Final Countdown After 12 Months of Geeky Rock ‘n’ Roll
Written on 30th January 2009
27 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
This is my last day at The Next Web office, so I guess it’s time for a goodbye post. You know what, after co-editor Boris called me an unfaithful schmuck and a loser, I didn’t even feel like writing this post. But then again, Patrick, Arjen and he dragged me into so many adventures 2.0 last year – I simply can’t leave angry. So I’ve put an arm around Boris’ shoulder, pored us a cup of tea, turned on Europe’s final countdown, and went through the memories of…
- crashing the pool of our corporate hotel in San Francisco at 3am after a Digg Party at the Mighty, San Francisco. Due to the steam, cold water, alcohol in our vains, and the bright lights – security never looked that scary. iJustine looked lovely that night.
- crashing a Reddit party which was going on next to the place Arjen got a new haircut (again San Francisco, one month later). After five Reddit-sponsored drinks, iJustine looked even lovelier
- crashing the wifi over every noteworthy web conference out there by liveblogging our asses off. The last time was at Le Web 2008. While everybody was complaining about the wifi, Boris and I skipped lunch and published sixteen posts
- crashing the highways of Europe with the open office road trip. Patrick, Arjen, Boris and I visited Geneva, Paris, Brussels, Gent, and London to spread the Next Web love
- crashing the mornings of innocent pedestrians who saw a bunch of guys in white suits strolling on the streets over every city that was the scene of web conferences
- crashing my white suit during Bowlr last night with a red pen. That’s how The Next Web promotion started three years ago in New York, and I felt honored to keep that tradition alive.
And the best thing is, apart from this geeky rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, that I’ve learned so much from the three Next Web founders. They all have their own specialty and taught me a whole lot about PR, creative thinking, networking, productivity… and yeah… partying. With a fun office as a safe haven – thanks Wakoopa and Twones -, I had the time of my life. And it’s only because I’ve already showed you a pic of Europe, but otherwise I would have put up a picture of Dirty Dancing here.
You know what, screw it. I’ll do it anyway. It’s my last day for crying out loud. Eat this, you great bunch of readers with interesting comments and superb support:
Mobile flirting crosses the ocean: Flirtomatic aims for Americans
Written on 29th January 2009
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Flirtomatic is a ridiculously popular mobile social network from the UK. That makes sense, as it’s all about sex. Seduce your desired guy or gal via the mobile phone. Currently, 1.3 million folks are concerned with this act of love.
The growth of Flirtomatic is rather spectacular. It had 225,000 registered users in February 2007. What’s even more interesting, is Flirtomatic’s impressive revenue growth. According to a press release in September, it has “skyrocketed” by 475%.
Taking that in account, it’s actually interesting to hear that the service will launch a mobile beta in the U.S. of A. CEO Mark Curtis commented in a press release: “It’s a difficult time in the market, but we’re optimistic that we can enter the US successfully. It will not be easy but if we can replicate some of the success we’ve had in the UK and Germany, generating revenues within six months, we will have taken a major step towards achieving our goals.”
I think the success of Flirtomatic tells us a lot about the future of mobile: it’s gonna be exciting. Sex always leads the way, so Facebook and national networks will follow. I for one, do most of my social networking via iPhone apps.
CoveritLive receives $1.2 million investment to boost liveblogging
Written on 28th January 2009
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
As a startup in a problematic economy, we have been often asked, “Are you guys going to be around in 12 months?” It’s a reasonable question that usually comes from users who have come to depend on our software as part of their core reporting. I am pleased to provide some good news on that front today.
That’s how Keith McSpurren, president of CoveritLive, started an email to all CoveritLive members this afternoon.
“Good” is an understatement, as the liveblogging platform has raised $1.2 million investment. Flagstone Capital – their current investor – gives the service a financial injection so that CoveritLive can continue to develop their customer base and business model. McSpurren is “very grateful” and feels fortunate that he has the right kind of investors behind him.
I can only agreed with him. It’s good news that Flagstone Capital, despite the financial crises, decides to increase support in a rather successful start-up.
CoveritLive has welcomed another investor: Paul Kedrosky, angel investor, well-known CNBC analyst, and the editor of a popular financial blog, Infectious Greed. His goal? To bring a new technology to the traditional media.
Dutch social bookmarking service Bemba closes shop
Written on 28th January 2009
6 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Eleven months after Aaron Peters and Arne Dibbits pushed Bemba in the open beta phase, the social bookmarking service heads to the feared deadpool. 15 minutes ago, Peters used a “Tweet bomb” to share the bad news with his 278 followers:
It’s sad to see Bemba leave the social bookmarking stage. The two kind guys aimed for people who don’t why complicated services, they just want to get the job done. After users have installed the Bemba plugin — there’s no bookmarklet — they can share anything entertaining they find on social networks with just two clicks.
Apparently, this didn’t appeal to enough people for Bemba to survive these harsh economic times. I wish the Dutch entrepreneurs all the best with their future endeavors.
Let me conclude with a quote by Benjamin Franklin:
‘I haven’t failed, I have had 10,000 ideas that didn’t work.’
iPhoto’s Faces also knows how to handle the cats
Written on 28th January 2009
7 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
One the long awaited features of the new iLife is Faces. iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person. That makes it easy for you to add names to your photos. Put a name to a face in a couple of photos, and iPhoto suggests a set of possible matches you can confirm with a click. The program then goes on to find more matches.
The service allegedly works ok, although iPhoto sometimes recognizes random round objects as your grandfather. Anyhow, Faces will get a PR boost by a post on MacLife. The thing is, Faces recognizes cats! Roberto Baldwin writes:
Well, we are happy to say that we were able to get iPhoto to recognize Robbie’s Cat, Lola.
Considering the enormous amount of photos owners take of their cat (what’s up with that?), I’m pretty sure Faces will become a success. After all, a cat is a member of the family and deserves a spot in the iPhoto Faces gallery.
The long and winding road of a web article
Written on 28th January 2009
5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
You can describe the long and winding road in a song and ask Phil Spector to produce it. Or you just make an infographic. Like Elliance did, a SEO service company from Pittsburgh. It shows beautifully how an article can end up under your eyes.
Stephen Fry on the joys of that microblogging service which saved him from bats
Written on 26th January 2009
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Did you, just like Hunter S. Thompson, end up in bat country somehow? Refer to Twitter for some life-saving help, just like Stephen Fry.
The English actor was one of the first British celebrities who started Twittering, which turned him into some sort of ambassador. My London-based co-editor Zee loves his efforts and often refers to him.
In an interview with the BBC, Fry tells more about his new-found love. He praises the collective wisdom of his 63,634 followers. For example, when he once found a bat in his house, Fry’s followers told him how to get rid of it.
It isn’t all love between the celeb actor and the celeb service. The relationship between Fry and Twitter also seemed to be based on fear, as he didn’t want an impostor stealing his name. Neither doesn’t he want to tweet when he had too much wine. Fry will also stop revealing his location, since he doesn’t like to help out paparazzi.
The video isn’t embeddable, so click on the corny image above to view it.
24 Hour Business Camp: Do you rather listen to blogs or Veronica Maggio?
Written on 26th January 2009
10 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
I’ve warned you two weeks ago. An avalanche of new Swedish start-ups made it to the web. Last weekend, 90 Swedish Internet entrepreneurs combined forces for 24 hours to produce 52 new web services during the 24 Hour Business Camp. Well, they succeeded. And now it’s up to us to choose a winner.
The choice is very diverse. You can vote for an interactive website where you can share your best children quotes and turn them into books, t-shirts and gifts. Or do you prefer a crowdsourced t-shirt shop that only delivers limited edition collections? If you’re looking for a job close to home, then head to Jobbkartan.se (”the job map”). It’s a search engine that lets you search for jobs based on their geographical location.
Listentoblogs.com
I’m still in doubt which brand-new start-up will get my votes. There’s Listentoblogs.com, a service build by the guys behind SoundCloud. On this well-designed site, you can listen to your favorite blogs, or turn any blog into a podcast using your own voice. Listentoblogs.com is well-designed and based on open standards like AppEngine, SoundCloud, and Twingly.
Veronica Maggio
On the other hand, YouTV.se introduced me to Veronica Maggio – a drop dead gorgeous Swedish pop star. Her video is featured in The Forfest Channel. Me discovering her is exactly what the founders wanted, as they want to bring back the laid back and random way of watching television. But then on the interwebs. Also pretty cool.
Check the other nominees here and cast your five votes.
KillerStartUps.com, are you paying attention? You’ve got a lot of reviewing to do.
#myfirstjob: the last time Twitter felt like a community
Written on 25th January 2009
9 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Twitter is getting more mainstream, that’s a fact. With hundreds of celebrities, politicians and tv hosts promoting the service, it’s only a matter of months till your most non-web-savy friends use it. While you’re now still surprised to hear somebody mentioning Twitter in a random bar, it will become as normal as talking about emails.
With the first thousands realizing this, a new trend seems to appear: the need to create a community feeling. It will be a short hype, as people will soon realize the service is too big for it already, but for now it’s fun.
The most salient example is #myfirstjob. Thousands of Twitter users share the experiences of their first job. The stream of stories in Twitter search is fascinating to read and gives you some sort of community feeling. We, Twitter users, can share this with folks all over the world.
Maybe one or two similar initiatives will pop up, but I’m pretty sure these are the last community-like experiences you’ll have on Twitter. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Austrian travel service Tripwolf raises $2.5 Million
Written on 23rd January 2009
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Yeah yeah, the credit crunch. I’m sure the travel industry suffers from it as well, but you wouldn’t say if you keep an eye on online travel services. They raise money, appoint new directors and keep launching new products. Like Tripwolf, the Austrian travel site that combines professional editorial travel tips with the usual user generated content – “OMG, you gotta eat at this restaurant! We had a lovely time and the owner was such a gentleman!!. Users can combine these different sorts of content in a free PDF travel guide. Plus there’s an iPhone app on its way.
Anyhow, these European entrepreneurs have raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by European travel publisher MairDumont Group along with investor Dieter von Holtzbrinck, a German entrepreneur who was chief of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group for more than two decades.
In a online world filled with travel sites, why would this one manage to get a few million dollars. According to tech blogger Jason Kincaid, Tripwolf only has attracted 15,000 members since it launched in June 2008. The design isn’t spectacular either and the site is stuffed with ads.
But a closer look shows there’s an incredible amount of content (250.000 locations, city guides, recommendations and travel reports) and that the community managers do a good job in keeping the site interesting. There’s for example a photo competition going on, co-organized with pop star Dido. Things like this show that Tripwolf has a soul, and combined with great plans (like the iPhone travel guide), the travel site might actually make a difference in the online travel scene.
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