Tuesday, December 18, 2007

FohBoh is first restaurant industry social network

What Company is About:
It is a vertical social network dedicated exclusively to the restaurant industry, its employees, owners, operators, vendors, suppliers and service providers worldwide. Unlike other consumer or customer-centric social networks, they are for insiders. They are the restaurant industry social network.


For Whom It Will Be Helpful:


FohBoh is for Real Estate developers and brokers, architects, designers, lawyers, accountants, food and beverage vendors, wineries and boutique produce growers, bakers, chefs, cooks, managers, consultants, concept developers, investors, lenders, owners, franchisees, franchisers, operators, CEO's...you get the picture.

They are the first social network and business exchange exclusively for the restaurant and hospitality industries. They designed FohBoh for you to network, connect and socialize with other like-minded industry professionals and the companies that support your business.

Who Is Backing Them:

The two founders of FohBoh.com are Michael L. Atkinson and Ted Cohn. Michael has over 30 years of experience in restaurant concept development, corporate evelopment, investment banking, investment, operations, M&A, and as a consultant to a wide array of consumer businesses. Ted is a Silicon Valley veteran with over 20 years of experience working at companies such as Apple, NeXT, Excite. He also co-founded Ugobe. Ted and Michael are serial entrepreneurs have founded three companies together. They love food, wine and experiencing new restaurants and have a passion for, and a high-degree of respect for the industry and the people that make it work.
More at:http://fohboh.com/

VortexDNA has mapped the genome of human intention – the mind-DNA that predicts human characteristics

What Company Says:
With the recent publicity around online genetic testing services, especially 23andme, the question of whether or not our lives are predetermined is more important than ever. This information is intended to help you make an informed choice about the science you accept, the way you see the world, and ultimately what you believe about yourself.

VortexDNA has mapped the genome of human intention – the mind-DNA that predicts human characteristics. Advancing our understanding of how belief creates our world, the human intention genome opens up a new era of science and human empowerment.

How It Works:

The genome is easily created by downloading the mywebDNA Firefox extension. Coded as a seven digit number it reveals the true determinants of our lives – the beliefs, with the same helix/vortex structure as our physical DNA, that are the building blocks from which we create order and meaning.
MywebDNA:
When you download the mywebDNA plug-in for the Firefox™ browser, you'll be asked to complete a short, yet profound, survey to generate your numerical profile. This survey is entirely confidential and never shared with anyone other than at your request.

Once you've completed the survey, you can leave mywebDNA running invisibly in the background. Every time you run a Google search, mywebDNA will circle the two results most relevant to you, based on your numerical profile and the profile of the site.

But how does mywebDNA know the purpose and values of a website?

After all, it's not a person. How can a site even have purpose and values?
Let's say your numeric profile is 100,000. You visit a site. That site now has a profile of 100,000. Your friend, who has a profile of 70,000, visits the same site. The site's profile now becomes 85,000.

Now you run a Google search, and that site is one of the results. mywebDNA knows that you have an 85% relevance with the site—and if that is one of the two highest ratings in your search results, mywebDNA will circle it.

More at:http://www.mydnachoice.com/

Live Gamer --A Legitimate Place For Virtual Trading Got $24 million in venture funding

What Company is Offering:
Live Gamer provides a legitimate marketplace that brings a high level of security, integrity, and transparency to the fast-growing virtual trading economy.
Live Gamer enables a complete marketplace solution for the player-to-player trading of virtual items. Through their partnerships with leading publishers and developers worldwide, players now have a convenient, secure, and reliable outlet to buy and sell virtual goods and objects. Only Live Gamer provides virtual trading the way it should be: Safe. Simple. In Game.
How It Works:
Created in an environment where the game industry meets Wall Street, Live Gamer provides a fully legitimate, publisher-supported virtual trading marketplace with security, convenience, and quality of service to match any real-world market. Access Live Gamer from within the game itself — to conduct transaction backed powerful security and anti-fraud measures. Traded goods become available in real time for uninterrupted game play.
Recent Updates:
Live Gamer Inc today announced its introduction as the premier provider of a publisher-supported, secure platform for real money trading of virtual property. Live Gamer is partnering with top massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) publishers and virtual world operators worldwide, including Funcom GMBH, Sony Online Entertainment, 10TACLE STUDIOS, Acclaim, GoPets LTD, and Ping0 Interactive Limited.

How Much They Got From VCs:

The company was founded by industry veterans and backed with $24 million in venture funding from Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and Pequot Ventures. The site is set up to be a legitimate marketplace for trading virtual goods–land, services, characters, etc. Targeting MMOGs and their loyal players, it’s a wonder eBay was so determined to miss out on this opportunity.


More at:http://www.livegamer.com/

Liftopia allows snow and mountain lovers to search for and purchase discount lift tickets at alpine resorts across the country

What Company Is Offering:
Liftopia, the new online marketplace where you’ll find discount lift tickets to top alpine resorts across the country.

How It Works:


Liftopia allows snow and mountain lovers to search for and purchase discount lift tickets at alpine resorts across the country. By planning your trip in advance, you can find exceptional lift ticket deals. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Search for Discount Lift Tickets
Use our search engine to find lift ticket deals at your favorite resorts nationwide. You can search by region or by resort to find lift tickets that suit your travel plans.

Step 2: Purchase Your Discount Lift Tickets Online
Once you’ve confirmed your resort and ticket preferences, you can make your purchase immediately and securely at Liftopia’s online ticket booth. All tickets are non-refundable/non-exchangeable and must be purchased in advance for specific dates. These purchase conditions are what enable Liftopia to secure advance discounts from resorts.

Lift tickets can be purchased using a credit card or PayPal. Users must be 18 years of age or older in order to purchase tickets.

When purchasing lift tickets for the first time, you’ll create a personal user account at Liftopia. Log in to your account with your user name and password to check your order history, print out a Purchase Confirmation or update your personal information.

Step 3: Receive Your Confirmation
Once you’ve purchased your tickets, we will e-mail you a Purchase Confirmation, which will include the details of your order. You must print this document and bring it with you to the resort.

Step 4: Pick Up Your Lift Tickets at the Resort
You will need to bring your Liftopia Purchase Confirmation to the will call ticket counter/office at the mountain resort. When you arrive at the resort, you will need to present this confirmation as proof of purchase. Without the Liftopia Purchase Confirmation, you will not be able to obtain your lift tickets on the mountain. You will need both the Purchase Confirmation and a picture ID in order to claim your lift tickets.
More at:http://www.liftopia.com/

Ipsojobs is a job bank focused on urgent employment

What Company is Offering:

Ipsojobs is a job bank focused on urgent employment. When time is of the essence, Ipsojobs offers the swiftest and easiest means of finding employment or filling an urgent vacancy.
How It Works:

The company, organization or private individual posting the job will provide all the information candidates need to contact them in the field ‘conditions and contact information’. Recommended information to provide is an email address and telephone numbers.
In order to speed up the process and make it as easy as possible, all the information regarding the job is entered on one form. There is no need to register to post or view a job offer. The information needed to post a job offer is as follows: job title, industry sector, description, conditions and contact information. We have also included a validation code in order to prevent jobs being posted automatically by web “robots”.

Unique Features:

A job bank specializing in urgent employment. When time is of the essence.
- Job offers are posted free of charge.
- There is no need to register to use the system. You do not need to create an account.
- Complete user-friendliness: there is just one form to fill out for job postings.
- RSS for each combination of city and sector.
- Ipsojobs is a multi-city, multilingual service.
- WE DO NOT SPAM: We do not store email addresses, so no advertising information will be sent to you.
More at:http://www.ipsojobs.com/

Goodreads has raised an angel round of funding

What Company Is Offering:
Goodreads' mission is to improve the process of reading and learning throughout the world. Goodreads' mission is to make reading fun by letting you see what your friends are reading. Whenever you view a book, we always show you your friends' reviews first. When you login, the home page will show all the latest reviews from your friends. If you decide to browse you can see popular and unpopular books in your friend network.

How It Works:

Goodreads is a free website that allows you to see what your friends are reading. You can add and review books that you are currently reading, going to read, or already read. You can also read reviews by people who aren't in your friend network.

Signing up is simple — you just enter your name, email, and a password.
You can create your own bookshelves. From classics and canadabooks to childrenslit and geek, you can create any category that suits your personal taste. Our favorite shelves out there? To-read, to-reread, guiltypleasures, chicklit and overrated-drivel. Have you tried out the covers view in "my books"? It's brilliant — if we may say so. Also check out the reviews view for faster book shelving.
How Much They Got From VCs:

Goodreads has raised an angel round of funding, the firm said Monday. Amount of the round was not announced. The funding came from James Currier of Ooga Labs, Michael Birch of Bebo.com, Chris Michel of Military.com, Mike Jones of Userplane, along with True Ventures and Stand Chudnovsky, also of Ooga Labs.
More at:http://www.goodreads.com/

Internet Trends

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

Indeed, most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.

In addition to providing national telephone survey data, this report includes quotes from online survey respondents as well as experts in the fields of privacy, online identity management and search.

Via-Pew

JuiceCaster is a mobile social networking community got $6M in new venture capital funding

What Company Is Offering:
JuiceCaster is a mobile social networking community which lets anyone who has a cell phone connect with friends and meet new people. JuiceCaster allows the user to publish content right from their phone to any person, group, Web site or desktop. People can view content on their phone to make new friends and stay in touch with current buddies. JuiceCaster makes rich-media content a part of mobile communications.

How Much They Got From VCs:

Juice Wireless, the pioneer in mobile social networking, closed $6M in new venture capital funding in their third funding round, led by 21Ventures. The company’s investors now include 21Ventures, Qualcomm and Citizen’s Communications.

What VCs says About Company:

The future of social networking and social media is mobile. JuiceCaster is the best way for people to share their social experiences and broadcast their lives, while on the go,” said David Anthony, managing partner at 21Ventures. “CEO Nick Desai and his talented team have made very impressive traction over the last 12 months. The product is the best I’ve seen on the market and the company has already signed several deals with leading domestic and international carriers. This signals a very strong foundation for growth and success in 2008.

Where They Will Use Raised Money:

The investment will be used to further the development of the JuiceCaster product and expand its user base. Juice Wireless will accelerate its recruitment drive, with a focus on building the marketing and engineering teams as well as a focus on direct user acquisition.
More at:http://www.juicecaster.com/

Ribbit--An open marketplace for telephony innovation

What Company Is Offering:
Ribbit technology allows developers to not only create interesting new Flash phones and consumer facing applications, they can also create rich high-value enterprise applications, as demonstrated by the Ribbit integration into Salesforce.com.

Ribbit is the result of a group of Silicon Valley phone and Web veterans coming together, in a distinctly new way, to create a distinctly new company.
Ribbit is comprised of traditional telephony experts, "Voice 2.0" experts as well as various web development, social media and infrastructure experts.

At the core of Ribbit's technology is the Ribbit SmartSwitch™, a sophisticated multi-protocol soft-switch that bridges the worlds of traditional telephony with next generation networks and protocols.

How It Works:
The Ribbit model is built on Internet business principles, such as revenue-sharing between partners. When developers create useful applications on the Ribbit platform, they will be free to market them in accordance to their value in their market. Developers will pay Ribbit in accordance to the value we provide them and their users. Developers are exhibiting remarkable creativity and have created functionality that is already solving very real communication problems for end users - creating solutions that were literally never before feasible.

Ribbit is an open platform for telephony innovation. Unlike any other phone company, we are giving our developers unprecedented access to our technology, through the Ribbit API and allowing them to innovate at will. Our business is built more like a software company than a phone company. Rather than thinking we can do it all ourselves, we are counting on our developers to create the next generation communications solutions we have all been waiting for.

The result of this thinking is Ribbit - Silicon Valley's first Phone Company. Created to change the way we all think about communications. A company dedicated to advancing communications by empowering developers to rethink what's possible by giving them an open API to build the future we've all been waiting for.


An open platform for telephony innovation.

As Silicon Valley's first phone company, they will give developers the tools to let communication transcend carriers, networks, devices and technologies, and let it integrate into the way they actually live, work and play today.


The Opportunity
Ribbit fills a gap in the communication marketplace. To date, next generation solutions can be characterized as either being very expensive custom applications - starting at $250,000 and running into the millions - or relatively simple and limited "spot solutions" such as internet "click-to-call" deployments. The Ribbit solution satisfies the middle ground between these alternatives. Now developers can create high-value enterprise-class communication solutions with virtually no knowledge of telephony.
More at:http://www.ribbit.com/

Frengo is a community where people share buzz - a steady stream of opinions, updates, questions, predictions, games

What Company Is Offering:
Frengo is a community where people share buzz - a steady stream of opinions, updates, questions, predictions, games. Find Buzz by checking out our public Buzz directory. Or see what other people are doing on the homepage by watching the "What's Buzzing Now" board. Join or leave any Buzz through the web or your phone. Read messages online or on-the-go.

How It Works:
You can create Buzz using their easy-to-use Create Buzz templates - everything from simple updates and alerts to interactive events like polling, predictions and quizzes. You can schedule stop and start times or run different Buzz for different groups. Create as many Buzz channels as you like. Best part - build a Buzz followership and we'll give you rewards. All publishers get points to redeem for things like ringtones, cameras and movie tickets!

They also recognize that sometimes the hottest Buzz is the Buzz kept secret. With Frengo you can build groups of friends and share messages privately. Private Buzz will only show up for your friends and in your My Frengo account. Invite your friends and all their Buzz will automatically show up on your My Frengo homepage.
Recent Updates:
Flirtable has been extended through Frengo’s Mobile Toolkit, granting more integrated mobile tools for the growing Facebook application. As with most services that build on top of the Facebook platform, a stand alone version of their application is often the next step for attempting to leverage Facebook’s user base.

Frengo’s Flirtable, which is being directly tied into Frengo’s already established use of the mobile phone for networking purposes. Using the Mobile Toolkit API, as several other Facebook applications do, enables better integration with the Facebook app. All the functionality you get with Flirtable will be translated to the mobile version.


More at:http://frengo.com/
https://register.facebook.com/

ScientificMatch.com--Science Of Love Or DNA Dating

What Company Is Offering:

Once you sign up at ScientificMatch, they send you the swabs and an email with your customer number. You write your customer number on your DNA envelope, and you put your loaded swabs inside it. After you drop it in the mail, your DNA results will be uploaded to their computers and you should be able to see your matches.

How It Works:
When you first sign up to join their service, they send you a DNA collection kit, the main component of which is just a couple of sterilized, sealed cotton swabs.

With these swabs, you simply rub the insides of you cheeks. It's quick, easy, and painless.

They also give a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope into which you deposit your loaded swabs.

Probably the most complicated part of the process is writing your customer number on the envelope. In order to protect your security and anominity, the laboratory that analyzes your DNA never knows who you are. The only way they can refer to you is with your customer number. Typically, nobody in their organization ever knows your name and your customer number at the same time. Only our computers ever link the two together. That's why you have to write your customer number on your DNA envelope. Their computers generate the relationship, and they send the customer number directly to you, in an email. You then write the customer number on the envelope. Theirr lab technicians upload your number and your DNA results together, when are computers then associate your DNA results with your dating profile. Your DNA is never posted in your profile--it's only used to generate your matches.

It can take up to two weeks for your DNA results to be generated by our laboratory, but in terms of your membership, that doesn't cost you any time. Your membership period only begins after your account has been fully activated, and uploading your DNA results is usually the final step in the activation process.

More at: http://www.scientificmatch.com/

Speed Trap

What Company Is Offering:

Speed Trap, a mashup (Web application hybrid) that combines Microsoft Live Maps and the ability to pinpoint and review speed traps located anywhere on the planet. The information shared by its members is placed into a database and can be viewed by anyone.
How It Works:
The application combines Microsoft Live Maps with user-submitted data about where police speed traps are located, how often they are setup, and even what methods of detection are used to catch offending drivers.
Members can post detailed information such as the type of speed detection used, posted speed limit, and level of enforcement. Membership is totally free. Speeding tickets are not. Insurance price quotes for a car/auto after a ticket is even worse. Inform yourself and others. Future revisions of the site will allow for uploading to mobile GPS devices and GPS Enabled Phones.
More at:http://njection.com/

Roll A Name --Self Promoting Yourself

What Company is Offering:
Roll A Name lets you maximize your friends' network. The bigger your network is, the higher you and your profile are listed and visible. Use this visibility to start promoting yourself, your business, events, websites, parties, books, blogs, video and audio and much more. Be Creative!

How It Works:
Invite your friends and start your Roll A Name community. Be on top. Takeover. Get Noticed!

The more connected friends you have, the more popular (higher) you are in the search results. The number of connected friends you have does not affect your name's font size or type. These are generated randomly.

More at:http://www.rollaname.com/

FreeAlert is a completely free email and text-messaging alert service that locates the free items Or Emails Search Tools

What Company Is Offering:
FreeAlert is a completely free email and text-messaging alert service that locates the free items you're looking for; from dressers to cars to cookbooks.
How It Works:

You might be looking for a laptop, a stereo, software, a couch, a stroller, French doors, garage sale giveaways, storage bins, moving boxes, or even a free car or truck (yes, many people have gotten cars!).

FreeAlert tracks them all for you and then provides you instant notification! FreeAlert is your instant alert service for finding any and all special items you're searching for in your area.

And at the very moment FreeAlert finds your item, we send an alert directly to your email address (or a text alert to your cell phone or both).

Unique Features:

* Early responder advantages.
* Free, automatic alerts of your favorite free items. Instead of monitoring the Internet 24 hours per day for the free things everyone is searching for, they provide you the immediate information you need to get what you want.
More at:http://freealert.org/