Looks like Facebook is on a tear over the past week. Sure, no one at Facebook can really talk about the stuff that goes on behind the scene at the social network, but over the past few days, they’ve been making some definite waves that seems to be surely affecting the way people view the service and potentially their stock price. First, it was Facebook bolstering its photo capability with a monumental acquisition of leading photo service Instagram for a whopping $1 billion. Then, Facebook announced perhaps a life-saving and historic event–promoting being an organ donor. And now, it’s news that Facebook is moving its check-in feature beyond the traditional sense and making it more about introducing you to new people. Just how does the company plan on making this happen? By acquiring proximity app service Glancee.
Considered one of the latest products that could have been a “star” at this year’s South by Southwest, Glancee emerged onto the scene with some enormous potential, but also within a crowded marketplace. A couple months ago, there were nearly a dozen different of these so-called proximity applications, from market leader Highlight to others like Sonar, Banjo, Intro, EchoEcho, and several others, Glancee is probably the first such application to see an exit. Available for both iPhone and Android devices, Glancee states that it “makes it fun and safe to discover people nearby who share friends and interests with you.” Perhaps it was Glancee’s direct integration with Facebook that caused it to be appealing for an acquisition, since Glancee intended to leverage Facebook data to help you find people of interest instead of just showing you who is around you–it’s giving you some additional relevancy in helping you grow your social network.
Have you ever had to make a decision about something, but needed to talk it through with someone who could help influence your actions? We all need that “trusted” source in order to help us figure out what we want to do in our lives. In a sense, we need that mentorship to make us feel better about our decisions. But often we’re not able to find that right person who can help guide us to that right decision or maybe have an impromptu office hour session. And this is where Clarity comes into play.
Started by Dan Martell, a serial entrepreneur who recently was a co-founder of Flowtown, Clarity is aimed at helping people connect easily with those who need them the most. Using the most common device probably found on an individual, Clarity isn’t an application that you can download. No, it’s a true mobile HTML application that enables users to simply look up whoever they want, set up a scheduled meeting, and then dial them to talk about whatever they want. Sure, you might think that Clarity is just a fancy version of your telephone, but it’s so much more and it can help you find the right person you want to chat with. Say you’re having a problem trying to figure out your marketing strategy for your startup, or you’re looking to get advice on going after potential investors, or maybe you’re debating internally about whether you should make that leap of faith and start your own company. These, among others, are things that people most likely want to talk it through with someone else–someone who has been through it all, win or lose, and has the experience to help you make the decision.
Announced first by TechCrunch just moments ago, professional social network, LinkedIn, has just announced its acquisition of presentation/document-sharing powerhouse SlideShare for $119 million. This deal is something that will certainly benefit the professional community on LinkedIn–161 million members strong–in their attempt to build their social graph on the site. Sure, you could already add the SlideShare application to your profile, but now with SlideShare part of the LinkedIn family, members could theoretically go ahead and not only add their presentations to their profile, thereby making it more portfolio-like, but also implementing it on company pages, groups, etc.
In their press release, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said the following:
Presentations are one of the main ways in which professionals capture and share their experiences and knowledge, which in turn helps shape their professional identity. These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission and helping us deliver even more value for our members. We’re very excited to welcome the SlideShare team to LinkedIn.
No, social media cannot wash your car but thanks to the various tools out there, my car is about to be washed for me and I don’t even have to be there. Although daily deal sites like Groupon, Google Offers and Living Social have lost some of their shine, they offer a unique opportunity to introduce consumers to something they’ve never used before. There is potential for a marketing goldmine.
Thanks to Living Social, I’ve been introduced to a reasonably new online service, Cherry. Although the name doesn’t make it very clear what they do, the site allows users to request a car wash. Unlike traditional car washes that require you to bring your car to them, Cherry brings the car wash to you. Simply park in a publicly accessible space, check in with your car’s current location, and unlock your car doors to have the interior cleaned. Doesn’t get much easier than that. They will even send you a text message when someone arrives to wash your car so if you can wait until someone is there to unlock your car.
In mid-April, Cherry received $4.5 million in funding led by Shasta Ventures with additional participation from Founders Fund and angel investors including Shervin Pishevar and Bill Lee. The company also launched an iPhone app that allows users to request a car wash directly from their phone.
Cherry currently is available in various locations across the Bay Area and only costs $29.99 including tip. If you happen to see this post in the next day or two, you can purchase a voucher from Living Social that will only cost $10 for the same service. They’ve already passed 1,300 vouchers sold so there are a lot of dirty cars out there needing some TLC, mine being one of them.
Photo Credit: Original Batmobile at Southern California Car Wash via clusterflock
We know that the economy here in the United States is pretty bad–there are more than 12 million Americans currently without a job and make up the alarming 8.2% unemployment rate (as of March 2012). There’s a strong desire by the public to have our politicians put us back to work, but regardless of the effort, most people agree that we must do more in order to help those who have been out of work for some time. But the public sector isn’t the only part of our economy that should be responsible for helping to create jobs–the private sector is doing their fair share with one in particular standing out and trying to achieve something great. That company would be SmartRecruiters.
Known as a free social recruiting platform, SmartRecruiters is a San Francisco-based startup that has undertaken a great endeavor. They’re calling it the Zero Unemployment Movement, and this campaign is designed to make a fantasy into a reality–imagine a world where there’s zero unemployment and that people that wish to work, can work and where businesses need people, they can easily find people. So they’re taking the first steps in helping to make this paradigm happen and it’s going to be a massive undertaking. Last week, SmartRecruiters launched the “Got Jobs?” campaign whose goal is to create one million jobs right here in the United States. With over 3.5 million jobs unfilled, if companies only found people to take those spots, the economy might be a little better off.
