“Foodspotting, a photo-based food guide, raises $3 million in funds after 1st year - San Francisco Gate” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2011 12:04 AM PST San Francisco startup Foodspotting has secured $3 million in Series A funding, led by Menlo Park's BlueRun Ventures. The company - which runs a photo-based online food guide - previously secured $750,000 in seed funding in August. BlueRun partner Jay Jamison is also joining Foodspotting's board. Since its launch on Jan. 15, 2010, the photo-based online food guide has carved a path as a key mobile tool for foodies. Its website attracts more than 300,000 visitors a month. Its app has become an iPhone favorite, surpassing 550,000 downloads since its release in March. It also has developed media partnerships with the Travel Channel, Zagat, Bravo, Thrillist and YumSugar. CEO and co-founder Alexa Andrzejewski hopes the infusion of funding will help Foodspotting become the "Pandora of food," referring to the popular Internet music discovery site. "We're really trying to collect data on places so we can help you discover the places and items at places," she said. Lessons in Haiti: The lessons learned from the use of new digital media technologies that helped relief workers after last year's devastating earthquake in Haiti can be applied to future disasters, according to a new report. The use of crowd-sourcing, text messaging and interactive mapping proved invaluable, especially with the country's traditional communications infrastructure crippled, according to the report "Media, Information Systems and Communities: Lessons from Haiti," which was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "Haiti became the first real-world crisis laboratory for several media platforms that had only recently emerged," the report said. "These were applied to support rescue efforts, assist displaced populations and coordinate massive relief operations." MySpace cuts: MySpace Inc. has fired 47 percent of its workforce - about 500 employees - as the deposed social-networking king continues trying to mount a comeback as an online entertainment hub. "Today's tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability," Chief Executive Officer Mike Jones said in a statement that followed weeks of rumors that the Beverly Hills firm was planning its second major workforce reduction in 18 months. News Corp. acquired MySpace in 2006 for $580 million. Bloomberg News reported last week that Jones told employees that News Corp. is considering a possible spin-off or sale of the company. Facebook Amber Alerts: Facebook Inc. and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children are teaming up to make official Amber Alerts about missing or abducted children available to members of the vast social network. Facebook members will be able to sign up to receive a message when there's an Amber Alert issued in their state or region. More play: A new report from eMarketer predicts the social-gaming market will surpass $1 billion this year, as advertising spending increases. It calculates that nearly 62 million Internet users, or 27 percent of the online audience, will play at least one game on a social network monthly this year, up from 53 million last year. Much of social-gaming revenue, about 60 percent, comes from virtual goods - glow-in-the-dark cows and the like that players can buy for small change. They quickly add up - to an estimated $653 million this year. Marketers are expected to pump more dollars into online advertisements, spending $192 million, up 60 percent over last year. This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| London Chefs Count Down to Release of Michelin's U.K. Guide: Richard Vines - Bloomberg Posted: 17 Jan 2011 04:16 PM PST Michelin is scheduled to announce its U.K. stars at 11:40 a.m. today and the London restaurant world is buzzing with speculation about the winners and losers. "It's a big day in the calendar that people rightly look forward to after working extremely hard all year," said Chris Galvin, chef-patron of the Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows. "For chefs, it is the guide and a currency of consistency." A Bloomberg survey of almost 50 chefs earlier this month showed that a dozen believed Pierre Koffmann would win a star for Koffmann's and there were eight votes for L'Anima, where Francesco Mazzei had been tipped for stars for two years. Eight said Marcus Wareing should get his third and there was also support for the Square, the Ledbury and Le Gavroche to attain that status. There are only four such restaurants in the U.K: Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse, the Fat Duck and the Waterside Inn. One respondent voted for Ramsay to lose a star. The contents of the 2009 guide leaked when the winners' names were spotted on an internal Michelin site. Last year, a guide ordered online was sent out early to the chef Paul Kitching at 21212 restaurant in Edinburgh. Five criteria are used for stars: food quality, preparation and flavors; the chef's personality as revealed through the cuisine; value for money; and consistency over time and across the menu. The criteria are adapted to each type of cuisine. Three stars mean exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey; two stars are for excellent cooking, worth a detour; one star denotes a very good restaurant in its category. Chauffeur Guides Michelin & Cie. is the world's second-biggest tiremaker, after Bridgestone Corp. It produced its first guide in August 1900, distributed free of charge (until 1920) and intended for chauffeurs. The guide contained practical information, including street maps and tips on using and repairing tires. The guides expanded internationally under the director Jean-Luc Naret, who stepped down at the end of 2010, and now cover 23 countries. The editor of the U.K. guide, Derek Bulmer, retired after finishing work on the 2011 volume. For Michelin, this is the centenary of the U.K. guide, although there was a 43-year gap before the appearance of the Great Britain & Ireland guide in March 1974. (Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer on the story: Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net or Richardvines on http://twitter.com/home. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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