Archive for January, 2007

We’re hearing about the dawning of another dot-com explosion on a daily basis. The new bubble, as it’s being called, is full of Web 2.0 startups that are routinely receiving millions in investment cash, and 2007’s slated to be an extra good year for the tech sector as a whole, some even say too good. But whether that’s the case or not is for the investors and investees to sort out. Why?
Because though history does tend to repeat itself [...]

Today, Nexo Systems, Inc. launched a beta version of a revolutionary web community. According to a press release by PRNewswire, the company is the first web community to bring ease of use, security, personalization, and communication together for users to express themselves and manage a variety of online interfaces. Nexo is one of the innovations being showcased at DEMO 07, the exclusive showcase conference for emerging technologies and companies.
Nexo.com is one of the sites I was able to actually try [...]

My-Currency.com, showcased at DEMO 07, to launch today!
My-Currency.com is a new web site designed to utilize prediction markets and social applications to help professionals build and maintain reputation. If you are not sure what that means, you are not alone! A press release from Market Wire on January 25th pointed out that the new site had been selected as one of the 68 products showcased at DEMO 07.
I was not sure what to think about a press release [...]

I Predict News Junkies And Plenty Of Them! 
U.S. teachers are utilizing Internet news more than any other source in presenting news to their students. Fifty seven percent of teachers use Internet based news. A study based on news use in the classroom surveyed 1,262 teachers in grades 5-12 in the fall of 2006. The study was released Monday by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of Journalism Education.
These numbers compare to 31 percent teacher use of television news and 28 [...]

We all know that Google permits its employees to use about a quarter of their labor hours doing something outside their primary occupation. And it was in his own spare time that one of Google's developers - Orkut Buyukkokten - built a social network named with his own name - Orkut. The network was launched over 3 years ago - on January 22, 2004.
Orkut grew very popular almost immediately: it reached more than 100 thousand registered users within 2 [...]

AdKafe.com announced the launch of a new service where consumers design the ads for marketers. The innovative site allows users to create designs that will benefit both marketers and designers. According to the release, designers will have direct access to the creative minds of the world.
The service brings ad seekers and ad designers closer by utilizing the power of collaboration on the Internet. Companies seeking advertisements benefit by tapping into the world's creative minds and make purchases only after viewing [...]

It is usually much easier to choose exactly what you need when available offers are supported by recommendations of friends or even strangers. This approach is growing widely popular online - we are encouraged to rate, recommend, comment and review virtually everything. The recently launched RatePoint enables you to rate anything - websites, services, products, solutions - at least everything with a URL.
Caroline McCarthy from Webware was the first to mention similarities between the newly launched social recommendations website [...]

Ziggs announced yesterday that the Ziggs People HubTM would allow online users a free utility for organizing the Internet around their people, their work and their lives. The people hub allows users to customize their own hub for organizing and communicating with people and assisting with managing a variety of online activities central to professional life.
Tim DeMello, founder and CEO of Ziggs, said, “The Internet has proven to be a great way for people to connect. Web 2.0 capabilities [...]

The VC funding blitz of 2006 looks like it’s carrying over into ’07 quite smoothly. LinkedIn just announced it received just shy of $13 million from several investors, most notably Bessemer and the European Founders Fund. The latest infusion to the “social network for professionals” follows a total of $13.4 million invested in the company since its start, and because the LinkedIn stated that it has been profitable since March of 2006, few see this motion as a wasted effort. [...]