Wednesday, April 5, 2006


Interview with Jim Armstrong, Clearstone Venture Partners
I spoke with Jim Armstrong, who is Managing Director of Clearstone Venture Partners (www.clearstone.com) the other day, to get a sense of where they are investing nowadays, and for Jim's views on where the venture market is here in Southern California. Jim also talked to me about the whole idea of a venture capital ecosystem, and the challenges of the industry here in the area around experienced management. Ben Kuo: What is Clearstone up to nowadays—I understand you have a new fund yo (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)

Neven Adds Mobile Visual Search
Santa Monica-based Neven Vision has announced a new, brandable mobile search solution targeted at marketers, the firm announced today at CTIA Wireless. The firm said that its new software can be used for image-based mobile marketing campaigns. The software allows consumers to capture pictures with their cell phones, in order to get marketing offers or enter contests. Neven Vision is developing vision recognition systems that run on wireless platforms, and has recently been applying those systems (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)

V-Enable Shows Mobile Search
San Diego-based V-Enable said today that it will be unveiling a new, mobile search technology that allows carriers to create fast and accurate mobile search applications. The firm, which provides wireless software for voice-navigation, said that the voice search will allow users to interact with wireless content and applications. V-Enable's software runs on BREW, Java, Symbian, WAP, and xHTML platforms.
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)

SpecificMedia Targets Abandoned Sales
Irvine, California-based search marketing firm SpecificMEDIA is rolling out a new, audience targeting solution, the firm said today. The new advertising network targets past website visitors of the advertisers with specific advertising. The firm said that its network can be used to locate shoppers who have abandoned a shopping cart on the advertisers's site, and provide special offers to attract that visitors back. The company also said its advertising network can provide tailored ads for visito (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)

Zoovy Adds AJAX Features
San Diego-based Zoovy, a company providing ecommerce development tools, today said that it is now providing template-driven AJAX/Web 2.0 capability with its tools. The company's new software allows companies to create online stores using the popular AJAX technique, which makes web pages more interactive. Zoovy provides tools for automatically listing products on online shopping sites such as eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and Overstock.
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)

Novatel Appoints COO
San Diego-based Novatel Wireless has appointed a new COO. Novatel said today that it has appointed Brad Weinert as COO of the firm. Weinert was previously VP of Business Development at the firm. He has also served at Okbridge, iVasion/RouterWare, and NetManage. Novatel is a provider of wireless data modems for handheld and personal computers.
posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006(Full story)