We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been selected to present at SVASE Launch: Silicon Valley 2009. Together with Search Cloudlet, we’ll be introducing an exciting new joint product. Here is the SVASE Launch: Silicon Valley press release:
Countdown to Launch: Silicon Valley 2009 Continues as SVASE Selects 30 Emerging Tech Companies to Unveil New Products and Services at Major Event
Startup companies from around the world prepare to make their public debut to Panels of Silicon Valley’s Most Influential VC and Angel Investors
San Jose, Calif – May 26 , 2009— The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) today announced the names of the 30 companies invited to present new products at Launch: Silicon Valley 2009. The event, which will be held June 9 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, is a platform for emerging technology companies to springboard their products or services into the market, while networking with an audience of Silicon Valley’s most influential executives.
This year’s presenters were selected from almost 400 applicants and span the categories of information technology, mobility, security, digital media, next generation internet, technology and clean energy.
Selected demonstrating companies for Launch: Silicon Valley 2009 include:
Company: Application
Andolis: Video over IP
BLADE: Network switches
Cellwand: Short dial codes – #TAXI
CRS Ware: Carbon accounting management
Displ’aire: Large portable video
eCitySky: 3D Shared Game
Electronic Sports: Sports gaming machines
Fonolo: Phone system mapping
GazoPa: Image search engine
Gliider: Travel research tool
HearPlanet: Travel iPhone app
InDxLogic: Document Indexing medical records
Live Glass: Configurable glass
Lumiette: light source
MentorNet: Mentoring
Moblyng: Mobile games
Netmite: Smart phone platform
Prezi: Presentation S/W
ReMobile: Cell phone recycling
Replay: S/W error tracking
Socailibrium: Mobile CRM
Sunpods: Solar Surf Canyon: Real Time Search
Trooval: Timeshare lead generation
TuneBug: Turns helmets into speakers
Weogeo: Mapping service
Windation: Wind power
Wordslaw: Legal Services
Wowd: People Powered search
Yoics: Internet connectivity
“Launch: Silicon Valley provides a terrific platform for startups to launch their products to the world,” said Chris Gill, President and CEO of SVASE. “The growing popularity of this major early stage startup event, with the innovation and talent showcased here, have inspired a significant increase in applicants from around the world this year. The result is a must-attend event for potential investors, partners, press, bloggers, entrepreneurs and other Silicon Valley influencers who are searching for those exciting startups that may ultimately become the next great companies to emerge from the Valley.”
The event will kick off with the Pre-Launch: Silicon Valley Event Party on the evening of June 8, when presenting startup teams will have the opportunity to network with an audience of Silicon Valley’s top movers and shakers.
Launch: Silicon Valley 2009 will feature new companies that have a product or service available as of June 9, 2009, but have not been in the marketplace for more than a few months beforehand.
The selected companies will present on stage for 6-minutes plus 4 minutes Q &A with the audience and a panel of VCs and Angels, with the opportunity to explain their products in more detail to the audience in networking breaks. The event will also feature an award for the “Most Likely to Succeed” in each of the six presenting categories.
Launch: Silicon Valley provides companies with the opportunity to present themselves to investors and other influencers who can help shape their success. In addition to the presentations, participants also have the opportunity to network with the audience at the Pre-Launch: Silicon Valley Event Party on the evening of June 8, as well as at the event itself.
Launch: Silicon Valley is Presented by SVASE and co-sponsored by the early stage venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and Microsoft, which will host the event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View. Additional sponsors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Townsend Townsend and Crew, Nair & Co., the Band of Angels, Sand Hill Angels, the Angels Forum, Cooley Godward Kronish, The Kauffman Fellows Program, PR Newswire, Halosys Technologies, Keiretsu Forum, Krause-Taylor Associates, Life Science Angels, Link Silicon Valley, and VentureDeal.
About SVASE
Founded in 1995 by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit in Northern California dedicated exclusively to helping technology and life science entrepreneurs start and grow successful businesses.
SVASE provides support and resources for entrepreneurs, from the idea through initial rounds of funding to product launch, delivered at 12 monthly events and a continually evolving web site. For more information about SVASE, please visit www.svase.org.
About Garage Technology Ventures
Garage Technology Ventures is a seed-stage and early-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with investors that include Thomas Weisel Partners and CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System. Garage is focused on investing in emerging technology startups in the Western U.S. For more information about Garage, visit http://www.garage.com
Media Contacts:
Jonelle Hester
Krause Taylor Associates (For Launch: Silicon Valley)
jonelle at krause-taylor.com
408-918-9083
OR
Jeff Lettes
Director of Communications (SVASE)
jlettes at globalmediastrategy.com
408-406-1161
Jolie O’Dell at ReadWriteWeb wrote a post about OneRiot’s new real-time web results API and their partnerships with Surf Canyon and WebMynd. A couple nice screen shots of Surf Canyon in action were included at the bottom. We announced our integration with OneRiot’s real-time web results in March with our launch of v2.0.2 and have since made some esthetic and performance improvements.
WebMynd and Surf Canyon Introduce Realtime Search Powered by OneRiot
Browser Add-Ons Customize Google with Results from Realtime Web
BOULDER, Colo./ SAN FRANCISCO – May 22, 2009 – OneRiot, the realtime web search engine, today announced a partnership with both WebMynd and Surf Canyon to customize Google, Yahoo! and Live Search with realtime web results powered by OneRiot.
WebMynd and Surf Canyon are browser extensions that allow users to personalize traditional search pages. WebMynd and Surf Canyon are among a growing list of companies to recently join the OneRiot Realtime Search Partner Program which offers developers access to the company’s search API.
WebMynd for Firefox helps users visualize their browsing history while also enhancing Google searches with customized results from sources like Wikipedia, YouTube and now OneRiot. Surf Canyon for Firefox and Internet Explorer finds relevant information that’s buried within pages of search results in Google Yahoo!, MSN Live Search, Lexis Web and Craigslist.
“We are laser focused on improving traditional web search by delivering the most relevant results possible and our partnership with OneRiot is key to that strategy,” said Mark Cramer, CEO of Surf Canyon. “We develop realtime personalization by re-ranking search results ‘on the fly’ and OneRiot’s realtime web results naturally enhance our ability to transform static search pages into dynamic portals of information.”
About OneRiot API and Realtime Search Partner Program
The OneRiot Realtime Search Partner Program is for developers of browser add-ons, desktop applications, social websites and other services looking to enhance their user experience with realtime web search powered by OneRiot. The OneRiot API is free and available by request. For more information about partnering with OneRiot, please contact Jayson Ayers at jayers@oneriot.com.
About OneRiot
Launched in November 2008, OneRiot is a realtime search engine. Users search with OneRiot to find the news, videos and blogs that are people are buzzing about right now on the social web. Uniquely, OneRiot delivers search results as they emerge, ordered to reflect current social relevance. OneRiot is a privately held company headquartered in Boulder, Colo. with offices in San Francisco. For more info, please follow OneRiot at http://www.oneriot.com // http://twitter.com/OneRiot // http://blog.oneriot.com.
COLUMBUS, OH (May 19, 2009) – Surf Canyon Incorporated and Brand Thunder LLCannounced today an agreement to integrate Surf Canyon’s highly praised personalized search application into Brand Thunder’s custom browser Booms!. Given the complementary nature of the two products, the partnership will focus on improving the search experience for users of Brand Thunder’s Booms!.
Surf Canyon enhances major search engines by improving relevancy and accelerating discovery of appropriate search results. The improved relevancy comes from the connection between Surf Canyon and the Brand Thunder Boom!. For example, a query for “King James” from a Cleveland Cavaliers Boom! could favor results for LeBron James over results for the 16th Century’s King James VI & I. Additionally, Surf Canyon uses clicks within the search results page to quickly refine suggestions and speed the time it takes a user to find the desired results.
“This is the first bundling partnership for Surf Canyon,” said Mark Cramer, CEO of Surf Canyon. “We’re excited about working with Brand Thunder as they offer an excellent showcase of how much better search can be when an audience’s interests are factored into their search queries.”
“Search is so core to a user’s Internet experience,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “Surf Canyon has received such a positive response, we felt it was a natural extension to our goal of providing a better and more personal browsing experience.”
Brand Thunder’s browser Booms! are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can switch real-time between any installed Booms!, or change from a full Boom! view to a small Boom! (toolbar only), all without restarting the browser.
About Surf Canyon:
Surf Canyon develops real-time implicit personalization technology for Internet search. Its patent-pending Discovery Engine for Search™ transforms result pages from lists of static links into dynamic knowledge resources, enabling users to more quickly and easily find pertinent information buried among all the irrelevant results, significantly accelerating the search process. The company is headquartered in Oakland, CA and was founded in 2006. For more information please visit www.SurfCanyon.com.
About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates custom-browser experiences. Brands enjoy a more persistent connection to their Internet consumer through the custom browser Boom!, which increases website visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The custom browser Booms! feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NHL, Universal Music and Yahoo!. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.
Don Reisinger, CNET Blog Network author, returns with another list of useful Firefox extensions. This time he lists the top 15 add-ons for bloggers, and we’re honored to be in the top 3:
“When you research a post on Google, Yahoo, or Live Search, chances are that you might be missing some relevant links on pages that are lower in the search results… Almost every time, Surf Canyon returned outstanding results. I highly recommend it.
Here are the top three Firefox extensions you must have:
v2.0.4 introduces top of page Refinements. Additionally, the Categories introduced with v1.1.4 have also been relabeled Refinements.
Refinements are suggested query reformulations based on your query and Surf Canyon’s real-time model of your inferred intent. In a sense, Refinements are personalized reformulations targeted to your “at the moment” information need. Furthermore, these links will send you to a search page where the results are already re-ranked, facilitating once again the process of finding what you need. The display of Refinements can be controlled under the Settings tab on my.SurfCanyon.com.
For users of our Firefox add-on, we have also introduced an on/off button in the right-hand corner of the Status Bar at the bottom of the browser. Clicking the button will quickly disable and re-enable Surf Canyon’s re-ranking
Lastly, we’d like to recommend that our users check out samfind Bookmarks Bar. This fully loaded Bar has a bit of social, search and RSS in it, is unobtrusive when not being used and has received excellent reviews from PC Magazine and PC World. Surf Canyon is also one of the default search engines. You might want to give it a try. Enjoy!
Update (5/3/2009) – Ashraf at dotTech.org posted a complimentary piece entitled “Surf Canyon: Using search engines just got easier.”
Update (5/8/2009) – Charles Knight at AltSearchEngines covered the release of our latest version, as did Samuel Dean at Web Worker Daily who had this to say:
“… some browser extensions can really help streamline online searching. One of the best extensions for this is Surf Canyon… It’s only a tiny 33K extension, but it can be a great help in steering you quickly to the most relevant information on any search topic.
… Surf Canyon includes several useful features… The most useful of these is a new top-of-page collection of search refinement suggestions… The extension is smart enough [for example] to know that dolphins are intelligent, and that I may be interested in this aspect of them, and it also draws a relationship between dolphins and whales, in addition to other connections it makes.”
Not that search is boring (we think it’s incredibly exciting, although we’re willing to recognize that perhaps not everyone shares our level of enthusiasm), but why not spice it up with a laugh from time to time?
America’s Finest News Source, The Onion, winner of the prestigious Peabody Award only last week, has been delighting audiences since 1988. Now, with Surf Canyon, you can get their satirical insights during your normal searching on the major search engines. If you already have the application installed, simply go to my.SurfCanyon.com and check the box next to “The Onion.” Save your preferences and then next time you run a query, should relevant Onion content be available, you will see it presented on the results page.
Below is an example of a recent search for “Obama.” Hilarious. Enjoy!
Kaila Colbin, ambassador for the Web Genome Project, writing “Google Watch” for Network World, talks about the virtues of building businesses upon businesses:
“Take, for example, Surf Canyon. Their handy browser add-on digs into Google results to pull relevant links from further down the SERPs — good for searchers, but also good for the sites, which would otherwise remain in ignominy.
Google should send a thank-you note to every one of its barnacles. They’re part of what makes the Big G what it is. And if you’ve got barnacles, make sure to appreciate them. They might not be good for boats, but they’re great for business.”
Don Reisinger, a technology columnist and member of the CNET Blog Network who posts at The Digital Home, includes Surf Canyon in his list of 20 recommended add-ons for Firefox. Surf Canyon is one of the five add-ons recommended for students.
Compatibility with Web of Trust (WOT), an extremely popular, free Internet security add-on for your browser, has been in demand for some time. It is thus with pleasure that we can announce that v2.0.3 (currently available on Mozilla) is fully compatible with the WOT security icons in Firefox.
WOT ratings come from their community of users and are designed to keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites by warning you before you interact with a risky website. With the latest version of Surf Canyon, along with the WOT add-on for Firefox, security icons will appear next to all of the search results, including search recommendations and subsequent pages of results.
We’d like to offer a special thanks to the team at WOT for helping us with this solution.
Additionally, the Internet Explorer version of Surf Canyon is now compatible with IE8.
Update (4/6/2009) – WOT has also announced the collaboration on its blog.
It occurred a couple months ago, but the Editors at CNET have given Surf Canyon a 5-star review:
“Save time when you surf with this smart add-on that offers further recommendations based on your searches… Basically, this program weeds through of all the useless search results and can save you valuable time. Best of all, there’s no charge for this effective and useful Firefox add-on.”
The mission of Rank Dynamics is to transform search into a dynamic experience where fluid result pages respond to user actions in real time. We develop Dynamic Search, a real-time contextual search technology. By transforming static lists of links into dynamic search pages that automatically and immediately re-order results in response to user behavior signals, searchers are able to more quickly and easily find pertinent information that might otherwise have remained buried as deep as page 100.
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been selected to present at SVASE Launch: Silicon Valley 2009. Together with Search Cloudlet, we’ll be introducing an exciting new joint product. Here is the SVASE Launch: Silicon Valley press release:
