Archive for November 3rd, 2006

Better Gmail-Google Reader Combo

Liz Gannes | Friday, November 3, 2006 | 11:51 AM PT | 0 comments

When we met with the Google Reader team before they relaunched their product, I asked them why they didn’t combine their RSS reader with Gmail. The product manager’s response was, ‘what about blogs that update all the time, wouldn’t that crowd your email inbox?’ It didn’t seem like they had seriously considered including the reader as part of another pane, below the regular inbox. But since the official release, people from inside the company and out have been releasing Greasemonkey scripts to do just that. Today Download Squad writes about a new one that they think is great; I will have to try it out.

AllAdvantage Is Back

Liz Gannes | Friday, November 3, 2006 | 11:03 AM PT | 23 comments

We got more than one email this week asking us to join the rebirth of AllAdvantage, the bubble-era pyramid scheme. The new company is called AGLOCO, and it is pre-launch, but the idea is the same — get paid to surf the web. This time, the motto is “own the internet.” To all those saying today is different than the last bubble…well, not anymore.

Though advertising and analytics techniques have improved a bit since 1999, it seems that AGLOCO (created by a couple of the AllAdvantage founders) is going with the tried and true banner at the bottom of the browser, called the “Viewbar.” Members will join the cooperative for free and take a stake in the company as well as a share of its revenues. AGLOCO promises to pay out an hourly rate for using the web while running the Viewbar, plus extra for the people you recruit to the system and the people they recruit to the system (up to four levels down).

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Nokia, Hello Valley

Katie Fehrenbacher | Friday, November 3, 2006 | 10:44 AM PT | 0 comments

Nokia Palo AltoNokia, the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world, is “looking to have a stronger presence in the Valley,” says Tero Ojanpera, Nokia CTO and Executive Vice President. Ojanpera made the remarks at the official opening of the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, which looks to have up to 70 full time researchers and several dozen Stanford student interns working on mobile and wireless innovation (the company is actively recruiting for researchers if you’re interested).

Nokia already has two venture units hunting for startups, but the company says it is trying to open up its research methods, citing Intel as an example of a more open model, and hopes to benefit from both Stanford and Silicon Valley’s creative and entrepreneurial environment. Nokia will also work with Stanford’s students and has already set up a joint Stanford seminar for the next quarter — the next disruptive wireless or mobile company could easily grow out of this union.

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Web 2.0 Downtime

Liz Gannes | Friday, November 3, 2006 | 8:40 AM PT | 0 comments

Pingdom posts on the uptime/downtime of top web 2.0 sites in October. Most are doing pretty well, but oh Friendster…

InfoSpace Loses $$$ and Mobile Content

Katie Fehrenbacher | Friday, November 3, 2006 | 8:22 AM PT | 0 comments

InfoSpace said the company is ending investment in its direct-to-consumer mobile content business, and reported a $46.7M loss last quarter. The company will now focus more on moving its online search capabilties into wireless, which many predicted would be a better bet.

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