ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Israel's hi-tech scene was in a bit of a lull during the week of June 29, 2008, perhaps because of July 4th in the United States. The biggest news was about Google AdWords killer, Peer39, which has a semantic search engine that brings back more accurate results and can thus display better ads. It also has the ability to differentiate between positive and negative contexts of words. After Peer39, Microsoft made headlines with two announcements. The first announcement was that it has partnered with Ben-Gurion University and the second was that MSN Israel will now be controlled fully by Microsoft and no longer jointly with Internet Gold. There was also a lot of technology investment-related news that took place. For these and the rest of the 12 technology-related headlines from the week of June 29, 2008, as well as a special bonus check below.


Technology
Microsoft and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announce agreement

A First Look Inside Peer39 & Its Semantic Advertising Technology

Microsoft to take full charge of MSN Israel

Alvarion® Sets Off First Mobile WiMAX™ Internet Service in the U.S.


Business
Cleantech Index (CTIUS) Expands Globally, Adds 33 New Companies

Israel's high-tech culture must rejigger, VC says

Options trade points to stronger shekel

VMware Completes Acquisition of B-hive Networks

IncrediMail and Google Sign AdSense Direct Agreement

Metalink files to raise $25m


Miscellaneous
What Determines the Price of Oil?

Destination: San Francisco. And Still NoGoBoingo


Bonus
This past Tuesday, popular Israel Web 2.0 blog, the.co.ils hosted its annual web startup competition, TWS2008. Ten Israeli Web 2.0 companies were selected by an impressive list of judges and gave brief presentations about what they do. Some of the winners included, Nuconomy, Dapper, HiveSight and WorkLight. WorkLight securely brings personalized Web 2.0 into the enterprise. Here are two video clips of part of WorkLight's presentation:





About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, recently mentioned in his blog that social networking on the Web is providing people with the opportunity to share data about themselves and things related to them for the interest of others (i.e., for connecting to others). He explains though that the popularity of these social networks hide the reality of people using these closed sites not for the sites themselves but for the opportunities and connections that they provide them.

For those who aren't familiar with Israeli society, it tends to pride itself on giving advice and having connections (protexia). The connection of people and information are strong values that are practically innate in Israelis and has probably contributed to Israel's high-tech sector being very active in the Web 2.0 phenomena -- so active, that I have been thinking ever since Daniel Cohen's Israei Nokia article that if all these Israeli companies were pooled, Israel could have countered Google or created its own Facebook.

Unfortunately, it's a lot easier said than done or even fully imagined. However, with Berners-Lee talking about the Giant Global Graph and the need to transcend the limits of the current social networking graph, maybe there is still the chance that Israel will build the next big networking phenomena. Israeli companies just have to think outside the box of the Web and the set up of social networks as we know it.

For anyone who wants to get started on this, here's a list of some of the top Israeli Web 2.0 companies that offer interactive services that if were combined in a new way, I think could create the next big thing:

Fun:
Aniboom- Users can create animated clips, post clips, view clips here, and based on the popularity of content that you post, you have the chance to make some money as well.

Metacafe- A user-driven video-sharing site that shows only entertaining short clips that is first reviewed by users before it gets posted on the site. Program creators of the most popular content get paid.

BlogTV- For anyone who has something to share via video. This gives you the chance to create your own live channel on anything you want.

Search and Information:
Walla!- An Internet portal with free email for anyone, this is the first stop for local information and direction on the Web.

Answers.com- Formerly with the tag line, the encyclodictionalmanacapedia, Answers.com is a one stop information engine. It's popular wikiAnswers allows users to post and answer questions on anything they might be wondering.

Collaboration and work environment:
eSnips- While it is great for its music features, eSnips' 5GB storage gives users a way to easily store and share documents on the Web.

ooVoo- 6-way video conferences, video messaging and video chatrooms make this ideal for live video communication for business or for fun.

Verix- Offers solutions for Business Intelligence when it comes to sales.

Advertising:
Kontera- "Kontera is a leading provider of In-Text Advertising and Information Services based on patent- pending text and content analysis technology that maximizes relevancy and yield for online users, publishers, and advertisers."

TVinci - "The TVinci media management platform helps video content owners, broadcasting channels and publishers enrich, socialize and personalize video content, while maximizing monetization."

Hiro Media- Hiro's ad-supported video downloading technology allows any video distributor to allow the unlimited sharing of its product over the Internet with the ability to monetize it. monetized.

News:
According to a Globes article, Israeli Internet portal, Walla! is continuing to lose ground to the most viewed site in Israel, Google Israel.

Background:
Walla! was started in 1995 by Erez Philosoph and Gadi Hadar as an index of Internet sites. Today it is an Internet portal that offers news coverage of Israel and the rest of the world as well as additional original content in all of its portal fields. After going public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in 1998, Walla! worked with mobile carrier, Partner to create the first wireless portal for smartphone users in Israel in 1999 and merged with Israel On Line (IOL) in 2001. For several years, Walla! was the most visited website in Israel until Google past it last year.

Analysis: Walla! is the Israeli version of Yahoo!

In an entry posted earlier this year, Darnell Clayton of IsraGood alluded to Walla's heading for the fate of becoming the Israeli version of Yahoo! I strongly agree that Walla's history mimics Yahoo's in several ways.

Since it tried preempting Google's Gmail with its own free 1G e-mail account for users worldwide in 2004, Walla! has placed itself as a direct competitor to Google and has allowed its users to associate and compare its service with that of Google's. So far, we all know who won that battle.

During that battle, Walla's claim was that as Gmail was just starting, it would focus more on text and basics in email, whereas Walla's email service was more established and allowed multimedia in addition to text in its email. Despite that campaign not working out, Walla's most recent announcement is once again a multimedia claim.

According to a Globes article earlier this month, Walla! has launched a new "Video Talkback" feature to provide viewers with "the option of responding with video clips to programs and items appearing on the website." What impact this will have on users on the site and if it will attract more viewers will need to be seen.

However, the marketing and target audience for it might be a little more different this time. Last week, a posting was sent to the Digital Eve Israel listserv about an opening at the company for an English-speaking marketing communications manager with a reply address to international marketing at the company. What Walla's marketing department has planned for the next few months in response to Google Israel's gaining ground and in support of its new "Video Talkback" technology will certainly determine whether Walla! can catch up to and possibly overthrow Google Israel and regain its title as most-viewed site or if it really will become the Israeli version of Yahoo!

Doing basic research on major companies in Israel? For a brief overview of Israeli companies with R&D departments in Israel, I have found Matimop.org to be an invaluable resource. Every time I do a search on a company for a blog entry, I make sure that Matimop is one of my first destinations.

According to the website's homepage, Matimop is the "main technology clearing house in Israel and provides databases - updated daily listing hundreds of projects in diverse advanced technologies plus detailed profiles of Israeli companies looking for foreign hi-tech partners." It was created by the Israeli Industry Center for R&D.