Another day, another new social networking site invite in my inbox.
Naymz.com... is this Linkedin Version 2? What a crappy name. It's sounds like "waynz wurld". Anyway, I'm test driving it at the moment, simply because it gives me yet another link to my blog therefore might just help with the SEO. You never know.
Enough cyncicism. It could just take off because it hooks into that perfect incentive mechanism: the ego.
Here's how it works: I link to loads of people. They link to me. The more people that link to me and endorse me, the bigger my reputation (and ego I guess). As you grow in stature, you gain points. Top tier users (rating 9 and 10) get a free Google promotion.
Let's see if it booms or dies. One to watch.
Saturday 29 March 2008
Thursday 6 March 2008
News: Livebookings Network wins £6.5 million of investment led by Balderton Capital
Online restaurant marketing and reservations will be boosted by new investment.
Today, Livebookings Network welcomed a £6.5 million financial injection led by leading global VC firm Balderton Capital.
This investment will add fuel to Livebookings’ drive for international growth and will strengthen plans to recruit talent from countries all over the world. The funds will also be used to build the success founded in existing markets (UK and Nordics), in addition to the development of Livebookings’ tech infrastructure.
Niklas Ekland, CEO says “With this investment, we can further expand our partner network and extend our reach as hungry guests go online to make their next reservation.”
London-based Balderton Capital is one of Europe’s largest venture capital organisations, with an investment strategy focussed on finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies.
Notable investments include
Tim Bunting (partner at Balderton Capital) said, "Livebookings is a fantastic, easy-to-use service for the restaurant sector. By bringing together
booking agents, restaurants and diners, it fulfils a vital reservations and marketing role. We’re really looking forward to working with the Livebookings team as it builds the business across Europe.”
The Livebookings Network is a global marketing and real-time restaurant booking service. With millions of reservations made since its conception in 2001, Livebookings has successfully welcomed almost 17,000 restaurants into the network.
There will be more than a few million reservations made in the next few years. Watch this space...
Today, Livebookings Network welcomed a £6.5 million financial injection led by leading global VC firm Balderton Capital.
This investment will add fuel to Livebookings’ drive for international growth and will strengthen plans to recruit talent from countries all over the world. The funds will also be used to build the success founded in existing markets (UK and Nordics), in addition to the development of Livebookings’ tech infrastructure.
Niklas Ekland, CEO says “With this investment, we can further expand our partner network and extend our reach as hungry guests go online to make their next reservation.”
London-based Balderton Capital is one of Europe’s largest venture capital organisations, with an investment strategy focussed on finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies.
Notable investments include
- Bebo (the leading social networking site)
- Betfair (online betting exchange)
- Codemasters (video games developer and publisher)
- Habbo Hotel (teen social networking site)
- MySQL (open-source database business)
- Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster)
Tim Bunting (partner at Balderton Capital) said, "Livebookings is a fantastic, easy-to-use service for the restaurant sector. By bringing together
booking agents, restaurants and diners, it fulfils a vital reservations and marketing role. We’re really looking forward to working with the Livebookings team as it builds the business across Europe.”
The Livebookings Network is a global marketing and real-time restaurant booking service. With millions of reservations made since its conception in 2001, Livebookings has successfully welcomed almost 17,000 restaurants into the network.
There will be more than a few million reservations made in the next few years. Watch this space...
Monday 3 March 2008
Review: Flock, Social Firefox In A Box?
Is Flock really a new web browser?
Flock, a new browser that is built around "social" browsing, is an interesting alternative to the mainstream Internet Explorer and Firefox.
It pitches itself as a "social web browser"
Actually, you could argue that it's not a new browser at all because it's built on Firefox technology. Look closely and it's really just Firefox with a skin. It's a mash-up. A good one.
Firefox has been successful because of all the custom "add-ons" that you can choose to use according to your needs. If you a developer for example, there's great tools to help check code, optimise for SEO, and many more. Firefox has succeeded in this area because it has an open source development community that continuously add to the features available without adding weight to the basic browser. You can download the basic version which doesn't have too much complexity and just add on the bits that suit you.
Flock however could be seen as a "social Firefox in a box". Take all the great web 2.0 add-ons for Firefox, package them up in a neat user interface, and it actually looks like a different product.
What sort of features do you get?
Neat sidebar options, for example for your favourite RSS feeds
Add feeds by just clicking an icon in the address bar
People sidebar: If I sign into my Facebook account, all of my friends appear in my sidebar with easy to access actions such as send a message
A clean homepage "My World" that includes your favourites, your feeds, favourite media
Web clipboard, so you can copy as store snippets from useful web pages
Instant blog posting from your browser
Coming soon: webmail in the browser
Yahoo! search in installed by default, there's tabbed browsing. It's all good.
Well, it's good to a point.
If I only used one computer and one web browser, I could easily see myself being a fan of Flock. The trouble with Flock is that you need to configure the browser on each machine you download it onto. So - say now I start getting all of my favourite RSS feeds in one place, I have to do the same thing again on each browser that I download and configure.
Also, I have to work for a living. Going to a web browser pre-loaded with a whole load of distractions isn't great for productivity.
I can see myself using Flock at home and Firefox at work. To keep my favourites in one place I'll probably still use Google bookmarks, that way I can access them on any machnine. If I had a Flock account where I could store all of my settings in one place, now that would be better.
It goes to show: in the future, any successful software needs to be truly portable.
Flock, a new browser that is built around "social" browsing, is an interesting alternative to the mainstream Internet Explorer and Firefox.
It pitches itself as a "social web browser"
Actually, you could argue that it's not a new browser at all because it's built on Firefox technology. Look closely and it's really just Firefox with a skin. It's a mash-up. A good one.
Firefox has been successful because of all the custom "add-ons" that you can choose to use according to your needs. If you a developer for example, there's great tools to help check code, optimise for SEO, and many more. Firefox has succeeded in this area because it has an open source development community that continuously add to the features available without adding weight to the basic browser. You can download the basic version which doesn't have too much complexity and just add on the bits that suit you.
Flock however could be seen as a "social Firefox in a box". Take all the great web 2.0 add-ons for Firefox, package them up in a neat user interface, and it actually looks like a different product.
What sort of features do you get?
Yahoo! search in installed by default, there's tabbed browsing. It's all good.
Well, it's good to a point.
If I only used one computer and one web browser, I could easily see myself being a fan of Flock. The trouble with Flock is that you need to configure the browser on each machine you download it onto. So - say now I start getting all of my favourite RSS feeds in one place, I have to do the same thing again on each browser that I download and configure.
Also, I have to work for a living. Going to a web browser pre-loaded with a whole load of distractions isn't great for productivity.
I can see myself using Flock at home and Firefox at work. To keep my favourites in one place I'll probably still use Google bookmarks, that way I can access them on any machnine. If I had a Flock account where I could store all of my settings in one place, now that would be better.
It goes to show: in the future, any successful software needs to be truly portable.
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