Video Collaboration Ser...

As the capabilities of modern browsers expand and developing standards like Google’s WebRTC initiative for real-time communications slowly find their way into most popular browsers, we’ll likely see more video collaboration software that’s currently still client-based move to the browser as well. TenHands , which is launching its private beta today (you can request an invite here ) wants to be the first out of the gate in this market and sees itself as a direct competitor to Cisco’s WebEx , Microsoft Lync and other incumbents in this space. The service offers free video conference calls, screensharing, as well as built-in support for sharing documents from your desktop and Box.net . As for pricing, TenHands’ COO and co-founder Jack Blaeser told me earlier today, the company is planning to use a freemium model after the beta phase ends. Users will get three free hours of usage per month and will have to pay $10/month if they need more time. The service currently uses a small plugin to enable WebRTC in Chrome, IE, Safari and Firefox on both Mac and Windows machines. The idea here, though, is to move away from plugins as soon as more browsers support this standard natively. Technically, TenHands’ architecture can handle calls with an unlimited number of participants, but the beta currently has a soft limit of ten. One major advantage of being web-based, TenHands’ COO and co-founder Jack Blaeser told me earlier today, is the fact that this makes it very easy for the company to add support for other web-based services. Currently, TenHands supports Box.net, for example, but the company plans to add more services (think Yammer, Google Drive, DropBox, etc.) in the near future. This approach, said Blaeser, will also allow the team to easily customize the service for large enterprises that want to whitelabel it. TenHands, according to Blaeser, is currently about a year ahead of its closest competitors in moving to WebRTC. It’s worth noting, too, that Blaeser’s co-founder and TenHands’ CEO Mark Weidick was formerly the head of Cisco’s Telepresence Exchange business. As far as the video quality goes – and that, after all, is one of the most important aspects of these kinds of services – the company promises high-quality video – and in my tests, that’s definitely what it delivered. The easy-to-use web interface lets you start and accept calls with just a few clicks. After that, your browser window will be taken over by your contact’s video or screen. For calls with multiple participants, TenHands uses the same “active speaker” setup as Google+, for example, and automatically features whomever is currently speaking in the main window. The Sunnyvale-based company currently has 10 employees and has received funding from Trinity Ventures. The size of this funding round was not disclosed.

Backed By Angels, SiteS...

When New York-based SiteSimon first emerged from Entrepreneur Roundtable’s accelerator program last year, it was as a social browsing tool that aimed to automate the process of finding and discovering personally relevant content on the Web — not unlike StumbleUpon. A good idea, to be sure, but co-founder Steven Gutentag tells us that, in fact, users were less interested in new destinations than they were in finding better ways to filter and discover content from sites they’re already visiting. The team listened to its users and is today announcing a pivot and re-launch of SiteSimon, which sees the startup turning its full attention to the browser. SiteSimon is, for now at least, a Chrome extension that seeks to transform your browser into an intelligent assistant, locating the content that it has deduced will be most relevant to you — in near realtime, within whatever site you happen to be visiting. Right now, SiteSimon is Chrome-only, and Gutentag tells us that the team is focused on building an awesome product, focusing on Chrome due to its traction among early adopters and its (comparatively) stellar developer tools. The team wants to build comparable add-ons for Firefox and Safari, but only if and when the Chrome extension is in fighting shape. So how does it work? The extension integrates with Chrome and crawls your browsing history, learning as it goes, identifying patterns in your clicks, and directs you right to the content it thinks you would find interesting and relevant. “We are trying to create an interest graph for the user,” Gutentag says, in that, as you surf through TechCrunch content, for example, SiteSimon pulls in data as pages load, parsing data and analyzing metadata, titles, and keywords, before serving you relevant suggestions. These relevant suggestions appear in a sliding sidebar — and this is what’s really cool — the team is trying to reduce the annoyance factor, so that it will only make recommendations if it has ones it thinks you’ll like. If there aren’t any good recommendations, the sidebar won’t appear on the site. If you click on its recommendations, the extension gets smarter. And, for those who have recently cleared their browsing history, you can import your history from Chrome and set SiteSimon on its way. Generally speaking, it only takes a few minutes before its recommending you content, although there are exceptions, something the team is working on. Of course, news sites tend to be far richer when it comes to metadata, which means that it’s recommendations really shine on content sites, blogs, and the like, but it still works for others, like Yelp and YouTube, for example. As its powered by learning algorithms, SiteSimon tends to work better if you have a lengthy browsing history. I do on Chrome, and it’s been working like a charm. Some might say that it’s not worth spending the time it takes to train the extension what you like and what you don’t like, but that’s the thing, once you download the extension, it lives in the background and gets smarter just by hoovering up all the activity from your browser. It analyzes keywords and patterns in your browsing, the frequency, how long you spend on the site, and then offers three recommendations for you — no categories, no overloading you, just the three best recs. You can think of it like the personalized results TechCrunch had in its side bar alongside Trending Posts for awhile, or for those who’ve visited Business Insider, a less annoying version of those pop-up recommendations that appear at the bottom of the page. The team likens it to an intelligent personal assistant for your browser. And considering Google and others are busy collecting and using your history for their own purposes, whether nefariously or not, SiteSimon wants you to take back control of your browsing data, insofar as that goes. And, to that point, Gutentag stresses the fact that the extension “discreetly” analyzes your browsing patterns — just as any app or extension that pokes around in your browsing history should. While it may sound creepy, the service is completely secure, 100 percent private, and automatically turns off on any personal sites. Once you’ve signed up for a free account, you can go to “Settings” and type in the sites you don’t want SiteSimon touching, although it already filters out all “https” secure domains and adult content. Again, the extension is still in the early phases, but the concept is appealing. If you’re on a large content site, like TC or ESPN, it’ll recommend new articles, or if you’re on Yelp or Seamless, new restaurants. Best Buy … products. Brands and sites, if they’re paying attention, could get behind the idea, because it doesn’t take you off site, it finds what you want and personalizes your experience once you get there. In my eyes, Google is already using bits and pieces of your Chrome activity to personalize your experience, some transparently, and some likely not. So, if you’re going to have all this data sitting there collecting, why not have a relatively noninvasive, smart recommendation tool that travels with you as you go? At this point, SiteSimon isn’t focused on monetizing, just on building its user base and honing its technology. But, in the end, this is the type of tool that every browser could benefit from integrating right out of the box, and you can see why that’s in the back of Gutentag’s head. Right now, it still has a ways to go before it’s ready. It needs to offer an easier way to shuffle recommendations. If it keeps serving the same three, press a button and move on. Makes sense, right? And learning can be slow. It’s still evolving, but the concept here is sound, and with some help, this could be a really valuable tool. Last year, SiteSimon raised $500K from angel investors, which included contributions from Ken Cron, the former CEO of Vivendi Universal Games and former president of CMP Media, John Ason, an early investor in Diapers.com, Ology.com, and Hotlist.com, as well as Vault.com and Zeel co-founder Samer Hamadeh. The startup will likely begin going after more capital this summer. What do you think? For more, check out SiteSimon at home here .

Facebook Likes Just Got...

In light of its impending multi-billion-dollar IPO, its user base of 900 million and its increasingly sprawling design and user experience, some people have come to believe that Facebook has gone crazy. Excuse me, “cray cray.” What’s more, even though it’s only two-odd years old, Facebook’s “Like” button is now ubiquitous on the Webs. But with how quickly these young people are picking up new technology these days, let’s be honest, “Liking” things is for old people. Everyone else has moved on. That’s why Ben Schaechter, Sam Grossberg, and Paul Kompfner have coded up a new Chrome extension, which went live this evening, called CrayBook. ( Check it out in the Chrome Web Store here .) Watching a FB photo montage of your former classmates having kids, and your brother’s cat traveling in nicer clothes than yours across Europe, can be depressing. So the three engineers have designed an extension that turns every instance of the “Like” button on your Facebook account into “Dat Sh*t Cray.” Sometimes liking something just isn’t good enough. We need more accurate ways to express ourselves in this cray world we’re livin’ in. And, if anything, hipsters have taught us that emotions, which include but are not limited to “liking” and “loving,” are pretty lame. As for the masterminds behind CrayBook, they’re better known as the guys responsible for GoPollGo , the venture-backed realtime polling tool that lets individuals, brands and companies get feedback from their followers. Schaechter, for one, was an engineer at TechCrunch, before heeding the Entrepreneurial Call. Now, because CrayBook is a free extension, we’re all pretty worried about how the team is going to be monetizing this brick of gold. Luckily, Schaechter jokes that the team is “seeking a seed round of greater than or equal to 40 million,” (watch out Color, deez guyz be cray), so that they can bring the extension to Firefox and Safari. And maybe one day IE, but that just sounds, well, supa cray. It also appears that there’s been a huge spike in search volume for “dat sh*t cray,” which may be emanating purely from my IP, or it could mean there are others out there who aren’t afraid to throw open their shades, open their windows, and shout to the world, “I’m a human being, goddammit, and I’m cray cray as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Hopefully, next we’ll see CrayBook move to Twitter (“TwitCray”?) to take on the “Favorite” button. After all, Favorite-ing is really just a way of saying “like hey these tweets make me ROFL,” and really how useful is that? It’s not, it’s cray. CrayBook is stepping up to the plate, and it should be exciting to see who’s next. Or whether Facebook throws a C&D at them. But, even if they do, it’s a risk worth taking, Schaechter says. “The market was there, and all we had to do was capitalize on it.” The biggest problem? It doesn’t change “Like” buttons on other sites. It it’s possible, hopefully it will be in the works. True dat. Find CrayBook/Github here.

Opera Mini Now Has 169 ...

On the desktop, Opera ‘s browser is only a minor player compared to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, but as a mobile browser, Opera competes head-to-head with Apple and Google. Worldwide, depending on which statistics you believe, it is either just ahead of the competition or a close runner-up. In developing countries, Opera is generally far ahead of the competition. According to an interesting new white paper by Opera, in which the company took a look at how its users around the world actually use the browser, it’s hard to underestimate the importance of mobile browsing in developing countries. The study, which was conducted between November 2010 and November 2011, found that globally, 56% of Opera users and 43% of those who use another browser only access the Internet via their mobile devices. In some countries, including Egypt (72%), Bangladesh (69%), Brazil (65%) and South Africa (61%), these numbers for Opera users are significantly higher. At first glance, these numbers look very high. Given that traditional wired Internet access in many of these countries is rather limited, though, mobile phones are often the easiest and cheapest way to get online for many of these users. This being an Opera report (so take this data with a grain of salt), the company also compared what its users do on the mobile web to users who use other browsers. The company, for example, found that its users are 35% more likely to purchase music and games via their mobile devices than those who use another browser. In most countries, Opera users are also younger, better educated and report higher satisfaction with their mobile Internet experiences. According to the report, these users are also “eight percentage points more likely than average to spend more than an hour online in one session and 12 percentage points more likely than non-Opera users.” As for Opera itself, the company also today announced that it now has 168.8 million Opera Mini users (up 64% from March 2011). These users viewed over 117 billion pages. That’s up 96% from last year and up 8.1% compared to February 2012. In total, Opera Mini users generated over 1,918 million MB of data worldwide.

Firefox 12 Has Arrived:...

A new version of Firefox used to be a big deal, but since Mozilla switched to a rapid release schedule, these updates are becoming pretty routine. Today, Mozilla launched Firefox 12 . For most users, this is likely one of the least interesting Firefox updates in recent history, as it only introduces a few minor changes. For developers, however, this update is a bit more interesting. In total, this new version of Firefox includes 85 improvements to the browser’s built-in developer tools. For most users, the only major change in this release (besides the usual bug fixes) is that Firefox will now only ask Windows users to click on the infamous “user account control dialog” (UAC) when they first install Firefox. Once that’s done, Firefox can then update itself in the background (you can also turn this feature off, though, if you prefer to stay in control of when you update your browser). This silent updates project for Firefox has been in the works for a long time (at one point it was promised to arrive with version 10). For now, this feature is Windows-only. Mac and Linux users will likely get silent updates in the next version. For developers, this new version brings a number of improvements. Most of these aren’t major changes, but they do include some things that will make your life a bit easier if you are a web developer who uses Firefox. Thanks to these changes, “developers no longer need to reload the page to see messages in the Web Console, and Scratchpad adds Find and Jump to Line commands to the editor.”