Watch Dan Gould of Chill on TWiST Live Today at 1pm PT


Watch Dan Gould of video hangout platform Chill on This Week in Startups #204 live today at 1pm PT.

Chill, which launched in August 2011, is Dan and co-founder Brian Norgard's fourth entrepreneurial endeavor. In October, Chill added private chat and integrated Facebook and Twitter profiles into the service and added live event streaming in September.
 
Before launching Chill, Dan and Brian founded Namesake in October 2009, which is a live conversation platform and Adly, a platform that helps brands connect with...
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Who Owns the Emails from Obama's "We the People" Petitions? Answer: Not the People



We're all for open communication between a government and its constituents. But the Obama administration's We the People petition initiative, launched Sept. 1, isn't just giving citizens  a means to get the federal government's attention -- the nut jobs and pranksters have a new outlet as well.
 
Case in point: one hilarious petition demanding "a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this position" has gotten over 17K signatures (note: it takes 25K signatures in 30 days to get an administration response and 150 signatures to get featured on the site).

This raises two questions: First, how absurd it is that anyone age 13 or older can create a petition on WhiteHouse.gov, and second, who owns the millions of verified emails -- and the right to market to them -- these petitions generate?

For instance, if President Obama wants to send his 2012 election activities to all of these users, would that be legal?
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Roundtable Is an Elite Version of Quora (with Sponsorships)


Folks want to pretend the internet is powerful because everyone has a voice, but the truth is everyone having a voice leads to Yahoo Answers and YouTube comments more often than TED talks and the New York Times opinion page.

New York-based Roundtable is an elegantly designed message board in which people are put on two levels: selected experts and everyone else. After signing in with Twitter, you can comment on what MG Siegler and Nick Bilton are saying on this discussion about blogging -- but you're relegated to second fiddle, with your comments appearing on the right-hand side. Ditto this discussion on online communities chaired by Clay Shirky.

[ Screen shots after the jump. ]

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Why Ryan Carson Didn't Let Arrington Invest in Treehouse

[ Michael Arrington at LeWeb Paris 2008. Photo courtesy of Oliver Ezratty via creative commons license. ]

Web design community Treehouse, which just launched today to the public, did not want CrunchFund to invest in the company because of the infamous Michael Arrington, CEO Ryan Carson said on This Week in Startups #198 in October.

"We actually have considered them but i think he's too much of a liability at the moment," Ryan Carson said on TWiST. "He's spoken at our shows a number of times. I never knew what I was going to get. Are you going to show up on time, are you going to be there?"
 
While Ryan said that Arrington always showed up to the conferences he can't help but remember the one time that he showed up late. 

[ See video after the jump. Fast forward to 1:07:00 to listen to discussion. ]
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Facebook Won't Build Games, Zuckerberg Tells Charlie Rose (and Sheryl Keeps Him in Line)


We already know Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks smack about Google's social efforts in the interview he and COO Sheryl Sandberg did with Charlie Rose, which will be broadcast tonight. But if you thought Facebook would take on Zynga directly and make its own games, well, Mark and Sheryl make it clear that's not happening -- and note how Sheryl steps in:

Mark Zuckerberg:...So I mean, does Facebook build any games? No. We build no games.

Charlie Rose: You say that today --

Mark Zuckerberg: No, we  ---

Charlie Rose: You say that today.

Mark Zuckerberg: Actually --
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Google Recreates "RealNames" with "+" Search Feature

[ Typing in +Google into Google search takes you directly to Google's official G+ page. ]

Google's launch of Direct Connect, which lets users bypass traditional search results with the "+" operator when looking for brands, is essentially a recreation of the late RealNames.
 
Typing in "+Pepsi," for instance, automatically directs you to Pepsi's Google+ page. While Google only allows the "+" search operator in regards to brands, LAUNCH wonders if that functionality will make its way to other keywords.

RealNames, founded by Keith Teare in 1997, aimed to create an alternative to the domain name system by letting users type keywords, such as "united airlines," to automatically navigate to the United Airlines website. In 2002, RealNames had to shutdown in light of being unable to renew its...
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Google+ Direct Connect for Brands Could Kill Facebook Pages



Google+ has finally released pages for brands in addition to Google+ Direct, which offers a quick and efficient way for customers to find brand pages via Google search using the "+" operator. 

Now, if a user types +Angry Birds or the name of any other brand with a Google+ page into the Google search bar, they will be directed to that company's Google+ page, and will automatically start following that page. Additionally, Google+ pages are now featured in Google search results. 

[ See screen shots after the jump. ]

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Zuckerberg Calls Google+ Little Version of Facebook on "Charlie Rose" Tonight


UPDATE: In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Google VP of Product Bradley Horowitz said, "We are delighted to be underestimated. It's served us very well to date." [ See video interview after the jump. ]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg will be on Charlie Rose tonight where they will discuss the battle between Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google, and how their strategies differ and sometimes intersect.

"People like to talk about war," Zuckerberg says in the interview. "There are a lot of ways in which the companies actually work together. Google I think in some ways is more competitive and certainly is trying to build their little own version of Facebook," Zuckerberg says. "When I look at Amazon and Apple, companies that are aligned with us, and we have a lot of conversations with people at both companies just trying to figure out ways that we can do more together and there is just a lot of reception there."

In regards to strategy, Zuckerberg says, "If you're Amazon, one of the big strategies is sell Kindle so you can sell more things. If you're Apple, a big part of your strategy is sell devices because that's how you make money. If you're Google, they want to get Android as widely adopted as possible."

Zuckerberg stresses that Facebook's mission is to help people connect
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Obama Administration Taps Google, LinkedIn and Twitter to Create Veterans Job Bank



Google just launched a new job search engine, the National Resource Directory, to help military veterans find jobs more easily. 

Google worked closely with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to create this custom search engine that features 500K+ job openings from employers around the country who are committed to hiring military veterans.

Other private sector companies, like Twitter, Simply Hired and LinkedIn, are also committed to helping veterans find jobs. Earlier today, President Barack Obama spoke about the importance of getting military veterans back to work, and announced the resource for veterans, the Veterans Job Bank tool.

[ See screen shots after the jump. ]
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Waze Says No Accidents Despite 8M Users

[ Image courtesy of geograph.org.uk via creative commons license. ]

With 8M registered users driving on the road using Waze, LAUNCH editors posed a question to our readers yesterday, and then to the highly engaging traffic app, regarding car accidents while Wazing. We were relieved to find out that so far, not one user has reported an accident to Waze.
 
"There are no records of anyone getting into accidents," Waze Senior Director of Communication Michal Habdank-Kolaczkowski tells LAUNCH. "Safety is a huge concern. We're lucky so far that no one has come to us saying that Waze caused them to have an accident. It would be awful."

We wonder if someone would report the accident to Waze or if it would show up on police reports. From what LAUNCH editors have been able to find...
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Obama Now Crowd-Sourcing Jobs Policy (video)

President Barack Obama was the first politician to master social media (though he did tweet-spam people in July to get debt legislation passed). Frustrated with a Republican-controlled Congress that has not passed his American Jobs Act, he has now tasked his policy staff with getting job-creation ideas from people "outside Washington" via a form at http://www.whitehouse.gov/advise that says "Advise the Advisor: your direct line to the White House."

The form asks you to give a goal for the nation "to get our economy back on track" and then list the actions President Obama should take as well as what community groups and state/local governments can do. We bet few Americans know...

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Make Money Selling Weed, Cocaine and Porn on Silk Road



Anonymous marketplace Silk Road is an underground online community where drug dealers can sell their goods for quite a profit. Currently, there are 1200+ offerings for a variety of drugs ranging from cannabis to ecstasy.

While drugs are not the only type of goods sold on the Silk Road, it is the one with the most offers. Other products sold on the site include Viagra, syringes and porn. LAUNCH wonders how long it will take for a dealer or others selling illegal goods to get caught selling on Silk Road.

Silk Road is only accessible through...
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Products Groupon Has Launched since Its IPO Filing: Are You Impressed?

Groupon Rewards launched Sept. 28.

Groupon's IPO today -- the largest since Google in 2004 -- raised $700M and gave the Chicago-based deal company a market value of $12.7B. The price has jumped from $20 to as high as $31 a share, trading at about $26 a share at press time.

But what has Groupon done since its IPO filing June 2? We compiled this list of Groupon's products and features launched in the past five months (and included the one acquisition). Are you impressed, or do you think Groupon could have done more if it hadn't had the distractions of accounting questions, a leaked memo, etc.?
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Watch Docstoc CEO Jason Nazar on TWiST News Panel Live at 1pm PT

Today on This Week in Startups, Docstoc CEO Jason Nazar will join host Jason Calacanis in the News Roundtable live at 1pm PT.

Nazar co-founded Santa Monica-based Docstoc in October 2006 with Alon Shwartz. Docstoc, a platform that lets users upload and share professional documents, reaches more than 20M people monthly. Before co-founding Docstop, Nazar worked as a partner at venture consulting group Venature LLC where he helped tech companies improve their strategy and sales.

The TWiST News Roundtable will cover...
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Single Ladies: Vouch for and Find Dateable Guys with LikeBright

LikeBright is part of the 2011 TechStars Seattle class -- see our Demo Day coverage.

WHAT: A social reputation layer on Facebook that lets women vouch for great guys and see guys other women vouch for.  Women can post anonymous questions and contact people through LikeBright's integration with Facebook. Men can opt-out of LikeBright.

LAUNCHERS: Nick Soman, formerly a senior product manager for the Amazon Kindle; siblings Sonya Lai and Ron Lai, both were researchers at Harvard Business School.

WHY: Women trust what other women think of men. Women don't feel safe on popular dating sites, which do not allow women to vouch for men. Easy to find/vouch for men by basing a service on Facebook.
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Trapster iOS App Will Soon Warn You If You're Driving Too Fast (video)



The new version of crowdsourced speed-trap app Trapster will display your current speed and also let you know if you're going over the speed limit, Trapster Product Managers Haris Ramic and Sean Farrell revealed in an interview with Robert Scoble and Sean confirmed to LAUNCH.  
The 4.5 version of the iOS app -- launching soon -- includes a built-in speedometer and speed limit data. If you're going one to two miles over the speed limit, the box displaying your speed will change to orange. If you go faster, the box will turn red.

The upcoming version also features NAVTEQ traffic overlays to see real-time traffic without leaving your current map screen. NAVTEQ, the company that powers MapQuest and Bing Maps, acquired San Diego-based Trapster in December 2010.

"We are really fortunate in the sense that a large number of our coming features are directly attributable to the integration of the NAVTEQ Map," Sean says. "Now that we have access to true road geometry, it makes features such as...
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Live Blogging TechStars Seattle Demo Day--Nov. 3, 2011

[4:17] Andy Sack explains the rest of the time is for networking/drinking at the bar. Afterparty to follow. Thanks to everyone.

[4:10] The live stream went down on TechStars' end. We will publish a recap of the last three presentations [ Vizify, GroupTalent, EveryMove ] when we have access to the video. Follow tweets about the event at #tsdday and find a complete list of presenting companies and founder contact info here.

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Vizify Takes on About.me with Profiles That Bring Together Pieces of Your Online Persona

Vizify is part of the 2011 TechStars Seattle class -- see our Demo Day coverage.

WHAT: Build a visual, interactive profile of yourself from pieces of your life contained in the online services you already use. Vizify's teaser product Tweetsheet turns your tweet activity into a sharable infographic.

LAUNCHERS:  Todd Silverstein, CEO; Jeff Cutler-Stamm, CTO; Eli Tucker. All three worked at ecommerce solutions company Monsoon Commerce.

WHY: Resumes (and sites like LinkedIn) don't tell the whole story about a person. Sites like About.me are pretty but only point people to your info, not bring it into your personal site.

WHEN/WHERE: Nov. 3, 2011 / Seattle [ product still in private beta ]. Tweetsheet launched Oct. 26.

BACKSTORY: Todd and his co-founders read a ton of resumes while at Monsoon Commerce. "We found ourselves always wanting to know more about people than what we could glean from that piece of paper, and eating up a lot of time trying to elicit that information from phone screens," he says. "We quickly realized that we were equally frustrated with the online profiles we used in our day to day lives -- I always felt that my profiles never really did a good job of expressing the different facets of who I am. Vizify came out of our desire to change that."

BUSINESS MODEL: Freemium. Prices to be determined, but Todd says premium features will include exclusive data visualizations and enhanced profile capabilities (like portfolios).

COMPETITION: About.me, Flavors.me, Naymz, XeeMe, LinkedIn, Zerply.

CUSTOMERS/GROWTH: On Tweetsheet, Todd says, "We've had thousands of people create their own so far."

GOAL: To empower people to make the online impression they want.

WHO BACKED IT:  TechStars, the Portland Seed Fund. Current round includes Jonathan Sposato (CEO of Picnik, sold to Google in 2010) and Geoff Entress (partner at Founders Co-op and Voyager Capital).

RAISING: $750K Series A.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 3

CONTACT INFO

Vizify
Website: http://vizify.com
Tweetsheet: http://vizify.com/tweetsheet
Twitter: @vizify
   
Todd Silverstein
Email: todd at vizify dot com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/todd-silverstein/1/224/9b

Eli Tucker
Email: eli at vizify dot com
Twitter: @etucker
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elitucker

Jeff Cutler-Stamm
Email: jeff at vizify dot com
Twitter: @jeffcutlerstamm
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcutlerstamm