Yogi Land

Serving up search results based on what your friends clicked: It’s been a hot topic lately, and one that Facebook has seen fit to claim as its own.

The social networking goliath has just won a patent covering a certain type of search algorithm, one that is largely based on the interests and clicks of a user’s friends and friends-of-friends.

Specifically, the patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation.”

The patent continues, “Search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query and are marked based on frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The markers are visual tags and comprise either a text string or an image.”

The listed inventors are Chris Lunt, Nicholas Galbreath and Jeff Winner. The patent application was filed almost six years ago; we’re uncertain how much this technology plays into Facebook’s current business and search strategies. Still, the patent calls into question whether users click — or buy, or watch, or behave in other ways — like their friends and peers do.

What we do know is that Facebook search has been a priority for the company since its redesign earlier this year. At that time, the search bar on the site was given a prominent new position, and several under-the-hood upgrades rounded out the Facebook search experience.

We’ve also seen a lot of sidebar ads and recommendations lately centering around what a user’s friends like within the site. All in all, the patent seems to line up with Facebook’s general mission to explore (and profit from) the synapses and connections within a social network.

What do you think of this patent? Do you suppose we’ll see any major changes to Facebook search or any business moves based on it?

More About: facebook, patent, Search

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Skype has formally announced its newest product for business users, Skype Connect.

Skype Connect, formally Skype SIP, is Skype’s play at the IP-enabled PBX and Unified Communications (UC) market. With Skype Connect, businesses can now integrate the service into their existing PBX systems.

In addition to making outgoing calls at Skype rates from desktop phones, Skype Connect also lets businesses receive phone calls from other Skype users, landline or mobile phones, or from other phones on the corporate PBX. Also, Skype Connect can be configured to route calls to mobile numbers.

This video gives an overview of just what Skype Connect does:

Skype is one of the most visible players in the consumer VoIP space, but it has a much smaller presence in the business world.

Skype first launched its Skype Connect Beta in March 2009, and according to its business blog now has more than 2,400 global customers. That’s not a bad start, but it pales when compared to some of the bigger players in this field.

Skype also faces stiff competition, not just from companies like Cisco — which has its own IP-PBX offerings — but from startups in the same space, including Bandwidth.com. Bandwidth.com offers SIP Trunking for businesses that want a cost-effective, in-house IP-PBX, and its Phonebooth Free and Phonebooth OnDemand products directly target SMBs.

Skype’s advantage, of course, is going to be that it has brand recognition with new customers. For small businesses that are transitioning to a phone system, IP or otherwise, for the first time, the Skype brand should have its own set of advantages.

Likewise, while other hosted IP-PBX systems have click-to-talk systems like Skype’s own interface (meaning users can initiate a phone call from a button on the Internet), Skype is a ubiquitous part of many consumer and business desktops.

Skype’s disadvantage, however, is that because it has been such a consumer-centric service, it’s unproven in the business support and infrastructure arena. Skype offers a new dedicated customer support option for Skype Connect users, but it’s going to also off-load some of its support to channel partners and VARs. Depending on the business, this may not be ideal.

Also, we find ourselves confused about Skype Connect’s pricing plan. Rather than bundling together plans with minute buckets or extensions, Skype is charging by the minute and by what it calls “channels.”

Incoming calls are free, and outgoing calls are charged according to Skype’s standard rates of 2.1 cents per minute. Users will also need to pay $6.95 a month per channel. A channel is the number of concurrent calls you want to make or receive at once. So if you want to have five different extensions that can all be in use at the same time, you’ll pay $34.75.

We really think it would be in Skype’s best interest to create some unified or bundled pricing plans for its business offerings, if only to make comparison shopping easier.

What do you think of Skype’s formal entrance into the corporate VoIP space? Let us know in the comments.

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Reviews: Internet, Skype

More About: ip-pbx, pbx, phonebooth, Skype, skype connect, voip

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Google is reportedly in advanced negotiations with major Hollywood movie studios to launch a streaming, pay-per-view movie rental site by the end of 2010.

The site would be either part of or connected to YouTube, and Google would use its massive search and video empires to direct new users to the new service, helping it stand toe-to-toe with Apple and other competitors in the space.

According to anonymous sources cited by The Financial Times, including an executive with knowledge of the deal, talks have been taking place for months, but they’ve picked up recently. The big reveal here is not the fact that Google wants to launch such a service — we’ve known that for a long time — but the reports that studios are increasingly enthusiastic, so much so that the service is expected to go live by year’s end.

Many enthusiasts and bloggers believe that Apple will release a new version of the Apple TV platform at an event later this week, so the pressure is on Google to show the world what it’s planning as soon as possible. The Financial Times story says that Google’s service will be available first in the United States, but that other countries will be added later.

It also says that the rentals will cost $5 — significantly more than the rentals at iTunes or Amazon Video on Demand. We find that number hard to believe, to be honest. Google is not likely to price its service too highly in comparison to competitors, which typically charge between two and four dollars for a rental.

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Building on What’s Already There

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Google actually began testing out video rentals at YouTube months ago. Its first public test involved a handful of independent films from the Sundance Film Festival. Reports were that the test was not a financial success, but Google nevertheless expanded its service to include a much larger and more mainstream base of titles. It still was not a real competitor to iTunes or Amazon Video on Demand.

Those early rollouts may have been for testing purposes, though, and Google didn’t really sell them with search links and YouTube promotions like The Financial Times describes. One of the executives The Financial Times spoke with said, “They’ve talked about how many people they could steer to this . . . it’s a huge number.”

That’s probably going to be true so long as Google executes its search promotions in the right way, and if it has attractive content, service and prices.

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Reviews: Google, YouTube, iTunes

More About: a la carte, apple, Apple TV, Film, Google, Hollywood, itv, Movies, pay per view, ppv, studios, video, video on demand, vod, youtube

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Around this time yesterday, Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh publicly offered on Twitter to buy Reddit from publishing company Condé Nast. Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian responded in a blog post this morning suggesting that all the relevant parties get together and talk… over cheeseburgers.

Ohanian, who is no longer directly involved in managing Reddit on a daily basis, actually teased in his blog post’s title that he would respond using only LOLcats (for which Huh’s Cheezburger Network is famous), but he didn’t make good on that promise. Instead, he explained how Reddit’s ads are restricted to preserve a clean user experience, and how that poses “a difficult monetization problem that hasn’t yet been solved.”

You might remember that Reddit called on its users to contribute money in exchange for “gold” memberships when the site struggled to meet the revenue goals set by Condé Nast. Huh offered to give Reddit “more resources and less corporate interference” than Condé Nast.

As open as Ohanian seemed to Huh’s wooing, he wasn’t optimistic about the possibility of Reddit switching hands. “Team reddit needs help, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to call you, Ben,” he blogged. “In fact, I’d be very surprised if reddit were sold.”

Despite his concerns, Ohanian suggested a dialogue between Huh and Reddit’s caretakers: “Considering all that you’ve done with the Cheezburger empire, Ben, I think it’s at least worth dropping a note to Chris Slowe & the team to chat over some… uh… cheeseburgers?”

Chances are nothing would come of such a meeting — apparently Huh has already made offers privately with no luck — but Ohanian seems to agree that Reddit isn’t quite at home with Condé Nast.

[via The Next Web]

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Reviews: reddit.com

More About: acquisition, alexis ohanian, Ben Huh, cheezburger network, conde nast, reddit, twitter

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While checking into a Facebook Places location recently, one Mashable reader noticed a new tab: Photo Memories.

We’ve been unable to duplicate the same tab ourselves, which means Facebook may be testing this feature with a small number of users first before committing to a larger roll-out. But this offering is consistent with how Facebook has presented its newest feature.

At its launch, Facebook’s Vice President of Product, Chris Cox, described Places as a digital repository for all your location-based memories. He described a couple’s children being able to use Facebook Places data to pinpoint the spot of their parents’ first kiss, for example. But a large part of how we store our memories on Facebook and on the larger web is via images and photographs. Imagine not only being able to get textual clues about that first kiss but to also see images of your parents’ first date.

We can imagine that tagging images with a given location or uploading images of a specific location to that location’s Places page would fit nicely into how Facebook has positioned Places so far.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for confirmation that this feature is, in fact, being tested and may come to all users soon; we’ll update you as soon as we hear back from the company.

Photo Memories would further pit the social networking giant against startups such as Brightkite, which offers a core feature of uploading images about places. And a Facebook-driven, Places-based photo feature would also one-up startup such as Foursquare, which has yet to include a multimedia facet in its checkin process.

While we’re sure that Facebook will continue to add core features over its Places location framework, we’re equally certain that the company will leave many other features — including potentially money-making ones such as social gaming — to third-party developers.

Are you seeing the “Photo Memories” section appearing in Facebook’s Places pages yet? Let us know in the comments what you think of the feature, and feel free to send us screenshots if you see any new ways the images are being integrated with location technologies.

[hat tip: Rob Gonda]

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, Photos, places

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Y Combinator, an investment firm for early stage startups, will be upgrading its relationship status with Facebook today, as Facebook has just announced a partnership with the venture company.

The Facebook-Y Combinator partnership is designed to be mutually beneficial for both companies.

Y Combinator has a reputation for producing top notch startups that go on to attract high profile investors, including Justin.tv, Reddit, Scribd and Dropbox. Under the new partnership, Facebook will gain insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, an advantage that will help it build better social products and cherry pick the best startups before competitors like Google have a chance.

On the flip side, Facebook will provide Y Combinator startups with a bevy of resources including priority access to Facebook Credits and other beta features, product and design support, and technical assistance for those interested in building social products or Facebook applications.

Y Combinator will use its winter 2011 class to seek out social startups looking to benefit from the Facebook partnership.

“In the near future, we think it will be hard to imagine a web experience that is not personalized. Startups that can build in these interactions from the beginning — not simply add them to existing products — will be the examples of transformative social experiences others will follow,” said Facebook Platform lead Carl Sjogreen.

The strategic initiative is an interesting maneuver by Facebook and one that’s designed to help the behemoth social network stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social technologies.

More About: facebook, partnership, startup incubators, y combinator

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When a loved one passes away, friends and family often memorialize him or her, usually in the form of a funeral or service. Online though, it’s an undefined frontier. Friends often post on the Facebook walls of the deceased, while Twitter just recently addressed this issue.

Facebook and Twitter aren’t sufficient to truly honor the memory of a friend or family member, though. Enter 1000Memories, a new YCombinator-funded startup that aims to solve this problem by creating a central location where friends and family can share their pictures, stories and memories.

Memorial pages start out with a full-sized photo of the departed; it’s an emotional and powerful introduction to a 1000Memories page. Each page is divided into five parts: Friends & Family, Photos, Stories, Projects and Guestbook. Most of these pieces are self-explanatory, but they all have a focus on sharing memories about loved ones, whether that’s a story about the person or an old photo album.

One of the more interesting aspects of 1000Memories is the “Projects” section. Essentially it’s a page for raising money for a favored foundation or charity. It integrates with WePay for easy donations.

Memorial pages are relatively simple to set up as well. You can sign up or connect via Facebook to get started. 1000Memories then takes you step by step through the process of creating and managing a page.

While 1000Memories could use more features (we’d love to add video and audio), the site is off to a good start addressing a very real problem. It utilizes the sharing and collaborative aspects of the web and puts them to use for honoring the departed.

Would you use an app like 1000Memories to honor a departed friend or family member? Let us know in the comments.

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Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: 1000Memories, startup, ycombinator

Apple is preparing for the launch of iTV, the successor to Apple TV, according to multiple reports. Not only that, but the technology giant is in talks with News Corp. and other media conglomerates to bring $0.99 TV show rentals to iTunes.

Apple intends to hold a press event in San Francisco on September 7, according to Bloomberg. At this event, Apple will not only reveal an updated version of the iPod Touch, but the company will also introduce the next generation of Apple TV, likely to be renamed iTV.

In order to generate interest in iTV and build up momentum for the launch, Apple is reportedly ratcheting up the pressure on the big networks to agree to $0.99 TV show rentals in iTunes. News Corporation and Walt Disney Company are apparently close to signing deals, while NBC, CBS and Time Warner have more reservations about a potential deal.

While Apple users can currently rent moves in iTunes, they can only buy TV shows. The minimum price for these purchases is $1.99, although many popular shows retail for $2.99. Apple believes that $0.99 shows could increase the appeal of not only iTV, but the iPad, iPhone and iPod as well.

The $0.99 TV rentals would be available 24 hours after a show airs. Once purchased, it would be available for 48 hours, free of commercials.

If Apple can succeed in these negotiations, it will be a major coup for the company. Apple has been feeling the pressure to turn Apple TV around ever since Google introduced Google TV to the masses. $0.99 shows will go a long way to increase the appeal of iTV, which is rumored to include iOS support and a $99 price tag.

More About: apple, Apple TV, iOS, itunes, itv

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According to a recent blog post from Google, Earth for Android will now allow for experiences of the submarine variety.

The latest 1.1 version of Google Earth for Android includes features that will let you delve into the mysterious depths of the ocean as well as the more terrestrial spaces of the planet’s surface.

Google first dove underwater with its Earth product early last year. At that time, the company announced it would partner with organizations such as National Geographic to create a sort of Street View of the seas.

Earlier this year, those partnerships came to fruition with Ocean Showcase, a dazzling new feature that highlighted surf spots, shipwrecks, marine research and more.

It’s fascinating to see the underwater aspects of Google Earth coming to handheld devices, as well.

“For example,” writes Google product manager Jenifer Austin Foulkes, “check out the landscape and terrain in Monterery Bay Canyon, which is larger than the Grand Canyon, by zooming in on Google Earth below the ocean surface just off the coast. Once underwater, you can use the ‘look around’ button to tilt the view and see the extent of this great undersea canyon.”

This version of Earth for Android includes an “Explore the Ocean” layer. Seemingly similar to the Ocean Showcase, this feature shows off hundreds of images and video from Google’s content partners.

And if you’re running Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo), you’ll be happy to learn that Google Earth supports Flash in balloons, making it easy for you to view videos from within the app. For most devices, you can also use two-finger navigation to “look around” and change your view when examining underwater mountains and canyons.

If you’d like to check out the app on your Android handset, just use this QR code:

Is this app interesting and entertaining to you? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[img credit: babymellowdee]

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Reviews: Android, Google, Google Earth

More About: android, google earth, Mobile 2.0, ocean, sea

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Chatroulette, the random video chat website that became a minor pop culture phenomenon, has been shut down. The site now hosts a message saying “experiment #1 is over” and that a “renewed and updated version” will launch tomorrow.

But what will change? Probably a lot. Sean Parker (founder of Napster and founding president of Facebook) is working in some capacity with teen-aged Chatroulette founder Andrey Ternovskiy to work out the site’s long-term potential.

Parker said he believed the site could be made more interesting (and that it could avoid the incessant penis problem) by automatically directing users to people who are “nexted” the least. In theory, that could reduce the hit-and-miss nature of the experience, but it would be challenging to execute it right.

How would the site’s algorithms decide who gets the interesting users and who gets the less interesting ones? Would the site be divided into ghettos of interesting and uninteresting people, kind of like the dating site OkCupid invisibly partitions matches users by attractiveness? We might found out tomorrow when Chatroulette relaunches.

Up to this point, only very small updates have been made to the site as it originally appeared, including channels and local matching. That hasn’t stopped it from birthing numerous viral sensations like Merton the piano guy.

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Reviews: Facebook

More About: chat, chatroulette, down, downtime, relaunch, updates, video, video chat, web

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