Today is the day. Today is the day where we can put the nonsense of yesterday’s press events behind us and actually get on the floor of CES 2011 with our Ustream equipment. Hallelujah.

The show

Opera released a new version of its desktop browser yesterday, Opera 11. The new browser shipped with a number of new features, including support for browser extensions and a new tabbing functionality.

It looks like the release was a success; Opera just announced that it saw 6.7 million downloads of the new browser in the first day alone. So how does that compare to downloads of Opera 10? Well, the company says that in its first week open to the public, Opera 10 was only downloaded 1.7 million times per day.

One factor that helped increase downloads, says Opera, is the auto-update feature which sends existing users a message to download the new version of the browser. But the company admits that not every user received the auto-update message. And Opera advertised Opera 11′s release, including a mouth-watering ad on Reddit using bacon as a lure. A survey of people downloading Opera for the first time had 53% of its respondents coming from Firefox, and 43% coming from IE. And none from Chrome?

Opera’s iPhone app saw 1 million downloads in its first day in the app store earlier this year. And Opera just announced that it hit 150 million users worldwide across its desktop and mobile browsers.

For comparison, Microsoft’s beta version of IE9 was downloaded 2 million times in the first two days the browser was open to the public.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Lawsuit: Facebook for Debt Collection – A woman in Florida is suing after a debt collector used Facebook to try to collect. This could be a significant case because, currently, Facebook as a debt collecting method is a gray area of the law. Facebook doesn’t like this type of activity and said it appears to violate their policies against, “any kind of threatening, intimidating, or hateful contact from one user to another.”

Reports: Accel Sells Part of its Stake in Facebook — TechCrunch and VentureBeat are reporting that early investor Accel has sold some minority portion of its stake in Facebook, with a possible valuation of around $34 million. Details, like the size of the stake, and where this positions Accel versus other investors, is still not clear. Technology Crossover Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz may be among the stock purchasers.

Mark Zuckerberg Gets Animated – Mark Zuckerberg and the saga of Facebook’s founding will be retold in an animated film form, adapted from a comic book called ”Mark Zuckerberg and the Found.” The books will be in stores in December at a cost of $6.99.

Facebook Writes UK Govt for Free Speech – Facebook and other tech companies have written an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron and the justice minister asking them to change libel laws to reflect the Internet age. One problem is that, “there is a one-year limit for bringing a defamation claim after an offending remark is published, but every time an online comment is viewed it counts as a new publication and a potential new cause for a defamation lawsuit.”

Facebook Accounts Disabled, Being Restored – A bug hit Facebook this week that disabled an untold number of accounts; Facebook says it is in the process of restoring access to those affected, and most seem to have been by this point.

U.S. Military Warned About Facebook’s Places – The U.S. Air Force sent an internal memo out recently advising troops to be careful when using Facebook’s location service, Places. Checking into certain places could compromise U.S. forces in war zones.

Plastic Jungle Raises $10M – Plastic Jungle raised $10 million this week in a third round of funding led by Jafco Ventures, and bringing the company’s total to $23.4 million, according to VentureBeat. We’ve written previously about Plastic Jungle’s work with Credits more than once.

Facebook Sells Cars – Facebook is becoming an ever important part of the auto industry, as reflected by the fact that almost every new release at the L.A. Auto Show was featured on Facebook. More at the link.

LivingSocial Invests $5M in Jump On It - LivingSocial invested $5 million to gain a majority stake in the Australian social shopping site Jump On It, according to a press release. The site will incorporate LivingSocial’s Daily Deals, opening up its money saving services to 10 million people in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Oodle Acquires Grouply – Social commerce company Oodle has acquired Grouply, an online hub for social groups; the Grouply platform and its hosted groups will continue to operate on that site, according to a press release.

Zuckerberg’s FaceMash Sold for $30K – We previously wrote about Mark Zuckerberg’s original web site, FaceMash, and the fact that it was up for auction. Well, it was sold for $30,000 to an anonymous buyer last month, according to a press release.

OpenSocial 1.1 Published – The OpenSocial Foundation published version 1.1 of its specification.

Facebook Integration for TSA Body Scans - The Transportation Security Administration announced a Facebook integration for its fully body scans, allowing passengers to share their semi-nude scans with all of the world (actually, this is a joke, but almost too real given everything else the TSA is doing).

Vin Diesel, Facebook’s Sexiest Man – People Magazine nominated its sexiest man alive recently, but they took to Facebook to see what the difference would be. Turns out Vin Diesel was named the “Sexiest Man Alive on Facebook,” and according to our PageData service, he has 18.5 million Likes.

Kmart, Sears Sell eGift Cards on Facebook – Sears and Kmart have begun to sell egift cards, from $5 to $25, on Facebook. Once purchased they may be delivered either by being posted on the recipient’s Wall or sent to their email.

Facebook Influences Teen Relationships – Seventeen Magazine released the details of a survey of 10,000 people aged 16 to 21 to see how Facebook influences romantic relationships. Turns out:  79% friend a crush within a week; 60% check a crush’s profile once a day and 40% more than once a day; 72% say talking online brings real life relationships closer; 10% have been dumped on Facebook; 10% change their status to single; 27% change their connection after a breakup; 73% keep their exes as friends.

Kids Under 12 Love Facebook – Smarty Pants published a study this week that found Facebook among the favorite brands of first through sixth graders from a list of 270-plus; Facebook was number 126 for children 6 through 12 and 91 among 9 through 12 year-olds.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Location-based services are currently in a race to lock up the biggest brands and retailers they can. Earlier this month Facebook ran a major promotion with the Gap; Chipotle is also using the platform to offer buy-one-get-one-free deals. This morning, Fast Company reported that Foursquare has forged a deal with Pepsico. And today SCVNGR is announcing that it’s scored a partnership with arguably the biggest brand of all: Coca-Cola.

SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch says that the company has been gunning to land Coke for some time (and that its competitors have as well). The campaign will take the form of custom, coke-themed SCVNGR challenges that will appear in 10 major malls across the country through the end of the year. Players who complete these challenge will be eligible for rewards like Coke bottle openers (meh) and $100,000 worth of American Express gift cards (more tempting). Players will be able to redeem these challenges at each malls’ information booth. And on Black Friday, Coke will actually have teams of people in the malls urging customers to try out the challenges.

Obviously this is a big win for SCVNGR, especially if it can maintain a relationship with Coke to run more campaigns in the future. Since its rewards platform launched over the summer, Priebatsch says that SCVNGR players have redeemed some $1.5 million worth of free goods.

The timing of today’s soft-drink related announcements seems like more than a coincidence, but it’s worth noting that Foursquare’s deal is quite different from SCVNGR’s. As reported in Fast Company today, Foursquare has actually partnered with Safeway/Vons to integrate with the grocery chain’s existing rewards program — this helps lower the barrier to get users playing the game, because it happens automatically at check-out. Users are rewarded with different Pepsi products based on their Foursquare history.

In contrast, SCVNGR probably won’t be going the auto-checkin route any time soon, because it’s focused primarily on offering engaging challenges rather than the check-in itself.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Oh wow. One of the most enduring jokes of the dotcom bubble period are the pet food startups that tried to make money selling really heavy bags of food online. Amazon.com-backed Pets.com, for example, raised $82.5 million in an IPO in February 2000 before collapsing nine months later.

I mean, really bad idea startups are launched every day. But back then they’d get $100 million in capital and an IPO before faceplanting.

Anyway, zoom forward to today. There are lots of companies that sell pet food online with a reasonable business model. You can buy those 40 lb bags of food anywhere from Amazon to Petco. They charge as much as $15 for shipping, but for some customers that’s better than driving to the store every month.

Petflow, a just launched startup, has raised $5 million from Westwood Ventures, to try their hand at this as well. Like Alice.com, Petflow is designed primarily to get people set up with the food they want and then have it delivered on a regular schedule automatically. Their prices are competitive based on a quick comparison of Eukanuba dog food. And shipping is a flat $5 on orders over $20, which is lower than anyone else that I can find.

Will it thrive? The company is profitable on each transaction, they say, although they are eating some of the shipping cost. The user experience is very well done and I like the auto delivery feature.

As long as they stay away from Super Bowl commercials for now, they may have a shot.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

In an effort to promote its sustainability efforts, Facebook has officially launched the company’s “Green” page. The page, represented by what appears to be the merger of a restart button and an abstract pine tree, will showcase the company’s latest green achievements, pertinent articles and a bevy of fun facts.

Under the “programs” tab there’s an official list of Facebook’s recent achievements, highlights include the company’s construction of Haystack to more efficiently store photos (which led to energy savings of 20%), its green transportation system and yes, those AUTO/Dual flush toilets at its headquarters.

The Green page is just part of Facebook’s increasingly aggressive campaign to ratchet up its sustainability efforts— or at least broadcast its green agenda to the public. This Thursday morning, Facebook also announced that it has joined the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign (DESC), a consortium of NGOs, regulators and consumers that promotes energy efficiency in the information and communications technology sector. DESC will be the first co-administrator for Facebook’s Green page, which will eventually feature other environmental experts as co-administrators.

“Our on-going philosophy has been to improve the efficiency of our infrastructure and we continue to invest tremendous resources to improve our own operations,”Jonathan Heiliger, VP of Technical Operations at Facebook said in a statement. “By creating and sharing innovative technology solutions, we hope to help raise the visibility of the importance of environmental sustainability across all industries.”

Today’s two-for-one announcement also comes in the wake of Facebook’s recent partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy, a large coalition of environmental leaders and major corporations like Dell and AT&T. Last week, Facebook agreed to give the Alliance $500,000 in free advertising on its site, to promote the campaign and its new consumer-facing website, LivingEfficiently.org.

The initiatives come amid growing criticism from certain environmental groups, like Greenpeace, which have complained that Facebook has not done enough to promote sustainability and energy efficiency. This year, Greenpeace has pressed Facebook to make its data centers greener by using more renewable energy. The group took particular offense to Facebook’s new data center in Prineville, Oregon, which is powered by  Pacific Power, a utility firm that draws significant energy from coal plants.

The months-old saga hasn’t died down yet, on Wednesday, the NYTimes ran an article titled, “Facebook Under Pressure to Be Greener,” which detailed the tension between Greenpeace and Facebook and the social network’s ongoing challenge to be energy efficient as it scales up.

Seems like the perfect time to publicly launch a Green page.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Just when you thoughtTripIt couldn’t get any easier to use, the startup has defied the impossible. The nifty site that creates customized travel itineraries from travel confirmation emails, is launching an auto-import feature for Gmail and Google Apps that will automatically read and import your travel emails to create and update itineraries on TripIt.

The feature essentially replaces needing to forward confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com. If you have a TripIt account you can register your Gmail or Google Apps account for the auto-import feature, allowing TripIt to automatically import your travel confirmation emails to create itineraries. The feature works across TripIt’s web platform and the startup’s apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones.

TripIt assures that the company only looks for travel-related emails in users accounts and nothing else. The parsing technology being used to scan emails is the same technology TripIt uses to extract information from travel confirmation emails and populate tis information into itineraries.

TripIt’s president and co-founder Gregg Brockway says that the new feature represents one more step in making the startup an effortless resource for travelers. And Brockway says that TripIt will be incorporating the tool with other email platforms in the near future. While it may be minute compared to other functionality enhancements, the auto-import feature only reinforces how awesome TripIt is for organizing travel plans.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

We’ve just received official word from Google confirming that they are not currently blocked in China and that a server issue was most likely the cause of their dashboard misread. One month ago, Google put up their watered-down engine to avoid being shut down completely in Mainland China. Because the Chinese government did not like the auto redirect to Google Hong Kong previously in place, the new degraded version at the center of all today’s confusion simply links to Google Hong Kong.

From Google, in an email today:

Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.

Please also note that the dashboard is not a real time tool.

The email also suggests that an error in measuring what turned out to be a small amount of blockage was responsible for the false alarm. The fact that the dashboard does not update in realtime is probably what lead to today’s mixed reports as to whether or not the service was working. When asked what specific issue caused the blockage, Google responded that they had nothing more to add.

Image: Bramus!

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

I honestly laid in bed last night thinking about the Chevy Volt’s $41k price tag. Seriously. When I got the press release shortly before it crossed the wire yesterday, the price seemed about right for a first-gen Voltec vehicle. The $350 lease program looked even better. I was already totally sold on the Volt after driving an early mule over a year ago and the price tag didn’t even bother me one bit. It’s not like I planned on buying one, but I could see where GM was coming from.

Then my post went up at 12:00 pm yesterday and quickly filled with commentors railing against the $41,000 price tag. That was followed by nearly every national news program claiming the Volt’s price invokes a bit of sticker shock. I thought, “Did these people really think the Volt was going to be the same price as a Malibu?” Apparently.

But then Rush Limbaugh opened-up on the Volt today and two things became clear. One, many people including Rush (and previously Letterman) do not fundamentally understand the Volt’s capabilities. I believe most consumers expected the Volt to be a mass-market vehicle and an instant hit in a sort of iPhone way. Yeah, that’s just not how the auto industry works.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Ford used the Facebook Page of its iconic Explorer to reveal the 2011 model to the public. The campaign has been building for awhile — the company has been posting teaser photos and videos to the Page after it first announced the launch in early June.

Scott Monty, Ford’s Multimedia Communications Manager, tells us that launching the totally redesigned Explorer through Facebook was the most effective way to get the word out about the new model, and the numbers from the first day of the launch back that up.

The Ford Explorer Page began the day with about 42,500 fans, and Monty was hoping to end the day with 50,000. The Page passed that mark, increasing its fan numbers by about 25% to more than 53,000. The launch of the redesigned model also included individual reveals around the U.S. and Canada, all documented with an often-updated Flickr stream that was linked to the Page.

“We wanted lots of engagement,” said Monty. “The Reveal tab had a lot of action, and we had live participation as well as on demand content for people that missed [the initial reveal].”

New car and truck models are traditionally revealed at large auto shows, where any one new model can be overshadowed by the hundreds of other new autos in the shows. Monty saw a bigger problem with using the auto show stage to introduce a redesign of the Ford Explorer.

“Typically at an auto show, with any auto show scenario, we’re talking to ourselves. We needed to step out of that bubble to get that message out there. This is the 100% reinvented Explorer – we needed to reinvent how we get out to the people.”

The Explorer’s Facebook page was used to reveal teaser photos and videos of interviews with designers and engineers in the weeks leading up to the reveal. While the new Explorer was featured in a segment on NBC’s Today Show, the Facebook audience was the first to get a look at the redesigned 2011 model a few minutes earlier, as well as a full day of videos, live Q&As, and more surrounding the model.

The blanket coverage on the Facebook page speaks to Ford’s overall strategy on the social network. At first glance it appears that the auto manufacturer has much lower fan numbers than some of its competitors, but Ford has made the conscious decision to segment its Facebook presence into particular model pages instead of under one large brand umbrella. Monty feels this is an important element to the Ford approach to appealing to the Facebook community, giving the brand the ability to customize content based on what fans want.

Ultimately, choosing Facebook to reveal the redesigned Explorer was an easy decision for Monty. When it comes to choosing the most effective avenues to reaching the largest audience, his approach is simple: ”Our fans tell us where we need to be.”

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook