What it does

Out For A Ride is a social network for bicycle aficionados that allows them to connect with each other when they aren’t out on the road. Along with allowing bikers to connect and plan biking dates together, the site also has an extensive user profile that amongst other things, allows users to add their bikes, gear, routes, rides and stats. The Bikes section of the profile allows users to add all of the bikes that they own, review them, and keep track of how many miles they have ridden on each one. The Routes section allows riders to map their routes, share with others, and view elevation maps of their routes. The Rides section allows riders to track their rides and routes and also which bicycle they used. Finally, the Stats area allows you and others to view detailed stats about rides, bikes, and routes completed.

In their own words

“Out For A Ride is a brand new social networking website for bicycling enthusiasts and the casual biker. Out For a Ride is owned and operated by Teevio LLC, a small, but potent, design company located in the heart of Boston.”

Why it might be a killer

The great profile options explained above make this a very well thought out social network for bicyclists. Instead of just developing a page that allows bikers to connect, the folks at Teevio have correctly assumed that bicyclists will need more incentive to sign up and that the addition of maps, and the ability to keep track of miles will make this more of an attractive option.

Some questions

Have they considered adding an area of the page that compares the number of miles ridden by each rider each week or a more formal section where specific cities can plan organized rides amongst site members? Perhaps they could sell branded clothing to increase awareness of the site?

Updates


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What it does

Do you have a green thumb? Want to share your gardening expertise with fellow plant lovers? Grows on You is a community for gardeners where they can share their gardening tips and learn from other community members. Grows on You has many fun features for gardeners. Gardeners can catalogue their plants and see if other users have the same plants in their garden. To accompany your garden catalogue users can upload photos of their garden. There is a garden blog feature where users can document their garden news and experiences. If you are having difficulty with a specific plant or you need some advice on fertilizer you can get advice from fellow gardeners. Grows on You is a community where gardeners can share and learn. The photos make the site a pleasant place to visit and the features really give users a great way to communicate and learn. Users can give a description of photos and other users can comment on them. Learn more about plants and make new friends at GrowsonYou.com.

In their own words

"Grows on You is a new way for gardeners of all abilities to support and inspire each other by sharing their gardening lives - and it's completely free!

As a member you can ask questions of other members and even add a photo to help explain your question. You also get your own plot to display your photographs, tell us what you're growing, and write about what's happening in your garden. Because we're all about sharing, you can take a look around everyone else's plot too!"

Why it might be a killer

Grows on You is a fun site for gardeners. The site offers great features for users to document their gardens as well as learn more about gardening. The photos are truly breath taking and the community can really get involved by commenting on other users content. The garden blog is a good idea and allows users to express themselves and document their experiences.

Some questions

It would be great if Grows on You included video media as well such as how to gardening videos. Grows on You could add groups for users that focused on specific plants and/or planting techniques.

Updates


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What it does

estatpropi.cat is a site dedicated to supporting the campaign of making a separate state for the Catalan Countries. estatpropi.cat is supported by many bloggers who want to see how many people believe that Catalan should be its own independent state. Many of the bloggers who support the independence of Catalan decided they want a way to see the support visually. estatpropi.cat allows blogger to have this visual proof of supporters. “Let’s join the map for an Own State” allows anyone to support the campaign. The Google map has many flags which represent areas of Catalan population. When you click on a flag you can see the name of the town, the percentage of the population that is Catalan and its absolute and relative ranking. You can zoom in on the map and see the areas more clearly. estatpropi.cat has other features besides the map such as a statistics and news section. Learn more about the Catalan independence campaign by visiting estatpropi.cat.

In their own words

"Estatpropi is working to fit in as many people as possible. Even if you are not Catalan, but an internationalist, and you want to support the creation of the Catalan Countries' own state, we recommend you to return later and visit EstatPropi.cat again. Therefore, you will be able to join the map."

Why it might be a killer

estatpropi.cat is very eye catching, when you visit the site you are automatically curious to see what the site is about. estatpropi.cat is available in four languages which helps it appeal to an international community. It is great that the site includes information and news about the campaign so that users visiting the site can educate themselves on the facts and history of the campaign.

Some questions

estatpropi.cat could use more media such as videos or even articles on the campaign. A timeline with important dates and movements during the campaign would be a great feature.

Updates


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What it does

As the “Green” movement gains strength all over the world, it continues to expand into new sectors. Now, AllGreenWedding.com looks to tap into the movement by offering brides and grooms-to-be with a way to make their gift registry more environmentally friendly. Having gifts shipped cross-country wastes a lot of fuel and packaging materials, so a key feature of AllGreenWedding.com’s registries is that wedding guests can choose a specific gift but have AllGreenWedding send the newlyweds a check for the item’s price, so that it can be bought locally. A couple can also choose to register their favorite environmental charities, giving guests the option of making a donation in lieu of giving a wedding gift. With the partial-purchase program, couples can register for expensive gifts and their guests can opt to buy just a portion of it.

In their own words

"Why waste energy getting gifts delivered cross country. Use our cash gift feature to save energy and wasteful packaging. We'll send you a check and you can pick up the gift locally. Or if you are so inclined, register a donation to your favorite charity and send them the contribution collected."

Why it might be a killer

Green conscious brides and grooms-to-be will surely take a liking to this site. Not only does it offer the environmentally conscious options like buying gifts locally, but All Green Wedding also features a lot of retailers known for being environmentally friendly. The partial-purchase program is useful beyond any environmental factors, since it will help couples to register for gifts too expensive to expect one guest to purchase.

Some questions

Are there already too many other sites offering a very similar service? Are some guests going to resist the idea of sending money or a check to a couple, or would they rather give a physical gift?

Updates


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What it does

If you are looking for a site where you can watch all of your favorite music artists’ videos, look no further than Jukebo.es. Jukebo is a site that contains all of your favorite music videos from your favorite music artists. When you visit the homepage you will see a featured music video along with other popular music videos. Jukebo has everything from Kanye West to Enrique Iglesias. You can look for videos by browsing through the music categories which include all music genres from pop to easy listening to rap. When you choose a category there will be a list of videos. If you know exactly what you are looking for you can put the name of the artist in the search engine and a list of albums will appear along with interviews, mixes and live performances. You can create your own playlist of your favorite music videos which you can listen to at any time. Jukebo also allows users to post videos and propose new artists. Users can also express themselves by leaving comments about certain videos. Get great music and join a fun community by visiting Jukebo.es.

In their own words

"Jukebo is The Music Web TV that contains the most music videos on the web.




Find on Jukebo, the best music videos and news from your favourite artists, organized by artist name and video format: music video, live music, TV shows, news and Interviews. On Jukebo's Homepage find the new videos and video hits. You can search a title or an artist among near to 100.000 music videos and access directly to the music channel of the artist containing its news, hits and list of all available titles."

Why it might be a killer

It is great that Jukebo.com is available in three languages, English, Spanish, and French so that it can have an international community. Jukebo.com has many categories to browse through so finding your favorite artist or video is very easy. It’s great that you can choose an artist and proceed to watch all of their videos; Jukebo.com really gives users a large selection to choose from. The playlist feature is also great because you can collect all of your favorite songs and videos in one place.

Some questions

There are many sites that feature music videos and information on music artists. How will Jukebo.com deal with competition from similar sites? Maybe Jukebo could offer prizes or discounts for concerts for users.

Updates


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What it does

Crocs, the maker of those hideous but ever so comfortable, hole filled shoes have now launched a video network. The aptly named site, CitiesByFoot, focuses on travel, namely walking tours. For each destination, you’ll find highlights, places to eat and stay and places to shop (for new shoes). These are categorized under eat, shop and play. The videos offer quick tours of popular destinations. Usually, there will be links displayed so you can get more information about the place. Each city also features a handful of photos which can be printed and sent to friends. At the moment, Croc’s video travel site only features six destinations in the USA: Aspen, Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Francisco and Vail. While you’re browsing locales, you can also check for deals(most of this section has yet to be filled up, however). You can also shop for some comfy Croc shoes at the same time—they actually have quite a variety of feet friendly goods on hand.

In their own words

“Welcome to Cities By Foot, the one-stop travel site that gives you the lowdown on some of the world’s best cities. Here you can discover truly unique places to eat, shop and play. And of course, the easiest way to explore each city is by foot.”

Why it might be a killer

The site has a truly clean and elegant design. As there’s still not a lot of content, each city gets plenty of room for itself. The visuals are truly appealing (which maybe surprising to some, considering the shoe). Croc’s travel guide is a great marketing strategy—it couples the comfort of their popular shoes, with down to earth, walkable destinations.

Some questions

Will the site tie in with more equipped travel sites to offer planning and booking tools? What about more user interaction? For instance, user submitted travel docs, in which everyone sports Croc mules.

Updates


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What it does

TinyURL made long and cumbersome URLs manageable by providing them with a short, or tiny, if you will, alias. So if you wanted to link to news articles, or forum postings, you could do so a lot easier with TinyURL’s help. It made things that much easier. So now we have a new development in the TinyURL world called Tinydb. Tinydb takes the same concept or making burly things more manageable, but instead of applying it to URLS, Tinydb applies it to data. The idea is to provide an API for reading and writing bits of data. This, in turn, serves as a platform for Twitter apps and javascript widgets to be written. The site includes detailed instructions and a web form to create your Tinydb. All data are stored as TinyURLs of course.

In their own words

“Jason labs.laan.com) and Kortina (kortina.net) built tinydb at appengine hackathon nyc after CC (also of labs.laan.com) wanted to send structured data along with a tinyurl.

tinydb.org's goals are:

1. Provide a simple API for writing and reading small chunks of data from anywhere.

2. Serve as a platform upon which twitter applications and javascript widgets can be written.

3. Circumvent crossdomain.xml in interesting and creative ways.”

Why it might be a killer

Tinydb is an innovative use of TinyURLs. It provides a way to write and distribute chunks of data that can be accessible from anywhere.

Some questions

Will Tinydb be as successful as TinyURL? What about hacking and bugs? Is it not susceptible to these?

Updates


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What it does

You’ve all heard of it, and you’ve probably experienced it too: the infamous Blue Screen of Death courtesy of a Windows computer on its deathbed. There are many ailments that affect PCs, from Trojan viruses slowly disabling your machine and making it part of a zombie army, harddrive ruptures, registry hiccups, and memory loss. If your PC is slowing down, you may want to think about some cures. A good defrag for example. Check out Quicksys’s tool RegDefrag for doing this. RegDefrag is freeware that will defrag your registry. It removes gaps and wasted space in your Windows registry files thereby optimizing its performance. With RegDefrag, you’ll get a faster, stronger machine, that doesn’t act so slow and sickly anymore. It simply requires a quick download and install to get going.

In their own words

“Quicksys RegDefrag is freeware utility to defrag registry. Registry data is constantly being written to and removed duringa normal Windows operation. Over time this data becomes fragmented. It optimized registry by removing gaps, fragments and wasted space in Windows registry files.”

Why it might be a killer

Tools to cleanup the all important registry is key in keeping a happy, running computer. RegDefrag is free and easy to use. It provides the necessary tune up a computer needs.

Some questions

Is RegDefrag better than other freeware tools that do the same thing? Will it freeze up your system? Does it actually enhance performance?

Updates


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What it does

iCue is an innovative learning environment that harnesses the power of the NBC News archives to bring cutting edge learning materials to all. Think of iCue as the educational arm of NBC News that is dedicated to providing resources for students of all ages and to teachers as well. This collaborative learning community incorporates gaming, discussion, and video resources in a safe, student-friendly online environment. Teachers can also download lesson plan ideas and primary source materials to develop the most interesting and information-filled classes possible. Students can connect to a community of friends and fellow learners and share, discuss and support one another through the iCue Friends Network and Discussion Forums.

In their own words

“A fun, innovative learning environment build around video from the NBC News Archives. Videos, games, and activities correlated to courses in U.S. History, U.S. Government and Politics, and English Language and Composition, and more. A community of friends and learners engaged in discussion around academics, current, events and important issues”

Why it might be a killer

This is a potentially Killer Startup primarily due to the backing it has of NBC. NBC has a huge archive of searchable video material and iCue uses it to make better classes—sounds like a winner to me.

Some questions

Will this spur the other major networks to develop similar education tools and could this cause a real shift in the e-learning industry?

Updates


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What it does

ImiCaToo is German for calendar. Actually, it’s a cute techno speak abbreviation that stands for IMIS Calendar Tool. And no, IMIS isn’t some secret project for German world domination. IMIS is rather another abbreviation short for the Institute for Multimedia and Interactive Systems at the University of Luebeck. And apropos to a multimedia institute, they’ve created a date planner. So if you need to set up a meeting to discuss some important matters, but need to work around, say the busy lives of professors, ImiCaToo will help. You give ImiCaToo the details: possible dates, and the email addresses of whom you want to invite. ImiCaToo will do the rest. They don’t need to sign up to use ImiCaToo, and all you do is include an email address.

In their own words

“ImiCaToo is a web serivce for scheduling meetings with the paticipants collaborativley. If you invite your participants to a meeting you don't have to worry if they have a special software. They just need a recent browser. Even an ImiCaToo account is not needed. All you need to invite someone is his email address.”

Why it might be a killer

ImiCaToo is a nice little tool for scheduling appointments, conferences, and meetings. Unlike similar tools, the interface is slick and attractive and not everyone needs an account to participate.

Some questions

Is ImiCaToo’s association with the University of Luebeck limiting? Will it’s only real use come from professors and possibly students there? It has plenty of competitors, what makes this one better?

Updates


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