Startups - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Having kept its technology under wraps for more than a year, 'natural language search engine' Powerset has finally opened up to the public.

Perhaps one of the most challenging questions for an entrepreneur to answer is 'what does my company really do and what is its true role in the marketplace?'

It's a simple question. But it is difficult for many entrepreneurs to answer realistically, because there's a natural tendency on their part to think their companies do more and have more potential than is actually true.

Viewzi offers an alternative to the traditional text view of search results. It recently launched in beta, so we've taken a look.

This week's hodgepodge of articles I found interesting includes news that could impact the Microsoft-Yahoo courtship, online streaming music, digital thieves and young entrepreneurs.

Snooth is wine review site that previously covered only the US, but recently launched worldwide and now displays information from sellers in 40 countries.

Would you:

1. Put $20m into a company that you're valuing at $75m and has no proven mainstream appeal, scalability problems or business model?
   
2. Invest $25m at a $200m valuation in a company that has already raised $12.5m, has reportedly generated about $1m in revenues since its launch in 2005 and was unable to develop acquisition interest at $250m?
   
3. Give $50m and a $500m valuation to a profitless company that does $10-12m in annual revenues and whose CEO has said, "We’re like a teen in our clock cycle. Now, we have to figure out how do you get a job and work in the real world"?

You have to hand it to Henry Blodget. The infamous securities analyst who arguably promulgated more hype in Bubble 1.0 than anybody else on Wall Street seems to have a knack for bubbles.

His blog, Silicon Alley Insider, or SAI, is an increasingly influential force in the tech blogosphere and has given Blodget the ability to establish a front row seat for Bubble 2.0.

Yesterday, one of my readers pointed me in the direction of a TechCrunch guest post by Mike Jones.

Jones was CEO of Userplane, "a communications widget provider" which was acquired by AOL in 2006. He is now a Senior VP at AOL.

As more Web 2.0 startups fail and the market for VC investment contracts, Om Malik has asked whether it's now an ideal time for somebody to create a vulture fund that acquires startups " with decent technologies that have otherwise failed to get themselves off the ground. "

When it comes to how much credibility I think a publication has, it only takes one colossal lapse in journalistic integrity for me to lose all trust.