The Merry Go-Round Up

I know you’ve missed us and you’ve been chomping at the digital-bit, so once again it’s time for The Round-Up! Just in case you haven’t picked up on it, we’re publishing The Round-Up every other week now. The Round Up is our way of letting you, The Digital Influentials group, know about the coolest, most innovative, most interesting companies we’ve run across over the last 14 days. In our travels as a Marketing Capital Firm at Catalyst:SF, we get to meet some interesting people with ideas on new products and services and this week was no different. Let’s jump right into it, shall we?

There’s definitely a trend towards simplifying the consumer’s day. Sites like NetVibes and iGoogle are taking personalized homepages into the future but we know you’re already aware of them. What about PageOnce (www.pageonce.com)? PageOnce has gone a step further and created a tool for aggregating together your favorite destinations and password protected sites into one customizable page. It’s convenient and it’s pretty easy. I’m not too sure what the business model here is for generating revenue, but I can guess that the data they’re amassing will be valuable to someone!

BuzzLogic (www.buzzlogic.com) is another company we ran across this week. It’s another tool/service for identifying what’s going on in social media and since no-one has really figured out how to make money in social media yet, it makes sense that a number of companies would be working towards this common goal. I like the management team and I like what I’ve seen thus far. They focus their efforts against “Conversation Targeting”, so check out their site and see what you think.

AdReady (www.adready.com) is another company professing to give its customers a way to quickly and easily build templatized online ads. I recently wrote an article in Mediapost about how in the age-old battle between Art and Science in advertising, it appears that Science is winning (to read the article check out this looong URL at http://treffiletti.blogspot.com/2008/05/art-vs-science-science-is-winning.html). I wish Art would come back, but for many direct response marketers, these sorts of tools are extremely valuable because it’s all about the offer for them. There’s definitely a place for these kinds of companies and AdReady will have a spot there.

Have you been dying for a new Search Engine strategy? Then look no further than Surchur (www.surchur.com). Search is a battle that was won, but may yet be fought again. Google is still the 800 pound gorilla in the room, but companies like SearchMe (www.searchme.com) and Surchur are coming up with some new and exciting ways to provide results to consumers. I’m sure Google will change at some point, but in the meantime this is a great place to gather information. I typed in “pearl jam” like I do in every other search engine and I liked what I got!

What if you’re only searching for information that you’d find in the classifieds? What if you’re looking for a car, a vacation rental, or a new home? Well, if any of these suit your needs then check out Vast (www.vast.com). It certainly ain’t sexy, but it’s effective. They’re focusing their attention on a small, yet efficient, portion of the net and this might be a great business model for them!

On a more casual, fun note, check out Super Hero Hype (www.superherohype.com). With the world of comic books becoming such an important feeding ground for Hollywood, it’s no wonder that a site featuring movie news on comic books and graphic novels is growing! Its part of Crave Online and I visit it every day, so maybe that makes me a geek. Who knew!

And just in case you didn’t have your fill yet, I wanted to leave you one of our own. A long time ago in a city far, far away a great Media Professional told me something. He said that if you want to be great in marketing, learn all you can about popular culture. You need to see what the masses are doing and you need to read what the masses are reading (if they read). To that end, we’ve been running a new blog that highlights the best of the best in popular culture! From videos to articles, you can find it at the Culture Catalyst Blog (http://culturecatalyst.blogspot.com/). Bookmark it and see what everyone else is seeing!

Thanks again for your time and please don’t forget to let us what you think!

Thanks!