first half. Guardian was founded in 2005 and has 29 employees. Rivals include RSA and Actimize. While rivals focus on protecting a user’s machine and use several layers of authentication, cybercriminals have proven they can beat these security layers. Too often, financial institutions only learn about fraud when customers complain about losses. Guardian Analytics has self-learning tools — a Risk Engine and a Risk Application — that determine if an individual's behavior is inconsistent with expected behavior. Guardian says FraudMAP catches fraud that others miss. The service is also affordable enough for regional and community banks. And it doesn’t take an army to implement it either. To date, the company has raised $27.25 million. Companies: Guardian Analytics People: Terry Austin
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| Internet-on-your-TV startup Boxee raises $16.5M Posted: 01 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PST
Boxee started out with software that users could download to their computers, then connect those computers to their TVs to watch online video. But the long-term goal was always to make the service available on set-top boxes and other devices for your TV. The company describes the Boxee Box (which is manufactured by D-Link) as “the one box your TV needs” — and now that it supports Netflix, that claim has a little more weight. A company spokesman said Boxee plans to use the new funding to grow the product development team, to add more content, and to sign up more partners to create Boxee devices. As a measure of how the company has expanded since Boxee last raised money in 2009, the company said it has gone from 12 to 34 employees, and that its software has gone from a super-early alpha test to version 1.0. Boxee now has 1.6 million users overall. Back after that last round, I wondered if Boxee was a little ahead of its time, and if the demand for Web content on TVs just wasn’t there yet. Founder and chief executive Avner Ronen told me that a generation gap was developing, with younger viewers seeing the Internet as the center of their entertainment. That seems to have been borne out in the last year, with lots of big players jumping on this trend, with the launch of the Google TV and a revamp of the Apple TV. So how can Boxee avoid getting squashed by the competition? Well, the company’s website lists a number of selling points over Apple TV, including content beyond iTunes, higher-resolution HD, and the ability to play most file formats. Ronen has also said that he sees Google TV as complementary to Boxee. The funding comes from new investors Pitango and Softbank, as well as existing backers General Catalyst, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures. Boxee has now raised a total of $26.5 million in funding. Companies: Boxee, General Catalyst, Pitango, Softbank, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures People: Avner Ronen
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| Fusion-io broadens its reach for super-fast memory devices Posted: 01 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PST
Salt Lake City, Calif.-based Fusion-io (a DEMO veteran) has had great success selling its devices into financial institutions that can benefit from its five-fold increase in memory data transfer. But the new vendors can carry Fusion-io into a wider variety of data centers, thanks to the benefit that Fusion-io brings in energy efficient computing. With the better memory module designs from Fusion-io, companies can reduce power consumption, cut cooling expenses, and eliminate expensive storage solutions. At the same time, they can vastly improve performance. Fusion-io said that IBM will now offer eight versions of input-output adapters based on Fusion-io’s ioMemory technology across a dozen different IBM servers. That’s a big expansion and a bigger endorsement by Big Blue for Fusion-io. The new adapters will be available on March 1. Supermicro is also using Fusion-io in a new line of server and storage devices. The Fusion-io flash memory speeds the process of transferring data from temporary memory to permanent memory by placing data closer to the processor that needs it the most. A single ioMemory module has the capacity of 100 traditional dynamic random access memory (DRAM) memory modules and the performance of 1,000 hard disk drives. The Fusion-io products are memory modules that can be added into servers housed in racks within a big data center. Fusion-io says its performance increases range from three times to 10 times, depending on the application. Fusion-io was founded in 2006 and has more than 370 employees. The company was started by David Flynn and Rick White. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak serves as its chief scientist. Rivals include LSI and other memory chip makers. Fusion-io’s customers include Zappos, MySpace, Wine.com, Answers.com, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. The company has raised $115.5 million in three rounds. Investors include Meritech Capital Partners, Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Triangle Peak Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dell Ventures, and Sumitomo Ventures. Dell and HP are also partners. Companies: Fusion Io, IBM, Supermicro Computer
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| Bigfoot Networks launches super-fast wireless networking card for PCs Posted: 01 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PST
The Killer Wireless-N adapter card for laptops is aimed at creating a no-compromise experience on the wireless web for everyone from gamers to video fans. As we noted before, if this takes off, Bigfoot could become a bigger player in the PC chip business, and consumers won't have to endure as many frustrating internet slowdowns while using laptops on Wi-Fi networks. Redwood City, Calif.-based Bigfoot Networks says the new adapter card (pictured right) can push the boundaries of Wi-Fi to allow smooth online games, high-definition video and high-quality audio. As with Bigfoot’s desktop-focused products, the new laptop chips allow users to get a lot of control over their internet experience. If you want to prioritize the delivery of games or video, you can specify that in the card’s settings. Studies have shown that worldwide consumer internet traffic related to gaming, voice communications, online video and audio will grow 500 percent by 2014. Some 47.5 million people already play online games in the U.S., and users spend about 190 billion minutes per year on Skype, with 40 percent of those calls using video. In these applications, network latency (response time) means a lot. In games, you get more kills in a multiplayer combat game if you have a good connection, or no "lag." With video conferencing, there is less stuttering, image blurring, and slowdown if you have good response times. And in Skype calls, better network connectivity means that your call clarity is good and you don't lose calls. But the popularity of these multimedia services is pushing wireless networks to the limit. When there isn’t enough speed, the video and audio will stutter or freeze entirely. Wireless networks are more prone to suffering from these problems than wired networks, says Michael Howse, chief executive of Bigfoot. In the past few years, Bigfoot has become very good at optimizing a network for the fastest possible speed. It can deliver packets coming in from the web in .71 milliseconds, compared to 22.5 milliseconds for a normal network card. The average latency is 13 times better with a Bigfoot Networks solution. Bigfoot Networks created its Killer NIC network cards for hardcore gamers, who spared no expense in making their machines and networks faster for online games. It used a technology called Visual Bandwidth Control, which lets you take control of your broadband connection. You can prioritize the traffic coming through your system so that a video stream or conference call gets the highest priority in traveling through your system. The Killer Wireless-N adapters support 802.11a/b/g/n standards, operating on the 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz radio frequency bands. The cards come in a half-size mini PCIe format and can be integrated directly into laptops. The Killer Wireless-N 1103 and 1102 adapters deliver data at a rate of 450 megabits per second and 300 megabits per second, respectively. The company says its performance is five times better on latency than leading competitors. The Killer Wireless announcement is the latest in a string of big business deals and innovations for Bigfoot. In December, Bigfoot Networks launched its Killer e2100 solution that motherboard vendors could integrate directly into a graphics card. That enabled the Killer HD5770 graphics card from VisionTek, the first graphics card that combined Advanced Micro Devices graphics and a high-performance network accelerator in a single card. Kevin Wasielewski, chief executive of gamer computer maker Origin PC, says that gamers demand the best performance not only in games, but also in streaming movies, music and other kinds of media. The Killer Wireless-N adapters will be introduced this month in laptops from AvaDirect, CyberPower, iBuyPower, Maingear, Origin PC, Sager, the V-Machine, Velocity Micro and others. Companies: Bigfoot Networks People: Michael Howse
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| Source: LegalZoom in early stages of preparing to go public Posted: 28 Feb 2011 09:40 PM PST
The company hasn’t filed any documents that indicate it will go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The process begins when a company files a Form S-1, which includes its most recent financial details and how much money the company is looking to raise. So the actual initial public offering might not happen for several months. LegalZoom is an online service that helps people find and fill out legal documents. That can include documents to create a last will and testament, filing to incorporate a business, trademarking a name or title or filing for a divorce. The documents can range anywhere from $100 to $400, according to the company’s website. LegalZoom is not an actual law firm — they just supply the documents. That means the site won’t offer any kind of legal advice for those seeking it out. It’s a private company, which means it does not disclose its financial information. But the company did get in a spat with the city of Los Angeles over how much they would have to pay in taxes around this time last year. The company ended up deciding to relocate its offices from Hollywood to Glendale. The Los Angeles, Calif.-based company was founded in 2001 and has more than 500 employees. LegalZoom raised $2 million in what looks like an early seed funding round and about $46 million in an institutional funding round that included Polaris Venture Partners and Kayne Anderson Private Investors. Companies: LegalZoom
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| Cooliris shows off its cool 3D ads for the iPad (video) Posted: 28 Feb 2011 07:44 PM PST
Specifically, Cooliris has created new "immersive 3D ads” for the iPad. You tap on the banner ad, which then opens into a 3D product demo that you can rotate using the iPad or iPhone, or into some other interactive ad. (Bhumkar emphasized the idea of immersiveness over 3D, since not all of the ads are 3D.) The idea is to take advantage of the iPad to deliver an ad that users are really engaged with. Cooliris will run these 3D ads within its own LiveShare mobile app, but it also recently announced that it's partnering with mobile ad network InMobi to make the technology available to InMobi advertisers. (The two companies will share the revenue.) Bhumkar said he's open to working with other ad networks eventually, but he's happy to launch with InMobi — the ad network was on board with Cooliris' desire to make the technology available as soon as possible. Cooliris' Immersive 3D Ads will go live in April, but the company just sent me the demo video below to show them in action. People: Soujanya Bhumkar
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Fetch Fans is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.
V3 Systems is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
I was a big fan of 
Desktop computers moved to 3D graphics a long time ago. But mobile technology is moving fast toward adopting a better 3D experience. One sign of that is the announcement today that 
Another sign of improving 3D support was an 
Chalk up yet another accomplishment for Microsoft's Bing search engine, which has overtaken Yahoo in search traffic for the month of January 2010, the 
[Peter Yared is the vice president of apps at Webtrends, which acquired Transpond, a social-apps developer he founded.]
Stepping into the word of art collecting can be a nightmarish experience, especially for the uninitiated. New York City-based 
Funium raises $1.2M for Facebook game with real-life characters: The game developer has raised 
Los Altos, Calif.-based Guardian plans to use the money to accelerate sales and build up its product development for anomaly detection and transaction monitoring. Attempts to lock the front door for banks online have failed, said Terry Austin (pictured top), chief executive of Guardian. That’s leading to lawsuits, thefts, new legislation and new regulations. Guardian works with 15 different financial companies across retail and business banking.
Surfing the web on a wireless network has never been a great experience. But 
Online legal document host 
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