Toward A Better Online Petiton
LivePetitions, an Italian startup, just launched with Italian, British and U.S. localized websites. It’s meant to be a much cleaner and functional online petition service than PetitionOnline, the big player in online petitions.
Users can quickly create an online petition, set an optional end date and enter categories and tags. Various required and optional fields can be added (email, name and zip code are default settings, along with a comment field), but those can be removed and anything else added. The creator and any signers can also choose to import their Gmail or Yahoo address books and notify their contacts of the existence of the petition.
The company makes money by placing ads on the petition pages, although those can be removed by paying a fee, which also allows customization of the petition page with a logo and other stylistic changes. A domain name for the petition can also be purchased so that the petition does not point to a livepetitions.com sub domain. One of the better features - a couple of options to embed a widget promoting the petition on third party blogs and other websites
It’s a good service with lots of flexibility and an easy to use interface. It does suffer from a few translation snafus (a lot of the English content is improperly translated, or not translated), but it is certainly better than existing options. Like other services, signatures must be from unique email addresses, which allows for a lot of fraud. It probably won’t become a big business, but it will be useful for the proactive types who like to stir the pot and get people behind whatever causes they are currently promoting. I expect the inevitable Facebook application to be released shortly.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Toward A Better Online Petition
LivePetitions, an Italian startup, just launched with Italian, British and U.S. localized websites. It’s meant to be a much cleaner and functional online petition service than PetitionOnline, the big player in online petitions.
Users can quickly create an online petition, set an optional end date and enter categories and tags. Various required and optional fields can be added (email, name and zip code are default settings, along with a comment field), but those can be removed and anything else added. The creator and any signers can also choose to import their Gmail or Yahoo address books and notify their contacts of the existence of the petition.
The company makes money by placing ads on the petition pages, although those can be removed by paying a fee, which also allows customization of the petition page with a logo and other stylistic changes. A domain name for the petition can also be purchased so that the petition does not point to a livepetitions.com sub domain. One of the better features - a couple of options to embed a widget promoting the petition on third party blogs and other websites
It’s a good service with lots of flexibility and an easy to use interface. It does suffer from a few translation snafus (a lot of the English content is improperly translated, or not translated), but it is certainly better than existing options. Like other services, signatures must be from unique email addresses, which allows for a lot of fraud. It probably won’t become a big business, but it will be useful for the proactive types who like to stir the pot and get people behind whatever causes they are currently promoting. I expect the inevitable Facebook application to be released shortly.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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Facebook To Launch Friend Grouping
So Facebook will finally allow users to group friends and control information flow based on friend type. For guys like Robert Scoble, who have 5,000 friends (the limit), this may be a way to finally sort through the real friends from the fans. It’s a much needed feature that people have been requesting for a long time.
It also shows the steady maturity of Facebook from a college network to a full on world network, where friendships, business contacts, family and other types of relationships need to be more fully described. And this is also as much about privacy as it is about organization - users will be able to limit the information that certain friend groups receive.
A few existing applications are going to be affected, like Slide’s Top Friends application, the most popular third party app on Facebook. Lots of other applications will likely need to be tweaked to work properly when this launches (so many of them access the friends list). And this will shut down at least one “startup” we’ve been tracking that was creating this exact feature as an application. At least they can quit now and stop putting good time and money after bad.
Building Facebook applications is a big dice roll. If it’s too popular or too obvious of an idea (even if it hasn’t been done yet), Facebook is just as likely to compete with you as pay a few bucks and just buy you (they are probably more likely to compete with you than buy you, actually).
Some developers will probably wonder if getting a cash grant from Facebook’s just-announced fbFund will lessen the likelihood of direct competition from the company. Only time will tell.
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Facebook To Launch Friend Grouping. Competition Can Suck.
So Facebook will finally allow users to group friends and control information flow based on friend type. For guys like Robert Scoble, who have 5,000 friends (the limit), this may be a way to finally sort through the real friends from the fans. It’s a much needed feature that people have been requesting for a long time.
It also shows the steady maturity of Facebook from a college network to a full on world network, where friendships, business contacts, family and other types of relationships need to be more fully described. And this is also as much about privacy as it is about organization - users will be able to limit the information that certain friend groups receive.
A few existing applications are going to be affected, like Slide’s Top Friends application, the most popular third party app on Facebook. Lots of other applications will likely need to be tweaked to work properly when this launches (so many of them access the friends list). And this will shut down at least one “startup” we’ve been tracking that was creating this exact feature as an application. At least they can quit now and stop putting good time and money after bad.
Building Facebook applications is a big dice roll. If it’s too popular or too obvious of an idea (even if it hasn’t been done yet), Facebook is just as likely to compete with you as pay a few bucks and just buy you (they are probably more likely to compete with you than buy you, actually).
Some developers will probably wonder if getting a cash grant from Facebook’s just-announced fbFund will lessen the likelihood of direct competition from the company. Only time will tell.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Have An Old, Broken iPod? Get Cash For It Fast
Sure, you can always sell those old iPods (working or not) on eBay, but it’s far easier to use BuyMyBrokeniPod, a site that promises to buy any model of iPod, working, broken or in between, with no questions asked. You even get an estimate of the price before you send it to them.
Since launching earlier this year, the guys who run the site say they’ve purchased more than 1,000 iPods from happy customers. The average price paid for a working iPod is $100 (range from $10 to $330). A broken one fetches an average of $30 (range from $2 to $216). You have to pay to ship the unit to them in Colorado, and they pay you via paypal or check.
The price they’re offering on my slightly used (and currently bricked) 8GB iPhone is $213. My last generation 60 GB iPod is worth $63. That’s competitive with eBay prices, without the hassle. And if your iPod is broken, these guys may be one of your only choices.
Broken iPods are sold in bulk to third parties or broken down for parts. Working iPods are refurbished and resold directly to to resellers.
The site is full of happy customer testimonials. If any readers have direct feedback, let us know.
See CrunchGear’s coverage of TheGadgetLocker’s iPod Recycling Program as well.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
NetBank Joins The Deadpool
NetBank, one of the first online banking startups and a survivor of the first web bubble, was closed Friday after intervention from the US Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
NetBank had been in trouble for some time with failed mortgages and serious operating deficiencies. The service, which floated at $12 a share in 1997 hit a high of $249/ share in April 1999 until settling to a price of $15 a share in mid 2004. The company was delisted from the NASDAQ on August 3 this year and last traded at $0.068 on the OTC board on Friday.
An interesting comparison can be drawn between NetBank’s model and a number of verticals being targeted by startups today. In 96 internet banking was new and the big players were only just starting to roll out internet banking services, and even then they weren’t very exciting. Services such as NetBank offered a product suite that was innovative at the time; however the major players saw a demand for online services and eventually caught up. It’s not too dissimilar today to the various Google Maps mashup services that have launched, only to find Google 6 months later offering the same features themselves. We’ve seen it a little bit with MySpace add-ons and I suspect we’ll see it with Facebook in the months to come as well.
Existing NetBank accounts have been acquired by ING Direct. NetBank joins the veiled halls of the TechCrunch Deadpool.
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