What it does
The decision by the US to greatly restrict the online gambling industry a couple of years ago generated shockwaves throughout this infant space and caused many sites to either go out of business or alter their business model. Pureplay, that claims to provide all the excitement of online Poker, without the risks of loosing money, is already a popular site that recently received another round of VC funding. Basic membership to the site is free and allows you to play to your hearts content and win great prizes without risking a dime. The more robust Premium account will set you back about 20 bucks a month but gives you access to more tournaments and higher payouts without ever having to bet the farm.
In their own words
“Play free Poker and win real cash. No entry fees, no deposits of any kind. Over 2.7 million paid out! No credit cards needed.”
Why it might be a killer
This site will increasingly appear to two large segments of the population: Those that wish to win big at the Poker table without risking it all, and those who want to be completely “over the table” and not infringe on any local laws when the play online.
Some questions
Will serious gamblers decide to switch to this site or is the potential payout not enough to persuade anyone other than the casual gambler join? When will they be releasing other casino games and will their model work with those games as well?
Updates
read full story of "Pureplay.com - Legal US Based Online Poker Site"
What it does
Twitter is certainly creating a lot of buzz at the moment both in online circles and even around the dinner table. This buzz, and the fact that Twitter’s API is open, has stimulated a huge number of developers to develop applications for Twitter. Rollthedice is one such application that will roll dice, play high card, flip a coin or generate a random number for you. Assuming you already have a Twitter account, using rollthedice is simple, just choose to follow rollthedice on Twitter and then send direct messages to it. Send the message “roll” and rollthedice rolls one 6-sided die for you and gives you the result. Send the message “flip” and rollthedice flips a coin for you or “random” and it will pick a random number between one and thirty.
In their own words
“Meet rollthedice. rollthedice is a twitter bot you can use to generate all sorts of random events. Some of the things you can do with rollthedice are: Roll Dice, Flip a coin, Deal cards, Generate a random number. More coming soon!”
Why it might be a killer
This could become a popular application on Twitter for those who often need a bit of help making a difficult decision. If the Magical Eight Ball from the ‘80s was a hit, rollthedice could become this decade’s random decision maker.
Some questions
Will people be interested in using this service? We all have a coin in our pocket and are for the most part capable of flipping it, so what new additions will rollthedice be “rolling” out to make this a more attractive solution?
Updates
read full story of "Jazzychad.net/rollthedice - Twitter Dice Rolling Bot"
What it does
Monkiri is a new Indian company that offers a tool that enables users to take quick screenshots of any webpage and share the shot in blog format. Simply download and install the browser plug-in for either Internet Explorer or Firefox and then start snapping away. Create a blog at Monkiri.com so that whenever you take a snapshot of something you can instantly share it with others, add comments and interact. Keep in mind that you are limited to sharing your snapshots and comments within the Monkiri blog that you’ve created and that you can’t currently export the shots to other environments. While not necessarily possessing the richest of accessories, Monkiri is quite possibly the easiest and quickest tool for taking snapshots and sharing with others.
In their own words
“Monkiri is a user friendly tool that enables a web user to have clippings of a webpage and comment on the same. Literally Monkiri means the Japanese art of paper cutting. Newspaper clippings are always a means amongst any knowledge enthusiasts to store a piece of information. In the web world Monkiri meets the same need. Monkiri lets one read and write blogs about any item published on a website.”
Why it might be a killer
Monkiri is very easy to use and this could make it an attractive option for those looking to share snapshots they’ve taken while surfing.
Some questions
Have they considered allowing users to export the snapshots that they’ve taken to other blogs or even to their desktop? Perhaps they could insert a tag or a footer advertisement within the snapshot to make sure that they get credit for the shot. Limiting people to the Monkiri environment is going to make it difficult for this to grow virally anytime soon.
Updates
read full story of "Monkiri.com - Online Snapshot Tool for Blogging"
What it does
Those of you who are conscious of what you eat will know that any packaged food you buy at the grocery store contains a Nutritional Information label. You may have also wondered why, up until now, there is not an online source for checking this information before you go shopping. Zeer.com has stepped in to fill the void by offering an easily searchable database of information about more than 114,000 food products which can also be rated and reviewed by users. These same reviews can be voted up and down in an attempt to ensure that the best and most accurate reviews stay at the top. Search by calories, nutrients, vitamins or ratings and join specific foot communities for example for those allergic to nuts.
In their own words
“Overwhelmed in the grocery store? We’ve all been there. With Zeer you can research products in advance, read reviews get nutritional info tailored to you and use our advanced product search tool to find exactly what you’re looking for.”
Why it might be a killer
Zeer is filling a big void and for that reason they should experience some significant traffic in the near future. Enabling people to search for the nutritional content of food online is a great service that will be appreciated by many.
Some questions
When will this service be available in mobile form? It would seem that people would love being able to search for this information and the reviews while actually in the grocery store. Have they considered also providing reviews and ratings of fresh foods or will they just be sticking to the packaged variety?
Updates
read full story of "Zeer.com - Review Site for Packaged Foods"
What it does
For those of you who love Karaoke but don’t necessarily enjoy the ambiance of a Karaoke bar, Karaokeplay allows you to sing to your hearts content without ever leaving the comfort of your home. All you need is a microphone to get started, and perhaps a bit of musical talent, and then simply search through the large database of songs and start singing. You can record your masterpieces and other users can listen to them and rate them. You can also set up your own profile where you can upload a picture and where your latest recordings will be posted. Others can check your profile and if you are good enough, you might find yourself with a following of groupies.
In their own words
“Welcome to our online karaoke system where you can start recording your own songs with your microphone. We offer a free service where people can play karaoke online. Simply start singing and our system will record your voice. Other visitors can rate your songs and comment.”
Why it might be a killer
Besides the obviously great feature of being able to sing Karaoke to your heart’s content, Karaokeplay could become a popular online community where talented vocalists can get noticed by recording their favorite hits.
Some questions
Have they thought about adding more features to the player to allow people to alter their recordings? It might be fun to be able to lower your voice a couple of octaves or speed the song up etcetera…
Updates
What it does
If you are looking for a great place to play Flash games, then check out Nonoba which is one of the best sites around. Sporting a huge database of games, a user chat function, reviews, comments, and a social network, Nonoba is as robust as they come. One of the most interesting features of the Nonoba site is the “Labs” section which offers a visual representation of what people are doing on the site and when new games have been uploaded. The visual representation consists of circles which are larger when more people are currently in that given location. Think of this as an intelligent top ten list where you can actually see in real time what is really generating the most buzz. Of course, if your main interest is just playing games, Nonoba does that rather well too.
In their own words
“Nonoba is a gaming community where you can play games with your friends and compete for scores and honor. You can chat and discuss and rate the various games with other players. Nonoba is also a community for flash developers where you can upload your games so that others can play them and rate them and share them. You can get together with other developers and discuss and share ideas and tips and tricks about developing games.”
Why it might be a killer
With a great selection of games that is constantly increasing due to a rev share program, Nonoba is a great place to play. The “labs” feature Nonoba stand apart from the rest of the competition as well.
Some questions
Are they going to be increasing their bandwidth? Testing showed the “labs” section to be a bit slow due to high traffic.
Updates
What it does
Source-movies is a site where users are able to upload movies that they have made while playing their favorite video games. If you are not a gamer, then you probably won’t understand why someone would want to watch movies made of people playing computer games but there is actually some fun-to-watch content here. Basically, fans of games like Counter Strike and other first-person shooters make movies by taking various clippings from games that they have played and reorganizing them to make a story. This site has a huge number of movies and users can comment or review the movie and thereby add feedback. To upload a game video, simply sign up, get creative and upload the fruits of your labor.
In their own words
“Welcome to Source-Movies V2, ajaX has been working non stop to get the site fixed and bug free (we hope) We hope that you enjoy the new site because there are so many more new features that are going to be introduced over the next few weeks!”
Why it might be a killer
This site will only appeal to hard-core gamers but there are certainly enough of them in the world to make this site a success. With original content, a great player and well-categorized videos, this should become popular with gamers around the world.
Some questions
Will enough people be interested in watching videos of other people playing video games? Perhaps they could consider also incorporating games into the site so that people can play as well.
Updates
read full story of "Source-movies.co.uk - High Quality Gaming Media"
What it does
OnStagePortal is an online project management solution that allows for easy group collaboration on all project tasks. Share documents and track changes, preserve and organize important correspondence, coordinate calendars, assign project tasks, monitor progress, streamline customer communication and customize the dashboard to preserve your company’s brand. OnStagePortal is available as a free advertising supported solution or as a well-priced version without advertising. Upload and share large files that are not easily emailed and track a project’s evolution from start to finish from your computer or mobile device.
In their own words
“OnStage is an online workspace, collaboration, and project management tool. It is a simple tool for complex ends.”
Why it might be a killer
The availability of an advertising-supported free model could help to encourage early adoption of Onstage as companies can try it out with no strings attached. This advantage, coupled with a rather robust array of features, could make Onstage a real player in the online collaboration and project management space.
Some questions
Have they considered developing an online interactive spread sheet like the one offered by Google? A nice addition would also be the ability to manage each employee’s time with their rate of pay to be able to generate instant project cost projections.
Updates
read full story of "Onstageportal.com - Online Project Management Solution"
What it does
Recently redesigned CookAdvice is a nice looking recipe site with a large database of recipes and photos. Users are able to comment on already existing recipes or add their own recipe making this a constantly growing culinary site. Also included is a forums section where people can share best practices or ask questions and a blog section for sharing photos and ideas. Search by keyword, ingredients, preparation, course, cuisine, occasion, dietary or special food type and get rapid, accurate results. There are also sections for cooking tips, step-by-step instructions, and a dictionary for looking up unfamiliar cooking terms and products. Lastly, CookAdvice also provides you with a conversion tool in case you are unsure of how to convert pounds to kilograms etcetera.
In their own words
“This is a web2.0 recipe collection. So, this site contains a lot of recipes, grouped by different categories, such as ingredients, cuisines, courses, dietary & special occasions recipes. There are special step-by-step photo-recipes and video-recipes with detailed clear descriptions which make a process of cooking easy and understandable. Also we hope you will find useful our culinary dictionary and features for conversing measurements. All recipes can be rated and commented.”
Why it might be a killer
People will like the impressive number of recipes, intelligent searching options and the ability to be able to interact and share with other cooks around the world.
Some questions
Perhaps they could consider allowing users to vote on their favorite recipe by food type? This would encourage more user participation while at the same time allowing for self-regulation of the recipes.
Updates
read full story of "Cookadvice.com - Recipes, Tips and Dictionary 2.0"
What it does
Currently only serving the Portland, Oregon area, but with plans to expand to other American cities in the near future, GreenRenter is an online directory of “green” or environmentally conscious commercial and residential property. GreenRenter helps potential tenants find properties that meet their environmental requirements and it is fast and free for owners to post their green properties on GreenRenter. GreenRenter is quite inclusive when it comes to who can list their property and in order to be considered green, you just have to show that it has at least one green feature in any of the following seven categories: energy, water, building materials, operations, building surroundings, certifications and awards, or other innovative green features.
In their own words
“With GreenRenter you can: Find a green place to live or work, discover green buildings in your neighborhood, get recognized for your sustainability efforts - add your green building in just a few minutes, advertise a green property for lease - listing is free and easy and learn about the sustainable features of leading green buildings”
Why it might be a killer
Environmentally conscious owners, buyers, renters and property managers should all be in favor of this site which helps to differentiate green from not-so-green. Look for this site to expand into other green-friendly cities in the near future.
Some questions
Have they considered trying to be a bit more stringent with who can and can’t list their property? As it stands right now, it almost appears as though they are willing to accept any listing which could end up damaging the sites reputation and utility. Perhaps they could come up with a rating system check list so that the greener the building is, the more exposure it garners.
Updates
read full story of "Greenrenter.com - Find a Green Place to Live or Work"