SearchEngineUpdate with Vanessa Zamora - 04-22-2008 Part I
Abstract: 1. Ex-Googlers Working On Social Search Service Site Mechanical Zoo, 2. Photobucket Goes Public With Its API
Vanessa Zamora
Video Content Producer, SearchEngineWorld
5:09 pm on April 22, 2008 (utc 0)
Transcript
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Ex-Googlers Working On Social Search Service Site Mechanical Zoo
Former Google News Product Manager Nathan Stoll, Max Ventilla, a former business development manager at Google; and Damon Horowitz, a longtime computer scientist and former lead engineer of Perspecta are poised to launch a social search service site called Mechanical Zoo in beta test form next month. Mechanical Zoo lets people tap into their social circle to find answers on any topic, but with additional built-in intelligence about an individuals personal tastes. Mechanical Zoo will compete against other social search applications such as Friendfeed, also started by former Googlers, Delver, and Eurekster, although all with a slightly different approach. One hundred alpha-testers are currently testing the service.
Fox Media Interactive Photo sharing site Photobucket plans to announce it will release an Application Programming Interface for its site to external developers who will be able to write applications enabling users to securely log in to their account, upload photos and videos, search public content, access and change metadata such as titles and tags, and share content through e-mail. Photobucket hopes the move will increase advertising and sponsorship opportunities as well as help it get in on the success that Google’s OpenSocial and Facebook have experienced from developers programming for similar API’s. Third party developers can sign up for free at the new developer site and get started coding soon after. Photobucket will offer noncommercial and revenue generating commercial versions of the API, with the latter requiring a formal agreement between the developer and Photobucket. At launch, expected today, there will be about 20 applications built using the API by developers including Adobe, AOL, FotoFlexer, Intercasting, RockYou, Slide and Snapvine.
5:09 pm on April 22, 2008 (utc 0)