Attendi Wants to Search Inside Your Head

As if the more than 20 billion Web pages out there aren’t enough, a new startup coming out of stealth mode today called Attendi has come up with a new twist on “people search.” This is not to be confused with the type of people search that Facebook is getting into (actually searching for people—see also Spock, Wink, Zoominfo, WikiYou and PeekYou), or the type of people-powered search results that Mahalo, Wikiasari, and others are exploring (also known as social search). Actually, Attendi could more aptly be called chat search because it wants to search what’s in people’s heads as expressed through online chats. Attendi is launching at DEMO fall.

Attendi is half a social network, and half a knowledge database. Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Members, known as “Attendis,” will create profiles on the site describing their areas of expertise, hobbies, and interests, as well as adding links to their blogs, social networks, or simply Websites they identify with. The site, which opens in beta today, dynamically creates tags that define what each person knows and cares about (they can also add their own tags). It is built on top of the Lucene open-source search engine, and the Jabber instant-messaging protocol.

When someone searches for a topic on Attendi, what comes back as results are profiles of other “Attendis” whose tags match the search request. And if they happen to be online at the moment, even on another IM system, the other person can initiate a chat discussion with one of them to ask questions about that topic. “Attendi will just be a way to broker your availability,” says CEO Drew Rayman. Every chat is archived, indexed, and becomes fodder for future search results.

Attendi is based in New York City, and Rayman is also the founder of an interactive ad agency called i33. He plans on selling search ad sponsorships based on Attendi topics, as well as a live chat ad unit that only pops up when a company’s online customer service rep is at the ready to do a hard sell through IM. It’s that kind of in-your-face advertising, though, that might drive people away from an IM-centric search engine and never give it a second chance.

Making topic-specific IMs searchable is certainly a novel way to create a knowledge database. But Attendi faces a huge hurdle in getting anybody to actually use its system. What’s the incentive? There is no existing network of super-smart Attendis anyone would want to tap into. One way around this chicken-and-egg problem, though, would be to take advantage of free advice that tens of thousands, if not millions, of people are already giving away for free online in the form of comments that people leave on blogs. There is no easy way to search across those. (Startups like Big Swerve, which was in the TechCrunch40 Demo Pit, are already onto this).

Bloggers today install search boxes from Google or Eurekster to allow readers to search through their posts. Why wouldn’t they also install a way to search comments if it were available. Attendi would be better off trying to build such a service to gain traction for its technology. It could offer a way to power comments for blogs that would make those comments searchable both on that blog alone and across all Attendi-powered blogs. That way, those people who leave their opinions across the blogosphere in the form of comments would surface in Attendi search results. Tapping into blog comments would be a great way to seed its knowledge network.

Todays Takeover Rumor Bought to You By Google And Sirius

The Motley Fool is running a story on a rumor that Google is considering a takeover offer for US Satellite Radio provider Sirius.

The merger between Sirius and XM has yet to be approved by Federal Regulators and hence Sirius would become a takeover target if the merger failed. Google is still seeking more inventory for its Adsense for Radio program; hence buying Sirius would provide it with its own radio network from which they could sell advertising.

It would be easy to dismiss the rumor as being fanciful, and many already have, however any serious Google watcher knows that Google’s ambitions seem to have very little or no bounds. The advantages of Google acquiring Sirius from an advertising view point are obvious, and Sirius also streams a portion of its content over the web as well; a service that would bring Google into internet radio broadcasting. However, there is one additional factor that isn’t being discussed much: Sirius’ Loral FS1300 satellites.

Sirius’ current three elliptical orbiting Loral FS1300 satellites are being primarily used for streaming the Sirius Radio service, but are planned to be used for streaming television as well. More importantly: they can push data two ways; the Loral FS1300 satellite being used by may other companies for that very purpose. In buying Sirius, Google would own 3 orbiting satellites (with one spare and one being built) which they could use to provide internet access or a related data service to the United States and Canada. Google + Sirius would equal Google being everywhere over the largest market in the world. Capacity may dictate a non-universal use for the satellites (such as providing an ISP service), but they could work for an in-car internet service or similar mobile function. Bringing highspeed, low cost internet access to the car has long been dreamed about, Google could be planning to do just that.

You Be The VC: Reality Programming Comes To Venture Capital

You Be The VC is a new competition from New York based Bang Ventures that brings an American Idol style popular voting format to seed capital raising. Wannabe startups put forward their startup ideas to an expert panel, and then the best of those ideas are presented to the public for voting. The top three companies win $15,000 each, Boston Office space and incubation services.

The model is not dissimilar to Y Combinator, TechStars and similar programs, with the obvious difference being a popular vote.

The arguments relating to growing voyeurism of modern society are heated ones; as some one who has read Ben Elton’s excellent take on the medium “Chart Throb” I’ve become very skeptical towards popularity contests, although I still find myself watching them from time to time. You Be The VC is a clever way of exposing Bang Ventures and the sponsors to a broader audience, but on the other hand I can’t help than think that it cheapens the whole Venture Capital profession, at least a little bit. I’ll probably revisit the site though to vote :-)

Entries close in December and entrants must either be a US Citizens or have US Residency. Winners must also take the offer of Boston accommodation and cannot opt to take the cash alone.

Desperation Time? Synthasite Gives Stock Away To Users

Is this a brilliant PR move, or a sign of desperation? Web site builder Synthasite, which we took an early look at in November 2006, is giving 1 million shares of stock away to users.

Users earn shares by creating templates. Each template accepted by the company earns 1,000 shares for the creator. “We’re only selecting the best templates,” the company says.

The company won’t say what percentage of the company they are giving away, but do say that the shares are valued at $250,000. Since Synthasite has not raised significant outside capital, that valuation doesn’t mean much.

“If SynthaSite was ever acquired or became a listed entity, these shares would be worth exponentially more than what they are today,” the company says. That’s a bold statement, and one that would almost certainly get them in trouble if they were located in the U.S. Since Synthasite is located in South Africa, U.S. securities regulations don’t apply to them. So if you’re a designer willing to take a little risk, go get those shares.

Synthasite has a sophisticated site creation tool that competes with a host other startups and Google’s own page creator. Other competitors include Weebly and Jimdo. Webjam, Sampa, and Freewebs are creating communities around easily editable personal websites.

AllofMP3 To Rise From The Dead

The owners of the now infamous cut price Russian MP3 retail site AllofMP3 have posted that the site will soon recommence trading.

The announcement follows a Russian court decision August 15 that found AllofMP3’s previous CEO was not guilty of breaching Russian copyright laws, and therefore the AllofMP3 service was legal.

EMI, NBC Universal and Time Warner had led the legal case against AllofMP3, with the US Government previously threatening to escalate the dispute regarding AllofMP3 to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

According to AllofMP3, “The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future.”

Google Adds Embedding To Google Maps

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Google announced the addition of YouTube style embedding to Google Maps this morning.

Google Map mashups have been popular for a long time now, however for the non-programming inclined including a Google Map on a blog or website hasn’t always been easy. The new embed feature (as above) now provides an easy way for anyone to include an active map on their site.

Embedded maps can be customized in terms of size and can also include driving directions, search results, or a user generated map.

Facebook Will Use Profiles To Target Ads, Predict Future

is planning a new advertising system that will target ad delivery based on profile information added by Facebook users.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the new system will “let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves” with future development that is aiming to (in true Orwellian style…or should that Minority Report style) “predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.”

Monetizing social networking platforms through advertising has been a hard task for a long time now. For example, although News Corp may be reaping revenues from MySpace today, most of those revenues comes indirectly, such as through the Google search deal. MySpace rates have previously been reported to be a small fraction of 1 cent CPM.

Facebook seems to be experiencing stronger advertising rates, with recent reports indicating that Facebook charges around $10 CPM. There is always scope to improve, and certainly the more upmarket demographic of Facebook should provide high paying advertising opportunities if and when the ad delivery is sorted out and well targeted.

There will be some who will question Facebook’s moves. Google has previously come under fire for delivering contextual advertising in Gmail based on the content of emails a user had received. Facebook is not only going to use user data and networking activities to deliver targeted advertising, they are going past that and trying to produce preemptive targeted advertising based on what they think you might want in the future.

If Facebook can create a system that accurately preempts user desires, it’s not unreasonable to consider that Facebook could easily become the next Adwords as well; not even Google can currently predict the future.

Care To Swamble On That?

Las Vegas based (where else?) Swamble is a new mobile-focused website that lets users place and accept wagers on just about anything they can think of. It’s a bit like UK-based Gottabet. But U.S. residents can’t legally use Gottabet because it allows cash wagers. Swamble, for now, allows bets to be settled only with things other than cash.

The site is optimized for mobile use. Click “Create,” add a title and description of the wager, and tags. Other users then jump in and accept, and leave (generally) taunting comments. One of the early beta testers set up a wager that Transformers would have a bigger opening weekend than SpiderMan 3. The wager required the loser or losers (which turned out in this case to be the creator) write a blog post linking to the winner(s).

These kinds of non-cash wagers won’t lead to a lot of success for the company, but the founders say that they will soon add a private wagering feature (where the government’s prying eyes can’t see what’s being bet on).

And there are currently two bills before Congress that might ease the restrictions on Internet gambling enough for Swamble to take cash bets (HR 2607 and HR 2046). If that happens, they may be in a good place to capitalize quickly on the changes in the law.

The company is in private beta but is giving out invitations pretty quickly. Sign up on the home page.

How to pay for US road and bridge repair?

Some lawmakers put a hike in the gas tax on the table, but Bush dismissed the idea on Thursday. By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor The Minneapolis bridge collapse has put the nation's decaying roads and bridges front and ...
Higher Gas Tax Proposed to Fix Bridges KSTP.com
Bush resists raising gas tax for bridges San Francisco Chronicle
Los Angeles Times - Fort Worth Star Telegram - Centre Daily Times - WBOC TV 16
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'Simpsons Movie' marches to own toon overseas

By Frank Segers LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Limited international openings of new domestic champion "Rush Hour 3" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" hardly dented "The Simpsons Movie," which remained No.
'Rush Hour 3' leads weekend box office sales USA Today
'Rush Hour 3' overtakes North American box-office Channel News Asia
New York Times - Los Angeles Times - MarketWatch - Bloomberg
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Fear of bloodbath thwarts efforts to rescue hostages

South Korean officials have twice blocked rescue missions to free 21 of their countrymen held by Taleban rebels amid concerns that Afghan military action could spark a bloodbath.
Release of South Korean hostages delayed RTE.ie
Two South Koreans 'to be freed' BBC News
The Australian - Daily News & Analysis - International Herald Tribune - INQ7.net
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The Fascination With ToDo Lists Continues

The amount of energy web entrepreneurs put into creating the perfect online ToDo list is surprising. In May 2006 we ran through a boatload of them in a comparison post. After all that entrepreneurial effort, you’d think the online ToDo list would have been perfected.

Apparently not. Now DabbleDB, a beautiful little database-centric application builder based in Vancouver, Canada, has created a bit of buzz around its own ToDo list application, built on the Facebook platform.

The app, called Dabble Do, uses the DabbleDB back end to create a simple ToDo list on Facebook. There are some bells and whistles. For example, for dates you simply type in “tomorrow” or “next Wednesday” and the app figures out what you mean. You can also set ToDo items for your Facebook friends and follow up by “cracking a whip.” It’s a good way to stay organized.

Will Facebook’ers use this to keep themselves organized? The email/messaging feature on Facebook is very popular (I wish I could just have it forward to my normal email, though). Perhaps adding other features of Outlook, like ToDo lists and calendars, will catch on, too. In my mind, though, social networking is very different from office-like organization applications. That’s why I wasn’t particularly excited when Zoho (an office suite) added their own Facebook application a few weeks ago. So I’m fairly tepid on Dabble Do.

The bloggers seem to like it, though, and I’ve been wrong more than once before. See Mathew Ingram, Read/Write Web, Paul Kedrosky (an investor), Donna Bogatin and others. Ah, I love the blogosphere.

Nirvanix To Challenge Amazon S3

Look for new San Diego-based Nirvanix to launch in the next few weeks. It aims to compete with Amazon’s popular S3 storage web service and provide web developers another choice for online storage.

The company, which is affiliated with online storage startup MediaMax (aka Streamload), should also be announcing a $12 million round of financing in the near future. It’s not clear exactly how affiliated Nirvanix and MediaMax are, and the company is keeping the specifics of the relationship quiet for now. There has clearly been a technology swap, though, and MediaMax is now using the Nirvanix service to provide the back end of its storage product. Also, former MediaMax CEO Patrick Harr is now running the show at Nirvanix (MediaMax founder Steve Iverson has retaken the CEO spot at MediaMax).

While the company is keeping quiet about the funding and exactly how it’s affildiated with MediaMax, they are saying that they’ll be filling some of the perceived holes in S3. Hopefully they’ll be offering a service level agreement (Amazon doesn’t).

MediaMax, meanwhile, has been trying to pull through a hellish technology transition (my guess is it was related to the changeover to Nirvanix) that plagued them earlier this summer. They’ve moved their corporate blog to a new site, and are talking openly with users about some of the problems they’re facing.

Disclosure: I am an investor and on the board of directors of Omnidrive, which is also in the online storage space and can be considered a competitor to MediaMax and Nirvanix.