With the launch of a new site called Fashion Your Firefox, Mozilla is pushing to make normal users more aware of the add-ons available for its Firefox web browser.
There are already plenty of ways to find new add-ons (software you install to add features to your browser, such as a mini map sidebar or a space to get twitter updates). There’s a semi-comprehensive listing of add-ons on the Mozilla web site, as well as a recommendation window you can bring up in the browser itself. But both options seem better suited for users who know about and are interested in add-ons already. Fashion Your Firefox, on the other hand, is pitched at the mainstream. Instead of trying to list a broad range of add-ons to meet every possibly need, the site focuses on a relatively small number of categories (such as “social butterfly”, “digital pack rat” and “decorator”), then singles out just a few add-ons within each one.
Fashion Your Firefox could be a good introduction for users who want to dip their toes into the add-on world. They can find and download some of the best offerings, then if they like their improved browsers, they can go elsewhere to dig deeper.
Something like this is definitely needed to bring add-ons to a broader audience. Mozilla reports 1 billion Firefox add-on downloads so far, but anecdotally, it doesn’t feel like the concept has taken off among casual users. I don’t know anyone who has more than a few add-ons installed. I have to install plenty of add-ons so I can write about them, I uninstall them just as infrequently to keep things uncluttered.
When VentureBeat covers startups whose main product is a browser add-on, we invariably ask about the limited audience. It’s also worth noting that recent announcements from two companies featured on Fashion Your Firefox, as well as in Mozilla’s announcement, involve reaching a bigger audience than the add-on crowd: Discovery service StumbleUpon no longer requires an add-on, while Cooliris can bring its 3D media browsing experience to any website as an embeddedable wall.
I have some quibbles with how Fashion Your Firefox works right now. For one thing, there should be a prominent link to Mozilla’s full add-on listings so there’s an easy transition to the broader range of software out there. And maybe it doesn’t need the promotion, but I was disappointed at the absence of Google Gears, which I consider the most powerful add-on of all. Lastly, a newbie-friendly site like this one can’t completely overcome the fact that users hesitate before installing new software.
Nonetheless, if I was an add-on developer, I’d be doing whatever I could to get listed on the site.
Last week, Apple started a new promotion within iTunes offering certain music and movies for under $5 for a limitied time. For movies, this is brilliant, for music, it brings iTunes closer to AmazonMP3 in terms of deals. Today, iTunes has added a third discount section: Television shows. It’s not nearly as compelling.
The area promises “This week’s great TV shows under $10.” But the problem is that most are either junk (The Starter Wife?) or best-of collections. For example, 30 Rock is on the list, but it’s Tina Fey’s top 5 episodes of the series — and it’s $9.99. Sure, that’s a $5 savings if you were planning to buy those episodes individually, but who would? If I’m going to buy the show, I want the entire season.
The same is true for South Park (Matt and Trey’s Top 10) and MADtv (The Best of). The Sarah Silverman Program is a nice offering as its the whole season, but there are only 6 episodes. Where are the real TV shows like Lost, 24, Heroes, Mad Men? In other words, where are the popular ones?
Of course Apple doesn’t have to discount the popular ones, those already sell, but if it really wants to be the leader in digital video distribution over the Internet it should consider it. Top quality programs at good prices are like a gateway drug not only for iTunes but for devices like the Apple TV.
Apple is doing it right with movies, this week’s offerings include Good Will Hunting, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Rambo: First Blood, Shakespeare in Love, The Rock, High Fidelity, Groundhog Day and Armageddon among others. (Interestingly, there is no one “Movie of the Week” this week, like there was last week.) I would buy all of these for $4.99, and I just might.
For music, the deals are more hit or miss. While everyone will want the Journey album Escape — which, yes, contains the ultimate retro-hit and Camp Cyprus favorite “Don’t Stop Believin’” — I’m not sure how many people are going to buy The Best of Vanilla Ice. (Besides me, of course — anything less than the best is a felony.)
Glam Media, a company targeting content and ads mainly at women, is letting advertisers launch full-fledged widgets and applications on the Glam site.
Just like Facebook lets developers create applications that run freely on its site, Glam is doing the same for advertisers. The main difference is that these advertisers get to have their display ads run front-and-center throughout their applications or widgets. The apps they create are designed to be integrated into the blogs and other publishing sites in Glam’s network.
The product ensures that advertisers can “own” their space, something that they have a difficult time doing on Facebook, for example. On Facebook and other social networks, one advertiser may promote a film in one area of an application or widget while a different advertiser promotes a competing film in another area. There’s no way to track such conflicts. Glam offers analytics to monitor how advertisements perform, and ways to avoid these clashes.
Take a look at the Sex and the City example in the screenshot below.
The move continues Glam’s steady release of innovative ways for advertisers to interact with viewers — even at a time when the economic slowdown will likely stunt online ad growth, and in turn wallop Glam’s business model.
There’s no doubt Glam has carved out significant reach — it recently emerged as a top-ten web property, according to ComScore Media Metrix. However, that reach includes Glam ads on sites that aren’t necessarily owned by the company. So while Glam is warming up to big ad agencies by providing them the sort of products they love, the big question is whether those agencies will fully embrace the publishing inventory Glam offers them.
The trick for Glam is to make sure it owns enough good content. But that’s expensive. Now that Glam will be forced to horde much of its vast amount of funding in order to survive the downturn, its ability to acquire good content will be slowed. It has struck partnerships with publishers, but even those could come under pressure.
While Glam continues to copy Facebook with things like its application platform, it also wants to distance itself from the social networking giant — insisting that Facebook has been relegated to a “social media” site where most ads come from “remnant” ad networks that serve very cheap ads. Glam’s network requires IAB standard ad units.
Glam’s latest product, called the “Glam Applications Network,” launches with the support of 50 companies producing widgets and applications for the platform — including Sphere, BuzzFeed, Meebo, PollDaddy, PicApp, JS-Kit and Kwanzoo. Many of these companies build widgets for things like polls, slideshows, video commenting and contests, and they will allow advertisers to offer display ads inside the widgets.
Glam also offers a standardized payment system for developers, publishers and media companies.
The apps and widgets will be available in the Glam Apps Store.
The product is available for Glam’s 700-plus websites in the Glam.com and Brash.com (Glam’s new offering for men) networks — and will be opened to everyone in early 2009.
Glam also offers rights management. So for example, if VentureBeat wanted to offer a widget of its full news stories to the New York Times, we could do so using one widget. VentureBeat could then use a second widget to offer its news content in a different way (perhaps just the first two paragraphs) to three or four other top publishers. And using a third widget, we could offer just our headlines to any other site.
The Glam platform is built on standards OpenSocial and OpenID, which are likely to make it easier for advertisers to interact with users across widgets on Glam (through a common OpenID login and registration for users) and also across the web (because applications will be compatible with other social networks via OpenSocial).
What it does
Presented by Glam Media, the giant media network that covers the women market and which has a consolidated presence in more than 500 sites and weblogs, Glam Apps stand as a new way for webmaster and bloggers to punch up their traffic figures.
These apps include celebrity photos, slideshows and videos alongside polls and chats that can be easily implemented. Moreover, sharing buttons are included together with video commenting in order to foster user interaction and build up online interest.
Adding any of the featured apps is quite easy, too. You simply browse through the available list until you find one that catches your fancy, and then configure it to suit your site or weblog. Once this has been taken care of, you simple embed the provided code on your website or blog.
A nice touch is that anybody can suggest new apps to be developed through the existing Glam Apps Wishlist. This way, you can start making a revenue-generating idea of your own a tangible reality.
In their own words
“Glam Apps help bloggers and site owners add new features and grow their traffic and revenue.”
Why it might be a killer
Bloggers and webmasters alike will appreciate the chance to increase their traffic figures and generate a higher revenue in the process.
Some questions
How difficult is it to configure any of the featured apps?
Link: http://apps.glam.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/apps-glam-com-power-up-your-blog-or-your-site
What it does
Found at HardySystems.com, Dates! is a web calendaring solution that has all the usual goodies one expects in such an application. Through Dates! it is possible to schedule events in any given field – this application will be useful not only to individual users, but also to organizations and institutions such as universities needing to display an academic calendar and so forth.
Moreover, there are different formats to choose from when using this application. For instance, calendars can consist of plain text for being copied into a word processor, or preformatted for being printed straight away.
The site also has a section that will let you test out Dates! and see how it fares for yourself. You simply have to log in to the fictional “Guest Enterprise” calendar which is part of the premises using “Guest” both as the ID and the password to have a sampler of this application in full swing.
There are three different versions of Dates! available, namely the full version, a reduced-feature version and a simple upcoming-events only calendar. The price of each one of these is described on the site, and in any case there is a free 30-day trial period.
In their own words
“DATES! is a web event calendaring and scheduling service. It provides event calendars to your web site for your visitors, with searching, sorting, and visitor-interaction built in.”
Why it might be a killer
It is a simple approach that works very well in practice.
Some questions
How much does each version cost? How do they differ from each other?
Link: http://www.hardysystems.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/hardysystems-com-web-calendaring-made-easy
What it does
USGN is a company that provides web-based collaborative project management software solutions, aimed at business teams that need to work together in the cyberspace. This platform is described at the corporate website, under the “Products” banner.
In general terms, this tool gives individuals the wherewithal to automate different steps and tasks of the collaboration process while supplying a database which is hosted on the WWW, and that makes for virtual collaboration.
One of the main selling points of this platform is that is fully configurable and adaptable to each customer’s best practice models and procedures. This aspect is actually pivotal, as the transition itself towards web-based processes is not necessarily an easy task.
The various modules that are part of this tool are also described online. These include: “Architecture & Engineering”, “Real Estate”, “Due Diligence & Land-use” and “Store Planning” just to name a few.
For its part, the handling of in-house systems and company management are likewise taken care of, enabling companies to build applications to deal with non-project related elements such as time sheets and travel requests.
If you are interested in such a solution, a demo can be requested easily through the site. A link is provided at the top of most screens to these effects.
In their own words
“USGN is a leading provider of web-based collaborative project management software, transforming multi-project industries such as construction with the world's first thin client Application Development Platform. For today's virtual business teams who need to work together in collaborative workgroups, USGN is the essence of collaboration with a portfolio of software and a powerful development platform.”
Why it might be a killer
Businesses everywhere are certain to find the available solutions remarkable.
Some questions
How does the company compare to other enterprises providing similar services?
Link: http://www.usgn.net
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/usgn-net-smoother-web-based-collaborative-projects
What it does
Goodsense is an ad network that will let advertisers reach an audience made up of individuals who buy and consume green products and services. On the other hand, publishers who wish to monetize their green sites can also do so via the website.
As a result, the Goodsense portal splits itself into two main categories – one which is aimed at advertisers, and one that deals with publishers.
Further environmentalist support is provided by what the company terms “goodcents”, an euphemism for charitable donations that are made each month to groups spanning the whole globe which share the same sustainability and green values. You can read more about this initiative in the section that goes by the same name, and see the foundations and groups that are being supported month by month.
If you like the approach of the company, you can easily place an ad by following the link which is provided on the main page. Simply position your web browser at Getgoodsense.com and you are on your way.
In their own words
“We are the premier ad network for reaching consumers who care about living green, the environment, and sustainability.”
Why it might be a killer
It caters for a specific sector of the public which is a force that has to be reckoned with in today’s market.
Some questions
How much does Goodsense charges?
Link: http://www.getgoodsense.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Marketing/getgoodsense-com-environmentalist-ad-network