Our friend Duncan Riley (you know, the Inquisitr guy) has received a limited edition Google Chrome comic book. Being the altruistic fellow that he is, he decided to put it up on an eBay auction and give the proceeds to charity.

You can check out the auction here, current bid is $127.50 (that’s Aussie dollars), and it ships to North America, Europe, or Australia/ New Zealand.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Chrome: The “GBrowser” Comes to LifeMySpace Launches Comic Books CommunityGoogle Gadgets, Gmail Trademark, Newsgator, Songrio, SpotDJ, Comic Relief, Habbo, Crackberry.com, MySpace Oscar, Google Maps TrafficComics Sketch is a Glorified Graffiti ToolBitstrips Custom Comics Launching at SXSWComeeko - Comic Strips for MySpaceWhat’s Your Best Dilbert Punch Line?

Source:Mashable!

Election time is coming in the US, and suddenly your votes are more important than your money. At least that’s how Michael Moore sees it, whose new movie, titled “Slacker Uprising”, will premiere on the net for free, on September 23, followed by a DVD which will be released through Amazon.com and Netflix on October 7. Blip.TV will host the download; hopefully, they’ve upgraded their servers, because the demand is going to be huge.

Moore doesn’t hide his intentions. “This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,” he said. “The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November. I think Slacker Uprising will inspire million (sic) to get off the couch and give voting a chance.”

The movie is basically a document of Moore’s tour through 62 US cities swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election; obviously, it didn’t work out as well as Moore intended it, so now he’s hoping he can recycle it for another go. It’s not a bad idea, though; his earlier movies, while being amongst the highest grossing documentaries ever, also sparked an immense interest on social media sites such as Digg and Reddit. This one will be no exception, as it’s aimed directly at twenty somethings who usually spend their time doing, well, not that much. Check out the trailer below.

[image credit: newsday.com]

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Photobucket Launches Mandy Moore Mashup ContestMeeVee Launches Free TV Episodes HubPeter Gabriel Throws in More Cash to Keep We7 Rockin’We7’s Free Music Downloads Gets Michael Moore’s Ad DollarsUstream & Intel Live Coverage of Developer Forum Featuring Dr. Gordon MooreApple Movie Rentals On its Way?Apple May Soon Offer Movie Rentals

TechAddress: Tell me a bit about your company, what it does and what’s your value proposition?

Conduit: Conduit is the inventor of the community toolbar concept. Community toolbars are a great new way to engage users and drive loyalty as they put the best of any website directly on the users’ browser. Today’s Web savvy organizations are looking for new ways to connect and engage their users, beyond the boundaries of their Web site.

As an example, Major League Baseball launched a ‘Conduit’ for each team in the league so the fans can stay connected with scores, plays, team information, tickets and breaking news on their favorite team, straight from the browser.

Bottom line, a Conduit community toolbar delivers:

• More Traffic: Drive higher traffic through unprecedented face time, resulting in an average increase of two extra clicks per user, per day
• Brand Presence: Conduit allows publishers to put their brand directly on the user’s browser
• Lower Attrition: Retain customers through engaging content, community chat, contests, and more
• More Revenue per Customer: Monetizing users beyond the boundaries of the Web site. Drive higher spending with more targeted offers and more relevant services delivered via a ‘Conduit’

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

Conduit: There are several things, but most importantly there are three:

1. Hosted turnkey service approach which eliminates all the challenges of traditional software offerings.

Typical off-the-shelf toolbar building software requires technical resources, constant maintenance staff, and presents issues in regard to user support and security, not to mention their limited component offerings. In the past, these challenges have prevented the majority of smaller websites from building and launching their own branded toolbars.

Conduit dramatically changed the model from traditional software to a hosted, global, turnkey service that is very easy to use, and requires no maintenance or technical skills. This has resulted in Conduit’s community toolbars exploding in less than 18 months to over 5 million users in 112 countries, 125k publishers in 22 languages, and over 30,000 downloads a day. For more details, see our recent milestone news release here.

2. Conduit’s business model is powered by search, which enables us to be completely free to the publisher and yet empower the toolbar with the most required functionality – search.

Conduit monetizes user searches via its Google search partnership, thereby delivering superior user experience despite being a free service for organizations.

3. Conduit supports its customers with a full suite of solutions that walks the user through the entire toolbar creation process:

• Building (Conduit provides easy to use Toolbar Wizards that make building a snap)
• Promotion (Pre-made templates for toolbar promotion include banners and download pages)
• Maintenance (Changes made to the toolbar in the hosted environment are automatically reflected in the toolbar field)
• Analysis (Reports to help optimize the solution for maximum value to publishers and users)

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

Conduit: Conduit is free, hosted, extremely easy-to-use, completely customizable, ready in minutes, guaranteed to be secure, and available in 22 languages. The Toolbar Wizard is easy to use tool for any publisher, despite their level of programming expertise.

There are several key features that have contributed to our explosive adoption:

• Pre-defined components including customizable menus, news ticker, RSS reader, radio, chatroom, NEW video window, email notifier, weather button, and more
• Open environment that allows publishers to develop their own custom components using standard web development technologies
• A set of customizable search tools, powered by Google
• Cross-platform solution enabling publishers to provide instant availability in IE & Firefox
• Pre-packaged marketing templates for deployment and promotion
• Analytics and reports for management of the community toolbar
• Hosted solution enables seamless and dynamic updates of content, components, and updates
• 24/7 free support for publishers and users via email
• Fully localized by supporting 22 languages for the toolbar and its peripheral pages

TechAddress: Who is your target customer or audience?

Conduit: Any website with a passionate community of online users can benefit from a Conduit community toolbar. Our range of customers represents every industry including entertainment, event planning, music, gaming, non profits, libraries, business, news portals, forums, real-estate, legal enterprise and more. While we have leading brands such as Greenpeace, Major League Baseball and REMAX, the largest segment of Conduit customers are “Long Tail” publishers that come from a diverse cross section.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

Conduit: Our technology teams are working on exciting product releases that will transform user engagement and communication.

The first is the ability for a publisher to extend their presence beyond the current real estate of the toolbar. With an upcoming version, Conduit will transform toolbars from being a single story house to a skyscraper.

The second will empower a user to benefit from multiple toolbars without sacrificing the browser real-estate typically required, and by eliminating the need of multiple downloads. Users will be able to easily manage and control their toolbar library through this new product.

We are also looking to launch a “smart wizard” that will automatically detect community information and will build it into a community toolbar simply from a website URL. This is part of our commitment to making it easier to build and launch a toolbar.

Stay tuned for these and other exciting announcements coming soon.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

Conduit: We envision Conduit evolving into a global leader in marketing platforms for building user-centric applications that drive engagement and loyalty. To that end, we are focused on forging content and product partnerships to deliver the broadest array of content and components to our publishers. From a product perspective, we are focused on being an innovation leader with breakthrough new features regularly added to the roadmap.

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

Conduit: Historically, toolbars were perceived as a search device associated with search companies, and as such they raised the question of “Who needs another toolbar?” In addition many have a bad reputation for opening up users to outside threats from adware, spyware and malware. Conduit community toolbars are strongly associated with the communities they serve (vs. being a search device only) and address a wider cross-section of information needs which goes beyond the simple search function. In addition, Conduit, delivers a safe and secure user experience.

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

Conduit: Publisher-focused value creation. If we help our publishers be more successful, then we will be successful. So whether it’s product development, marketing, or support, the company is completely focused on what drives a positive outcome for our publishers. We believe that publishers know what’s best for their users and they want to be able to offer them the very best solutions. Conduit provides them with the full-service solution they need to achieve that. As an example, we worked very hard to secure a partnership with Google, as we wanted to provide the ultimate search experience for our publishers’ end users while still enabling our publisher customers with the ability to embed their own site search into the community toolbar and the search page.

Outside of our dedication to products, our overall guiding principles are fairness and integrity. These are the cornerstones of Conduit. We treat everyone who interacts with the company with highest level of integrity.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

Conduit: Our mission is to democratize the building of connected communities, and to enable traditional Web 1.0 companies to become Web 2.0. We aim to provide every publisher with the solutions they need to connect, engage and build online communities quickly and cost effectively.

In terms of innovation, we are the first, completely free service for building a community toolbar, powered by Search. This is a significant value proposition for the market in general but more importantly, for the long tail of the Internet. Conduit is putting a powerful, free marketing platform, previously only available to large companies, in the hands of organizations of every size and capability. This is revolutionary – we are leveling the playing field and doing it with a free, secure service that is backed by a solid business model.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

Conduit: Conduit is currently fully funded and has no plans to raise additional capital at this time.

TechAddress: If your technology or service is not formally launched yet, when’s the launch date? If you have already launched, when was your launch date?

Conduit: The company was founded in 2005; however, we just recently launched an official marketing campaign in November, 2006. Incredibly, Conduit has grown virally from 0 to 125,000 website publisher customers and 5,000,000 users in less than two years.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Launch Date: Formed in 2004; formally launched in U.S. in September, 2006

In the company’s own words, what is it? Piczo has created a space that gives teens around the world the freedom and tools to express themselves and connect with friends in a safer social networking environment.

Piczo allows its users to create fully customizable personal websites that do not require any understanding of html code. Users share their life stories with friends by designing their sites with multiple pages featuring photos, graphics, guest books, comment boards, music, and more. Each site can be linked to other friends’ sites and users can interact with them and their friends, and meet new people online.

Since its launch less than two years ago, Piczo has grown to over 10 million monthly unique visitors and 2.5 billion monthly page views solely through the viral efforts of its loyal members. Rave reviews from these users claim that Piczo is unmatched in the control it offers over their sites, ease-of-use, and ‘walled-garden’ approach with no searching for users.

Outside quote about company: “We are attracted to Piczo’s approach for a safer online environment in the social networking space. The demographic that Piczo has attracted, the younger teen audience, is quickly claiming the web as their own medium. Marketers and media companies covet this demographic and we are pleased to be part of Piczo’s continued growth,” said Paul Matteucci, general partner, U.S. Venture Partners.

Features:
* create your own website and web address
* manage your homepage and page list
* upload pictures and music videos
* create a guestbook, comment board and journal
* it’s free and easy

Management/Directors:
Jeremy Verba, CEO
Jim Conning, Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Jeanine LeFlore, Vice President of Products
Michael J. Sherf, Vice President of Technical Operations
Paul Remer, Vice President of Business Development
Peter J. van Pruissen, Vice President of Finance
Geoff Judge, Chief Revenue Officer
Chris Seth, UK Managing Director

Relevant Links:
http://www.piczoinc.com/piczoFunding.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2496035.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21024303-7582,00.html
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/01/18/teen-focused-online-social-network-piczo-raises-11-million

TechAddress: What makes your company stand apart from your competitors?

IMSafer: The products for protecting children online are overwhelming for parents, hard to use, and require too much work on the part of the parents. IMSafer is “simple,” “easy to use” and “effective.” The basis of what we do is built on the perception of trust and communication. We don’t allow parents to spy on every conversation their child has online, if our language analysis identifies a threat, we let parents see that threat and enough of the conversation to give them proper context.

TechAddress: What are some of the main features?

IMSafer: Our language analysis notes text that may be inappropriate or may be indicative of predatory behavior and gives parents a notification with a ‘snapshot of the conversation’ along with a ‘rating’ of that screen name that is generated by other parents. They can then vote themselves on that person to help other parents make informed decisions. Users of our IMSafer Social Networking Service can also be notified when their children receive links to social networking sites.

TechAddress: Who’s your target customer or audience?

IMSafer: Parents of kids and teens that go online who respect their children’s privacy as well as their duty to protect their kids should check out IMSafer and give it a try.

TechAddress: Any new things in particular that you’re working on right now?

IMSafer: We are constantly improving our language analysis engine. We think of it like an anti-virus database, people are always trying to figure out new ways to do harm, and we’re trying to stay a few steps ahead of them.

TechAddress: Where do you see your company heading in the future?

IMSafer: We’re going to stay a few steps ahead of the predators. For example if kids start moving away from social networks and into something new like mobile group chat, that’s where we’ll be.

TechAddress: Any negative feedback or criticism regarding technology and services?

IMSafer: Criticism comes for the most part from people that don’t understand how our service works. A parent’s first job is to protect their child. We give the parents a tool to help them do that while giving the child as much freedom and privacy as we can to still be effective. Once kids see that we aren’t spying and that their parents only get alerts on clearly bad language, they are generally in support of the program.

TechAddress: So what would you say is the guiding principle behind your company?

IMSafer: Each of us had at least one conversation with a guidance counselor who said, “If only you could use your powers for good.” This is our chance.

TechAddress: What is the mission of your company and what are you bringing to the market that is innovative?

IMSafer: We started with a simple plan: to rethink the problem of protecting kids online. “Simple,” “easy to use” and “effective” are our guiding principles. The products for protecting children online are overwhelming for parents, hard to use, and require too much work on the part of the parents. IMSafer is simple, easy to use and effective.

TechAddress: Where are you in terms of funding and your lifecycle?

IMSafer: IMSafer does not disclose current funding.

TechAddress: If your technology or service is not formally launched yet, when’s the launch date? If you have already launched, when was your launch date?

IMSafer: We launched IMSafer on October 3rd, 2006 and added IMSafer Social Networking Service on October 18th, 2006. Today, 1/17, we announced support for Microsoft Vista and the Mac. We’ve tied in to Vista’s Parental Control API’s to build on the great work that Microsoft has done and created a Wizard to make it as easy as possible for parents to protect their kids online. Our complete announcement is up at http://www.imsafer.com/splash/press

Media Search Technology Now Available to all Websites; Unveils Search Engine Ad Unit
San Francisco, CA — Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Pixsy Corporation, a next-generation media search platform that powers private label image and video search engines, today announced PixsyPower, a suite of media search tools and widgets for website publishers of all sizes. PixsyPower tools enable website publishers to increase their site traffic by offering unique content and media search functionality to their visitors.

PixsyPower enables bloggers, social networking sites, or any website to run private label photo and video search engines and widgets on their sites by simply signing up for free at PixsyPower.com. Image and video search are the fastest growing search verticals on the web and PixsyPower enables any website publisher to tap into this popular consumer activity within their own site. With three easy steps, Pixsy’s image and video search engine and widgets can be deployed on any website with content customized to the specific topic of their site. The service also provides a set of reporting tools to track visitor activities and search patterns.

“Pixsy’s business model of using media search tools to create search traffic on websites is a unique and effective way of generating new targeted advertising inventory across the web,” said Jack Klues, Chairman, Publicis Groupe Media. “We believe that Pixsy is well positioned to significantly exploit this growing market.”

Pixsy PhotoSense
The PixsyPower service features the new Pixsy PhotoSense tool, allowing publishers to select a category or specific provider and create an advertising unit that can be dropped into their site. This ad unit changes dynamically to deliver fresh and interesting visual content, changing all the time. Whether the topic is news, sports, celebrities or entertainment, PhotoSense enables publishers to customize their images and videos, as well as select their content providers and categories. PhotoSense is available in all major IAB size ad units.

With the new Pixsy PhotoSense Search Widget, website publishers can run a full blown media search engine inside their site. Photo and video searches can be performed and viewed directly inside the widget. For example, a travel website can have a travel photo and video search engine directly inside their site, with photo and video results showing up inside the widget on the site.

“PixsyPower is the next breakthrough in the evolution of our media search distribution business,” said Chase Norlin, CEO, Pixsy Corporation. “Media search should be in the hands of all website operators, not just the big search portals.”

About Pixsy
Pixsy Corporation is a next-generation media search platform that powers private label image and video search engines for online publishers. Pixsy has offices in San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA and was founded by a team of engineers and business leaders hailing from Microsoft, Sony, and ValueClick.

Contact:
Pixsy Corporation
Lauren Karp
415.533.4000
lauren[at]pixsy.com

Location: Chicago, ILLaunch Date: 1999

In the company’s own words, what is it? We’re a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based software products possible with the least number of features necessary. Our products do less than the competition — intentionally. We’ve been in business since 1999 and love what we do.

We believe most software is too complex. Too many features, too many buttons, too much confusion. We build easy to use web-based products with elegant interfaces and thoughtful features. We’re focused on executing on the basics beautifully.

While our products are mainly built for small businesses and individuals (we call this group the Fortune 5,000,000), companies of all sizes use them every day. From 1 person to teams of 3-5 people to companies of 5000. Everyone loves simple tools that help get the job done and then get out of your way.

Outside quote about company: Farhad Manjo of salon.com said, “Basecamp and Backpack represent the future of software on the Web not just because they’re elegant, easy-to-use programs that will likely make your life better. The two applications are also interesting because they were created in a novel way, using a new programming model that allowed 37 Signals to build each program very quickly, and with very few people. Indeed, this method of creating applications — doing it fast and on a tight budget — might well be called 37 Signal’s animating philosophy, its central mission.”

Features:
* Project management and collaboration (Basecamp)
* Real-time group chat (Campfire)
* Information organizer and calendar (Backpack)
* Simple to-do lists (Ta-da List)
* Collaborative writing (Writeboard)
* Open-source web-app framework (Ruby on Rails)
* Blogging read by over 30,000 a day (Signal vs. Noise)

Management/Directors:
Jason Fried, Founder
David Heinemeier Hansson, Programmer
Ryan Singer, Designer
Sam Stephenson, Programmer
Marcel Molina, Programmer
Matt Linderman, Designer
Jamis Buck, Programmer

Relevant Links:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_47/b3960428.htm
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_13/b3977005.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/bestof/editorpicks.htm
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,122928-page,4/article.html

University of Sydney Union has partnered with studentface.com.au, Australia’s largest online student community, to launch a new service for undergraduate students and high school leavers.

Australia’s skills shortage has created record demand for graduates; however, high school students find it hard to enter university because they don’t know any university students who can encourage them to enter tertiary education.

“This partnership is significant because it helps high school leavers log onto studentface.com.au, locate University students who are studying their desired degree, ask them questions and then enter university with greater confidence about what they are studying”, explained Jahangir Shagaev from studentface.com.au.

Studentface is Australia’s largest online community for students with representation at over 25 Australian universities where students form study groups, share photos, videos, make friendships and find career opportunities.

“We think studentface.com.au is great because it helps students have a better university experience”, said Katy Fernandez, President of the USYD Union.

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About Studentface.com.au
Studentface.com.au is Australia’s largest online community for university students with presence at over 25 Australian Universities, representing over 80% of Australia’s student population. The company is based in Sydney and has a vision of creating an online platform for Australian students where high school leavers can discover what life is like at university and where university students can access career opportunities through alumni and graduates of their institution.

Contact:
Studentface.com.au
Level13/167 Macquarie House
Sydney, NSW, Australia
t: +61 (02) 8216 0780

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About University of Sydney Union