Dapper to Launch Instant Facebook AppMaker

This Tuesday, Israel-based Dapper will launch the private beta of Facebook AppMaker, a new tool that the company claims will provide people with a dead simple way to create new Facebook applications.

At its core, Dapper allows users to create API’s called “Dapps” by selecting data from Websites, RSS/XML feeds, Google Gadgets, and more. Each “Dapp” is an XML which can be manipulated in any number of ways. The company released a tool to create Netvibes modules in late 2006.

Dapper’s Facebook AppMaker lets these Dapps be transformed into full-blown Facebook applications. This includes functionalities such as remote search and retrieval, remote login, and multi-page apps. A Facebook Developer account is a prerequisite to the AppMaker process itself.

The test app I created was an effortless process: I created a Dapp, entered it in the AppMaker wizard, entered the appropriate Facebook’s API/Secret keys, saved and installed. While creating a Dapp was not a sophisticated process on Dapper’s side, it certainly could be more intuitive. I found the Facebook side of the process to require a higher degree of technological aptitude.

Dapper is debuting the AppMaker with an Answers.com application that features three applets: Word of the Day, Today in History, and Do You Have the Answers? Another already available app is Go2Web20’s. Expect an additional application to be launched in the next couple of days with a “high-profile” media player.

Headed by Eran Shir (CEO) and Jon Aizen (CTO), Dapper employs a team of 15 and is in the midst of setting-up an office in San Francisco. In 2006, the company secured a $1.2M funding round from Accel Partners. The company first launched in August 2006 and we covered them as part of a roundup post along with Yahoo Pipes, Teqlo, Proto and OpenKapow in March 2007.

Sign-up for beta access by emailing techcrunch@dapper.net.

All New Bloglines Launches in Beta

Bloglines, the grandfather of web based RSS readers, launched a new beta site this evening at beta.bloglines.com. Like everyone else these days, the most notable new feature is an Ajax customizable home page where users can drag and reorder feeds for a quick view.

Bloglines now has three viewing options - quick view (the new Ajax drag and drop view in the image to the left), three pane “Outlook-like” view and the classic full view with two panes. The site is also trying to manage unread feeds more intelligently, a common user complaint in the past.

The company says more changes are coming. Options for saving, sending and sharing stories, tools for building link blogs, managing blog rolls, etc. are all on the way. In the meantime, the classic bloglines site will remain available at bloglines.com. Feeds remain synced between the two sites.

Product iterations come very slowly at Bloglines, which was acquired by Ask.com in early 2005. The last major news from them was the integration of blog search over a year ago. Meanwhile, Google Reader has quickly grabbed the attention of the early adopter crowd, and is by far the most popular feed reader used by our readers according to Feedburner stats.

Richard MacManus has a much longer review of the product at Read/Write Web.

VideoEgg And Lots Of Others Call B.S. On YouTube

VideoEgg’s overlay advertising system has been in the market for a year and is driving “significant” revenue for the company. it’s so successful, in fact, that they recently launched a Facebook advertising network based on the same technology.

The idea is to use a Flash overlay advertisement with some basic information and graphics that takes up a small part of the viewable video area. Users click the ad and get a more in depth video ad. It’s less intrusive than a pre or post roll ad, and has far better performance than ads placed around a video. It’s likely to become the standard way ads are placed on video, even potentially on normal television as the thirty second ad spot continues to decline.

Given VideoEgg’s success with the unit it’s no surprise that YouTube has adopted the same format with their advertising. But it is surprising that YouTube failed to give even a passing mention to the company that invented the unit. VideoEgg also claims to have a patent application on this - something YouTube will certainly have to deal with down the road.

Nick Carr points out that much of the early press on YouTube was written by people who failed to do their homework. Carr trashes a CNET article that he says was basically an ad for YouTube. CNET subsequently changed the title of their article but there is still no mention of VideoEgg’s invention of the unit

Meanwhile, VideoEgg seems to be handling the situation well and taking advantage of the publicity. They added the graphic above to their home page, and are talking to press about their product. Suddenly, everyone is interested.

http://www.techcrunch.com/

TwitKu: Single Interface For Twitter And Jaiku

TwitKu is a new site that is sort of a Meebo (web instant messaging) for the Twitter and Jaiku “presence blogging” services.

The site brings your Twitter and Jaiku accounts onto one screen and adds a posting interface that allows you to post just to one of the services, or to both. The benefit for many people that use both services religiously is obvious. Very simple and very useful for some people.

Both Twitter and Jaiku have APIs, making this possible (or at least manageable). Clones/similar products like Pownce and the new Yappd don’t have APIs. When and if those services release them, I’d expect TwitKu to quickly add those services as well. And that would save those of us who want to use all of the services but refuse to choose a lot of time.

And since Twitter and Jaiku are all about presence and status updates of friends, there’s no reason not to add Facebook status right away, too.

TripAdvisor Acquires Facebook App Where I’ve Been For $3 Million

We have now confirmed that this deal has not happened and is in the discussion stage only. Inside Facebook pulled the trigger on their post a little too soon.

TripAdvisor has acquired Facebook Application “Where I’ve Been” for a reported $3 million.

Where I’ve Been allows users to share where they have been in the world from their Facebook profiles and has approximately 2.3 million users.

Inside Facebook notes that the $3 million purchase price values Where I’ve Been users at around $1.30 each.

The purchase is the first major seven figure acquisition for a dedicated Facebook only application. Where I’ve Been was recently included on the TechCrunch interns list of favorite Facebook apps.

Wiki Jacking

Following the decision in January by Wikipedia to strip SEO benefits from outgoing links by adding the link-nofollow tag (see our coverage of how the rule doesn’t apply to certain third party wiki links) the once rampant gaming of Wikipedia has all but disappeared. SEOMoz’s Rand Fishkin posted during the week on a new technique being used that instead of building Google juice to a particular site, aims to knock others off the top positions on Google by promoting the position of Wikipedia pages to the top of each specific Google search query. I’m not quite sure exactly what color hat the method may be (and Rand asks the same question), but it is clever.

Thank You Sponsors: Featuring Real Time Matrix, DOmedia and Profile Builder

It’s time to say a quick “thank you” to the sponsors of our party at August capital last month:

Tune in to learn more about Real Time Matrix’s Vortex, DOmedia’s platform for alternative media buying and Profile Builder’s profile mangement platform. Michael Arrington and Steve Gillmor from Podtech.net and Bad Sinatra interview Jeff Whitehead, Todd Cameron and Boyan Josic. Watch closely for a quick guest appearance from another famous blogger… or was that really Yahoo’s Salim Ismail? Interviews were shot live at the TechCrunch 9 Meet Up at August Capital. Thank you again to all the sponsors who helped make the Meet Up a success.

iJ.am - The Real Time Matrix’s iJ.am lets you create a personalized RSS feed widgets of the news you care about the most. Check out the iJ.am Vortex headlines widget that Real Time Matrix developed for TechCrunch.

Wallhogs - Wallhogs makes semi-adhesive vinyl posters of whatever images you’d like, ranging from your own family photos to cutouts of full-sized football players. If you came to TechCrunch 9, you would have seen WallHogs’ stickers denoting the spots for each of the presenting companies. They have a wide variety of existing posters in different sizes for about $20 to $50.

Template Monster - They have oodles of website templates, flash templates, flash intros, WordPress themes, and corporate designs. As a celebration of Template Monster’s birthday TechCrunch readers get a 15% discount.

Text Link Ads - If you’re looking to monetize your site, or for new advertising opportunities, check out Text Link Ads. TLA helps improve your site’s ranking and target 10,000+ niche communities, all at a flat rate.

Lewis PR - A multinational public relations firm representing clients like Second Life, Citrix Systems, and St. Bernard Software. Check out their blog for a more in depth view of the company.

Ads-Click - One of the most popular features on blogs is a tag cloud, which gives and idea of the main key

Adicate - Time is money and Adicate has applied that to advertising by allowing advertisers to buy time slots on a publisher’s page. They manage all the headache and provide the backend support to sell the ads.

Edgeio - Classified listings have always followed the eyeballs in print. Edgeio takes the same principle to the web, letting you monetize your site by tying in relevant listings. Edgeio Marketplaces currently powers TechCrunch’s job board and have several affiliate programs that publishers can use to boost their revenues.