NY-based white-label social networking tool provider KickApps is announcing two major items today: collaboration with Verisign and a one-click mobile upload to their customer's networks. I spoke with Alex Blum, KickApps CEO about the announcements.

Also check out my behind-the-scenes time with KickApps and interview with marketing VP Michael Chin.

Verisign Collaboration

Alex noted that Verisign is very aggressive and have tremendous capability with their CDM play. Many of Verisign's clients were looking to wrap their video networks with a social network and that's where KickApps came into the deal. Verisign's customers who take KickApps network platform have the same revenue options as other KickApps customers. That is selecting the KickApps ad network and share in the revenue or "buyout" the inventory and serve their own advertising. Alex said that most of the new sites are using the buyout option which makes sense for larger networks.

Mobile Phone Upload

The mobile phone upload option allows any of the KickApps social networks members to upload video from their mobile phone with one click. Basically, you shoot a picture or video and attach it to an email and send it to KickApps for processing. He said this is the easiest way possible to get user-generated content into a network via a mobile device. He noted that it's important that the social network admins let their members know that while KickApps does not charge any fees for using this service, there might be data charges from the mobile provider.

Alex said that this new feature has significantly simplified the end user process but it was very hard on the back-end because of the multiple handsets and networks. The hope is that this mobile option creates a "deeper level of engagement".

The upload process works as follows:

• User enables profile to accept mobile uploads
• KickApps generates a unique email address
• User enters the email address into their mobile device
• User can add comments in the body of the email and attaches the picture or video to the email
• The file is then added to the appropriate social network

Lastly, Alex said that they are working on adding a webcam option as well for use on the desktop/laptop.

NY-based AdaptiveBlue has announced a change which makes adding their SmartLinks service easier. In the past, you had to install their script code, then add "bluekeys" across the site which frankly was a bit of a pain. Now, just add the script code to your template and any links that point to services that AdaptiveBlue supports automatically become SmartLinks. SmartLinks adds additional value to books, movies, wines, stocks and a variety of other options. Installation is one-click for TypePad and Blogger and one Javascript code for everyone else. Tonight's announcement and functionality improvements should help increase the take rate.

I still stand by what I said earlier in the year. SmartLinks should be promoted as a monetization tool as much as it is a quality of Web tool. The tool has a high level of "reason to believe" difficulty and pitching it as a monetization tool should improve the take rate.

Here is their installation and overview video:

NY-based Collective Media, an online advertising network specializing in audience targeting and optimization solutions to increase relevancy and yield for both publishers and advertisers, has received a round of funding led by NY-based Greycroft Partners with participation from Canadian iNovia Capital.

The funds will be used for staff growth and refinement of their proprietary advertising system. Amount of the round was not disclosed.

"We are pioneering a new category within the current ad network environment, allowing high-quality brands to maintain brand integrity and exert more control over where their ads appear," said Joe Apprendi, CEO of Collective Media. "These funds will allow Collective to continue developing our best-in-class platform, providing our publisher and advertiser clients with the transparent, premium network they have come to expect from us."

Collective Media partners with companies including: DoubleClick for ad serving and Personifi for ad targeting.

Returning to its founding location, Jelly is at House 2.0 this Friday (10/26) in Manhattan. All are welcome.

Newcomer Jelly in Sydney starts up this Friday as well, organized by Cameron Adams and Tim Lucas, followed by the first Jelly in Austin organized by Dusty Reagan next Friday. Both look like they’ll be sizable events!

Finally, Jelly in Atlanta had its first event last week, and in the past few weeks there’s been interest from people in Denver, Chicago, Singapore, Sydney, Portsmouth, Portland, Hawaii, Hartford, Tel Aviv, Tampa Bay, LA, and San Francisco! (See wiki.workatjelly.com for more)

Help spread the word to your friends in these cities!

The October Big Screen Little Screen - The Creative Side of Video 2.0 will be held on Thursday, October 25th at 6:30pm at the For Your Imagination studio and will feature a great video from "Break a Leg - The Sitcom"! Come watch selected online video works and then discuss creative, production, and technical issues of creating video content for the web with hosts Matt Semel of 10ton and Paul Kontonis of For Your Imagination. This is best online video screening and discussion event you will ever go to...we sit on couches, we have a few drinks, and then we discuss. If you are an online video and interactive content creator and/or enthusiast, and we know you are, this is where you should be! Click here to RSVP.

Yup, Happy Monday. Welcome to another taxi strike. The city is prepared for this futile strike that will only affect the poor cab drivers who choose to participate by doing nothing, namely, not going to work. I talked with several drivers over the past week or two. Here are some of their remarks: Me: So, what [...]

I was poking around the Alley Insider’s website early this morning (which is why this note is so poorly written — sorry).

It seems that the new voice of NYC web tech recently moved to the Moveable Type platform (off a regular Typepad blog), and so I wanted to see what else had changed in the shuffle. I’m suspecting that they’ll be “launching” soon (SAI claims to still be in “beta”), so I’m curious as to what a professional blog coming out of “beta” will look like.

One of the first new things I noticed was a job roll in the left-hand column (this was one of my 3 monetization ideas SAI published a while back), and at the top of that roll was an Analyst position at Alley Insider itself.

While it seems the position itself was posted about a month ago, it still seems to be open. Anyway, I recommend that anyone seriously interested in the web startup industry apply for it. Working with a team like that is a great opportunity for anyone to get off the ground and gain significant notability in the NY tech community and beyond (their traffic pours in from around the world when they post on non-Alley companies and events).

Anyway, I’m glad to see some AdSense taken away to make room for the job roll. Now, I’d really like them to start a specialized ad network for NY tech and tag other popular NY-based tech bloggers. That could be a good business and someone will do it if they don’t.

  I just opened my new Con Ed bill, and got a glitzy, expensive surprise. Con Ed, the “electric company” (electricity, gas, and steam) here in New York City, whose rates are by far the highest in the country, has upgraded our bill to a snazzy, four-color financial report, (about which they’re bragging on [...]

The Ladders opened their office to over 150 guests for the first official Lunch 2.0 in New York City. The lunch, which lasted for an hour and a half, included an introduction from the company’s CEO, Chinese food, and a lot of informal networking. Given out were shirts (with The Ladders’s logo and Lunch 2.0 NYC on the reverse side), branded takeout boxes and chopsticks. The event was reviewed by numerous online publications, including CenterNetworks and CNet/News.com. The new few Lunch 2.0 events will be announced very soon.

Next, The Ladders are sponsoring this month’s Web 2.0 Meetup at Slate Plus (54 West 21st Street). The event, which is being held on Monday, October 22nd (from 6:30-9pm), will feature Jason Rudolph, an author and Principal at Relevance. Mr. Rudolph will talk about current industry trends and Grails, and will host a Q&A session afterwards. There will also be free food and (drumroll, please) an OPEN BAR! Of course, this is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend, including those attending Sun Microsystem’s Startup Camp!

For more information please visit Web2Meetup.com.

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Social bookmarking network Xerpi officially launched last week. The New York-based company promises to ‘free users from the limits of browser bookmarks’.

What will set Xerpi apart in this already crowded field?

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