TechCrunch 50 Enterprise: Yabber and Open Trace Are Winners

FairSoftware - revenue sharing / structuring for small companies Yammer - think Enterprise Twitter. Very slick UI. Reminds me of a slicker Trac / Collab. I love it. Very simple presentation but the product makes a ton of sense and I am really impressed. Going to be tough to beat Yammer in the enterprise group.

Connective Logic - 'scale on demand'

OpenTrace - tracing environmental impact of products and items. fascinating with remarkable UI but it is very complex and I am not sure what the use case is (manufacturers or consumers). Nonetheless, they have developed a fascinating system / product.

Marc Andreesen: "all the stuff that is going to work in public world will make its way into companies." Right on.

Marc Benioff: FairSoftware needs more robust product because they claim to be very broad. If you built this on our [SalesForce.com] platform, we'd sell this. I like Yabber the best. Name is not corporate to match the product. I would invest in this. OpenTrace is powerful and serves a major need - needs a consumer interface (Marc echoed that as well) - killer app for the next decade.

Everyone loves the OpenTrace product and "killer app" has been used twice. It's unique, innovative and important. I am not convinced that it will have widespread usage (or a use-case) - but everyone likes their chances.

TechCrunch Session 2: Dotspots, Angstro, Live Hit and StockMood

Dotspots - a lot like BlogRovr (which I love)

Angstro - 'news about your network'... could use some UI but very useful assuming your friends are in the news. Not sure market size is here. The demo was on Robert Scoble and he's not the common web presence. The product's search intelligence does look quite powerful / unique.

Live Hit: Buzz word overflow!

StockMood: Like the concept a lot but its a tough economic environment to launch in. Might be scalable into other mediums.

Marissa: I love Dotspots. Very ambitious undertaking. I think there will be business model issues - but I like the idea. Angstro is interesting (we know Google Alerts is person-watching driven) but major business model issue. Live Hit has a UI issue - too much hunting and pecking. I have to do too much work to find the interesting content. Stock Mood is an interesting "mash up" but my concern is whether an audience exists.

Cnet: Dotspot has an interesting feature that is important for the web. StockMood is a simply a fetaure. Angstro is an 'interesting feature that LinkedIn could probably use'.

We've now heard CNet call Dotspot, Angstro and StockMood features and Marissa call StockMood a mash-up.

Conway: the big question for each of you is how will you monetize the sites? It's a big issue.

Major theme thus far is the difference between a feature and a destination / core service. And, tied closely to that, the ability to monetize. The panel doesn't seem overly bullish on any.

TechCrunch 50: Hangout.net Wins First Session

Sorry for the brief blog posts but the wifi here at TechCrunch 50 is a mix of unstable and unavailable. The first session featured four companies and my ranks are as follows:

1. Hangout 2. BlahGirls.com 3. iThryv 4. Tweegee.com

Hangout.net was outstanding and the demonstration was perfectly put together. The ecommerce integration is slick and provides an immediate business model.

I thought Ashton Kutcher's Blah Girls had terrific content - but they will need to be updating the content on a very routine basis (tough to scale). Interesting opportunity for Blah Girls to become a mixture of Sugar Inc + YouTube + MTV-quality production.

Chad Hurley: blah girls has best opportunity for advertising model. content is scalable based on distribution. Clearly two learnings out of YouTube.

Marissa: Hangout. questioned all of the business models. iThryv doesnt seem realistic - doesn't seem practical as to how kids save and spend.

Conway: would most likely invest in Shrynk but not without a couple major deals signed (ie Wells Fargo, Intuit). Dilemma for other companies: for their users they have to get allocated time on existing social networks and reduce time spent elsewhere - currently well saturated in networking offers, mindshare, etc.

CNet: Hangout is innovative. Blah Girls needs more content than couple times a week.

Conway: product placement is the next multi-billion dollar advertising platform.

TechCrunch 50 Live Update: No Wifi

I'm at TechCrunch 50 and there has been no wifi thus far... causing small riots in some cases.

While everyone searches for wifi signals, Yammer.com created their own closed network purely to promote themselves. Not sure if it's genius, shameless or stupid (since no one can get online anyhow). Probably a combination of all:

InGameNow Launches New Version in Time for NFL Opening Day

Late last night, InGameNow launched a new version of the site in time for today's NFL opening day (and Tom Brady's torn ACL....). There are several exciting and prominent features:

New Sports If football isn't your passion (or you've given up since Tom Brady is no longer playing), InGameNow has launched in five new sports: Golf, MMA, Nascar, Soccer and Tennis. From Chuck Liddell to Roger Federer – we have you covered.

Upgraded InGameNow Blog The InGameNow Blog has become one of the most visited sports blogs on the web. We've released a new version that is fully integrated into the InGameNow experience and will feature the latest and best posts – showcasing your content to 100,000s of viewers.

Full API We have released an InGameNow Sports API capable of powering communities, widgets, applications, etc. If you are interested in partnering with us and using the API, please contact me.

Reply Functions You'll notice that we've added reply buttons prominently throughout the site. Pressing reply will enable you to chime in to any conversation – whether it's a rival or a fellow fan.

Team Widgets Have your own blog or website? We have over 1,000 widgets from you to choose from that deliver the latest scores and news directly to your blog. Just pick your favorite team or league, and grab the widget code – everything else happens dynamically! Learn more here

iPhone and Blackberry Integration InGameNow.com has been optimized for the iPhone and Blackberry. You can either visit the site directly to interact and get live scores – or you can set up your account to receive alerts via GTalk and AOL Instant Messanger (AIM). Both are great ways to stay atop of the sporting world while on the go.

At TechCrunch 50 Tomorrow

I'll be at TechCrunch 50 tomorrow - and am excited to see 52 companies publicly launch. If you are around, please drop me a note (rspoon at gmail dot com)

Here is the final pre-event note from Jason Calacanis:

Team TechCrunch50,

We've got an amazing program starting at 9AM sharp tomorrow--I can't wait to see everyone!

Doors open at 7:30AM, and if you want to get your badge in time for the first epic presentation please arrive no later than 8:15AM. We expect a crush of folks at the venue, both in the lobby and outside the venue.

The Location is:

San Francisco Design Center Concourse 635 Eighth Street (between Brannan and Townsend Streets) San Francisco, CA 94103 Map: http://tinyurl.com/sfdccmap

NOTE: The San Francisco Design Center Concourse is not the same as the San Francisco Design Center Galleria. Do not go to the Henry Adams address unless you want to go furniture shopping.

Again, please arrive at 8:15AM if you want to make it into the main hall for the 9AM start!!!

Did I mention Ashton Kutcher is presenting first thing!??!?!

best jason

MLB Releases At Bat v1.2 for iPhone - It's Awesome

I've said for a while now that MLB understands the web more than the NBA, NFL and NHL combined. The MLB At Bat iPhone App was announced at the iPhone's launch and it's been a hit since. Today, they released version 1.2 and it's a huge upgrade. The app used to reflect the game's score, number of outs and pitch count (with long delays) - and there was a video archive of "top plays" that arrived a few minutes after happening in the respective ballparks.

The new version now has a few more features (most shown below):

- Gameday: it's essentially ESPN's Gamecast on your phone. Full pitch details (as it happens) with location, count, mph, etc. Amazing. - Field: shows the ballpark's layout, defensive assignments and who is on base. - Boxscore: full boxscore optimized for the iPhone. - Summary: all scoring plays and a full inning-by-inning archive of every play. - Videos: now features a count on the main screen that updates when new videos are loaded. The video quality seems to be slightly better now (but I have no evidence of this being factual!).

Blown Away By Google Chrome: Firefox, Safari and Me (!)

More to come... but I am blown away by Google's new web browser, Chrome.

It's lightning fast. Blows Firefox, IE7, and Safari out of the water. Not even close.

It's slick. The UI is clean and there are tons of tiny enhancements like website thumbnails, most visited pages, etc.

The transition is simple. I hate installing new browsers because there is typically a big switching cost (namely, time). Chrome inherits all of my Firefox preferences (including quick searches) and makes the transition to the new browser seamless.

I have a new starting browser. And I didn't expect to say that at all!

Apple, iPhone Dev Center Can't Keep Up With Developer Demand

I will say it again: Apple and the iPhone are in trouble unless they figure out the App Directory. The iPhone and its platform are only successful and game-changing if it enables content to be produced, released and used. That's not happening. I've written before about Apple's inability (apparent failure?) to meet the demand of potential developers... I've been waiting in the queue for weeks(!). The result is more than just developer annoyance - it's a lack of content for consumers. Here is the most recent screenshot from the App Directory's "New" module which show 21 apps in the last 30 days (note: I am not sure how / why the "new" module is different than searching for "all free apps" or "all paid apps"):