jibjab

Because we need to ensure that silly do-it-yourself comedy will stay alive during these harrowing financial times, the magic venture capital fairies have infused JibJab.com with a $7.5 million Series C round. And by "magic venture capital fairies" I actually mean Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and existing investor Polaris Venture Partners.

Founded in 1999 by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, JibJab started as a hub for funny political song-and-dance videos that the two created, but in 2007 the company began an e-card service called "Starring You!" in which visitors to the site could … Read more

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Who doesn't remember, even now, the satirical animation of George W. Bush and John Kerry, set to the tune of "This Land," that rocketed to Internet stardom during the 2004 presidential race?

The video may have drawn some 80 million views since then, but its masterminds at JibJab Media still faced a major challenge: how to make money off of their wildly popular offerings.

About six months into a new business venture, it appears CEO Gregg Spiridellis and his business partner and brother Evan may have landed on one solution: selling zany, video-based electronic greeting … Read more

As much fun as it is to grumble at the scheduled sentimentality of the most schlocky of Hallmark holidays while shaking your fist at the spiraling costs of demonstrating said socialization, why not try a new approach to challenging the rose brigade's status quo?

Polka Networks offers lovebirds a chance to show true heart by customizing an e-card that makes a charitable promise in lieu of a gift. Instead of buying electronics for your mate, pledge to purchase an acre of rain forest, salaries for nannies in Chinese orphanages, or a handmade necklace that helps trafficked children in Ghanaian … Read more

We're total suckers for video products that let us use our face. A few months back, Caroline put my head on a woman's body with the launch of JibJab's Starring You service, and shortly before that, Rafe played around with Fix8, which lets you overlay live video with avatar and object overlays. Both are vastly different technologies, but the idea is the same: quick entertainment with very little effort on the part of the end user. Along the same lines, Gizmoz, which has been providing 3-D face-mapping technology to the masses since late May, is launching a … Read more

I got a little bit obsessed with JibJab.com's "Starring You!" video creator when it allowed me to create videos of my co-workers dancing the Charleston in drag while horrifically bored on a slow news day. (Josh Lowensohn looks awesome in flapper garb.)

Now, as I've just learned, the site has created a politics-meets-Halloween gimmick so that you can edit a likeness of yourself into mini-movies called "Night of the Living Democrats" or "Night of the Living Republicans" and battle zombified versions of politicians from the political party you abhor the most. … Read more

Last night, members of the Los Angeles tech community (and one Bono impersonator) gathered at the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice for Twiistup 2, the second of a series of Valley-style blowouts for Southern California Web companies and geeks. In front of a backlit, Mondrian-style bar, attendees of the sold-out event talked tech, networked, and vetted business plans over music spun by DJ Quickie Mart. I had a chance to talk with most of the event's "showoffs," two of which--community site Faqqly and the social shopping site ThisNext--we've already covered. Here's a brief … Read more

Trust me--I know procrastination. But this one really takes the cake.

JibJab, as you probably know already, made a name for itself by creating corny (yet socially relevant) musical skits that superimposed the heads of politicians and celebrities onto cartoon bodies. Now that user-generated content is nothing new, it almost seems overdue that JibJab would introduce a "make your own" feature. But now, at long last, here it is: "JibJab Starring You!"

The concept, at least according to the creators, is to JibJab yourself by uploading a photo, easily crop it with the Flash-based tools … Read more

BOSTON--So-called user generated content is being built into the business models of forward-looking media companies as they venture out onto the Web, according to experts who spoke today at the MIT Enterprise Forum's Brave New Web conference on Wednesday. (See this CNET News.com story.)

Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of online video company Brightcove, said that Web is a tiny fraction of the overall media industry but that's changing because media companies are starting to distribute video over the Web. Brightcove itself is building social media features to its video distribution system which will allow people to post … Read more