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Polar Rose's facial recognition feature correctly identified half of the photos in this batch of Flickr images.

As of March, Polar Rose had agreements with minor Web sites such as Glowfoto.com, Jalbum.net, and 23hq.com, and with the open-source software Gallery.

The plug-in still exists, but although some 60 million identified faces are stored in a database, users rarely get to know who’s who in a certain picture as Polar Rose only reveals names when the identification is highly reliable, representing only 15 percent of the stored faces.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Already in place, though, is the authentication function Facebook Connect, which lets users log in with their credentials from Facebook. A friends list can also be imported from Facebook and can be used when identifying faces in photos from Flickr.

Flickr, for its part, has kept a low profile on the subject.

Solem won’t say whether there’s a commercial deal afoot with Flickr. “Of course we talk with them,” he said.

Without any big fuss, a face-recognition feature has been added to Flickr.

And since thumbnails are stored in the user’s Polar Rose account, the start-up won’t immediately be applying the feature to Facebook photos.

Solem said the launch of face recognition in Picasa last September, and in Apple iPhoto in January, increased interest in his company’s technology. “It’s a feature that lots of sites are looking for now, but that they cannot build themselves,” he said.

Polar Rose’s technology is based on matching 3D models of faces–one of three established methods for facial recognition. It was first launched as a plug-in to Web browsers in June 2007, letting users identify faces in any photo on the Web. Users could also click on a face in any photo on the Web and get a suggestion on who it is.

“But we don’t have enough revenues for something substantial,” Solem said then, confirming that the company was looking for more venture capital beyond the $5.1 million invested in 2006 by VC firm Nordic Venture Partners.

As with similar features in Google Picasa and Apple iPhoto, names eventually show up next to faces in the photos once the user has identified the faces. The labels then get sent back to the Flickr account. Polar Rose, founded by Swedish mathematician Jan Erik Solem in 2004, intends to license its technology to numerous Web sites.

“No other company wants to offer its face-recognition technology to all other sites,” said Solem, now CTO of the company.

“Flickr has the second most popular API on the Web,” said a representative for Yahoo, which owns Flickr. “Polar Rose is one of the many third-party developers using the Flickr API to innovate and present public Flickr data in new and unique ways.”

The new feature was launched recently by Swedish start-up Polar Rose. It lets users import all their photos from a Flickr account to an account on Polar Rose, where the images are then automatically assembled into groups dedicated to various individuals.

“Facebook has a rule that downloaded data cannot be stored more than 24 hours,” Solem said.

Polar Rose is also ready to import photos from Facebook accounts, but there’s a snag.

Terms of the acquisition weren’t announced. DoubleClick bought Performics for $58 million in 2004.

The group specialized in tasks such as helping Web sites rank high on search results, and Google said planned to sell Performics. “It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers,” the company said on its blog in April.

Google has found a buyer, Publicis Groupe, for the Performics search marketing group it inherited during its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Publicis Groupe, a 44,000-employee French company, said the 200 Performics employees will become part of its VivaKi Nerve Center

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

(Credit:
Apple)

Rural cell phone carriers want to put an end to exclusive deals between carriers and handset makers.

But getting rid of exclusive deals won’t be easy. These deals are an integral part of the U.S. wireless industry that helps both manufacturers and mobile operators make a lot of money. Manufacturers shop hot new handsets around to different operators searching for the carrier that will pay the most for exclusivity. Mobile operators benefit because having access to the hottest, new handset can draw new customers and keep existing customers who might have looked elsewhere.

On Tuesday, the Rural Cellular Association, a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to investigate and adopt rules that would prohibit exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. In its petition the group said that these arrangements were unfair and stifled customer choice. The group also believes these deals decrease competition and violate the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

“It is important that all Americans have equal access to the latest technology, including wireless devices, regardless of where they live or which carrier provides the service,” David Nace, counsel to RCA, said in a statement. “RCA is standing up for consumers’ rights and putting an end to exclusivity arrangements that create another ‘digital divide’ between urban and rural America.”

So unless the FCC or Congress steps in, exclusive deals for hot handsets won’t likely go away anytime soon. That said, some operators, such as Verizon Wireless, are moving toward open networks. And as networks become more open, handsets from one carrier could be used on a network of another carrier. If that happens, the days of exclusive deals could really be over.

The RCA says that some people living in rural areas can’t subscribe to service from a big carrier like AT&T or Verizon and are therefore locked out of getting these cool phones.

The most prominent example of such a deal is the Apple iPhone. AT&T has the exclusive right to sell the
iPhone, which was introduced first in the U.S. market in June. Neither Apple nor AT&T has publicly said how long the exclusivity arrangement will last, but it’s been reported to be at least five years. Verizon Wireless also has an exclusive deal to sell the LG Voyager, another popular smartphone.

That said, RCA isn’t just looking out for consumers. The truth is that smaller rural carriers are hardly ever offered exclusive handset deals because they have far fewer subscribers than the big four: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile. And this makes it hard for them to compete.

And now, the latest in social network developer platform announcements: Orkut, the community site owned by Google, has rolled out a directory of applications to its users in India and will continue to expand geographically over the next few weeks.

India, along with Brazil, is one of Orkut’s main hubs of popularity; in Brazil, it faces many of the same issues that massive social networks like Facebook and MySpace do in the U.S. Despite having been developer in-house in Google’s Mountain View, Calif.-based headquarters, the site has never really taken off stateside. Meanwhile, rival MySpace is currently launching an India-centric portal that will compete with Orkut.

Here’s something interesting: At least for the time being, Orkut users are limited to 25 applications per profile. Google representatives were not immediately available for comment on whether this is permanent restriction.

Announcements about social network developer platforms are a dime a dozen, now that Facebook’s example made developer applications practically mandatory, but Orkut has drawn particular attention because it’s owned by Google. The OpenSocial API, on which Orkut’s platform is based, was launched by Google last year.

Google has since announced that it will relinquish control of OpenSocial, turning the project into a nonprofit organization in collaboration with Yahoo, News Corp.’s MySpace.com, and other partners.

If it seems like many people you know would like to own a hybrid
car, J.D. Power and Associates has the data to back up your hunch.

The auto market research firm on Tuesday released results of a survey that found a very high interest in hybrid-electric vehicles–even after the substantial price premium was revealed.

The company performed surveys with consumers before and after telling them of an average $5,000 price difference between hybrids and non-hybrids.

The study found that 72 percent of consumers are “definitely/probably” interested in having hybrid-electric technology for their next vehicle.

In 2005, 58 percent of consumers responded yes to that same question.

After the average price difference was revealed, 46 percent of consumers were still interested in the 2008 survey.

“High consumer interest in hybrid-electric powertrain technology may be reflective of not only rising gas prices but also a heightened effort among consumers to be more environmentally conscious,” Mike Marshall, director of automotive emerging technologies at J.D. Power and Associates, said in a statement.

That research dovetails with bets made by many people in the electric and plug-in hybrid car industry. Namely, that consumers are demanding a product that’s not quite yet widespread.

The financial part of a decision to go hybrid is getting clearer as well. A financial analyst earlier this month presented information that showed that purchasing a hybrid-electric car has a lower cost of ownership than a gas-only car when gasoline prices are more than $3.18 a gallon.

Meanwhile, the J.D. Power and Associates study found that consumers are not interested in buying so-called clean diesel vehicles.

The researchers concluded that people still have negative associations with diesel from older diesel technologies that have unpleasant exhaust.

The study also queried people on what sort of new technology features they are looking for.

If price were no object, the survey found that people want blind-spot detection, backup assist, and navigation systems. After prices were revealed, consumers showed the highest increase in backup assists (68 percent), active cornering headlight systems (65 percent), and wireless connectivity systems (53 percent).

“Consumer interest is likely heightened by the fact that more states may prohibit the use of cell phones while driving. Wireless connectivity will potentially become a necessity rather than a luxury as time goes on,” Marshall said in a statement.

Updated at 12:30 p.m. PT with more detail from survey on consumer interest in desired features.

Forget shock and awe. This is more like making a pain in the neck of yourself until the other side caves just to shut you up.

Microsoft’s making another pass at Yahoo, but this time Steve Ballmer’s not trying to go all the way with Jerry Yang. Instead, he says getting to first base will be enough.

“In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo. Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft or with other third parties.”

(Also take a look at the text of this memo Kevin Johnson sent updating his team on Microsoft’s search strategy.)

A few observations:

A) Microsoft must believe Yang’s position is a lot weaker than it was when it ended negotiations about a possible acquisition. That’s easy to understand considering the howling from Yahoo investors about losing out on a sure payday. Especially in light of Carl Icahn’s decision last week to wage a proxy fight, Microsoft may be thinking that Yahoo’s board would be more amenable to a partial buyout than it would to a 100 percent acquisition.

B) In order to believe the above, Microsoft must also think Yahoo’s board is really desperate. Subtract whatever relevant Yahoo services would be covered in “online services and advertising” and what’s going to be left? Flickr’s great and millions use Yahoo Mail. A lot hinges on what Microsoft has in mind but Yahoo is going to be careful not to commit ritual hara-kiri by ripping out the guts of the company. Say what you want, but we’re not talking about a collection of village idiots.

C) Of course, with shareholder suits and Icahn circling, Yahoo’s board is under a lot of pressure. By offering to return to the negotiating table, Microsoft’s offer may have the effect of preventing Yahoo from pursuing a rumored deal with Google for search ads. In the end, maybe Microsoft can secure a similar deal for itself–or even something more–with Yahoo. And that would leave the door open to further negotiations, especially as the proxy fight plays out. (Reuters is reporting Sunday that Microsoft has not yet held any discussions with Icahn.)

commentary

Red Hat gets a lot of credit for being a pure-play open-source company, and rightly so. It’s therefore interesting to see the company releasing code that most people probably a) didn’t know existed and b) didn’t know was proprietary.

But so it is with the Red Hat Certificate System, which Red Hat acquired from AOL a few years back, and which Red Hat has now released under an open-source license. (Actually, it is released under several, given the different components in the Certificate System.) RHCS, now dubbed Dogtag, plays a useful role in securing systems.

Why didn’t Red Hat release this before? I have no idea. It demonstrates, however, that open sourcing technology is not trivial, even for companies like Red Hat and Sun Microsystems that are firmly committed to open source. Thought, code scrubbing, legal review, etc. are all required to fully open source code. It doesn’t happen overnight. For Red Hat, it took three years.

At the Web 2.0 Expo, I was pushed hard to cover the new Web-based mind-mapping tool, Spinscape. The pitch I got was half demo, half introduction to the topic. I’m a big fan of outliner applications (I miss Grandview and Ecco) but the free-form mind mappers never appealed to me. I prefer a bit more structure.

After the conference, a little alone time with Spinscape did not change my opinion. This is an application that lends itself to a great demo. It looks great and it’s got a lot of capability, but I found if you’re using it to capture ideas, or maybe map out the ideas that pop up during a meeting, the interface slows you down, at least at first. On the other hand, if you want to annotate a map with notes, links, and pictures, and you have the time and gumption to create the map in the first place, Spinscape will handle it. It also does some useful automatic lookup in Wikipedia and other sources to fill out nodes if you’re gathering data and ideas on a topic.

I did not find that Spinscape helped me think more clearly.

If in your mind’s eye your ideas and plans look like molecular models, Spinscape might work for you. But if they look like outlines or Gantt charts, steer clear.

Spinscape intrigued me, since I’ve never used a Web-based tool like it. A quick bit of research on the Web and Twitter, and a timely news release, yielded four interesting competitors to this application. Despite the fact that they share a design point–creating graphical representations of networks of ideas–they have very different capabilities.

MeadMap is a mind mapper designed for students, and probably the best of these applications for people who think in outlines. It creates networks left-to-right, not from the center out (in Rafe terminology, the sun-and-planets view). It’s fast and easy to use. It also allows real-time collaboration and supports live chat with collaborators, which is very useful. Its downside is a limited feature set: You can’t import pictures, for example.

MeadMap, from the makers of the Trapper Keeper, is a good mapper for students.

Mindomo is the mind mapper for
Microsoft Office junkies. Its interface mirrors Office 2007’s look and feel, and it has a crazy number of little options you’ll never use (just like Office). It also lets you change the overall layout of your map; it doesn’t force you to use the sun-and-planet view.

Microsoft Office junkies will feel at home in Mindomo.

MindMeister is a clear mind mapper if you’re fond of the traditional view. It supports attachments and notes on each node so you can annotate your thought bubbles as you go. It has a useful wiki-like revision view, and it will color-code your collaborators’ changes in the main map. I found it both intuitive to use and capable. It’s the most well-rounded Web-based mind mapper in this roundup.

Webware's pick of the mind mappers, Mindmesiter has both a clean interface and strong capabilities.

And then there’s Bubbl.us, the cute little pony of mind mappers. With and extremely limited feature set, it’s very easy to learn and use. But anyone serious about mapping their thoughts will run out of gas with it rather quickly, I believe.

There are plenty of installable mind mapping tools, like MindJet, MindMap, and The Brain. There’s also an open-source application, Freemind. The commercial software applications have advantages in flexibility and speed, but the Web-based applications are less expensive (all are either free or available for a low monthly fee), and most offer much stronger collaboration features. In this category, as in many others, the Web is best the place to get started, and for many users, a Web application will offer all they need. Especially Mindmeister. It’s really worth trying.

It’s a virtual arms race among Web-based photo editors. Each one is trying to partner with as many third-party services as possible in an attempt to gain mass appeal. This morning Picnik, which has already begun to get some traction as the primary editing tool for Flickr has teamed up with Photobox, another large photo host in the United Kingdom.

Photobox is about a fifth of the size of Flickr in active users, and the two have very different services. Photobox provides 1,000MB of storage and gives users more space each time they order prints while Flickr operates on a paid premium membership that requires a yearly subscription of $25.

Also starting today Picnik users will be able to print their shots using QOOP which lets you print your photos on items such as coffee mugs, posters, and T-shirts. Users of Flickr and Picnik won’t find this very useful since Flickr’s offered QOOP integration since mid-2005. However, folks who are using Picnik as a standalone editor and replacement for desktop software will find that it’s an important partnership. In my chat with Picnik CEO Jonathan Sposato back in February, he had noted that a good deal of Picnik users fit that demographic, and that they simply take the edited shots back to their hard drives instead of to other services.

Picnik users now have new options to print their photos using QOOP. They can also grab and edit photos from Photobox. (click to enlarge)

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

commentary

We put stuff into computers (and, for that matter, get stuff out) in pretty much the same way we have for a good couple of decades.

Of course, we still use keyboards of a fairly standard design as our primary mechanism to feed words into a computer and mice are well-ensconced as the navigational tool of choice. Over in the gaming world, it’s the familiar two-handed game controller that predominates. In fact, I sense that one sees fewer joysticks, steering wheels, various oddball keyboards, and trackballs than one saw in the past. This probably reflects that “productivity” PCs are shifting toward notebooks on the one hand and that gaming is moving toward consoles on the other.

The one clear counter-example is the emergence of “thumbing” (as opposed to typing). But this is really more about making compromises in service of the form factor of handheld devices than it is a genuine innovation–however commonplace it has become.

However, we may be starting to see some genuine change.

The motion-sensing Nintendo Wii remote isn’t a particularly new concept. We’ve see academic work in data gloves of various types going back to the 1990s. What’s different is that the
Wii is mass market. Volumes mean not only lower cost, but an incentive for software makers to write games and other applications that support and use the device in interesting ways. Because it corresponds to the physical world, hand movement seems a natural fit with many tasks and manipulations. As a result, I expect that we’ll see descendants of the Wii in increasingly widespread use.

Another big trend we’re seeing is multitouch. As CNET News.com’s Tom Krazit notes, it’s Apple that has pushed this technology into the mainstream–starting with the
iPhone in the handheld arena and the MacBook Air in the notebook space. (On the notebook, it’s the touchpad rather than the whole screen that is multitouch and it’s less of a big deal as a result.) I’ve been arguing for a while that being able to draw a “napkin drawing” or a “whiteboard sketch” is one of the things that’s largely missing today when we work and collaborate remotely. The combination of multitouch and writeable LCDs at affordable price points, and supported by software, would be a genuine step forward.

These aren’t the only possibilities. Six-degrees-of-freedom controllers have long been used in 3D engineering programs but they’ve been priced for the CAD professional. Logitech has come out with the affordable (about $55) 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator PE (Personal Edition) 3D Navigation Device version that makes a great Google Earth companion. If 3D virtual worlds ever take off in a big way, devices such as these would be a natural and obvious fit.

Then there’s always voice recognition. It’s getting better. But that could be a statement for just about any year. And general-purpose voice recognition remains a niche. You won’t catch me betting on it (although I suspect its time will come–someday).