Weebly Adds Slick iOS A...

I keep hearing rumors about the ridiculous amounts of money that Weebly is making. But the San Francisco company, which provides a set of tools for small businesses and other organizations to easily create their own web sites, has only scoffed at the nine-figure amounts I’ve thrown at them. Instead, they’ve shared something else — a new mobile app that lets new users quickly create their own sites, or existing folks manage what they have going. In a series of quick swipes, it lets you get through naming a site, upload images, choosing a theme, and publishing your first post. If you want to get fancier, you can also take photos and alter them with a set of filters, or shoot videos to publish. The admin interface lets users manage multiple sites, and comes with some of the core features from its home site, including comment moderation, and form creation for surveys, contact lists and submissions (which will all also work on mobile). The free app is available ( here ) for iPhone now and Android later, cofounders Dan Veltri and David Rusenko tell me. Language support is currently available for English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Dutch. Web-savvy folks may not realize it, but many organizations still lack a strong online and mobile presence. For example, Frederic recently covered an industry study showing that 95% of independent restaurants don’t have a mobile site, and only 40% have online menus. Yes, there are a number of other companies out there that let people set up their own sites. But Tumblr is more of a social network, Facebook and Twitter accounts are more about getting distribution than providing a full set of features, and heavier-duty blog platforms like WordPress require more work to set up and maintain. Weebly’s main competitors are companies like Wix and Webs.com — or, rather, the lack of awareness among categories of users like those poor independent web site owners. It’s making big inroads, though, which is why I keep hearing those revenue rumors. Since launching in 2007, it has gained 11 million registered users (people who have set up web sites), and accounts for around 2% of all sites on the web. Traffic is around 75 million unique visitors a month. Its net promoter score — an industry calculation of how likely users are to recommend a service to others — is an unusually high 80%. Its revenues, which come from special features like e-commerce stores, have made the company profitable since January of 2009, the cofounders tell me from their awesome new offices downtown — and “very profitable” today.

A Run Down Of The Mobil...

MLOVE is a European mobile conference with a difference. If a mobile conference was crossed with TED and a music festival, that’s vaguely like MLove. Its big annual event is in an old East German castle 200 miles outside of Berlin. Yes, it’s as exotic as it sounds. But this week it took the plunge and brought its special atmosphere to Monterey. Amid the excellent speeches about the future of mobile, and the future generally, organiser Harald Neidhardt throws together a diverse range of speakers, from Grammy Award winning Musician Chamillionaire to “CameraGirl”, who runs tech at Burning Man. As one delegate, Dr. Robert Daubner of billiger , put it to me, “mobile is poised to disrupt the world.” Never were truer words spoken… Amid the high concept presentations from the likes of the Singularity University and others were a number of startup pitches from U.S.-based startups. Here’s a run-down on those: House of Mikko They say: Only 9% of women are completely happy with their looks, thus, $98 billion is spent annually on beauty. House of Mikko wants to be a “social beauty” store, selling curated beauty items based on physical features and the wisdom of the crowd. Via an app which incorporates barcode Scanning and the Face.com API. The app is designed to personalise a woman’s look, and make beauty products more social. We say: It’s early days for this app but it sounds like it’s on the right track. But there’s a lot of noise out there in this space. ArtKollect They say: ArtKollect has developed a mobile framework that connects new collectors and art enthusiasts with galleries, museums, and art fairs. The idea is that galleries, or developers attached to them use this platform to create their own unique app for the gallery. There’s a one-time set-up fee $800 – $1600 and monthly license and storage fee, plus they take 2.5% of sales made via the app. Wow. We say: Nice idea, but this would be better off disrupting the galleries first. Marvin They say: This makes malware detection quicker, more effective, and is scalable on Android with automated analysis of apps as they are downloaded to a handset. Very much aimed at the enterprise. So, an employee downloads a new app, the app is locked on the device by Marvin and sent to the Marvin cloud for analysis. Then the App is unlocked or removed based on Marvin analysis results. We say: Very much in the Bring Your Own Device trend, this looked like a convincing enterprise play. HereOnBiz They say: Think Highlig.ht or Banjo, but this time for LinkedIn business networking professionals. It’s location based it’s all about .biz! Definitely one to try out at your next conference in Atlanta. We say: There will be lots of ‘Highlight for business” apps right about… now. However, they have a chance if they get out early and the design it good. Embee mobile They say: It’s about earning free mobile minutes through marketing. Blyk Mobile tried this and failed, but Embee reckons it can crack this sucker. Embee Mobile connects brands, operators and mobile users in a way that allows phone owners to get minutes for free by participating in marketing… all through a Facebook application. The mobile app is on its way. We say: Blyk failed because it needs lots more users. But then again, it was pre-social media. Embee has a chance if it can create a good viral loop, and also not come across as too spammy.

Amazon’s Q1 2012: Reven...

Amazon just reported earnings for the first quarter of 2012. Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011. Net income decreased 35% to $130 million in the first quarter, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared with net income of $201 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in first quarter 2011. The company beat Wall Street expectations; analysts expected a profit of $0.07 per share on revenue of $12.9 billion for the quarter. “I’m excited to announce that we now have more than 130,000 new, in-copyright books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store – you won’t find them anywhere else. They include many of our top bestsellers – in fact, 16 of our top 100 bestselling titles are exclusive to our store,” said CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. “If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you don’t even need to buy these titles – you can borrow them for free – with no due dates – from our revolutionary Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is heavily used by Kindle owners, and it has extremely unusual features that both authors and customers love. Every time you borrow a book, the author gets paid – and we have an inexhaustible supply of each title so you never have to wait in a queue for the book you want. Kindle is the bestselling e-reader in the world by far, and I assure you we’ll keep working hard so that the Kindle Store remains yet another reason to buy a Kindle!” Unsurprisingly, we didn’t see any concrete number when it comes to Kindle sales. Amazon says that the Kindle Fire remains the best selling, most gifted, and most wished for product on the site. In the first quarter, 9 out of 10 of the top sellers on Amazon.com were digital products – Kindle, Kindle books, movies, music and apps. Operating cash flow increased 1% to $3.05 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.03 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2011. Operating income was $192 million in the first quarter, compared with $322 million in first quarter 2011. North America segment sales were $7.43 billion, up 36% from first quarter 2011. International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish sites, were $5.76 billion, up 31% from first quarter 2011. Worldwide Media sales grew 19% to $4.71 billion. Worldwide Electronics and Other General Merchandise sales grew 43% to $7.97 billion. Q2 2012 net sales are expected to be between $11.9 billion and $13.3 billion, or to grow between 20% and 34% compared with second quarter 2011. After missing Q4 financial expectations, the company has been focusing on adding content to Amazon Instant Video, and expanding the Kindle Touch to new markets. Amazon also acquired order fulfillment company Kiva Systems for $775 million in cash.

Experience The Wonder O...

This is so illegal that we can probably expect to see it fold in a matter of hours, but if you’re really hankering for some Russian or German TV right now – or some hott sexxxy Penthouse action – iOSLiveTV has you covered. The site is formatted for iOS and Android and features a number of live TV channels including some adult selections. The whois record for the site is fairly useless: Domain Name: IOSLIVETV.COM Registrar: DYNADOT, LLC Whois Server: whois.dynadot.com Referral URL: http://www.dynadot.com Name Server: NS1.GEEKISP.COM Name Server: NS2.GEEKISP.COM Name Server: NS3.GEEKISP.COM Status: clientTransferProhibited Updated Date: 18-apr-2012 Creation Date: 17-apr-2012 Expiration Date: 17-apr-2013 And the feeds are clearly coming from somewhere other than GeekISP. Delightfully, even if this particular domain goes down, similar functionality can probably be brought back up almost instantly. Services like this are obviously not that new. This is just the first one I’ve seen with such a delightful URL and hook. via Gizmodo

Things You Never Though...

“She told me that she Googled my name up / Shootings, robberies and big coke came up”. These are lyrics from “Google That”, a vulgar, violent new rap song from NORE Styles P, and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon immortalizing the search engine. In it, the rappers brag about how their crimes and jail time are so famous you can find them on the Internet. Most tech companies probably wouldn’t mind being mentioned in pop culture, but probably not like this. Rap enthusiast Ben Horowitz might love it, though. Here’s the video and full lyrics. Full Lyrics (warning, graphic): [Styles P] Shifty, low down greedy and grimy Like Fredro fuck it I get the bread though I take the 9 and buck it up at yo head though I run yours jewel, you do it because I said so Ride around the hood with n*ggas that let the leads go I will never rattle my lawyers to tell the feds go Word to the bullpen sandwich and the bedroll Like Starks in the Game Of Thrones, let my head roll Real n*gga, n*gga real team full of shooters Willing to pull the trigger still If they see you ain’t got it, they’ll take it from you If the feel like you’re pussy they’ll be waiting for you I ain’t pussy, go ahead and wait You the dick ass t hat the bullets gonna penetrate Dead n*gga, dumb n*gga, fucking with a killa shoulda knew it’s red rum n*gga [NORE] I’m really drink tiger balm, you can google that And I shot n*ggas too, you can google that See I smoke big, you can google that You heard I  did a little bid, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that Yeah, I’m from the era of the stick house Where n*ggas used to cook brick at the chick house, after you re-up Dominicans, Washington Heights, they had me up, Debelow, weather so cold it’s like three below My kicks stay fresh like a brand new baby ass I found a chinese chick with a crazy ass I call her suck-me-off, all she did was suck me off All she want was won-tons, soup, and some butter-soft She told me that she Googled my name up Shootings, robberies and big cocaine came up See I’m an accurate shooter through your medula you can hit your ruler, bought a missle the size of Zab Judah I smoke weed, no other shit Them widows gettin high on some other shit You can keep that, respect to you Get out of line, put the heater to your neck to you I’m gonna drink tiger bomb, you can google that And I shot n*ggas too, you can google that See I smoke big, you can google that You know I did a little bid, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that [Raekwon] Got more money than Google y’all n*ggas is doodle Throw the mack in your mouth and butt-fuck your booboo Yeah pause little pussy, I’m the cableman, flow direct Your ho I wreck horse dick stable man Black Trump n*gga with fat pockets Crooked like Jesse Jackson and the black watches Broke n*gga with rich whores, run up in Hamptons sawed-off and get yours Homies rock the freshest since AJ Lester’s Coolin on orchard buying shoes and vest-es Why pretending who in it? Yo we winning, y’all sent it I post in the Ghost, German Lugers is spitting /em> Pocket full, rock the wool, Chevys’ll stop the bull Raising the gauge, ramming his cocky wolves Lefrac, Yonkers, and Staten wolves N*gga take massive pulls, so now we blast them bastards move [NORE] I’m gonna drink tiger bomb, you can google that And I shot n*ggas too, you can google that See I smoke big, you can google that You know I … little bitch, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that Fuck n*ggas, you can google that N*gga fuck the other side, you can google that.