Monday, April 30, 2007

Catalog All Your Stuff

New services aim to be your online catalog of all the stuff you own. Then you can share all the stuff you own with your friends and eventually buy/sell with each other. Online retailers also can automatically register the stuff you buy with these services and then advertise related items to you when you view your stuff.
NYT Review: Got Roomfuls of Stuff? Now Sitew Will Help Keep Track of It

Zebo.com
MyThings.com
iTaggIt.com

Another Shopping Experience

Here is yet another online shopping experience which aims to ease online comparison shopping and searching.
Glimpse.com
NYT Review: A Narrow Window Into the Future
Here are my previous shopping experiences I discovered.

Upload Your Cell's Videos

Upload all your videos and photos from your cell and let others watch them, even live.
Kyte.tv
NYT Review: Social Networking Leaves Confines of the Computer

Friday, April 27, 2007

Trend Hunters

Here is another site to keep track of trends.
TrendHunter.com

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Mapki: Google Maps Mashups Wiki

For help on anything concerning the Google Maps API this wikipedia-style site has all the info and links you will need to create your own Google Map Mashup.
Mapki.com
For seeing examples of Google Maps Mashups visit the Google Maps Mania blog.

Monday, April 23, 2007

JSONER: Library for JSON

The next hottest thing in dealing with JSON is a new Javascript library called JSONER. And if you don't know what JSON is yet, you better start finding out. It is a more efficient way to transfer data with AJAX instead of using XML.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Human-powered Local Search

Here is another service that is moving away from software to human-powered. It is local searching, which basically means searching for business info, attractions, events, history, etc. at a localized level usually from a local expert. Here is one of the first services to attempt this with real humans, presumably available thru chat 24x7:

AskPoodle.com

Human-powered Transcriptions

Normally one would expect for computer to automatically transcribe voice to text, but because of accuracy problems and having to "train" the software to your voice, there is an effort to get a human network of transcribers to be available 24x7 to alleviate all these problems.

One of the first to do this is Jott.com. They have a toll-free number you call and speak for up to 30 seconds. Real humans then transcribe your message to text and send it to your destination(s) which you will have previously setup in your free account at jott.com.

This is a very interesting trend of using human networks to usurp the normal role of computers. Can you think of other industries or services where this is happening?

Human-powered Searching

Obviously computers by themselves are not smart enough to answer all our search request, so now some folks are using real humans to power searching. Some searching is done in real-time by humans over the phone, for example Scott Jones's ChaCha.com. Other searching will apparently be an amalgamation of user recommendations of the best search results, for example Jimmy Wales' Search Wikia.

On Wikipedia I searched for "human search engine" and also found Jatalla.com

These new services depend on a network of people doing all the work. If I were building a network of people I would definitely get pointers from these two big players.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Crowdsourced Startup Advice

Read about other entrepreneurs' experiences and advice for starting up a business and sustaining it.

Startupping.com
FoundRead.com

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Learn Chinese With Podcasts

I just got my first iPod (I know, I know, I'm a little slow at getting up to speed on gadgets) and I discovered, through iTunes, a great source of daily Chinese lesson podcasts. I've tried the first intro and I think I'm hooked on this stuff. The instruction is excellent. If you want to learn Chinese, then I definitely recommend this.

ChinesePod.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bad Fads Museum

This museum showcases many of the past fads. Check here to see if your idea has not been a fad before.

BadFads.com

How to Get VCs' Attention

Need help getting the attention of Venture Capitalists? Listen to what Guy Kawasaki has to say:

How to Get the Attention of a Venture Capitalist

Monday, April 09, 2007

All In One Searches

Both Yahoo and Google are developing a new interface for search that gives you the usual results but also results from Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, etc all on one page.

Yahoo's Alpha

Google's SearchMash

Tuesday, April 03, 2007