Crenk

Where do you head to find technology company information? Currently, there are a lot of technology blogs that provide company directories, but I think there are two key players that stand out in this sector and I’m sure their pageviews will sore in the coming months and years. Those two players have to be Crunchbase and Tradevibes.

Crunchbase is the company directory from the superblog Techcrunch. Crunchbase is build on a wiki type system and instead of just writing about companies and collect data, Michael Arrington thought it would be a good idea to actually put it all together and make some more money from it. Crunchbase has a great look about it and it brings together information from some of the most well-known companies. On Crunchbase you can find descriptions of the company, funding information, location and telephone numbers, competitors and staffing information. I would like Crunchbase to find new ways to make money apart from advertising, like a highlighted company feature.

Tradevibes has a bit of a different layout, but essentially it is the same concept with the type of wiki development. Tradevibes provide a similar set of information as Crunchbase but it also has additional features, such as a fantasy exchange game, voting system on companies, and forums. The design on Tradevibes is actually a bit cluttered and there seems to be a lot of products that have simply just been put together to add features, instead of developing something in house that matches the site. For example, the job board in the left column from SimplyHired.

Both of these companies are leading the way in this niche, however there still seems to be a lot of issues in terms of design and integrating information that is actually needed, without information overload. It would also be nice to see integration with several technology blogs to provide news about each of the companies in the database, but so far even this seems to be limited.

Here at Crenk we are keen to help as many startups as possible to get their voices heard. Crenk will now be offering a new form of free advertising.

In the sidebar on every Crenk page we now have some free advertising spots to give away to startups every month. I’m not too sure currently how many spots we will be offering, but will probably be around 6.

Who Can Submit To Get A Free Ad Slot: Any startups (doesn’t matter how big or small)

Slots Available: 6

How Often Do They Change: Monthly. 1st of every month we will have some new startups to try

How to Apply: Send us an email (tips@crenk.com). Subject: Crenk Startup Promotion. Add a link to your startup and a review of approx 50-100 words. Additionally, an Ad that is 125×43

The aim of this promotion is to allow startups some free advertising, while promoting useful services to our readers.

We hope you like this new idea, and we look forward to bring you some great startups you have never heard of.

Crenk Team

Just two days ago, www.feedheads.org was brought to my attention. There are plenty of RSS Reader sites out there, but Feedheads offers a different experience by not reinventing the wheel, but rather attaching itself to an already popular social site, Facebook.

At first glance Feedheads is nothing fancy. It almost reminded me of a Craigslist-like site which little to know aesthetics and a focus on information. Personally I don’t care what a site looks like as long as it’s informative and easy to find what I need, the bells and whistles are just icing. So don’t turn away from Feedheads until you’ve given it a try.

To log into the service you need a Facebook account, and you must allow Facebook to provide access to the site, but once you’ve gotten through the set-up you’re logged right into full access for Feedheads.

I admit at first glance I saw no need to really delve into it since there was no social aspect, but attaching to Facebook makes it very different from other RSS sites. From within the site you can introduce your contacts to stories, have them vote on their favorites and even have them join your networks. You’re given the opportunity to view the stories by three categories, “New”, “Top in 24 Hrs.”, and “7 Days”. A separate link will provide you with the days most popular tags, which is useful for a quick at-a-glance of the days topics.

If you’re a heavy Facebook user and you’re looking for new ways to make that your one stop shop for friends, news, and other information, give Feedheads a try. If you’re stuck on looks then perhaps looking elsewhere would be prudent, Feedheads is definitely for the purist.

There are so many social networking sites out there at the moment, but I really find it amazing that the older generation still haven’t caught on to this new phenomenon. Social network sites are amazing because they let everyone communicate with their friends, find people they haven’t seen for a long time, and network with people who have the same interests as them.

I thought I would put together an article that will help the older people find some social networking sites that will actually help them connect with people. So here they are, the top 5 social networks everyone should join.

Myspace - Myspace is the largest social network in the world. They have more users than any other and surprisingly the majority of their users are over 30. Myspace has a key focus around the music industry. If you are looking for a band to listen to or just find out when their next concert is on, then Myspace is the place to find them. Myspace also allows users to customise their own pages, so you can make it look as colourful or as bland as you want. However, I also think this can be the sites downfall from time to time, because I really hate looking at pages that are just either too over the top, or music starts playing, or just unreadable.

Facebook - Facebook is one of the best social networks in the world for actually finding people. Profiles are not customisable and their platform is very clean and slick. They arent focused on pushing through the pageview like Myspace, more importantly they focus on interactions and how users use their site. Facebook has has huge growth in international markets recently, so if you are trying to find a long lost penpal in China, then you might have a chance with Facebook. Facebook is for older users and users who normally have at least a degree. Im not always sure if that is a good thing or not.

Bebo - Bebo is a social network that has just been bought by AOL. It has a strong presence in Ireland and the UK, but predominantly for the younger generation. Bebo also has a focus on bands and artists, but this social network doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. Pages are customisable on the site, but nothing over the top like Myspace.

Hi5 - Hi5 is a social network that is being used a lot by the older generation. It is a social network that is growing in nearly all markets, but doesn’t really have a focus. Hi5 when first launched spent a lot of time trying to spam as many people as possible into joining. That tactic seems to have worked and their are now millions on users online. Hi5 would be a good place to head to find out if your older friends are online, but I would spend a lot of time using this site.

Orkut - Orkut is under the huge Google umbrella. Orkut is a great social network with a huge following in South America as well as other non-english speaking countries. Orkut has a very slick design (as you would expect from Google), plus it seems to be growing in english speaking countries by the day. This social network used to be closed, but now it is completely open and anyone can join.

So those are the top 5 social network sites you should join! Make sure you join and use them when needed, but don’t get to addicted.

Last year AOL paid $275 million for Tacoda. Now, according to Venture Beat, AOL is dropping the brand and rolling the technology into Platform A’s Ad.com unit. This is a move that shows that AOL are trying to actually combined their Ad.com/Platform-A, but are they going about this in the right way? Im also curious to find out what AOL might be doing with the Tacoda technology, because other companies and myself including would be very interested in licensing this technology from AOL! I must admit that these days im sick to seeing ads from Ad.com and other remnant networks, simply because there is no targeting and I know that the publishers are earnings a crazy low CPM for the ads. Thus, the industry is not benefiting from this, neither the publisher, only the ad networks!

Crenk has joined forces with TradeVibes which will see all of the Crenk articles directly syndicated into the TradeVibes database.

TradeVibes is an ever growing company database. The companies posts information about vairous companies, and detailing everything from their address to competitors to its management. In each profiles in the right column it allows the user to stay up-to-date with the news about that specific company. The news is currently being gathered from a variety of sources, such as Techcrunch, RWW and now Crenk.

We have previously written about TradeVibes when they came out of beta. They have since made some big improvements and im looking forward to seeing their site improving in the future.

SocialThing! is our inaugural partner for Crenked Out! Crenked Out! offers free invites to unique products for Crenk Readers. SocialThing is basically a lifestyle or content aggregator. With most people these days having 2 social network profiles, possible a blog or two, a twitter account, pounce account and more, it is hard to keep up with all this information. SocialThing is trying to provide the product that will bring all of these profiles together in a simple environment, which will allow the users to not only keep up-to-date on all their content but even make some connects that werent previously possible.

SocialThing! has been nice enough to offer 300 invites to Crenk readers. First come first served, so head here to signup.

Well im sure that everyone has already heard, but if not Microsoft has today withdrawn their proposal to acquire Yahoo! Yahoo have issued a press release and Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc., issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation’s announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

“We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:

– a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;

– reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;

– invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and

– enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability.”

Here are also some of the thoughts from around the web:

• Techcrunch
• Venturebeat
• News.com
• Centernetworks

I have noticed while surfing Techcrunch that they have added a new feature today, that they plan to announce tomorrow. The feature in question is Seesmic, and at the bottom of every post now on Techcrunch users have the option to add a video comment. This inclusion was really only a matter of time, due to the fact that Mike Arrington is an investor in Seesmic, so any publicity is obviously good publicity.

This comes a month after Mashable had added a similar option to their site, but partnered with Viddler to do so. On Mashable however they dont have too many comments on posts to start with and also as far as I can see the Viddler partnership has added absolutely nothing to the site or user experience. Thus, im curious to see if the Seesmic option on Techcrunch actually gets used.

Update: Mike reported about adding video comments, but didnt even link back to my article that was published first. How rude! haha.

I came across this interesting site yesterday when it hit the front page of Digg. The site is AprilFoolsDayontheweb. I still have no idea why all the blogs get involved in April Fools’ Day so much, but it just seems to happen. Im always up for a good prank, but how does April Fools’ Day differ to any other day for Tech news blogs, most of the time they just make stuff up anyways or even just get the story completely wrong. Well anyways check out the site and see what happened this year.