Wednesday, September 5, 2012Factual Rolls Product, UPC APISanta Monica-based data startup Factual made a big expansion Wednesday, saying that it has launched a new category of data called Factual Global Products. The new data store contains information for over 500,000 consumer packaged goods, all indexed via UPC and full-text information. Factual said the new data area provides key attributes on a product, including brand, product name, size, category, UPC, and links to images. Factual's various APIs are being heavily used in such areas as geolocation (More info...)
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BUZZMEDIA Links With Suri's Burn BookLos Angeles-based online celebrity media publisher BUZZMEDIA said Wednesday that it has linked with Suri's Burn Book, an online Tumblr blog focused on celebrity children and fashion mishaps. Financial details of the joint venture were not disclosed. The blog was created by blogger and author Allie Hagan, and logs more than 620,000 unique visitors a month and 4.5 million monthly pageviews.
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Mahalo President Rapp Leaves FirmThe President of Santa Monica-based Mahalo, Jason Rapp, has departed the firm, according to a memo obtained by AllThingsD Wednesday. According to the memo, Rapp is leaving "day-to-day operations" at the company, but will remain as an advisor to the company's board. Mahalo is the high profile startup headed by outspoken tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis; the company is now producing video-based iOS applications. Mahalo is venture backed by Sequoia Capital and other investors. Rapp did not say wha (More info...)
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Newegg Sets Marketing ChiefCity of Industry-based Newegg, the electronics retailer, said Wednesday that it has named Soren A. Mills as Chief Marketing Officer at the company. Mills joins the firm from Guitar Center, where he in charge of Musician's Friend, the company's online division. Mills also has served at Wal-Mart Stores and Priceline.com. Newegg said Mills will be repsonsible for all marketing initiatives at the company. Newegg is a major, privately held electronics retailer, which has quietly become one of the lar (More info...)
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AT&T Dangles $30K To Developers At HackathonAT&T has decided to dangle a pretty hefty prize purse to local, Los Angeles developers as part of its "It Can Wait" campaign to reduce texting while driving. According to the carrier, it is inviting developers to participate in a "It Can Wait" Hackathon being held at Coloft in Santa Monica on Friday and Saturday. As part of the hackathon, the firm is offering up $30,000 in prizes -- $20,000 to the first prize, $7,000 for second place, and $3,000 for third place for developers who create the best (More info...)
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DreamHost Tackles Cloud StorageLos Angeles-based web hosting provider DreamHost is tapping into Ceph, the open source, scalable storage system project spun out of its own operations, to launch its own object storage service. DreamHost said its new DreamObjects service--aimed at both developers, as well as individuals and businesses--will provide per-GB storage services at 7 cents per month, and 7 cents per GB for data transfer out. The new cloud storage service is aimed at Amazon's S3 storage service and Rackspace Cloud File (More info...)
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Sorenson Media Trumpets NFL WinsSan Diego-based video encoding and decoding software firm Sorenson Media bragged today that it is now powering the video encoding for half of the NFL's 32 teams. The firm said that the teams are all using Sorenson Squeeze, its video encoding software, for encoding online video footage. Sorenson's products are used to encode video content for streaming online and to mobile devices. The company did not say if the wins came recently, or any details on those customer wins.
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TigerLead Acquired By MoveLos Angeles-based TigerLead Solutions, a developer of lead generation and lead management systems for the real estate industry, has been acquired by Move, Inc.. According to Move, it paid $22M in cash for TigerLead. Move explained the acquisition will help extend its lead generation product set. TigerLead was founded by Howard Tager, Art Sawyer, and Adam Ingersoll. Move runs real estate sites Realtor.com, ListHub, and other related businesses.
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Malware Analysis Firm Norman Sets Up HQ In San DiegoNorman AS, a developer of malware analysis and security software, said today that it has opened up a new, U.S. corporate headquarters in San Diego. Norman said the new office will house sales, marketing, product management, and R&D personnel, and comes in addition to a current location in Fairfax, Virginia. Norman did not say how many people it plans to hire at the new location, but cited the area's business climate and business development in choosing San Diego. The firm said Einar Oftedal, its (More info...)
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Fizziology Expands In The UKHollywood-based social media research company Fizziology said this morning that it has launched a new, U.K. research arm, which will help provide customers with tracking of online conversations in that country. Fizzilogy provides online social media monitoring of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other sites to help the media, entertainment, and sports industry track trends.
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Acacia Research Appoints PresidentNewport Beach-based patent storehouse Acacia Research said today that it has named Matthew Vella as President of the firm. Vella has been at Acacia Research Group since 2006, and has been serving as Executive Vice President since October of last year. Prior to Acacia, Vella had served at ATI Research and Nortel Networks. Acacia owns a significant storehouse of patents, which it aggressively licenses to other companies.
posted on Wednesday, September 5, 2012(Full story)