So here's the Hot List for 1/1/2009 - 1/15/2009 Top 5 Posts The 7 Ways to Get Traffic on the Web Why You Need To Lead A Tribe - Seth Godin LA Gets Dugg, Hammered, Screwed How To Get The World Excited About Your Business –The James Siminoff Interview Viral analytics and metrics - go viral young startup Top 20 Keywords SEO Metrics Marketing Social Media Alelo Google Yahoo Mahalo MySpace Tech Coast Angels Idealab Mission Ventures Clearstone Hollywood Santa Barbara Venice San Diego Santa Monica Twiistup

Santa Monica-based Factual , the new data focused startup run by Gil Elbaz , the co-founder of Applied Semantics , which invented Google's AdSense technology, is announcing the investors in the firm this evening. According to Elbaz, the firm has a number of very high profile investors backing the the firm, including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz, Bill Gross of Idealab, Danny Rimer of Index Ventures, Esther Dyson, the Founder Collective, Gunderson Dettmer, Lee and June Stein, former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, Miramar Venture Partners, Demand Media' Richard

We covered this last night,  but  sadly,  Martin Schaedel — who advised many startups here in Los Angeles, and across the world — appears to be the second victim in the plane crash Wednesday at the Santa Monica airport. Howard Morgan, Idealab Our heart goes out to his friends and family. We had an  ongoing agreement with Martin, where he allowed us to post any of his photos of the Los Angeles technology industry’s entrepreneurs and executives.

On the panel was Rao Surampudi of JPL — who designed the batteries and power systems for the Mars Rover, Gregg Ander — a green building expert from Southern California Edison, Michael Bissonette , GM of Aerovironment’s Efficient Energy Systems group; John Howard , of Idealab startup Distributed World Power ; and Deep Patel, of GoGreenSolar.com , an online retailer for solar and wind power. Here’s a solution to your high gas prices: If you’re within range of the (very few) hydrogen fueling centers for this car (ie, Santa Monica, Burbank, etc.)

gid=17912753952 , twitter.com/thursdaylunch Self-description: "If you are ever in Santa Monica on a Thursday, join us for lunch on the 3rd Street Promenade. Interested first timers, please contact Eric Hammond so you're not a stranger when you show up. " Frequency/Location: Thursdays at Noon / "Meet on the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade just South of Santa Monica Blvd." Weekly updates! Please let me know if know of other items to add, or if you have any feedback on events. There's a promising new weekly morning networking event unlike any