TechCrunch
With Its Flickr iOS Update, Yahoo Swaps Out Aviary For Newly Acquired GhostBird Tech; Says It's Keeping It On The Web
Earlier today, a new iOS update landed for Flickr that sports new, enhanced filters and other photo editing options among its new features, and when I wrote about it I wondered aloud if it was the first signs of a speedy integration of GhostBird, a photo app developer that Yahoo acquired in June of this year. Turns out this was right. And it also turns out that, as a result, Yahoo is dropping Aviary as a technology provider on its mobile app, although for now it is keeping Aviary in its web app.
“Aviary is a great partner and we’re excited to continue working closely with them on Flickr for web,” a spokesperson told me. “But with this iOS update, we’ve integrated technology and features from our recent acquisition of Ghostbird Software.”
The change underscores a Yahoo very much still in flux as it looks for the right mix of products that will bring in the punters and keep them coming back for more.
Yahoo had incorporated Aviary technology into its iOS app back as recently as December 2012 — an important moment for Flickr and Yahoo, since it was the first update in a year for the app, and a signal that things were going to be different from there on in.
Yahoo’s relationship with Aviary, meanwhile, started back in April 2012, when Yahoo partnered with Aviary to replace Picnik, acquired and shut down by Google. Around the same time that Aviary got added to Flickr’s iOS app, it also picked up Twitter as a user of its photo filter and editing SDK.
The old Aviary-powered filters are on the left; a screenshot of the GhostBird-powered filter is to the right.
Apart from things like a basically different user interface (one where the filter tabs are pretty big), the swap means a degradation of some features, and the appearance of others. Red eye removal and blemish fixes are out; light and saturation levels reminiscent of those from GhostBird’s KitCam app are in.
Yahoo wouldn’t say whether it plans eventually to update the Android and Web apps to look like the Flickr experience on iOS with GhostBird-powered editing, except to note, “We’re continuing to update Flickr on every device.” Its latest Flickr Android app was released on May 20th. That will include ever- more additions that will go beyond storage and deeper into creation. “At Flickr we know that taking photos is one of our users’ favorite daily habits and we’re continuing to make Flickr available wherever our users are.”
As for what that might mean in terms of relationships with other companies, as Yahoo continues to fill out its ambition under Marissa Mayer as a product focused company, it makes sense that they’re putting some of their many acquisitions to use and thereby moving off of third-party products where that works.
Lyft Launches Its Ride-Sharing Service In 3 New Markets: Indianapolis, St. Paul, And Atlanta
Ride-sharing startup Lyft continues to grow, adding new markets where users can hail a ride via their mobile phones and have a mustachioed car pick them up. With the launch of service in Indianapolis, St. Paul, and Atlanta, the company now has operations in 10 markets nationwide.
Today marks the first time that Lyft has announced service in more than one city, launching in three at once just ahead of the Labor Day Holiday weekend. As is its habit with new launches, the startup will have a “Mustache Parade” — whatever that is — in Indianapolis today at 11:30. And the service will be available in Atlanta and St. Paul beginning this morning for “friends and family” with full service launching Friday.
For Lyft, the launch expands it into a few smaller cities, but that’s by design — after adding service in tightly packed metropolitan areas like San Francisco, as well as some very large and sprawling cities like Los Angeles, the company wants to see what traffic patterns and logistics look like in less packed-in, less sprawling urban areas. The Midwest in particular is interesting to Lyft, as Chicago had been its fastest-growing new market to date.
At the same time that Lyft is launching in new cities, it’s also having its second Community Meeting, in which it gathers together drivers and passengers to rally support in one of its local markets. This time, the meeting is in Seattle in advance of a local city council meeting that will address peer-to-peer transportation next week. Seattle has been one of the markets that has been friendliest to ride-sharing startups, but these things are never a slam-dunk.
In California, Lyft, SideCar, and Uber received cease and desist notices from the local Public Utilities Commission last year, and it took some time for those companies to get the regulator to come around. But the PUC here has issued proposed regulations that could legitimize peer-to-peer transportation services in the state. If they are passed, those companies hope to take them to other jurisdictions as an example of a new regulatory framework for their services.
While Lyft has grown a lot over the past year since it officially launched in San Francisco, it’s still playing catchup to Uber, which just raised $258 million in funding from Google Ventures and TPG. Uber also continues to launch in new cities, most recently in Dubai, and has service in more than 40 cities worldwide.
But Lyft hopes to expand quickly as well. It has raised more than $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund over the last nine months, and also added to its war chest, thanks to the acquisition of its legacy Zimride business by Enterprise Holdings. The company now has more than 100 employees, most of which operate out of its headquarters in San Francisco.
Greylock Promotes EIR And Former eBay Motors Founder Simon Rothman To Partner; Commits $100M To Invest In Marketplaces
After promoting former Facebook and Twitter product lead Josh Elman to partner, Greylock is adding another consumer investing partner to its ranks from its existing team–executive in residence Simon Rothman. And as part of this move, Greylock is announcing a $100 million commitment to invest in marketplace entrepreneurs and companies, which Rothman will be managing.
Rothman, who will be on Greylock’s consumer investment team, is uniquely positioned to be leading this new initiative as he worked for a number of years at one of the original marketplaces, eBay. Rothamn joined eBay in 1999 when it was still a small, US collectibles auction business. He helped scale eBay to nearly 200 million users generating over $40 billion in merchandise sales. While at eBay, Rothman led US operations and also founded eBay Motors, which he built into a $14 billion a year global business. Following eBay he also founded Glyde, and ecommerce marketplace for for electronics and more. He also served as a board member of and advisor to Tesla Motors.
In 2011, Rothman joined Greylock as an Executive-in-Residence and ws helping advise a number of the firm’s network effects businesses, transaction-based startups, and mobile apps with a specialty around marketplaces, including Lyft, Wanelo, Poshmark, Tango, and others. He said he joined with the intention of finding a startup that he wanted to join, and help scale the company. But he began to enjoy actually helping individual startups and entrepreneurs. “I used to think that VC was more about money, but from an operators standpoint, being a VC is really about adding value to a startup,” he told us in an interview.
There are huge opportunities to build marketplaces with the current technologies available to entrepreneurs, including mobile platforms, hardware, and social identity, and more. But building lasting marketplaces is a challenge of itself, Rothman explains. These include creating content worthy of drawing a community and transactions, and long build cycles that often take many years.
As part of the new initiative, Greylock is forming an advisory network of executives and leaders in the space and will be organizing a marketplace conference to take place later this year in Silicon Valley. Speakers include: Airbnb CEO & co-founder, Brian Chesky; eBay CEO, John Donohoe & Linkedin co-founder and Greylock Partner, Reid Hoffman.
“We’re pleased Simon will continue on the Greylock team as a Partner,” said Hoffman. “His unique experience of helping to scale one of the most definitive marketplaces in the world has already proved to be invaluable to our entrepreneurs. Personally, I’m excited to support a new wave of innovative marketplaces. With Simon’s leadership and with guidance from committed speakers and friends like Brian and John, we believe we can build out a fantastic network in this space.”
As for the new initiative, Rothman says the $100 million is more of a focus than an actual fund. And the investments made will be stage agnostic, and across Seed, Series A & B and more.
“I believe marketplaces have the perfect business model,” says Rothman. “As they get bigger, marketplace grow stronger and more durable.” He thinks that in the next five years there will be at least 20 marketplaces that will be worth more than $1 billion, in areas like transportation, fashion, hotels, and more, with Airbnb kicking of this new generation of successful companies (at last count Airbnb was valued at $2.5 billion).
As for new areas where Rothman believes there could be growth, health care and education provide interesting opportunities for marketplaces. He acknowledges some of the complex regulatory environments and laws in these areas (especially health care), but says that eventually this frameworks will succumb to innovation.
Clearly, many marketplaces such as Airbnb, Uber, and others are flourishing, with multi-billion dollar valuations. It’s no surprise that Greylock is seeing the future potential of this business model, and wants to make a big bet on this. It’s similar in some ways to Kleiner Perkins’ iFund, which was created to spur and fund development around the iPhone.
Doo Releases iPhone App For Its Paperwork-Killing Platform
Back in 2011 Doo closed a $6.8 million round for its big play to attack the world of collaboration and documents. Basically they want to kill off paperwork and make everything digital. To that end they have released an Android app earlier this year and today they have launched their iPhone version, you can download it here.
We have also gained exclusive access to a preview of their upcoming iPad app, see below.
Essentially Doo wants to be the “The Document App” where you can find and edit every Document you have, whether it is stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, you name it. As well as working with documents you can use the apps to scan with OCR, which also comes with auto-tagging, creating searchable PDFs and sending them to your preferred storage location. Doo also has apps for OS X, Windows 8 and Windows Desktop will follow.
It’s ompetitors include Evernote and more recently Quip.
Steven Sinofsky Joins Enterprise Cloud Storage Firm Box As An Official Adviser
Today enterprise cloud file and document storage company Box announced that it has brought former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky on board as an adviser. The move matters, as Sinofsky has deep experience with both Microsoft Office and SkyDrive, two products that Box competes with.
Box, which today remains storage focused, is widely expected to introduce document editing tools on top of its cloud file system. This would put it in direct contention with Office, a key profit source for Microsoft, and Google’s Docs efforts.
Sinofsky departed Microsoft following the completion and shipment of Windows 8, and the Surface tablet hybrid. It remains slightly unclear to this day, but his quick trip out the door was not exactly voluntary. According to Todd Bishop of GeekWire, the pairing of Box and Sinofsky started with a Facebook message, and was consummated over bowls of pho.
Box, for now, is downplaying the Box-Microsoft war narrative. Box CEO Aaron Levie, in a statement provided to GeekWire, stated that his company would “love to get closer to Microsoft,” instead of growing its competitive surface area with the rival firm.
That’s bunk, but expected bunk. TechCrunch has reached out to Sinofsky for clarification of what his specific duties will be with Box and what areas of the company he intends to focus on.
Sinofksy was a considered candidate by external parties for the CEO role at Microsoft following Ballmer’s departure. It’s safe to say that anyone who had been pulling for a Sinofsky return can lay that dream to rest. Box is increasingly maturing into the company that could mount the first credible enterprise challenge to Office’s decades’ old hegemony.
Top Image Credit: BUILDWindows
No comments:
Post a Comment