Author: Serkadis

For most of 2009, SMS-based, human-powered question-and-answer service ChaCha has made surprising leaps up Nielsen Mobile’s rating for mobile search services.

ChaCha, which uses $2.50-an-hour freelancers to answer questions texted to it at 242242, has been the fastest-growing mobile search service all year, according to Nielsen. ChaCha shot from 7 percent market share to 28 percent in 90 days in the first half of 2009.

Today, in a post about ChaCha’s financials, TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington mentioned in passing that “They recently passed Google and ChaCha is the no. 1 SMS search service according to Nielsen Mobile.”

Is that true? I haven’t been able to catch Mike, ChaCha, or Nielsen today to confirm that statement.

It’s one thing to be the fastest climber on Nielsen’s chart, but it’s a whole new game if ChaCha is the #1 mobile search service. That would mean a startup from Carmel, Indiana has beaten Google at its core product, search.

I wrote about ChaCha last week when the company announced $7 million in new funding. The Indiana-based company, founded in 2006, had redefined itself away from Web chats and onto SMS to provide answers to customers’ questions. By doing everything in short text blasts from near-volunteers, ChaCha CEO Scott Jones told TechCrunch that they’ll soon be spending less than a penny per answer.

P.S. A clarificatin: TechCrunch’s headline might lead you to think ChaCha is profitable as a company. To be clear, Jones said they are profitable on each search. As for the overall operation, Arrington estimated that “Their current revenue run rate is $9 million or so. My guess is they need to roughly double that to become profitable as a business and support their 60 or so full time employees.”

[Screengrab: WareSeeker.com]

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Here are our biggest stories of the year, as determined by you, the VentureBeat readers, and where you clicked. The list covers some of 2009’s most important products, announcements, and ideas, but also includes posts that fell squarely into the “just for fun” column.

We’re counting down to the most popular stories of the year:

10. 10 lessons from a failed startup (April 10) — Entrepreneur Mark Goldenson shares what he learned from the failure of his internet TV network for games. Hopefully that knowledge will help him with his new startup, BreakThrough.

9. New OnLive service could turn the video game world upside down (March 23) — Steve Perlman’s new company could transform the video game industry by allowing game computation to be done in distant servers, rather than on game consoles or high-end computers. So instead of buying games in stores, gamers could play them across the network — without downloading them.

8. iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide (July 21) — The story of 25-year-old Sun Danyong, who committed suicide after a fourth-generation iPhone he was responsible for went missing, suggests how Apple’s secretive ways send extreme pressure all the way down the company’s international supply chain.

7. Pictures: President Obama’s inauguration as seen from space (January 20) — These photos were taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite, which is known as the “Google satellite” because the company has permission to use some of its images for its Google Earth and Google Maps products.

6. GeoEye-1, the “Google satellite,” will capture the inauguration from space (January 16) — Yep, people sure were excited about that Google satellite. And, uh, the Obama inauguration too.

5. Droid, the phone that finally lets me cancel my iPhone; here’s why (October 19) — Based on early reports and rumors, VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall jumped on the bandwagon for Droid, the second generation phone using Google’s Android operating system. And if you’re wondering, Matt was serious about his love for the Droid . Once it was released, he pretty much abandoned his iPhone.

4. How investigators tracked down a Modern Warfare 2 cyber pirate (November 6) — It seems readers couldn’t get enough of our coverage of the blockbuster video game, but the most popular Modern Warfare story was our account of how a private investigation firm stumbled on a scheme to pirate Modern Warfare 2 and sell a bunch of fake copies on the Internet.

3. Technorati: Full-time bloggers are making more money than ever (October 22) — Although most bloggers are hobbyists, blog aggregator Technorati released a State of the Blogosphere report saying the average income for full-timers is $122,222.

2. Android netbooks are on their way, likely by 2010 (January 1) — This was the first of a number of stories this year talking about how Android is an operating system for devices beyond mobile phones. The question now is whether those netbooks will run Android or Google’s other new operating system, Chrome OS.

1. This is the Microsoft I want to see (February 28) — This features a video presenting Microsoft’s vision for the future. VentureBeat alum MG Siegler argued that the frequently mocked software giant has some cool ideas about where it wants to go, but has failed to translate that vision into good products. It’s hard to disagree — even Microsoft executives acknowledged that the company has lost some of its mojo, though they argued it was coming back with Bing and Windows 7.

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People dying everyday in Afghanistan

Editor, The Times:

The picture of Pierce County sheriff’s deputy Kent Mundell’s casket being led down the hallway is very sad [“Officers escort fallen deputy,” page one, Dec. 30].

But there are images like this quite often in Afghanistan, sometimes with six caskets.

Rightfully, society here pays a great amount of respect to fallen police officers, usually with massive funerals, traffic disruptions, and lately with wall-to-wall television coverage.

In the Afghan society, when one of our bombs kill an innocent civilian, they also have massive funerals. Why is the sorrow for our soldiers so low key in comparison? Why did our own government, until recently, bar pictures of soldiers caskets?

I am reminded of the quote by Joseph Stalin, “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”

— Ben McDonald, Seattle

Department of Corrections needs to do its job

The facts and figures emanating from the Justice Department mandate that we have to get smart on crime, cut our prison populations, and reduce the unbelievable costs involved [“Was weapons cache legal?,” NWThursday, Dec. 24].

Our schools and other social services need the money that is being wasted on life sentences for petty crimes and the nonproductive time people are spending behind bars.

It doesn’t make any sense to have a Department of Corrections if there’s no correction going on.

The time behind bars should be spent on improvement. We must fund the methods of correction and improvement that will allow individuals to re-enter society and not reoffend.

We need to do everything we can to keep future generations out of prison and everything we can to provide those currently incarcerated with the wherewithal to succeed.

— Moira Hennings O’Crotty, Tacoma

It’s usually much more fun to make your own appetizers than to buy them! A good party appetizer should be stimulating visually as well as to the mouth. It’s a tasty speck that leaves you wanting more.

How many appetizers to make?

If you’re throwing a late-night (after dinner) party, you’ll probably only need around 7 appetizers per person each hour. For parties during the dinner hour that don’t include a meal, prepare around 13 appetizers for each person per hour. Lunch-time party guests will probably eat around 11 appetizers.

Some fun appetizer ideas

Apple lovers might like a fresh apple salsa with ginger, walnuts and cilantro, available at allrecipes.com. Serve it with tie-dyed tortilla chips from Baking Delights.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks! is sharing her recipe for Phyllo mushroom bundles, and recommends Wendy’s recipe for bacon-wrapped pineapple bits at Tasty Kitchen. Speaking of bacon, an allrecipes.com user shared a recipe for bacon cheddar deviled eggs – a yum treat for special gatherings. Or maybe Cajun deviled eggs or garlic deviled eggs are more your thing?

For a traditional New Year’s food used in an appetizer, go for black-eyed pea dip from Paula Deen at Food Network.

If you want to include meatballs with a flair, try out Southern Plate’s recipe for puff pastry meatball marinara bites.

For a sweet appetizer, do something totally unusual: Make a sweet red bean paste to go with rice cakes! Japanese Recipes for U.S. Kitchens tells you how. Or how about some (wow) chocolate rolls? That yummy recipe using bittersweet chocolate is available from Cafe Nilson.

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Fun Appetizers for Gatherings

Paying for a lot of silly things here and there

We need to get our priorities of government organized [“A warning for the president,” Opinion, David Broder syndicated column, Dec. 27].

If we don’t want to pay the extra money, lawmakers will cut core services first, like reducing prison beds and cutting the police force.

Our governor recently said that more money had to be raised for the government to spend or people would lose their feet and become homeless.

All the while they insist the budget is scrubbed of waste.

Really?

Just for starters, you and I pay $27,000 for a poet laureate. State lottery advertisements will get $11 million, and we will pay $800 million for light-rail art in Seattle. Are you happy about the $145 thousand we will spend rescuing derelict crab pots?

Several billion dollars in expenses of this nature are in the current state budget, and it’s all our money.

— John F. Derrig, Bellevue

Fix the literacy gap with early education

I agree with Michael Sheehan that Washington needs to pass the Early Learning Act [“Washington needs to pass an Early Learning Act,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 28].

Although funding for early childhood education would be good for all children, at this point, all children don’t need it.

Our school system has had a continual problem trying to make the system work for all segments of our population. Where it continually fails is in reaching underprivileged minority students. The reason we fail to adequately serve many minorities is that the school system was designed to meet the needs of reasonably well-educated, White middle-class families.

It works well for families whose cultural traditions include a long history of literacy. Those of highly literate cultures know how to instill literate skills in the children — they read to them and teach them at home at an early age.

These parents also have the background to help their children with homework.

The parents of some minority children, on the other hand, may not have finished high school, may be illiterate or not be literate in English, and may not have the understanding of how essential the early literate preparation is to prepare children for our school system.

As a result, by the time they enter kindergarten, children of underprivileged minorities may be a couple of years behind their peers who went to preschool or had similar teaching at home. The gap in education can grow and leave the children angry and frustrated at the school system that has failed them, making them more likely to drop out.

Therefore, if we do not fix this gap in early education, we will continue to fail these students.

— Leslie Jordan, Shoreline

Lower standards lower parents’ hopes

Did I hear Randy Dorn correctly — he wants to lower math standards [“Schools chief blinks,” Opinion, editorial, Nov. 20]?

Excuse me, but I thought Dorn was elected with a mandate, to raise expectations, rid us of the failed WASL and implement methods that would actually test our children’s abilities, then give them the tools to succeed.

Yet Dorn’s solution now is to simply lower standards?

Like Michael Sheehan [“Washington needs to pass an Early Learning Act,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 28], I am appalled — actually — more ashamed, with the lower standards that give a false sense of success, just to garner more federal or state dollars. Our children need the most comprehensive education we can give them, and you cannot put a price on that.

While Dorn continues to lower standards for those who cannot, or will not achieve, our best and brightest continue to be left to a future of mediocrity, their needs unmet. At some point, they realize that there is no longer a need to even remain engaged in high performance, they can simply get by with minimal effort.

It is because of lowered standards that our children are unable to compete with even emerging nations like China and India for industrial and technology jobs, why employees of some businesses must rely on their advanced cash registers to tell them how much change to give a customer.

When these students get to the point that they cannot tell you how many quarters it takes to make a dollar for bus fare, will we wake up, or simply hope technology evolves enough to give them a machine to make up for that failure as well?

— Carol Brister, Lake Stevens

We were just discussing the DRM tax on a Kindle, which is the “price” of having to rebuy any ebooks you want to keep later on if you decide to switch to another platform. Some of the commenters on that post scoffed at the idea, and insisted that “in the future” this wouldn’t be an issue, because most likely there would be ways to take your ebooks with you to other readers. Of course, that’s little comfort to people today. Reader Mark sends in this story of how Sony initially refused to fix a Sony eBook Reader that only broke because of an update that Sony pushed the woman to install (oddly, they required her to send them the reader). So, effectively, Sony contacts her, tells her to send in her working eBook Reader, then they send it back and it’s broken. And they refuse to fix it because it’s out of warranty. Nice.

But here’s the kicker. After all of this, she went out and bought another Sony ebook reader. She noted that she would have gladly purchased a competing product “but would have lost access to the library she’s spent hundreds of dollars building up.” And there it is. The DRM tax at work creating serious lock-in and consumer problems. At least in this case, due to the publicity from Consumerist, Sony agreed to reimburse the woman, but you shouldn’t have to get a major publication to tell your story first to get that kind of resolution.

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Wishing and hoping

What an appropriate time for Mike Moore and David Freiboth to present their wish list in their Dec. 29 guest commentary “Let’s move forward on 520, viaduct jobs” [Opinion].

Obviously they have never progressed beyond the concept of, as kids, sitting on Santa’s lap and asking for what they want for Christmas.

Brings to mind what my grandpa used to say: if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.

— Howard Almquist, Shoreline

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Filed under: Car Buying, Concept Cars, GM, Saab, Spyker

2006 Saab Aero-X Concept – click above for high-res gallery

In a far-reaching interview with AOL Autos this morning, Spyker Cars CEO Victor Muller revealed some interesting tidbits about his company’s plan for Saab if they can successfully negotiate for its purchase from parent company General Motors.

In a product plan that sounds distinctly like those previously floated by Saab executives in Sweden, the Dutch supercar builder would have Saab rebuild its brand around the 9-3, new-for-2010 9-5, and the 9-4X crossover. An entry-level 9-1 model would not be a consideration, although Muller admits he’d still love to build a production version of 2006’s celebrated Aero X concept (shown above). If Saab were to go that route, Spyker’s experience in building low-volume supercars would clearly be an asset in bringing it to market.

In news that will surely be welcomed by Saab dealers and customers, Muller says Spyker has decided it would not pursue plans to winnow Saab’s U.S. dealer network from 218 showrooms to 137. In fact, the Dutch businessman suggests that it would be reasonable to expect Spyker to sell its own cars within Saab showrooms in the future (they are presently distributed through Bentley and Lamborghini outlets). Down the road, Spyker’s supercars could benefit from Saab’s all-wheel drive expertise, among other things.

Naturally, all of this future product discussion will be moot if Spyker and its investors can’t get GM to hand over the keys to the perennially embattled brand. A newly extended deadline for sales negotiations to be completed was set by GM on Wednesday, and we should know not long after January 7 what fate awaits the brand.

[Source: AOL Autos]

Report: Spyker would preserve Saab product plans, could sell own supercars in select dealers originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inspiring selection of 2009 review

Editor, The Times:

Thank you for the article in Sunday’s Pacific Northwest magazine about Seattle Times photographers [“Pictures of the Year 2009,” Dec. 27]. It was interesting to read how they first got interested in their craft.

The Seattle Times photographers are an amazingly talented group of people. It is always a pleasure to view their work in the paper. I often find myself lingering over a photograph, either admiring its beauty, sharing in its humor, or experiencing its raw emotions.

The pictures are often worth many more times than a thousand words.

When I lived in the Bay Area, it was always interesting to view Steve Ringman’s profound work in the San Francisco Chronicle. When I moved up here, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that he was working for The Times.

Several years ago I was so moved by a stunning photograph Greg Gilbert had taken of the Bainbridge Island ferry coming out of the fog with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop, I called The Times to purchase a copy of the photo.

Gilbert came by on his motorcycle to personally drop it off.

Only in Seattle.

— Dave Richards, Bainbridge Island

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2009 was the year of the WVGA screen. This high resolution screen gave Windows Mobile phones an important step-up which helped the smartphones feel a lot more competitive despite slower processors.  Examples include devices such as the HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Pro 2 and HTC Imagio.

Can any of our readers imagine going back to 2.8 inch VGA screens?  Let us know in the comments below.

A study released earlier this year by Anderson Analytics looked into the demographics and psychographics of social networking users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a goal of providing marketers with information about users’ interests and buying habits as related to their network of choice. The end result is a detailed look at the profiles and habits of social networking users on the web today.

Some of the study’s findings echo things we’ve already heard. For example, Facebook users tend to be old, white, and rich. MySpace users are young…and fleeing. Other info is new: Twitterers are more likely to have a part-time job, LinkedIn users like to exercise and own more gadgets.

Sponsor

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

The Anderson study sampled over 11,000 GreenfieldOnline panelists (an online survey community) over an 11 month period to understand social networking services’ (SNS) reach and overlap among the U.S. Online Population. In May, the company surveyed an additional 5,000 panelists of which over 1,250 participated in an in-depth attitude and usage survey. They then grouped the participants into two categories: those who use social networks and those who don’t. To be considered a social network user, the participant had to use one of the sites in question in the past 30 days.

Of course, not everyone is devoted to one social network alone. The study found that there is some overlap between sites, as shown in the chart below.

Social Networkers, in General

Out of the 110 million Americans (or 60% of the online population) who use social networks, the average social networking user logs on to these sites quite a bit. They go to social networking sites 5 days per week and check in 4 times a day for a total of an hour per day. Nine percent of that group stay logged in all day long and are “constantly checking what’s new.”

Interacting with Brands

When it comes to brands online, the study found that:

• 52% of social networkers had friended or become a fan of at least one brand,
• 17% felt positive when seeing a brand on a social network,
• 19% felt negative when seeing a brand on a social network,
• 64% were neutral or didn’t care about brands on social networks,
• 20% would like to see more communication from brands online,
• 35% would not like to see more communication,
• 45% were neutral or didn’t care.

Social Networking Myths Shot Down

A couple of interesting things that came out of the study included the debunking of some social networking myths. Social networkers are not as interested in friending strangers or creating “fake” friends to boost their ego. Out of the group, 45% connect only to family and friends and another 18% will connect only to people they’ve met in person. In other words, two-thirds are connecting to people they actually know. Only 10% of those surveyed said they will friend anyone.

Also interesting is that only 15% of social networkers say they log on at work, thus debunking another myth about how prevalent social network use is at the workplace.

Non-Social Networkers

The study revealed the reasons why some online users aren’t into social networks. Surprisingly, it’s not because they hate technology – they spent just as much time on the web as the networkers do. Instead, they don’t use social media because either they don’t have the time, they don’t think it’s secure, or they think it’s stupid. Yet even out of the time-starved group, 22% report they’ll start using social media in 3 months and 27% said they’ll start using it in a year.

Continue to Part 2 for details on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Discuss

The next time you need a third hand to hold your coffee cup while you dig around in your bag for something, just stick it to a streetlight with this ingenious hack.

A fabulously creative New York City blogger who goes by the name “AP” is all about devising clever ways to eat outdoors with flair. She’s come up with ways to turn a lunchbox into a plate and a fire hydrant into a table, but we really dig her magnetic coffee cup holder.

It started out as an attempt to create a plastic, magnetized cup holder that would let you stick your cup to the nearest available metal surface. AP came up with a prototype, then had a thought:

After I made this I realized that it made a lot of sense to just work with a form that we are already really comfortable with: the Coffee Cozy. Why not just embed magnets into one of those?

You can easily make your own version of this by snagging reusable coffee sleeves online, or making your own. Attach a couple of strong magnets, and you’re good to go.

Check out AP’s blog, Pop Up Lunch, to see some of the other modern day picnicking ideas she has up her sleeve, like this awesome hook that hangs your drink and your lunchbag from a fence or post.

Of course, these ideas work best if you’re out and about at lunch time. Lots of us end up eating at our desks or in the car, so let’s get some lunch hacks together for people who aren’t eating outside. Share your tips in the comments.

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If you’ve been following Snuggie news as closely as I have, you’ll definitely have noticed that most, if not all, Snuggie knock-offs are far superior to the original. Take this Snuggle Suit, for instance. It’s $20 and you could wear it as an actual outfit around many parts of New Jersey without getting a second look.

Where the Snuggie hangs like a smock in a doctor’s office, the Snuggle Suit blends the comfort of a bathrobe with the cat-like agility afforded by common trousers.

The fact that it’s only available for women makes me downright irate, but maybe I could stuff myself into an extra large.

Snuggle Suit [JCPenney via Consumerist]

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Online video chat by Ustream

These dudes are doing a 48 hour Zelda marathon for Free the Children. They’re playing Faces of Evil (the CDi version, which is amazingly bad) right now and are accepting donations at Extralives. Up next is Ocarina of Time. Watch and donate!

You can chat with the guys here and they have some giveaways. If you’re not doing much, it’s a lot of fun.

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