Peter Thiel, the ever famous early investor of Facebook and other great web companies just invested (along with other angels) 1.5m USD (source TheMarker) in an israeli-related startup called Hooja. The service is still in private beta but will provide a search engine for social platforms that will enable you to search personal information within your network of friends (if i understand right search information produced/related to your friends wherever they are: facebook, twitter,...). The idea makes sense and i heard about several projects gunning for that too. Lijit that you see on my is partly doing that but could do it better.
Hooja was created by Naama Moran. The R&D will be based in Israel.
Here is some personal anecdote about Hooja. Before i officially started with LGiLab i had my very first non official VC meeting with Naama Moran and was impressed by the entrepreneur. At the time (more than 1.5 year ago) the project was very different different and obviously took a different direction. In August 07 Alarm Clock was reporting something different already (but i must say their description is vague). Happy to hear about it again and see that the tenacity of this entrepreneur paid up.
Congratulations to Naama for bringing such prestigious (and smart) investors in this project.
Thanks for the Lijit mention. We love feedback on our service, any input on how to make Lijit better would be appreciated!
Posted by: Todd Vernon | 30 December 2007 at 07:39 PM
Hi Ouriel!
Thanks for your posting and warm words. You're right: it is still me :-)
Hope you're doing well and please keep in touch.
Na'ama
Posted by: Na'ama Moran | 05 January 2008 at 01:25 AM
Hi Na'ama will definitely
Posted by: ouriel | 05 January 2008 at 09:05 AM