TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Ross Borden of NCSoft West. (Dan Schlatter/Puget Sound Business Journal)

Ross Borden is executive vice president for publishing at NCSoft West, part of Seoul, Korea-based video-game company NCSoft. The company specializes in PC-based massively multiplayer online games, better known as MMOs, such as “Aion” and “Lineage.”

NCSoft West has been headquartered in Seattle for the past year, and employs about 300 people in the region, including its Bellevue-based studio ArenaNet, maker of the popular “Guild Wars” franchise. Borden answered our questions on a range of topics, including the economy, the importance of a strong community in video games, and the chances of seeing NCSoft games on video-game consoles.

For the past year, AllSeniorHomes.com co-founder Chris Rodde said he's been operating the business in "super bootstrap mode" with a small staff, bare bones office space and a tiny amount of angel financing. And while the bootstrap mentality will continue, Rodde has attracted a bit of a financial cushion as AllSeniorHomes looks to expand its business nationwide.

The company has pulled in a little more than $800,000 in new financing, with plans to attract more in the coming weeks. The capital, provided by MentorTech Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund associated with the University of Pennsylvania, will assist the company as it rolls out the lead generation service to new markets.

Perhaps no technology has changed my life as a reporter over the past two years as much as the smartphone. I am a pretty heavy user of my mobile computing device, checking email on the go, posting updates to Twitter at local events and, yes, even occasionally making a phone call or two. That's why we were interested in the latest study from Compete on smartphone usage.

As you see in the chart above, the majority of smartphone users are utilizing the devices at every point of the day. For me, I've incorporated my smartphone into nearly everything I do as a reporter and nearly everywhere I go. I certainly use it in all of the seven categories mentioned above. (Don't tell anyone, but yes, it even travels with me into the bathroom. Why didn't Compete ask that?).

WildTangent has struck a deal to provide in-game video advertisements within Playdom's hit Facebook game, Tiki Farm. As part of the deal, gamers can choose to watch a video ad in exchange for virtual items or other premium content. The deal is part of Redmond-based WildTangent's BrandBoost advertising platform, which was unveiled last month.

Speaking of games on Facebook, Seattle's Big Fish Games has released its second title on the social networking site. The game, My Tribe, was first released in 2008 for the Mac and PC. It is free to play on Facebook, though players can purchase virtual goods in order to accelerate game play.

We've been reporting on some of the PR stunts that cities are rolling out in order to attract Google broadband, yesterday noting that Renton had redesigned its site with a Google theme. Not to be outdone, the City of Seattle has now set up a Facebook fan page to support its efforts. At this point, the page has 74 fans.

The Msnbc Digital Network today said that it has created a new Facebook page around its growing BreakingNews brand. The company acquired the domain name www.breakingnews.com earlier this year, adn last December assumed responsibility for the @breakingnews Twitter account.

Seattle's Powerit Solutions, which helps industrial customers reduce their energy consumption, has completed a merger with Diana Solutions of Malmo, Sweden. The companies legally merged in 2008, and Powerit CEO Claes Olsson said the announcement is largely "symbolic." The company operates under the Powerit name, with HQ in Seattle.

Ali Partovi

After MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta stepped down last month, we noted that it could have implications in Seattle and on the twin brother entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partovi. The Partovis were the brains behind iLike, which sold to MySpace last year. And while we were told recently by a MySpace spokesperson that the Partovis remain on the MySpace team, Kara Swisher of All Things D today wonders about their future at the social networking giant.

Last week, an active discussion occurred on TechFlash after we asked why no startups from the Seattle area made The Wall Street Journal's list of the top 50 venture-backed companies. Scott Austin, who writes The Venture Capital Dispatch blog for the Journal, follows up today by putting together a map showing where all of the companies are located. Austin finds that 33 of the companies hail from California, while three are based in Massachusetts.

Starbucks is rolling out a new service on Foursquare that allows fans of the coffee chain to get a barista badge when they check in at five different locations. (Shouldn't be too hard in Seattle). Starbucks vice president Chris Bruzzo tells The New York Times: “It’s where the intersection between digital and physical starts to get interesting."

VentureBeat has a fascinating read on the cozy relationship between Oak Investment Partners and the Washington State Investment Board.

NanoString Technologies, the heavily-funded Seattle startup backed by OVP Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and others, has been without a CEO for just about a year now. But the company's newly-appointed executive chairman, Bill Young, tells GenomeWeb that "job one" is finding a CEO with plans to complete that search in the coming months. NanoString has been led by interim CEO Wayne Burns over the past 12 months. The story also has some interesting insights on NanoString's technology, which Young calls "elegantly simple."

Some U.S. universities are doing pilots with Kindle readers, testing them as a replacement for printouts and textbooks in the classroom. Now a non-profit organization is taking Kindle pilots global, looking to get the Amazon device "into the hands and minds of people in the developing world" to promote education and literacy. Kind of like One Laptop Per Child, but with Kindles.

The non-profit, Worldreader.org, has a strong Amazon connection. One of its co-founders is David Risher, a former Amazon senior vice president of product and platform development (and a Microsoft veteran). According to the Worldreader.org website, the organization is conducting the "world's first-ever e-reader test" in the West African nation of Ghana starting Monday.

Forgive us for geeking out for a moment, but whenever Spock and Wesley Crusher are in town at the same time, we tend to notice.

We're looking forward to hanging out this weekend at Seattle's Emerald City ComiCon, and not just because "Star Trek" veterans Leonard Nimoy and Wil Wheaton are among the pop-culture icons making appearances there. After looking over the program for Saturday and Sunday, these are our best bets for the weekend.

Give credit to Seattle-based Classmates.com for being smart enough to launch its own Facebook app -- setting aside its pride and embracing a site that, for many people, has replaced Classmates as a means of reconnecting with old friends from high school and college. But in my experience, at least, the initial version of the app highlights the reasons many people switched to Facebook in the first place.

We've known the app was coming since Classmates.com updated its privacy policy in January in anticipation of the launch. It's now available. To find and install the app, search for "Classmates Connect" on Facebook. As part of the setup process, the app will prompt you to enter your Classmates.com login and password or to sign up for a membership if you don't have one.

The app will then pull into Facebook a list of Classmates.com members from your class, along with additional tabs to see the latest activity from your high-school friends on Classmates.com, and upcoming reunions. Very cool, but that's also where things start to get less-than-useful.

Politicians across the U.S. have been going crazy over the prospect of bringing Google broadband to their communities. The mayor of Duluth, Minnesota jumped in ice cold Lake Superior in a PR stunt to grab Google's attention, while the mayor of Topeka, Kansas proposed changing the company's name for the month of March to Google, Kansas. Meanwhile, Bellingham is rallying its poets, songwriters and comedians for the cause of super fast Internet courtesy of Google.

Now Renton -- whose marketing slogan is "ahead of the curve" -- is jumping on the Google broadband bandwagon. The city -- located just a few miles away from Microsoft's headquarters -- has changed the look of its Web site for the month of March to reflect a certain very large search engine.

Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. were down across the board in February, according to results released today by the NPD Group research firm. Total industry sales of $1.26 billion for were below the same month last year, and also the same month two years ago.

"Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month," said Anita Frazier, an NPD analyst, in an email distributed by the firm. However she struck an upbeat tone for the future, saying that "strong new releases, and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March."

The news was better for Microsoft's Xbox 360, which registered the highest U.S. monthly unit sales of the three major consoles for the first time since September 2007, when Halo 3 was released. "Bioshock 2" for the Xbox 360 was the top-selling video game for the month. The Xbox 360's 422,000 in unit sales compared with 397,900 for the Nintendo Wii and 360,100 unit sales for the PlayStation 3 in the U.S.

Many people consider themselves more productive when they're working away from the office, according to a study of workers at a variety of companies across the country, commissioned by Microsoft. But the study also found that not as many companies support the practice.

"Sixty percent of respondents to the Microsoft Telework survey — conducted among 3,600 employees in 36 cities nationwide — say they are actually more productive and efficient when working remotely," Microsoft says today said in a summary of the findings. "With less time spent commuting and fewer cubicle 'drive bys' causing distractions, respondents say, more time can be spent on the task in front of them."

In the annals of marketing, I am not quite sure where finger puppets rank. But that's the tactic Microsoft and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce have employed to promote a new video contest which is open to small businesses in the state of Washington. Here's the video -- direct from "cuticle hell."

Yes, that's slightly odd. But there's real money on the line, with Microsoft and the Greater Seattle Chamber pledging $10,000 to the small business that creates the best viral video which promotes use of Office 2010.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh

It's been more than four months since Amazon.com completed its acquisition of online shoe retailer Zappos.com in a $1 billion-plus deal. Now Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh — who continues to run his company under new owner Amazon — is talking about Zappos' strategy going forward, including its expansion into new product categories. Hsieh says Amazon is taking a hands-off approach to Zappos, letting the quirky retailer do its own thing, but also reveals how life is changing under Amazon.

TechFlash is pleased to welcome BDO, an accounting, tax and valuation firm with deep roots and expertise in the technology industry, as an annual sponsor. We appreciate BDO’s decision to support our mission of informing and bringing together the Seattle region’s technology community. Sponsors make TechFlash possible, and we hope you’ll join us in thanking BDO for its support.

Through the annual sponsorship, BDO will engage with the technology community in a variety of ways -- including sponsor messages on the site and in the daily TechFlash email newsletter. The BDO brand will become a familiar sight to TechFlash readers. The firm’s leaders will also be active participants in TechFlash events, including the upcoming March 23 TechFlash Live at the Showbox Sodo. (Maybe they'll even join us in the official sport of TechFlash, ping-pong.)

Drugstore CEO Dawn Lepore

Drugstore.com is in shopping mode. The Bellevue-based company, which just acquired Salu, operator of the skinstore.com website for skin creams and cosmetics, is planning more acquisitions, according to CEO Dawn Lepore. Lepore told Bloomberg BusinessWeek the company is looking for other businesses in its core product areas of vitamins, vision and beauty products — specifically deals in the $40 million to $60 million range.

“I want to take over businesses that are in our sweet spots,” Lepore said. "Acquisitions should be an ongoing part of our strategy.”

Last night, I reported on how Pelago -- maker of the Whrrl social networking iPhone application -- was positioning to take on Foursquare and Gowalla with its latest release. I noted that the competitive landscape is kind of stacked against Whrrl, something that Pelago director of marketing Heather Meeker acknowledges.

"We are the underdog," said Meeker. But she offered two reasons why she thinks Whrrl can rise above Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and all of the other location-based "check-in" services.