‘Predators’ Preview Debuts at SXSW
SXSWi (the South by Southwest Interactive conference) is certainly our favorite track of the SXSW experience, but it’s not the only portion of the festival taking place this weekend. Film goers are out en masse in Austin too, and directors — both big and small — are using the event to showcase their films. Or in some cases, using it to show off preview of their films.
Texas-native Robert Rodriguez (whose Troublemaker Studios is based in Austin) showcased the first preview of July’s Predators, his newest movie, last night.
Predators stars Adrien Brody and Topher Grace in what is essentially a reboot of the storied franchise. Rodriguez, a fan of the original series, produced and contributed to the screenplay. Fox already has a Predators website, complete with Twitter and Facebook integration.
The preview that was shown at SXSW is already online and you can watch it here:
Knowing Rodriguez’s love of digital filmmaking and his Predator fandom, we fully expect to see a digital — possibly even viral — campaign for the film, especially as we edge closer to release. The full trailer will be online on March 18th.
So, are you excited about Predators? Let us know in the comments!
Tags: movie trailers, Movies, Predators, sxsw, sxsw2010, sxswi

Top 10 Twitter Trends for This Week [CHART]
Hooray for Hollywood! — the big winner this week in our roundup of the top 10 Twitter trends. From the Oscars to Alice in Wonderland (and of course, Justin Bieber), celebrity — whether be it music or film — dominated the Twitterverse.
The latest data, which comes from our friends at What the Trend, gives us a snapshot of what topics dominated Twitter. Given the topical nature of the list, hashtag memes and games have been excluded.
Tween-favorite Justin Bieber lost his spot at #1 to the Big Show — AKA the Oscars. The 82nd Academy Awards dominated Twitter on Sunday night and was the most discussed topic of the week as a whole. Don’t feel bad for Bieber though: he’s still number two on the list.
Now, who’s hot who not/Tell me who rock who sell out in the stores. Well, that would be B.I.G P-O, P-P-A, also know as the Notorious B.I.G. The legendary Brooklyn rapper, who was murdered 13 years ago this week, was #5 on this week’s list of trends. More than a decade after his tragic death, Biggie continues to be a larger than life figure.
Music continues to be a big topic of discussion on Twitter, with artists like Lady Gaga, Bieber and the Jonas Brothers all appearing on the list. We expect to see Lady Gaga next week too, given the camp-infused epic music video for “Telephone” that was released at the end of the week.
Looking forward, we predict Justin Bieber, the iPad and Twilight: Eclipse to all appear on the chart next week.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.
Top Twitter Trends for 3/7 – 3/13
Rank
Topic
Top Index This Week
Change
Description
#1
Oscars
1
1
The Academy Awards, or Oscars, are film awards given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, California. The 82nd annual show aired in the USA on 3/7/2010. (Subtrends: Oscars, Sandra Bullock, Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, James Cameron, Academy Awards, Kathy Ireland, Red Carpet, Precious, Crazy Heart, Tyler Perry, Best Picture, Jeff Bridges, District 9, Molly Ringwald, Zac Efron, SJP, Best Supporting, Food Inc, Robert Downey Jr, Kristen Stewart, Farrah Fawcett, Mo’Nique, Best Director, George Clooney, Fisher Stevens, Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Barbara Walters, ABC, Sandy Powell, Tom Ford, Christoph Waltz, Best Documentary, Sarah Jessica Parker, Colin Firth, Penelope Cruz, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, An Education, Matt Damon, James Taylor, Hattie McDaniel, Chris Pine, Cablevision, NPH, Ryan Bingham, Steve Martin, Congrats Monique, Frog, Sigourney Weaver, Miley’s, Best Animated, Anna Kendrick, Art Direction)
#2
Justin Bieber
1
Justin Bieber’s new album My World 2.0 comes out on March 23rd & his fans are excited. (Subtrends: Justin Bieber, My World 2, #weadorejustin, #BieberHasMyHeart, QVC, #KingstonFollows, #bieberismyidol, #ripmary, #InLoveWithBieber, Big News, AXns5tC-dgk, Eenie Meenie, #Biebershirtless, RICK, BBC1, Cmon, Let’s Dance, #OMJDByeah, #omgbiebertrue, NcvLuIHIo10)
#3
Follow Friday
1
Follow Friday is a tradition where people tweet people they believe are fun/interesting to follow (on Fridays).
#4
Alice In Wonderland
2
2
Tim Burton’s eagerly anticipated movie, Alice in Wonderland, opened in cinemas worldwide March 5th and stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. (Subtrends: Alice, Alice in Wonderland)
#5
Notorious B.I.G.
1
NEW
This week marks the 13th year of the death of the The Notorious B.I.G. The legendary rapper from Brooklyn, NY was murdered tragically 13 years ago on March 9th. (Subtrends: #ripbig, Biggie, Name Ya Top 5 Biggie, Happy BIG Day, Juicy, Christopher Wallace, #Biggie)
#6
Lady GaGa
3
1
Lady Gaga’s new music video with Beyoncé, Telephone, premiered this week. (Subtrends: Lady GaGa, Telephone, Beyonce, #telephonevideo, GQ95z6ywcBY, #TelephoneThursday, Jonathan Ross, GaGa)
#7
Jonas Brothers
1
NEW
The Jonas Brother announce a tour with Demi Lovato, discussed sweater colors, joked about the paparrazi, and Nick Jonas continues to act as a spokesman for diabetes. (Subtrends: #JonasAreBack, #JoeEatsFood, #YoureANileyFan, #itsagreysweater, Houston, #NickJonasDay, #WelcomeKevinJ, Everybody)
#8
Chuck Norris
2
NEW
Chuck Norris turned 70 years old this week, March 10. As a result, people are tweeting Chuck Norris facts. (Subtrends: Chuck Norris, #iheardchucknorris, #chucknorris)
#9
Happy Women’s Day
1
NEW
International day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women. It is celebrated in many different countries around the world on March 8th.
#10
Corey Haim
1
NEW
Canadian actor Corey Haim, best remembered for roles in films ‘The Lost Boys’, ‘Lucas’, and ‘License To Drive’, was found dead March 10. It appears to have been a drug overdose. (Subtrends: Actor Corey Haim, Lost Boys, RIP Corey Haim, #RIPCoreyHaim, LAPD, Goonies, North Hollywood, Corey Haim, KNBC, Frank Albarren, Lucas)
Tags: top twitter trends, twitter, What The Trend

Chatroulette Founder Working to Preserve User Privacy
The creator of Chatroulette has revealed that he is working on a way to preserve user’s privacy, following the launch of Chat Roulette Map, a Google Maps mashups that pinpoints the location of users of the service.
Andrey Ternovskiy, speaking in an interview with the New York Times Bits blog, stated, “There is a certain level of anonymity on the Chatroulette that Chatroulette Map takes away, but I plan to add something to my site to allow them to still hide their whereabouts.”
Chatroulette Map highlights a Chatroulette user’s location by looking at his or her IP addresses, which is revealed via the peer-to-peer nature of the webcam connection. As well as placing a marker on a map, users are screengrabbed, offering anyone in the world a brief sneak peak through a stranger’s webcam.
This has drawn criticism from privacy advocates, although those behind Chatroulette Map say they will remove an image and marker on request if emailed a matching photo to ensure the authenticity of the request.
17-year-old Ternovskiy, a Russian student currently visiting the U.S., says of ChatRoulette Map, “I enjoy it”, but obviously realizes his users — some of which appear to have a penchant for public nudity and masturbation — might be less likely to use the service without the anonymity it previously offered.
However, this does not mean Ternoviskiy is green-lighting the use of the service for such NSFW activities. He has introduced a “report” button, which will see someone “reported” three times banned from the service.
Other points of interest from the interview are the fact that Ternovskiy has yet to collect his Google AdWords earnings as he’s is still under 18, that he’s been offered a $1 million buy-out, and that last month 30 million unique visitors hit Chatroulette, which is averaging one million new users a each day.
Tags: chatroulette, chatroulette map

Giiv Lets You Give Gifts Via Text Message
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Name: Giiv
Quick Pitch: Giiv is a mobile gifting service that delivers gifts in real time in the format of a friendly text message.
Genius Idea: Gift certificates are an awesome (if occasionally generic) way to say “You rock!” Giiv.com makes this process easier by letting you give gift cards and certificates to someone you care about via text message.
Giiv.com is fairly simple: you find a gift that you want to give a friend or loved one, and then you enter in his or her mobile number and a note. Giiv.com texts them a URL and a giiv code to redeem his or her gift, either with a retailer or online.
There is a $0.99 processing fee added on to the gift amount, which seems pretty fair considering the convenience factor. You can get gifts from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, TOMS Shoes, Fandango and others.
Sure, you can give a lot of gift certificates electronically over e-mail, but text message can be even faster — depending on the person you are giving to. Plus, if you have an iPhone, you can use the free Giiv iPhone app, which is really cool.
How do you give gifts online? Let us know in the comments.
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”
Reviews: PHP
Tags: gift certificates, giiv.com, iphone apps, SMS, talkshoe, web apps

Flickr Co-founder’s Startup Hunch Raises $10 Million
Hunch, a New York City-based startup founded by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake and SiteAdvisor founder/angel investor Chris Dixon, has raised $10 million in funding for its questions and recommendations site.
Nearly a year ago, Ms. Fake revealed her new startup to the world. Her goal: to create a service that would help people make decisions via crowdsourced questions and advice from its users. Hunch launched last June and has been growing steadily ever since (it peaked at nearly half a million U.S. visitors last month).
According to MediaMemo, the startup has raised $10-$12 million from Khosla Ventures and previous investors General Catalyst Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and original angel investor Ron Conway (an early investor in Google and PayPal). The lead investor seems to have been Gideon Yu, the former CFO of YouTube and later Facebook.
It’s tough to bet against Hunch and its stellar leadership team. Our tests of the service have always been a positive experience, although it’s tough to say just how much of a market exists for their service. Hunch also has some valuable data that could be an asset into the future.
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Hunch, YouTube
Tags: business, funding, hunch, venture capital

Privacy Concerns Put the Kibosh on the Netflix Prize
Amid class-action lawsuits over privacy and subsequent FTC inquiries, Netflix announced today that it will not be pursuing the next Netflix Prize.
For more than three years, individuals competed to win the $1 million Netflix Prize, in the process improving the company’s algorithm for recommending movies to its users.
When the results were first announced last summer, Netflix followed them up with an announcement that a second contest would take place.
Unfortunately, the next iteration is not to be. A class action privacy lawsuit arose when a customer claimed that the rental information that Netflix makes available for use in the contest wasn’t anonymous enough and could theoretically be linked to her and reveal her sexuality.
As Ars Technica notes, researchers have often said that the external data source could be linked to an individuals renting history, something that does present certain privacy risks.
Netflix has settled the class action suit and the FTC inquiry, but the Netflix Prize is no more. While we understand the potential privacy concerns and why this could be an issue, we’re sad to see the Netflix Prize go.
Netflix said that it intends to continue to look at how it can collaborate with the community when developing its recommendation engine. Here’s an idea: Ask people if they are willing to opt into public research. Frankly, I’d be more than willing to do that in exchange for better and more accurate movie recommendations.
What do you think about the end of the Netflix Prize? Let us know!
Tags: netflix, netflix prize, privacy, recommendation engine

The Rise of Foursquare in Numbers [STATS]
Yesterday, Foursquare turned one. You read that right: The mobile social network that made its splash at SXSW 2009 and has tremendous buzz is just 366 days old.
Despite that short amount of time, Foursquare has more than half a million users, 1.4 million venues and 15.5 million checkins, and it’s still growing. Experian Hitwise decided to use this milestone to analyze Foursquare’s growth.
As you might imagine, not only have Foursquare’s mobile apps seen growth, but so has Foursquare.com. What did strike us as surprising is that the site’s number-one referrer is Facebook, which accounted for a whopping 33% of upstream visits last week. That’s even bigger than Google (22%) and Twitter (8%) combined. It’s yet another indicator of how much traffic the world’s largest social network can drive.
Searches for Foursquare have also been sharply rising, accounting for around 0.00032% of all U.S. searches. Its most recent peak was February 20, about the time Please Rob Me was gaining the press’ attention.
With more than 15.5 million checkins and nearly 300,000 yesterday (many due to SXSW), Foursquare seems to have a bright future. However, competition from Gowalla, Yelp and Facebook in the local space could give the startup a run for its money this year.
Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Gowalla, Twitter, Yelp
Tags: foursquare, Mobile 2.0

