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Dropbox CEO: Why search advertising failed us. Dropbox founder and chief executive Drew Houston offered some details this afternoon about how he grew the company to more than 4 million users.

Dropbox CEO: Why search advertising failed us

Launch announcement. Layered Transport Key to Mobile Ride-Sharing Service Success. The Next-Gen Car Sharing Players: Spride, WhipCar, RelayRides. With Zipcar busy gobbling up car sharing competitors, a new generation of startups offering a peer-to-peer or distributed model of car sharing is taking shape.

The Next-Gen Car Sharing Players: Spride, WhipCar, RelayRides

WhipCar, over in the UK, and RelayRides and Spride Share (the most recent entry, with some big name backers) here in the U.S., aim to put together a service letting users rent out their personal vehicles to members. The three companies have the same basic concept in mind, with different ideas about how to get there. It remains to be seen which, if any, of these very early stage companies will find a significant user base and successfully navigate the maze of insurance coverage for personal vehicles offered up for rental.

Here’s a snapshot of the next-generation of car sharing innovators: Related articles about car sharing, smart transit and mobility on demand on GigaOM Pro (subscription required): Report: IT Opportunities in Electric Vehicle Management Mobility on Demand Takes Aim at Transport Networks’ “Last Mile” Companies / Automobiles - Whipcar uses web to drive innovative r. It's a time-sharing world. Lisa Gansky joined me at GNN in 1994, which was the early days of the Web, long before an ecosystem of interconnected services emerged.

It's a time-sharing world

Avec Covoiturage.fr - Le site du covoiturage en Europe. JT TF1 : Le co-voiturage profite du chaos dans les airs - Les jo. French carpooling platform Comuto profits from volcanic cloud. There have certainly been a lot of travelers who have not appreciated the transportation issues caused by the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland.

French carpooling platform Comuto profits from volcanic cloud

French Website Makes Euro-Carpooling A Snap. PARIS — Carpooling websites are experiencing a boom in popularity in Europe as commuters, fed up with rail strikes and as concerned about their pocketbooks as their carbon footprints, seek alternative methods of getting from Point A to Point B.

French Website Makes Euro-Carpooling A Snap

In France, the popular site Covoiturage.fr has emerged as the dominant market force, seeing its membership more than double in the last two years. The site was founded in 2004 by Frederic Mazzella, a Stanford University graduate who had been impressed by both the carpool lanes and the pioneering startup spirit of the San Francisco Bay Area. His site, initially popular primarily among students and old-school hitchhikers, has 750,000 registered members and receives 12 million page views a month, accounting for 85 percent of the French carpooling market. “For the first four years nothing happened,” he says from the office 15 employees share with other tech startups in the quiet, residential north-west of Paris.

Mikini media gmbh. Earlybird Magazine - Consumer Service 2.0 - page 4. ISAI investit 1,1 million d'euros dans Covoiturage.fr - Journal. Carpool Community Zimride Lands $1.2 Million In Seed Funding. Social ride-sharing start-up and FBfund recipient Zimride announces today a round of seed funding led by FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures and a group of angels including Keith Rabois and Teddy Downey.

Carpool Community Zimride Lands $1.2 Million In Seed Funding

Co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, Zimride is a carpool startup that actually makes money, using the Facebook platform to allow people in the same networks to coordinate carpooling. The service is also available at Zimride.com via Facebook Connect. Google-Backed RelayRides Lets Vehicle Owners Rent Cars for Cash. RelayRides, a startup backed by Google Inc.’s venture arm and August Capital, is opening up shop in San Francisco today, letting the city’s residents make money from their cars by sharing them with strangers.

Google-Backed RelayRides Lets Vehicle Owners Rent Cars for Cash

The company is building on a trial run in Massachusetts, where 50 participants are renting out vehicles to 1,000 borrowers. The concept works like Zipcar Inc. and other services that use the Web to rent cars by the hour, except RelayRides doesn’t have to buy its own fleet. RelayRides started in June, joining the ranks of companies that help consumers turn their possessions into revenue producers.

San Francisco-based Getaround Inc. also lets users share their cars, while Airbnb Inc. allows people around the world to rent out spare bedrooms. Zipcar buys U.K. car sharing company Streetcar for $50 million. Car sharing service company Zipcar today announced that it has acquired Streetcar, a similar venture that operates in the UK out of London.

Zipcar buys U.K. car sharing company Streetcar for $50 million

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the Wall Street Journal says the deal is valued at $50 million. The two companies will now be folded into one entity and soon operate solely under the Zipcar flag. Scott Griffith, Chairman and CEO of Zipcar, says that the short-term benefit of the acquisition is the instant growth, with now more than 400,000 members that stand to benefit from more cars, more convenience and enhanced technology. Streetcar members will have access to Zipcar’s global network of vehicles located in cities in the United States and Canada.

Form S-1. Video: Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar, GoLoco at AltWheels Bosto. How P2P car sharing could impact Zipcar IPO.

Car Share Market size