Real-Time CrunchUp: Tag, RT, Discuss, Repeat »
Remember when conferences used to be an annual thing? These days, when the Web moves fast and startups move even faster, holding an event once or twice a year is no longer a sufficient.
Case in point: After hosting the first RealTime CrunchUp just three months ago, TechCrunch brought everyone together again for a second CrunchUp last week. And the show has grown so fast it’s moved from suburban Redwood City to the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco.
Three key trends have emerged in this real-time space in past three months:
Geostreams
With Twitter’s Geo API launch recently and the advent of applications like Google Latitude and FourSquare, location-based discussions kept popping up throughout the day. One specific discussion was whether tracking your location should be persistent or opt-in. Elad Gil, CEO of Mixer Labs, said that 90% of the applications using their GeoAPI choose the opt-in model. However, Steve Lee, Group Product Manager for Google Latitude, responded by saying that it is interesting when people deviate from normal patterns, which is only possible if your location is tracked continually.
In the last discussion of the day, there was general consensus among the panel that location-based coupons and commerce would be one of the three major areas that the money will be found for real-time. (The other two being enterprises and search.)
The Power of Retweets
Even though Twitter has only recently added a retweet button their site, the acronym RT has been around for quite some time now and companies are clearly taking advantage. Various Twitter search engines such as Mozzler and OneRiot have stated that the number of times an article has been retweeted is an important signal in determining the relevance of an article or tweet. Tweetmeme, another company that demoed during the conference, has built an ad platform based on retweets. Not only can you retweet an article, but they are also working with Federated Media to retweet ads.
Real-Time Discussions
Various demos at the conference highlighted the focus on real-time contextual discussions. A few of the standouts:
Hot Potato – They launched and demoed their iPhone application that connects people around live events. They get a bonus point because their application takes advantage of the location of their users participating in these events…tapping into the power of Geostreams.
Qwisk – Your social network in your browser, without needing a plug-in. As you browse, you can share links in a more visual way, and chat with your friends about anything you are viewing on the Web.
Video Lobby – A blogging platform for live video webcasts. The moderator can take comments and questions, all live.
Qlipso – Share videos, games, slideshows and music with your friends and interact with them in real-time about what you’ve shared. It’s like watching a movie together from your own living room.
Overall, the conference was a great way to see what’s happening right now in the real-time space. It’s clear we still do not know exactly where we are going with all of this, but we are gaining clarity with every passing month (and conference). There are already rumors of the next CrunchUp happening in the spring.





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