In the not-so-long running saga of Fusion Garage’s JooJoo tablet, the company has excelled at talking up the product, but not so much at delivering. Here’s more talk: The tablet is sporting a new interface, gestures, and the ability to play local video, according to Engadget.
Formerly known as the Crunchpad, the JooJoo has fascinated me since Fusion Garage decided to strike out on its own with the device. The company left its partnership with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington with an ocean of bad blood between them, and in mid-December announced that it would ship the device within 8-10 weeks. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Fusion Garage’s CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan even told us in early February that he still expected to make a mid-to-late February launch. The company ended up announcing a delay until March 25th due to production issues.
The biggest change in the JooJoo’s new interface is the revised home screen (above), which features icons over a high-resolution wallpaper. It’s definitely better than the basic home screen the company was showing off before. Regarding other changes, Engadget’s Nilay Patel writes that “Fusion Garage has also ditched the confusing pinch-to-go-back gesture and replaced it with a vertical swipe that brings down a status bar containing the home button, status indicators, browser navigation controls, and a combination address bar / search field.”
Scroll behavior has also been updated: There’s now a two-finger scroll that resembles a mouse’s scroll wheel, and a single finger scroll to help with panning. It’s meant to make navigating sites like Google Maps easier — since they rely heavily on certain mouse features.
Fusion Garage has also added a small movable keyboard for one-handed operation, and a full-screen multitouch enabled keyboard. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any typing auto-correction or prediction like the iPhone. Rathakrishnan says that Flash is working properly, and the device can also play video files off of USB flash drives.
And for some reason, the JooJoo’s case will now be champagne-colored instead of black.
I’m still unconvinced that the $500 JooJoo will be able to compete very well against Apple’s iPad (which retails at the same price), or lower priced Android tablets that will likely pop up throughout the year. It also isn’t helping that the device is launching little more than a week before the iPad.
Check out more pictures of the JooJoo’s new interface over at Engadget.
Companies: Fusion Garage
He may be the best speaker at the conference ever.
So admit it, you want to be there. Register!
Dennis Kucinich may rather make common cause with the GOP and Rush Limbaugh, but sane progressives have to realize that this is a step forward. And once the foot is in the door, tweaks can always be made. But our foot must be in the door, and that's why the GOP and insurance companies are fighting this with all their might.
I dislike the intrusive advertising on Salon, so I don’t read Salon. I dislike Michael Arrington, so I never read anything on TechCrunch (even when they write about me or my products) and have taken technical measures to ensure that I never even land there accidentally and give them whatever tiny profit that one pageview is worth. I don’t like the timebombed, Unicode-breaking Clickability print-friendly view for New York Magazine, since I like reading NYMag-length pieces in Instapaper and Clickability doesn’t work well in it, so I just don’t read NYMag’s articles. I don’t like Ars Technica’s paginated articles, but since I don’t want to pay for a subscription, I just read every page separately, give them all of their separate-page ad views, and save each page to Instapaper if I want to read them that way.
One reaction I’ve never had is to think that I deserve anything from these publishers.
Valid point: [Publisher] should consider doing it some other way because this will alienate some readers.
Invalid point: [Publisher] should do it my way because all content deserves to be free/ad-free/full-RSS/single-page.
"I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church web site," Beck urged his audience. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"
Today, Beck returned to the subject, insisting that the notion of social justice is "a perversion of the Gospel," and "not what Jesus would say." He wasn't kidding.
He went on to say that Americans should be skeptical of religious leaders who are "basing their religion on social justice," and explained his fear that concern for social justice is a problem "infecting all" faith traditions.
Beck's condemnations aren't going over well in some faith communities. The Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent evangelical figure and president of the Sojourners network, argued yesterday, "I don't know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or just trying to make money. But in any case, what he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show."
Speaking at a progressive media summit, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called it a "tragic mistake" that the White House fruitlessly chased Republican votes on health care rather than take advantage of the ripe environment to pass legislation.
"What is very sad is we had hopes that [the] election was transformational in the sense of bringing people into the political process who have never been in it before," Sanders said. "I tried very hard in Vermont to bring young people into the political process. It is very hard to do. Obama did it. But you know where those young people are now? They are not in the political process. They really aren't. We have lost them. We have antagonized trade unionists. We have not done well with seniors. I don't think we have done well with women. And I think that was a tragic mistake."
This isn't just hot air, either. The polling is clear on voter intensity. For a party that depends heavily on young voters, this is one of our biggest dangers heading into November.
And it was all avoidable. Republicans made it very clear, very quickly, that they had no interest in anything but the destruction of the Obama presidency. I'll never understand why Obama and congressional leaders didn't catch on quicker.
Zynga has lost one of the members of its founding team, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch reports.
Andrew Trader, EVP of sales and business development is stepping down. He was with the company since 2007.
See Also:
Jolicloud, the French startup founded by well-known European entrepreneur Tariq Krim that produces a custom Linux-based operating system for netbooks, has just announced on its blog that it will be releasing a solid beta version of the OS later this month.
In a fairly surprising move, the company also announced that it is ditching Mozilla Prism in favor of Google Chrome to power the back-end of its app platform. All Web applications currently in the App Center – more than 600 by now – will automatically be converted to Chrome.
The move is interesting because many believe that Google’s own upcoming operating system, Chrome OS, will overshadow Jolicloud’s effort in a huge way. If that’s your line of thought as well, check out Michael Arrington’s recent interview of Krim on that very subject.
Jolicloud says the reasons for the switch, which was decided upon after evaluation of “different technologies and opportunities”, were Chrome’s speed (courtesy of its V8 JavaScript Engine), better memory usage, support for multiple authentication technologies right out the gate (Facebook Connect, Twitter Connect, etc.) and enhanced HTML5 and Web sockets support, among others.
However, Jolicloud is quick to point out that the move will not its commitment to Firefox, which will still be the default browser.
The startup says the upcoming version of the Jolicloud OS will feature a new desktop mode adapted for all screens larger than 11 inches and be compatible with 100% of Intel-based netbooks (see second screenshot below). In addition, an entirely new release of Jolicloud Express for easy installation on Windows netbooks is on its way.
(Full disclosure: Krim will be showing off the new version of Jolicloud next week at Plugg, a conference I organize. I didn’t know that for sure until after this blog post went up).
Netbook OS Maker Jolicloud Switches From Mozilla Prism To Chrome For Web Apps
- Sarah Perez
MySpace founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe's new company has raised an amount rumored to be over $20 million, and has acquired social gaming company MindJolt, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reports.
The goal is to become a big player in the red-hot social gaming industry, which is led by the likes of Zynga.
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The whole Daniel Brusilovsky/ TechCrunch Crunchgate free laptops for coverage saga continues to drag on like a poorly written soap opera with a post from the founder of startup Divvyshot.
Sam Odio confesses in a blog post that he was the startup founder at the center of the storm, and that Daniel asked him repeatedly for a Macbook Air. You can read the whole thing here.
I’ll give Odio credit for confessing and admitting to have done wrong (and it’s credit due,) but likewise he makes a number of claims that are bizarre to say the least.
Odio claims that he didn’t say no to Brusilovsky, and indeed strung the kid along for a week until finally deciding high school fashion to dob him in to Michael Arrington for the request. Although the time line isn’t 100% clear, that would appear to be strung out for the week after he had the post published to TechCrunch. Odio claims now that this was wrong, and hindsight is after all 20/20. But likewise the whole “I wished Daniel would stop asking” claim is a bit bizarre: indeed, he kept telling Daniel “we can do this, but not right now.” Sounds an awful lot to a casual observer that he was mostly worried about keeping the coverage, until eventually Daniel’s pestering got too much…or perhaps in the mean time he grew a conscious.
But what truly lets the confession down is Odio’s bizarre decision to attack Jason Calacanis and Loren Feldman to complete the tale.
On one hand Odio claims that he wanted to be “as private about the matter as possible….[and for TechCrunch] keep my identity confidential.” And yet he wrote to Jason Calacanis disclosing his involvement.
Sorry, that’s bollocks.
I don’t begrudge Odio’s preference for privacy. But if you’re serious about your identity not being known, you don’t start telling third parties about your involvement. This is doubly so when it comes to Jason Calacanis, who is well known for publishing emails he’s received on his personal blog. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (and I mean it as no disrespect to Jason,) but seriously: you don’t get to remain anonymous and discuss it with third parties at the same time.
The attack on Loren Feldman borders on complete stupidity. The odds on someone finding out Odio’s involvement in Crunchgate was always on the table, and if it hadn’t been Loren it could have easily been someone else. This is the tech community after all: secrets leak. Shooting the messenger when you yourself disclosed your identity to a unrelated third party to the story: well, someone needs to buy a book on personal responsibility ASAP.
I don’t know Sam Odio, and I’m sure he’s normally a perfectly good bloke, but you don’t get to confess your sins and then blame others in the same breadth without being called out on it.
The whole Daniel Brusilovsky/ TechCrunch Crunchgate free laptops for coverage saga continues to drag on like a poorly written soap opera with a post from the founder of startup Divvyshot.
Sam Odio confesses in a blog post that he was the startup founder at the center of the storm, and that Daniel asked him repeatedly for a Macbook Air. You can read the whole thing here.
I’ll give Odio credit for confessing and admitting to have done wrong (and it’s credit due,) but likewise he makes a number of claims that are bizarre to say the least.
Odio claims that he didn’t say no to Brusilovsky, and indeed strung the kid along for a week until finally deciding high school fashion to dob him in to Michael Arrington for the request. Although the time line isn’t 100% clear, that would appear to be strung out for the week after he had the post published to TechCrunch. Odio claims now that this was wrong, and hindsight is after all 20/20. But likewise the whole “I wished Daniel would stop asking” claim is a bit bizarre: indeed, he kept telling Daniel “we can do this, but not right now.” Sounds an awful lot to a casual observer that he was mostly worried about keeping the coverage, until eventually Daniel’s pestering got too much…or perhaps in the mean time he grew a conscious.
But what truly lets the confession down is Odio’s bizarre decision to attack Jason Calacanis and Loren Feldman to complete the tale.
On one hand Odio claims that he wanted to be “as private about the matter as possible….[and for TechCrunch] keep my identity confidential.” And yet he wrote to Jason Calacanis disclosing his involvement.
Sorry, that’s bollocks.
I don’t begrudge Odio’s preference for privacy. But if you’re serious about your identity not being known, you don’t start telling third parties about your involvement. This is doubly so when it comes to Jason Calacanis, who is well known for publishing emails he’s received on his personal blog. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (and I mean it as no disrespect to Jason,) but seriously: you don’t get to remain anonymous and discuss it with third parties at the same time.
The attack on Loren Feldman borders on complete stupidity. The odds on someone finding out Odio’s involvement in Crunchgate was always on the table, and if it hadn’t been Loren it could have easily been someone else. This is the tech community after all: secrets leak. Shooting the messenger when you yourself disclosed your identity to a unrelated third party to the story: well, someone needs to buy a book on personal responsibility ASAP.
I don’t know Sam Odio, and I’m sure he’s normally a perfectly good bloke, but you don’t get to confess your sins and then blame others in the same breadth without being called out on it.
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Gmail Security Enhancements Expected Tuesday (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch) – http://www.techmeme.com/100302…
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Where 2.0, our mapping and geolocation conference, is at the end of March in San Jose and early registration is ending tonight. We are also opening the selection process for Ignite Where.
Where has a full program. We've got a number of great thinkers returning. We are also welcoming first-timers like Chris Vein (San Francisco's CIO), Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp), Blaise Aguera y Arcas (Bing Maps), Josh Williams (Gowalla), Walter Scott (DigitalGlobe) and Michael Arrington (Techcrunch). And returning for the first time in several years is Tim O'Reilly. Tim and Michael Arrington will discuss their views on the mobile and location industry.
Today we will start accepting submissions for Ignite Where. Ignite Where will happen on 3/30 as the conference kick-off. Speakers will get a discount to the conference.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch wrote a brutal post yesterday about Yahoo!. Repeatedly citing a just-released report from analyst Jordan Rohan at Thomas Weisel Partners, Arrington explains that Yahoo is doomed. “This is no longer even close to an exciting company that thrives on chaotic creativity. Yahoo’s foundation is rotten. They have no plan to get back into the game. Or if they do have a plan, no one knows about it.”
What’s going on? Why is Arrington dumping on the company at the same time that George Soros is loading up on stock, and James Altucher at the WSJ is praising it?
Well, the answer probably isn’t to be found in Rohan’s very thorough report. Yes, as Arrington says, there is plenty of criticism there, and Rohan does drop his price target for the stock. All of Arrington’s dark quotes from the report are of course accurate.
But there are many more positives in the report than TechCrunch readers will be led to believe. For starters, Rohan keeps his rating as “neutral”. And he writes: “We do believe there are many things that could go right for Yahoo!. The cyclical rebound in online ads has already started to present itself in Yahoo!’s numbers.” He then notes that display revenues are not shrinking like they previously had and that earnings margins “could easily return to 40%+ after the Microsoft deal takes hold, whenever that happens.” A section is titled “Strong Business Momentum in Asian Assets,” which notes that Yahoo! still holds almost half of the very hot Alibaba Group in China.
In other words: George Soros isn’t crazy. If you both still hold Yahoo! stock and read TechCrunch, there’s no need to jump off the bridge.
(Note: I’ll be discussing Yahoo! on Bloomberg TV at 8:45am on Monday morning)
When Seesmic debuted its Twitter clients for Android and BlackBerry devices back in November, we wrote that the two apps were probably the strongest offerings out there for each mobile device. Seesmic just updated its Android app, bringing it closer to the the Twitter apps for the iPhone. Today, Seesmic is rolling out a powerful new version of its BlackBerry app.
The new version includes support for multi-accounts, Ping.fm integration (Seesmic acquired Ping.fm earlier this year) and the ability to choose your photo uploading size. So if you have more than one Twitter account, you can set Seesmic to remember all of your accounts, and easily switch between them. You can also cross-post messages between different accounts at the same time. The app allows you to set up default account which will be generated each time you open Seesmic for BlackBerry. You can add up to ten accounts with the new feature.
Ping.gm integration allows for you to post your updates to 50 social networks at the same time. In order to engage the feature, you’ll need to start a Ping.fm account. Seesmic for BlackBerry also includes the ability to share pictures through Tweetphoto now. You’ll still be able to post photos with yFrog, which was the photo app the client launched with, but Tweetphoto is now the default. And now you can also select the size of the photos you wish to post. You’ll be given the choice of opting between small, medium or large images.
Sessmic made updates to its BlackBerry client in December but multi-account and Ping.fm support is huge for the client. This latest update should make Seesmic’s client the most feature-rich app out there. Of course BlackBerry has launched the private beta of its iPhone app which is missing a few key features and has been receiving mediocre reviews.
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is an investor in Seesmic but I am not.
Around the same time Apple’s iPad will land in stores, we’ll also see one of its first competitors: the JooJoo (formerly known as the CrunchPad).
Scheduled to launch March 25, the JooJoo tablet sports a 12.1-inch touchscreen display and weighs 2.4 pounds. The tablet will ship with a custom operating system developed by Singapore-based company Fusion Garage.
The JooJoo was originally set to launch late February, but a manufacturing issue has caused a delay, according to Fusion Garage. The obscure tablet was more well known when it was called CrunchPad, a project that TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington touted as his brainchild. Fusion Garage, the company manufacturing the tablet, said it decided to move forward without TechCrunch after feeling pressure from shareholders and later rebranded it JooJoo.
Wired.com had some hands-on time with the JooJoo back in December, and though we described it as a delight to use, I can’t imagine how it will succeed. The fact the tablet runs a custom operating system means Fusion Garage must convince third-party software developers to create apps for the JooJoo OS. It’s unrealistic to expect software developers will choose to make apps for a small, obscure company whose tablet audience will likely be diminutive upon launch.
Plus, from a consumer perspective, there’s no compelling reason to buy the JooJoo. It costs $500 — the same as Apple’s iPad, which will be compatible with all 140,000 apps in the App Store out of the box. So unless Fusion Garage miraculously recruits thousands of developers in the next month, all you’ll have for a while on the JooJoo is a pretty touchscreen that runs an off-brand web browser.
However, one area where the JooJoo beats the iPad is awkward naming. iPad we can get used to, but JooJoo? JooKiddingMe?
See Also:
Via Forbes
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Google’s 3% revenue coming from enterprise applications is massively important. The graphic running down the side of this post (courtesy of Pingdom) tells the main story. A few years ago, Google’s revenue from this ‘licenses’ line item was piffling. 3% doesn’t sound a lot but it represents $760 million. Going back to 2008, Henry Blodget provided some analysis where he said:
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington cites a Google source who puts� Google Apps revenue at 2%-3% of Google’s revenue, or about $400 million. This up 10X from $40 million last year…$400 million is peanuts relative to Office ($18 billion) and Google ($17 billion), but it’s still meaningful and impressive. The product didn’t even exist three years ago.
Henry got it a bit wrong because the year of that large jump, Google acquired Postini, an email security business. The smart money says that at the time of acquisition, Postini was posting something around $80-100 million. Regardless of how you look at it, Postini clearly had a massive impact on Google’s results. Fast forward and now we’re continuing to see Google generate 3% from applications generally (including Postini) but it has ballooned to a massive $760 million.
This is significant. It represents 90% growth in 2 years.
The last year or so, I’ve been keeping an eye out on Google Apps, watching to see how the company performs on wins in the enterprise. It’s been doing very well albeit most of the deal seem focused on email. Regardless of whether you think email is a dying business, Google’s foray into the business productivity area is proving that it remains a vitally important part of what we all do. From Redmondmag.com:
One year after launching its channel partner program aimed at offering Google Apps to enterprise customers, Google this week said it is approaching 1,000 authorized resellers. Moreover, a growing number of those who offer managed services are recommending Google Apps, according to a survey released earlier this month.
The� MSPmentor 100 report for 2010 found that while 68 percent of MSPs now try to sell hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings to enterprise customers, 22 percent promote Google Apps as an option.
The news is noteworthy in that there is much debate about whether Google Apps is a strong threat to Microsoft’s Office franchise and Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).
When Computer Sciences Corp. recently won the� widely publicized $7.2 million contract to run the city of Los Angeles’ hosted e-mail network with Google Apps, many dismissed its significance. But some held it up as an example that Google and others such as� Oracle, IBM and VMware may be a credible threat to BPOS and Office and an alternative� for partners frustrated with Microsoft’s BPOS pricing and licensing terms.
“Millions of businesses have gone Google — and our resellers, too, have gained momentum,” said Stephen Cho, director of the Google Apps channel program,� in a blog post Monday.
Earlier in the week, I was mildly debating this with another colleague. 1,00 sounds a lot but it isn’t when spread around the countries in which Google resellers are represented. That tells me there is huge upside for Google. If it is getting this level of traction from a relatively small number of resellers, imagine what will happen as more come on board?
Resellers generally are having a terrible time. Cloud based applications and services are the only ray of light for them at the moment. As we see more applications move to SaaS/cloud, Google will be a natural beneficiary. I predict that despite the interest in social computing, Google’s ownership of this slice of the market will become massively significant. When Toby Wright of TMG was talking yesterday, I heard him speak of the strategic importance of cloud applications with Google an integral part of that direction. The cost advantage alone of running GMail compared to running Microsoft Exchange is massive. Check the graphic to see what I mean.
If you have yet to look at GAPE then give it a shot. As always, the usual caveats regarding Google apply.
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If I had to score the entire Michael Arrington, Chandra Rathakrishnan battle over the CrunchPad/JooJoo at this point it would go as follows: 1 point Michael, zero points Chandra. It turns out the promise to deliver the JooJoo in 8-10 weeks was a big no go from Fusion Garage and the problem doesn’t simply end there.
According to Engadget, when placing a call to JooJoo and asking if the units shipped to any customers or if there were production delays they got a big “no comment” from customer service, which makes us believe production issues are at the center of the problem.
Additionally Fusion Garage is now promising an “update” to customers by the first week in March. Notice I didn’t say a ship date, but rather a notice about when the items should ship.
If you’ve ordered a JooJoo and received it please let us know, otherwise we’ll assume customers will start jumping ship for the Apple iPad in about…oh…3 seconds ago!
If I had to score the entire Michael Arrington, Chandra Rathakrishnan battle over the CrunchPad/JooJoo at this point it would go as follows: 1 point Michael, zero points Chandra. It turns out the promise to deliver the JooJoo in 8-10 weeks was a big no go from Fusion Garage and the problem doesn’t simply end there.
According to Engadget, when placing a call to JooJoo and asking if the units shipped to any customers or if there were production delays they got a big “no comment” from customer service, which makes us believe production issues are at the center of the problem.
Additionally Fusion Garage is now promising an “update” to customers by the first week in March. Notice I didn’t say a ship date, but rather a notice about when the items should ship.
If you’ve ordered a JooJoo and received it please let us know, otherwise we’ll assume customers will start jumping ship for the Apple iPad in about…oh…3 seconds ago!
Spotify, one of my favorite new companies, is getting more money. Earlier today, Michael Arrington reported that he had heard from multiple sources that the Founders Fund has invested in the fast growing European start-up.
“We do not know the size of the investment; however, we believe it may have been a token amount to get Parker’s involvement in the company,” Arrington wrote.
While my sources are confirming those rumors, they point out that the amount of money from the Founders Fund, contrary to Michael’s report, is actually substantial. It is said to be as much as multiple millions of dollars. Spotify wasn’t actively looking for funding and this new investment is being described as opportunistic.
With this rumored investment, Spotify now shares two major backers with Facebook – The Founders Fund and Chinese telecom mogul Li Ka-Shing. Spotify had previously raised $50 million from the Chinese mogul, who has also invested $100 million in Facebook. Whatever happens next, it is becoming clearer that Spotify will be making a foray in the US.
Photo of Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek, co-founders. Courtesy of Spotify.
» MySpace’s new slogan—and new product strategy—reportedly will be “Discover and be Discovered.” Maybe Michael Arrington is being a bit generous in calling it a “hail mary”? [TechCrunch]
» Facebook and Zynga are just the start. Digital Sky Technologies’ Yuri Milner says his investment firm plans to invest $1 billion in social media firms over the next five years. [BusinessWeek]
» The Miami Herald is no longer accepting donations from online readers “after evaluating two months of response.” Tellingly, the paper isn’t saying how much money it raised. [Miami Herald]
» Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual world hasn’t been a hit for either advertisers or gamers. [MediaWeek]
» The HuffPost’s newest vertical: College news. The site says it has partnered with college papers but says it also wants 30 students to “cover college issues for us”—apparently for free? [HuffPost]
» Twitter is blocked in China but President Hu Jintao has opened a microblogging account anyways using a microblogging service run by government paper People’s Daily. He has “thousands” of followers. [IDG News Service]
» Investigators have new leads on who may have been behind the cyberattack on Google that led to the company’s threat to pull out of China. [WSJ]
Banks and other financial organizations are collecting and archiving information such as status updates that users post on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to a recent ABC News article.
The ABC article maintains that due to the wealth of user data available on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, banks can now have a very detailed and elaborate view on the personal lives of its clients. Personal finance expert Erica Sandberg thinks that anyone can get information about her financial conditions from Facebook or LinkedIn and can then use this information to may even deny credit to her. According to Sandberd:
It’s very similar to standing in the middle of the park and screaming. Do you want to scream good things or do you want to scream crazy things? You’re talking about the debt you have or you’re not going to pay your bills. That information is out there and it could be used for you or it could be used maybe against you.
Banks are relying on companies like RapLeaf to do the dirty (or not so dirty) job of providing them with information about clients from social sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
The start and evolution of RapLeaf is an interesting story in itself. In 2005, veteran blogger Michael Arrington wrote an inspiring article titled “Companies I’d like to Profile (but don’t exist)”. In the article, Arrington listed ten startups or services that should exist, and if someone decides to create such a service he would be more than willing to profile it on TechCrunch. One of those services was Portable Reputations, according to Arrington:
eBay’s Feedback system is arguably their biggest asset. Even with its flaws, it is one the biggest drivers of trust between two people buying and selling who’ve never met and never will. But it’s a closed system, usable only within eBay and only for eBay transactions. We need an internet-wide identity and feedback system that any reputable application can tap into, both pulling and pushing data.
RapLeaf was thereby envisioned as a startup that could perhaps be a hub for reputation of online buyers and sellers, which could be used by anyone across the web to conduct commerce. Somewhere down the line, perhaps around the mid of 2008, RapLeaf realized that it would be far more rewarding to use the digital reputations for credit score determination. In July 2008, Rapleaf changed its interface so that it was no longer possible for anonymous or registered users to see the reputation of other users – which was the entire point of the service. So Rapleaf essentially stopped being a portable reputation and instead switched to an archive of user’s financial reputation – that was available to be accessed by banks or anyone willing to pay for it.
Rapleaf now has “social profiles” of 388 million users, according to the declaration on their own site and sells this data to banks and other organizations. According to Rapleaf spokesman Joel Jewitt, banks are using this information for marketing purposes only, however, Jewitt declined to come on ABC News to make this statement.
Rapleaf continues to maintain that user postings on social sites like Twitter and Facebook are not used to determine the credit score. However, there are reports suggesting that social profiling do play some role in credit decisions, such as offering a better or worse financial package to a user depending on his social profile.
The report from ABC News, regarding Banks trying to spy on users financial status, is not a one off event. In Dec, last year Roger Thompson, a security veteran over at AVG came to the forefront with the smoking gun that Banks are using shadowy Facebook apps to gather user details. Rogers reached this conclusion based on a personal experience, while on a visit to attend a conference in London. Apparently Rogers’s credit card got suspended on the trip, as he tried to make hotel payments. This usually happens because the banks in an attempt to weed out fraud block credit cards if they are being used randomly across the globe.
When Rogers called the bank to unblock his card, the bank asked him personal identifying questions such as the last four digits of his social security number and other such details. Things got weird, when the representative on phone started to ask him questions about his daugther-in-law, using her maiden name. The representative, in his defense, claimed that the bank knows these details from publicly available information.
However, after returning home Rogers went through his bank documents, but couldn’t find any document in which he provided information about his son or daughter-in-law to the bank. The uglier part of the entire incident is that Rogers’ daughter-in-law has been married for nine years and hasn’t used her maiden name ever since. The only place on earth, where she still uses her maiden name is her Facebook profile. Rogers thinks that its this publicly available information that the Bank was talking about.
The incident prompted Rogers to conduct an internal research at AVG that concluded that Facebook is awash with apps that exists for no useful reason except to access the personal information of all the users who approve these apps. Rogers believe that there is a high likely hood that majority of these apps are being used for financial espionage.
Representatives from financial institutions or from companies like Rapleaf might have explanations of their own, but incidents such as the one with Rogers suggest that all is not clean. As for us users, who cant stop using sites like Facebook, I could only say that “If you dont want someone to know something about you – dont post it on Facebook, or Twitter or anywhere around the Web”.
Here’s a good virtual parlor game. Pick any two or three Twitter users, and Twiangulate which friends or followers they have in common. Twiangulate is a site that shows the overlap between your social graph and any tow other people on Twitter. It shows the resulting names as a list or an interactive social map.
For instance, if you click on the image at right, you will see an enlarged version of a map I made to see who I follow in common with @fredwilson and @anildash. Fred Wilson follows 463 people, Anil follows 573, and I follow 315. Yet according to Twiangulate, we have 81 common “friends,” which perhaps says something about how insular the world of Web startups and social media can be. In contrast, Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and I only have 15 common “friends.”
So who are some of the people Fred, Anil, and I all listen to on Twitter? Some of the common people we follow include Josh Kopelman, Chris Dixon, John Borthwick, Dennis Crowley, Doc Searls, Steve Case, Joshua Schachter, Danny Sullivan, Bradley Horowitz, Michael Arrington, and Jeff Jarvis.
Are we listening to the right people or do we suffer from groupthink? Who do you overlap with the most on Twitter?
