What it does

Fortunately, missing children aren’t simply relegated to milk cartons and post offices any longer. In the age of hi-tech, 24-7 news, and amber alerts, missing children are made instantly knowable by the size shoe they wore and what they ate for dinner. Despite the technological gains, we all know that many times that isn’t enough, that a shoe or a food stain won’t find a child alone. Enter InstantAmber. InstantAmber is aimed at parents and is marketed as the next logical step in protecting your child. It wants you to be prepared in case, God forbid, your child gets kidnapped. Think of InstantAmber as a vault full of your child’s intimate life details from birth to college and beyond. Should a child go missing, InstantAmber’s data vaults can be opened and the information would be provided to law enforcement. There is an annual expense but, it’s minimal considering the stakes.

In their own words

“InstantAmber is a new concept in the fight against missing children. With the InstantAmber system, you can feel confident knowing that if the unthinkable happens, your child goes missing, the vital information you will need to provide law enforcement officers to issue the local and national AMBER ALERT is instantaneously retrievable!”

Why it might be a killer

InstantAmber is an easy way to provide police with access to valuable information about your child should they go missing. There’s no need for law enforcement to waste time and money, instead they can use the InstantAmber data to their advantage.

Some questions

Is InstantAmber necessary? These days pictures, phone numbers, and other relevant information is web accessible. What about privacy laws? Especially as the child grows into college and beyond.

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What it does

Sendloop is a new entry to the email campaign market that promises to provide the easiest and most professional newsletter sending service at a good price. With free customizable templates, a spam tester, detailed “opened and clicked” statistics and unlimited list divisions, Sendloop provides everything required to run a successful email campaign. Signing up is free and allows you to set up an unlimited number of users, you just pay a fixed cost of 1 cent per sent email. You can sign up, upload your contacts and be ready to send your first blast within minutes, making Sendloop a quick and easy way to maximize the potential of your mailing lists.

In their own words

“Sendloop started on February 2008 due to the need for a powerful yet easy to use email marketing and email sending service in the market. Sendloop includes all professional features that you will need for your email marketing campaign combined with a very easy to use interface. In just a few minutes, you will get your account up and ready to send your first email campaign.”

Why it might be a killer

Due to the ease of use and easy to understand pricing, Sendloop could become the email campaign manager of choice for people with small lists that want to send out the occasional newsletter.

Some questions

This market is already saturated and it is doubtful that Sendloop will be able to gain significant traction amongst mid to large size companies with multiple lists. Are they currently developing tools that will help them to differentiate themselves like CRM integration? There just does not seem to be anything original enough in Sendloop that will allow them to succeed in this already well-established market.

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What it does

Market Guru is an investor community that helps you to create the best portfolio based on your investment philosophy and the risk level that you are willing to assume. All of the site’s members are categorized according to the risk levels of their portfolios and are ranked by their performance. Think of this as a tool that allows you to follow what other investors with similar risk levels are doing, and make portfolio decisions based on the track records of these same users. As an added bonus, MarketGuru pays 50% of the revenue it generates from premium account sales to any user who has a follower—the better you are, the more followers you’ll have and the more money you will make. This feature should also help to ensure that more experienced investors join up with the extra cash incentive provided.

In their own words

“MARKETGURU is a financial community where members can become Gurus and be rewarded financially for investment excellence. Share investment ideas in a community where members are ranked by their peers.”

Why it might be a killer

This seems like an ideal way for both experienced and inexperienced investors to make better portfolio decisions by tracking what others are doing and what has made them successful. The addition of a payout, should encourage experienced investors to join the community and share their experience.

Some questions

Will the money paid out by Marketguru be significant enough to attract successful investors to this community or will this become a site where the blind are leading the blind? The idea is great but it is still too early to tell whether they will be successful in attracting the all important experts to make this site a success.

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What it does

Giftventure is an innovative idea that allows you to turn every gift into a treasure hunting experience for your children. Simply go to Giftventure.com, sign up, and then answer a series of questions like “where is the gift hidden” and “who is your child’s hero?” and gift venture will take care of preparing the hunt for you. They will develop a series of puzzles, games, and clues that will allow your child to learn and have fun while they look for their present. Clues will be sent in the mail and will come from your child’s hero or from whomever you chose, allowing them to learn, imagine, and have fun. With Giftventure, you are able to turn an ordinary gift into an extended and fun learning experience.

In their own words

“Take 5 minutes and turn an ordinary gift into an adventure! Giftventure is a personalized treasure hunt for children that comes in the mail. With your answers to a few simple questions, we create a magical combination of stories, puzzles and games that are written by a fantasy character leading a child to a gift you've hidden. When the gift is discovered, it is no longer just a present; it is a well-deserved reward at the end of an exciting and educational journey!”

Why it might be a killer

Everyone loves a treasure hunt and Giftventure appears to be the only company in the children’s gift space offering this type of service. Parents will love being able to have the clues written by Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and children will love the mystery.

Some questions

This is a wonderful idea and there is no doubt that it offers a real-value added service, but will parents want to fork out the approximately $18 required? Giftventure also takes time to play out, so it will not be a useful resource for the last-minute shopper.

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What it does

Dadlabs is the ultimate resource for today’s modern fathers and is full of parenting and spousal advice. The site has close to three-hundred videos with topics ranging from “The Pregnant Man, from Conception to Delivery” to “To Pee or not to Pee in the Pool”. The shows have a certain degree of humor, making them more palatable to the average man, but also deal with some very important issues. Videos can be viewed at dadlabs.com and can also be searched for on a variety of other video sites like YouTube. Far from being only a video site, Dadlabs also has a forum where dads can go to discuss specific problems regarding fatherhood, a blog, and a store.

In their own words

“An edgy, fun and informative show for dads and the women who tolerate and/or love them. Humorous tips and advice from dads on parenting, fatherhood, children, and coping with wives and mothers. Tune in as the Dads tackle the issues of today: from breast feeding in public to head lice to poop in the tub.”

Why it might be a killer

As families become increasingly egalitarian and the line between the role of the mother and the father continues to blur, fathers need a place to educate themselves quickly and share their experiences. The modern family has changed significantly over the last generation and fatherhood material needs updating. What better way to address this need than through on-demand videos?

Some questions

Will mixing humor with serious topics provide the best way for fathers to inform themselves or will this resource end up being another source to display stereotypical male behavior. It is difficult to say at this point whether Dadlabs wants to focus on being a fun site that people can go to for a laugh or a serious resource.

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What it does

Mylocator.com promises to radically alter the search engine space by cutting out middle men like Google and Yahoo. The Mylocator engine works by classifying over 1300 domain name categories and allowing searchers to first pick the category and then what they are looking for. The outcome should be more accurate search results from an engine that puts searchers directly in contact with what they are looking via vertical searching. To put it simply, Google and others search by scouring the internet for keywords that users search for and then spits out the results. Mylocator allows people to search through categories of domains that are networked bringing better results faster. The potential for increased revenues due to better targeted search results could also be enormous.

In their own words

“1300+ strategic vertical locator domain names. A multichannel network of locator engines for every subject. Pioneers of Strategic Vertical Locator Cluster Technology.”

Why it might be a killer

This technology could radically change the way that people search for things online. With the advent of social networking, a different type of integrative search is required, and perhaps Mylocator can fill that need.

Some questions

Will Mylocator be able to successfully persuade people to alter the way that they currently search? Will Google feel threatened enough by this technology to adopt something similar or buy the company?

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What it does

Admit it, Mac is ultimately cooler than PC. They’ve got the street cred, the ueber-hip and innovative, pretty products, ironic commercials with catchy indie tunes, and an obsessive cult following which may be slightly off-putting, but the rest of the package is perfectly polished. Advertising majors ought take note. That there’s a new social network dedicated exclusively to the Apple aficionado isn’t surprising. Under the not so original moniker, Net4Mac, this social network is so Mac, you actually have to own a Mac to download the application (sorry closet Mac fan confined to using Pc in that cubicle of yours). Once you’ve downloaded the app, establish your Mac-ness with a description of the Apple products you own as well as some details about you—job, location, passions, etc. Like other social networks, you can make new friends, find Mac users in your area, join groups, share photos, chat and all that good stuff. Because it’s downloadable, it’ll integrate with your Mac so you can do things like send invites using AddressBook, see how many new messages you have in your dock, or even add a pic using your web cam. Net4Mac is free for Macs and Macs only (sorry PC).

In their own words

“net4mac is a FREE social networking service built exclusively for Mac users.”

Why it might be a killer

Net4Mac provides a good opportunity for Mac fans to band together and enjoy their Macs together. The integration with your computer adds a nice touch and facilitates ease of use. If you seem to be the only Mac user around, it’ll certainly help you find others. You can share tips and advice, make friends, etc.

Some questions

Why make it a downloadable app that takes up harddrive? Why not have it browser accessible like other networks? Will Mac fans like the approach, or find it more of a hassle than anything?

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What it does

TV isn’t for suckers anymore. We have HBO to thank for this. Unfortunately, the death of the TV as we know it is coming in less than a year. So unless you’re saving up a stockpile of government coupons for analog converters, or investing in a new TV or higher cable bill, you may want to consider your good friend the PC for your entertainment needs. If you haven’t quite figured out the whole TV-on-the-nets deal, no problem--try Modern Feed, the latest tool in web programming. Instead of relying on machines and bots to choose content, Modern Feed has actual human curators hand-picking content from throughout the web. In other words, they’ll find the program you want to watch with the best quality and speed. So far they have 25,000 shows in their directory. You can subscribe to the shows you love (Lost, The Simpsons, Heros etc). Programs are indexed and easily searchable. You can also check what everyone else is watching, or view staff faves, or explore on your own. There’s even a handy designed-for-iPhone site for viewing pleasure direct from your iPhone.

In their own words

“The Modern Feed mission is clear: Make it simple. We do everything in our power to take all the technology guesswork out of finding and viewing amazing legal programming. We guide the Modern Feed viewer directly to the source, whether it is the network, distributor or destination that is offering the programming. We work overtime so that you can enjoy programming without thinking about the technology.”

Why it might be a killer

Modern Feed makes online TV watching a whole lot more pleasurable and easy to use. It’s use of humans vs machines to pick quality content provides the end user with a better product.

Some questions

Will user like the idea of using a directory? Or would they prefer all the content in one place for easy viewing? Will Modern Feed’s human approach prove a success?

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What it does

Cullensabcs.com offers free downloads of child education videos that are both entertaining and informative. There are two broad categories of videos at Cullensabcs. The first type of video can be fit into the category of “activity idea videos for adults”. Here, there are great tools that parents can use to watch and discover new activities to do with their children. There is a vast selection of videos in this category that parents can watch and then adapt the activities presented, to their child’s unique interests and developmental stage. The other types of videos are intended for children to watch interactively with their parents. These videos are interactive and are designed to stimulate child development and learning.

In their own words

“Child education videos that are entertaining are provided free by Cullen’s Abc’s. Caregivers, parents, grandparents, family, friends, babysitters, homeschoolers, daycare providers, and teachers of preschoolers, can take advantage of Cullen’s Abc’s videos in different ways.”

Why it might be a killer

This is a free resource for parents, teachers, caregivers and anyone else who spends time with children. With great activity ideas and fun videos with an educational value, this could be come a preferred database for many.

Some questions

While a free service such as this one is great, parents might be concerned about the business model. They are currently seeking advertising deals and targeting advertisements to such a young and impressionable audience may not make parents or caregivers happy.

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What it does

Digitalsmiths brings contextual advertising to online media content. Specifically, Digitalsmiths is the company behind VideoSense, a broadband video ad matching system. Think of it as targeted commercials for the online Tv watching crowd. The Digitalsmith goal is to give advertisers highly targeted ad space. So say, you’re watching the evening news segment about the increasing price of gas online. With VideoSense, advertisers could feed viewers suggestions. For instance, Shell could run an ad about their alternative fuels, while Ford could advertise the m great mileage and money saved on their latest fuel efficient car. Or, a local bus company could toot their horn about saving money and going green by taking the bus to work instead of a car. VideoSense has a number of revenue increasing opportunities because targeted ads work more efficiently than non-specific ads. Digitalsmiths’ offering to online advertising promises to make targeted ads easier through automated visual analysis and audio recognition. You make the ad and they’ll place the ads for you.

In their own words

“Digitalsmiths Corporation is the digital video search technology company behind VideoSense™, the first broadband video ad-matching system to integrate seamlessly with existing online ad networks. VideoSense™ has the potential to do for the online video advertising marketplace what Google did for the performance-based Internet search industry.”

Why it might be a killer

Digitalsmiths has a good concept. Online ads have worked tremendously for Google and the next path in media content. People already used to commercial on TV, so advertising while watching TV online should work just as well if not better because it’s more user specific.

Some questions

Can Digitalsmiths beat the competition? Will their ad matching system prove effective, or will users tune out?

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