Miso Adds New Investor: Google Ventures!

Just a quick financing update – we are excited to announce that Google Ventures has joined as another investor.  As a two-time entrepreneur, we are excited to be working with Joe Kraus who has a track record of building successful businesses and great products.  With this additional investment, we will be tapping into Joe’s knowledge and Google Ventures’ resources to help improve our product, accelerate our growth, and deliver on our vision of building a second screen.

Joe Kraus says it best, “What’s happening in the living room is changing – people are watching TV with a second screen in their laps, either holding a mobile phone, a laptop, or a tablet. We’re excited to be investing in Miso as they pursue their mission to help people get the most value from that second screen.”

Welcome to the team, Joe & Google Ventures!

Learn more about our previous financing announcement update here.

GoMiso.com Web Updates: Follow other people on Miso!

We have made some minor updates on the web:

• Start to follow other people on Miso – just like Twitter. You can unfollow people at any time!
• Easier management in Settings. Settings have been divided up into 3 tabs, with “new follower email” setting added
• Improved the appearance of the sharing buttons (Twitter/Facebook), so it’s easier to “check-in”

We’ve made some other minor changes here and there – mainly in the background.

To “Follow” someone, click on a user and on the top there is a green “Follow” button. Click on “Follow” and you’re all set! Like the below:

It's easy to follow other people!

Miso Raises Seed Financing, New Advisors & Check-in Online at GoMiso.com

Since Miso alpha launched 2-months ago, new technology platforms have emerged creating even more innovative opportunities to be built on top of people’s entertainment experiences. The iPad launched on April 3rd and this week we saw even a new set of opportunities that were built on top of Google TV. All of this innovation is a result of new consumer behavior in the way that people consume media – watching TV with a laptop, watching TV with an iPhone and Android device, and now watching TV with an iPad.

Social TV is here. We are building a “second screen” that makes watching TV more social and more fun on top of all these platforms. No matter where you consume media – on the TV, on a laptop, on a computer, Miso will be your second screen.

We would like to share a couple of key announcements:

• We closed our seed financing! We are taking the “Foursquare for TV” idea to a whole new level. We’re excited about our seed financing from some great investors including Keith Rabois, Jawed Karim, and ex-Googlers Georges Harik, Richard Chen, Thomas Korte, Kurt Abrahamson, and more. With this money, we will expand our growth into more platforms, provide even richer experiences on the Miso platform, and create a magical second screen experience.

• New advisors. We are also excited to add to our existing advisory team, Keith Rabois(also an investor). Keith brings extensive social and consumer internet experience from his work at Slide, LinkedIn and PayPal.

• We are launching our first web version of GoMiso.com: We’re not just an iPhone app anymore.  Check out our early version of Miso for the web. Check it out here.
  • Check-In and share what you’re watching to Facebook & Twitter
  • Unlock badges for checking in to your favorite movies & shows
  • Search & browse shows and see who else has checked in
  • See your Miso check-in history including what shows you’ve watched, badges you’ve earned, and much more

We are aware of a number of issues, and will be fixing them constantly, but wanted to get the web version out there so we can hear more from you!

Follow @gomiso on Twitter for updates, Like our Miso Facebook page,  and if you have any feedback, please email us at feedback@gomiso.com.

Here are some screenshots:

Search & Browse TV shows & movies you’re watching

Check-In to share what you’re watching on Facebook & Twitter

View your check-in history and browse other Miso users

Revision3 Adds Some Miso to Drive Tune-In

We noticed on Miso very early that people are not only checking into broadcast TV, but they are checking to shows online.  This is not surprising, as online video grew is growing constantly.  That’s why we’re excited today about our partnership with Revision3.   Fans of Revision3 shows have the opportunity to unlock exclusive badges and win special prizes.  In addition to the promotion, as part of the partnership, Revision3 will be getting early access to new features available on our platform as they become available!

Each week a lucky Revision3 viewer who unlocks a badge will get the opportunity to win special prizes!  The winners will be announced on the Twitter.  Follow @revision3 for the announcements!

More about the announcement here:

Leading Internet Television Network Revision3 Adds Some Miso to Rally Community Around Shows

San Francisco, May 10, 2010  – Revision3 (http://www.revision3.com), a leading television network for the internet, announced a partnership with newly created iPhone and iTouch app, Miso (http://gomiso.com) to help drive awareness,  tune-in and cement a stronger community  to its popular online shows including Diggnation, Tekzilla, and 20 others.

Revision3’s strong audience base will use Miso’s brand new platform to “check in” and share their entertainment experience with friends while creating a stronger connection with the brand and its fans.

Making this connection will encourage new potential viewers to tune-in to Revision3’s variety of shows that appeal to everyone from foodies, gamers, film enthusiasts, practical jokers and tech geeks to pop culture trendsetters and comedians.

Miso makes it easy and fun to share what you watch with your friends. People “check-in”, share what they are watching with their friends, gain points and badges and can optionally post to their social networks including Facebook and Twitter.   To make it fun, Miso makes watching content more like a game.  The more people check-in, the more points can be earned, and exclusive badges can be unlocked.

“Revision3 has a passionate set of viewers and we’re excited to have Revision3 leverage our platform to create a stronger connection to their audience,” said Somrat Niyogi, CEO of Miso.  “In addition to the features available today, the partnership will give Revision3 access to new, innovative features that Miso will be releasing this year.”

“All the world’s a game”, said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3.  “With such great services taking the game to locations, Miso’s doing an awesome job of bringing it to your favorite TV shows.  We’re excited to be working with such an innovative, and fun group!”

People who tune-in to Revision3 shows can start earning extra points and unlocking exclusive badges today.  Revision3 will also be giving away a prize every week for the next 10-weeks to a Miso fan who has earned one of the badges.

Miso is available in the app store here: http://bit.ly/9NajcT

About Miso

Miso, developed by Bazaar Labs, is the first 2^nd screen experience for consumers that make watching any piece of content more social and more fun. Bazaar Labs builds social mobile apps centered around people’s entertainment experiences.  Visit http://gomiso.com for more information or follow @gomiso on Twitter for updates.

About Revision3
Revision3 is the first media company that gets it. Born from the Internet, Revision3 is the home of Internet Television, creating and producing shows for a new audience: passionate, committed fans who want to watch shows about technology, modern culture, video games, entertainment, music and comedy that entertain, educate and help to expand their life experiences.

The company was founded in 2005 by technology visionaries Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and David Prager because they couldn’t find anything they wanted to watch on traditional television. The company is now led by Internet TV pioneer Jim Louderback. Revision3’s programs can be found everywhere from Revision3.com to a wide range of platforms, including iTunes, YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, TIVO, Roku, Blip.TV and many others. Shows can be watched on any device, from a cell phone to an Apple iPod to a computer or a TV.

My Profile & Finding Friends on Miso – version 1.6 in App Store!

We take feedback very seriously and one of the most frequently asked questions is: “How do I add and find friends?”

Alright, so we’re not there 100% yet, but now you can at least find your friends on Miso using Facebook and Twitter!  Inviting friends are coming soon.  We’ve also added a basic profile section so you can easily see who you’re following and who’s following you!  We are just getting started and would love your feedback.  Send any feedback to feedback@bazaarlabs.com!

Download the upgrade here: http://bit.ly/ae34js

It’s really simple to find friends.

1) Click on “My Profile”.

2) Click on “Find Friends”

3) Click on “Find friends on Twitter” OR “Click friends on Facebook”.  A list of friends will appear. Click “Add” and now you can see what shows they are watching on the Friends tab.

NOTE: We have created a public model, similar to Twitter, so people can easily follow and see what shows you watch!  We have not enabled private access yet, but that is on the roadmap and will be prioritized based on user feedback.

For starts, if you want to see what TV shows the founders of Miso like, follow @sniyogi, @timothy1ee, and @mpakes!

Here are some screenshots.  Time to find some friends on Miso – you never know who might be using it!

Easily see your recent history & add friends

Find friends on Twitter & Facebook

Click “Add” to follow and see what your friends are watching

Introducing Miso – The Social Entertainment Game

There are lots of apps out there centered around helping you decide what movie or TV show to watch – using showtimes, trailers, even tweets, but there aren’t a lot of apps that make it fun to share your entertainment experiences with your friends.  That’s what Miso is!

Miso is a social entertainment game for the iPhone – it’s a Foursquare-like app for TV+Movies.  You check-in, share what TV show or movie you’re watching, and unlock badges! For instance, if you watch “24″ a ton, maybe you can get an Action badge, or if you watch a movie like “Hitch”, you could get a Romance or Comedy badge. It’s meant to be fun!

You can download it here on iTunes.

Twitter is about “What’s happening”, Plancast is “What are you planning to do”, Miso is “What are you watching?”. So, what are you watching today?

With Miso, you can:

- Log in with Facebook and see all the TV shows and movies your Facebook friends are watching
- At a theater or at home, easily share what you’re watching with friends
- Unlock badges. You never know what badge you’ll get based on the movies and tv shows you watch!
- Search for TV shows and movies from an extensive online database

We have some other new features coming soon, so follow @gomiso on Twitter for updates!

Flixup.com Is Now Live!

We are excited that just in time for the Christmas movie rush, our popular Twitter movie iPhone app is now available on the web at Flixup.com.

All the features that we created on the iPhone is now accessible to everyone on the website!

Any non-iPhone user can come to the site, browse which movies are getting the most buzz and easily see the opinion a movie from Twitter users  through the flixup! meter.  If you are on Twitter, you can login, and we segment the friend conversations so you can see what movies your friends are talking about. You can engage with your friends and other moviegoers through the breadth of Twitter functionality- reply, retweet, update, say whether you’re interested, rate, and much more!

We would love to get your feedback.  Send us an e-mail at feedback [at] flixup [dot] com.