Catching up on a bunch of tech startup news from around the blogosphere this week, most of it not very serious, but notable nonetheless…
—Brier Dudley at the Seattle Times took a considered look at the local video game industry and its outlook heading into 2010. Three things caught my eye: the comparison of the gaming sector to biotech in terms of how risky it is to develop a new product; the prospect of some big game studio acquisitions; and the general malaise of the gaming industry as compared to recent years.
—Seattle-based Cheezburger Network’s FAIL Blog released its top 10 most memorable “fail moments” of the year, as well as top 10 “fail people,” as voted on by some 100,000 readers. Kanye West, the balloon boy hoaxsters, and the airport-overshooting Northwest Airlines pilots were honored to make the cut, I’m sure. Somewhat refreshingly, Tiger Woods didn’t show up (probably too recent).
—Speaking of Tiger, Seattle-based BuddyTV has a little advice for the troubled golf star. I’m already regretting posting this, so let’s move on.
—Seattle photo-editing software startup Picnik notes that Google’s Zeitgeist list of its fastest-rising search terms for 2009 included “picnic” at #2 in the food and drink category. While other items on the list, like “acai berry” and “peanut butter recall,” were probably tied to media events, Picnik speculates that people were in fact searching for a certain online photo editor that spells its name differently. After all, if you type “picnic” into Google, the top result is actually Picnik.
—Seattle 2.0 posted its monthly ranking of local tech startups’ estimated Web traffic. New companies who made the cut in November were BigDoor Media, Optify, EagleView Technologies, WebServius, and Buzzeromatic. Startup index honcho Marcelo Calbucci notes that sizeable gains were made by Jambool, Delve Networks, Jackson Fish Market, and BigStartups.
