Home / mashable.com rss archive / September-17-2007


IACs Majority Stake in Gaming Company
InterActive Corp. is getting ready to announce its majority stake in the game developer company GarageGames Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.The plan for GarageGames is to provide a foundation for the upcoming game site InstantAction, bringing in experts from the company to have a hands-on roll in the creation of InstantAction [...]

MySpace Fires Up the Money-Printing Machine
At a Merrill Lynch conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, MySpace will unveil the full scope of its plans to target ads to every MySpace user. In testing for 6 months, and the result of their Strategic Data Corp acquisition, it’s a plan that could finally turn their 110 million active users into cash.The [...]

Google Presentations is Live
Google has launched its long anticipated presentation tool, thus completing the initial version of its office suite. Google first announced their Powerpoint competitor back in April at the Web 2.0 Expo, and along the way acquired startup Zenter to beef up their efforts.In conjunction with the launch, Google has renamed Docs & Spreadsheets to [...]

Google AdSense Officially Goes Mobile
Google is officially launching its AdSense for mobile ads. The process for AdSense remains the same, but ads can now be displayed on mobile websites as well. Google has been working on its mobile advertising options for some time, holding private experiments with its AdWords program, and other initiatives. The hope [...]

Google Presentations is Live
Google has launched its long anticipated presentation tool, thus completing the initial version of its office suite. Google first announced their Powerpoint competitor back in April at the Web 2.0 Expo, and along the way acquired startup Zenter to beef up their efforts.In conjunction with the launch, Google has renamed Docs & Spreadsheets to [...]

Mozilla Launching Open Source Email Project for Developer Community
Mozilla is launching a new initiative, currently code-named MailCo, to create a better email system for the Internet. This new project has received $3 million in seed funding from Mozilla, and will be headed by Dr. David Ascher, who’s currently the CTO and VP of Engineering at ActiveState, and is a recognized leader in [...]

Ustream & Intel Live Coverage of Developer Forum Featuring Dr. Gordon Moore
Ustream has teamed up with Intel to present “Behind the Ubiquitous Microprocessor,” a forum discussion, presentations and events. The Intel Developer Forum is featuring an interview with Dr. Gordon Moore.Dr. Moore will be participating in the Intel Developer Forum with Dr. Moira Gunn, the host of NPR’s “Tech Nation” and “BioTech Nation.” [...]

OKCupid WTF Matches On What You Dont Like
Questionnaire-based online dating site OKCupid has launched a new feature called WTF? While OKCupid isn’t the first to use this acronym as a cute play on words, with this particular network it stands for What To Fix. WTF is a matching tool that lets OKCupid users see the issues on which they [...]

Orchestr8 is a Cool Web Mashup & Search Tool
Orchestr8 is a web content mashup platform that lets you create your own web as you surf the Internet. This service comes in the form of a Firefox extension, and currently supports Windows XP only. Orchestr8 is not yet available in public beta, but I did get a chance to check it [...]

MyChurch Reaches 10,000 Churches
MyChurch.org, the social network for churches, has reached 10,000 church milestone. This MySpace for churches is a rather niche site with tools for Bible blogging, event registration for individual churches, sermon streaming, and other tools designed for church members to take advantage of. This ends up being a tool for pastors to continue [...]

TimesSelect Officially Free (And Other NYT Stuff, Too)
The New York Times has officially opened up its TimeSelect premium service, granting free access to web surfers. Launched in September of 2005, the premium service followed the expected and standard approach to printed material becoming more readily available via the Internet. See original coverage by Pete here.Now with better search engine [...]

Salesforce to Launch Community Platform for Clients
Salesforce has announced a small army of updates, services and new products today, sending us a never-ending trove of press releases. What it all boils down to is the milestone of 900,000 members using Salesforce, and a new service called Ideas, enabling Salesforce clients to create their own community where users can submit [...]

Amazon Affiliate Widgets!
Amazon now has widgets through its Amazon Associates Program. With 16 new widgets for use on your blogs and websites. Some of the widgets options include Unbox videos, Slideshows, a product cloud, My Favorites, a wish list, a search widget, an aStore widget, and a Recommended Products widget. Each widget serves its [...]

60+ Free Password Managers and Form Fillers
If you’re an active internet user with accounts on dozens of websites, chances are you already have dozens of user IDs and passwords to remember. An identity system like OpenID may eventually solve all your problems, but until that time you can make use of various tools to save your passwords and automatically fill out [...]

WorldDevils is Digg for Bad Guys
WorldDevils is a new site that singles out the evil people in the world and calls them out on their wrong doings.Any user can submit a devil. This could be a person, company, organization or ideology. From there, you’ll need to pick a category, such as science or politics, and then a country. [...]

Faroo is a P2P Search Engine
Faroo is a new search engine that operates on a peer-to-peer network. The site is currently in private beta. The idea behind Faroo is that leveraging users to provide the web sites for the search engine’s database is better than the process used by other search giants like Google. You’ll need [...]

Control iTunes without Looking at the Player
Humanized is a service that lets you access and control other applications on your computer without opening new windows or even leaving the application you’re currently using. Today, it’s just launched a new service called Enso Beta, which is currently a collection of four applications you can use with the stroke of a few [...]

Facebook Offering Data Storage to Developers?
Looks like Facebook is getting ready to offer data storage for developers of Facebook applications. This means that developers may not have to be wholly responsible for providing their own server storage for Facebook apps. No details have been released yet, so there’s no word on how much storage could be made [...]

LoudTalks is IM with Voice
Loudtalks is a voice tool that works from any phone, that operaties much like a walkie-talkie. The idea behind this service is to bring the ease of instant messaging and text messaging to a voice-enabled platform that lets you share, emotion and all, what you really want to say. This free, downloadable [...]

Keibi Ridding Porn Across the Social Web
Keibi, the service that works with social networks to provide an introspective analysis in order to improve the management of online UGC content, has added porn-spotting and removal to its list of offerings.It’s technology scans user-submitted images for skin tone, shape, etc. in order to flag potentially offensive pictures. The network’s staff can then [...]

Jottits (Too) Simple Website Creation Tool
Jottit is a tool that lets you create your own website. The process is rather simple. Choose your site name, and then claim it. You can set a password for logging into your account, and select the privacy settings for your site. Adding content to the site is done through [...]

Yahoo Acquiring Open-Source Email Client Zimbra
Most of Yahoo’s acquisitions this year have been ad network-related, but it’s been reported that Yahoo is acquiring Zimbra, the open source email and communications suite provider, for $350 million. Even with Zimbra’s latest desktop release launching earlier this year, a partnership with Comcast, iPhone optimization and the company reporting 80% growth for its [...]

Mochila Now Distributing Reuters through AdMatch Rev Share Program
Mochila, the media marketplace for photos, videos and printed content, has recently signed on Reuters for content distribution online.Reuters will be syndicating its content through Mochila and across its product lines, which includes the media library for text and multimedia news, videos and images, as well as through its AdMatch program. Mochila’s widget is [...]

FOWA Conference: 10% off for Mashable Readers Plus Two FREE Passes
The Future of Web Apps Conference in London October 3-5th is one of Europes biggest technology events and features many industry heavyweights including Kevin Rose, Matt Mullenweg, and Paul Graham. A conference pass will run you 245 (about $500 USD), but Mashable readers can get a 10% discount when registering by using the promotional [...]

RipCode to Transcode MySpace Videos On Demand
RipCode is a new video transcoding service that introduces a new way to reformat video content in a faster, more efficient manner. It’s debuting its service today, and announcing a very big client–MySpace.The transcoding service operates by providing a device that transcodes videos on demand. This reduces the need for video content [...]

Pixels and Flickr Photos Facebook Apps
Pixels is a new Facebook application that lets you create tiny images that aren’t quite as tiny as a single pixel, but tiny nonetheless. These tiny pieces of art are then available for use from the entire Pixel community on Facebook, and the result is a montage wall made of the collective [...]

Iran Temporarily Blocks Google Due to an Error
Earlier today reports surfaced that Iran had blocked access to Google and several of its services via the nations state run ISPs. The report was confirmed by Hamid Shahriari, the secretary of Irans National Council of Information, who said I can confirm these sites have been filtered,” according to The Times. Reports indicate [...]

Save $100 at Defrag Conference Courtesy of Mashable
Defrag is a conference taking place November 5-6th in Denver, CO for software innovators focused on knowledge management, social networking, collaboration, and business intelligence. The conference includes a long list of notable speakers, including Joshua Schachter (creator of del.icio.us), Bradley Horowitz (VP Product Strategy at Yahoo), and Jeff Clavier (Managing Partner of SoftTech VC), [...]

German Media Search Engine Gets Series B Funding
MediaClipping, the Germany-based audio and video search engine that powers search mainly for PR firms and other businesses, has just closed a second round of funding for an undisclosed amount.The round was led by The Swiss Redalping Venture Fund, with other angel investors. MediaClipping deals specifically in speech-recognition technology mainly for helping PR and [...]

Create & Sell Digital Mix Tapes on MySpace with Mixaloo
Mixaloo is a site that lets you create a digital “mix tape.” Currently in private beta, I got to try it out for myself.With this tool, you not only create mix tapes, but promote and sell them via widgets, earning you extra cash. With a library of about 3 million songs to [...]

Mister Wongs Search for Non-Racist Logo Presses On
You remember Mister Wong, right? The bookmarking service that met some unwelcome attention with its U.S. launch, as its logo was considered rather racist?The company took a bad situation and made a good appeal to the public at large. By holding an International logo contest, Mister Wong not only gets a new logo, [...]

JabAbout Launches New Messaging Game for Facebook
JabAbout is a new messaging game for Facebook. It works by allowing you to first assign a distance to your friends (a numerical rating of how close a friend they are), and then sending a message (called a Jab) that travels through your network of friends, friends of friends, etc. You earn points [...]

Spongecell Promote Opens to Public for Event Blasts
Spongecell Promote, the company’s specialized promotions tools for events, is now available for public use. Prior to today, Spongecell Promote was only accessible by direct sales for brands and agencies, social networks and web publishers.With Spongecell Promote, you can create a hub of sorts for spreading the word about your event. create interactive [...]

Microsoft Loses Court Appeal. Must Pay $690M for Market Dominance.
Microsoft has lost an appeal against a fine brought on by the European Commission, as a landmark court case initiated in 2004 has been upheld.The European Court of First Instance has upheld the ruling that Microsoft abused its dominant market position with its operating system and Windows Media Player, freezing out competitors by [...]

MyPunchbowl Adds Halloween-Inspired Features, Launches Facebook App
Event planning service MyPunchbowl has added several new features to gear up for Halloween and launched a Facebook application called “Party Animal.” Party Animal lets user vote between friends to describe how they act at parties. For example, you can vote someone as The Hef or Ladies Man, which in turn gives your [...]

Stixys Easy Whiteboard Tool Now Live to Public
Stixy, the whiteboard collaboration tool, has launched its public beta today. You can read our initial review here.The free service gives you a good way to organize calendars and tasks with an easy-to-use whiteboard tool. Its collaborative features make it great for projects that need to be shared and managed. Some new [...]

Dojo Toolkit to Receive Performance Enhancements
The Dojo Toolkit, a JavaScript library for developing AJAX-based web sites and applications, is receiving a variety of performance enhancements. Several organizations including Mozilla, SitePen and TurboAjax contributed to the project, called The Dojo Grid, which is designed to optimize spreadsheet-like applications that have hundreds of thousands of rows of data. The improvements [...]

Beyond.com is a Monster Clone
Beyond.com is a new job portal website that aims to service every aspect of job hunting and hiring for job seekers and employers.With editorial content such as articles on corporate America, finding a new job, and choosing the right career, Beyond.com is similar to Monster.com or CareerBuilder in that it wants to be more than [...]

Education Goes Online: 25 Free Online Education Resources
We learned on Friday that you can now select a YouTube-related course through Pitzer College. But while a course about YouTube is surprising to some, the web is actually a treasure trove of education-related resources, including lots of video lectures, educational wikis and podcasts. The key sites for modern, web-based learning are outlined [...]

Entire Simpsons Movie Appears On YouTube
It’s not the first time entire movies have appeared on the site, although Google Video is typically the more lenient of the pair. Fox is unlikely to be pleased.Recommended: MySpace News - MySpace Launching News SiteShare This

MySpaces Tom Awards Al Gores Emmy
Strange that Al Gore should get an Emmy for a channel that has made no impact on the web space: perhaps it was more popular on the TV side? Nonetheless, MySpace’s Tom made a virtual appearance to congratulate Gore on his Current.tv project, which we’ve covered a few times before.In another painful web/TV crossover, [...]

Utterz Is a Convenient Mobile Blogging Platform
Utterz is a new mobile blogging community launched by RPM Communications, the same company that brought you Foonz. In conjunction with the launching of Utterz, RPM Communications is also announcing its Series A round of funding for $4 million, led by Morgenthaler Ventures. With utterz, you can blog with your cell phone [...]