One of my favorites sites is Mashable and one the best things it does is showcase new Web 2.0 startups. Many of us remember the dot.com boom of the late 90’s to early 2001. There was a plethora (a favorite word…I love using it) of new, wacky sounding businesses who were given ungodly amounts of capital to execute highly dubious business plans.
Well, those days are back. A recent scan of Mashable reveals this latest group of thirteen lucky future flame-outs:
1. TickerHound – It should help investors lose money faster by “educating and empowering individual investors.” The educators can be either an expert or a crackpot. Oh well, I’d rather pick stocks using a dartboard.
2. Bizak – A business network which “computes the profitability and valuation of internet startups” (ie. the blind leading the blind). Are they serious? Everything looks good on paper. I guess they make it look even better.
3. BzzAgent – Launched the “frogpond”, the “leading word-of-mouth” media network. In the frogpond, if you find a frog you love, then “it’s time to Ribbit and share your opinion of it to spread the word. How far can you make your Frog hop?”
4. Cafemom – “A place for Moms.” Groups include “Unperfect Stay at Home Moms”, “WebMD Rejects” and “Hot Moms Photo Lounge.”
5. Oodle – Classified ad aggregator. Ho hum. I searched for a used refrigerator in Cleveland. It returned a few refrigerators but also something called Gaudy Bling Fridge Jewel Magnets. Oh yeah!
6. BinTube – This startup is indexing 3.2 billion UseNet posts. They have a snazzy media player for guess what? To download the millions of mp3 files and porno pictures stuffed throughout UseNet.
7. Bountii – A price comparison search engine. It supposedly can find the best deal with “fewer but deeper results.”
8. Dorble – “Did someone say free music?” This looks like another Seeqpod attempt. Please, people, support the artist and just buy the tunes!
9. iGliss – An interesting “mix, sync and share your media” service that will turn into a copyright protection nightmare. If you are into showing your friends the latest ha-ha video from YouTube or picture of Britney’s latest tantrum before anyone else then this might be the place for you.
10. Talkshoe – Social network-like using phone conference calls. My favorite? Positively Pittsburgh Live hosted by TechnoGranny. This show makes me feel much better that I’m from Cleveland!
11. Meebo – Where you can “chat with your buddies on every major IM network in a single buddylist.” Geesh, how do some people spend their lives? Do they ever go to work? You know the revolution will not be televised nor SMS-ed. It will be live and the twitterers and the IM-ers won’t know until the Internet goes dead.
12. Weardrobe – This is the place “to share your clothing and personal style with your friends.” O.K. let’s see. Eight pairs of Dockers, a dozen LandsEnds shirts, four sweater vests. I think that’s about it.
13. BooRah – Restaurant reviews but doesn’t include Ohio cities. Humph!
What’s my vote for winners or losers from this group? Winners: Bountii, and TalkShoe. Losers: WearDrobe, BzzAgent. The rest? Who knows? All it takes is another hyped-up valuation and round of funding to keep these things going.
Would you like to learn more? You may:
- Fill out our information request form.
- Review information found on our Web site.
- Or contact me directly at 216-674-1600 x 118
Tags: bintube • bizak • boorah • bountii • bzzagent • cafemom • dorble • dot.com • flame outs • igliss • mashable • meebo • oodle • start-ups • talkshoe • tickerhound • weardrobe • web 2.0
Copyright © 2008 by IdeaStar. All rights reserved.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Dear Jim,
I just read your article. Good stuff. I thought it was funny (and in the often dry world of business writing I appreciate the humor).
I must say though that I think you have http://www.TickerHound.com figured wrong.
I don’t visit the website directly often but I can say they provide a valuable service to us here at The Tycoon Report.
We incorporate their Question and Answer box directly into our website (www.thetycoonreport.com) and our readers seem to like it – dozens of people who use it to ask finance related questions every day.
(I also know that another firm, http://www.optionszone.com, has recently incorporated the TickerHound Widget into their site. Not sure if they see the level of engagement we see but they did think it valuable enough to try it).
Who knows whether TickerHound has long-term staying power? But as an actual client of theirs I’ve been pretty happy with them.
And that’s gotta account for something!
Cheers!
Dylan Jovine
CEO
The Tycoon Report