Filed under: World wide web, Pic, Video, Features, Social Software, web 2.0

How do you do decide which photosharing site to go with? If free is your criteria, there are certainly many options to select from. Most free photo sharing sites are ad supported and come with a certain GB capacity limit. If you upgrade to a pro account, which can run anywhere from $20-$25 per year, there are typically no limits and no advertisements.

We took a look at the most popular photosharing sites’ features and did a comparison to help you decide which pic site is best suited for your needs. We compared Flickr, Photobucket and Zooomr and then test drove each of the sites to see how well they did. Check out our unscientific findings after the jump.

Continue reading Photosharing - comparing Flickr, Photobucket and Zooomr

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Browser Tips, Social Software, Mobile Minute, web 2.0

Opera has released a report on the say of the mobile web. And considering the company claims more than 44 million users for its Opera Mini cellphone web browser, Opera’s in as good a position as any company to report on mobile web usage.

There are two trends that are particularly noteworthy. First, 77% of all traffic was to full web pages, not stripped down mobile pages. This probably shouldn’t be that surprising, since Opera Mini renders full pages pretty quickly and lets users zoom in and out to read the fine print. And while WAP might have been pretty exciting a few years ago when there wasn’t as much rich media content on the web, and when mobile internet connections were significantly slower, those days are long gone.

The second trend is a bit more surprising. 40% of worldwide traffic was directed to social networks. In some countries including the US, South Africa, and Indonesia, that number was as high as 60%. Now, it’s not like we didn’t know that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and Bebo were popular. We just didn’t figure people would be spending half of their mobile web browsing time visiting them.

What sites do you visit regularly with your mobile web browser?

[via VentureBeat]

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Filed under: Raising money, Texas Pacific Group, Private equity industry, Investments, Value and lack thereof

A new capital raise might have set a record, or at least close to it. Tygris Commercial Finance Group, Inc. has launched a new commercial finance company for middle markets transactions, and it says in the launch release that its funding is over $1.75 billion in equity commitments. Tygris says this is the largest initial capital raise ever in the U.S. commercial finance sector. Tygris will initially have offices in Chicago, Stamford, CT and Parsippany, NJ.

Tygris was founded by Aquiline Capital Partners LLC (”Aquiline”), a New York based private equity firm specializing in financial services, with New Mountain Capital, L.L.C. and TPG Capital joining as lead investors.

The company also claims to have established significant relationships with financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Barclays, Wachovia and Wells Fargo Foothill. With the backers and management team here on this, this seems like it is easily within the realm of contacts.

The Company initially will concentrate on developing leading franchise positions in three commercial finance businesses: middle market corporate finance, middle market equipment leasing and asset finance, and small ticket leasing.

Below is the management team, and unless I am missing something it looks like an impressive list of executives:

• Frederick E. “Rick” Wolfert, former Vice Chairman of Commercial Finance of the CIT Group and President of Heller Financial Inc., is the Company’s CEO.
• Steven F. Kluger, EVP, Capital Markets and Corporate Strategy; former President/CEO of GE Capital Markets.
• Stuart A. Armstrong, President of Corporate Finance; former President/CEO of Black Diamond Commercial Finance, former Senior Managing Director and Head of Corporate Lending’s vertical industry financing groups at GE Commercial Finance.
• Laird M. Boulden, President of Asset Finance (Chicago); former President/CEO of RBS Asset Finance, and President/co-founder of the Commercial Equipment Finance Group for Heller Financial Inc.
• Tim J. Eichenlaub, EVP, Chief Risk Officer; former Senior Managing Director and Group Head for CIT’s Sponsor Finance business.
• T. Doug Hollowell, EVP, General Counsel and Head of Depository Strategy; former Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Corporate Treasury, and General Counsel at Merrill Lynch Capital.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, AOL, web 2.0

AOL completed its acquisition of social networking site Bebo today. You might remember that AOL announced it would purchase Bebo for $850 million back in March. According to InformationWeek Bebo will be the center of AOL’s new People Network business unit. Heading up this business unit is Joanna Shields who will serve as president. This “People Network” will consist of three AOL services: AIM, ICQ, and now Bebo.

While Bebo is most popular in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, AOL is hoping grow this upcoming social network in the US. Silicon Alley Insider seems to think AOL will layoff employees working in the AIM/ICQ division due to the restructuring process.

What do you think? Did AOL make a good decision? Do you think this acquisition puts AIM at risk? Be sure to voice your view in the comments!

Disclaimer: AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. which owns DownloadSquad.

[via InformationWeek]

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