Tech Crunch 50: Want a Great Vacation? GoPlanit!

One of the companies I saw at Tech Crunch 50 that I have been remiss in discussing is GoPlanit, a travel site that actually helps you plan your stay in a locale based upon your time, money, traveler intensity, and interests. The site is really interesting. You input a destination (there are 10 for the beta, and a much broader set is planned for the launch), dates, and the system plans your days from meals to activities. You can adjust the planning parameters based upon your budget and preferences for an intensity level in your days.

To test the platform I asked it to plan a trip to San Francisco in late September, for a week, with a moderate budget. I figured I’d be able to put my tourist hat on for “my city” and determine how well it plans fun an interesting days. Results were really quite interesting, and by interesting I am not finding a nice way to say “odd.” The choices combined tourist essentials plus an eclectic set of restaurants and down time activities that was refreshing.

Another great feature is the ability to pre-populate the system with your plans, and have it fill in the gaps. So, for example, if you were headed to Vegas and already had purchased tickets to Zumanity, you could input the date and time of the show and then have Goplanit fill in the rest of your day.

Goplanit offers more than just travel recommendations. Here is how the company describes it features:

GoPlanit helps save you time/money/aggravation every step of the way - before, during, and after your trip!
"One-Click Travel Planning" - Create a personalized trip calendar with our virtual travel agent in a matter of seconds! We'll do the legwork for you and find things to do and see while you're on your trip
"Cut Through the Noise" - Use our filtering engines to personalize your search results and return more relevant items based on your preferences
"Sharing is Caring" - Invite friends to go with you on your trips. Keep track of responses, comments, and more!
"Bring It With You" - Access your trip itinerary from your mobile device. Find nearby things to do and see
"Travel Microblogging" - Don't wait until you get home to write about your trip, update your trip journal with your musings right there and then while you're on your trip! Just send a text message to "70589" and start your message with the word "blog" and your travel blog will be automatically updated for all to see! Ex. blog 5 stars: I love this place!

The service is in beta, so not all the kinks are worked out. But I see a lot of promise in this offering. I would imagine that services like paid inclusion will be a part of their model, in addition to advertising. They could also charge commission for subsequent sales that they drive online. In short, there are a lot of directions they could go to make good money with this great idea.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: GoodGuide: Environmental and CSR Assessments for Everyday Products

Green is in. Green is happening. Green is now. And with lots of research indicating that genuine corporate social responsibility is important to many customers, especially younger ones, it is only natural that more and more people are seeking and will seek reliable information on the products they use.

Enter GoodGuide, a website that evaluates and ranks products according to environmental, health and social performance.

Environmental ranks the earth impact of those products -- in terms of manufacturing and use.

Health evaluates the ingredients and formulations -- are there ingredients that pose health hazards?

Social evaluates the manufacturers of the
products and their policies.

They emphasize highly credible data sources and methodologies. From their site:

To ensure that GoodGuide takes only the best data available into consideration for its ratings, a dedicated content team carefully assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the data sources, particularly from scientific and verification viewpoints. Evaluation of data sources include whether they are:

Based on trustworthy government, NGO, or academic sources;
Reliant on multiple data sources in their own right;
Produced according to clear and well-defined standards and procedures;
Verified or checked for their quality by independent authorities; and,
Honest and open in acknowledging their uncertainties and data gaps.

Here for example are the ratings for Wisk:



So how does a site like this make money? Well, here's what they have to say on the subject:

So Why Does GoodGuide Give Away this Information?

Frankly, GoodGuide is the product of a group of scientists and engineers who love data, and who really want to know ourselves about the impacts of the products we consume. We happen to enjoy researching products and the global supply chains behind them and thought it would be cool to make the best scientific information in the world available for free, for non-scientists to screen through their personal preferences, in hopes that it could potentially improve peoples' lives, and maybe even make the world a slightly better place. So enjoy!

Since the testing is brand blind, I don't see how companies can influence results -- and isn't that an absolutely marvelous thing? Certainly, supporting GoodCause could be an excellent decision from a CSR standpoint, and lots of companies are looking for ways to be more out front in this area.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Hot From the Pit: Picadmedia Brings Ads to Online Photos

So where ELSE can we put ads? They're on the airline pull down trays, on rental car wraps, heck they're even in urinals. Though it boggles the mind to think that a urinal placement would lead to positive brand imagery But what do I know.

Well, let's focus on digital. In text ads have become rather commonplace. Companies like Kontera have seen to that, and have gotten excellent response rates.

But where ELSE can we put ads?

Well, the people ar Picadmedia answer the question with "Why not in the billions of pictures that appear on pages across the web.

Here's their self description from their web site:

Picadmedia is the first and leading innovator of In-Picture Advertising. We are creating new advertisement solutions for all the images found on the Internet. Much of the advertisement market has move to establishing ways to advertise more with Web 2.0 technologies such as viral video and behavioral marketing on social networking sites. Many have overlooked the value of the billions of images found on the Internet. Join us today as we embark on capturing this space.

The appearance of the ads works similarly to in-text. Roll over a photo with the little P icon in the bottom left and a text overlay appears slightly below the pic. Do nothing, and it disappears in a few seconds. But if you click, and I am guessing lots of people will, you get redirected to a sponsor page, or perhaps get follow up content in the window. Here's a screen from their site:



I don't know how consumers will feel about this. My understanding that consumer response to in-text was neutral to positive. Will the same be true of pics? We'll see. In the meantime, Picadmedia is offering an innovative new way to reach consumers across the web. Presumably they will be following the in text biz with video and rich media units ASAP.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Birdpost: Birding 2.0

Do you remember the Friends episode where Phoebe is taken over by the spirit of a dead woman who vows to remain inside her until she has seen "everything?" The possession ends when she witnesses the Lesbian wedding.

Well, now I've seen everything. And I do not mean that in an insulting way. Quite the opposite. I love it that the web is fostering interest in EVERY interest area.

Birdpost is a Web 2.0 social network designed to advance the sport of bird watching.

Don't laugh.There are enough people doing this that there are large subsegments -- bird watchers, birders, twitchers, etc. etc. Millions upon millions participate. 18 million according to Birdpost's Tech Crunch 50 materials. Dat's a lot of binoculars!

This is an activity that skews high income and education, which are good characteristics for a web audience. The demos tend to be somewhat older than most 2.0 communities, however. But the passion that birders have for their activity may make quick work of that hurdle.

Their html tour is here.

It's got all the social features you would expect. Additionally, it offers Life Lists, a place to collect all of the bird sightings you make over the course of your life. It also offers regional checklists so you can determine what birds you can see in an area and check them off as you make your discoveries and sightings. Lots of features here to make this site very sticky.

The mapping features appear to be the centerpiece as they offer the opportunity for birders to share the location of their sightings so others can respectfully visit as well.

And check out the sheer depth of information members can record for a sighting. Incredible evidence of the passion of this set.

I don't think they'll be rivalling Facebook in members, but that's not what a vertical bird watching ad network is about. As a tool for passionate bird watchers, it's in a class by itself. And the demos and particular "green" interests of this audience may well make this a lucrative advertising play. They could also grow the universe of bird watchers and increase the passion of those who are just aviary dabblers today.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: MobClix: iPhone Ad Network Joins The Fight

A little while ago I did a series of posts on iPhone ad networks. Recall that my feeling was that the space is poised for growth but that there are too many players -- only the strongest will survive.

Perhaps Mobclix will be one of the strongest. Their presentation at TC 50 was strong, and their platform, targeting, and reporting/analytics look very strong indeed.

I wish them well. It's going to be a brutal fight in that space. I count at least 6 pure play iPhone ad networks vying for every tiny view -- that's a lot of fighting for a segment of a segment of digital advertising.

I want to emphasize I am not saying that there isn't money to be made here. There is plenty of money to be made, but it's gonna be a fight. Fortunately for Mobclix, they offer many of the characteristics and features advertisers are seeking.

Here's a vid from Youtube about them:



As we watch the space unfold and every inch of battlefield be fought over tooth and nail, Mobclix offers some excellent analytical tools on the space which you will find here.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Popego: It's All About The Semantics

You probably have AT LEAST a half dozen accounts on social media and other types of sites online. Bookmarking, blogs, etc. etc. Collectively, all of these resources reflect the range and depth of your interests.

Popego helps you make sense of this morass of info we call the web. When you join, you give it access to the information in your social media accounts -- and it uses this and your list of connections to deduce your interests. They then offer this sort of slider thing that allows you to adjust the weighting of your interests so that a truly accurate picture is provided.

Here's their explanatory vid:



So there it is. The system then filters the myriad of content on the web and shows you the bits that match your interests. You can also download a widget that includes your various social media feeds -- your online ego. You can also examine the feeds and interests of other users, and natch, make new connections. If only meeting people in real life were this simple. ;-)

Now, with a system like this, you are consenting to have a great deal of info about you to be examined, parsed, and shared. The difference here is VALUE -- Popego is trying to provide real consumer value in exchange for that examination. It is the ultimate "opt-in" of personal info.

Making sense of the web is a very active space of late, and this tool offers a very viable solution to the problem. The system is still collating my interests as I write this, but based upon the demo and other profiles I saw, I think Popego is a definite contender in this burgeoning space.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Mixtt: Transforming Social Media from One to Many TO Many To Many

We are all aware that one of the critical aspects of the Internet is the ability for one person to reach a virtually unlimited audience. The triumph of technology making one-to-many communication possible.

Social media was a lynchpin of this, because it gave everyone a place and the tools to connect with individuals or groups as they saw fit.

Mixtt offers a new take on the "to-many" concept, though in this case it is "many-to-many."

Here's how it works. You sign up your group, post your interests and plans, and connect with other GROUPS -- in the real world.

So for example, Jane and her girlfriends join and connect with John and his posse at a bar in SoHo.

This makes it a sort of hybrid between online dating, which is by all accounts a mature business in its current form, and social networking. The system doesn't rely on profiles or quizzes but rather on the ability of groups to safely meet one another in the real world. I say safely not because safety is certain, but rather because you are a lot safer when you meet that fella with your galpals than alone. It also lets you meet multiple people at once -- meaning fewer uncomfy dates and more social occasions that might actually be -- dare I say it -- fun?

Naturally, this doesn't have to be about meeting in a bar. For example, two dog lover groups could meet at a dog part (and what better credential is there in a potential mate than a love of dogs?)

Now, this model won't be for every online dater. If you view online dating in terms of a younger, casual group and an older relationship oriented set, Mixtt seems clearly aimed at the former - the Match/Lavalife users who have the time and inclination to participate in more social occasions.

And lots of companies have made big dough on that segment of the market. My point being that I'd be more concerned about this if I were Lavalife than eHarmony or Perfectmatch.

And what's more, this site is really meeting a need -- the desire for human connection -- in an innovative way. The model is tailor-made to attract women, because it is safer and more relaxed as a concept. And the one certainty in online dating is that where there are women, the lads follow ASAP.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Tingz: Instead of You Browsing The Web, Tingz Bring T'ings to You!

One of the critical web 2.0 trends is a change in direction for content and users. In 1.0, users were given the opportunity to easily find content where it lived online. It was an enormous innovation -- what used to take weeks could be done in minutes.

But with 2.0, the idea is to radically change the landscape by offering users greater convenience. In short, things can come to you instead of the other way around. Though in this case, Tingz is probably the preferred spelling of Things.

Because Tingz are a new set of tools that allow you to modularize content you use from across the web and bring it to where you live online. What's more, Tingz can migrate to a variety of devices, and you can customize the assortment of Tingz you see on every device. Perhaps you will have three on your celly, ten on your TV, thirty on your work PC, and 55 on a piece of social media. Additionally, Tingz allow you to share any kind of content with others at any time. This is a nice feature, indeed.

Here's a vid of their TC 50 preso:

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

The overall concept isn't new, but the portability seems like a great feature. I'll be watching these guys because content portability and modularization are definitely a big deal in terms of the future of the web.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: AdRocket: Will It Restore the Luster to Email Marketing?

Hey, I'm not saying email is on a gurney right now, but few would question the idea that email sponsorship -- not CRM but sponsorship -- has been getting deemphasized by many marketers of late. The key issue relates to lower sales results from such ads, as email marketing has always been disproportionately used by DR marketers. Those DR guys don't mess around. If it isn't working, it's cut from the plan on that day.

AdRocket is an email ad customizing service that analyzes the interests and habits of email recipients and serves them emails with text ads that met their interests.



Here's how they describe it:

AdRocket’s relevance algorithms process non-personally identifiable interest, demographic, or behavior data about your subscribers. We generate specific targeting meta data per subscriber then retrieve the most valuable performance-based text ads from our network partners.

AdRocket is a targeting and optimization network, not an ESP or email sender. We insert ads into your existing email communications as they are sent by your own MTA or ESP. Unlike with image ads, which are not visible in up to 50% of email clients, AdRocket’s targeted text ads are seen in every email opened.

After emails are sent AdRocket tracks all click behavior and can report on it back to you. We apply the data to improve our relevance on the next send.

As a text only solution this won't help companies trying to serve banners in emails, but that's OK. Most email banners are static gifs, and response rates tend to be rather low. Why NOT shift the focus to targeted text ads.

The other side of this is that DR marketers could use this platform to serve mroe effective links in THEIR OWN CRM campaigns. That is intriguing as well.

As a DR tactic, this is worth a look.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Shryk.com: Kids Can Do More WIth Money Than Buy Candy

We all know that American adults suck at saving money. Our average savings rate is about as low as the price of a Taco Bell Burrito. There are lots of reasons for this, among them the declining real income of American families.

But another reason, at least in my opinion, is we don't teach financial responsibility. The Shryk sites are out to change all that. Here's their sucinct self description:

Instead of relying solely on our education system, Shryk has created a new model for helping children and adults alike learn $literacy. Compounding lessons in the classroom with real world experience strengthens our ability to make a long-term difference. Our two-pronged approach will bring a free platform to schools and reinforce these lessons with our online banking platform providing the ability to grow with users into adulthood and beyond.

There are two web properties in their solution:

iThryv: An online banking platform offering youth friendly features like customizable templates and tools to help them understand and control their spending better. The system makes allowances for member age to provide age appropriate tools and pages. It also offers points for good behavior that can be spent in an online store. Such behavior can relate to participating in education or in responsible financial planning.

WeProsper: A financial literacy and learning community with outreach to schools.

Their approach is looking for a perfect storm of involvement from:

Banks and financial institutions
Teacher and schools
Sponsors
Parents and Young People

I love the mission and can see great marketing opportunities for banks and other firms desiring to reach and connect with young people and their money. Definitely check this site out.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Tweegee: Take It From Tweeger, The Net Can Be Fun AND Safe For Tweens

I've written before about the need for safe environments for kids, so you can imagie that I was rather interested in checking out Tweegee, a new tween environment for kids that made a splash at TC 50.

Here's how they describe themselves:

Tweegee is a Web Portal for Tweens (kids aged 7-15) which offers them a complete world of Internet resources to create, share and have fun with. It's a one-stop site which provides Tweens with a safe and integrated ability to take full ownership of their online activities, to create their own complete personal web sites, communicate via web based email and organizer, engage in rich multiplayer games, read news most relevant to them, author their own articles and much more.

Tweegee believes in a genuine web 2.0 Internet experience which addresses Tweens correctly while allowing them to experience the "real Internet". We believe that in this tech-age children should embrace internet education and cognition from early on, particularly web 2.0 activities, in order to adopt proper net-behavior and prepare for their adult life of unsupervised exploration of the World Wide Web.

Therefore, Tweegee is doing everything in its power to endow children with the proper tools, guidance and knowledge of the different web utilities – all this while protecting their privacy and keeping them safe – without taking the fun out!

Their approach to safety appears to be about creating a microcosm of web functionality within their site. What I mean is that tweens can participate in a long list of favorite online activities, but in a more controlled, safe, and monitored environment.

When you are develop a "world" for kids, there is clearly a tightrope you must walk. Safety and broad access to the web would appear to be negatively correlated. What I mean is, wherever kids are free to communicate with one another they are also potentially in danger. But the flipside is that if you offer a totally controlled environment, you reach into the jaws of net experience and extract the fun.

One of the components of their approach to safety is a set of seven cartoon movies in which Tweeger explains the benefits and risks of online sharing, and explains the options of sharing with either the entire community or only your friends. It's a very interesting educational approach, and I found the content strong.

Here's one of the movies:



In essence they are trying to empower kids to take charge of their own safety in addition to a battery of other safety measures they have in place.

Here's their description of some of the other safety measures they use to keep kids safe:

Tweegee operates a filtering and separation system that facilitates a high level of detailed content filtering and includes a parent’s awareness control. Safety features include the patent pending "Word Up!" application that gives kids the freedom to chat without the ability to reveal any personal details or use improper language.

The content uploading component will be interesting to watch -- IF they have figured out a safe way to do this, Tweegee may well be a game changer.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: BlahGirls.com BlahBlahBlahBlahBlahBlah. Blah.

Oh my. Blahgirls.com is a delightfully bizarre content site where cartoon teens talk about, you know, what teens might talk about. Take a look:



Each of the characters appears to have a specialty:

Britney: Relationships
Krystle: Gossip
Tiffany: Life
Stewart: Fashion
Botox: The punctuating chihuahua
Lili: Setting women everywhere back 50 years

It is hilarious, sort of a female SouthPark. Slightly less rude. But only slightly. BlahGirls.com I BEG OF YOU, please do not resurrect Mr. Hanky, or create a tampon equivalent.

It's a content play, from Katalyst Media. No relation.

Marketing opps are definitely a part of the mix. In addition to banners, I am sure that content integration will be part of the overall direction of this site. And I'm guessing that given the simplicity of the animation, mobile browsing will be a big part of their viewership.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Hangout.net Says "Get a Room"

And you though immersive worlds were done! Well, actually YOU probably knew they weren't and Hangout.com is one of the latest entries in this space, designed to help 16-24 year olds interact in their own virtual spaces.

Interact with whom, you might ask. Well, friends, new friends, and even A list bands. That last bit is a nice touch, offering a richer alternative to MySpace's presumed "ownership" of music in the multipurpose social media realm.

CNET produced the following vid from their Tech Crunch launch:



It's great that someone is really reexamining the social network space -- the ability to create a profile online was a tremendous innovation. But it isn't fostering as complete an interaction as is possible

I'm not in the beta yet, but from what I can see the 3-D environment is beautiful.

One interesting aspect of this world is the ability to dress yourself and your space with digital facsimiles of real world objects -- objects you can click to buy and have sent to your real world home.

And this part seems great as well: within your hangout, you can jointly experience media with your friends -- music and video and and and watched "together" in real time.

Here's how they describe themselves:

Get A Room
Now you can customize your own room, fully interact with friends and your favorite brands, and share media experiences in an immersive 3D environment. Hangout helps My Space become My Place and offers:

Fully customizable rooms- choose your furniture, wall colors, anything
Dress your avatar - Mohawk, high heels, thousands of t-shirts
Cover the walls - put up your Facebook photos or choose from hundreds of thousands of posters from Art.com

Watch YouTube videos with your friends or listen to a playlist of music you like
Interact with the brands your love - Monster Energy, SkullCandy, CELCIUS
Play games with your friends - beat their high score, earn coin, and brag
Make totally new furniture - bend the legs, stretch the cushions, get creative
Hangout - chat, voice chat, or just check each other out.

They aren't the only virtual world designed especially for young people, but if you compare the look and functionality of this site to...say...Habbo... there really is no comparison.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: LiveHit Shows You What's Gonna Be Hot

I've been on the planet long enough to know that being a good marketer REQUIRES knowledge of both macro trends and a day to day understanding of what's hot. I feel very lucky to work at a small company where our teams' personal interests are so diverse that, simply through over the cube wall osmosis, I am kept up to date on fields in which I am not deeply interested.

We all have things -- fields, technology, gadgets, companies, music, books, whatever, that we follow closely, and our desire to be au courant in those areas is pretty darned strong.

Problem is, there's just too much out there. For example, I read about 4 books a week, so I am an avid follower of the literary world. But there are like a dozen social networks, I'm guessing 150,000 blogs, and thousands of publisher and media sites reporting on books. There's just no way to keep up.

Add to that the decreasing effectiveness of marketing aimed at creating hype, and you've got an untenable situation looking for a solution.

But now there's LiveHit, an entertainment site that tracks what's hot and what's going to be hot by monitoring the behavior of others on content sites. By examining people's behaviors related to your interest area, you can see what's getting attention right now, and connect with that content as well as people who share your passions.

Here's how the TC 50 site described it:

An entertainment site that tries to present users with media that is the most popular at any given moment. LiveHit is geared towards the social networking audience, with categories that include entertainment, sports, shopping, and general information. The site monitors how many people are interacting with a piece of content, and presents the most popular links as a stack of clickable snapshots.

The unique visual "Live Map" helps you sort of preview the pages people are examining. You get to pick where you want to go.

LiveHit is offering a variety of ways for publishers, ad networks, and content owners to work with them to participate in the community. It also helps those partners feature a constantly changing array of content so as to drive deeper engagement and user experiences. Presumably all of the consumer provided info on demographics and interests will also help them better target consumers with the right advertising.

It's a fascinating model. I haven't been able to get the alpha site to work right, but from what I saw this looks like a very intriguing concept.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Footnote.com: Giving New Meaning to the Term "Social History"

I was a history major in college, and back then social history was a term used to describe a movement that tried to better understand the lives of regular people -- not kings or moguls or industrialists but rather the life experiences of regular people.

Footnote is a different kind of social history, and yet in a way it isn't. It's just that in this instance, the historians are the public. And if there were ever an instance in which the wisdom of crowds can enrich understanding, it's history.

The foundation of footnote is a vast -- and I mean REALLY vast collection of over 40 million documents. Government records, photos, newspapers, comments, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Further the library grows by housing the constant flow of new contributions from members who are passionate about aspects of history. They started with a partnership with the National Archives, and then members have added huge quantities of documents since they wen live in January 2007.

So what kind of history are we talking about? Well, THAT is the beauty of Footnote. It reflects your interests as well as those of the many other members who piece together content on their terms. It can be as narrow as genealogy, or as broad as the study of a war.

But its in the area of genealogy that Footnote will likely add the most value for consumers. In fact, they were one of the sites featured two weeks ago on NBC's Today Show:



Key to the Footnote.com offering is a really strong search offering. Here's a short vid that outlines all of the ways it helps you single out the documents or other content that will enrich your historical view:



The different genealogy sites each have their strong points -- Footnote's search, document libraries, and social networking aspects makes their offering a strong contender in this HIGHLY lucrative space.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Bojam And The Wisdom of Musical Crowds

There's an adage about too many cooks spoiling the broth, but the web is disproving that idea every day. And Bojam is out to do the same in the music creation arena. The wisdom of the crowd is one of the guiding principles of 2.0, which puts this offering firmly in that auspicious category.

So what is it exactly? Well, Bojam is a service that helps people work individually and together to create better music. We all know that music hasn't simply been a business in which you just record something since about the time horns came off Victrolas. We all know that real artistic creativity is only possible with the tools and people that can bring out the best.

Which leaves an excellent opening for Bojam to take the wisdom of the masses and apply it to the rapidly evolving music industry.

Here's the text of the CrunchBase feature on them:

Bojam is an online music collaboration service connecting musicians by giving them a platform to mix, record, and collaborate to produce original or popular music. Musicians of all levels create or discover mixes to contribute to and connect with compatible musicians worldwide. They can use the Bojam Mixer to experience a song in its multi-track format, controlling individual instruments (eg muting or panning a track) and learning how to play a given part. Users record what they play and mix it with the song, then use advanced editing and sound effect tools to clean it up. Mass collaboration has been utilized in text (Wikipedia) and software (Firefox). Bojam does so with music, open-sourcing all aspects of the music creation process, including a wiki-style platform for adding song info, lyrics and instrument tabs. Bojam is open-source music and our goal is to revolutionize the music creation process by harnessing the skill, enthusiasm, and creativity of the music community.

Ya'll know that I am not really a musicphile, but I really really love this concept. By unleashing the creativity of people in a collaborative and easy to use environment, Bojam has the potential to transform the music biz.

A phenomenal idea -- one you should check out. Their site is rather Spartan at the moment, but let's all keep our eyes open for this game changer offering.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Angstro Connects Smarter

I was quite intrigued when I heard about Angstro. I’ve been searching for a better way to stay on top of the people and organizations of my network, but had not found a strong solution. One of the first tools I tried was Google and Yahoo Alerts – I typed in my people and search terms and frankly got a bunch of gobbledygook. News of people with the same names, for example. Or, when I tried to track who posted info from my blog, I got my own blog posts back 90% of the time.

OK, none of this stuff is essential – but then, hey, very little besides oxygen and water are actually essential to our lives. And this stuff is really important – keeping up with colleagues and organizations is very important to my business and my life.

Of course, the complexity of the process depends on the individual or organization you are trying to track. Not hard for me to track Cory Treffiletti – an incredibly uncommon name, but harder when I am trying to track John Durham, a perhaps uncommon name but not a unique one.

Enter Angstro. Here, let’s start by letting their website describe their service:

Ångströ delivers the news you need to know about your professional network.
By leveraging existing services such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, Ångströ helps you easily discover and share critical business news about colleagues, clients, and companies.
Unlike clipping services that confuse multiple people with the same name, Ångströ both disambiguates names and analyzes social graphs to prioritize those relationships that matter to you most.

Nice description, and an excellent idea for an improved methodology that cuts out the chaff and gets you to the wheat of your relationships and connections.

I’ve applied for the beta, so I’ll be writing more about them. I suggest you apply as well. Because if this product does what it says on the side panel, you’ll find this an incredibly useful offering.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

Tech Crunch 50: Adgregate Markets and The Transactional Widget

A little while back I wrote a post about a company called Qoof, and I liked what I saw. Adgregate Markets is a similar offering that offers the additional feature of being fully transactional! Transactional widgets are by no means commonplace – usually when you make a click to buy in a widget, it spawns a browser window that shows a prepopulated shopping cart.

Their core intro product is a “ShopAd™ Widget. From their site:
ShopAdsTM Widget
Adgregate Markets' ShopAdsTM are an innovative advertising technology that enables customers to complete secure purchase transactions within Flash-based ad banners. With Adgregate Markets, transactions are made directly through the ad widget without needing to divert customers away from publishers' web sites.

But wait, I am getting ahead of myself. Adgregate Markets is platform that offers DR marketers the opportunity to create and field fully transactional widgets. These transactional widgets offer the advertiser the opportunity to feature standard or rich media content to showcase their wares, and then collect the particulars of a buyer right in the widget.

The units themselves are in IAB standard sizes so that simplifies the creative process.
One of the most intriguing claims is that these units can be fielded in virtually any ad network – this has got to be an intriguing play for virtually ANY DR marketer.

Here’s an example:



Another great feature is that bit in the lower right hand corner – the units are viral so that an “evangelist” can place them on their pages including social media. How cool is that?
Anyway, this is cool with a capital C. The idea of in widget transactions is truly a game changer.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.