Monday, February 18, 2008

RealMetrics measures the reliability and performance of online service providers

What Company Is Offering:
RealMetrics was founded with the vision of providing the most valuable, current and historical business metrics available on performance and reliability of online service providers. These metrics include uptime, web speed, CPU speed, disk speed, email speed and reliability and customer service response speed.

How It Works:

RealMetrics measures the reliability and performance of online service providers by establishing actual account(s) with each service provider and by performing actual measurements against these accounts.
Unlike editorial review sites, RealMetrics does not offer opinions of performance or reliability; they only offer objective, actual data-driven metrics as gathered directly from accounts set up with each service provider. The results you see are the real performance metrics we capture using scientific statistical analysis.

Who Is Backing Them:

Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson entered the Internet application development arena in the early 1990’s and is an experienced senior executive with strong skills in business strategy, technology innovation, and the tactical aspects of technology deployment. He has been the founder, or co-founder of several successful Internet technology companies, including Boldchat where his industry leading live chat technology has captured significant market share with a robust architecture, fault tolerant infrastructure and feature rich product offering.

Additionally, Johnson founded the LoudPC product line of mobile communications applications that allow users with a web-enabled phone to enjoy real-time access to email and other personal information management data. Another one of Johnson’s industry leading businesses was Bottomdollar which he founded in 1997 to improve the way people shopped online. The Bottomdollar technology reached over 6,000,000 product price comparison searches per month before being acquired and traded on NASDAQ.

More at: http://www.realmetrics.com/
Company Information:
RealMetrics, LLC
13304 Crestwood
Wichita, KS 67230
Phone: (888) 658-3563

SPE----Story Picturing Engine that visualizes the story with a series of pictures

What Company Is Offering:
SPE, is a Story Picturing Engine that takes a story entered/uploaded by the user and returns a picture storyboard that visualizes the story with a series of pictures.

How It Works:
It acts as a gateway to image searching, which can be done through alipr.com, a search engine that finds images based on a comprehensive database of images with computer-based and human-based tagging. SPE can be used for educational purposes, such as locating pictures related to a lesson, or for personal purposes, such as creating a slideshow to accompany blogs, emails, or other stories. The system shown here is a prototype for illustrating stories using Web images. For special applications, such as education, specialized image databases are needed.

Who Is Behind Them:
SPE was mainly developed by Dr. Dhiraj Joshi during his graduate study at Penn State . He is now a Scientist at Kodak Research, Rochester, NY. The work has been carried out under the supervision of Penn State faculty James Wang and Jia Li. Visiting student Angela Yen from MIT created the initial Website for SPE.

More at:http://alipr.com/spe/

Able Grape is a wine search engine

What Company Is Offering:
Able Grape. They're a wine search engine — not for comparison shopping, but for learning and research. They aim to be the world's most comprehensive, up-to-date, and authoritative source for online wine information.

They recommend a quick look at their help, especially the example queries, if this is your first use. They're a little different than your usual search engine, with numerous wine-specific features and a few twists to help you find things faster.

How It Works:
Able Grape is a wine search engine. They aim to be the world's most complete, authoritative, and up-to-date online source for any wine, enology, or viticultural information. By allowing you to leave off unnecessary terms, Able Grape gives you more complete results.

How Is It Different:
Able Grape is wine-specific, you don't need to add wine-specific terms. While you need to type Spanish Wine on Google to get good results, on Able Grape, you will get better results than Google by simply typing Spain. Similarly, instead of needing to type Argyle Winery or Argyle Vineyards to get just wine-related results, try simply Argyle. And instead of climate change and wine, try simply climate change. (They have included some great general resources about climate change, but you'll find that most of the results are wine-specific. Moreover, Able Grape knows that global warming and even cambiamento climatico mean the same thing).

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

Restaurantica is primarily a restaurant directory that serves all of North America

What Company Is Offering:
Restaurantica is primarily a restaurant directory that serves all of North America. It is also a space where you can share your dining experiences by reviewing restaurants that you have eaten at.

How It Works:

Restaurantica's goal is to offer the best customer service and the freshest possible restaurant data while maintaining a quick and easy user experience. Our simplistic review system does not require user sign in or registration and has helped us encourage a higher percent of our visitors to "Share the Experience".

Unique Features:
1. Restaurantica features restaurant reviews written by real users who have dined at the location. Our “Share the Experience” review model offers a unique take on the conventional critique; user data is collected through a simple review and averaged out to impact a restaurant's "RestaurantRank", giving a reader the option to view a quick numerical score or to dig a little deeper to see how individual visits fared.
2. Each listing on Restaurantica was created by a user and is moderated by hand according to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to ensure optimal quality.
3. Restaurantica was launched with just under 200 restaurant listings in 9 cities.
4. In December 2005, Restaurantica had 6,000 restaurant reviews with approximately 4,500 restaurants and 75 Ontario cities in the system.
5. In July 2007, Restaurantica eclipsed 50,000 restaurant reviews from cities throughout North America.
6. Ryan is still very much a part of Restaurantica although he now allows others to help him moderate reviews and answer emails so that he can spend the bulk of his time developing new ideas.
More at:http://www.restaurantica.com/

Carol, The Care Marketplace, is a health-care shopping site

What Company Is Offering:

Carol, The Care Marketplace, is a health-care shopping site where you can browse, compare and purchase health-care services from health-care providers throughout the Twin Cities metro.Carol was developed to provide the information consumers need to make informed health-care decisions.

How It Works:

Carol is designed for people who wish to make informed decisions about their health care. Carol allows you to compare services and prices among health-care providers, and purchase health care based on your preferences. Carol exists to help you uncover your choices in and out of your insurance network.


More at:https://www.carol.com/

zzzPhone.com delivers individually built customized cell phones through its website

What Company Is Offering:
zzzPhone.com delivers individually built customized cell phones through its website - www.zzzPhone.com - and white label dropship program. Manufactured by an American company with assembly plants in the heart of China's mobile phone supply chain and sold directly to customers with no agents or middlemen; these unlocked, quad-band cell phones deliver features comparable to the ultra-popular Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone, at a significantly discounted price.

How It Works:
zzzPhone.com is dedicated to providing their customers with the best discount unlocked cell phones- with the most features and the best price and a package suited to your personal tastes. Unlike traditional cell phone manufacturers, who try to shove everyone into a single categorical box, they believe that every cell phone customer is unique, with special needs to address specific lifestyle concerns when it comes to mobile communication. That's why they've developed the first fully customizable cell phones that allow customers to choose the features and hardware to have in their cell phones- at a fraction of the cost of branded phones with similar features.

zzzPhone.com is a USA owned and operated company that manufactures and assembles our mobile phones right in our own factory to ensure quality and compatibility for all our cell phones for use in Canada, Mexico, & USA: and the entire world. They also provide assembly and branding services to larger corporations wanting to promote their own brand or services through a custom tailored cell phone, as well as offer our cell phone dropship service to wholesale distributors for cellular phones.

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

HiQ----Tire Network

What Company Is About:
At HiQ, in-store and on-line, they're all about taking the stress and uncertainty out of buying new tyres and having them fitted.

They're committed to offering you a better service and they do this by understanding what you need from a fast-fit company.

When you buy tyres from HiQonline.co.uk, you know they will only ever be fitted to our exacting standards.

Unique Features:
No hidden costs - all the prices we quote you include VAT, valve and balance, fitting and recycling of replaced tyres.
Fitting to the highest standards - its fast, friendly, reliable and we will never carry out work without your permission
They don't use jargon - they'll explain the work we've done in plain English and answer any questions you have.
Local service with national standards - HiQ Centres are audited to ensure they all offer you better service and standards.
Their online tyre finder makes it easy to choose the right brand and size for your car and driving requirements.
Choosing a preferred time and location for fitting - just bring your email confirmation to your appointment and we'll do the rest.
Fitting while you wait, in a clean, friendly and welcoming environment.
More at:http://www.hiqonline.co.uk/

SuperTagger allows you to tag anyone and anything in a photo. It can be a person, an object or a place

What Company Is Offering:

It's allows you to tag anyone and anything in a photo. It can be a person, an object or a place. When you tag an object for example, SuperTagger then automatically gives you some relevant e-commerce results that you may or may not need. But here's the interesting part, by choosing one from the offered tags, you actually added an ad-tag to the photo.People can comment on each tag separately, which means that every photo can have multiply conversations. If you're looking for something that goes beyond just tagging your friends, try SuperTag them.

More at:http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7657427188

Answerbag is a community of people helping others

What Company Is Offering:
Answerbag is a community of people helping others. Have a question? Ask it here! Know something? (Everyone knows something!) Help someone out! They're here to help you connect with others and to find and share knowledge about topics ranging from celebrity trivia and home cleaning tips to Russian name origins and particle physics. Any topic you can dream of, you can ask it here.

How It Works:
The web is a vast sea of information on a plethora of topics. It can be useful for socializing, research, shopping, education, day-to-day activities, and much more. They use it to find movie times, to talk to friends while we're supposed to be working, to find a mortgage, to see which new bands are hot, and to find what to do when our children are under the weather. There is nothing you can't learn on the Internet. Except perhaps underwater basketweaving which can only be learned through practice.
Answerbag is a community. Without you, members of this site would be useless. You are critical to their mission of helping people find the information they want and need.

How Is It Different:
Answerbag brings trust to information on the web. Every bit of info on this site can be voted on, so trustworthy answers are promoted and the chaff is weeded out. People just like you tell if they think an answer was useful, and if most people agree, you'll see that answer is "trusted." This lets you know that it isn't just some loony like my Uncle Herb giving you his answer - it's a group of people who have come together to agree on an answer.

Answerbag allows the people of the world to share not just information but knowledge with each other, to improve each others' lives, and benefit the global society.

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

Showbeyond is a multimedia slidecast creator, online publishing platform, and story sharing community

What Company Is Offering:
Showbeyond is a multimedia slidecast creator, online publishing platform, and story sharing community. With Showbeyond, you can easily grab your images, then add your sound and text to create multimedia stories. Now you can share your stories with friends or post to blogs and social networking sites.

How It Works:

Podcasting with slides. Now you can combine sound (both voice narration and continous background sound) with your image stories - making them come alive!
Real time compilation. With Showbeyond, you compile your stories in real time. Simple yet powerful tools empower you - allowing you to focus on your memories and the story you wish to tell.
Multiple image sources. Showbeyond allows you to upload your images from your computer or other on-line sources Picasa or any image URL.
Text page. Each slide can have a text description - as brief or as narrative as you want. If you need more room, you can easily add text slides.
Auto image orientation. Using the ratio of an image, Showbeyond automatically arranges your image to the proper position in a slide. You can also use image functions to crop your image and adjust its position in a slide.
Auto slide duration. Showbeyond automatically sets up the interval between slides based on content. Or simply configure the duration to your individual preferences.
Multi format. Choose from multiple formats to best present your story.
Public and private sharing. Share your story with the world! Or maybe you only wish to have your closest friends share your personal experiences. You decide. Change of heart? You can always publish your privately shared stories when you seek larger audience.
Personal Profile. Showbeyond is community oriented. Create a personal profile and allow your audience to get to know you. Reach new audiences and share experiences.
Collect, discuss and share. Collect your favorite stories, and share and discuss them with your Showbeyond friends and fans.
Story search. Showbeyond stories can be easily found by author’s names, keywords and tags.

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

Wakerupper is an experimental service that aims to make telephone alerting free

What Company Is Offering:

Wakerupper is an experimental service that aims to make telephone alerting free and as easy as possible. No more need to pay a wakeup call service up to 6 dollars to arrange a one-time wakeup call. Just enter the number of the phone you would like to be called on, the time you want to receive the call, your email address, and an optional 140-character reminder message and you will receive a call from Wakerupper at the time you have specified. Completely free of charge.

How It Will Be Helpful:

Set a wake-up call at a specific time.
Remind yourself of important events.
Remember to take medication on time.
Escape from a boring date or meeting.
Remind child or spouse to do chores.
Tell someone that you love them.
Wakerupper doesn’t charge you a thing for basic telephone alert calls. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

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

CollectZing is the site for collectors, young and old, dabbling and passionate

What Company Is Offering:
CollectZing is the site for collectors, young and old, dabbling and passionate.
They want to be the best web site where you can Manage, Share and Trade your Collectibles.

How It Works:

Manage 1. Easily create and organize catalogs of your collectibles, and store important information about them.
collectZing benefits all types of collectors – new collectors can learn from more experienced ones, join the community and make long-term friendships, and easily maintain a catalog of all their new purchases and finds. More obsessive collectors can benefit from the detailed object descriptions, which can be used to maintain financial and insurance information, track loans, trades and sale information.

You can upload images, and collectible details, all with a few clicks of your mouse!

Share 2. Connect with other collectors, and explore and share each others' collections and collectibles.
Once you’ve seen someone you want to meet, you can invite them to be your friend. Got a group of collector friends? Why not create a Collector Club, where you can chat in forums, and talk about what really matters!

Have you ever had to cancel a meeting of your local collector club because no one could get to it? No worries! Now you can create your own online club without leaving home! Want to post some important news? Write it in the forums. Have a personal blog? Why not import the posts into your club? Half the fun of collecting stuff is sharing it with other people – at collectZing, you can share everything!

Trade 3. Buy, Sell and Swap your Collectibles in the collectZing Marketplace for Free.
If you’re tired of wading through countless irrelevant auction listings for everything from alien duck x-rays to D-list celebrities’ belly button lint, then the collectZing Marketplace is for you. The collectZing Marketplace is an online trading exchange where collectors can buy, and swap their collectibles, with no fees or costs during the beta period.

Members can list their items for sale with a range of different payment options, including collectZing’s own virtual currency the ‘Zing’. Potential buyers can then browse and make offers on the items – including offering one of their own items for a swap as part of trade. The Marketplace is not auction based, sellers can choose to accept any of the offers meaning highest price is not necessarily guaranteed success.

How Is It Different:
Unlike auction web sites, collectZing tracks the provenance of the items traded in the Marketplace, helping to prevent fraud and substantially improving the historical information available about a collectible the next time it is offered for sale in the Marketplace.

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

UWIRE is a free membership organization for college media as well as the leading aggregator and distributor of student-generated content

What Company is Offering:
UWIRE is a free membership organization for college media as well as the leading aggregator and distributor of student-generated content. UWIRE currently gathers, edits, and re-distributes student-created content, culled from more than 800 student-run media outlets. UWIRE’s syndication partners include Yahoo!, The New York Times, LexisNexis, and parent company CBS.

How It Works:
UWIRE is currently revamping the company’s affiliate service and website, transforming itself from a flat newswire into a consumer-facing destination, featuring textual, photo, and video content, as well as a career platform for aspiring media professionals. The new UWIRE.com is dedicated to collaborative journalism, created by and for media’s next generation of talent – whom we affectionately call “The Content Generation.” Our goal is to capture the collective intelligence of these aspiring media professionals and offer visitors a place to discover refined, quality user-generated content.


In addition to developing its membership, UWIRE expanded its business model as well. This included the creation of their Press Release Service, a successful program that enables companies to efficiently deliver their message to student editors and receive coverage in college media. This service has benefited from their decade-long partnership with PR Newswire.

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