Retrevo’s “Snapshot” Graphs Products By Price And Features

Retrevo, one of a number of automated, aggregate review sites we previously covered, is releasing an alpha version of a new product comparison feature called “Product Snapshot”. The feature helps find the greatest “bang for your buck” by visually displaying how a product’s price and features stack up against others in its category. CEO Vipin Jain will demo the feature at tomorrow’s Stanford Summit. The feature will go public at the end of September.

“Product Snapshot” maps a product’s place on a price/feature graph relative to other products in the category. The mapping of the product is based on a statistical analysis of a number of major features and prices drawn from across the web. Products with fewer features for their price fall at the bottom left of the chart, while products with high prices and many features are placed toward the upper right. For example, this search for a Samsung LN-S4696D shows where the LCD TV places relative to other mid-range TVs.

The snapshot also includes links to products with better features, similar products, and cheaper products. These features will be released at the end of September when the full feature is pushed live.

Retrevo distinguishes itself by focusing on consumer electronics and finding a great deal of auxiliary material on products. Searches return PDF product manuals, aggregate user ratings, product previews, written reviews, forums & blogs, and shopping links. The data is pulled from thousands of sites including those of manufacturers and retailers. Retrevo’s depth of information makes it best suited for initial product research instead of quick price comparisons.

While Rome Burned, Amp’d Used Venture Capital On Porn

You just know that this is going to end in a Hollywood movie.

Matt Marshall at Venture Beat has the scoop on what the Amp’d team were spending part of their $360 million in venture capital on: porn.

According to the asset list from the Apm’d fire sale, the company acquired at least 100 porn DVDs; least that’s the number listed for the auction (we’d presume additional DVD’s were probably taken home).

As Matt put it so well “We’re still wondering how venture investors such as Redpoint (which lost $25 million in this) and Highland (which lost $50 million) could have let this happen.”

Amp’d declared bankruptcy June 2 owing $100 million.

Full coverage of the Amp’d meltdown on TechCrunch here.

UPDATE: A correction printed at Venture Beat notes that these might not have been DVD’s, but some sort of X rated content Amp’d produced, they look like DVD’s and certainly we are unwilling to repeat the names of them here to prove the point. Aside from the still very valid questions about how Amp’d blew $360million in funding and ran up $100million in debt, there are now some interesting questions as to why a company primarily marketing to teens was producing X-Rated content.

More Information On That Secretive Twitter Financing

When Twitter announced a round of financing last week they mentioned most of the investors - an A list crowd that includes Union Square Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Dick Costolo, Ron Conway, and Naval Ravikant. But they didn’t disclose the amount raised, even though it is customary to do so. We sniffed around and heard that the the company held a special meeting with their new investors and specifically asked them not to disclose the amount raised. We heard that it was a small round, between $1 - $5 million, but frankly I suspected it would be on the low end of that range.

Other startups, notably Technorati, have also tried to keep venture rounds quiet. But inevitably they leak because so many of the limited partners who invest in these funds must disclose information to the SEC. That hasn’t happened yet with Twitter, but the numbers are leaking. As best as we can tell, the company raised a $5 million round, on a $20 million pre-money valuation.

NowPublic Gets $10.6 Million For Crowd Sourced News

“Crowd sourced” news network NowPublic.com has closed a $10.6 milion series A round of financing led by Rho Ventures with seed investors Brightspark and the Working Opportunity Fund participating.

Crowd sourcing is part of the widely expanding “citizen journalism” category, which encompasses all the new ways non-professionals can participate in the news reporting process. Examples range from commenting, voting on stories, to full out blogging. News commentator Jeff Jarvis has written extensively on the subject. NowPublic is a website that provides these tools to the public so they can report on what is going on around them. Many other news startups also incorporate these tools in different ways, such as NewsVine, OutsideIn, Digg, CitizenBay, recently Topix, and the now defunct Backfence.

On the spectrum of citizen journalism, NowPublic is considered a “crowd sourced” news network since stories rely on many bits of contributed content instead of a small group of users.

On NowPublic, anyone can sign up for the site and start contributing to stories in the usual categories (politics, culture, entertainment, …) or even local news. Users can write their own stories and upload their own photos (mobile), or simply submit a story from somewhere else on the web. Each of the submissions ranked in the category based on the number of votes they get. Editors can also come in and adjust the rankings based on breaking news and spamming.

Traction is one of the hardest things to build in community based startups. Citizen journalism startup Bayosphere was shut down after it couldn’t attract enough contributors. However, NowPublic reports to have over 118,000 members from over 140 countries and 3,800 cities. The site does over 1 million uniques per month. They have a hardcore audience of about 15 - 20,000 exceptionally active contributors that put up anywhere from 2 to 5 stories each month.

NowPublic seems to work best in times of crisis where it can serve as a hub for reports from people on the ground. During Hurricane Katrina, the site received over 2,000 people writing and posting about what was going on. NowPublic also reportedly broke news in the Virginia Tech shooting, the grounding of an Alaskan ferry, a bombing drill gone wrong in New Jersey and a murder in Vancouver.

The ability to be places where news media aren’t always present has led to a partnership with the Associated Press. AP has started purchasing stories and photos from the site based on the submitters asking price. NowPublic can cover areas AP’s 4,000 staff members aren’t and will be particularly focused on hurricane prone parts of the country as hurricane season approaches. While they are currently not taking any portion of the proceeds, in the future NowPublic plans on taking 25% cut. They have 7 to 10 other major partnerships lined up as well.

The Vancouver-based company was originally started in 2005.

Cisco and Click.tv?

I picked up a juicy rumor this weekend that Cisco may have acquired Click.tv, a video annotation and deep tagging service that launched in 2006 and then shut down last month. When Click.tv closed down last month they said in an email to users “While I regret this shutdown, I am very excited by the reason behind it. You’ll be seeing Click.TV technology very soon doing *much* bigger and better things.” Thiscertainly suggested a complete relaunch or an acquisition.

Was it Cisco? Maybe. They’ve been making some interesting plays in the web space, with acquisitions of Five Across, Tribe and WebEx. Five Across and Tribe are both in the social networking space. I’m not sure how Click.tv would fit into those plans. So for now I’m going to label this as possible but not more. I’m digging for additional sources.

BuddyTV Takes $2.8 million Series A

Seattle based BuddyTV (Advanced Media Research Group Inc.) has taken $2.8 million in Series A funding in a round led by Gemstar-TV Guide International.

BuddyTV is a television focused content network with a team of dedicated entertainment writers producing content that is complemented by users. The service also provides broadcasting tools. See our previous coverage here on the space.

NASDAQ listed Gemstar- TV Guide is best known in the United States for its TV Guide publication. Their involvement in the round is significant due to Gemstar - TV Guide’s background; this is a serious long term player in the television industry investing in a new media TV related startup. The expertise and depth of knowledge BuddyTV will now have access to should bide them well in an increasingly competitive vertical.

Meebo Hits The Live Music Promotion Road

Web based instant messaging platform meebo has announced a new partnership with Live Nation and The Firm to promote “Family Values,” a series of live music events billed as “this summer’s biggest tour.”

The partnership includes concert promotion and concert presence. Music fans visiting meebo.com, the Family Values Tour website and featured band websites have a chance to win 2 free concert tickets and backstage access to every day of the tour.

At the live concerts, fans can share videos and pictures in the official Family Values “Circle Pit” meebo room and win prizes based on their submissions.

Meebo follows in the footsteps of Buzznet, who is promoting their service on the Vans Warped Tour. It would seem that live music events are becoming fertile ground for promoting startups and networking related sites.

The 2007 Family Values Tour is co-headlined by Korn and Evanescence.