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Wondering how companies fit together, and where there's overlap? Check out NNDB's mapper tool.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

I was going to do one for CBS and CNET, but alas we’re not there. You can, however, compare CBS to NBC, ABC, and even Fox Broadcasting. There’s not a lot of overlap, but you can easily see people’s positions at the company and where else they’ve worked.

NNDB, a directory of important people and celebrities (the two are not exclusive) standing for Notable Names Database, has put together a mapping tool that lets you connect the dots to see how people are intertwined.

Thanks Harrison.

This reminds me a lot of Cogmap, a service that lets you map out the hierarchy of your workplace. It’s got a little more flash, though, and is similar to They Rule, a site outdated about four years that chronicles the “ruling class” of corporations around the world.

The backgrounds of each individual are maintained by the NNDB community and its editors. You can also go in to create your own charts, though you’re limited to NNDB’s directory of people and companies.

For those who are less corporate-inclined, some of the celebrity “maps” are pretty amusing, including charts of who’s been romantically involved with whom.

One example, featured in this demo video, shows the overlap of board members for large tech companies, including Apple, Intel, Yahoo, and Microsoft. You can use the tool to figure out who’s worked where, then drill down to their personal histories–both work and play, with very little effort.

Yahoo announced Thursday that it has made some minor upgrades to Buzz, the social news service that it launched in February.

Most notably, the company has released a “Top Buzz” widget that site and blog owners can embed in their Web sites, displaying the top articles in Yahoo Buzz or those from a specific Buzz category. There are also now RSS feeds for stories submitted to Buzz as well as each of its categories, and “First Buzzed By” indicators much like the “Submitted By” taglines on competitor Digg.

This post was updated at 11:18 AM PT to correct the date of the announcement.

Yahoo Buzz remains in a beta test phase, but the company says it’s growing fast despite major congestion in the social news and meme-tracking market. New publishers continue to roll into the program, and Yahoo has a perk that even Digg can’t offer: placement on the Yahoo front page for heavily “buzzed” stories. That’ll get you a lot of eyes.

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Amazon)

Amazon’s S3 and the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are two of prominent examples of the concept of cloud computing, in which specialists offer online services on which others can base their own applications. Another variety of cloud computing offers more specific services such as online e-mail or office suites from Zoho, Google, Adobe, and Yahoo.

Customers affected by Sunday’s outage of Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, an online data storage plan, won’t have to do anything to get credit for the hours-long glitch.

S3 provides an online mechanism where customers can pay to store data according to the amount they need stored. It’s one of a host of Amazon Web Services, but it’s the only one so far covered by a service-level agreement that promises high reliability.

“We’ll be announcing on the developer forum momentarily that we’ll be waiving our standard SLA (service-level agreement) process and applying the appropriate service credit to all affected customers for the July billing period,” the company said Monday evening in a statement about the S3 outage. “Customers will not need to send us an e-mail to request their credits, as these will be automatically applied. This transaction will be reflected in our customers’ August billing statements.”

Some Amazon Web Services were down for hours on July 20.

Google released on Thursday a new sample application called Photostream that will let phones running its Android phone operating system view photos stored at Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing site.

Google's Photostream application is for viewing Flickr photos on Android phones.

Although Photostream is intended to be a tool to illustrate the use of various Android features, it also looks like a potentially useful application for when the phones start shipping later this year. The open-source program lets people browse a particular user’s photos, in groups or individually, and create separate shortcuts to different Flickr accounts, according to a description at the Android developers blog.

Users will be able to find new applications at the Android Market, though that online service likely will launch only with free applications, so developers hoping to profit from the site will probably have to wait.

Google is trying to attract developers to Android so the project has a rich set of applications. Part of the promise of the effort is to build an “open” foundation, not unlike personal computers, where people can install new software.

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Google)

Google is also moving technology from its Chrome browser to Android.

Over the past year, the number of U.S. consumers who had watched a video streamed through their browser doubled over the past year, going from 32 percent a year ago to 63 percent today. ABI analysts attribute the increase to more rich content available on the Web as well as faster speed Internet connections.

Meanwhile, older consumers are watching more short clips online than actual TV shows. Three quarters of those over 65 who watch video online responded that they have never watched TVs or movies online, according to the survey.

Of course, much of the growth in this area comes from younger consumers. When asked if they watched long-form content such as TV shows or movies online, nearly half of those under the age of 25 and 53 percent of those aged 25 to 29 said they had done so at least once a month.

Americans are watching more video on their PCs via broadband connections than ever before, according to a recent report published by market research firm ABI Research.

All of the major TV networks in the U.S. are currently offering at least some of their TV shows online. Some of the shows can be accessed right from the network’s Web site. But video aggregator sites such as Hulu.com also help consumers find what they’re looking for. Hulu was launched as a cooperative venture of TV networks to provide easy access to movies and TV shows.

Cable operator Comcast finally admitted that it has been slowing down BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer traffic. And it has provided a plan for managing traffic, which doesn’t include singling out specific types of traffic. The Federal Communications Commission ordered the company earlier this year not to monkey with customers’ traffic. Other cable operators, such as Time Warner Cable, are talking about metering heavy bandwidth usage in order to deal with the surge of online video.

“Today’s younger consumers are developing habits that will mean drastic changes for the video entertainment market,” Michael Wolf, research director at ABI said in a statement. “Many consume a large percentage or even a majority of their video entertainment through online distribution today, and we believe that this trend will continue to accelerate as more efforts are made to put this content on various non-PC screens.”

While sites like YouTube that offer short clips of user generated videos have gotten a lot of attention over the past couple of years, the ABI report shows that viewers are also interested in watching TV shows and movies online.

But Web-based video isn’t without its challenges or without controversy. Sending video over the Internet eats up a lot of bandwidth. And peer-to-peer applications, such as BitTorrent, which distribute video have come under fire over the past year as a network menace.

Another important driver for watching TV online has been the proliferation of faster speed broadband connections. Cable operators have steadily been pushing up their speeds. And services like Verizon’s Fios service, which runs over fiber optic lines directly into the home, have also boosted broadband speeds.

Q: Do you consider yourself a label?

McDaniels: I don’t like the label…label. We provide some services that an artist would expect from a label. We provide some services that an independent label would expect from a major label. I think we are as good as anyone out there in terms of digital distribution and marketing.

Tell me about what you’re doing for Nokia.

McDaniels: This is an extension of our deal with Nokia for their online stores. Comes With Music is their new initiative based out of the United Kingdom but I understand it’s about to launch in the U.S. and a few other territories. It’s another retail outlet for us. It’s another way to reach the consumer and a great outlet for our independent music. We sort of approach the retail model in much the same way we approach the client model. We’re agnostic to the manner to in which music fans consume music.

What is your relationship like with retailers and services such as YouTube?

McDaniels: We deliver content into YouTube, audio and video, for INgrooves clients. We sit in the middle. We’re like a clearinghouse between content owners, typically labels or artists, and online and mobile retailers. We’re like the Visa of media. We receive back from all of the retail channels all of the sale statements and process all of the paybacks to the content owners. We see all of the sales data, all of the content. We know who’s buying what, where, when and how much.

Tell me what artists you work with and give me an example of what you do for them.

McDaniels: We provide services to Universal Music Group, K-Tell and VP Records as well as successful artists that are going out on their own: people like Dolly Parton and Too Short. We did Dolly Parton’s last release worldwide digital. Dolly formed her own label called Dolly Records and was looking for a digital partner for distribution and digital marketing. We signed her to an agreement and she opted into our worldwide digital distribution and our strategic marketing services. Our marketing group did an analysis of which retail partners would be the best ones, would do exclusives on the Dolly album, “Backwoods Barbie.” We then set about executing the marketing plan leading up to the release and then pushed it out to all of our online and mobile outlets on the day of the release. It was Dolly’s highest Billboard debut ever. We did very well digitally for her. The album has gone on to sell over 130,000 copies.

You’re doing only UMGD. Why aren’t you doing delivery for all of its labels, such as Geffen?

McDaniels: Universal is obviously a very big client for us. They have a large catalog. The digital logistics business is very complex. Nobody really other than the people involved understands the complexities involved. To take on that large of a catalog with all the intricacies of distributing out to dozens if not hundreds of different retailers is a large undertaking so we decided to stage the migration of their catalog to our system.

McDaniels recently spoke with CNET News to discuss where digital distribution was headed.

What are you doing for Universal?

McDaniels: About a year ago they made a strategic investment in us and we are providing them with digital distribution services. They looked at our software platform and they felt that it would be the right thing for the delivery of their content in North America. What our system does is handle the Universal Music Group Distribution labels and we deliver all their content under their contracts in all of North American retailers.

So, if I’m a label or artist, I hire you to do what?

McDaniels: We’re agnostic to whether you’re a label, artist, production company; really we work for anybody that controls the rights to media, images, video, and of course audio.

McDaniels says INgrooves is a service company that acts much like an indie record company, such as IODA or The Orchard, but has no wish to compete against record labels. And in fact, one of the 7-year-old company’s most important clients is Universal Music Group, the largest of the top four recording companies. Universal last year invested in INgrooves.

Who else have you done that for?
McDaniels: Artists we’ve worked for directly are Too Short, Tila Tequila, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle Records, Thievery Corporation, and the Crystal Method.

Last year, San Francisco-based INgrooves oversaw digital distribution and marketing for the release of Dolly Parton’s album “Backwoods Barbie.” The record debuted as the No. 1 country album on iTunes. This spring, when the spoof metal group Spinal Tap releases its first album since 1992, the boys in the band are trusting INgrooves to distribute the material to iTunes, Amazon, and other online retailers.

INgrooves, a digital distribution company, is fast becoming a favorite of music acts embarking on comebacks.

(Credit:
INgrooves)

I can access that music for more devices and more places and so it’s becoming more convenient. I think that Spotify is hitting the market at the right time. I don’t know it’s that novel of an idea but I think it’s got great timing and great user functionality.

We provide sort of a menu of services that you can pick and choose from. It starts with distribution and it’s really the entire supply chain process for content managers. What we’ve built is more of an asset management system rather than just a distribution infrastructure.

Spotify is one of your distribution partners. That’s the site everybody is talking about in Europe right?

McDaniels: We’ve just signed Spotify. There certainly has to be a music solution out there that’s getting all the buzz. In the seven years we’ve been doing this I can’t tell you the number of times that one of my employees has come into my office and told me this is going to change the way we consume music or this is going to spell the end of us. Snocap was one at one point. Spotify is certainly getting all the buzz now. It’s a streaming-based model that allows music fans to effectively access millions of songs and share playlists and I think their music interface is catching on with fans.

But just don’t call the privately held INgrooves a music label. “I don’t like the label… label,” quipped Robb McDaniels, the company’s CEO.

I think what’s really happening is consumer behavior patterns are changing. It used to be when we’re moving from the CD to the digital download everybody was saying that music fans still want to hold something, hold the physical good in their hand and that’s why CD sales would stay strong. Now consumer behavior is moving more towards digital downloads and everybody is saying everybody wants to own the download and they want to carry it with them wherever they go and streaming models aren’t going to take off. Well now the consumer is saying I don’t need to own the download. I’m happy with a cloud model where all my media is housed somewhere in an Internet locker for me and I can access it at any time. One of the reasons that consumer behavior is changing is because streaming is becoming more portable and interoperable.

Nikon and Microsoft didn’t indicate what new products and features would be enabled through the patent agreement, but they did point to existing cooperative efforts involving wireless cameras and raw image formats.

Raw images are taken directly from a camera’s image sensor with little or no in-camera processing; the formats more detailed and flexible than JPEG, but they’re also proprietary and specific to each camera model, and they require processing with software to become useful to most consumers.
Windows Vista has the ability to display raw images as long as a camera maker supplies the necessary encoding and decoding software plug-in, called a codec.

“The companies believe that this patent cross-licensing agreement will substantially benefit customers of consumer products including digital cameras,” the companies said in a statement Wednesday. “Both parties will be able to innovate openly with each others’ technologies, enabling new features and products to come to market.”

Detailed terms of the Nikon deal weren’t disclosed, but the companies said Nikon is compensating Microsoft through the alliance.

Microsoft and Nikon have signed a cross-licensing deal that gives each company access to the other’s patents.

The deal is one of a growing list from Microsoft, which has been seeking to establish the heft and significance of its intellectual property effort.

Some companies develop software for utilities, while others are building the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that will go into people’s homes.

The problem with today’s creaky electricity system is not a lack of power generation. The problem is traffic jams, Schoettle said.

“We have a glut of generation in the U.S. The problem is that the network can’t get the generation to the right loads. It gets stuck in congestion in the network,” he said.

The power grid needs an operating system to reduce congestion, says Optimal Technologies. Its Aempfast application gathers data to give operators more control over their grid.

What’s a smart grid anyway?

Smart-grid technology is becoming one of the more active areas in
green tech.

(Credit:
Optimal Technologies)

One hurdle facing them all is the conservative nature of utilities when adopting new technologies and giving other companies access to their data.

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Silver Spring Networks)

For example, a utility could decide on how best to utilize a solar power plant given the expected weather on a given day, or decide what to do about a broken substation.

But beyond calling themselves “smart grid” providers, many of these companies are doing very different things.

And because of regulations, many utilities don’t have the same incentive to conserve energy as they do to produce it, according to smart-grid companies.

Electricity grids would be a lot smarter if they just knew themselves better, says Roland Schoettle, the CEO of smart-grid start-up Optimal Technologies.

Later this year, it will release another application, called Surefast, that will give building owners tools to monitor and optimize their energy usage.

Not surprisingly, Schoettle said that focusing on network efficiency is really the key.

The company has tested its software with utilities with good results, Schoettle said. It expects to announce initial customers in the coming months, he added.

“There’s absolutely a glut of people who say they do smart grids, but they don’t give the system a better brain,” he said, arguing that many smart-grid projects at utilities haven’t been successful.

Smart-grid providers apply IT to electricity networks.

Optimal Technologies’ algorithm takes data from different sources and presents grid operators with a view of the network. Using the company’s analytical software, a utility could forestall a power outage by using resources more efficiently, Schoettle said.

Optimal Technologies raised $25 million from Goldman Sachs last October, one of several such start-ups to get funding.

That’s because power grids tend to be antiquated and due for a technological overhaul. Many companies, like Optimal Technologies, EnerNoc, and Silver Spring Networks, are using IT to get better data and control over energy in the network.

The 8-year-old company on Tuesday released its first commercial product, an application called Aempfast that gathers and crunches data on power grid operations.

On Wednesday, Sun announced that it has acquired Q-layer, a cloud-computing management and automation company (see CNET’s coverage here):

That’s the big question on Sun. I’m optimistic on its strategy, going forward, as I think its use of open source to drive add-on sales is smart and increasingly well-defined, and I also think, as I noted previously, that cloud computing is a good fit for Sun. But neither are likely to pay big dividends in the short term, which begs the question, can Wall Street be patient with Sun during this transition period?

commentary

Apparently, someone forgot to tell Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz that the market for tech mergers and acquisitions is dead.

Imagine scaling up instantly to massive capacities to meet changing needs. Then imagine doing it on the Web, without having to invest in new infrastructure, train new personnel, or license new software. That’s cloud computing, and Sun is making it a reality.

That’s Sun’s pitch, and it sounds promising. Cloud computing is a great fit with Sun’s past and with its current technology portfolio, including open-source MySQL, the database leader on the Web. But is the market big enough yet to fill the holes in Sun’s declining revenue?

Teach The People, a marketplace for educational content. The service handles educational content as well as the natural social angle that’s part of it, such as student message boards and reviews of educators. What I like about it is the long-term plans for the site, which include giving users credentials for passing courses, which they can use when looking for work. There’s also a natural business-to-business angle for the service, which isn’t surprising since the founder came from Salesforce.com.

BarTab. At first glance, it’s just another BuyYourFriendADrink.com. You buy a drink from the site, send it to a friend, and then they go into a bar and redeem your gift for real booze. But BarTab has finagled the economics. You buy drinks for just $1. The bar you send your friend to is the one picking up the rest of the tab, and they do so as a marketing expense. The service allows bar owners to specify when their offers are valid, so they can, if they like, do some yield management via the BarTab coupons, getting new customers in on slow nights, for instance. It’s an old Facebook trope but I like the economics.

(Credit:
Rafe Needleman / CNET)

Kontagent, an analytics service for Facebook apps. Shows very useful data, such as virality (pass-along registration) and engagement.

MouseHunt, a silly game in which you build mousetraps and compete with friends to catch mice. It works because the company sells virtual bait (cheese) for real money. It’s taking in more than $100,000 a month, the founder told me. On fake cheese.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gets a demo from Nisan Gabbay of Party Buzz.

Bottle Rocket, a social site for people who like wine. You tell it what wines you like, it does a match with the people in your social network and what they like, and it does social recommendations for you. Coming up in 2009 are the cool features: A mobile version of the app will use your location to make targeted recommendations. If you’re in a Whole Foods, you’ll get a list of wines sold there; in a restaurant, ditto.

I was at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., Tuesday night for the FBFund event, where the company bequeathed five $250,000 awards to top Facebook apps from a group of 25 finalists (who each had already won $25,000). Most of the finalist apps were impressive. I talked to the creators of several of them and came up with a few favorites.

GroupCard, which is a really sweet app that lets you create group greeting cards for your friends. Signers can also chip money in for gifts, and the cards can be printed. They look great.

These are all good apps, but I have an additional top five. My criteria: These are the apps that I think have the most creative or unusual thinking behind them, either on the technology or the business side.

Read more commentary from Inside Facebook.

GroupCard prints rather cute custom greeting cards.

But first, Facebook’s own winners:

Social Arcade, a game-building app within Facebook. Looks like it has a healthy collection of templates (platform games, driving games, whack-a-mole type games, and so on), into which you can put your actors. You can also design your own levels. What I like about is the fact that it looks really easy to use, and that it has a potentially solid revenue stream: If you want to make your company’s mascots or themes available to game builders, you can easily do so. For a small fee.

Weddingbook, a sub-network of brides and grooms inside Facebook, as well as an application to help engaged couples organize their wedding day with their friends.

(Credit:
Rafe Needleman / CNET)

Wildfire, an app that builds contests for marketing purposes.

Pongr. Like SnapTell, this is a mobile phone app that lets you take pictures of media products (books, DVDs) and then get prices from stores selling them. So if you’re in a store and see a book you like, you can quickly see what it’s going for on Amazon. The twist with Pongr is its social angle. When you snap an image of an item (or enter an item ID manually), that tidbit shows up on your Facebook feed and your friends can tell you if they know of a good place to get a deal on the item. Presumably, if they happen to have a copy of it, they could also send you a note and offload it to you, for a good price.