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Sell Simply Wants You To Buy, Sell, And Donate Direct On Twitter (From Any Device)

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:50:03 +0000

Brands are increasingly turning to Facebook both as a place to advertise and as a complementary platform by which to build their online presence — and begin conducting social commerce. There are a number of solutions, for example, that allow big and small operations alike to operate retail storefronts on Facebook, sell their wares, and, to a degree, manage their transactions. But what about that other popular social network, Twitter? The “micro-blogging” platform has certainly become a vehicle for celebrities and brands looking to hawk their products, stir up brand awareness, and interact with their customers, so the question becomes: Why can’t Twitter, too, offer some of the same eCommerce functionality as Facebook? There are a number of reasons for this, but for starters, Twitter has been largely focused on doing one thing well above all others: Building the best realtime communication platform the Internets has to offer. There’s also the fact that Twitter has privileged a “consistent user experience” and hasn’t always had the best relationship with third-party developers . Thus, brands have typically used Twitter as a somewhat indirect broadcast platform, listing items for sale, but only doing so in a way that is intended to lure customers away from Twitter to their own eCommerce platforms. (Facebook has also struggled to keep commerce and transactions happening on its platform, rather than suffering from redirection to retailers’ homepages.) But Chris Teso sees a big opportunity for direct eCommerce on Twitter, which is why, in July, he launched Sell Simply — a simple way to enable consumers and brands to buy, sell, and transact on Twitter. Essentially, Sell Simply turns Twitter into a eMarketplace, allowing users to buy and sell anything over Twitter by replying “buy” to any listing Tweet. Users can list an item for sale on Sell Simply, or import their items from other commerce platforms, like Etsy, Ebay, Craigslist, ArtFire, or Bonanza, and automatically tweet those items out for sale. All users have to do is connect their Sell Simply accounts with Twitter and PayPal, so when someone responds to that tweet with “buy”, Sell Simply facilitates the transaction through PayPal, enabling users to buy and sell an item with one tweet. (Re-tweets, too, are transactionable.) Beyond allowing consumers and brands to sell directly to their customers on Twitter, the startup also offers its users the opportunity to create their own storefront. Through Sell Simply’s “Simple Shop”, users can aggregate all the listings for items being sold on Twitter so that users can find them all in one place. They can also add descriptions, tags, photos, and edit a number of other fields for each listing. What’s more, the platform has a fully automated shipping calculator, which allows sellers, for example, to set their own shipping options in prices so that shopping costs can be included in the listing price, or can be set for “local pickup only”, etc. And, as mentioned above, Sell Simply has a Chrome extension to make it easy for those already selling items on Etsy, Ebay and more to import their listings. To make the process of buying and selling direct on Twitter device agnostic, Sell Simply has launched Chirp , which now allows users to pay anywhere with any device. To make a Chirp payment, all users have to do is send a tweet that says something like “@SellSimply #pay @ThePayee $200 for [said item]“ . Users can make payments that are as little as $1 or as high as $2,000. (And this is how Sell Simply makes money: The startup charges a 2 percent transaction fee on every one of those purchases.) This allows brands and sellers to collect money in under 1 minute, direct to their PayPal accounts. Detailed PayPal receipts are then automatically sent to the buyer via direct message so that they have an extra way of making sure that the transaction has been completed. And, in terms of security, since all transactions take place through PayPal, customers have no liability for unauthorized purchases when they meet PayPal’s requirements, and, in turn, can take advantage of refunds for incorrect orders or items that never arrive. Since launching in July, the platform has racked up over one thousand members listing over 10,000 items for sale on Twitter, and Teso says that 75 percent of Sell Simply’s members have connected their PayPal and Twitter accounts to the platform, which he sees as encouraging evidence that people are ready to take that leap of faith and begin using Twitter as a direct sales platform. So far, the average transaction price has been $35 and the most common items being sold are vintage clothing and photography, (as many users are coming from Etsy), but he expects the merchandise to diversify as more people begin connecting to the platform. As for the road ahead, Teso plans to launch a “T-commerce” platform designed to expand Sell Simply’s possible uses for brands, with features that will include integration with back office e-commerce workflow, analytics, and a recommendation engine that will suggest items based on what a user Tweets about, for example. For brands interested in this kind of functionality, Teso said, there will be a licensing fee. Obviously, for brands, the value proposition both for Sell Simply’s current offerings and the marketplace features that will be launching by the end of the year could be huge. If you’re a brand, Twitter is the perfect platform on which to broadcast flash sales and time-sensitive deals, and Sell Simply’s buy-with-one-tweet service will make that even easier. And for non-profits, Sell Simply uses the same formula for transactions to turn Twitter into a donations platform as well, allowing people to donate their charities of choice with one tweet. Just as brands hope that using Facebook as a social commerce platform can help create scale so that a larger audience will see cool products or sales because users post those items on their wall or share them with friends, Teso said that he sees a similar opportunity for eCommerce on Twitter. If one happens to be selling their bike on Twitter through Sell Simply, there’s a good chance that a user’s friends will re-tweet the listing, and their followers may follow suit. If those people then, in turn, re-tweet to their followers, well, you get the point. Suddenly your listing might be reaching the eyeballs of someone in a fifth degree of separation, to which they can reply and instantaneously purchase the item. And with Chirp, that can all happen while you’re on the go. It’s like Square, but you don’t need an extra device (a Square) — or a credit card. Pretty cool. Check out Sell Simply at home here and let us know what you think .

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Sell Simply Wants You To Buy, Sell, And Donate Direct On Twitter (From Any Device)

5 Tips For Onboarding Remote Workers

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:01:07 +0000

The Digital Careers Series is supported by Elance , the world’s leading site for online work. Check out Startup Cloud for tips on how to build a remote team. There might be an assumption that recruiting is easier when unemployment is high, but that’s simply not true. According to Manpower Group , 52% of employers reported having a difficult time finding qualified employees to fill jobs. Employers cast a wide net when it comes to finding candidates, and remote workers can be attractive to companies because they can fill an opening that’s difficult to place with a local. It’s more important than ever to ensure that new hires become engaged immediately upon entering their new place of employment through a well-designed onboarding process. Successful onboarding programs aren’t just a paperwork-filled orientation: They create a connection between employees, their work and the goals of the organization. Here are a few best practices from companies that effectively onboard remote workers. 1. Bring the Office to Them In a traditional office environment, it’s easy to forget what it’s like for a remote employee. Sometimes we take for granted the ability to walk around the corner and ask a quick question. David Lewis , president and CEO of OperationsInc , a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm, has several employees who work virtually. He says the key to a successful workplace is creating a way for new hires to experience the office regardless of where they’re located. “We get them connected with the team, make sure they know who does what and bring the office to them,” Lewis says. “Slides with pictures. Organizational charts. All geared to paint a picture.” 2. Connect Face-to-Face The ability to connect a face with a voice is an essential part of building relationships. For Cheezburger , the online humor publisher behind the wildly popular I Can Has Cheezburger? , the key to success is in building a team culture despite having employees all over the country. Cheezeburger’s CTO Scott Porad says they typically bring remote employees to headquarters for the first week, but sometimes that isn’t possible. “We have onboarded several employees remotely,” Porad adds. “We use pair-programming through voice and video conferencing and screen-sharing tools to make this happen.” Video conferencing also eliminates the stress associated with travel, especially if you’re working for a new company. Alison Sheehan , senior vice president of human resources at virtual meetings developer PGi , says it was a no-brainer to embrace remote onboarding: “As a collaboration company that provides virtual meeting tools to business, we took what we know to be effective in face-to-face meetings and applied it to remote onboarding and other HR processes.” PGi uses a combination of email, video meetings and learning management system (LMS) tools to connect with and onboard remote workers. The cornerstone of its program is a proprietary video conferencing tool, iMeet . “Using iMeet’s group video capabilities is a great way for us to meet face-to-face in a virtual setting to connect with new hires,” Sheehan explains. “You can make eye contact (or note when others are not), you can observe body language, and you can even use the social media tools within iMeet to learn more about the people with whom you are meeting. This personal interaction strengthens their bond and enhances the synergy of the group — all without ever leaving their home offices.” 3. Teach the Job in Steps Companies also have to figure out how to show remote workers the technical aspects of the work they will be doing. In a traditional office environment, employees might attend a class or be a part of on-the-job training, but neither are practical choices with remote workers. Tracy Brisson , founder and CEO of The Opportunities Project encourages “scaffolding” as an effective learning process. In short, you break up the content into building blocks that are taught in chunks. “When students demonstrate they’ve learned the material and can do it independently, you teach the next step and build upon prior skills and knowledge,” she says. In an office, a manager can see a new team member performing and provide immediate feedback. Brisson shares the process for virtual workers, too. “You have to know that they can do it on their own without that instant feedback loop,” Brisson explains. “It helps to create a learning plan before the person starts, where job responsibilities are introduced at a slower pace, but the result is faster overall mastery and a great work product.” 4. Evaluate the Process Any time you create and actively use a process, it’s necessary to evaluate its effectiveness. Brendon Schrader , founder and CEO of strategic marketing consultancy Antenna , says his company’s onboarding assessment “is based on one metric: employee satisfaction.” Antenna worked with enterprise social network Yammer to create a new onboarding process, largely due to that fact that the platform provides tools to measure each stage of hiring. When asked how employees respond to the remote onboarding experience, Schrader indicated the feedback has been one of their best sources of information. “Our consultants have time and time again expressed their happiness with our process and how the platform helps them stay connected with their colleagues,” Schrader explains. “We may not be sitting across a desk from our employees, but the Yammer platform allows us to redefine how we work together.” 5. Constantly Refine the Process For many of us, working remotely isn’t a new concept, but the responsibility of onboarding a remote team is. That was the situation for Sara Sutton Fell , CEO and founder of telework job service FlexJobs . Fell figured out what worked best for her company through a combination of instinct, trial and error, and feedback from colleagues who already had experience hiring remote workers. Fell says the most important step when adding a new technology to the onboarding process is test first, then implement. “The more we test a particular technology to see if it meets our needs, the better chance we’ll have of selecting the most appropriate and useful technology,” Fell explains. “And we’re sure to avoid headaches down the road!” As more organizations recognize the value in telework arrangements, we’ll see more remote workers move from the status of occasional freelancer to full-time employee. Creating an effective, efficient onboarding process will benefit both the new hire and the company. What advice do you have for companies looking to onboard remote employees? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below. Series Supported by Elance The Digital Careers Series is supported by Elance , where businesses hire and manage in the cloud for immediate access to the talent they need, when they need it. Elance offers the flexibility to staff up or down, and it’s faster and less expensive than traditional staffing and outsourcing. Check out Startup Cloud to learn more. More About: Business , contributor , digital careers series , features , mashable , onboarding , remote working For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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5 Tips For Onboarding Remote Workers

How Google, eBay, And PayPal Are Gearing Up For A Very Mobile Holiday Shopping Season

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:30:41 +0000

Online holiday shopping reached record levels in 2010. And e-commerce spending is up this year. All signs point to consumers spending even more online this holiday season. I sat down with executives from Google, eBay, PayPal and ShopKick to discuss the trends that are expected to emerge in the e-commerce space over the next few months. They center around mobile, tablets, and deals. PayPal has more than doubled its mobile payments volume since the 2010 holiday shopping season, and we haven’t even hit the thick of this year’s rush. eBay is projecting $5 billion in mobile payments volume in 2010 and this number could increase in the next few months. And Google projects that 15 percent of total search on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and one of the biggest shopping days of the year) will come from mobile devices. Tablet devices are now a part of the online shopping experience and retailers are taking note. Clearly, all signs point to the fact that this could be the breakout year for mobile shopping. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile All of the companies I spoke to unanimously agreed that this would be the year of mobile for the holiday shopping season. Steve Yankovich, head of eBay’s mobile business operations and development, says he expects this to be the biggest year for mobile sales for eBay yet. eBay has said that the company expects to see $5 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2011, and this will be partly buoyed by a strong mobile presence in November and December. PayPal’s Senior Director for Mobile, Laura Chambers, echoes Yankovich’s forecasts and says that merchants are even preparing for the onslaught of traffic to their mobile sites. A number of big retailers, such as Armani Exchange, Guess and The Limited have recently put PayPal’s mobile express checkout as an option for payments on their mobile sites as a way to help the conversion process. “We are seeing strong investments by online retailers for mobile shopping this year,” she says. Chambers says that last year, the peak day for mobile payments for PayPal was December 12, with $4.7 million in mobile payments volume. Now PayPal is seeing $10 million in mobile payments per day, and we haven’t even officially hit the holiday shopping period. Clearly, the mobile payments numbers could even triple from last year to this year. While many consumers may shop on mobile for their holiday purchases, the usage of product search, barcode scanning, and other informative apps will also play a big part in this year’s mobile shopping. eBay’s RedLaser barcode scanning apps have seen scans go up 50 percent over the past year. If you aren’t familiar with how it works, RedLaser will scan the barcode of a physical product and show you where you can buy it on eBay’s properties and where it is available in local store locations around you (via Milo) and for how much. The app has been updated with PayPal functionality so that users can actually buy the product directly from the app. Another shopping app developer who has high hopes for mobile this holiday season is ShopKick. Co-founder Cyriac Roeding says that this year will be the year of mobile for physical shopping. For background, Shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the free Android or iPhone app on their phone walks into a store. Once a Shopkick Signal is detected, the app delivers reward points called “kickbucks” to the user for walking into a retail store, trying on clothes, scanning a barcode and other actions. Kickbucks can then be redeemed across all partner stores for gift card rewards or for Facebook Credits. User can also receive special discounts on specific products at partners stores like Macy’s, Best Buy or Target. Roeding explains that the cell phone is the only interactive platform you carry with you in a physical store, and retailers are looking to use the platform to help drive transactions. Clearly, a mobile rewards app that offers in-store discounts can help do this. “The internet has caused brick and mortar retailers more trouble than benefit over the past fifteen years. Now retailers are catching on to how the internet can help retailers—that’s where mobile comes in.” Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management for Google Commerce, tells me that the search giant is seeing a growing number of users are making buying decisions using their mobile phone. “We are definitely seeing m-commerce conversions growing and becoming bigger over time,” he says. “But users are also using their mobile phone to search for products and find local availability.” Samat says that Google has seen a 200 percent growth in mobile product search usage and Google Shopper app downloads over the past year. Shopper, which is available for iOS and Android, allows you to find product prices, reviews, specs, local inventory of products at nearby stores, and more. As we mentioned above, Google is forecasting that 15 percent of total search on Black Friday. will come from mobile. “There’s no doubt that users are now making buying decisions using their mobile phone,” says Samat. “And we are seeing m-commerce conversions growing and becoming bigger over time.” Tablets As tablets have grown to be the go-to browsing device, the iPad, and other devices are also becoming a way to shop. And retailers are catching on to this trend. According to a National Retail Federation study, 20 percent of retailers have invested in tablet device apps this holiday season. With this in mind, Google debuted Catalogs in August, an app for tablet devices that includes 200 catalogs from major brands including Anthropologie, Bare Escentuals, Bergdorf Goodman, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Lands’ End, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Sundance, Tea Collection, Urban Outfitters and Williams-Sonoma. The app is more than just a browsing experience. When consumers find an item they’d like to purchase, they can tap to find it in a store nearby or tap “Buy on Website” to visit the merchant online. Google’s Samat says that “the tablet is the ultimate leanback experience and we see that playing a big role in holiday shopping as a replacement for the mail order catalogs you used to browse through.” PayPal calls it ‘couch commerce’ and believes that tablet commerce will have a record year. PayPal recently reported that consumers who own both a tablet and a smartphone are significantly more likely (63%) to indicate increased overall spending on mobile purchases, versus owners of smartphones only (29%). Owners of both a tablet and a smartphone buy nearly twice as often as those who only have smartphones and more than 40% of dual owners made more than 20 mobile purchases over the past year, compared to only 12% of smartphone-only owners. Forrester just released a report predicting a 15 percent increase in online shopping sales this year to nearly $60 billion, partly due to the increase in consumer-use of tablet computers for shopping. Beyond Black Friday And Cyber Monday Black Friday and Cyber Monday are historically the top-high-grossing online shopping days during the holiday season. But execs expect to see high volumes of online shopping on other days thanks to an increase in mobile shopping and deals. Yankovitch tells me that eBay expects revenue numbers to be well over numbers that eBay saw last year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but expects to see more activity at times when people aren’t traditionally shopping. The day of Thanksgiving is one of those days, says Chambers. Because people will have their phone everywhere (including at the table), consumers are expected to make purchases on the fly, especially on Thanksgiving evening. In fact, PayPal is predicting that after dinner on Thanksgiving Day will be the first mobile shopping spike this holiday season. Another popular day has been the second Sunday in December, which is one of the last days where people feel confident that items will be shipped in times for the holiday. And Chambers says across the board, Sunday is the biggest day for mobile shopping generally. Deals There’s no doubt that deals, coupons and discounts will be a large part of the online holiday shopping experience, especially with the current state of the economy. According to the recent Forrester report, 58 percent of Americans say they are more price-conscious today than they were a year ago and nearly half believe they find better values online. “I really expect consumers to be deal hunting this season,” explains Chambers. She says that PayPal, which has historically offered special deals for the holiday shopping season, will be bulking up on more consumer deals this holiday season. Samat says that Google has always seen a spike for queries like deals, coupons, and sales during the holiday time and fully expects to see an increase this year. “The consumer desire for a better deal will help give certain product decision tools a big bump,” he explains. “People may take more time this year to find the best possible price.” Deals could also include lucrative holiday shipping offers. In 2010, 45 of the top 50 online retailers offered some sort of promotional deal between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, most of which were a type of shipping promotion. And in 2011, Shop.org anticipates that a record 92.5% of online retailers will offer free shipping and not just as a Cyber Monday promotion. Clearly, there’s plenty of optimism from retailers, and tech companies regarding online spending and shopping this holiday season. And this holiday season is somewhat unique considering the big bet that retailers are making on newer technologies, such as mobile, geo-location, tablets, local product search and more. The big question is how consumers will react to and engage with these technologies over the next several weeks. It could be a very mobile Christmas.

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How Google, eBay, And PayPal Are Gearing Up For A Very Mobile Holiday Shopping Season

Can Content Producers Be Disruptors Or Is Content Only Meant To Be Disrupted?

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:07:33 +0000

Editor’s note: Contributor Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is the founder and CEO of WatchMojo . Follow him @ashkan . Why is content such a dirty word in venture capital? We have seen a few generations of technology entrepreneurs and investors, but there have been far fewer successful outcomes for media startups. In fact, most of the value has remained in the hands of the Traditional Media Companies (TMCs), and as such, executives in those fields have not really had the vast war chests to fund new startups in media. And frankly, many content executives have been shell-shocked by technology disruption, so they tend to avoid content investments and favor media technology startups when they move over to investing. If you look at the “digital media” companies in most VCs portfolio, it’s not content but rather tech that focuses on the media industry. VCs Look for Disruption While all VCs look to invest in passionate entrepreneurs and companies that operate in big markets, some particularly fancy businesses that can shrink a market: “We love investing in technologies and business models that are able to shrink existing markets. If your company can take $5 of revenue from a competitor for every $1 you earn – let’s talk!” boasts Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, who has gone on to invest in Appnexus, Say Media, Uber and Turntable to name a few. The Internet shrinks industries by disrupting the incumbents. We have seen this in technology and in media. Newspapers have shrunk, magazines too. The next frontier remains television: a $75 billion advertising industry in the U.S. and a $250 billion one when you include theatrical and home release sales. It’s a big market, and everyone from Google to Apple and Amazon are looking at disrupting it. And they have a good shot at doing that. Apple’s late Steve Jobs is said to have “cracked it” – it being television. Google is further ahead, in large part to the $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition. YouTube is now forking over hundreds of millions of dollars to content producers to lock up more premium, brand-safe programming. Incidentally, despite all of the buzz and money that is flowing into the space, the VC community is standing idle. Why? Why are VCs Allergic to Content? Speaking of First Round Capital, they were one of the first VCs I spoke to when I launched WatchMojo. They were also one of the many VCs who turned me down because they “didn’t like content”. It’s no secret that VCs have shown an aversion to investing in content. In fact, to some like Brad Feld, their definition of investing in content is investing in a platform that aggregates user-generated content (UGC), what marketers and producers generally view as anti-content, if such a thing existed. That kind of thinking is why VCs have had a poor batting average in video investing: content will be ad-supported and marketers have rejected advertising alongside UGC. On the one hand, most VCs hail from technology companies and they just don’t understand the content business. On the other hand, most video content investments have been duds because they have sought to duplicate television on the Web; that is a recipe for disaster. Ripe raised $45 million, Next New Networks raised $30 million. We adopted a more efficient model and are trying to disrupt cable in our own small way. We’re not alone: VC Mark Suster is making a big bet on Maker Studios , which has scaled by focusing on low-cost content and aggregating views on YouTube: “the reason most content companies have failed is that they sought to build own-and-operated properties and had high cost models”, he stated on a panel I was moderating at Streaming Media West. He’s right. He pegged YouTube’s investment in content at closer to $250 million, and not the $100 million that the media has reported. It’s Google’s attempt to scorch the online video world and try to lock up a large chunk of the premium content segment. There’s another way Google is scorching video advertising: skippable ads and their TrueView initiative, but we’ll leave that for another article. Will Television Suffer the Same Fate as Print and Music Industries? While few people predict the television industry to suffer a fate similar to the print or music industries, it’s no secret that Hollywood is bloated and it’s likely that its cost structure and revenues will shrink, but it is and will remain a powerful industry. In fact, it has always been far more tech-savvy and aware than its print and radio brethren, but history repeats itself and thinking that somehow the Traditional Media Companies (TMCs) can hold back time is foolish. The genie is out of the bottle. Then Why Aren’t TMCs Investing in New Media Programming The Traditional Media Companies are not investing aggressively in lower-cost, made-for-Web (and mobile, tablets) programming. They have absolutely no financial incentive to see online video advertising grow and hit the projections because a lot of that will invariably come at the expense of television. Ultimately, online video content can be promotional or commercial . To TMCs, in all likelihood, it will be promotional: it allows them to bring down distribution and marketing costs. Video content is an investment, a cost of goods sold or marketing expense, but it’s a necessary part of the marketing mix and the most popular activity online, what people spend 47% of their online time doing. This Creates an Opportunity for New Media Content Producers Content is not a zero-sum game, so long as new media producers create content to fill the hole and demand online, then they can over time replace the mindshare previously held by the TMCs. If you doubt that look no further than Disney’s decision to partner with YouTube even though it’s an investor in Hulu. You also have to wonder when Viacom will sign a peace treaty with YouTube. How much longer do they really want to not be on the largest video platform in the world? How does that now grow the MTV brand and Viacom’s revenues? VCs Remain on the Sidelines You would think that VCs would see this opening and aggressively fund content, especially when you consider that we’re in the content consumption phase of the Web’s evolution: we have built the infrastructure and platforms, now it’s all about feeding the insatiable appetite of consumers who spend 33% of their time on new platforms (web, mobile, tablets) while marketers are only spending 19% of their ad budgets accordingly. Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker sizes the opportunity at $20 billion (see slide above). Until more VCs come along who get the dynamics of media and online video, and back content plays, then they will be leaving a lot of money on the table.

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Can Content Producers Be Disruptors Or Is Content Only Meant To Be Disrupted?

Create Your Own Online Clothing Boutique, Earn 10% of Sales

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:04:04 +0000

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Create Your Own Online Clothing Boutique, Earn 10% of Sales

LazyMeter Could Make Your To-Do List a Done List

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:32:00 +0000

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark . If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . Name: LazyMeter Quick Pitch: LazyMeter is the cure for the overwhelming to-do list. Genius Idea: Focuses on daily goals so users will finish their to-do list every day. Never-ending to-do lists can be overwhelming, especially when it seems as though there’s never enough time in the day. LazyMeter is a virtual task manager that prioritizes your tasks to help you focus on one day at a time. It’s faster than writing and scratching off tasks on paper, and it differs from other to-do lists by measuring your success at the end of each day. “The goal is to change the way people feel about work,” says Aaron Franklin, co-founder of LazyMeter. “Everyone ends up with a never-ending to-do list that makes them feel overwhelmed, but LazyMeter focuses on helping them feel accomplished at the end of the day by showing them how much they’ve done.” This is how it works: Add all of your tasks that need to be completed either that day or in the future into LazyMeter and use the drop-and-drag to prioritize each item. Once you complete a task, check it off and it will disappear from your list. But let’s be real, who actually completes all of their to-dos? That’s where the pause button plays a role. It lets you clear your list every day by processing all of your tasks so nothing is ever forgotten. Just let LazyMeter know when you want to remember a task again, and it will add it to your to-do list for that day. LazyMeter helps you take your to-dos off your mind. The pause button helps you take your to-dos off your mind, and it gives you an idea of your procrastination. Once your list is empty, your work is finished and you can enjoy the rest of your day without worrying that you forgot something LazyMeter measures your productivity (green) and procrastination (yellow). Users can click on the green check button to see their progress. Franklin says the measurement data can improve productivity and teach users to learn to plan their days better to get more done. “It’s not about doing more things during the day, it’s about doing the right things and feeling good about it,” says Franklin. “How you feel at the end of the day is important and LazyMeter magnifies the feeling of satisfaction when you cross things out on paper.” There a number of other online to-do lists, all slightly different from one another. Remember The Milk , also an iPhone app, has a browser add-on in Gmail that connects tasks with your emails, contacts, and Google Calendar events; Voo2do highlights overdue tasks in red and Toodledo determines the most important tasks for you to work on at the moment. LazyMeter is the only to-do list that attempts to improve productivity by measuring level of success and procrastination through visual graphs. Launched in August, LazyMeter now has approximately 10,000 users with about 500 daily users. LazyMeter will soon be available on iPhone and Android devices. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark , a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today . More About: bizspark , LazyMeter For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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LazyMeter Could Make Your To-Do List a Done List

Don’t Believe Facebook, Spotify’s The Only Open Graph Music App Winning

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:34:23 +0000

Facebook today released some stats trying to show the success of several of the Open Graph music applications launched at f8. Most of the stats were in percentages, though, which can give a rosy impression of what is actually fairly little growth. For example, it cites that Rdio has seen a “30x increase in new user registrations from Facebook” In reality, the app itself now has grown by just 200 users to reach a tiny 4,000 daily Facebook-logged in users. While Facebook may want it to appear that all its music partners are succeeding, it’s actually a winner-takes-all scenario with Spotify far in the lead with 2.4 million daily active users. Here we’ll look at AppData ‘s stats on the absolute growth of these music apps in terms of daily and monthly Facebook-logged in users. They show that Earbits, MOG, and Rdio all have a DAU of 10,000 or less. To give you some context, the top 100 Facebook apps and games have over 500,000 DAU and over 3 million MAU. Spotify is the 21st largest app by DAU, while MOG is tied for #1356th. Facebook’s right about one thing. Several music apps that provide services other than personal listening are doing quite well. RootMusic’s BandPage has 1.4 million DAU, ReverbNation’s Band Profile has 690,000 DAU, and Vevo for Artists has 250,000 DAU. Spotify – Daily active users are up 1.33 million to 2.4 million, and Spotify monthly active users are up 3.98 million to 7.4 million. Facebook listed Spotify as growing by 4 million new users. The app is becoming a habit for many, with 32% of monthly users engaging with it each day. Spotify’s overwhelming presence in the Ticker is drowning out the rest of the apps and making it seem like you’re on it with the cool kids, or you’re listening alone in the corner. Earbits – Starting from zero, Earbits now has 1,000 DAU and 10,000 MAU. Considering the potential audience and how much Spotify has grown, these numbers are not impressive. Stickyness, or the DAU divided by MAU that indicates whether or not users are consistently coming back , is 10% which is at least better than most of the other music apps. MOG – As of f8, MOG had 3,000 DAU and 32,000 MAU. It has clawed its way up 7,000 DAU to 10,000 and 137,000 MAU to 170,0000. Stickyness is the lowest of any the apps we sample, at 5.8%. MOG could have become a serious contender, but was slow to gets its Facebook integration humming immediately allowing Spotify to surge ahead. Facebook’s quote of it 246 percent growth is misleading. Rdio – Strong out the gates, Rdio was the only app other than Spotify that I saw in my Ticker right after f8. It spiked from 3,848 DAU to 8,000 in the first two days after f8. However, it has since fallen all the way back to 4,000 DAU, an increase of less than 200 users, and only spiking as high as 6,000 DAU on weekends. MAU is up from 23,800 to 60,000, but just 6.6% of users return each day. This is a much more grim assessment than Facebook saying Rdio has had a “30x increase in new user registrations from Facebook”. Unless it has significant growth of non-Facebook users, Rdio could be out of the race. Even if it does, Rdio is missing out on the Facebook virality bonanza aiding Spotify. The massive growth of Spotify and the meager increases of the other apps reflect a peer pressure effect. Before the Facebook integration, users might have explored the different apps and found the one with the content library and features that best suited them. Now it’s hard to rationalize using MOG or Rdio while constantly bombarded with Ticker stories showing that your friends are all on Spotify. While social services can provide an outlet for self-expression, they can also lead users to be implicitly bullied into conformity by the actions of their friends. Crunchbase SPOTIFY MOG RDIO Company: Spotify Website: spotify.com Funding: €183M Spotify has created a lightweight software application that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with virtually no buffering delay. It was launched in the fall of 2008 and had approximately 10 million users by September 2010. Spotify offers streaming music from major and independent record labels including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Users download Spotify and then log onto their service enabling the on-demand streaming of music. Music can be browsed by artist, album, record… Learn more Company: MOG Website: mog.com Launch Date: January 6, 2005 Funding: $24.9M MOG Inc. is a next-generation music media company founded in June 2005 by David Hyman, former CEO for Gracenote. MOG has one simple goal: to perfect your music listening experience. MOG’s on-demand streaming music service provides multi-platform access to a deep library of over 13 million songs from over a million albums through its award-winning mobile apps on iPhone and Android, on the Web, desktop app for Mac and soon for Windows, streaming entertainment devices such as Roku, Sonos and… Learn more Company: Rdio Website: rdio.com Funding: $17.5M Rdio is an unlimited, on-demand social music service that lets subscribers listen to music on the web and mobile devices. Rdio differentiates itself by its social design which emulates the way music has typically been shared—from person to person. Rdio subscribers build and share their online music collections from a catalogue of over 8 million songs, and can see the listening activity, collections and playlists of those they follow. Subscribers can also see what’s in heavy rotation in their network… Learn more

Originally posted here:
Don’t Believe Facebook, Spotify’s The Only Open Graph Music App Winning

Gadgets Week in Review: Footrace

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:00:40 +0000

Here are some of last week’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: Video: Japan Gets Robotic Guide Dog Negroponte On OLPC Future: Air Drops And Hands-Off Education Panasonic’s EVOLTA Mini Robot Finishes Hawaii Ironman Triathlon Jawbone’s Fitness-Friendly Up Wristband Appears In Online Stores Video: Amazing Mini Humanoid Rides Bicycle

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Gadgets Week in Review: Footrace

Have You Seen Missing Technorati Employee Tracy Williams? [Help]

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Tracy Williams, an employee of Technorati, was been missing since Wednesday (11/2) after going out with friends to a San Francisco bar. Nobody has heard from her since, and now Technorati is asking the online community to help find her . More »

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Have You Seen Missing Technorati Employee Tracy Williams? [Help]

Here’s How You Make a Documentary Only Using HTML5 and WebGL Graphics [Watch This]

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

One Millionth Tower is part of Highrise , a series of mini-documentaries about the history of high rise towers and their effect on society. What sets this one apart from the others is that it was made using HTML5 technologies such as WebGL and Javascript. More »

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Here’s How You Make a Documentary Only Using HTML5 and WebGL Graphics [Watch This]