More money for social networks: college sports network Takkle will announce today that it has received additional financing from Sports Illustrated and the New York City Investment Fund. The amount isn’t being disclosed. The company’s original investment came from WMG Investments, Greycroft Partners, IJ Smith Enterprises LLC, and Jack Schneider.
It’s a sign of even closer ties between SI and Takkle: the paid have been cross promoting since at least December 2006. Sports Illustrated also bought sports social network FanNation earlier this year, and it seems probably that the Takkle investment will go the same way.
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Pretty basic.
So you liked Logitech’s MX and VX Revolution mousers, did ya? Then check the VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse with that crazy-small 2.4GHz USB receiver for laptop users. The VX Nano features a mini, hyper-fast scrolling MicroGear scroll wheel along with forward and back buttons mapped to
Mapping is a huge and growing sector, from social maps for sharing with friends, to mashing up Google Maps in every possible way. Trawling through all the mapping sites out there, we’ve compiled a list of the most interesting online mapping tools that some are referring to as “Maps 2.0″.
CUSTOMIZABLE AND COLLABORATIVE MAPS
Click2Map.com - Create custom Google Maps, manage your markers, publish and share your creations.
ClustrMaps.com - Get a visual representation of all the visitors to your website.
Geotag it - Add geo tags to Flickr and Del.icio.us posts and see where other links and photos come from.
MapBuilder.net - Uses Google Maps to help you build a custom tagged map you can add to your own website.
Mapicurious.com - Mark vacation spots, restaurants, bars, just about any place you would recommend.
Mappr.com - Another site allowing you to geo tag your Flickr photos to allow people to see them on a map.
Maptales.com - Tales of trips and more sorted on to a Google Map.
Maptrot.com - Create maps of interesting locales such as Route 66 or major sports stadiums, share them with the world.
Mkmap.com - Collaborative map that allows users to add things such as transit services and restaurants.
OpenStreetMap.org - A user editable map of the world to be worked on in collaboration.
Pixagogo.com - Add your own photos to a Google Map, give people a real feel for your neighborhood or vacation.
Planiglobe.com - Customize a map and download PostScript and Illustrator versions.
Quikmaps.com - Doodle on a Google Map, pass it around, embed in your site, or download it to your GPS.
Tagmaps - A way to visualize text on geographic maps, then can be used on your site.
Traffic.com - Check out traffic for your area on a map.
Trippermap.com - Tag your Flickr photos with a location; they get added to a flash based map for your website.
Useamap.com - Helps you publish a map for your event, provides a short url for easy use.
Wayfaring.com - Create and share maps, explore ones made by others.
Wayki.com - Tag locations and share with others, explore tags others have left.
YourGMap.com - Customizable and embeddable Google Maps with content you choose.
TRANSIT MAPPING
goDCgo.com - Look up Washington DC-specific information such as traffic, special events and car pooling.
IamCaltrain.com - Interactive map of the San Francisco metro area trains.
onNYturf.com - Interactive subway map of New York City.
Seattle Bus Monster - Plan your bus routes in the Seattle, WA area.
SUBJECT SPECIFIC MAPPING
DaylightMap.com - See where the sun is shining currently on this map.
Feedmap.net - Add a geo-code to your blog so people can look blogs up by location. You can also browse for areas that would interest you.
FlightAware.com - See how many planes are currently in the air and where they are.
Gruvr.com - Place to look up local music and add tour info.
HealthMap.org - A global disease outbreak map. For general interest or to suggest places you may wish to avoid.
Hotpotr.com - Map of Wi-Fi cafes and hotspots.
Incident1.com - Interactive map of 911 calls from around the United States.
Mailboxmap.com - Enter an address, get the locations of USPS mailboxes nearby.
Map-Runner.com - You can create a run route and assign a difficulty rating and a safety rating; it will be available to all runners using map runner, and they can rate it.
MAPLight.org - Shows geographical connections between congressional voting and money donations.
MapMyRun.com - Plot out your running course, indicate where water and bathrooms are, calculate your workout. They also have MapMyHike.com, MapMyRide.com, MapMyTri.com, and MapMyWalk.com.
MappyHour.com - Click anywhere on the map to display nearby bars and their happy hour specials.
MapWii.com - Enter your Wii number and see other players online to setup games all from a geographic map.
Moremap.com - Uses Google Maps as a basis to show earthquake activity, traffic reports, radio stations, and numerous other functions.
Platial.com - Add content from video, photos, stories, feeds and add it to your website.
PublicRoutes.com - A global map of mass-transit systems.
SignalMap.com - Find or add your own reports on cell strength to various locations and by carrier.
Tornado Paths - Visual history of tornado paths on a map.
VirtualVideoMap.com - Shows a Google Map with YouTube videos sorted by locations.
POPULAR MAPPING SERVICES
Ask.com Maps - Ask.com’s driving directions solution.
Google Mars - Google’s interactive map of the fourth planet of our solar system, Mars.
Google Maps - Get directions, look up your house with satellite photos. The basis of many websites.
Mapquest.com - Look up local businesses, get driving directions.
Poly9 FreeEarth - A free, online interactive 3D globe with various layers you can apply.
Windows Live Local - Microsoft’s entrant in to the mapping game.
Worldmapper - Maps of the world resized based on various subjects such as land mass and population.
Yahoo! Local Maps - Get driving directions, find businesses and much more.
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From the makers of Comeeko (now renamed Pikistrips) and PikiPimp comes PikiFX, a new site for editing and adding special effects to your photos.
Among other features, you can resize, crop and add a wide selection of borders to your images. What’s more, you can add masses of effects, add text to your images and instantly post them to social networks and blogs using the embed code. You can also download or email them.
But despite being feature rich, I don’t see PikiFX having the same success as their other products. The other tools they offer are the complete opposite of useful; instead, they’re fun personalized toys for the MySpace crowd: PikiFX targets a smaller niche: those who want a good photo editor and are prepared to accept the shortcomings of editing photos online.
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A new online mapping tool: WorkedHere has launched a social networked crossed with a mapping service that helps you find buddies from your old workplace. Find workplaces, create workplaces and add your profile.
The problem, of course, is that it requires a critical mass of users to be any use: with very few people on the site, the chances of you tracking down an old colleague are slim. No doubt that will improve when WorkedHere launches its planned Facebook app and MySpace widget.
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Microsoft and Ask.com Call on Industry to Join Together to Evolve Privacy Protections for Consumers — Companies announce commitment to develop privacy principles that will enhance protections and provide more control for consumers. — Building on their respective efforts to protect consumer privacy …
Source: Microsoft
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jul07…
Word about social network Hi5’s $20 million financing leaked earlier today. But that isn’t it for social networking funding news. We hear it from a good source, but without confirmation by the company, that Tagged has raised its own $15 million round, on a $102 million pre-money valuation.
We do not know who made the investment. This is Tagged’s third round of financing. They previously raised two rounds - $1.5 from angel investors in September 2005, and $7 million from Mayfield three months later.
Like Hi5, Tagged is profitable. Back in May they were adding more new users per day - 350,000 - than MySpace.
With nearly $1 billion in venture capital invested in new web startups from April - June 2007 alone, its clear that silicon valley is rolling in money again. With all the hype around Facebook, second tier (but still huge) social networks are an easy bet to get big money. Let’s all just hope for a soft landing.
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