A new way to build your Google Maps

Published in March 19th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Business, Google, Internet, Multimedia, Semantic Web, Software, Technology, Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0
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These days we came across a tiny French based company called Click2Map that is providing an interesting editor for creating mash-ups with Google Maps. You can there create fully customizable interactive professional online maps from existing data and the editor also offers database and template functionalities. They have just added a powerful template system coupled […]

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What is the real reason Automattic bought Glavatar?

Published in March 16th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Acquisitions, Automattic, Business, Internet, Investments, Media, Money, Privacy, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Social Networking, Society, Software, Technology, Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0
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As some of you already know w2i (web2innovations.com) is keeping an internal archive of almost all funding and acquisition deals that happened over the past years on web. While we have the ambitions to report on all of them the deals are so many so that we end up only writing about some of the […]

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ETech, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference is coming

Published in February 28th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Business, Games, Internet, Media, Search Engines, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Social Networking, Society, Software, Technology, Telecom, Web 2.0
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One of the most important technology conferences for the year will be held in March 3-6 in San Diego, California. ETech the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, now in its seventh year, will take a wide-eyed look at the brand new tech that’s tweaking how we are seen as individuals, how we choose to channel and […]

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The Founders Fund creates Founders Fund II

Published in January 30th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Business, Facebook, Founders Fund, Founders Fund II, Funding, Internet, Investments, Money, Peter Thiel, Semantic Web, Social Networking, Software, Technology, The Founder's Fund, Venture Capital, Web 2.0
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Founders Fund, a non-traditional investment group, has raised an institutional fund in the amount of $220 million. The new fund, Founders Fund II, will allow this team of four managing partners, who themselves are founders and entrepreneurs, to leverage their individual expertise and deliver their unique business model, which puts the entrepreneurs first. Founders Fund […]

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Inform receives $15 Million investment from Spark Capital

Published in January 24th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Business, Enterprise, Funding, Internet, Investments, Media, Money, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Software, Spark Capital, Technology, Venture Capital, Web 2.0
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Inform Technologies, a technology solution for established media brands, has received a $15 million investment from Spark Capital, a Boston-based venture fund focused on the intersection of the media, entertainment and technology industries.
The company said in their PR they are going to use the funds to accelerate growth. The company also claims nearly 100 media […]

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Massive second round of funding for Freebase - $42 Million

Published in January 18th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Benchmark Capital, Business, Funding, Goldman Sachs, Internet, Investments, Millennium Technology Ventures, Money, Omidyar Network, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Software, Technology, Venture Capital, Web 2.0
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Freebase, the open and shared database of the world’s knowledge, has raised a whopping amount of money in its Series B round of funding, $42 Million, in a round that included Benchmark Capital and Goldman Sachs. Total funding to date is $57 million.
The investment is considerable, and comes at a time when a number of […]

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Google files patent for recognizing text in images

Published in January 4th, 2008
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Adobe, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Google, Internet, Public Companies, Ron Conway, Search Engines, Semantic Web, Software, Technology, Web 2.0, video
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Google has filed a patent application in July 2007, which has just recently become public claiming methods where robots can read and understand text in images and video. The basic idea here is Google to be able to index videos and images and made them available and searchable by text or keywords located inside the […]

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Hakia takes $5M more, totals $16M

Published in December 20th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Alexandra Investment Management, Business, Funding, Internet, Investments, Money, Noble Grossart Investments, Prokom Investments, Search Engines, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Technology, Web 2.0
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In a new round of funding Hakia, the natural language processing search engine has raised additional $5M. The money came from a previous investor, some of which are Noble Grossart Investments, Alexandra Investment Management, Prokom Investments, KVK, and several angel investors. With plans of fully launching some time next year, Hakia has been working towards […]

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Google is taking on Wikipedia

Published in December 15th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Advertising, Business, Google, Internet, Public Companies, Search Engines, Semantic Web, Software, Technology, Web 2.0
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Once known as one of the strongest and beneficial friendships on the Web between two hugely popular and recognized giants is today going to turn out into an Internet battle second to none.
It is no secret on Web that Google was in love with Wikipedia over the past years turning this small and free encyclopedia […]

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Hakia takes on major search engines backed up by a small army of international investors

Published in December 11th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Alexandra Investment Management, Funding, Internet, Investments, Search Engines, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Social Search Engines, Software, Technology, Web 2.0
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In our planned series of publications about the Semantic Web and its Apps today Hakia is our 3rd featured company.
Hakia.com, just like Freebase and Powerset is also heavily relying on Semantic technologies to produce and deliver hopefully better and meaningful results to its users.
Hakia is building the Web’s new “meaning-based” (semantic) search engine with the […]

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Powerset – the natural language processing search engine empowered by Hbase in Hadoop

Published in December 4th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Amidzad, Foundation Capital, Peter Thiel, Search Engines, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Software, Technology, The Founder's Fund, Web 2.0
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In our planned series of publications about the Semantic Web and its apps today Powerset is going to be our second company, after Freebase, to be featured. 
Powerset is a Silicon Valley based company building a transformative consumer search engine based on natural language processing. Their unique innovations in search are rooted in breakthrough technologies that take advantage […]

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Is Google trying to become a Social Search Engine

Published in December 1st, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Business, Google, Search Engines, Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Social Networking, Social Search Engines, Technology, Web 2.0
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Based on what we are seeing the answer is close to yes. Google is now experimenting with new social features aimed at improving the users’ search experience.
This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you’ll continue to see those changes. […]

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Freebase: open, shared database of the world’s knowledge

Published in November 30th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Technology, Web 2.0
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Freebase, created by Metaweb Technologies, is an open database of the world’s information. It’s built by the community and for the community – free for anyone to query, contribute to, build applications on top of, or integrate into their websites.
Already, Freebase covers millions of topics in hundreds of categories. Drawing from large open data sets […]

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The Semantic Web and its Applications Today

Published in November 29th, 2007
Posted by Web 2.0 Innovations in Semantic Apps, Semantic Web, Technology, Web 2.0
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Since Web 2.0 Innovations is all about discovering and showcasing the innovation on web, we think the Semantic Web is playing a significant role of the next web transformation. Therefore in a series of publications we will try to discover, highlight and feature the next generation of web-based semantic applications, engines, platforms, mash-ups, machines, products, […]

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