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Revver

Failure Friday: Red Herring, Magnolia, and Pageflakes go dark

As of Friday morning, technology news site Red Herring, widget start page service Pageflakes, and social bookmarking site Magnolia were all unavailable. But it appears all three will be back up and running.

Eventually.

As for Red Herring's outage, Silicon Valley Insider is reporting (via a Tweet from a former RH employee) that it's closing its doors. However, a source close to the company tell us that Red Herring simply has not paid its hosting bill, and that no employees have been informed otherwise.

In Pageflakes' case the site began experiencing problems early Thursday, which coincided with several … Read more

'Samurai Girl' to help launch new experiment from Diet Coke and Mentos team

Can the team from EepyBird.com, which brought us the " The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments," duplicate their success with Post-it notes?

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe, are the performance artists behind EepyBird. The pair will unveil their new "Sticky Note Experiment" Friday at the ComicCon Conference in San Diego.

As an example of how far Web-video fame can take you, the clip of the "Sticky Note Experiment" will debut not on the Web but on cable television. On September 5, the video will appear on ABC Family's Samurai Girl

Voltz and … Read more

MySpace co-founder acquires video-sharing site

Brad Greenspan, co-founder of MySpace.com and founder of LiveUniverse, an online entertainment network, announced that his company has acquired ailing video-sharing site Revver.

Greenspan said in a statement that he plans to merge the offerings of Revver and LiveVideo.com, his company's social-network and video site. Revver will continue to operate under its own brand.

But the ex-MySpace executive did not pass up the opportunity to take a few swipes at his former company. Greenspan opposed the 2005 sale of MySpace to News Corp. and has badmouthed MySpace and its parent company ever since.

Half of his press … Read more

Revver is acquired amid spike in interest

Employees of video-sharing site Revver said they breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after management informed them that the company had been acquired by LiveUniverse, a little-known online entertainment network.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment, but two Revver employees and an executive at a company that had inquired about bidding on Revver said managers there had informed them the sale was done. The blog NewTeeVee was first to report the acquisition.

In a report earlier this month, CNET News.com cited sources who said the beleaguered Revver was asking for between $300,000 and $500,000 and the … Read more

Video site Revver shopping itself for a song

CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy contributed to this report.

Revver, a YouTube competitor that made a name for itself by paying video producers, has fallen on hard times.

The company's staff has dwindled to less than half the size it was 18 months ago, according to former employees. Rumors flitter around the Web about whether the company is running out of money. Now comes word that Revver has been trying to sell itself at a fire-sale price for months, according to three sources close to the company.

Revver's asking price is between $300,000 and $500,000, … Read more

Revver shares $1 million with videographers

Revver, a video-sharing site trudging along in YouTube's shadow, announced Wednesday that the company paid $1 million to videographers over the past year.

Los Angeles-based Revver, among the first Web sites to share advertising revenue with video creators, paid the money to 25,000 people, the company said in a press release.

Because Revver splits ad money with creators, 50-50, Nick Gonzalez at TechCrunch figured that the company makes around $2 million to $2.5 million from advertisers.

He also suggested that the figure could be lower if Revver pays more to high-end video makers.

Another executive shakeup at Revver

Video-sharing site Revver said Thursday that CEO Steven Starr has stepped down, in the company's second executive shakeup in the past six months.

One of the sector's pioneers in sharing revenue with videographers, Revver said in a statement that Kevin Wells, the company's chief operating officer takes over for Starr, who will now serve as Revver's chairman.

Revver competes in a crowded video-sharing market by billing itself as a friend to artists. But what many performers prize most is an audience. Revver's has never come close to the size of YouTube's, the sector's … Read more

Lycos Mix fails to stir

Lycos Mix is a new video-playlist creation tool that lets you string together video clips from various hosting services. The videos sit beside a live chat window based off of Lycos' Cinema technology. Casual observers can come in, watch videos, and chat with you. It's almost like a bar except a little creepier.

When you're done adding content, which is done by pasting URLs or using the Lycos Mix bookmarklet from the content's source page, you can watch, rearrange, or chat about the videos, all within the same screen. The adding process is a little arduous, as … Read more