Online forums and communities present a largely untapped opportunity for making money — at least according to Dan Gill, cofounder and chief executive of Huddler.
The San Francisco startup is officially launching today. It’s one of those weird launches where the company has actually been working with customers for more than a year, and is only now getting around to telling the media that it exists. Gill said he wanted to make sure the technology was solid before doing too much to publicize it and attract competition.
Community-building software is a broad category, but Huddler approaches the market with a specific audience and mission. It’s looking for popular, product-focused forums that are built on either vBulletin or phpBB technology. Huddler contacts the owner of the site, offering to modernize the forum and bring in more money too.
Gill gave me a long list of benefits that Huddler can offer over older platforms. It gives the sites a makeover, so they look a bit less old-fashioned, not to mention more advertising-friendly. It optimizes the pages for search engines, and also makes them easier to share through Facebook Connect. And all the software is hosted online, rather than installed on someone’s computer, which means there’s less hassle for whoever’s managing the site.
Financially, there’s not much risk to the forum owner, since the software is free. Huddler is only paid by through a percentage of the increased revenue that it brings to a site. That revenue boost comes in a number of ways, Gill said — since the sites are product-focused, Huddler creates a product page with a link where visitors can buy the item in question. It also allows companies selling related products to create their own pages on the forum and engage with the community. And of course the sites can run advertising.
The transition to Huddler can be a challenging one because of the technology issues, as well as the likelihood that change will upset some forum members. Gill didn’t offer any details, but he hinted that he has seen his share of angry comments from users who didn’t like a new forum. But Huddler has become more proficient at both moving content to a new site and preparing users for the change, he said.
There are now 24 sites using Huddler, adding up to a total of 9 million unique monthly visitors. The success stories include EpicSki, which saw a 70 percent increase in natural search traffic after switching to Huddler, and DenimBlog, which doubled pageviews in two months and is now bringing in three times the amount of revenue.
Huddler raised $5.5 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates last year. For now, the company is focusing on existing forums because they’ve already got the audience, but Gill said, “There’s no reason you won’t be able to start your own Huddles in the future.”
[image via Flickr/Daniel Borman]
Next Story: Salesforce: Yes, Chatter really does improve productivity Previous Story: Otoy scores important deals for its server gaming technology
Digital cameras can tell a head from a bed, Facebook organises photos by manually-added face tags, iPhoto tries its best to put a name to a face. But really good technology to auto-identify the people in pictures could have big application on the web.
Last week, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) was rumoured to have acquired Polar Rose, a Swedish company making such software for web and other uses, for $29 million.
Now, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Face.com, which says its software can automatically pluck out any pictures of you from Facebook’s seven billion photos, has raised a $4.3 million second-round investment, as that prospect steps up.
The Face.com money is coming from VC Rhodium, Russian search site Yandex and existing backers. “We’re going to use the money to boost our development team, hire some new and talented people, and build out additional infrastructure,” CEO Gil Hirsh blogs.
The uses for true facial recognition are clear to see…
—Facebook could eliminate the need for users to “tag” friends in pictures.
—Mobile phones could automatically identify portrait subjects before photos are shared with online services.
—Searchers like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yandex could make their image search more accurate.
—iPhoto could improve its people-centric picture library.
—Ditch the business cards: just point a camphone at a new contact’s face to get his/her details.
For these and other reasons, visual recognition could become a hot M&A area. Consider what Google is doing with its mobile shopping app and Google Googles app, having this year acquired a visual art recognition startup to bolster the latter.
The model: licensing. Polar Rose this month closed its free face-tagging demo service to concentrate on licensing its technology to users. It and Face.com use APIs to enable facial recognition for third parties.
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Online forums and communities present a largely untapped opportunity for making money — at least according to Dan Gill, cofounder and chief executive of Huddler.
The San Francisco startup is officially launching today. It’s one of those weird launches where the company has actually been working with customers for more than a year, and is only now getting around to telling the media that it exists. Gill said he wanted to make sure the technology was solid before doing too much to publicize it and attract competition.
Community-building software is a broad category, but Huddler approaches the market with a specific audience and mission. It’s looking for popular, product-focused forums that are built on either vBulletin or phpBB technology. Huddler contacts the owner of the site, offering to modernize the forum and bring in more money too.
Gill gave me a long list of benefits that Huddler can offer over older platforms. It gives the sites a makeover, so they look a bit less old-fashioned, not to mention more advertising-friendly. It optimizes the pages for search engines, and also makes them easier to share through Facebook Connect. And all the software is hosted online, rather than installed on someone’s computer, which means there’s less hassle for whoever’s managing the site.
Financially, there’s not much risk to the forum owner, since the software is free. Huddler is only paid by through a percentage of the increased revenue that it brings to a site. That revenue boost comes in a number of ways, Gill said — since the sites are product-focused, Huddler creates a product page with a link where visitors can buy the item in question. It also allows companies selling related products to create their own pages on the forum and engage with the community. And of course the sites can run advertising.
The transition to Huddler can be a challenging one because of the technology issues, as well as the likelihood that change will upset some forum members. Gill didn’t offer any details, but he hinted that he has seen his share of angry comments from users who didn’t like a new forum. But Huddler has become more proficient at both moving content to a new site and preparing users for the change, he said.
There are now 24 sites using Huddler, adding up to a total of 9 million unique monthly visitors. The success stories include EpicSki, which saw a 70 percent increase in natural search traffic after switching to Huddler, and DenimBlog, which doubled pageviews in two months and is now bringing in three times the amount of revenue.
Huddler raised $5.5 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates last year. For now, the company is focusing on existing forums because they’ve already got the audience, but Gill said, “There’s no reason you won’t be able to start your own Huddles in the future.”
[image via Flickr/Daniel Borman]
Next Story: Salesforce: Yes, Chatter really does improve productivity Previous Story: Otoy scores important deals for its server gaming technology
Digital cameras can tell a head from a bed, Facebook organises photos by manually-added face tags, iPhoto tries its best to put a name to a face. But really good technology to auto-identify the people in pictures could have big application on the web.
Last week, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) was rumoured to have acquired Polar Rose, a Swedish company making such software for web and other uses, for $29 million.
Now, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Face.com, which says its software can automatically pluck out any pictures of you from Facebook’s seven billion photos, has raised a $4.3 million second-round investment, as that prospect steps up.
The Face.com money is coming from VC Rhodium, Russian search site Yandex and existing backers. “We’re going to use the money to boost our development team, hire some new and talented people, and build out additional infrastructure,” CEO Gil Hirsh blogs.
The uses for true facial recognition are clear to see…
—Facebook could eliminate the need for users to “tag” friends in pictures.
—Mobile phones could automatically identify portrait subjects before photos are shared with online services.
—Searchers like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yandex could make their image search more accurate.
—iPhoto could improve its people-centric picture library.
—Ditch the business cards: just point a camphone at a new contact’s face to get his/her details.
For these and other reasons, visual recognition could become a hot M&A area. Consider what Google is doing with its mobile shopping app and Google Googles app, having this year acquired a visual art recognition startup to bolster the latter.
The model: licensing. Polar Rose this month closed its free face-tagging demo service to concentrate on licensing its technology to users. It and Face.com use APIs to enable facial recognition for third parties.
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Fox <b>News's</b> Obama 'Loves Gangsta Rap' Headline Is Pulled Down
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Fox <b>News's</b> Obama 'Loves Gangsta Rap' Headline Is Pulled Down
Drop to the end of Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone interview with President Barack Obama, and you'll get to the part where Wenner asks the president to talk about the music he's been listening to lately. Here's Obama's answer, in its ...
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