Toluu : TechCrunch

TechCrunch

TechCrunch profiles the companies, products and events that are defining and transforming the new web. TechCrunch is written by Michael Arrington.

It took a worldwide financial meltdown for Twitter to finally cough up the IM hairball. At BearHug Camp, I spent about 10 of the 30 minute executive visitation trying to pin down Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Alex Payne on when exactly Track and IM would be back, and in what order. Turns out the IM part isn't coming back; it's been moved from Broken to Build. Evan Williams delivers the bad news with a refreshing frankness, suggesting the ROI of IM services for a small percentage of Twitter users puts it down the list below other more pressing priorities. And at the bottom of the email, he points at a fledgling third-party service that gives you a way of "tweeting" over the Jabber XMPP gateway. The author is mulling how to provide access to users' follows. No mention is made of Track, of course.

Where are we going?Today

I believe that there are really only two questions: Where have we been and where are we going? Lamentably we all know where we have been, as the events of this week have made themselves self-evident to everyone save except those who are willfully ignorant. And I will be the first to admit that I have no clue where we are going and that is possibly the scariest aspect of the times we live in. Anyone who proclaims to know where we are headed, save for perhaps a belief that there are dark times ahead, might as well be proclaiming that he or she knows what the the new new thing of Web 3.0 will be.

So, what can start-ups do right now? Well Ron Conway, Benchmark Capital, and Sequoia have pretty clear ideas, as do any number of bloggers and pundits. But honestly the two most compelling answers to the question, besides staying informed (and for that I highly recommend the Planet Money Podcast), have come from entrepreneurs who I really respect:

During Tough Times, The Echo Chamber Can Be Your Best FriendToday

We are witnessing either an epic financial meltdown or a long overdue resetting of existing business practices and the hollow markets they create. Or, perhaps we’re experiencing both of these phenomena. Either way, it has the nation gripped with fear, uncertainty, and an unsettling eruption of questionable advice confusing everyone, everywhere.

While the floor is crumbling for many industries much in the same way it did for Silicon Valley during the dotbomb years, the sky isn’t necessarily falling on the startup industry – at least not for those with marketable technology or products, dedicated and capable teams, an executable business plan, and access to the resources necessary to help it reach users and customers.

For those startups that are building and marketing something of value for consumers or businesses, there is much work to do. While there is always a need to attract mainstream users, this isn’t the time to stretch or over-commit resources to hit everyone all at once. Branding is an expensive proposition, one that requires time, capital, diligence, dedicated teams, enthusiastic customers, and patience. As counter intuitive as it may seem, this is exactly the right time to market into the ec

WeAre.Us is (Almost) Like Ning, But With A Heart. Wins First VenCorps Prize.Today

When you are suffering from a chronic disease, sometimes the only people who can understand what you are going through are other people with the same condition. But when that condition is rare, it can be difficult to find them. WeAre.Us wants to help. It is a platform of 16 social networks that connect people with chronic illnesses. And it just launched a revamped version (which mainly features an improved user interface). The site entered the crowded health 2.0 market last April, but stands out with its focused internal framework and commitment to supporting the patients who use it.

In contrast to health platforms like DailyStrength or Revolution Health, which serve as a contact point for health-related topics of any kind, WeAre.Us connects people affected by severe illnesses only. In that sense, it is more like PatientsLikeMe. But rather than create an all-encompassing site, WeAre.Us decided to take more of a niche social network approach.

Given that these patients deserve special attention, the company decided to set up separate sites with individual domain names. The subsites, such as WeAreFibro.org (for users suffering from fibromyal

Yamli Makes It Easy To Use Arabic On The WebYesterday

Approximately 60% of Arabic-speaking Internet users dislike using an Arabic keyboard, according to Yamli, a Massachusetts-based startup that launched last year. CEO Habib Haddad explains that many users have to use a Latin keyboard for their jobs or school, which makes the keyboards impractical (and many think they’re just hard to type with). When it comes time to type in Arabic, many Internet users have adopted a phonetic web language that spells out Arabic words with these Latin letters. The result, Haddad says, is messy - especially when it comes to making sounds that don’t exist in English.

Yamli has built a system that solves this problem. Users enter words phonetically into a special text box that displays a list of matching words that are written in Arabic. This allows them to keep using their Latin keyboard, without having the resulting text look like gibberish. Because there are around 22 dialects in the Arab world, Yamli has to deal with multiple different phonetic spellings, which Haddad says it does with around 95% accuracy.

The company launched an Arabic frontend to Goo