Comments for Ginx: Pierre Omidyar's Stealthy New Social Recommendation Service

Ginx: Pierre Omidyar's Stealthy New Social Recommendation Service

2009-01-14T16:45:51Z

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has joined the executive team of a stealthy new startup called Ginx, according to financial filings unearthed by PEHub. Very little is known about the company but based on passing whispers from early testers of the private data we have have some guesses about what the service does.

Ginx appears to be a people and news recommendation service built out of a Twitter publishing tool and a URL shortener. We think that sounds great, those lightweight technologies hold huge stores of valuable data. The company has raised about $2 million in funding so it's the real deal, not a fly by night operation. Check out a screenshot below and our full coverage of Omidyar's new gig over on Jobwire, our blog covering new hires in tech and new media.

]]>

Update: Omidyar pinged us on Twitter this afternoon to point us to a very short press release confirming that Ginx "is a Twitter client that aims to provide Twitter users with a rich experience for sharing and discussing links. Ginx was created to enable people to become more actively engaged in the news and topics they care about."

For the rest of what we've been able to find out about the service so far, please see our post on Jobwire.

Comment from Sarah Perez on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T16:57:25Z

Hot, hot, hot!

Comment from Edwin Khodabakchian on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T17:03:14Z

Nice teaser!

Comment from coldbrew on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T17:14:32Z

These "greasemonkey-like" tools send NoScript into fits with their use of XSS. This is the "new" browser plugin, it seems, but could present security issues if users become accustomed to such practices. 10 years ago this would've been considered spyware, now it is social.

Anyway, this looks like an interesting way to capture Google search history (as well as other web activity) in a way that Google doesn't presently allow (one can view and alter, but not export and/or share).

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T17:34:15Z

Coldbrew - I think that's the case for a whole lot of stuff these days. used to be considered spyware, now it's social. heh. well we opt in now!

Comment from Faramarz on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T19:09:35Z

Can i get an invitation code? :D

Comment from Matt Cutts on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T20:08:25Z

coldbrew, you can easily export your search history out of Google if you want, assuming you've enabled search history. Do a search for [export data from google services] to find a really nice blog post from Google OS that tells how to do it. Essentially there's a nice "/history/lookup" url on Google that you hit, and it will export your search history as an RSS feed. I just tried it and verified that it works.

Google doesn't want to trap your data, so if you want to export your search history and go do something with it, power to you. :)

Comment from coldbrew on 2009-01-14

2009-01-14T21:23:18Z

Kirkpatrick,
I don't normally opt-in, I still believe in the concept of TMI :)

Cutts,
Thanks for the clarification (and verification). I didn't intend to imply Google wanted to trap this data, I just assumed the feature didn't exist because its use-case was not clear to me (i.e. I will not be using it). While writing this comment a use-case did occur to me, but I wouldn't be the target user.

Comment from AdExchanger on 2009-01-14

2009-01-15T00:13:01Z

where are the codes!???

Comment from pestwave on 2009-01-14

2009-01-15T07:49:37Z

how to get an invite code, please? thanks

Comment from Raj on 2009-01-16

2009-01-16T12:39:49Z

Interesting would love to use the service, perhaps for a client. When does it go public ?