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Earlier today, conversation tracking site UberVu launched Compare. The service allows you type your name and a competitor's name into search boxes to produce information on your competing brand conversations on Twitter, Blogger, Friendfeed, Facebook, WordPress, HackerNews and Youtube. After all, if social media is the lead generator and customer service tool that we think it is, then it's important for us to know where we stand against our competitors.

In a blog post from 2006 titled, "The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy," Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki wrote, "you cannot drive your competition crazy unless you understand their strengths and weaknesses." Kawasaki undoubtedly knows what he's talking about, and his advice - while almost 4 years old - still rings true today.

If you've got a great idea for a startup, knowing as much about your potential competitors is invaluable, and the people behind Competitious know this as well as anyone. That's why they created their handy application for keeping close tabs on the competition.

The most important component of a startup is the team. Not only do you need to hire the right people for the job, you also have to hire them at the right time. Polaris Venture Partners' Mike Hirshland wrote a great post entitled, How to Kill a Startup: Hire Executives instead of Entrepreneurs. After investing in companies like Automattic and Quantcast Hirshland believes that companies go through a distinct life cycle and often the right people for the job change over time.

Yesterday, we reported that Nielsen Online's April numbers showed that the number of unique streams on Hulu grew 7.9% since March, though the number of unique users dropped slightly to about 7.4 million. As the New York Times reports this morning, however, Hulu questions these numbers and argues that they grossly underestimate Hulu's real reach, which comScore, another online measurement firm, pegs at 42 million.

Justin.tv, popular live video stream and chat destination, announced today that they are now in the top five online video sites world-wide with 21.9 million monthly unique viewers according to Quantcast. Justin.tv is beating other streaming video sites in this space, including Hulu at 15.7 million and Veoh at 11.8 million. Further, the service has shown impressive growth, measured at 1,800% year-over-year, according to their internal Google Analytics reporting.

If you use Google's apps, you likely find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time in Gmail. And with good reason. Gmail is where the majority of the activity is happening, so it tends to be where you live. That said, you're likely still interested in keeping tabs on your schedule and what's happening with your work.

Wouldn't it be great if you could keep an eye on your other Google apps - like Calendar and Docs - without having to open multiple tabs or traverse from window to window? Now, thanks to the latest feature releases from Google Labs, you can. Introducing Google Labs Calendar and Doc gadgets for Gmail.