Intuit Shuts Down Zipingo. Yelp Winning This Space Through Attrition

Zipingo, the small business review site launched by Intuit in late 2005, shut down yesterday.

When it launched, Zipingo competed with a slew of other startups that were targeting local business reviews. Of the three that we mentioned - Yelp, Judy’s Book and Insider Pages - only one, Yelp, remains in it’s original form. Judy’s Book changed its model to focus on coupons and deals, and Insider Pages sold for little more than the capital it originally raised to CitySearch.

The message above is all that remains of Zipingo. Without coming right out and saying it, the reason they’ve shut it down is that no one was apparently using it. Comscore wan’t tracking them at all (see Yelp v. Insider pages below).

Other startups, of course, are joing this space all the time. Google and Yahoo will take their pound of flesh, but upstarts like AskPoodle are giving it a shot as well.

Zipingo joins the TechCrunch DeadPool.

The King Is Long Gone But His Brand Has A Life of Its Own

By Melinda Newman Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, but in many ways the keepers of his estate are only starting to take care of business.
Biggest Elvis fan in the Southland? You be the judge Chicago Daily Southtown
Memories of Elvis Dateline Alabama
Scotsman - BBC News - Vancouver Sun - Buffalo News
all 174 news articles »


http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn

Polar Rose Debuts At Gnomedex

Polar Rose, a European startup that has a unique approach to recognizing faces in photos (remember Riya?), is having a bit of a pre-launch coming out party at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle today.

We first wrote about the company last December, way before they were ready to take beta testers. But even then it was clear that they were on to something. They use a browser plugin to allow users to tag people in photos anywhere on the web. They use those photos to construct a 3D image of the person, and then make educated guesses as to who is in untagged photos. See the post linked at the top of this paragraph for more details.

The company has been testing the service with a very limited number of beta users. The beta will expand significantly today, however. Every attendee of the Gnomedex conference will be able to register, and will be encouraged to tag photos of the event. A special page at Polar Rose was set up to show the tagged photos (none yet, the conference hasn’t started).

250 Polar Rose Beta Accounts Available

Polar Rose has also given us 250 beta accounts to give out immediately. Just send an email to techcrunch@polarrose.com. If you aren’t one of the first 250, you’ll be placed on the waiting list for the beta - more invites are coming every week.

More Lawsuit Fun For Facebook

Facebook is going to have to defend itself against at least one more lawsuit in the coming months. They’re not just dealing with the ConnectU lawsuit - another one was filed against them last month, in Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit hinges on U.S. Patent 6,519,629 (”System for creating a community for users with common interests to interact in”), which was issued in 2003 and is now owned by the plaintiffs, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.

This is a flat out patent infringement accusation, and the plaintiff is requesting royalties from Facebook. The patent claims relate to social networks built around communities of users with “common interests.” Facebook, which bases networks around universities, business, etc., is naturally the largest target for the patent offensive.

I emailed Facebook earlier today for a comment. No word back from them yet.