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Utagoe Live 100 Is FriendFeed for Video Streams
If FriendFeed displayed only video, it might look like Utagoe Live 100. The service lets you track live video streams from all of your friends on one screen. Tokyo-based Utagoe just launched it as a hub for broadcasting and watching multiple, free live video streams simultaneously (from sites like Qik, Ustream, Justin.tv etc.), video-based chatting and conferencing. Aiming mainly at the U.S. and European markets, the service is available in English.
Utagoe Live 100 is browser-based and, as its main selling point, requires just a 400 kbps Internet connection to display around 100 different live streams on one screen (settings can be individually adjusted). The underlying technology, dubbed “traffic controller”, is self-developed.
The Flash-based site has an uncluttered structure and features a very straightforward UI. Users can change the size and order of every window and also customize the entire grid of videos. The RSS function allows users to add live streams from friends and other sources to their “My page” with two clicks (Utagoe calls this “importing”). Like FriendFeed and Twitter, friends can follow each other’s status. It’s possible to communicate with friends by typing text messages (via speech balloons overlaying the video stream).
I tried out the application, which is in public beta, and it worked flawlessly, even with my mediocre PC and Internet connection. What Utagoe Live 100 needs in future versions to appeal to more users is an automatic pre-categorization of video sources and topics, an opt-in solution for adult-oriented streams and a ranking function for members wanting to cut the noise. But with streaming picking up speed as a mass phenomenon, Utagoe might well find its place in a lucrative niche.
As a next step, Utagoe plans an expansion to the iPhone and other mobile devices. The site will be monetized with video ads and an ad system the company developed that automatically displays affiliate links matching the text chat messages that users type. (Who’s watching who?)
Vaguely similar services can be found mainly in the TV realm, and include sites like Inner Live or TVChannelsFree. But Utagoe lets you watch your friends. (In that sense, it’s more like multi-person video-chat service PalTalk)
Here is a demo video (without sound):
Utagoe Live100 demo from utagoe on Vimeo.
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The Numbers Are In, Live Video Online Is Blowing Up
Live Current Media Signs a $50 Million Deal For Exclusive Online Rights To Indian Cricket
Here’s a deal straight out of Rupert Murdoch’s playbook circa 1994. Just like Murdoch established Fox back then by paying an exorbitant-seeming sum ($1.6 billion at the time) for the rights to broadcast the NFL, Live Current Media is paying $50 million over ten years for the exclusive online rights to official content from the Indian Premier League (a new cricket league in India with a shorter, more fan-friendly version of the game—first match is tomorrow). Cricket is huge in India and elsewhere. It is a sport perfect for online distribution, with fans spread all over the world. Globally there are about one billion fans, estimates Live Current Media. And the Indian Premier League has already on track to generate $2 billion overall this year.
As part of the deal, Current Live will create and operate official sites for the Indian Premier League (IPLT20.com) and the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI.tv). Current Live will pay the Indian Premier League $3 million a year, and the BCCI $2 million a year for the exclusive online rights to official photos, video footage, live scoreboards, match results stats, a fantasy cricket league, ticketing, fan polling, contests, and more. It is a pretty big commitment for Live Current Media, a domain-name company with revenues of $9 million last year and a net loss of $2 million. The Canadian company is basically betting its entire $51 million over-the-counter market cap on this deal.
But Live Current also owns cricket.com, which will be seeded with content from this deal. Kulveer Taggar, the former CEO of Auctomatic (which was recently purchased by Current Live Media) and one of the internal champions of the deal tells me:
The Cricket.com vision is to create a site for cricket fans regardless of the country or specific league. Passionate cricket fans may be interested in watching a different league or may just want to stay up on all the cricket news they can get access to and that is what Cricket.com will deliver. Following this significant relationship with the IPL and BCCI, Live Current will be speaking with other cricket organizations and determining relationships for content, media access and distribution as appropriate.
There is no question that global multinationals are looking for ways to target the high-growth Indian market and that cricket is one of the few channels through which the majority of Indians are engaged with. It’s not surprising to see sponsors of the league such as Pepsi, Honda, and Citibank. It is not a local Indian phenomenon. There are major business players globally tapping into this market.
He expects to launch Cricket.com by the end of the summer or early fall. So really, this deal is all about gaining exclusive content for Cricket.com. But did Current Live Media pay too much for the rights? Taggar argues not:
Recently the Cricinfo.com site was sold to ESPN for over $50 million and while the site had good traffic, it did not have exclusive content rights negotiated for that price.
In other words, he wants to take on ESPN.com. Will this be the start of bidding wars for the exclusive online rights for other sports leagues, or does this only make sense for cricket? Whle you ponder that and wait for Cricket.com to launch, cricket fans can check out Cricketwires, a recently-launched Digg-like site for all things cricket.
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COVERITLIVE.COM - Home
2007 In Numbers: More People Using Yahoo Mail This Christmas Than Gmail
Email remains one of the most popular of online services. Companies such as Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft have offered free online email since the earliest days of the internet. Google was late the party, launching Gmail in April 2004. Where as Google has come to dominate many of the verticals it enters, email hasn’t been one of them. This Christmas many more people will be using Yahoo! Mail to send Christmas well wishes than will be using Gmail.
Statistically this is where tracking online email popularity becomes difficult. This year Microsoft has launched Windows Live Hotmail with users logging in via its various “Live” properties, making it difficult to place exactly how many users were logging in and using Live and Hotmail email addresses. In April comScore placed Hotmail at 47 million unique visitors. No figures were available from comScore on Live.com traffic (which includes search and related traffic as well) or Windows Live Mail, although sites such as Live.fr hit 154,000 uniques in November and Live.de did 1.39 million. AOL remains a fairly popular choice for email as well, with comScore reporting 42.3 million uniques in April.
There are still no shortage of Gmail fans out there, but at its current growth rate Google wont be catching Yahoo! Mail until 2010. Yahoo showed 3.21% growth for the 12 months to November 2007 compared with Gmail’s 53.60%
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Monday Fundings: Live Gamer Raises $24 Million, Streamezzo Raises $22 million
Two decent-sized fundings were announced today. Paris-based Streamezzo raised $22 million in a C round led by a Kuwaiti investment group, NTEC. That brings the total capital put into the firm, which sells technology for mobile-TV and rich-media streaming applications, to $48 million. Other investors include Sofinnova Partners, AXA Private Equity, and Qualcomm.
Live Gamer came out of stealth today with a $24 million A round from Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and Pequot Ventures. Live Gamer wants to create an eBay for virtual goods used in online worlds and videogames. It faces fierce competition from 6th grader Arjun Mehta, who raised $6.5 million in September for MMOG marketplace PlaySpan.
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Live Search Maps Getting Better At Giving Directions
In other mapping news (see EveryScape post), I love all the competition going on in online mapping between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and even MapQuest. The latest in the feature race comes from Microsoft’s Live Search Maps. In addition to finally releasing its 3D Bird’s Eye view a couple weeks ago (see video below), Microsoft has also upgraded some of the basic features of its maps. For one thing, it has fixed what I consider to be a major bug in most mapping apps: overly-detailed driving directions. You can now have the option of skipping the first nine “turn left at the stop sign two blocks from your house” type of directions and just start the guidance from the nearest major highway—which you probably know how to get to anyway. Thank you, Microsoft, for treating us like humans.
In addition to the abbreviated directions,other improvements include:
—Landmarks are now given in driving directions that indicate you’ve gone too far.
—Black is the new red. Traffic speed is now shown with four colors (green, yellow, red, and black). Black means total standstill, versus red, which means creeping logjam.
—In some cases, Live Search Maps will now actually re-route your directions around bad traffic.
—Guided search gives you Yellow Page categories in a left-hand panel, and individual business details are now populated right on the map from sources like Judy’s Book or CitySearch.
—3D fly-throughs now support force feedback if you are using an Xbox 360 videogame controller, and buildings go transparent when you run into them.
—Microsoft even (admittedly) stole a line editing feature from Google Maps.
Competition is good. Here’s the video of Microsoft’s 3D Bird’s Eye view, which was first hinted at last May:
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Veodia - The Live TV Studio In Your Browser™
Microsoft Live Takes New York 3D
Microsoft has announced the launch of new functionality for Microsoft Live Search Maps; three-dimensional, photo-realistic maps covering New York City and 8 other locations in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
The 3D service provides a unique look at each city, that combined with Microsoft’s location and business data delivers a service that would have once upon a time have been considered science fiction fantasy.
The launch keeps Microsoft one step ahead of Google in 3D mapping. Google acquired 3D technology from a Stanford University team May 18 that will provide similar functionality for Google. 3D modeling at Google Maps does not currently include photo realism.
The 3-D imagery of New York City debuts with Austin, Cape Coral (Florida), Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Northampton (UK), Ottawa, Savannah and Tampa. More cities worldwide will be added to the service during the northern summer.
First impressions: extremely slow if you’re not on a very high speed connection at the highest setting, but the computer generated effects are amazing.
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OrgPlus Live: Org Charts Aren’t Boring!
It’s always a little weird when a stodgy-sounding task goes all Web 2.0. Case in point, creating organizational charts. Software vendor Human Concepts makes OrgPlus, the go-to app for such an activity and
OrgPlus Live is the new Web-based version of said software. Don’t think you need org charts? Well, maybe it’s just that you don’t know any better.
Of course some of the goals for creating an org chart is to get a visual idea of your company’s structure, building project teams and keeping track of everyone’s role and contact information as your organization changes. But org charts can be used for laying out projects, setting up a bookmaking operation a gentleman’s NCAA office pool, beer-pong tournament (thanks Lisa!) and even planning out teams for a sports league—basically anything that needs structure and order. Think Visio online.
OrgPlus Live brings the org-chart strengths from the Windows-based software (with pricing that starts at $189.95) and applies them to a Web-based version that can be used on any platform thanks to the miracles of Flash. Drag-and-drop creation, easy text input and field editing, a simple, intuitive interface, solid security, the ability to import existing data from Excel and more is now available for fees as low as $9.99 a month. It’s in beta (like the rest of the Internets), but in my brief time with it, things appear to be pretty stable. And if you still don’t see how useful it can be, I dare you to try it out for yourself—there’s a 14-day free trial with nothing to install or download.
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