Like many new media folk I suffer from "info imperatance" - the insatiable desire for information and the deep anxiety that I may have missed something important. Occasionally, I will get off of my high speed rocket to smell the roses and gaze upon the Web 2.0 scene.
We bring you once more a look at the latest sites and companies to grace the new media arena.
Website Analytics - Google analytics not doing it for you? Why not try Woopra. One key difference... it provides live tracking of website statistics. No need to wait hours to see who is on your website. Also, set up your stats to notify you of traffic spikes and more...
- Activism - Need some action? No, not that type of action. The Point is a new website where you commit to do something in exchange for something else. It can also be used as a force for change. For example, if my company doesn't offer me a dental plan I could use The Point to have 5,000 people call the HR department. A local furniture company can agree to buy a table for a school if the PTA raises $1500. I think you get the idea. I'm not sure what to make of it... but it could prove fun for a disgruntled blogger out there.
Searching Enhancements - Do you like Cover Flow? You know, the nifty iTunes function that lets you flip through your album covers? SearchMe.com allows you to do just that. Right now its in private beta but it could prove to be a winner... if it can overcome a very real infringement on some very proprietary Apple concept. Can you say lawsuit?
- Content - Lists and more lists. I've profiled Listphile before, but this new new comer has a great concept. A top 11 list!? I guess it stands out. But what does stand out is the cool interface for ranking these lists of everything. Check it out: Onzilist.com
- UI - How much time have you spent trying to grab some guy's cool JavaScript for a mouseover menu? Fret no more... head on over to IzzyMenu and create your own fine looking drop-downs. Believe me, I've spent countless hours scouring the net for the best menu creator and this is it!
- New Tech - I remember one of my great aha moments about the Internet came in 1997 when I downloaded an add-on to my email application that read my emails aloud (much to my wife's chagrin). This next service wants to do the same with EVERYTHING text. Are you anxious to get on the road but just can't wait to devour the latest Mark Steyn column? Try ReadtheWords.com... better yet... listen to this post below!
- Got an iPhone? Got Twitter? Good. Now get Hahlo!
Efficiency - I recall a TV ad about a decade ago where a virtual doggie fetches tickets for his hip owner and then pays the bills with a wag of the tail. While this virtual pet is still on the horizon there's a small incarnation of this reality over at Swotti, a website dedicated to combining reviews on everything from dog leashes to digital cameras. Check it out.
- Images - Ever worry about some Joe (not Mansour) sending you a cease and desist order when you use his image on your website? Instead of blowing half of your paycheck at iStockPhoto (or all of your paycheck at Getty Images) hop on over to PicApp to embed free images and even editorials on your webiste. I used it for the image above.
- Email Marketing - Not satisfied with iContact or ConstantContact? Try Campaign Monitor, which allows you to skip all of the pithy and annoying templates and only pay for the service when you use it. At $5 and 1 cent per email it's not a bad play.
More to come soon! Stay tuned. Meahwhile... read this post aloud!
Labels: web20
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TechCrunch is to technology what the Drudge Report is to politics... one of the most influential news rags that can make and break a man, a company or a country.
The
TechCrunch40 is a list of top 40 start-ups that are making waves across the world. TC recently hosted the TC40 conference and featured these start-ups.
Here are some of the relevant start-ups you will want to follow and even try out if you part of the blog revolution.
Multimedia
Viewdle - Imagine if you could hone the google links around all of your blog assets to make sure that users would be even more inclined to click on them. For example, imagine if you could change the links dynamically based on who was in a 30-second clip playing on your blog. Say you plug an interview between Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn, and the links spanning back and forth between Hugh's Romney book and Steyns indispensible America Alone. Cool. Enter Viewdle.
StoryBlender - I bet the folks at HotAir will love this one. Online collaborative video building. Good stuff!
MusicShake - Koean-based company to help the non-Mozarts among us. Interesting story and approach to this one.
Social Networking
TruTap - We talked about something like this previously. IM, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Digg... all of these profiles. No way to manage them all. This is where TruTap comes in. Another one featured in the TC4 is
Orgoo.
Flock - Quoting from TC40 :"A social web browser. When using Flock, people can easily discover, access, create and share videos, photos, blogs, feeds and comments across social communities, media providers, and popular websites.
Teach the People - This of this site of How things Work with Social networking. Interesting field with a growing host of start-ups. 1 GB of storage, voting, docs, blogs, and other treats make this an interesting place to watch.
Publishing
8020 Publishing - Publish your own magazine online! Become the next big National Review!
Honorable Mention
Faroo - Right now thousands of people are looking for Steve Fossett and his presumed downed plane using satellite images of the Nevada landscape. Faroo takes the notion of the power of individual computers to rival Google's network farms of massive servers. In short, imagine if you could index everypage a user actually visited on their own computer. Cool stuff!
I'll let you digest these for a moment. Back with more in a few...
Labels: web20
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The Fall is a great time to refresh your website and meet the growing demands of your audience by providing value through unique and original interactive tools. Here's a quick run-down of what lies beyond YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the like.
DYI Mash-up/Widgets - This is the holy grail of Web 2.0 applications. For those of your with kids its the equivilent of "stone soup" for the internet - taking open source applications, adding in a bit of this and a bit of that and creating a new beast altogether. Some of these (like FeedFlash) do one thing well, others (like Pageflakes) extend things a bit more.
Surveys - There's no better way to drive a bit of stickiness to your site than through interaction. Interactive surveys have been on the web for a while. Old stalwarts like Zoomerang are slowly falling by the wayside as these dynamic new apps will attest.
Email/Communications - As Patrick attests, this is and might always be the "killer app". The professionals use mostly Lyris as their software platform but the big and clunky interface may soon fall victim to one of these upstarts. Personally, I've started to use iContact and I find it effective, inexpensive and easy to use.
Multimedia - Whether you need a quick graphic fix or an interactive video embed for your site, these new upstarts offer some interesting apps. My favorite is Bubble Guru.
Blog marketing - Eyes are everything to a blog. Here's a unique start-up aiming to help the lowly blog out.
Content/Data - While widgets are the "in" thing right now... the next big thing IMHO are content and data services that can help you gather and present content in a unique way. Here are some initial approached to this issue.
Interactive tools - Whether you need a google map or a PDF conversion tool... here's a host of interesting sites that can help.
Social networking - So you got the facebook group, your on MySpace and your YouTube is grooving. How what? Well how about managing all your profiles in one place. Here's an original idea for social networking.
Presentations - Everybody uses PowerPoint these days... How about putting those online. No problem.
Labels: web20
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Conservative Musings on all things under the sun 
