Last week, we wrote about the best website ever, wwwtwitter.com. Okay, really it's just a commonly mistyped domain that is currently redirecting to TechCrunch (and the owner actually updated it to direct to my article specifically — thanks, whoever you are!). In that post, I mentioned that while many big name brands own the wwwBRANDNAME.com domain and forward it to their real one, Microsoft did not own it for their current darling site, Bing.At the time, the domain simply pointed to a page with a bunch of links. But since our story, the author decided to do something a bit more fun with it. As you can see now, wwwbing.com is a lovely page featuring a squatting troll. As a bonus, the troll is picking its nose and snot appears to be dripping out.
We reached out to Shepard Fairey about the AP's release this evening claiming that he had admitted lying about which image he used as the source image for his iconic Hope poster. He sent us a response (reproduced below), which effectively confirms what the AP says.Tonight's admission focuses on the photo that Fairey originally claimed to use during his creation of the 'Hope' poster — he claimed to use an image other than the one the AP claims to own, and then lied and deleted evidence when he realized he was wrong. Both were taken at the same press event. The one Fairey originally said he used showed Obama next to George Clooney, the one he reallyused was a close-up. The AP has succeeded in character assassination (perhaps rightfully so given Fairey's actions), but Fairey may still have a case arguing that his image is protected under fair use. Regardless of which photo he used, by painting the image and turning it into a national icon he may have transformed it enough to render the AP's claims invalid.
The AP has just released a statement declaring that Shepard Fairey, the artist being accused of copyright infringement for his iconic 'Hope' poster that became ubiquitous during the Obama campaign, has "admitted to the AP that he fabricated and attempted to destroy other evidence in an effort to bolster his fair use case and cover up his previous lies and omissions.".According to the statement, Fairey has also admitted to using a close-up of Presdient Obama that was taken by the AP as the model for his image, not a different photo that he claimed to use that also included George Clooney, which he later cropped. The statement also says that Fairey's legal counsel "now admitted that Fairey tried to destroy documents that would have revealed which image he actually used" and that "he created fake documents as part of his effort to conceal which photo was the source image, including hard copy printouts of an altered version of the Clooney Photo and fake stencil patterns of the Hope and Progress posters." Finally, the AP notes that Shepard Fairey's lawyers are withdrawing from the case.
News Corp., via MySpace, acquired photo/video sharing site Photobucket back in 2007 for $250 million, plus a $50 million earnout. We've now learned through a source with knowledge of the deal that MySpace is in the process of selling at least a majority interest in Photobucket. The likely buyer? Disney-backed Ontela, a Washington state startup.Photobucket has grown steadily since the acquisition, and currently brings in 54 million worldwide users each month (Comscore). But MySpace never integrated with Photobucket, keeping their own separate photo and video platforms. It's been little more than a side show ever since the acquisition, and the founders have left to do other projects. With News Corp. scrambling to fix up its digital division, it's no wonder Photobucket has been on the chopping block. Best of all, the deal will bring in new cash to News Corp.It's not clear that the final terms have been worked out. But our source tells us that News Corp. will sell a majority stake in Photobucket, retaining some equity. If Ontela is the buyer, the merged company will take a new round of financing, with most of the cash going to News Corp., and part of it going into the new company.Presumably this deal won't look much different from eBay's spinoff of StumbleUpon earlier this year, except on a larger scale. News Corp. gets a cash injection and retains a portion of Photobucket. And the service, combined with Ontela or another buyer, gets a new start.
DanceJam, a dance video startup founded by MC Hammer, Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young in April 2007, will soon be acquired by Purevideo Networks, we've heard from multiple sources. Note: I am a small stockholder in DanceJam, although the company won't comment to me about this at all.We don't know the purchase price or other terms of the deal. Both companies are privately funded.Earlier this year Purevideo Networks also acquired Sportnet, a site that controls a number of popular topical video sites.DanceJam launched in November 2007 and has raised $4.5 million in venture capital.
Last week, we wrote about Digg testing a new kind of ad that allowed sponsors to find previously submitted Digg content and and wrap it in their own ad unit. The first such ad just went live for everyone this morning. And it seems like a really great idea.Since I wasn't able to see the ads before, I wondered if the actual Digg content portion of the ad would link back to the sponsor or to the actual story. Not only does it link back to the story's permalink page, but it routes it through a DoubleClick referral. So yes, Digg is getting paid for each of these clicks, while users are being sent to content that quite likely do actually want to go to. Win-win.
For more TechCrunch Analysis, check out the Q3 09 Trends Report here.Which venture capitalists had the most exist last quarter? A peek at Crunchbase data shows that Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Foundation Capital and New Enterprise Asosciates all recorded at least three exits by acquisition in Q3 2009. The four firms were all also among the ten most active investors in CrunchBase in the quarter. Benchmark and Accel were led by partners who had career weeks, Peter Fenton and Jim Breyer. NEA might have posted the best returns, with two huge deals. Foundation, meanwhile, exited two investments that began in the seed/angel rounds.
Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra, fresh off a new funding and site relaunch, is showing some of the highlights from their annual State of the Blogosphere report today at BlogWorld in Las Vegas. We'll have a video of his full video presentation shortly. In the meantime, we're embedding the power point presentation below.Key points Jalichandra brought up - What's the no. 1 success metric for a professional blogger? What do successful bloggers have in common? The data was taken from a survey of 2,900 bloggers, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland. 72% of bloggers are hobbyists, says Jalichandra, and blog for fun. They don't make any income from blogging, and only half hope to someday. They blog simply to express themselves. Of professional bloggers, only 10% blog 40 or more hours per week.2/3 of professional bloggers are male, and 60% are between 18 - 44 years old. 75% have college degrees, and 40% have graduate degrees. Half have household incomes of $75,000 or more. 17% of them say blogging is their primary source of income. A whopping 74% of bloggers useTwitter, v. 14% of the general population. Their no. 1 use of Twitter is to promote their blogs.Lots more detail in the full presentation, below. You can see the audience reaction on Twitter here.
Next week, 1200 indie (and not-so-indie) rock bands will descend upon New York City for the annual CMJ Music Marathon. Keeping up with all the bands playing at bars and clubs across the city, and who is going to which shows, can be a daunting task even for the most dedicated hipsters. But not to fear, SuperGlued just launched a free iPhone app (iTunes link) with all the CMJ music show listings (and more) that lets you see Tweets about each show, Tweet out your own messages, and share pictures you take via the app. The launch is timed for CMJ, but it works anywhere. The app pulls in show listings from Last.fm, Livenation, local show listings, and those added by members. The app lets you indicate that you are going to a particular show. It also lets you gawk at other people at shows, by snapping pictures and sharing them through the app, or checking out Tweets about that show.
Tinychat, which started out as a simple IRC-style chatroom app to complement the quick-and-dirty conversations on platforms like Twitter, has been steadily building a solid browser-based communication platform that rivals some of the tools built by large corporations or venture-backed startups out there. After adding essential features like video chat and screensharing options to the application back in May, Tinychat has recently leveraged P2P technology to enhance the service (see p2p.tinychat.com) and added embed capabilities that basically enable anyone with a website to integrate a robust, 100% peer-to-peer enabled video chat system by simply embedding some code and fiddling with some of the variables. (Skype, you listening?)
Google has been making Maps and Earth a bit more social these days, letting users create 3D buildings and using crowdsourcing to help update changes in terrain and on roads. Now Google Street View is hoping to engage users by letting them suggest spots where the "Trike" should venture. Google Street View's Trike is what Google uses when it can’t drive a car through the area its visually mapping. Some Google employee actually rides this contraption to make sure Street View has visuals on hard-to-reach spots around the world. At Google's Trike homepage, you can suggest spots where the Trike should go within six categories: parks and trails, university campuses, pedestrian malls (e.g., outdoor shopping areas, boardwalks), theme parks and zoos, landmarks and sports venues.
LA-based Sometrics has secured a Series B round of venture capital, led by Walt Disney Company-affiliated Steamboat Ventures and joined by previous investors The Mail Room Fund and Greycroft Partners. In total, $4 million was injected into the fledgling company, we've learned.That brings the total invested in the startup to $5.55 million. The first round was raised back in May 2008. It was the first investment made by The Mail Room Fund, a joint venture fund established by William Morris Agency, Accel Parners and Venrock.
Everyone is still searching for what exactly Google Wave's role will be in the web going forward. We think it's still too early to tell, but one man, Joe Sabia, has put together maybe the most impressive Wave demonstration yet. Is he doing something extremely useful? No. He's using it to reenact scenes from Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. The result is brilliant.
SHENZHEN, CHINA-- One of my very early posts for TechCrunch referenced the “futurism” of 1950s Americana, where companies like Monsanto and Disney played out dreamy visions of a new automated way of living that never quite came true. I’m writing this post from Shenzhen, in Southern China—a place whose jaw-droppingly impractical-yet-beautiful architecture and building-size LED-lit billboards make the city look like it could be the set for just that kind of dreamy science fiction megatropolis. (Example? The other nights I had drinks outside the InterContinental’s bar, which is shaped like a huge pirate ship.)So imagine my expectations when I set out to see BYD’s “Village of the Future.” BYD—for those who don’t know—is a Chinese powerhouse of battery innovation with more than 130,000 employees, roughly 10% of whom work in R&D. The company is a living, breathing reality check to Westerners who think Southern China is merely a hub for assembling the technology U.S. designs. My BYD guidetold me that the company gets at least one member of Western media coming through the office a week, many of them shocked that a Chinese company could be so innovative.
