Binary Digest

TweetVolume, www.tweetvolume.com, allows users to search up to five words or phrases in order to determine how often they appear on Twitter, www.twitter.com, a popular social networking website.

Developed by Wowza, a Minneapolis-based word of mouth marketing consulting firm, TweetVolume enables visitors, specifically frequent Twitter users and those interested in measuring social networking data, to observe authentic communication and learn how people are communicating. Utilizing resources from Google’s search engine and Twitter’s open API to capture and compare data points, TweetVolume makes it possible to identify popular brands, words and phrases used on Twitter.

Since going live on May 23, TweetVolume has rapidly spread throughout the Internet and is being reported on by bloggers from China, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries around the globe. The Wowza-made website also was featured on the leading social bookmarking website, http://del.icio.us/. In addition, TweetVolume has attracted more than 6,780 unique visitors within the first week. Plus, a Google search that initially yielded zero results for TweetVolume, today returns 212,000 results.

TweetVolume showcases Wowza’s creative and strategic expertise at combining advertising, PR, web and graphic design to enhance word of mouth marketing strategies. The viral messaging tactics demonstrate Wowza’s ability to use online conversations to generate buzz and initiate conversations about clients to customers.

“The concept for TweetVolume originated when brainstorming interesting ways to use Twitter’s open API,” said Jeff Rabkin, Wowza co-founder and Director of Great Ideas. “It’s one way to measure social conversations and get a little snapshot of what’s on people’s minds and what they are saying.”

The response to TweetVolume has been so positive that Wowza is creating new features based on suggestions from users.

For more information about TweetVolume, visit Wowza at www.wowza.biz.

A group of inventors maintain that Microsoft misled them during negotiations to purchase intellectual property related to interactive television. By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
Jun 1, 2007 03:00 PM

The inventors, who formed a joint venture company called Intellivision, maintain that Microsoft misled them during negotiations to purchase intellectual property related to interactive television.

Bruce Adams, Paul Hoffman, and John Daniels claim Microsoft officials told them that the company wanted their patents for defensive purposes only, and that Microsoft wasn’t planning to launch its own DVR system.

Based on that information, the men licensed their technology to Microsoft in 2001 under a deal that did not include royalty payments. “One week after the parties’ agreement was fully executed, Microsoft launched a national advertising campaign for its ‘Ultimate TV’ product,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court in January. Last week, Microsoft filed a procedural motion to have the case moved to the federal U.S. District Court in New York.

Adams, Hoffman and Daniels are asking the court to nullify their licensing deal with Microsoft and are seeking unspecified damages.

Microsoft has yet to file a formal legal response to the allegations.

I wanted to write about this yesterday, but the site was down for a couple of hours and I couldn’t get to it. On Wednesday evening, blogger Niall Kennedy officially launched his new venture Startup Search, a directory of the web startup ecosystem — companies, products, people, and investors.

Each company, product, person, or investor has their own page on Startup Search that includes general information, logo or photo, blog posts, a Flickr photostream, and Google Map. Evan Williams’ page, for example, includes a quick bio, photo, contact information and map, head shot, and an overview of projects he is involved with (though oddly, it does not mention Twitter).

In addition to the directory features, Startup Search provides analytical tools as well. Each entry is assigned “buzz” and “traffic” metrics. Buzz is measured using data from Technorati and Yahoo! about links and blog mentions, while traffic is measured by data from Alexa, Quantcast, and Compete. Niall hopes to add more statistical coverage in the future. Personally, I would love to see more relationship data, revealing how interconnected people in the startup ecosystem are. For example, how many degrees of separation are between Josh Kopelman and Jeff Bezos? Or, do Pierre Omidayar and Mark Cuban have any investments in common? It would be great to have that information at your fingertips.

Startup Search currently has information on 41 companies, 50 products, and 88 investors. I can easily see this site being added to my arsenal as a tech blogger. It can be hard to dig up information on past funding rounds for start ups, or who is involved with each project, and this site could certainly make that a far easier process. Startup Search will also be a fun resource for web startup junkies (as I suspect many Read/WriteWeb readers are!) assuming Niall can keep it up-to-date and continues to expand his data set.

iPhone owners might be putting their treasured handsets into accessory detectin’ mode right out of the gate thanks to a plethora of accessories outed in iLounge’s iPod accessory guide, which at well over one hundred pages is pretty much the be-all, end-all bible of iPod add-ons. As we might expect this early in the game, the goodies are strictly standard fare — cases, FM transmitters, and the like — though Belkin’s Acrylic Case (pictured) looks like a winner thanks to its ability to support the iPhone on it side for more relaxed widescreen video viewing. Another gem is Crystal Film, which’ll cover the entire front of the device with a thin, transparent static cling layer; good idea from a protection standpoint, but we can’t help but wonder how that’s gonna affect the feel of the screen.

makes this a dream multimedia gadget. Weighting only 512grams and 191×120x26mm dimension, the L2 features 7-inches WGVGA display and 2GB built-in storage.

Cowon knows in today’s world, 2GB is not sufficient as storage, so the L2 is equipped with SD port in case you want to add more space to it. File supports on L2 include AVO, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, JPG, BMP, and PNG.

As many other digital player, L2 sports an FM radio, a Picture in Picture functions allowing you to view more than one media files at once. The L2 is priced at 299000 WON (around US$320).

Yesterday’s post asking if Google’s new street views for Google Maps was an invasion of privacy, turns out to be just one of many around the web. In fact, The New York Times jumps on the story and looks at whether Google is indeed invading our privacy.

“The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview Thursday on the front steps of the building. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.”

Her husband quickly added, “It’s like peeping.”

As Jordan and many others pointed out in our comments, Google’s likely not breaking any laws, and NYT points out the company did a lot of research before introducing the feature.

Google said in a statement that it takes privacy seriously and considered the privacy implications of its service before it was introduced on Tuesday. “Street View only features imagery taken on public property,” the company said. “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street.”

Google said that it had consulted with public service organizations and considered their feedback in developing the service, which allows users to request that a photo be removed for privacy reasons. A Google spokeswoman said the company had received few such requests.

A mapping consultant shares the same view…

Edward A. Jurkevics, a principal at Chesapeake Analytics, a consulting firm specializing in mapping and imagery, said that courts have consistently ruled that people in public spaces can be photographed. “In terms of privacy, I doubt if there is much of a problem,” Mr. Jurkevics said.

Still, it is spooky and you have to agree with the statement that if this were the work of the government, we’d be a lot more freaked out.

PS. Interested in learning about the cameras used to take the photos? CNET has the details.

PPS. And the Top 15 Google Street View Sightings, according to Mashable, include:

09. The guy with no head.

This guy shouldn’t complain, at least it’s hard to identify him.

Link

02. Crime in progress

Maybe the guy just forgot his keys. Or he’s practicing for the free climbing contest. Hey, is that a lockpicking set dangling out of his pocket?

Link

Pete Cashmore

Google’s acquisition spree is fast turning into one acquisition a day. Today they’ve agreed to buy Spain-based Panoramio, a photo mapping site that “links millions of photos with the exact geographical location where they were taken.” The site already integrates Google Maps, and Panoramio had also been integrated into Google Earth - it’s basically a social site for sharing photos around locations.

Bearing in mind the existing integration with Google services, this is really a case of Google taking a successful service in-house.