AOL Acquires TechCrunch
AOL has agreed to acquire TechCrunch: Engagement with thought leaders is important to AOL; http://j.mp/bqht53
Tagged: TechCrunch Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Gerrit Eicker
-
Gerrit Eicker
April Fools Reality
NYT to TechCrunch: extremely old information that is inaccurate. Great, subtle April Fools joke; http://j.mp/ddZfze
-
Gerrit Eicker
Google is Going Yelp
TechCrunch: Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, confirmed by multiple sources; http://j.mp/8I905J
Gerrit Eicker
JooJoo
The CrunchPad is resurrected as the JooJoo, finalising the most nasty story of modern tech history; http://j.mp/52hNHC
Gerrit Eicker
CrunchPad: Game Over
Arrington: CrunchPad was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the same vision; http://j.mp/8P1bmZ
Gerrit Eicker
Google Wave Summary
Our wave analysis published at TechCrunch: Why Google Wave sucks, and why you will use it anyway; http://j.mp/8vRVv7
-
Martin Seibert
Thanks again for your input.
Gerrit Eicker
Crunchpad Inc.
Arrington announced the formation of Crunchpad Inc., a startup company with 14 employees in Singapore; http://tr.im/qN0n
Gerrit Eicker
Twitter: the Traffic Machine
The referer data of TechCrunch certainly shows the potential of Twitter to generate traffic; http://tr.im/osw5
Gerrit Eicker
CrunchPad Final Design
The CrunchPad final design: screen is now flush with the aluminum case, decreased thickness; http://tr.im/nvcJ
Gerrit Eicker
CrunchPad
TechCrunch Tablet makes an early debut: the current prototype – CrunchPad – looks pretty attractive; http://tr.im/iyfX
-
Gerrit Eicker
Arrington: “Think laptop without a keyboard and a touchscreen that only boots to a browser.”
Arrington: “Its a prototype. not reality. just pretty case with cool computer and some slick software. 4 of them. not ready yet.”
Arrington: “The key uses: Internet consumption. The virtual keyboard will make data entry a pain other than for entering credentials, quick searches and maybe light emails. This machine isn’t for data entry. But it is for reading emails and the news, watching videos on Hulu, YouTube, etc., listening to streaming music on MySpace Music and imeem, and doing video chat via tokbox. … Price? it can be built for less than $250, including packaging. Add in fixed costs and other stuff you have to deal with (like returns), and you can sell it for $300 and probably not go out of business. Physical design is important, and the software is the key to winning. – We stumbled through an initial prototype that barely booted, but we finished it in a month. Prototype B was much more impressive and usable. That effort was led by Louis Monier, with software developed by Singapore-based Fusion Garage and industrial design work by by David Yarnell and Greg Lalier from Dynacept. … Ok, so now that what’s done is done, where do things stand? Well, I’m not ready to say yet. But one thing I’ve learned about hardware in the last year is that you need partners to actually make things happen, and the credit for what we saw today goes entirely to the Fusion Garage team. Those guys are rock stars.”
-
Gerrit Eicker
Wired: “The fact that a Web 2.0 media mogul can turn into a hardware entrepreneur in mere months confirms that the time is ripe for hardware startups, as Wired.com reported recently. The combination of easily outsourced industrial design, overseas manufacturing and accessible online distribution means that it costs surprisingly little to create a new hardware product than it did before.”
cnet: “The question naturally arises – in a world filled with $229 iPod Touches and $349 Netbooks, is there room for a $300 product that is essentially a hybrid of the two? The touch screen is an important feature for a portable device to have, but the lack of a HDD or software other than a Web browser makes this essentially a thin client that surfs the Web and does little else (and without a mobile broadband option, it can only do that when in range of an accessible Wi-Fi signal). – Then again, small devices like this are made or broken based on their ease of use and design (see: iPhone versus Blackberry Storm), so if Arrington and his partners somehow manage to nail the user interface and physical package, they could have a very desirable product on their hands. “
TC: “Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million. … Google is building out their own directory of local businesses with its Place Pages, which can be accessed via Google Maps and local search. … Yelp, of course, already has all of this data, along with a growing and active audience of consumers who are used to finding (and rating) businesses on Yelp. … Expect lots of deals to be announced by them over the next three months.”
VB: “For several months, Google has been rolling out enhancements to its Google Maps offering, including aggregated reviews from TripAdvisor, Citysearch and other sources. Most recently, Google Maps began integrating more comprehensive business profiles with its Google Favorite Places initiative, and announced in early December that it was distributing 100,000 window decals to popular businesses with a QR code that links back to a Google Maps listing. Seen at the time as a threat to Yelp, which also distributes stickers to local businesses, the strategy now appears to be the first step towards an attempt to assimilate Yelp’s user base and market share.”
SEL: “In some ways this would be as dramatic or more dramatic than the recent AdMob acquisition announcement. Google is increasingly serious about the local market – from both a content and advertiser/small business perspective (extending into mobile). Yelp helps fill in several gaps for Google on both sides. – If this does happen it will reverberate through the entire ‘local ecosystem’ for many months to come. No, it would be an earthquake.”
Sterling: “Buying Yelp would be a different sort of acquisition for Google – a major one – because it’s not really a technology platform so much as a local brand, community and sales channel.”
Jarvis: “Yelp + GoogleMaps + StreetView + PlacePages + GOOG411 + Google Goggles + Android + AdSense = Google synchronicity“