Forrester claims the new platform will make engagement with readers easier through a more interactive approach to blogging. Using new tools like polling and “most recent posts” as well as search, RSS and Twitter feed integration, the platform aggregates all forms of content from analysts and their teams to one location. The new set up definitely makes it easier to get around and find relevant analysts and topics.

My favorite is the “recommend this post” tool that gives readers more than just the usual sharing tools, such as retweets, Facebook and Digg. It’s a way for readers who have found a post helpful or insightful to let others know they should read the same. Mark Mulligan’s Blog, one of many that posted this announcement, currently has two recommendations from previous readers.

Other research firms leverage similar blog platforms for their analysts. Gartner, a similar technology business research firm, has its Gartner Blog Network, which aggregates various analyst’s posts into one place. Though it doesn’t have the navigational ease or outside integration like Twitter that the Forrester new platform includes.

Companies: Forrester Research

Google just launched a new feature on the mobile version of Google Product Search which could take local shopping search startup Milo out at the knees. Whenever you do a Google product search from a mobile phone, blue dots will appear next to items which are in-stock at nearby stores. The image at right is from a search I just did for “HDTVs.”  The blue dots are subtle, but they certainly distinguish those results. Google has partnerships with Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm to show local inventory, and it is inviting other merchants to apply to participate as well.

Highlighting local inventory in product search results is exactly what Milo does, although it works on the Web as well as mobile. Milo will have to try to keep one step ahead of Google now that its business has been targeted as a feature of Google Product search.

The good news for Milo is that nobody really uses Google Product Search. It is not even highlighted as one of the products on the Google iPhone app, for instance. Maybe that will change, now that it has a geo-enabled set of results.

When you are looking for stuff to buy, it always helps to know where you can buy an item nearby. The vast majority of people who shop on the Web actually just use it for research, and then go local to buy.

Evri chief executive Will Hunsinger said Twine’s technology, including the in-development revamp dubbed “T2,” will be incorporated into Evri. There’s a nice complement between Evri’s “semantic index of the real-time web” with Twine’s tools for organizing, recommending, and sharing content. When I asked about timing and other details, Hunsinger told me to “stay tuned,” adding that the integrated product is “not years away.”

“We just have to figure out how that best manifests itself in the consumer experience,” he said.

Nova Spivack, chief executive of Radar Networks, said the deal came about after the company tried and failed to raise funding, so it needed to find “a good home.” There were a number of interested buyers, but Evri “made the most compelling offer, and seemed like the best cultural and strategic fit,” Spivack said.

Evri will be keeping part of the Twine product and tech team, which will be moving into the Evri San Francisco office in San Francisco. (Evri is headquartered in Seattle.) Spivack, meanwhile, will serve as an advisor to Evri, but will focus on other projects.

Evri launched some of its features at the DEMO conference, co-produced by VentureBeat, a year ago. Both companies were backed by Vulcan Capital — Evri for $8 million and Radar for $18 million. Radar Networks’ other investors included Velocity Interactive Group, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Leapfrog Ventures.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Tags: twine

Companies: Evri, Radar Networks, Vulcan Capital

People: Nova Spivack, Will Hunsinger

In January, private company stock marketplace SecondMarket published data on private company stock sales that they helped complete in 2009. And February’s report showed the transactions that took place in January, which showed a strong demand for consumer products and services startups. The majority of transactions in January were sales of Facebook stock. SecondMarket just released its February report, which you can download here.

Transactions more tripled in February, from $13 million in sales to $43.8 million in sales last month. A full 48% of the transactions were sales of Facebook stock, compared to 38% in January. And last month, we reported that sales are being completed for as high as $40 per share (or a $17.6 billion valuation). But we learned this week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in no rush to take the company public. LinkedIn took 18% of the transactions, and sales of both Twitter and Zynga stock were each 15% of the total. LifeLock rounded the group out with 4% of the total.

The transactions concentrated mainly in consumer products and services (85%) and media and entertainment (15%). Similar to January’s trends, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter attracted the most transactions on SecondMarket.

On the buying side, Facebook led the way with one-third of all buyside demand followed by Twitter (7%) and LinkedIn (5%). Interest in Zynga (3%) also rose in February. On the seller side, ex-employees of start-ups stepped up their selling activity in February, comprising over 80% of sales, the highest percentage in the past nine months.

Noticeably missing from the report was Tesla, which filed for a $100 million IPO in late January.

Google Blogger, a venerable player in the space after celebrating its 10th birthday last fall, is giving itself a touchup.

The company has launched Blogger Template Designer, which gives users a lot more freedom to design the look and feel of their Google-hosted blogs. Users can change colors, titles, background images from hundreds of stock photos and there’s a drag-and-drop interface to shuffle pieces of the layout. There are 15 templates to start with and custom blog layouts with one, two or three columns.

“Blogging is about self expression and that an important part of expression is creating a custom design that expresses your unique voice,” said the company in a statement.

It’s a much-needed overhaul for the service, which attracts 300 million readers a month. Younger upstarts in the microblogging space like Union Square Ventures-backed Tumblr gained traction in part they’ve focus on elegant design.

Tags: blogs, design, google blogger

Companies: Google

Appboy

In addition to simply discussing mobile apps, Appboy enables users to pitch mobile app ideas, receive feedback from the community, and get paid if their app idea comes to fruition. The site also offers many ways for mobile app developers to promote their offerings. Developers can link to all of their mobile apps (even across separate platforms), and even create their own personalized App Store. The site currently supports iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm apps — with plans for more platforms in the future.

Notable among Appboy’s new features, members can now follow others, and leave reviews of mobile apps, at the website. The company has also added Twitter integration, user activity history, and improved search functionality to the website. The Appboy iPhone app brings all of the features of the social network to the iPhone — including the ability to find and rate new apps.

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Appboy has partnered with Best Buy Mobile as its provider of mobile apps. We are currently seeking out funding details.

Tags: iPhone, mobile apps

Companies: Appboy

We were somewhat sad when Barnes & Noble sent their PR firm to accept their award for the Nook for Best Gadget of 2009 at the Crunchies in January. Traditionally only Apple blows off the awards, and we’ve always been able to work around that.

But apparently Barnes & Noble are at least aware that they won the award. They are using it to promote the Nook on in-store posters, we learned recently. We sent TechCruncher Laura Boychenko over to the local Barnes & Noble last night with strict instructions to rip one of the posters off the wall and run like hell back to the office with it.

She failed in her task, but did take a few pictures and a video and promised to ask Barnes & Noble for one of the posters for our office. Less dramatic, but just as effective I guess.

I’m not suggesting anyone should commit a crime, but if someone were to obtain one (legally, mind you) and show up at our office with one of these we’d likely send them away with a thank you and a TechCrunch tshirt. No questions asked. Video is below.

Betaworks, the New York City-based holding company investing in the realtime Web, just raised a $20 million Series B. The round was led by RRE Ventures and Intel Capital, DFJ Growth, AOL Ventures, The New York Times, Softbank Japan and Softbank NY, Lerer Investments and Founders Collective, also participated, along with investors from the last round, which was $7.5 million

The company both invests and incubates realtime media startups, including Summize (acquired by Twitter for realtime search), bit.ly, TweetDeck, StockTwits, SuperFeedr, Outside.in, OMGPOP, and gdgt.

CEO John Borthwick says that the funds will be used to do more of the same, invest in and create realtime media startups.

Available today from Verizon Wireless is the long awaited Casio G’zOne Brigade. The Brigade keeps the rugged good looks of its G’zOne predecessors but shakes things up by debuting as a horizontal clamshell instead of the traditional flip phone. The Brigade also ups the specs of the G’zOne line by offering the following:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, video capture and LED light function
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Push to Talk
• Field Force Manager
• MIL-STD-810F standards for Water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, humidity, salt fog, altitude, high and low temperature storage, and solar radiation
• GPS with support for VZ Navigator
• Front facing speakerphone
• Text to speech capability
• microSD expansion

The Casio G’zOne Brigade hits the shelves of Verizon Wireless at a rather pricey $249 after a $50 mail in rebate and two year contract, $319.99 after a $50 mail in rebate and one year contract and $419 full retail. It also comes with an optional $5 monthly PTT plan and is outrageously classified as a 3G Multimedia phone which will require a minimum 25MB data plan for $9.99 monthly. Anyone interested in a $250 feature phone with mandatory data?

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