Slide enables customizable and easily assembled slide shows of photos, that can be embedded in a blog or a MySpace page, sent out in an RSS feed, and streamed to a desktop as a screensaver.
Bebo has built a social network, more than 30 million members strong, that keeps users’ pages private but still allows them to share things like video and drawings made on an online whiteboard.
Meebo lets users manage multiple instant-messaging services from one site. Meebo’s killer app is a widget that places an IM window on your blog or webpage.
Wikia operates a hosting service for ad-supported community sites that use the same software and collaborative content model that made Wikipedia a Web phenomenon.
Joost aims to merge the best of TV with the best of the Net. The service provides more of a television-style experience than current online video sites, with channels you can flip through randomly or program yourself. Viewers can also share playlists of their favorite shows with friends or chat with them online while watching the same program.
Dabble has designed a tool for organizing videos into playlists of favorites. Users share them across the network, so, say, food lovers can dabble in one another’s video collections.
Metacafe’s service ranks uploaded videos by popularity and feedback from a community of 17 million monthly visitors – and pays the creators for the success of their work. The auteurs get $100 after 20,000 viewings and $5 for every 1,000 subsequent views. Since September, Metacafe has paid a total of $250,000 to 200 contributors.
Revision 3 is a production studio for geek-oriented online shows. Started by Digg founder Kevin Rose and its CEO, Jay Adelson, Revision3 sells sponsorships to companies like Go Daddy, Microsoft, and Sony for as much as $10,000 per episode.
Blip.tv has built a platform for syndicating serialized online shows such as Starring Amanda Congdon and TreeHugger TV. Blip provides producers with software, ads, and distribution to websites and blogs. A deal is already signed with Web TV service Akimbo, which lets producers send their videos to TV sets.
Fon building a global community of hotspots one router at a time. Fon sells a $30 wireless router to consumers. They hook it up, register their node, and agree to share their broadband with other “Foneros” for free. Those who want to charge outsiders for access can do so, and Fon gets a cut. Likewise, if someone wants to pay $2 or $3 to use the Fon network for a day, Fon takes a share of that revenue. Just over a year old, Fon’s network boasts more than 70,000 hotspots.
Loopt offers around-the-clock friend tracking. Cell-phone customers are using Loopt to let their buddies see their locations. It’s already a hit with some 100,000 Boost Mobile subscribers who want to know not just what their posse is up to but where it’s at.
Mobio offers mobile-phone mashups and widgets that figure out where you are and serve up on-the-go services like movie listings. Other widgets will book a cab or a seat at a restaurant.
Tiny’s Radar service lets you snap photos with cell phones and send them to friends, who can both access and comment on the shots. Radar will be a built-in application on some devices made by Danger, creator of T-Mobile’s Sidekick.
SoonR allows you to use your phone to pull up and search data on your desktop – everything from Word docs to Photoshop files. Access your home or office PC from your mobile phone.
Turn is offering online advertisers something many have craved for years: precise, automated ad targeting combined with a system that requires them to pay only for specific desired results. Rumors are there Google is trying its version of this pay-per-play.
Adify is an online marketplace for highly targeted ads. Businesses can sell ad space directly to advertisers; advertisers can target specific market niches while Adify handles the back-office work.
AdMob offers a place to buy ads for delivery to cell phones. That market is set to explode, and AdMob – which says it has sent out nearly a billion ads in less than a year – is poised to become its middleman of choice.
SpotRunner is a one-stop online shop for low-cost 30-second TV ads. Local businesses can browse a library of premade spots and personalize them for airing in their local markets.
ViTrue’s platform lets corporate customers solicit, edit, and upload user-generated videos that promote their products. With companies like General Motors tapping the YouTube generation to virally market their wares, ViTrue is in a sweet spot.
SuccessFactors sells a suite of simple Web-based tools that automate important but previously paper-driven management chores – performance reviews, succession planning, and compensation. It helps to match employee skills with company objectives.
JanRain has developed a single sign-on service for multiple passwords that lets people hop freely from site to site. Business demand for JanRain’s services is expected to grow as Web 2.0 entertainment and social-networking sites proliferate.
Logoworks automates the design of logos, business cards, and stationery. Proprietary software helps Logoworks streamline the process and charge less than old-line competitors.
Rearden Commerce sells a Web-based “virtual personal assistant” application that smoothly integrates hotel and flight reservations, meetings, and other events into your daily agenda. Some 150 companies and 500,000 employees use Rearden’s software.
SimulScribe transcribes voice-mail messages and shoots them to your mobile device as text or e-mail messages. Targeting corporate customers, SimulScribe will integrate the service into company voicemail systems. Finally, an effective way to convert voice-mail into scannable text.
Stumbleupon matches users with like-minded websites.
Source: Business 2.0 Magazine/CNN
The simple answer is “that depends on if you are Internet savvy or not�, but for the millions who log on to sites such as MySpace, the answer could be harder than that. Just today, BBC reported two contradicting stories that’ll both lead you to wonder whether “social networking sites are getting out of control� and need to be revisited by our beloved lawyers.