Deal Radar 2008: Takkle Tackling Socially

Takkle is a social network for high school sports, where students, athletes, coaches, and fans share their passion. Takkle has a strategic alliance with Sports Illustrated. Takkle allows students to create their profiles and upload their stats, photos and videos for college recruiters. In November 2007 Takkle raised $7 million in venture funding led by

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ZipRealty – Challenging Times, But

We have discussed the online real estate industry and Zip Realty in 2007. Here we will take a look at Zip Realty’s recent situation, it performance and its options.

Deal Radar 2008: Zillow

Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, founders of Expedia, launched Zillow, a real estimate site in Feb 2005. Zillow is known for providing free home valuations called Zestimates, which are somewhat accurate. Zillow also provides house specs, graphing, mapping, and analysis tools. Zillow launched Smart Search along with enhanced Neighborhood Pages that makes it easier for

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Deal Radar 2008: Trulia Can Consolidate Real Estate

It is raining cats and dogs. Electricity was out this morning and we just got it back. I am very behind in everything, including my writing. But here we go … Yesterday, we discussed the Kayak-Sidestep roll-up deal, and its implications on Google. Trulia is a real estate vertical search engine that could be a

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Vertical Ad Networks: A Trend to Watch for 2008

I talked about Audience Fragmentation and the Rise of Ad Networks recently. At the moment, the Ad Networks are in the business of amassing large volumes of fragmented traffic, and offering a channel to advertisers to access the publishers who own this traffic. Expect, in 2008, a trend towards these “mass” Ad Networks gradually becoming

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Web 3.0 & MSN (Part 3)

Web 3.0 Framework discussion Below is a quick overview of the Web 3.0 framework for the MSN sites. We have not gone into the details of all the properties, but you can review the Web 3.0 section of this site for detailed discussions on some of the vertical categories. Context MSN Astrology provides horoscopes and

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Web 3.0 & NYT (Part 5)

Conclusion NYT is working on organizing its online business on the basis of key verticals, which will allow it to extend its popular classifieds sections like auto, jobs, real estate, travel, and entertainment, increase user engagement and aid in monetization of the sites. The partnership with Monster to build its online recruitment product offering is

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Web 3.0 & NYT (Part 4)

Acquisition Targets NYT has been making small investments and acquisitions in the online space for the past few years, tipping its toes into the online waters. The Company’s biggest acquisition in this space has been About.com in March 2005, which has been paying off handsomely. The Company has partnered with Monster which now powers the

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