Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Realius.com----Fantasy Real estate games

What Company is About:
Realius, a San Francisco Bay Area start-up is,the Real Estate Gamester , online real-estate fantasy games.Games driven by real world places, homes and people,
fun, quick and easy, complete with expert advice to perfect your game.

How It Works:
Users can guess the asking prices of homes for sale, then see their accuracy ranking. Major League Investor lets them assemble property portfolios to make imaginary profits. And Fantasy Flip urges housing addicts to upload photos of their own homes and solicit guesses of how much an improvement will increase their value.

With home prices slumping nationally, it seems an odd time to roll out a real-estate game. But Teller has already lined up brokers eager to boost Web traffic and snag clients. "America is obsessed with real estate," he says, pointing to HGTV addicts. If he's right, online goof-offs may soon find a new home.
More at:http://www.realius.com/

Programmer Meet Designers

What Company is Offering:
This site is created to unite programmers and designers because rarely is a person good at both programming and designing. PMD helps programmers and designers partner up to make websites and web applications that look and work great.
Now content writers and entrepreneurs can also join up to find people to work with.
How It Works:
If you are a programmer looking for a designer to help you with one job, you would create a listing with the appropriate info. Then, designers would come by your listing and if they are interested, they will make an offer. Basically, an offer is them saying "I'd like to do this job". However, they may also have any questions, such as "Do I have to use Photoshop?" or "Can I get paid a little more?". Check your offers once in a while. If you see an offer that you like (i.e. you look at the designers portfolio and you like it), you click "Accept Offer". Then you may choose to trade emails or IM usernames with your partner or use this site for communication.
Its especially for:
* Programmers/Web Developers.
* Graphic/Interface Designers.
* Content Writers.
* Web Entrepreneurs.
More at:programmermeetdesigner.com/

Clever Hippo is a search engine for applications and widgets

What Company is Offering:
Clever Hippo is a search engine for applications and widgets. Their mission is to make it easier to find apps and widgets for whatever you're into. With the Clever Hippo application search you can search the thousands of applications that are available for your social network, mobile device, blog, home page, and desktop.

How It Works:

To find the most popular applications on Clever Hippo. Sort your search results by popularity to find the most popular apps.

It's also easy to voice your opinion. Click the Clever link (below the orange rating box) to vote-up your favorite apps.
Click the Add your App or Widget at the top of the page and follow the instructions.

To add your app you will need to provide a URL where our users can find and download your widget or app. That location can be a widget directory, your blog, or your website.
More at:http://www.cleverhippo.org/

With YouMonitor.Us, everyone monitors each other

What Company is Offering:
With YouMonitor.Us, everyone monitors each other. When your site is down or slow to respond, you'll know about it right away. That's an added security to know that your website is up and running and its business as usual.

The peer to peer website monitoring technology delivers a unique, global insight into how your website is responding to an ever-changing assortment of users in locations all over the world, right now, in real time. You'll know immediately if your site is down, and you'll have tools to fine tune how your site appears to respond to visitors from all over the world. Their basic services are entirely free, and while we will add pay services at the end of our public beta, they will always provide a robust and comprehensive collection of monitoring services free of charge, to anyone with a website.
How It Works:
YouMonitor will monitor it in exchange for participating and using their services. YouMonitor will in turn examine your site from the end user’s view point, report downtimes and speed, and tell you where and when your web alerts occur. All information is reported using easy to read and professional looking charts and graphs. Addititonally, you’ll get instant alerts should your website become unreachable or experience abnormal response times, 24x7 monitoring, and two modes of operation. There’s a free two week trial service. After that you can continue to use YouMonitor’s services by joining the free peer to peer network.
More at:http://youmonitor.us/

USF ,a boutique financial services firm for high-end financial advisors got $9 million in VC funding

What Company Is Offering:
USF ,a boutique financial services firm for high-end financial advisors.It helps financial advisors and financial institutions manage the complex needs of wealthy clients. The company's client base includes high-end financial advisors who seek to move toward more fee-based services and are interested in providing objective and sophisticated investment advice. USF supports a total of 120 financial advisors with an integrated offering of technology, operations, and compliance services with managed account, broker dealer, and alternative investment solutions.

How Much They Got From VCs:
They got $9 million in VC funding from firms like Advantage Capital Partners and Inter-Atlantic Group.
About VCs:
1.Advantage Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on investing in promising companies in connection with federal, state and local economic development efforts. With offices in Austin, New Orleans, St. Louis and other cities, Advantage has raised more than $800 million in institutional venture capital since 1992 and invested in companies located in geographic areas underserved by traditional venture capital. For more information: www.advantagecap.com .
More at:http://www.usfiduciary.com/

MobiMate --a leading provider of travel services for mobile devices gotfinancing led by Motorola Ventures

What Company is Offering:
MobiMate Ltd, a leading provider of travel services for mobile devices.
MobiMate's WorldMate Live is a mobile travel service that supports travelers by providing information and transaction capabilities on their mobile devices and PCs. The service includes a web 2.0 travel planning site and a mobile application to provide real-time, on-the-road travel support. With the ability to import travel booking information from third party travel providers, WorldMate allows for a simplified and seamless travel experience for users on-the-go.
How It Works:
Its best-selling WorldMate service offers an easy-to-use application that automatically delivers valuable content and services to users' cell phones, turning their mobile devices into a personal travel assistant. Removing stress and paperwork from the travel experience while saving time and money, it puts the traveler's itinerary alongside flight status updates, flight schedules, weather, forecasts and currency information in subscribers' hands in real-time
How Much They Got From VCs:
They completed of a round of financing led by Motorola Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT). Motorola, Inc. joins MobiMate's current investor group which includes John Sculley, former CEO of Apple Computer; serial entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt, investment banker Michael Price of Evercore Partners, Michael Targoff, CEO of Loral Space & Communications and several other prominent industry veterans.
More at:http://www.mobimate.com/

Skyscanner--The First Flight Search Engine Got £2.5 million In VCs Funding

What Company is Offering:
Skyscanner, has developed innovative proprietary search engine technology which already allows consumers to obtain instant online comparisons on fares from more than 180 airlines to more than 5,000 destinations.It plans to become the first flight search engine in the world to cover every scheduled flight, including budget and chartered airlines as well as major carriers. The website www.skyscanner.net which is free to use, is already generating profits and attracting around one million price enquiries a day.
How it Works:
Skyscanner operates a flexible easy-to-use system, allowing users to browse fare and flight information without having to specify their date of travel. It does not sell tickets but has direct links with airlines’ websites, removing the need to re-enter data. It offers a Multi-Hop flight search facility and suggestions for short and longer break destinations.
How Much They Got From VCs:
They got £2.5 million first round funding package from leading venture capital group Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) to expand its rapidly-growing air travel site into the world’s most comprehensive easy-to-use flight search engine.

What VCs Says:
“Skyscanner has the potential to become a world leader in the travel sector which is one of the web’s hottest consumer transaction areas. The company has a talented management team, underpinned by smart technology and a highly scaleable business model.”
How is It Different:
Skyscanner already has commercial links with the majority of European airlines and is now targeting global coverage. The company is preparing for rapid growth as more routes are added to its database which displays search results in 20 different languages.
More at:http://www.skyscanner.net/

Fortisphere got $10 million in series A round funding by Fairhaven Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners

What Company is Offering:
Fortisphere is a leading provider of virtual machine lifecycle management software that facilitates the rapid expansion of virtual infrastructures through greater visibility, granular control, and best practices.Fortisphere is built on a culture of creativity, technological rigor, and market innovation. Unique among its peers, Fortisphere has created patent-pending solutions that were built expressly to address the operational challenges associated with virtualization.

How It Works:
Fortisphere empowers enterprises to more intelligently grow their virtual machine deployments by providing the visibility, granular control and best practices required to ensure virtualized environments operate efficiently, effectively and securely. By tracking, reporting and managing both online and offline virtual machines, Fortisphere helps accelerate virtualization adoption.


How Much They Got From VCs:
They got $10 million in series A round funding. The round was co-led by Fairhaven Capital Partners and Globespan Capital Partners.

How They Will Use Funding:

The company will use the funding to further product development, grow its sales team and increase its market visibility.
IDC predicts that the virtualization market will reach $11.7 billion over the next four years and that by the end of this year, about half of the world's 4.2 million servers will be virtualized," said Paul L. Ciriello, managing partner, Fairhaven Capital Partners. "While this dramatic growth has resulted in cost and operational gains for companies, it has also triggered a need for data center management tools purpose-built for virtualized environments. Fortisphere fills this urgent market need by providing a unique means for organizations to more efficiently manage their virtual machine deployments."
More at:http://www.fortisphere.com/

SnapYap.com---Instant Video Calling

What Company is Offering:
At SnapYap.com, video conferencing and messaging is accessible to computer users of all levels. All you need is an internet connection and a webcam, and you too can experience the excitement of video communication.
How it Works:
As a SnapYapTM user, you can:

Participate in live video calls in your browser .
Send and receive video messages .
Embed the SnapYapTM application directly into your webpage to record video messages .
Instantly connect with friends and family through video technology .
More at:http://www.snapyap.com/

Online Free DVD Collections

What Company is Offering:
Access Your Entire DVD Collection from anywhere with this completely online and completely Free DVD collection program. There's no software to download, which means no annoying software updates. Their DVD Catalog program is integrated into The Online Movie Forums. Interact with each title in your DVD collection as you edit in Movie Trailers, Clips, DVD Easter Eggs, Ratings, Comments, and more. Browse some of the catalog's features listed below and be sure to check out the New Collections shown on the right.
How it Works:
Join The Online Movie Forums. Become part of one of the largest movie discussion forums online.
Search for and Add DVDs to Your Collection. Login to the forums with your username and password. Use the search box at the top of this page or any collection page to begin. Your collection is created when you add your first DVD.
More at:http://www.chasingthefrog.com/

Egglad.com is an integrated casual game and shopping site based on the innovative concept of G-commerce

What Company Is Offering:
Egglad.com is an integrated casual game and shopping site based on the innovative concept of G-commerce. This site aims to foster a game fan community where members enjoy our free fun games and meet with new friends, and at the same time play the many games to earn points, called "Eggs" and "Chicks", in our affinity point system, which can be redeemed for a wide variety of products, entered into Daily Lucky Draw, and used to participate in other designated activities.
How It Works:

"Eggs" refer to the game points you earned within the same day. "Eggs" could be used to buy tickets to enter Daily Lucky Draw. At the end of the day the remaining Eggs in your balance will convert to "Chicks", or total accumulated points.
By playing the free Egglad games you can gain game score which will then automatically convert to Eggs. Due to different skill levels and complexities, Egglad.com has developed a conversion system that standardizes exchange of score of different games to Eggs. Alternatively, you will be credited with extra Eggs by referring friends to sign up as new members, achieving high rankings in featured games, or taking part in other designated programs. All unused Eggs will be counted as Chicks on the ensuing day for shopping and posting/accepting challenges.
More at:http://egglad.com/

ZipLocal---Business Search Local

What Company is Offering:
ZipLocal makes it easy to find what you want in the neighbourhood or city you need it… from the most broad to the most specific searches. ZipLocal puts the consumer experience first, from the site design to the relevancy of business search results.
How It Works:
ZipLocal provides relevant search results from over 1.3million businesses with maps and capability for users to review, rate and tag business listings. ZipLocal is focused on creating the most comprehensive and engaging search experience at the neighbourhood and city-wide level.

From small retailer to large national brands, ZipLocal delivers the search results that matter most to the consumer, making businesses more relevant to their lives. Through user-defined search criteria, ZipLocal delivers accurate business listings that convert searching users into paying customers. ZipLocal is the only "made in Canada" local search site to successfully bridge a traditional business directory with the consumer-generated input required to be the next go-to search destination.

ZipLocal is the fresh, new, innovative, friendly, focused and inspiring answer to local search.

How is It different:
Content: Business listing information provided by advertising clients. Content also exists as user-generated provided by ZipPeople or third-party content provided by partners or reviewers.

Local Search: What ZipLocal does better than anyone in Canada. ZipLocal takes traditional search to the hyper-local level by combining Canadian business listings and maps with user input to create the most relevant search experience.

Tag: ZipLocal users are encouraged to provide specific keywords or search terms that are most relevant to a business listing, making it easier for all ZipLocal users to find what they want.

ZipPeople: ZipLocal registered users who review, rate and tag business listings are called ZipPeople. ZipPeople may be featured with a profile on the ZipPeople page or receive ZipPoints as they are relied upon for their opinions about the businesses included in the ZipLocal directory.
More at:http://www.ziplocal.com/