Market Research Provider AYTM Rolls Out Its Biggest Update Yet With Bigger Panels, Better Prices, Video Questionnaires & More

AskYourTargetMarket, a market research firm which got its start in the demo pit at TechCrunch 50 (in the pre-Disrupt days), is rolling out its biggest update to its service ever. According to CEO Lev Mazin, the company has made several improvements across all fronts, which include an expanded consumer reach, the addition of market research experts available, better pricing, a redesigned website, and more.

The last time AYTM (as it’s known for short) provided details to its audience reach, the company was saying that it had access to 4.5 million respondents. Today, the company reaches 20 million users worldwide – a metric it grew by expanding its own proprietary panels, but also through closing less than a half-dozen strategic partnerships with panel providers through API integrations. Due to NDA agreements, however, Mazin can’t provide those names.

He explains, though, that this increased reach is important because the larger AYTM grows, the more use cases it can offer to potential customers. They can now drill down further into customer demographics in order to carve up more precise segments of a user population – for example, not just smartphone owners, but Android owners, who are male, who are in a specific age range, and who are also gamers.

The company has also now brought in its own market research experts to aid those who either don’t know how to or don’t have time to use the service’s still free DIY tools. Instead, starting at $995 and up, AYTM offers a turn-key service with a seven-day turnaround time. Mazin says that 80 percent of its research assistance is handled by its own in-house staff, while another 20 percent is outsourced to external experts, given the subject of the customer’s questionnaire. Depending on how AYTM’s customer base adopts this feature, he says the firm can quickly scale up either side of the expertise offered – internal or external – as the case may be.

There are a handful of other features which have been introduced as well with this new release, including support for video questionnaires and video responses, which is a fairly unique way to add a little jazz to what might otherwise be sometimes boring data presentations. The company also adjusted pricing – before you could only get 3 completed questions per questionnaire for 95 cents each, now you can get 10. And you don’t have to blow through those asking the demographic info (gender, age, etc.) – you also get up to 10 of those on top of the actual questions you want to ask. Delivery times are also now no longer estimated, but guaranteed, and can be viewed in advance using a tool found here.

To date, AYTM has worked with thousands of companies and has run 150 million questions through its service. The 15-person company hit profitability last year, Mazin adds. All the new features and services are live now on the redesigned version of the AYTM website here.

DIYRockets and Sunglass launch world’s first competition to create a 3D printed rocket engine

DIYRockets, a company that wants to open-source space exploration, has partnered with Sunglass to launch the world's first open source competition to create a 3D printed rocket engine.

The contest opens on March 9 at this year’s SXSW and challenges inventors, creatives and space entrepreneurs to come up with a new engine design that can be used initially for small payload delivery, but later to "disrupt the space transportation industry."

DIYRockets says it recognizes the progress that private companies have made regarding space exploration, but wants to take this further by creating a contest that invites the public to create and collaborate with one another across the globe.

Competitors will need to use Sunglass, a cloud-based platform for creating, editing and sharing 3D designs, to complete their ideas. Sunglass is free to use and has a pretty simple user interface that accommodates multiple team members, chat windows and task lists.

The idea is that the associated design costs are kept to an absolute minimum, enabling what might have been an isolated designer, or someone just lacking resources, to submit new ideas for all types of space hardware and parts, "ranging from space propulsion to space medical sensors."

Sunglass will award a total of $10,000 in prizes for the winning designs, which will be selected by Angelo Vermeulen, TED Senior Fellow and Crew Commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation, Dean Kamen, an entrepreneur and inventor best known for the Segway, in addition to a panel of industry experts hailing from NASA, MIT and TED.

To help with manufacturing costs, 3D printing startup Shapeways will be providing $500 in free 3D printing to help create each of the top two designs – presumably as models or miniaturised prototypes, as the real deal would probably be just a tad more expensive.

Darlene Damm, co-founder and co-president of DIYRockets said: "As NASA's push towards private and public innovation finally comes to fruition and technology is now more affordable than ever, we see this as a greenfield opportunity to truly redefine space design and technology."

The private sector has helped to truly reinvigorate space travel. Red Bull Stratos, which saw Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner freefall 39 kilometres from the stratosphere last October, was a truly historic moment.

SpaceX, the private space transport company founded by Elon Musk in 2002, has also hit the headlines for performing a number of supply missions with the International Space Station.

Contests like this are important not only to continue stimulating interest in space exploration, but also to find the next new ideas that can challenge current technologies and perceptions. If you're interested in signing up or finding out more, we recommend heading over to the contest page.

Image Credit: BRUCE WEAVER/AFP/Getty Images

Germany Passes New Internet Copyright Law After Watering It Down To Spare Google From Having To Pay

The German Bundestag passed an addendum to the country’s copyright laws earlier today, the so-called “Leistungsschutzrecht,” that allows publishers to charge aggregators and search engines for the content they index and re-publish on their sites and in their apps.

An earlier version of the ancillary copyright law would have meant that Google, Google News and other aggregators and search engines would have had to pay, even if they just displayed “single words or very small text excerpts” from copyrighted text. Before passing the law, however, the Bundestag watered it down considerably and now allows for the use of snippets.

Sadly, though, as Der Spiegel reports today, it’s unclear how the law actually defines the word “snippet”; the current assumption is that everything up to about 160 characters would still be okay.

A number of German publishers lobbied their government to push the stronger version of the law, but the government decided to at least make the law compatible with the way Google currently indexes and displays snippets. Thanks to this, Google will likely not have to pay for uses of text up to about 160 characters. Startups and aggregators like Flipboard and others will likely have to reconsider how they use texts in Germany or start paying a license fee (content older than one year is excluded from the law).

A Google spokesperson told Der Spiegel that the company thinks the new law is “neither necessary nor useful” and that it will only “hurt German Internet users and the country’s economy.”

The organization of German publishers, of course, is rather happy about the new law (though given that they do seem to be a bit behind the times, they would have probably preferred linking to their texts to be made illegal) and argues that it provides publishers with a framework for licensing their content to aggregators.

While the German newspaper industry is still in relatively good shape compared to the U.S., most of the publishers also know that the age of the printed paper can’t last. Just like most of their counterparts in the rest of the world, though, they struggle with finding new ways to monetize their online content. While they had originally hoped that Google could subsidize their operations through licensing fees for a while, chances are they will now have to sue aggregators and startups instead.

There is a very small chance that the Bundesrat (the upper house of the German Parliament) could still kill the bill. Most pundits, however, currently think that this is very unlikely.

Disclaimer: I built a small German tech aggregator that could’ve been affected by the original version of the law.

Image credit: Digitale Gesellschaft

Yahoo Is Now Officially Calling Itself A ‘Technology Company’, Ditching The ‘Digital Media’ Tagline

Yahoo today issued its annual 10-K report to the Securities And Exchange Commission. These kinds of forms have a lot of boilerplate language that is reused again and again — often, companies just change the relevant revenue numbers and leave everything else the same for years (come to think of it, isn’t that the excuse former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson made for the errors in his official bio?)

But with this latest 10-K, its first with Marissa Mayer at the helm as CEO, Yahoo switched up its language in an interesting way. Yahoo is now labeling itself first and foremost as a “global technology company,” in the place where it used to call itself a “digital media company.”

Here is the first sentence of today’s 10-K (bold type added by TechCrunch for emphasis):

“Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Yahoo!,’ the ‘Company,’ ‘we,’ or ‘us’), is a global technology company focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining.”

And here is the first sentence of the 10-K Yahoo filed last year and the two years prior, respectively (again, bold type added for emphasis):

“Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Yahoo!,’ the ‘Company,’ ‘we,’ or ‘us’), is a premier digital media company.”

“Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Yahoo!,’ the ‘Company,’ ‘we,’ or ‘us’), is a premier digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences, across devices and around the globe, to vast audiences.”

“Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Yahoo!,’ the ‘Company,’ ‘we,’ or ‘us’), attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world class online media company.”

It seems that Mayer, a bona fide engineer by training, is working to put an end to that long-running debate as to whether Yahoo is primarily a media firm or a tech firm — no more quibbling, technology is the top priority. Like other corporate moves since Mayer has taken over as Yahoo’s CEO, it’s a small change, but it’s a symbolic and important one.

Park Geun-hye takes office as South Korean president

Rightwinger calls for North to walk away from nuclear weapons and take path of 'peace and shared development'

South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, has called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, as Pyongyang edges closer towards membership of the global club of nuclear states.

Park, who was sworn in on Monday as South Korea's first female president, said she would not tolerate provocations from the North, which conducted its third nuclear test this month.

"North Korea's recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people," Park, who was elected on 19 December, told a crowd of 70,000 people outside the national assembly building in Seoul. "Make no mistake, the biggest victim will be none other than North Korea itself."

Park's biggest foreign policy challenge will be to end five years of worsening ties with the North under her predecessor and fellow conservative, Lee Myung-bak, and persuade the regime to return to nuclear negotiations.

She indicated that she could soften her predecessor's hardline stance if the North, under its young leader, Kim Jong-un, was willing to make concessions on its nuclear programme.

"I will not tolerate any action that threatens the lives of our people and the security of our nation," she said. "I urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without delay and embark on the path to peace and shared development."

At home Park has promised sweeping economic reforms to bridge the growing income gap and address youth unemployment and a stagnant economy.

The 61-year-old, who represents the conservative Saenuri party, promised to create jobs and build a "creative" economy that is less dependent on South Korea's dominant chaebol conglomerates. Park said she would bring about "economic democratisation" by prioritising job creation in IT and science and technology.

She called on South Koreans to help her repeat the Miracle on the Han River - a reference to the rapid economic development seen under her father, Park Chung-hee, a military dictator who ruled the country in the 1960s and 70s before he was assassinated by his own spy chief in 1979.

Five years earlier Park's mother, Yuk Young-soo, was shot dead by a North Korean agent, forcing her to return early from her studies in Paris to act as first lady at the age of 22.

Her father continues to divide South Koreans to this day. Some credit him with dragging the country out of poverty after the 1950-53 Korean war and laying the foundations for its modern-day status as an export powerhouse. But others have never forgotten his brutal suppression of political opponents during 18 years of rule that began with a military coup in 1961.

Park apologised to victims of her father's rule during last year's election campaign and benefited from generally warm feelings towards her mother, a popular first lady.

Despite her conservative roots Park has made conciliatory gestures towards the North. She met the regime's former leader, Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang in 2002 and noted in her 2007 autobiography that Kim had apologised for a failed raid on the South Korean presidential Blue House by 31 North Korean commandoes in 1968.

North Korean state media marked her inauguration with a warning to the US and South Korea not to proceed with annual joint military drills.

"The US warmongers should think what consequence will be brought out for getting on the nerves of [North Korea], a dignified nuclear power," the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary, adding that the allies would "die in flames" if they prepared to launched an invasion.

John Delury, a North Korea experts at Yonsei University in Seoul, said a new era of engagement could be possible despite Pyongyang's nuclear programme and tougher sanctions from the UN security council.

"I don't think this latest spike in the cycle of provocation and response undermines her whole platform of seeking to somehow re-engage the North," Delury told Associated Press.

Other experts, however, believe the North has set itself on the path to diplomatic gridlock and more regional tension.

"Normalisation of relations, a peace treaty, access to energy and economic opportunities those things that come from choosing electricity over bombs and have the potential of lifting the North Korean people out of poverty and hardship will be made much more difficult, if not impossible, for at least the next five years," Siegfried Hecker, a US scientist and regular visitor to North Korea, wrote on the website of Centre for International Security and Co-operation at Stanford University.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien resigns amid claims of inappropriate behaviour

Pope accepts resignation of UK's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, who has been accused of 'inappropriate acts'

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the UK's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, has resigned as the head of the Scottish Catholic church after being accused of "inappropriate acts" towards fellow priests.

News that Pope Benedict had accepted the cardinal's resignation as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh came after the Observer disclosed a series of allegations by three priests and one former priest.

O'Brien has denied the allegations and had been expected to continue in his post as archbishop until mid-March, when he was due to retire at age 75.

However, in a statement released by the church on Monday, it emerged that the pope had accepted O'Brien's resignation a week ago, on 18 February.

In the statement, O'Brien apologised to any people he had let down and said he did not want the controversy to overshadow the election of the new pope.

"I have valued the opportunity of serving the people of Scotland and overseas in various ways since becoming a priest," he said. "Looking back over my years of ministry, for any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended."

His resignation means the cardinal will not now take part in the election of a successor to Pope Benedict. This will leave Britain unrepresented in the process, as O'Brien was the only cardinal in the British Catholic churches with a vote in the conclave.

Although Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the archbishop emeritus of Westminster and former leader of Catholics in England and Wales, will attend pre-conclave meetings, he will not have a vote in the election itself as cardinals aged 80 and over are ineligible to vote. He is 80.

O'Brien, who missed celebrating mass at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh on Sunday, had been due to fly out to the Vatican on Tuesday for the conclave.

His resignation is a heavy blow to the church and Benedict, whose papacy has been beset by repeated controversies over misconduct by clergy in Europe and the US and allegations of corruption and incompetence at the Vatican.

However, with the Vatican and Benedict's successor facing a series of serious challenges to its reputation, O'Brien's speedy retirement will allow the church to move quickly to settle this controversy.

The Observer reported that the four men came forward last week to demand his resignation largely because the complainants did not want O'Brien taking part in the papal election.

O'Brien said he had already agreed with Benedict that he would step down on 17 March as he was "approaching the age of seventy-five and at times in indifferent health". The pope had now agreed he could resign immediately, he said, forcing the church to find an "apostolic administrator" to run the diocese until a new archbishop could be appointed.

Confirming he would not now go to the conclave, O'Brien said: "I thank Pope Benedict XVI for his kindness and courtesy to me and on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Scotland, I wish him a long and happy retirement.

"I also ask God's blessing on my brother cardinals who will soon gather in Rome to elect his successor. I will not join them for this conclave in person. I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me, but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor. However, I will pray with them and for them that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they will make the correct choice for the future good of the church.

"May God, who has blessed me so often in my ministry, continue to bless and help me in the years which remain for me on Earth and may he shower his blessings on all the peoples of Scotland especially those I was privileged to serve in a special way in the archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh."

Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, said he had learned of the cardinal's decision with "the greatest sadness".

He said: "In all of my dealings with the cardinal, he has been a considerate and thoughtful leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, stalwart in his faith but constructive in his approach.

"The hugely successful visit of Pope Benedict in 2010 was a highlight of his cardinalship and symbolised the key role of the Catholic church in Scottish society."

Salmond said it would be a "great pity if a lifetime of positive work was lost from comment in the circumstances of his resignation". He added: "None of us know the outcome of the investigation into the claims made against him but I have found him to be a good man for his church and country."

Austen Ivereigh, a Catholic writer and co-ordinator of Catholic Voices, said he was not surprised that the church had moved so quickly following the emergence of the allegations.

"I think the speed of the announcement has everything to do with the fact that these accusations were made on the eve of the papal election," he said. "It was important not to distract from the pope and the election process, and I think frankly it was a necessary act and [O'Brien] did it for the good of the church."

Ivereigh said the rapid response showed both the church's "renewed transparency and accountability" and its desire for the election of Benedict's successor to proceed as uncontroversially as possible.

He described O'Brien as a "very affable, warm and hospitable" man who was always unafraid to speak his mind. "He's never been considered one of the high-flying cardinals; he doesn't know Rome that well or have fluent Italian and so he's never been a cardinal who has been as significant in the Vatican as Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor," said Ivereigh.

"But he's been a very stalwart defender of the Scottish church's stances on various issues and he has been valued for his forthrightness and directness - even though I think sometimes some of his pronouncements have not been judiciously phrased."

Ivereigh also pointed out that although O'Brien's decision not to attend the conclave left British Catholics without a vote in the election of the next pope, it did not leave them without a voice.

"It's important to remember that it's not just the conclave where cardinals bring their influence to bear," he said. "In many ways the more important time over the next few weeks will be the general congregations when the cardinals meet together before the conclave to discuss the state of the world and the state of the church - and Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will be present at those because the over-80 cardinals are part of those discussions; they're just not allowed to vote.

"I think the perspectives of the British church will still make themselves felt within the college because of Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor's presence and influence."

O'Brien has been an outspoken critic of gay rights, denouncing plans for the legalisation of same-sex marriage as "harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of those involved". He was named bigot of the year in 2012 by the gay rights group Stonewall because of his central role in opposing gay marriage laws in Scotland.

Colin Macfarlane, the director of Stonewall Scotland, called for a full inquiry into the claims against the former cardinal. "We trust that there will now be a full investigation into the serious allegations made against ex-cardinal O'Brien," Macfarlane said. "We hope that his successor will show a little more Christian charity towards openly gay people than the former cardinal did himself."

There Are Special Water Bridges, Which Go To The Ships

There Are Special Water Bridges, Which Go To The Ships,As a rule, the appearance of water bridges is the result of lining of water channels for navigation at a different height than the rivers. At the same channel as the channel intersects the river, used for navigation. Near the water bridge, as a rule, is boat lift or lock to move ships in the channel or river.Europe's longest water bridge in the German city of Magdeburg - Magdeburg Water Bridge. It has a length of 918 meters, it was built from 24 000 tons of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete.