StartupSearch

Welcome to the July 16 edition of the Startup Search Weekly Web Wrapup. Each week we summarize news and announcements affecting the web technology ecosystem. In this week's issue: large financing rounds, measuring video and widgets, open financial data, and an online chat update.

Ning raises $44 million

Social network provider Ning announced a $44 million Series C investment led by Legg Mason hedge funds. Ning, formerly known as 24 Hour Laundry, was founded in October 2004 and operated for almost three years with funding from founder Marc Andreessen and a few outside angels.

Quantcast tracks widgets and online video

Web metrics company Quantcast added support for video and widget metrics last week. Quantified video publishers will now have access to distribution statistics, audience demographics, total media consumption, and site overlaps.

Wesabe API

Online financial community Wesabe released its first API for authenticated memebers. The Wesabe API lets members download and manipulate data collected by Wesabe for processing in any script or application. Members now have direct access to proxied bank and credit card data collected by Wesabe in over 30 countries.

Meebo announces system statistics

Meebo announced updated usage statistics from across its online chat portfolio. Over 7.65 million screen names have been created on the service. The average user spends 65 minutes inside the web application per login. Meebo delivers over 126 million messages a day!