DemoMarks » quickbit

Joost lands more major advertising deals

Tim — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:12:54 +0000

In a bid to keep the 30-second tv ad alive on the web, Joost has landed some advertising deals with serious companies including Nike, Visa, and Coca-Cola. The contract is a 3 month trial term (which works well since they are still in beta). With so many large corporations partnering with Joost in terms of content and advertising it’s no wonder Joost is getting hyped up so much lately (and it may just live up to it).

Yahoo Music now has Lyrics

Tim — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:52:58 +0000

In case you missed the news over at TechCrunch, Yahoo Music has partnered with Gracenote to offer lyrics for all of their songs (which numbers in the hundreds of thousands). I’ve been using LyricsFly for a long time because of their ad-free interface, but this will no doubt have a larger offering. For more information see the YMusic Blog.

Social News Portal Newsvine gets upgraded

Tim — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:48:06 +0000

The popular social news portal Newsvine has launched some updated features in their latest upgrade. Modules are now adjustable on the page in a Netvibes kind of way. Also custom RSS feeds can be added. The site has also moved to a 1240px width, which is bold considering how many users are probably still on 1024 displays, but the option can be changed back to 900px width. All in all the upgrade has added tons of features and if you haven’t given them a try yet you should head over there and sign up.

Yahoo Launches “Gay Rodeo Curious”

Tim — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:18:09 +0000

Ok, I’m gonna come right out and say I have no clue what they’re going for with Yahoo Underground which has recently launched with Gay Rodeo Curious. So it’s a show….with a singing reporter….that goes to a gay rodeo. Perhaps the idea is so crazy it just might work, but to say it seems a bit of a niche area is being overly generous. A preview video can be found here, so judge for yourself.

Google adding Powerpoint to its Apps list

Tim — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:54:31 +0000

Google will finally be finishing off their online office suite with the much-requested Presentation application, at least that’s what Mashable is reporting (update:now official from Google). It’s not a surprise for sure, it was a glaring omission on their part for such a simple program that was missing in their Docs and Spreadsheets offering. No word on when they will roll out this feature as of yet.

Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis announce TechCrunch20

Tim — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:40:56 +0000

Another day, another Web 2.0 conference, yet the recently announced TechCrunch20 conference is making quite a bit of news. The conference will allow 20 new startups to show off their product completely free based not on how much money they put up, but on the quality of the product. If you’ve got a startup that you think fits the bill head on over to the TechCrunch20 submission form and throw your name in the pot. Perhaps you could be on stage presenting it to an A-list of industry experts like Dave Winer, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, Chris Anderson, and others.

Collaborative document editing platform “WriteWith” launched

Tim — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:21:27 +0000

Writewith, a startup funded by the Y Combinator team that fueled successes such as Reddit, Wufoo, Kiko, and many others, has officially launched. Although Google Docs and Spreadsheets already allows collaboration, Writewith has added some extra features such as subversion tracking and task management to the mix.

Facebook redesign live

Tim — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:46:07 +0000

Facebook has undergone a facelift and rolled out a few new features to reduce the clutter of the previous menu. Of the most notable changes is the loss of the “Facebook Guy” icon in the top left, in addition to the more important features such as drop-down menus, network pages, and an inbox.

Trivop brings video tours of hotels to the web

Tim — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:34:37 +0000

When I’m trying to find which hotel to stay in during vacations, one of the most important things for me is how everything looks. I don’t want to walk in expecting the presidential suite and get Motel 6 if you catch my drift. TripAdvisor has been a great resource for user photos and reviews. Now Trivop brings the best of both worlds with professional video tours of major hotels along with integrated reviews from TripAdvisor and location finding with Google Maps. This is definitely a new startup I will use more often.

Huge List of Twitter tools and mashups

Tim — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:17:26 +0000

Stan over at FranticIndustries has posted an impressive list of Twitter Tools, Mashups, Plugins, and Clients. The size of the list only reflects the amount of interest gathering over such a relatively simple idea (that still creeps me out for the record).