Today Apture made CrunchBase’s rich database available to any Apture user.  Now you can search for and link information, profiles about entrepreneurs, venture firms, and companies in Silicon Valley (and beyond) with one click.  In addition, TechCrunch.com is now using Apture to quickly share these profiles any time an entrepreneur or company is referenced with a CrunchBase link. Take a look at some examples:  YouTube, Evan Williams, Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital (we’ve gone ahead and added related links as well).

If you’re a current Apture user, CrunchBase is already available to you.  Just open the Apture Media Hub as usual, and when you search for something, you’ll now see the “CrunchBase” tab available right next to Wikipedia in the Reference section.

Because of CrunchBase’s simple API and Apture’s powerful plug-and-play architecture, we were able to integrate CrunchBase without much effort at all.  See a full demo of how it works with this video:

View Apture CrunchBase Links video

See the full coverage on TechCrunch.  Getting written up in TechCrunch is certainly not common, but we were flattered to have this happen not once, but twice in 24 hours.  The same day, Ouriel Ohayon, editor of TechCrunch France was kind enough to share his thoughts on Apture both on his personal blog, and on his post on TechCrunch France (written in French).

It’s thrilling to see our integration of CrunchBase capture so much attention, and we can’t wait to see how people use it across the web.  Imagine how with Apture, individuals across the web can link a PowerPoint presentation from a venture firm to an interview from one of the partners with a PDF of the latest term sheet from a company they funded. (Demo here.)  Or they can link a video interview of an entrepreneur discussing their latest company with their CrunchBase profile, detailing all their past companies.  All of this and more is possible with Apture!

How does this new CrunchBase feature strike you?  Let us know your thoughts here on the blog, or contact us at contact@apture.com

We were honored to have our own Stanford Professor, Patrick Young, work with us this summer at Apture.  Thanks to him we recently unveiled a new way to view a stream of related media. Introducing: the Apture Slideshow Viewer!

As with all of our new features, there’s nothing to download and nothing additional to install.  If you already have Apture, this feature is automatically enabled on your site.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Hover over the Apture Link about Superman, The Earth or Paris.  A Wikipedia article appears in an Apture window, as usual.

Step 2: To see the slideshow, click on the main image of the Wikipedia article, and voila!  Watch the slideshow run while you read more about the topic.

Step 3: Then, just double click anywhere on the screen to close all the Apture windows and return to the original text.

To create this Apture experience on your own blog, simply link to any Wikipedia article that includes images in the body of the page.  (Some other examples are Clint Eastwood, Miss Universe, Tiger Woods, London, and Central Park)

What do you think?  Leave us a comment, or send us an email to contact@apture.com

They are!

I’d like to take the time to recognize some of our most creative an loyal Apture users.

The Tacony Corporation uses Apture to sell more products…

Cambria Political talks politics using Apture…

Anoki is a blogger among bloggers…

and Evan Sims is a design whiz who uses Apture to spice things up.

It’s great to highlight some of our most innovative Apture users.  We’d love to feature your website or blog as well.  Just leave a comment here, or send us an email to contact@apture.com