TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

With Firefox 3.5 now finished and available for download, Microsoft used the occasion to tout the speed of Internet Explorer 8. Whereas previously Microsoft focused on page load times, the company today made the case that IE8's "Accelerators" make it faster to use.

Accelerators let Web users highlight text on a page and right-click to bring up a menu to automatically insert and use that text on other sites, rather than cutting and pasting. Microsoft offered up a video showing how Accelerators speed up simple tasks, but it made a point of noting that "all tests were performed using the default installation settings for each browser. No additional add-ons or extensions were added."

Why is that important? Well, it just so happens that an easily installed Firefox add-on called KallOut offers similar functionality.

Mozilla released its Firefox 3.5 browser today, and one of the more interesting new capabilities is "location-aware browsing." The feature, which will be familiar to iPhone users, determines the computer's location and asks permission to share it with sites that use it to enhance the functionality of online applications.

The feature grew out of ongoing efforts to bring Firefox to mobile devices. Mozilla decided that it made sense to include geolocation functionality in its PC-based browser, as well. It uses the IP address and wifi signals to determine location, by default, but it also could work with GPS, which is starting to appear in more mobile computers.

It may not be the stuff of tabloid headlines, but Amazon.com and Target could be headed for splitsville, according to new research report. For years, Amazon.com has run Target's website, even as it's lost other big enterprise customers like Toys "R" Us and the Borders book chain. Now an analyst is questioning the long-term prospects of the Amazon-Target relationship.

As states grappling with budget shortfalls try to force Amazon.com to collect sales tax, the online retail giant is systematically retaliating. The latest target is Hawaii. Amazon sent a note to its Hawaii-based affiliates informing them they will no longer earn commissions starting today. The company is cutting off affiliates in states that are trying to classify Amazon as a physical retailer -- required to collect sales tax -- based on its connection to locally based affiliates.

Comcast is introducing its WiMax service in Portland this week -- a new offering called High-Speed 2go that relies on the network of its Kirkland partner, Clearwire. As part of the offering, Comcast will provide a data card for laptop computer users at a trial price of $49.99 per month for the first year. For $69.99 per month, customers also will be able to access the Internet over Sprint's 3G network when they travel outside the WiMax territory.

Seattle's biggest online retailers are upping the ante in their game of chicken with cash-hungry states. Today online diamond retailer Blue Nile joined Amazon.com in ending its affiliate program in Rhode Island (both companies have cut off affiliates in North Carolina as well). Affiliates link to retailers like Blue Nile and Amazon for a sales commission, and play a role in driving ecommerce business. But as cash-strapped states across the country look to classify online retailers as physical retailers through their work with local affiliates -- and force them to pay sales tax -- Blue Nile and Amazon are pulling the plug on the affiliates.

Maveron's Debra Somberg has moved to Germany where her husband has accepted a faculty position at the University of Hamburg's medicine department. The former investment banker, who joined the Seattle venture capital firm in 2000 as a managing partner, plans to continue with the firm as a venture partner. In that role, Somberg will continue to advise companies and sit on boards.

Matt Heaton knows what it takes to build a social networking platform for a targeted audience. After all, he co-founded the popular Active Rain real estate network in 2003 -- a Bellevue network that boasts more than 150,000 real estate professionals as members.

Now, Heaton -- who left his day-to-day duties at Active Rain last summer -- is giving it another whirl in a completely different arena: amateur sports. This week, he's launching Timu, a new service that he says is designed to help baseball, basketball, soccer and other amateur athletes more effectively communicate with their teammates.

Does the world really need another social network -- especially one that is tailored to recreational sports? Heaton -- an amateur athlete himself who came up with the idea after growing frustrated trying to stay connected with his sports teams -- certainly thinks so.

Barnes & Noble is playing a rapid game of catch up to Amazon in the Apple App Store. The big brick-and-mortar bookseller came out with an application for the iPhone and iPod touch today that lets people browse and buy books, DVDs and CDs -- much like Amazon's shopping app for iPhone. Barnes & Noble's app also has a feature that lets people snap a photo of a book cover with their iPhone camera and quickly get product details and pricing. That's a lot like what Snaptell does -- a company that Amazon just acquired.

Amazon.com isn't the only ecommerce company cutting ties to affiliates over state sales tax legislation. Online diamond and jewelry retailer Blue Nile has ended its North Carolina affiliate program over pending legislation there, TechFlash has learned. Blue Nile's move comes after Amazon took similar actions in North Carolina and Rhode Island. Amazon and Blue Nile are seeking to avoid efforts by states to classify them as a physical retailer -- and require them to pay sales tax -- through their relationship to locally-based affiliate websites.

Former Microsoft executive Scott Oki and former AskMe Chief Technology Officer Digvijay Chauhan have created a new non profit called SeeYourImpact, which utilizes camera phones and other technologies to get a glimpse at how their donations are helping people in need. Kristi Heim of The Seattle Times has the story, which also notes a similar effort from Microsoft Research's Adnan Mahmud who has established the Jolkona Foundation with his wife.

VentureBeat has details on the latest offering from AdmitOne -- the keystroke analysis security company formerly known as BioPassword. The Issaquah company is now touting an analytics business called Scout Analytics that indicates how and when people log on to the corporate network.

Bellevue's DreamBox Learning -- a maker of online math games for Kindergartners to second graders-- has named education experts Dr. Francis "Skip" Fennell and Dr. Catherine Fosnot to its advisory board.

Self-described Web geek Keith Vance pulls the plug on the Seattle online news publication, The Seattle, Courant, and explains why it did a "belly flop." 

TechCrunch lists the top 100 most "networked" venture capital firms and finds that Draper Fisher Jurvetson -- which has an outpost in Seattle led by Bill Bryant -- is at the top of the list. Others who have strong networks include familiar names such as Sequoia, Accel, Intel Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The first and only true Seattle firm on the list is Bezos Expeditions, the venture arm of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. It ranked 73rd. Meanwhile, VentureBeat's Matt Marshall wonders if this is the best way to rank VC firms.

Web hosting provider Rackspace encountered some technical issues today, knocking some Web sites offline.

Zillow's app

Zillow.com says that more than 500,000 people -- including quite a few real estate professionals -- have downloaded its iPhone application since it was released in late April.

With news that Yahoo's Maven Networks will be shutting down, Seattle upstart Delve Networks is offering customers of the online video company a "bailout program" so that they can continue to offering online video capabilities.

Inrix, the Kirkland provider of real time traffic data, is working with GeoDecisions to assist the U.S. Military and Department of Homeland Security with logistics planning in order to ensure that sensitive materials are properly routed.

Headline of the day comes via A Smart Bear: "Sacrifice your health for your startup."

Martinez

Maria Martinez, the corporate vice president in charge of the big Microsoft Services division, is leaving the company. Microsoft confirmed the move in response to our inquiry this morning, saying Martinez would be replaced by Kathleen Hogan, current corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Customer Service & Support.

Microsoft Services is the part of the company that provides consulting and product support to the company's big enterprise customers. Martinez's corporate bio, last updated in April of this year, says she leads a team of 17,000 people, but the services and consulting group was among those hardest hit in the company's latest round of layoffs.

Just days ago, Amazon.com ended its North Carolina affiliate program over sales tax legislation in that state. Now the online retail giant has cut off its Rhode Island affiliates as well. Amazon is fighting efforts by a variety of states to force it to collect sales tax on the basis of its affiliate programs.

Can Amazon.com do for electronic books what Apple did for digital music, establishing broad control over distribution and pricing? Fast Company asks that question in its July cover story. It's an interesting read, looking at how Amazon has watched and learned from Apple's experience with the iPod and iPhone. The piece also explores how -- now that Amazon has laid the groundwork for e-books -- Apple could wrest control of that market.

The venture industry is broken. At least that's what the majority of venture capitalists think, according to a survey from executive search firm Polachi. PeHub.com has the details, noting that 52.9 percent of the VC respondents called the industry "broken," while another 60 percent said they are less confident today than they were six months ago.