Transactional advertising network provider Adgregate Markets, a finalist at the 2008 TechCrunch50 conference Adgregate Markets has struck a monumental deal with NBC Universal to power the media conglomerate's mobile commerce ad campaign.Adgregate’s ShopAds enables customers to shop and complete secure transactions within Flash-based ad banners. The mobile version of these ads are similar. NBC is using ShopAds to advertise, publicize and sell the DVD release of movie Inglourious Basterds within rich media ad-units on mobile devices. Greystripe, which recently got an $2 million infusion from NBC Universal, will include the branded ShopAds on its rich-media mobile ad network.

  GOGII, the company behind the popular iPhone applicaiton textPlus, announced today that they have raised an $8.2 million Series B led by Matrix Partners, with existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also participating in the round.GOGII was one of the first companies to get funded by the iFund initiative, which is a venture capital partnership between Apple and Kleiner Perkins. Matrix Partners General Partner Dana Stalder is taking a board seat with this round of funding. Stalder is the former Chief Technology Officer & SVP of Product & Marketing of PayPal.

  The U.S. press hasn't been particularly kind to the Peek email device. It isn't that it doesn't do what it's supposed to do - email. The issue is more that people already have their phones to do this, and those phones can also deal with images, links to websites, etc. But the Peek may just be the perfect device for Europe, and Spain's FON is going to take a shot at distributing it here under the brand PeekFon.FON CEO Martin Varsavsky hinted at the deal yesterday to me backstage at the Le Web conference in Paris. Here's why he think the Peek is perfect for Europe - avoiding roaming charges:

  Mozilla and Google share a common enemy: Microsoft. They also share a lot of money (Google invests millions of dollars in Mozilla and is responsible for most of its revenue). And it would seem that ideologically they share the same belief that the web is the platform of the future. All of this has blunted a lot of the talk that Google's Chrome browser was competing with Mozilla's Firefox browser. But with the launch of extensions for Chrome it's pretty hard to deny it at this point.Perhaps Firefox's biggest selling point is that it has an expansive library of extensions that work with the browser. Even as Firefox gets beaten in performance tests, and people complain about its bloat, the extensions are always the thing that users go back to as the reason that they can't switch. But now Chrome has those too. Sure, not as many yet, but they're coming — fast.

  Opera Software this morning announced that it has released its latest mobile browser for smartphones, Opera Mobile, to operators and OEMs. The software is now available directly for distributors on Android for the first time (note: not for consumers), and as usual also for Windows Mobile, Symbian/S60 and BREW smartphones.The distributor version of Opera Mobile includes the Norwegian company's new, cross-platform UI framework, which fits right into its strategy to unify the look and feel of its mobile browsers.

  Man, am I sleepy! I almost didn't post a giveaway for you all today! Maybe I won't post the giveaway and maybe I'll just go take a nap… what do you guys think? Nap? Or Pulse Smartpen.You'll recall that the Pulse Smartpen is one of the coolest toys we've played with this year and we're giving a kit away to one lucky commenter. How do we keep our prices so amazingly low? We get this stuff free and pass the savings on to you!Also remember we're still giving away a SMART Board!

  We heard reports that Friendster was going to shopping itself to an Asian technology company but tonight, the news was released that MOL Global, a Malaysian payments company, has purchased social network Friendster. The full press release is below. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but we've heard that the purchase price is around $100 million. Friendster, which was founded in 2001, has raised over $45 million in venture capital to date, and is sitting on some potentially lucrative IP. The acquisition makes sense because while Friendster is no longer hot in the U.S., it's most definitely still has members in the Asia/Pacific region.

  Tonight at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Google held an event to formally unveil and showcase the new Google Chrome Extensions. The browser add-ons, which launched just yesterday are already proving to be quite popular among both users and maybe more importantly, developers. Tonight Google announced that while they launched with around 300 extensions yesterday, that number has already grown to 480, and will hit 500 tonight.And it's easy to see why after tonight's presentation. Two software engineers on the Chrome team, Aaron Boodman and Erik Kay built a working in extension live from scratch in front of the audience in about five minutes. And it wasn't just a demo "Hello World" extension, it was a useful one that can pop-up a Gmail message window populated with a link to the page you're on.

  Today Facebook finally started to roll out a new set of privacy controls. These tools, many months in the making, are designed to help simplify the site's notoriously confusing privacy options. But alongside them Facebook is also rolling out a "Transition Tool" that promotes Everyone updates as the new default. In other words, Facebook is giving up its reputation as a 'private' social network — where the default is to restrict access to everything that is shared — in favor of something that can challenge Twitter head on. And, as I wrote last July, it may well be a disaster in the making.Facebook is spinning the news as a win for users. They're supposedly getting more control than ever over what they're sharing, and it's easier than ever to control it. But that's not the real story. Marshall Kirkpatrick over at ReadWriteWeb has nailed it: this is Facebook's move to push people to share with the public.

  Divvyshot, a startup that makes sharing photos between groups very easy, has just launched an iPhone app to make photo sharing on the go even easier. Divvyshot's web service launched in private alpha in March 2009. Divvyshot still isn't open to the public, but if you download their new iPhone app, you'll be able to sign up for an account.With the new Divvyshot iPhone app [iTunes link], the service is making it easier then ever to share photos on the go or to another Divvyshot user. Divvyshot already has deep integration with photo services including Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, and now you can upload all your photos from your phone. There's just one catch — you'll have to first manage these accounts from the Divvyshot website before you can use them on your phone.

  Discount travel site Kayak has launched a new version of its popular, free iPhone app. The new app, which is already in App Store, includes a trips management tool, an upgraded user interface and faster search. New features and upgrades include a two-dimensional desktop-style navigation system, an enhanced flight, hotel and car search design including a new scrolling calendar, faster search and additional search options and filters. It basically comes one step closer to bringing the web experience of searching Kayak to the iPhone. The app also serves as an itinerary management service that consolidates flight, hotel, car rental, maps and other events into a single itinerary. Kayak's paid app ($3.99) for flights on business or first class has also been updated with the trip management feature and improved search and UI.

  Rippol, the video discovery engine that combines both complex algorithms with user suggestions to surface interesting content, has tweaked its interface slightly to provide users with a lightweight version of the site when browsing. After receiving feedback post-launch, Rippol decided to adjust the settings of the site to not require users to login or register with the site to view video. The startup tells us the lighter version is 100% HTML with no Javascript so older browsers can use it easily. The idea behind launching a simpler version is to allow users to view videos and then decide if they want a more personalized experience. Rippol has also launched a new content section called "Buzzy" which are videos that were data mined out of social networks. The videos, which have been stripped of personal information, showcase of content that is currently being talked about or posted on Twitter and Facebook. The algorithm that aggregates the videos takes into account the most recent videos and the most posted videos or Tweeted videos.

  This is quickly shaping up to be my favorite holiday tradition. First Round Capital has once again rounded up all of its portfolio companies to create a video holiday card that's as hilarious as it is heartwarming. This year, we get to witness each startup team singing their hearts out. The theme? "Building Big Dreams", inspired by Les Misérables. Not even Aaron Patzer, who just sold Mint for $170 million, gets a bye. You can watch the video after the jump.This is a great followup to last year's card, when First Round Capital got all of its startups to dance their way through the gloomiest days of the recession.

  As we first reported last night, Apple is finally allowing live streaming video applications into the App Store. Apple's acceptance of the Ustream Live Broadcaster has seemingly paved the way for other live-streaming apps. And one of the best known ones, Qik, is wasting little time to get its app out there. The company writes in a blog post today that they've already submitted their app for approval.I've actually had the Qik live-streaming app on my iPhone for a while, thanks to the magic of ad-hoc distribution. Unfortunately, Apple's policies restrict the number of copies Qik can send this way, so the application remained mostly a proof-of-concept for most people. Given how quickly Qik submitted the app to the store, we expect the official build that will likely get approved to be the same one we have been using, which we reviewed here. It's solid, but the video quality leaves a little to be desired compared to some competing video apps (none of which did live streaming).