Mpire Launches Widgets for eBay and Amazon Affiliates

Mpirelaunches a new widget service today with over 75 different widgets aimed directly at eBay and Amazon affiliates.

It’s a crowded space. On Sunday Michael Arrington described it well with a post aptly titled “The Attack of the Advertising Widgets“. A natural first reaction is what? more widgets!

I caught up with Mpire CEO Matt Hulett and Co-Founder Dave Cotter earlier in the week and it’s a question I had to ask. After a decent 30 minutes I found there was a lot to like about Mpire’s new widget offering, and some great potential. Yes, more widgets, but these ones are different.

The defining feature that makes Mpire widgets stand out from the crowd is dynamically grouped content. The widgets incorporate Mpire’s meta-shopping data, creating shopping trend results across 15 categories, including entertainment, sports, fashion, technology, games and youth/teens.

A widget can list and link to the top searches at eBay for a particular topic, for example Baseball. A widget covering fashion can provide a dynamically updated price watch chart. For lovers of Second Life, one widget provides updates of Linden Dollar average sales prices from eBay.

The new widgets have been in private beta testing prior to today’s launch and can boast of some significant results. On average in testing, CTR rates with Mpire’s widgets were up to 5 times higher than a comparable banner or Adsense unit.

The new widgets are completely free, and surprisingly do not require registration (although it is an option). Affiliates simply insert their affiliate code when setting up the widget and get to keep 100% of all profits made. There’s no revenue sharing model and affiliates deal directly with eBay and Amazon for payment.

I asked Hulett and Cotter the obvious question: where’s the return?

We’ve covered Mpire previously here and here. As well as offering an on site shopping comparison service, Mpire also have a browser plugin that provides comparative shopping data.

The aim of the widgets from a corporate view point is to drive awareness and traffic back to the core product.

What better way of getting your name out there than having thousands of people running widgets that include your company name and link in the footer!

The only draw back I could find from a publishers view point was a lack of dynamic contextual delivery. Much like AuctionAds (a TechCrunch sponsor), the widgets are delivered contextually only to the point of the topic placed in the code. For example a Digital Camera site would code the widget to run digital camera data, but the widget doesn’t pick up if the particular page is about a specific item, say a Panasonic DMC FZ 50, my own particular camera of choice. A fully fledged contextual version is something Mpire is considering for development at a later date.

Stopping email from being sent with blank subject..

Forgot to mention subject, while writing an official mail and feel bad later ???????

Yes…. It’s a concern for all…. A mail without a subject brings a bad impression on us.

Don't worry......... just follow the simple steps mentioned below and see the result.

Here below are the steps

1. Open your outlook

2. Press Alt+F11. This opens the Visual Basic editor

3. On the Left Pane, one can see "Microsoft Outlook Objects" or "Project1", expand this. Now one can see the "ThisOutLookSession".

4. Double click on "ThisOutLookSession". It will open up a code pane.

5. Copy and Paste the following code in the right pane.(Code Pane)

'============================================================================

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

Dim strSubject As String

strSubject = Item.Subject

If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then

Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?"

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then

Cancel = True

End If

End If

End Sub

'============================================================================

6. Save this and now close the VB Code editor and take a breath. From now on, this macro will make sure you do not make the mistake of sending a mail without a subject.

Internet encyclopedia to list all 1.8 mln species

From apples to zebras, all 1.8 million known plant and animal species will be listed in an Internet-based "Encyclopedia of Life" under a $100 million project, scientists said on Tuesday.

The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species.

"The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species," James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. "At the moment that's 1.8 million."

The free Encyclopedia would focus mainly on animals, plants and fungi with microbes to follow, blending text, photographs, maps and videos in a common format for each. Expansion of the Internet in recent years made the multi-media project possible.

Demonstration pages at http://www.eol.org include entries about polar bears, rice, death cap mushrooms and a "yeti crab" with hairy claws recently found in the South Pacific.

"This is about giving access to information to everyone," Jesse Ausubel, chairman of the project who works at the Rockefeller University in New York City, told Reuters.

The Encyclopedia would draw on existing databases such as for mammals, fishes, birds, amphibians and plants. English would be used at the start with translations to other languages.

Comcast shows off super quick modem

Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry audience Tuesday, showing off for the first time in public new technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per second, or roughly 25 times faster than today's standard cable modems.

The cost of modems that would support the technology, called "channel bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today," he told The Associated Press after a demonstration at The Cable Show. It could be available "within less than a couple years," he said.

The new cable technology is crucial because the industry is competing with a speedy new offering called FiOS, a TV and Internet service that Verizon Communications Inc. is selling over a new fiber-optic network. The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 Mbps and the fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.

The technology, called DOCSIS 3.0, was developed by the cable industry's research arm, Cable Television Laboratories. It bonds together four cable lines but is capable of allowing much more capacity. The laboratory said last month it expected manufacturers to begin submitting modems for certification under the standard by the end of the year.

Intel to update Centrino laptop hardware

Intel Corp. is set to launch new hardware for laptop computers that the world's biggest chipmaker hopes will keep it at the top of the fastest-growing segment of the personal computer market.

Intel's new product is not a processor but is instead a platform -- a whole package of components including the main processor as well as all the secondary chips that add features such as the ability to connect to a wireless network.

Platforms rarely grab attention outside of technical circles, but Intel is generating wider interest this time because its new products are the first to use flash memory chips, which should translate into faster performance and longer battery life.

"Santa Rosa" is the code-name for the latest big overhaul of Centrino, Intel's hugely successful laptop platform brand that helped popularize the Wi-Fi wireless technology now standard in the industry.

"Intel has done a lot of things to save power here and there and the overall message of Santa Rosa is more features, more performance with little or no impact on battery life," said Nathan Brookwood, head of consultancy Insight 64.

Intel, which has about 80 percent of the overall PC market, has traditionally been even more dominant in the laptop segment and updates Centrino about once a year to try to maintain its lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Laptop computers are the hottest part of the PC business. Last year, worldwide PC shipments rose just over 7 percent, but sales of laptops jumped 26 percent, compared to just 2 percent for desktops, according to market research firm IDC.

The new hardware will boost performance and battery life by storing some data on flash memory like that found in digital media players and digital cameras. Flash chips can be accessed more quickly than a hard drive and also use less power.

Intel says it has also improved the integrated graphics of Centrino laptops, adding features and software that make video richer and more akin to what people would see on a television.

In addition, Intel is supporting the latest version of the Wi-Fi wireless technology that can deliver a maximum access speed of 300 megabits per second, about five times faster than the current popular version.

eBay Close to Acquiring StumbleUpon

First reported here at TechCrunch on April 18, eBay is now said to be close to finalizing its deal to acquire StumbleUpon for $75 million, according to a new online report from the Wall Street Journal.

The high flying startup has been rumored to be in acquisition talks since November .

The Wall Street Journal report quotes an insider saying that no final agreement has been reached and that talks could still fail.

The StumbleUpon had 2.1 million users as of April, up from 1.7 million in December 2006. 4+ million sites are “stumbled” daily.

The purchase price of $75 million will make a tidy profit for investors who include Ram Shriram and Lotus Development Corp. founder Mitch Kapor: StumbleUpon has only raised $1.5 million in a single round of seed financing previously.

The $75 million is on the high side of our initial range of $40-$75 million. Was there another bidder? Did Google and AOL stake a claim only to be trumped by eBay?

If the deal is finalized it’s an interesting move by eBay. Paypal was core to eBay’s Auction business. Skype could be justified as a tie into the Auction business as well. So where does StumleUpon sit? People “stumbling” from site to site with a business model the revolves around selling page views seems like an odd fit. A sign that eBay is looking to expand into new markets perhaps? Time will tell.

Stardoll.com: From Little Things Big Things Grow

Inspired by a childhood passion for paper dolls, Scandinavian born Liisa started drawing dolls and accompanying wardrobes, uploading them to Geocities. The personal page grew, evolving to Paperdoll Heaven in 2004.

Now calling itself Stardoll.com, the site took $4 million in Series A funding from Index Ventures in February 2006, and $6 million in a B Series round lead by none other than Sequoia in June the same year.

It’s a rags to riches success story that makes Stardoll worth taking a look at, and the space is seeing hyper growth. See our writeup of Zwinky last week.

Stardoll is all about dressing up dolls online.

Stardoll lets users create their own doll or choose from a large collection of celebrity dolls which can then be dressed up in virtual fashions. Every celebrity doll has a wardrobe full of unique clothes and outfits, with new celebrity dolls and outfits released weekly.

Each user is given a page from where they can share the dolls they have created, accompanied with a guest book, diary (blog), friend connections and album.

Most users are girls between the age of 10 to 17 and online safety immediately becomes a consideration. Stardoll adds a layer of anonymity to all accounts. Users can never reveal personal information such as their real name or city of origin on their pages.

Joining the site for the first time, you start with 25 star dollars that can be used to buy accessories for each virtual doll. Accessories range from 1 - 35 star dollars with users able to buy additional star dollars at the rate of 10 star dollars to $1.

They currently sell between 60,000 to 180,000 items per day.

In the background is a team that has grown to 40 people based in Stockholm, with a Los Angeles office on its way. Matt Palmer, former EVP of Marketing for Disney’s Kids Network has been hired to lead the North American push.

Stardoll has 7,144,735 members and is adding 20,000 new members a day, with 5.5 million unique visitors per month.

With its European heritage, languages supported include French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian and Polish, with a dedicated German .de version recently being launched. 30% of traffic comes from the United States vs. 50-52% from the European Union.

As a destination this won’t appeal to all readers, men in particular working in tech fields, however the numbers speak volumes for their growing success amongst their target demographic. With Sequoia amongst its investors it doesn’t take rocket science to work out that the site looks like a winner.

There’s a positive message as well.

Chasing funding and trying to be the next best thing in Web 2.0 can be hard at times, and even a little depressing. Stardoll shows us that from little things, big things can grow.

Wall Street 2.0

Gordon Gekko is back.

20th Century Fox has announced that it will be filming a sequel to 1987 cult classic Wall Street. The movie spawned lines that even today are quoted by stockbrokers and Investment Firms: lunch is for wimps and or course “Greed is Good”.

It’s sad they didn’t make the sequel in the late 90s. Gordon Gekko would have made a killing in Web 1.0 stocks. Fast forward a decade and the age of the IPO and inflated share price has passed, replaced in favor of the corporate buyout.

Reports state that in the movie, Gekko, having been released from jail, is now working in the hedge fund business.

Hedge funds do many things and not all of them are evil: hedge funds can be found in the background of funded companies throughout Web 2.0, but I couldn’t help but immediately think of Patent Trolling. Will Gordon Gekko buy a raft of patents, bringing his control over a range of Web 2.0 technologies to bare on a helpless Silicon Valley?

If Gordon Gekko in the Wall Street sequel was to focus on tech stocks and Valley startups, what could you see him doing aside from the obvious: abolishing free lunches and Segways at Google?