ZocDoc, the online tool for searching local doctors and making appointments online, has just announced its Series A round of funding. Led by Khosla Ventures, this round has extended $3 million in investment funding to the New York-based startup. Launched nearly a year ago, ZocDoc has been building up its user base on both the doctor and the patient end, rolling out its service on a city-by-city basis.

This has also grown in conjunction with its practice-by-practice strategy of providing its service to dentists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists and primary care physicians, which has probably been its most successful implementation thus far. Tackling the health care industry on a practice-basis has allowed ZocDoc to adjust its strategy and technology offerings, enabling it to better achieve the growth its seen in the past year. According to ZocDoc, there are about 90,000 available appointments through its service at this time.

With the recent round of funding, ZocDoc is looking to expand its service even further, to cities beyond NYC. That means that there’s a heavy focus on the local market as well as the practice market, giving ZocDoc two levels at which to promote its service. That’s double the work, so ZocDoc will have to double its staff–something the company has already done in the past 6 months, from five to ten full-time employees.

As we’ve also seen a growing trend in Web-based personal assistant service and other initiatives like Google Health which aim to provide more ways in which consumers can control their information as well as access necessary local resources, there’s a great deal of opportunity for ZocDoc to continue its current expansion strategy and hopefully become more valuable in the integrated Web space. To that end, ZocDoc will be releasing a Facebook and an iPhone app for additional appointment-making capabilities, as a result of its recent API offering.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:ZocDoc Adds More Doctors, Launching in New Cities14 Online Tools To Help You Choose A DoctorKateModern Team Creates Series For MySpaceJoost Announces Partnership with Major League BaseballBebo’s Next Kate Modern is Named SofiaNew Animated Series Attacks Clinton, Obama & MoreMySpace TV Debuts “quarterlife” This Weekend

Source:Mashable!

While reading a blog posting by Ed Brill, he brought up how someone was using his name and company designation on Gmail. After reading the statements on Google’s website, he discovered that they would be of no assistance. There lies two areas of discussion here:

1. What are the rights of the user and the responsibility of the social site or online company?

2. Does every company, no matter the size need a policy defining what steps need to be taken to tackle this growing battle of identity squatting?

In general, the user has no rights. The social networking company does not fall under the guidelines of newer Identity Theft regulations. Those are reserved for thefts of social security numbers, trafficking in such identities, and financial gain. While some states have statutes that loosely point to any misrepresentation (making them a misdemeanor), there isn’t much on the books for online portrayal and pretending. Yes, you can argue that the new laws on cyber-bullying carry heavy weight (I applaud these), they don’t point to someone just claiming a name on Twitter that isn’t really the person. So where do we head from here when attempting to deal with it?

Smaller social networking companies seem to be more open to step in the middle and assist in clearing up someone purporting themselves as you. However, who is to say there cannot be two people of the same name at a company? Who wins in that regard? First come first served? Why would any site wish to step in the middle, when deleting accounts or editing information holds them more liable in many people’s eyes. Larger companies, such as Google, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook seem to stay far away from the matter. You are hard pressed to find a statement or help item on the subject, much less who to contact when you are the victim.

As a smaller company, I would attempt to help faster, to preemptively beat bad press (Twitter, podcasts and blogs alone) from some A-list blogger that catches wind, or worse yet becomes a victim themself. The spur to be first is not only for early adopters, but cyber social squatters. Look at the amount of times someone has tried to (and still exists) create accounts for people like Scoble or, Leo Laporte.

This is where companies of any size need to format a default policy that is clearly stated, and easy to find, on their websites on how naming battles will be handled and verified. As my real name is common, I could not expect to always have it on each site, unless they included my company or some other derivative. However, using an online brand or persona would easily be identified as a squatter. So I am calling out all of the companies with no formal policy in place to get one drafted and published. I have already begun a template for one myself. Am I saying that a new department needs to be created to handle the conflicts when they arise? Nope. I am simply stating that you have no identifiable plan on dealing with these issues and it will only continue to grow and hurt social networking more.

But before they go removing accounts all over the place, there is a missing piece to all of this that has not been defined. If the network owns the data, then does editing the data and accounts make it acceptable? Are there any legalities involved? If I remove an account and the person removed had rights to it, what is their course of retaliation? Do companies now become identity managers and confirmation departments? What happened to trusted and centralized ID creation and management? Oh yeah, the majority of social networking sites don’t believe in that.

It is really me on Twitter and my blogs, so you can trust those

Chris Miller is the blogger behind TheSocialNetworker and the podcast TheSocialGeeks. He is an avid social media consumer, which leads to his apparent enthusiasm to write and podcast site reviews. As well his his own opinion. You can find Chris on all the social networks as IdoNotes, including Twitter.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Amazon MP3 Teaming With Rockstar GamesLifeLock’s Founder Caught in Lies; Forced to ResignYuniti Offers ValidationID Options to UsersNaymz Adds Community Interaction for Building Online ReputationsFake Facebook Profiles Will Get You ArrestedFlickr, Yahoo and the Web’s Identity CrisisStoryLink - Social Network For Screenwriters

How is new Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria different from Lindsay Campbell, the thought-provoking interviewer she replaced at the CBS-owned videoblog? “I’m in for adding some dirty humor,” Alexandria told NewTeeVee. “I don’t want it to become the next Perez Hilton, but I do look forward to bringing my own little spice to it.” Enough sexist, adolescent pandering — bring on Alexandria’s glamour shots!

Downright condescending, no? Blame this guy, show creator Howard Lindzon, here shown fingering a Yahoo button.(Photo by mil8)

Source:Valleywag

newVideoPlayer(”Apple_New_York_Times.flv”, 475, 376,”");
Can’t get enough of John Hodgman, the
Daily Show correspondent and Apple anti-pitchman? As “PC,”
he’s ubiquitous today on NYTimes.com, where Apple has taken over
the whole site with this supersweet ad. Sadly, Hodgman will not be

coming to San Francisco for a show anytime soon, he told
Valleywag. “I hope you enjoy the sound of geek-tech-folk-rock that
is COULTON.”
Whatever you say, PC.

Source:Valleywag

newVideoPlayer(”YouTube_Gang_Threats.flv”, 475, 376,”");Here’s what these two gentlemen, Rudy Villanueva and Tony Logan, told police in a recent YouTube video:

Hey, we’s out here. We fighting a cold war. We good, man. We good. They come at us if they want to. Metro dig gang unit. Here I am, baby.

Police listened.

According to reports, Miami customs police arrested Villanueva and then Logan on weapons charges. My favorite part? I like it when the girl filming giggles as the one guy pretends to unload a clip into his friend’s head. Hilarious!

Salim Ismail’s incompetence as a manager may have brought the wrath of the IRS down on Yahoo. One of his employees at Brickhouse, Yahoo’s San Francisco incubator, has moved abroad while being classified, for tax purposes, as “working at home.” There are a number of steps companies ought to take when employing a U.S. citizen living abroad, but Ismail apparently skipped them. Now, one of the employee’s coworkers has received a summons from the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division, where are investigators are looking into a case of tax fraud. While any penalties Yahoo might pay are small in comparison to the Web giant’s bottom line, they’d certainly speak to the sloppy management that’s been given a pass at Yahoo for far too long. (Photo by irisheyes)

A tipster sent us this alternate version of the Apple teaser ad currently up on Apple.com. According to our tipster, Steve Jobs spent hours meditating to choose between “air” and “water” themes for Macworld. What could “There’s something in the water” mean? We can only speculate, but our best guess is a waterproof ultrathin notebook called the MacBook Water. The MacBook Water was to be specifically designed for scuba divers and other water-sports enthusiasts. (Ahem.) Have any more information? Leave a comment.

Source:Valleywag

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch recently paid a visit to social network Bebo, according to Bebo employee Emma Carlsgaard, who posted an update to her Bebo profile about the sighting. What’s Rupe doing visiting Bebo? A recent rumor suggests acquisition talks.

Last we heard from the social network, Bebo had just hired a bank in order to find a buyer. A flack soon hushed acquisition talk, saying the company was just looking to get more funding. Murdoch’s appearance belies that spin, however.

Why buy Bebo? Three words: Britain, Britain, Britain. According to Hitwise, while MySpace was the no. 10 most visited site in the U.K., Bebo came ahead at No. 7. Murdoch’s not known to happily stay in second place, especially in a key market like the U.K.

Source:Valleywag

Will someone please think of the children? One could see Helen Lovejoy, the hysterical reverend’s wife on The Simpsons, taking up this cause: Eliminating sexual predators on MySpace. Six state attorneys general have announced, with MySpace, a “joint statement” on making social networks safer for children. The principles are lofty; the actions promised, few. Most amount to technical upgrades in MySpace’s privacy needed to keep the site competitive with Facebook.

Still, MySpace and the state officials get to look like they’re doing something about sexual predators. And appearances are everything. For parents, too. With this latest announcement, they get the appearance of being concerned about their children, while leaving the burden of raising them to websites and government officials. There’s one brave voice pointing out the obvious: Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, who notes that MySpace’s technology is inadequate. Rupert Murdoch could have told us that much.

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New Jersey has banned two types of convicted sex offenders from the Internet for life. Those who used the Web to help commit their crimes are the main category. Exceptions are made for those who use computers to work. On a gut level, the new law seems like a no-brainer. Some would say that’s the problem.

“Corrections experts will say that the most important thing to prevent recidivism is stable employment, home, family and social support,” Reverend C. David Hess, New York State representative of SOhopeful International, told InternetNews.com in September. “These laws are destructive to all of those things. Therefore, rather than making communities safer, they put people more at risk.” In an age of social networks, those forced offline are the least connected to society. (Photo by o2ma)

A San Francisco woman reported her Honda Civic stolen to the San Francisco police. A few weeks later, she got a parking citation in the mail for her stolen car. Then she got another. And another. In total, her car got ticketed 29 times while being listed as stolen. She called the police and the city’s Department of Parking and Traffic, but didn’t get any solid answers about the whereabouts of her car, nor why it was being ticketed after being reported stolen. Eventually, she and a friend decided to drive around locations where the car had been ticketed to try to find it.

After driving for three hours, they located the car and waited for an hour before the police showed up. San Francisco’s finest were not interested in catching the thieves and didn’t search the car before releasing it. The thieves had put 1,000 miles on the car, but otherwise kept it clean. The city claims “parking control officers,” who don’t work for the police department, aren’t expected to figure out which cars are stolen. “Their handheld ticket devices store auto theft information only from San Francisco’s database — not the entire state.” Ah, well that’s good to know. (Photo by salimfadhley)

“It’s trying to set up an economy of writing and the Web is a great place to try to experiment with different economies. Wikipedia has already succeeded with one, and these are two different styles.” — Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki and a Wikipedia board member, responding to Google’s competing Knol, an experiment to create its own repository of content. And I thought the all-volunteer Wikipedia was just beginning to experiment with economies themselves. [Read/WriteWeb]

Source:Valleywag

Hans Reiser, the open-source developer accused of murdering his estranged wife, is facing mounting circumstantial evidence that Nina Reiser, his Russian mail-order bride, did not flee to Russia as he contends. As the prosecution’s testimony draws to a close, a series of witnesses have painted a portrait of a mother who would not leave her two children abruptly and a man who was acting suspiciously following the Labor Day weekend when Nina disappeared.

Hans Reiser’s neighbor observed the programmer, dressed in heavy clothing despite excellent weather, washing either his car or the driveway late at night just after Nina Reiser disappeared. It was unusual, prosecutors claim, because Reiser was not known for performing outdoor activities and the yard was no cleaner the next day. Natalie Potter, a supervisor at the daycare the couple’s two children attend, testified that Hans showed up agitated on the Tuesday following the holiday requesting a meeting. He was not scheduled to pick up the children and never returned for the meeting.

Possibly more damaging was the testimony about Nina’s last known activities. She had recently been hired for a new job. The woman who hired her testified that she was excited to start a new job and valued flexibility to spend time with her children over pay. She never returned to complete the hiring process. Also, when Nina’s mini-van was later found with recently purchased perishable groceries.

Perry Mason may have stressed that a murder prosecution without a body is difficult. CSI purports to teach that there is physical evidence even without a murder weapon and body. But juries weigh evidence, not microscopes. We are a storytelling species, and what real people recount in their own words can often sway more than hard evidence. There’s one more story to hear: Hans Reiser will soon have the opportunity to present his own version of what happened to his former wife. (Courtroom sketch by Wired News/Norman Quebedeau)

After a DUI and subsequent probation violation, former Wikimedia COO Carolyn Bothwell Doran left the foundation that runs Wikipedia in July. But that incident was only the latest in Doran’s long history with the law, according to The Register.

Doran’s criminal record actually spans four states — Florida, Virginia, Maryland and Texas — and includes theft, petty larceny, more DUIs, passing bad checks, and shooting her boyfriend in the chest. One of Doran’s DUIs, a hit and run, resulted in a fatality.

At Wikimedia, Doran rose to COO after starting as a temp. As COO, she had control over much of Wikimedia’s finances, an audit of which — due in September — is still pending. “We’ve never had any documentation of any criminal record on Carolyn Doran’s part at all,” foundation lawyer Mike Godwin told the Register. How soon until somebody creates a Wikipedia entry and uploads Doran’s legal docs? That might help Godwin out.

Unaware of what you want to do in life, but know that you want a director-level job with a splashy company that serves free food? Have we found the spot for you! Google is looking for a “Director of Other” on its corporate job listing page, and the description of the post is just as vague as their flacks’ conversations with reporters.

As our core business continues to enjoy phenomenal success, our tangential efforts must equally evolve to capitalize on opportunities before us. Under the “Other” umbrella, Google aims to identify and pursue opportunities where technology can revolutionize traditional and more mature industries.

Source:Valleywag

Mark Zuckerberg may be this year’s Grinch, but our sponsors aren’t. Thanks go to:

• Ask.com

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Source:Valleywag

Yaron Polak, a VC with Israel-based Genesis Partners, was convicted on possession of child pornography for “downloading 1,500 photos and 150 videos of fully or partially nude children onto his home computer. ” Ew. Immediately after his conviction, Polak was fired from Genesis Partners and scrubbed from its website, though you can still see the cached version of