Venture Capital Firms

A new and unique service has appeared in the internet industry. Plaxo is the latest in internet innovation, claiming to organize your appointments, calendar, and even help you link together all your accounts on the well known social networks, such as Flickr.com, YouTube, Digg, and others. Plaxo also offers downloads for your computer for both Windows and Mac users. These downloadable applications can automatically update your appointments to your iCal, for Mac users, Outlook Express, etc. To use Plaxo, you must sign up and it is free, because Plaxo generates its revenues with advertising.

Signing up for Plaxo is very easy. All you need to do is to type in your full name, your email address, and your password. Once you have typed in all your prompts, you will be prompted to confirm your email address. Theoretically, you should be able to do this from the Plaxo website by clicking on a hyperlink, but the hyperlink is obviously inactive. That is a bit inconvenient, but it is no problem, because you can get to your email and you will see an email from Plaxo asking you to confirm your email. Once you open this email, you will be prompted to click on a hyperlink that asks you to confirm your email. Once you have clicked on that link, you will be led right into your Plaxo account. You will be prompted to type in your friends which Plaxo gets automatically from your address book. Plaxo works with all the internet emails, such as Yahoo!, Gmail, and others. You also have the option to add your work email, if you choose to do so. Plaxo will then take you to your friends list, which it gathers from your email’s address book and you can select or deselect contacts if you wish to do so.

Once you have entered Plaxo, you can update your profile. You can upload your photograph, which is very easy to do. You can upload either jpeg, gif or png files. You can also update all your personal data, such as your religious and political views, your activities and interests, and your favorite movies and TV shows. You can also add your favorite books to your profile. Your profile also allows you to change your contact information and hide your birthday if you choose to do so.

If you click on the downloads link at the bottom of the page, you will find that Plaxo offers four different downloads and you can download either one for free. The first download is a toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express, which is great for those of you who use either one of these applications to access your email. This toolbar is also equipped with Pulse Integration.

The second download is a toolbar for Apple’s iCal application and it allows Plaxo to get everything up out of your iCal app and link it with your Plaxo account. This application is also equipped with Pulse Integration.

The third download that Plaxo offers is for Windows Mobile and is for Windows users. This app is designed to keep your Windows mobile phone in sync with your Plaxo account.

The fourth download is Pulse Notifier for Windows and this application is designed to alert you when your friends share videos, music, or messages on Pulse.

Plaxo is the brainchild of Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Both of these men are seasoned entrepreneurs and have both founded other successful companies before.

Besides being one of Plaxo’s cofounders, Mr. Masonis still works at Plaxo as the Vice President of Products and does all the lead user interface and windows design for the Plaxo website and apps as well. Before founding Plaxo, Mr. Masonis founded netElement and Natient Technologies. Plaxo is the third startup that Mr. Masonis participated in its founding.

Besides being the other cofounder of the company, Mr. Ring aslo works at Plaxo as the Chief Architect of Plaxo. Mr. Ring’s main duty at Plaxo is to oversee all the client side development at Plaxo, including the integration of the company’s software together with Outlook and Outlook Express. Mr. Ring also founded netElement together with Mr. Masonis.

Plaxo is based in Mountain View, California and is a privately owned company. Including the two above mentioned cofounders, Plaxo has nine people on its management team and six people on its board of directors.

Plaxo’s investors include Sequoia Capital, which invested $3.8 million in series A funding in 2002; Globespan Ventures, which invested $8.5 million in series B funding in 2003; Cisco, which invested $7 million in series C funding in 2004; and Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, which invested $9 million in series D funding in 2007.

Sequoia Capital is one of the largest global vc firms based in the United States and besides its main offices in the United States, Sequoia Capital also has offices in India, China, and Israel. Some of the companies in Sequoia’s Portfolio include Actona, Actuate, Agile, Aspect Development, Aster Data, Cast Iron Systems, Central Point, and others.

Plaxo does have a few competitors, one of which is its major competitor Linkedin. Linkedin offers a service similar to Plaxo, however, Plaxo’s downloadable apps give the company an upper edge in the market. Linkedin is also based in Mountain View, California and is a privately owned corporation that was founded in 2002 and has over 100 employees. Linkedin has 12 people on its management team and six people on its board of directors.

For more information about Plaxo, click here.

A year after Loopt was founded, a new company which offers services similar to Loopt’s has come out. Introducing Pelago, a company that advertises to remove all barriers to the access of information. Pelago mainly got its fame from its first product, Whrrl, which is a social network that has mixes in Google maps and blogs to create a unique social network that can allow you not only to locate your friends, but also allows you to have your blog as well.

When you open the Pelago homepage, you will not find any kind of sign up application, and unlike with Loopt, you do not need to worry whether you have the right phone and the right carrier. On the other hand, on Pelago’s homepage, you will find all kinds of blogs on Whrrl about different people and on different subjects. For example, the first blog on the website has a picture of a Cesna Airplane and the title reads, “Add Your Whirl Stories to Your Blog.” You can click on the picture and read the blog.

When you click on the photo, you will see the blog and a demo of how Whrrl works. Below the text you will see how the Whrrl widget actually looks like. Whrrl is basically a single story blog widget, which allows you to write a story on your blog and you can also upload photos. Look at the photo featured on the widget with the title “Hop, Skip, and a Jump Fly In,” and then click on the image. When you click on the image, you will go on Pelago’s Whrrl page, where you can either log on or sign in.

Signing up for Whrrl is very easy. You do not need to type in your cellphone number, like you do with Loopt. All you need to do is to type in your email address, your first and last names and a password and reconfirmation of password. Then at the bottom of the application you need to type in two encrypted words. You will then get an instant confirmation email that will ask you to click on a link that will confirm your email and that’s it, you are in.

Once you have logged onto Whrrl, you can send invites, get the Whrrl widget for your blog, and more. The Whrrl widget is a widget that is mainly designed for the iPhone. This widget is free and allows you to send your blogs onto iPhone users that have the Whrrl widget on their iPhone. With the Whrrl widget also allows you to do is to tell your story on the go and you can also use this widget to share your story as well. With Whrrl, you can also send your blog to other phones by sending text SMS messages.

How did Pelago get its name. Pelago got its name because it is actually part of the word “archipelago,” which is a chain of islands. The founders of Pelago came up with this name, because with the aim of what Pelago is doing is to be like a chain of islands. Pelago is not a chain of islands, however, it is a chain of information.

One of Pelago’s cofounders, Jeff Holden is still at the company as its CEO. Mr. Holden founded Pelago in early 2006 to develope unique and creative products that bring online information to the physical world. The first product of Pelago, Whrrl, is the brainchild of Mr. Holden and it was created to get user’s blog information to be off the computer, but also to the mobile phones or devices. The idea of being able to blog on the go, by using your iPhone or other cellphones is truly an innovative idea.

Before Mr. Holden founded Pelago, he worked at Amazon.com, where he held several key positions in the management. Some of the positions that Mr. Holden held at Amazon.com were Director of Supply Chain Optimization, where he led Amazon’s development, inventory, forecasting, ordering and purchasing transactions. Mr. Holden also held the position of Senior Vice President of Consumer Websites, Worldwide at Amazon, where he looked over every aspect of the company’s web design for all of Amazon’s websites globally. Mr. Holden graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS and an MS in Computer Science.

Pelago’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers or KPCB, which invested in the company in series A funding in 2006 together with Trilogy Equity Partners. This round of funding was $7.4 million. KPCB also participated in series B funding together with the T-Mobile Venture Fund, Trilogy Equity Partners, DAG Ventures, and Reliance Technology Ventures for a total of $15 million in 2008.

KPCB is a vc firm with a global presence with offices in the United States and China. KPCB is a vc firm that has a passion for the companies and entrepreneurs it has invested in. Besides gaining the financial support that entrepreneurs need to build their ideas into companies, but also much needed advice as well. The team at KPCB provides all of its portfolio companies with the resources needed to make it all happen. Some other companies in KPCB’s portfolio include 3V Biosciences, 3DV Systems, 3VR Security, 41st Parameter, AeroHive, and others.

Trilogy Equity Partners is a vc firm that has a primary focus on early stage companies. The industries of choice for Trilogy’s investments are the wireless, telecommunications, applications, and infrastructure industries. Trilogy usually joins in funding with other vc firms.

DAG Ventures is a partnership that seeks outstanding entrepreneurs with extraordinary ideas to invest in. DAG was founded in 1980, with the advent of Cable Television and it mainly focuses its investments in all sectors of the media, internet and telecommunications industries. Some companies in DAV’s portfolio include 3VR Security, AdBrite, Altra, Arresto, Birst, ClearTrip, BlueLane, and others.

Managed by T-Venture Fund, the T-Mobile Fund is the vc firm of T-Mobile, which is a major mobile service carrier in the United States and is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. The T-Mobile Fund mainly invests in companies that are of great interest to T-Mobile or its operations.

Founded in 2006, Reliance Technology Ventures is a vc firm that invests in companies which are in all sectors of the wireless, internet, and tech industries. Some other companies in Reliance’s portfolio include Dhama, Vanco, WaveWorld, Stoke, Eband Communications, Yatra.com, and others.

Pelago’s main competitor is Loopt, which is a company that provides cellphone users the ability to turn their cellphones into social compasses and allows users to find their friends locations with the use of Google maps. The difference with Loopt and Pelago is that Loopt requires you to have a cell phone and a carrier together with a cellphone service that supports Loopt. Pelago allows you to blog online from your computer and you do not need to have a certain cellphone or carrier for Pelago. Furthermore, like Loopt, Pelago also has an iPhone app which is for free and is available through the iPhone App Store.

For more information about Pelago, click here.

Based in Israel and founded in 2007, SimilarWeb is a service that allows you to have easy access to related information from the web. This is not like other services, where you have to sign up and have an account with similar web to be able to use its services. SimilarWeb has downloads that you can download onto your computer, however, its applications are not compatible with Macs, unless you have a Mac that has Parallels Desktop or another virtual machine that has Windows installed on it. The downloads from SimilarWeb work only with Windows XP or Vista.

The SimilarWeb Download is actually a toolbar that goes to your Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and retrieves all similar data to the data you are looking up on the web. There is also a SimilarWeb download that will work with Mozilla’s Firefox.

The SimilarWeb tool bar is like any of the other toolbars on your Internet Explorer. With SimilarWeb, you have the choice to view in either thumbnail, list, small icon, or you can even have it as a toolbar button. However you have it, it will do the same thing, find related information and give you the information that you are looking up.

SimilarWeb was the brainchild of several IT and internet industry veterans who are dedicated to helping people get the information they need on the web.

The internet has revolutionized our lives and because of the internet, we have access to even more information than ever before. Furthermore, now we will be seeing Web 2.0, which is even faster and capable to handle much more bandwidth, so there will be even more data available. SimilarWeb does not disclose who is on the management team.

There has been some coverage about SimilarWeb from the different press, covering the tech and internet industry.

According to TechCrunch, SimilarWeb is a new startup that is starting to get attention because the people at SimilarWeb have spent over two years mapping millions of websites and are still adding more daily. This allows the SimilarWeb browser to search a website that a user has logged onto and SimilarWeb will search sites with similar content and provide those sites to that user.

WebWare’s article dated January 30, 2009 raves that SimilarWeb is a downloadable program that can simplify your search. According to WebWare, the SimilarWeb software works fairly well and allows users to rearrange lists and also submit new sites to that list.

SimilarWeb does not disclose its investors or the amount of funding it has received.

SimilarWeb does have a few competitors, however the most noteworthy competitor is Yoono, which is a company that provides a service similar to the one that SimilarWeb provides. Yoono is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2005. Yoono is a privately owned company that employs 22 people and has five people on its management team.

For more information about SimilarWeb, click here.

Loopt is a unique company that can locate your friends from anywhere by the GPS coordinates on their phones. Loopt is supported only by US carriers and the carriers that support Loopt include Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Metro PCS, Nextel, Boost Mobile, and T-Mobile. Furthermore you cannot use Loopt with any phone, you must have a phone that is internet capable and 3G capable. Each carrier has different phones that support Loopt programs.

All of the different carriers and the phones that support Loopt mobile apps are listed below.

Verizon is the newest member to join the Loopt Family. Verizon is a mobile carrier with service throughout all fifty states of the United States, and has several phone brands and models available that support Loopt apps. Verizon supports Loopt on the Voyager, enV, VX9800, Dare, VX9400, enV2, Venus, VX8700, VX8600, Chocolate II, Chocolate, VX8350, and VX8300 from the LG product line. Verizon also supports Loopt from Motorola’s KRZR, RAZR V3c, RAZR V3m, SLVR, all RIZR models, RAZR Maxx Ve, RAZR2 V9m, and the V325i. Loopt is also available on Samsung’s A990, Flipshot, Alias u620, and the u550 with Verizon’s service. Verizon also supports Loopt on Casio’s G’zOne Type V and G’zOne Type S.

Another carrier that supports Loopt is AT&T which is the only carrier that supports Apple’s iPhone and yes, Loopt is supported on both the iPhone and the new iPhone 3G. Other phones that support Loopt with AT&T include all the Blackberry models, Motorola’s Z9N and RAZR2 V9n. AT&T also supports Loopt on Samsung’s Rugby, Propel, and Milky phones. Other phone brands and models that support Loopt with AT&T include the Nokia Tarpan, the Sony Erricsson Dylan, and both Pentech Matrix and Lena phones.

Sprint also supports Loopt with all the Blackberry phones with the exception of the Milky model, LG’s Musiq, Lotus, Fusic, LX400, Rumor, and the MM-535 phones. Sprint also supports Loopt on Motorola’s Buzz, Blend, KRZR, RAZR, Red RAZR, and RAZR2 phones. Loopt is also supported on a large variety of Samsung’s internet and 3G phones with Sprint’s service, and likewise most Sanyo 3G and internet phones can also support Loopt with Sprint.

Another new mobile carrier to have affiliations with Loopt is Metro PCS. Metro PCS can support Loopt on Motorola’s RAZR V3s, RAZR V3m, RAZR V3a, Hint, and ROKR phones. Loopt is also available on Samsung’s U520, Messager, MyShot, Tint, R410, and ByLine phones with Metro PCS. Other phone brands and models that can support Loopt with Metro PCS include Kyocera Mako, Kyocera E2000, Nokia 1006, UT Starcom 7126 M, and ZTE C79.

Netxtel and Boost Mobile support Loopt only with most Motorola phones with the exception of the RAZR series and Lotus phones.

T-Mobile is the US arm of Deutche Telecom and is a widely used mobile carrier in the United States and supports Loopt only with all Blackberry models, with the T-Mobile G1 phone.

This above information is very important if you want to signup for Loopt. The reason for this is because when you want to sign up for Loopt, you will first be prompted to type in your mobile phone number with the area code. The website will automatically tell you who your carrier is and this is also important, because some carriers will allow you to use Loopt’s services for free, whereas others will require you to pay for Loopt’s services, depending on the contract that Loopt has with that particular carrier.

After typing in your mobile phone number, you will be prompted to type in your first and last names, a password and then you will need to confirm your password. The password needs to be at least six characters.

Once you have read all the legal notices and agreed to the contract and all costs incurred for signing up for Loopt’s service you will come to a page that prompts you to check your cell phone for an SMS message that has a link. This is also very important, because if you do not have the service with the above mentioned carriers and the above mentioned phone models, Loopt will not work on your phone. On your SMS message that you will get from Loopt will have a link and you will need to open that link on your phone and confirm your membership with Loopt. After you have done that, you will then need to click on the I’m Done button and then Loopt will let you know if you have successfully logged on and can download the app on your phone.

Loopt advertises its product as having the ability to turn your mobile phone into a social compass and can let you locate your friends and get in touch with them. The way Loopt does this is that it will locate your friends on Loopt with an interactive map on your phone. This innovative technology that Loopt provides gives you the capability to be able to connect with your friends on the fly and find out what they are up to or whether you can join them.

The beginning of Loopt is also amazing in itself. Loopt was founded in 2005 by Sam Altman, who was at the time a sophomore at Stanford University with a major in Computer Science. The idea came to Mr. Altman when he walked out of class one day and had a conversation with a close friend, Nick Sivo, who would later join Mr. Altman in founding Loopt. During the conversation, the thought came to Mr. Altman about being able to open his cell phone and find out where all his friends are.

By September of 2005, the two cofounders of Loopt had a product prototype that would have an amazing response, and therefore, both Mr. Altman and Mr. Sivo decided to start Loopt. The prototype was so impressive that many investors were impressed, but the $5 million in series A funding was the offer that Mr. Altman accepted.

Along with Sequoia Capital, other investors include the Y Combinator and New Enterprise Associates.

The Y Combinator invested $0.015 million in seed funding. Y Combinator is a vc firm that is strictly dedicated to funding new startups in the tech and internet industries. On Y Combinator’s website, the vc firm states that they help entrepreneurs with the most difficult step, turning an idea into a company.

Sequoia Capital is one of Loopt’s biggest investors, investing $5 million, being a majority in an $8 million in series A funding in 2006 and then participating in $8.25 million in series B funding in July of 2007. Sequoia Capital is a global vc firm with offices in the United States, Israel, India, and China. Some companies in Sequoia’s portfolio include AdBrite, AdMob, Atom Entertainment, BillPoint, BitCommet, and others.

New Enterprise Associates was also a key investor in Loopt and joined Sequoia Capital in both series A and B funding. New Enterprise Associates or NEA is a large vc firm that has offices in the United States, China, and India. Some companies in NEA’s portfolio include 23andMe, 3Jam, Career Builder, Glu Mobile, Realtime Worlds, and others.

Loopt does have a few competitors. One of the most noteworthy competitors is Rummble, which also provides a service similar to Loopt, but Rummble is more about finding locations for content. Rummble is based in London and is a privately owned corporation. The company has two people on its management team.

For more information on Loopt, click here.

The online social network is increasingly growing with all kinds of new social networks out there just trying to get you to join them. Most of these social networks are free to join, whereas some others require payment. The social networks can be restricted to a specific topic, such as travel, or they can be open social networks that allow you to connect with your friends, like Facebook, Myspace, and others. Now there is a new social network joining this rapidly growing market. Introducing Utterli, which is still undergoing beta testing. It is a social network that allows you to create, connect, and share files anywhere. Utterli lets you upload image files and share them with your friends who are also on the Utterli network. You can access the Utterli network from anywhere, whether you are on a computer, mobile phone or other mobile gadget that has wireless internet connection.

The way that Utterli works is rather simple. First you need to sign up and it is free. When you sign up on Utterli, you need first to type in your email address and then confirm your email address. After that you will also be required to type in and confirm your password. You will also be prompted to enter a user name. You will also be prompted to enter and then confirm your mobile phone number with area code. Once you have submitted all this information and have successfully signed into Utterli, you will be able to create your profile. All of these options are optional and if you do not want to give all the information they ask about in these questions, you do not have to. One of the options allows you to add email addresses of your friends, so they can also join Utterli and you can socialize online with each other. Other information is strictly for your profile. These questions concern your basic personal information, such as your date of birth, gender, your favorite band, sport, team TV show, etc. You also have the option of not responding to these questions or you can answer them and next to the text boxes for each question, you can click on a check box that would allow Utterli to release that information to your online public profile.

Once you have done all that, you are in.

The management team at Utterli consists of three people, who are Michael Beyer, CEO, Paul Gagne, CTO, and Aaron Burcell, CMO.

Mr. Beyer is the one who keeps the business machine running smoothly. His job at Utterli as the company’s CEO is to make sure that the company gets the capital it needs to keep running and oversees all functions of Utterli’s functions. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Beyer worked as both the CFO and COO for both consumer and B2B startups, including Revivio, which was later acquired by Symantec; LightChip, which was later acquired by Digital Lightwave and Confluent Phototonics; and MotherNature.com, where Mr. Beyer led the company’s IPO. Mr. Beyer graduated from Babson College with a BS and then went on to Cornell to receive his MBA.

Mr. Gagne’s role at Utterli as the company’s CTO includes all the company’s technical innovations. Mr. Gagne is behind all the technical parameters of Utterli and it is his work to have your experience at Utterli to be a pleasant and trouble free one. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Gagne worked as the vice president and CTO of several tech companies, including ThinkEngine; SoundBite; Voicetek, later acquired by Aspect Communications; and Aspect Communications. Mr. Gagne graduated from Massachusetts State University with a BS in Computer Science, and then went on to receive an MSE from Boston University.

Mr. Burcell is the company’s CMO and he also has quite a bit of tech experience. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Burcell worked at Microsoft’s Web TV and Bloomba, which is Correll’s WordPerfect email service. He also worked at several Web 2.0 startups, including PodShow and Jangle. Many entrepreneurs look up to Mr. Burcell, since his experience and success and has also gained many acquisitions in his entrepreneurial career.

Utterli is a privately owned company and is based in Maynard, Massachusetts and employes ten people. The company was founded in 2007 and their funding and investors are not disclosed to the public. Utterli mainly generates its revenues through advertising and also has links that can link you to other websites.

Utterli does not have any noteworthy competitors to compete against, however, the social network is a growing industry with many social networks out there, the two giants of the online social networking industry are still by far Facebook and Myspace.

Utterli’s services are not just limited to its website, but they also offer some apps and widgets. Utterli offers you to post your utters in cross posts with such online apps as WordPress, Flikr, Twitter, Blogger, and YahooGroups to name a few. Other apps that work with Utterli include a variety of social apps that can be added to Facebook and Bebo. Utterli also has a downloadable desktop app that you can download to either your desktop or laptop computer and use it for all your utters.

Utterli also provides a Widget Gallery that has a variety of widgets that you can add to your personal websites and the ones that are available are the Utterli Classic, Utterli Nano, and the Utterli Sidebar. These widgets can be placed on your website and it will automatically update itself with your latest utters.

For more information about Utterli, click here.

Click2Map is the latest in online mapping technology that works together with Google map. The way Click2Map works is that you have to subscribe to one of its services. The first service is a free monthly or yearly subscription and is known as the Click2Map Bronze Plan. The Bronze Plan is also available in an unlimited subscription for $99. The next plan that Click2Map offers is the Silver Plan, which allows you to publish the maps you have created as widgets in websites and batch bundling of map markers. The Silver Plan also allows you to have the possibility to add directions to published maps, protect your maps with passwords, and detailed stats on your map visitors. The Silver Plan does cost money. For monthly subscriptions, the price is $9 per month, $92 per year, or an unlimited subscription for a one time fee of $149.

The higher premium plans that Click2Map has to offer are the Gold Plan and the Platinum Plan. The Gold Plan offers all kinds of bells and whistles for those who like that sort of thing. This plan has all the features available in the Silver and Bronze Plans and also has a feature that allows you to import and export tools that are compatible with CSV, KML, GeoRSS, and XML formats. The Gold Plan costs $19 per month, $190 per year, or you can get the unlimited subscription with a one time fee of $319. The Platinum Plan is the highest plan that Click2Map has to offer. The Platinum Plan offers all the features of the above mentioned features of the three above mentioned plans along with the option of having your maps without the Click2Map logo on your published maps, marker templates, and a customizable personal database. The Platinum Plan is the most expensive plan offered with a monthly subscription costing $39 per month, or $390 per year. You can also get an unlimited subscription of the Platinum Plan for a one time fee of $659.

Now you know what plans are available by Click2Map and how they work, suppose you want to sign up for one. The Bronze Plan does not seem very impressive. Once you have registered on the Bronze Plan, which is free, you will see a list that has all your maps on it. You will see the first map and it is titled “My First Map.” You can see the status, or even open the Click2Map Editor.

The map editor does not work on certain browsers. If you are a Mac user, you will not want to use Safari as the browser for your map editor. The Map2Click editor seems only to work in Mozilla’s FireFox. Once you have successfully opened your map editor, the map does appear. It is a map of the world, but the map of the world is very difficult to manage. For example, to try to focus on a specific area or country, theoretically you can scroll up and down to increase or decrease the zoom on the map, but if you zoom up or down, the map will sometimes disappear. With the satellite, hybrid, or terrain maps, you will also see that parts of the world maps are missing. Whether this is a good program or not is up to you, but things should be able to work properly, otherwise the market might not bode well for that particular product.

Click2Map sounds good on the surface, but knowing only the free Bronze plan, it is difficult to make a clear judgement on the company’s products and services. There are also many different variables that need to be taken into account with online programs, such as the ones provided by Map2Click. Some of these variables include the type of computer you are using, what that computer’s CPU’s maximum output is, how much RAM you have or what type of internet connection you have. All these variables can affect the performance quality of the services provided.

Click2Map also offers services, where Click2Map can actually do the map for you and this can be easier than doing the maping yourself, using Map2Click’s tools. How these services work is very simple. You can do address geocoding, which is the ability to encode an address from anywhere in the world and encode it with GPS coordinates. You can also have a map professionally created by Map2Click professionals, who can create a professional looking map for you to be able to publish on your website. Other services are also available. You can also contact professionals by filling out an online form next to the services available by Click2Map.
Click2Map is based in Metz, France and has two people on its management team. These people are Antony Zanetti, the company’s CTO; and Benoit Christiaens, who serves as the company’s Vice President of Marketing and Strategy.

Click2Map’s sole investor is OSEO Innovation, which invested $0.05 million in seed funding for the company in December of 2006.

Founded in 2005, OSEO Innovation was created by the merging of ANVAR, French Innovation Agency and BDPME, which is a SME Development Bank. The bulk of OSEO’s investments is in companies with innovative technologies in all sectors of the tech industry.

Map2Click does have a competitor. This competitor is MapVersa, which is based in India and was founded in 2008. MapVersa offers similar services to Click2Map and is a privately owned corporation.

For more information about Click2Map, click here.

What is TrialPay? TrialPay is an interesting service that allows consumers to pay for an item by buying another item. This works by TrialPay working together with some of the largest online merchants, such as Skype, FTD, and others. The way TrialPay works is when you pay for something online, TrialPay will put the your brand before millions of online shoppers every time you make a transaction. This is great for the online merchant, who is just starting out and wants to have his merchandise to sell. By using TrialPay, he can entice online shoppers who are just browsing through their site to get it for free while the online merchant still gets paid.

As you open TrialPay’s website, you will see the face of an online shopper with two thought clouds coming out of her head. One to the left says “I won’t pay,” and the thought cloud on the right side of her head says “I might pay.” You can click on both thought clouds and this can give you a brief overview at TrialPay’s services and how they work. When you hover your mouse over the thought cloud that says “I won’t pay,” some more text will appear telling you more of the service. For example, this bubble is for those shoppers who are known as browsers. A browser is someone who will browse through a particular e-commerce site looking at the merchandise that the e-commerce site has to offer, but all this person does is to browse through the site and usually does not buy anything. This is where TrialPay comes in. For browsers, TrialPay offers the browser to get your product for free, and as that browser gets your product for free, you get paid. You can click on that thought cloud to find out even more about how this works. As you click on that thought cloud, you will get an overview on how this system works. It is really quite amazing what they come up with in the e-commerce industry. When you subscribe to TrialPay as an online merchant, the browser will allow customers to pay for your product through any of their brands and when they buy one of their brands, they get your product for free, since their brand pays for the purchase of your product. That’s how it works. For example, if a particular browser comes to your website is intrigued by what ever product you offer, such as technology, clothing, etc. The browser might not necessarily be interested in technology and is shopping for a gift. Suppose a given browser is looking for a gift for her husband on his birthday or anniversary, whatever. This same browser has either a clothing or shoe fettish. This is where TrialPay comes into play. TrialPay links up with that particular browser’s favorite brands, such as GAP, Nike, or other brand names or something that browser is more likely to buy and when that browser buys the product of her choice and gets your product for free.

The way this works is that the buyer completes an advertising offer to get the product you are selling for free. You will see a notice that your product is free with TrialPay and the browser will see several different offers available upon checking out from your online store. The buyer can choose from any one of these advertising offers and proceed to buy a product that is advertised in that particular offer and gets your product for free. As an online merchant, you are obviously not giving your merchandise away for free, you are in the business for a profit, like any other businessman, so how do you get paid for that product that the buyer just got for free? Simple, once the buyer completes an advertising offer from TrialPay, the customer buys the brand in the advertising offer and TrialPay uses the advertising money to pay you, so everyone wins.

Now, if you go back to the TrialPay Homepage, and hover your mouse on the thought cloud that says “I might pay,” you will also see some text there. Here you will notice that this is aimed towards thinkers. These are the types of online shoppers who frequent your site and are contemplating making a purchase or not. These people need to be enticed to buy your product by offering a deal that they cannot refuse. If you click your mouse on that thought cloud, you will see how this will work. This works by allowing you as an online merchant to have promotions without the expense of free shipping and handling or a buy one or get one free offer. With TrialPay, you can create promotions by enticing buyers to buy a particular brand that is allied with TrialPay. As an online merchant, you can use TrialPay to entice buyers to get a product for free when they buy your product or vice versa. Ether way, TrialPay is a win-win situation for both the online merchant and the buyer.

The story of the founding of TrialPay is quite interesting in itself. TrialPay was founded in Mountain View, California in 2006 and based its business model on the premise that online stores should be able to do everything the conventional retail stores in the shopping malls do, but better. Furthermore, TrialPay can be used by any company, from the Fortune 500 to the regular one-man operation.

TrialPay has three cofounders, who are Alex Rampell, Terry Angelos, and Eddie Lim. These three men also hold key management positions in the company.

Mr. Rampell also serves TrialPay as the company’s CEO and is the man behind the entire corporate infrastructure of TrialPay. Mr. Rampell is also a seasoned entrepreneur, and is also the cofounder of FraudEliminator, which is the first anti-phishing service created. FraudEliminator later merged with SiteAdvisor and then was acquired by McAfee in 2006. Mr. Rampell began his successful career by writing and selling software, some of which later got the attention of some of the US national media, which later led his first company to enjoy global success and his products being featured in some of the most prestigious publications and TV shows, such as Forbes Magazine, USA Today, the Today Show, and others.

Terry Angelos is also on TrialPay’s management team as the company’s CPO and oversees the entire product management of the company. Mr. Angelos has a great deal of experience in product management and has worked with a myriad of early stage e-commerce companies on their product management teams. Mr. Angelos was also the Director of Products of Living.com, which is a large online retailer funded by both Benchmark Capital and Amazon.com. Mr. Angelos was also the product manager of Trilogy Software.

Eddie Lim also works at TrialPay as the company’s CTO. Mr. Lim joined TrialPay and participated in its founding in 2006, after working for Facebook, where he worked in the product design department and helped establish several growth strategies.

TrialPay has also received its share of media attention. CNN has featured TrialPay in a clip regarding five alternatives to Paypal. According to this article, published in February 11, 2008, TrialPay applies an unorthodox method of payment online by getting freebies.

In another article published on February 11, 2008, by the San Francisco Chronicle; TrialPay was featured is offering double savings on Valentine’s day. The article further goes on to discus TrialPay’s revolutionary online payment platform.

TrialPay’s key investors include Baseline Ventures, Battery Ventures, and Index Ventures; which all invested an undisclosed amount to the company in series A funding in 2006.

Baseline Ventures is a vc firm that was founded by angel investor, Ron Conway; who is also affectionately known as the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Mr. Conway is a very well known investor in the business community because of his investments in startups in the tech industry since the late 1990s. Some other companies in Baseline’s portfolio include Digg, Kaboodle, Mint Software, Twitter, vSocial, and others.

Battery Ventures is a vc firm that invests in all sectors of the tech industry. Battery Ventures has been a key player in the investor community for over 20 years and invests in companies that have a strong management team and a good position to succeed. Some companies in Battery’s portfolio include Angie’s List, BlueKai, Choice Vendor, InfoSeek, ExactTarget, Spot Runner, and others.

Index Ventures is a vc firm that advertises itself as a vc firm built by its partners “brick by brick,” and are committed to supporting companies that the firm invests in. Index Ventures invests in entrepreneurs who are in the life sciences and tech industries. Some companies in Index’s portfolio include AlertMe, AstleyClarke, FON, Imbera Electronics, Frengo, Glasses Direct, and others.
TrialPay is a rather new company and does not have any noteworthy competitors at this time.

For more information about TrialPay, click here.

The growing consumer internet industry always takes unique turns and new companies that offer different consumer services are constantly appearing in this growing market. Introducing Crowdstorm, a website that lets you ask the crowd anything about a consumer product and find it at bargain prices. Crowdstorm is a social network for consumers to be able to find the right product for themselves without doing the time consuming research and searching. The way it works is that you need to sign into the website, and it is easy and free. All you need to do is to enter your first and last name, email address and type in a password, and you are in. When you register onto this site, you also have the option to upload a photograph of yourself and invite friends to join you in this network. Once you have signed in, you can first browse products by category. For example, suppose you want to buy some shoes. Click on the footwear icon on the top right hand corner of the website, you will see a small picture of a boot and a hyperlink next to it that would read “footwear.” You will then come to a page that will ask you what type of footwear you want to buy. You can ask the crowd, find out what the best selling footwear is available, etc. Suppose you want to narrow your search and you want to buy a pair of Nike running shoes. You can first click on the best sellers, or any of the other choices that appear after you click on the footwear icon. If you do not find what you want there, you can also type in “Nike Running Shoes” in the search bar at the top of the website. Sometimes, you might need to narrow the search down. Suppose you want Nike men’s running shoes, then enter Nike men’s running shoes into the search bar. You can also type in a general term, such as Nike in the search bar to find it, but that might also not yield the results you are looking for. If you try Nike shoes, you also yield low results. This means, that Crowdstorm may not be exactly what it cracks itself out to be. Search queries seem to be limited and not much variety. This could be because Crowdstorm is a new company and not enough people have logged on and placed reviews on all products yet, time will tell.

Another drawback to Crowdstorm is that, even though it has offices in both the United States and in the United Kingdom, prices appear in British pounds. This is fine, if you live in England, but for most American consumers, who rarely travel abroad, this means that they would have to do quite a bit of math to figure out the price in US dollars. This may detract American consumers from using this site.

Crowdstorm is also a rather small company that has only two people on its management team. These people include the company’s founder and CEO, Phil Wikinson; and the company’s CTO, Oli Godby.

Mr. Wikinson is one of the most successful and influential online entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Before he founded Crowdstorm, he founded Shopgenie, which is a website that is also aimed at online consumers. Mr. Wikinson got his claim to fame for founding another company, however. Kelkoo UK is what made Mr. Wikinson famous. Kelkoo has since become part of Yahoo!, but it was a great achievement for Mr. Wikinson. Mr. Wikinson also has experience in telecommunications and broadband internet and worked at TeleWest as their Commercial Manager at the company’s BlueYonder Broadband Internet division.

Mr. Godby takes care of all the technical needs of Crowdstorm. Mr. Godby has deep experience with internet and telecommunications, and has the technical knowledge to work out all the glitches in the system. Before coming to Crowdstorm, Mr. Gody worked at Spinvox, Ltd., where he served as a senior web and middleware developer.

Crowdstorm’s sole investor is Battery Venture Partners, which invested $1 million in seed funding in January 2008. Battery Ventures is both a vc and a private equity firm that mainly focuses its investments on companies who have a product prototype or intellectual property that shows a promising market. Other companies in Battery’s portfolio include A Place for Mom, AQdvent Solar, Donnerwood Media, ExactTarget, and others.

Crowdstorm does have a few competitors. One of Crowdstorm’s biggest competitors is Kaboodle, which is also an online social network that provides a similar service to that of Crowdstorm. Kaboolde is based in Sunnyvale, California and was founded in 2005. Kaboodle is a subsidiary of Hearst Digital Media and has four people on its management team.

Another noteworthy competitor of Crowdstorm is Sazze, which offers a website where shoppers can post reviews of different consumer products. Sazze was founded in Pleasanton, California in 2007. Sazze is a corporation.

For more information about Crowdstorm, click here.

Since 2001, when Accera was founded, the company has been developing solutions for neurological degenerative disorders, especially Alzheimer’s Disease. After years of research, in March 3, 2009, Accera released its first product to market, Axona. Axona is not another drug, it is a medical dietary supplement for those suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

How does Axona work? Simple. To understand how Axona works, you must first understand Alzheimer’s disease. According to Accera’s company website, Alzheimer’s disease is caused when the patient’s body is not able to metabolize glucose in the brain. Glucose, the scientific term for sugar, is the main fuel for the brain. Glucose is found in a wide variety of natural products from fruits and vegetables to meat and fish. Studies show that the brains of Alzheimer’s patients are not metabolizing the necessary amount of glucose to prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Until the advent of Axona, Alzheimer’s disease has largely remained untreated, leaving Alzhaimer’s patients to a bleak future with independent living not being an option anymore.

Some of the common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease is that the afflicted person is unable to remember certain things and not being able to function properly in everyday life. In the more severe cases of Alzheimer’s disease, the afflicted cannot live by himself and needs round the clock care.

The way Axona works is that it is a special dietary medical food that provides the brain with the nutrients it needs to deter the further degradation that is synonymous with Alzheimer’s disease.

Though the Axona dietary treatment is already on the market and is having amazing results with patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, Accera is also working on therapies for other neurological disorders as well.

Along with Axona, Accera also has a therapy, that is currently undergoing clinical trials, to cure age-associated memory impairment. Furthermore, the company is researching different therapies for treating both Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The founder of Accera is Dr. Steve A. Orndorff, who also continues to serves the company as its president and CEO. Dr. Orndorff is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience with biotechnology. Dr. Orndorff also worked at Univera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he also served as the company’s president and CEO. Univera Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops solutions for inflammation and immune disorders. Dr. Orndorff also worked on other projects as well, such as research that led to the development of NutraSweet, Inc.

Accera is based in Broomfield, Colorado and employs 10 people.

Accera’s investors include Inventages Venture Capital and POSCO BioVentures, who both participated in the company’s seed and series A funding rounds.

Inventages Venture Partners was founded in 2000 and is a vc firm that is dedicated to the life sciences and biotech industries. The vc firm will aso fund companies that have a treatment which is effective and serves an unmet need. Inventages is a global vc firm is global with offices in Geneva, Switzerland; Nassau, Bahamas; and Aukland, New Zealand. Other companies in Inventages’ portfolio include AM Pharma, Atonomis, Biolactic, Boowl, Cavis, and others.

POSCO BioVentures is a vc firm that is solely dedicated to the biotech industry. POSCO is the brainchild of Dr. Leo Kim, PhD and the vc firm will invest in companies that have a promising effect in the health department. Some other companies in POSCO’s portfolio include Acorda, Anadys, Bioarray Solutions, and others.

Accera does not have any known competitors

For more information about Accera, click here.

Out of the new innovative and amazing technologies that are available on the internet, now with YouTube, Hulu, and Google Video, a new and unique search engine has is solely dedicated to finding videos and TV broadcasts from around the world. The website is absolutely amazing, however, Blinkx also offers a downloadable software package that is advertised to be the smallest search engine that is only 1 MB. The website, www.blinkx.com, works on all computers, but the Pico software is only compatible with Windows, if you can download it.

First, the Blinkx website is amazing. When you open the Blinkx website, you will see on the right of the page a whole series of small TV screen shapes with all kinds of different videos. Note that you need Adobe Flash Player to view the videos on Blinkx. At the top of these different video screens, you will also see a set of tabs that sort the videos from World News, Entertainment, Business, Sports, and more. On the More Tab, you have a downward pointing arrow, which when you click on that tab, a pull down menu will appear with more video genre choices. On this menu you can choose from music videos, viral videos, science and tech videos, travel videos, home improvement videos, film, environment, automotive, gaming, and food & drink. You can click on anyone of these choices and all kinds of videos in that genre will appear on the box with the different TV screens on it. Furthermore, you as you hover your mouse over any of these videos in the video box, the box on which the arrow hovers on will enlarge itself, and when you click on that video, you can view that video.

You can also click on the three large buttons on the bottom right hand corner of the page. The first button near the center of the page will be “Inform Me,” and when you click on that button, you will see the current day’s news from Associated Press. The second button is the “Entertain Me” button, which will link you to funny and entertaining videos. The last of the three buttons on the bottom left hand corner of the site is the “Give Me” button, which when clicked on allows you to have the option of creating your own channel. You can click what you want to view by typing keywords or key phrases.

At the top left hand corner of the page you have a search bar, where you can type in just about anything and if it exists, Blinkx will find it for you. For those of you who can speak, read, and write in different languages, you are not limited only to the Latin alphabet, which is great for people who want to view videos in different languages. The search engine even recognizes alphabets, such as Georgian and all forms of Cyrillic and other non-Latin characters.

Blinkx also offers a downloadable search engine application that claims to be the world’s smallest search engine with the size of only one megabyte. This is the Pico Search Engine, however, the website works better. For one thing, the Blinkx website is compatible with both Windows XP and Vista users, or Mac users, as long as they have the Adobe Flash Player installed on their system. The Pico software, on the other hand is only Windows compatible, so as far as Mac users are concerned, unless they have Parallels Desktop or some other virtual machine with Windows on their Mac, they are left out in the cold.

Downloading Pico is also practically impossible. If you choose to go to the Download Pico link on the website, you will find a link that will tell you to download Pico for Windows, Upgrade to the full version of Pico, and Tell a friend about Pico. When you click on the Download Pico for Windows, you will see that system requirements are for Windows 2000 or XP. Once you have downloaded Pico, you will find that it is very user unfriendly.

In reviewing Blinkx, the website is great, however, as far as Pico is concerned, there is quite a bit of room for improvement. First, Pico should have a Mac version as well as a Windows version, so all users can enjoy it. Second, it should be as user friendly as the Blinkx site. Pico can have great potential if it is developed further.

The founder of Blinkx is Suranga Chandratillake, and he continues to serve the company as its CEO. Mr. Chandratillake is a seasoned electronics entrepreneur with over ten years of experience in the industry. After founding Blinkx in 2004 and launching it to the public in 2005, Blinkx enjoyed amazing success early in its life and was eventually publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, where it continues to be traded to this day. Mr. Chandratillake is an expert on both the internet and TV and has the knowledge and has developed technologies to merge the two media together. Furthermore, Mr. Chandratillake also has expertise in interactive TV and online advertising. Along with this and other experiences in the field, Mr. Chandratillake is truly a pioneer in the online entertainment industry.

Other key people involved in the development of the Blinkx technological platform include Matthew Scheybeler, who serves as Blinkx’s CTO and Matthew Service, who works at Blinkx as the company’s COO.

Mr. Scheybeler has a whole wealth of experience in the ever evolving and rich media technology. Mr. Scheybeler has worked at Blinkx since 2004 and before coming to Blinkx, he worked for Autonomy Corporation as both a programmer and a team leader. Mr. Scheybeler also founded his own consulting firm.

Mr. Service also has a great deal of experience in the online media industry and financial operations as well. Mr. Service was a general principle at Regent Pacific Management. He also worked on over 34 engagements from 1998 to 2006, involving technology companies. Mr. Service also worked at both Clarent Corporation and Auspex Systems as the IT director for both companies.

Blinkx received $9 million in seed funding in 2003, but the names of the investors are not disclosed to the public.

Blinkx does have a few competitors. The two major ones are Hulu and Dabble.

Hulu is a service that is similar to that offered by Blinkx and advertises that it has a wide variety of TV shows that can be watched on demand. Hulu is based in Los Angeles, California and is a privately owned LLC. Hulu has six people on its management team.

Dabble is also a video search engine with a similar service as Blinkx and claims that it gets its videos from over 600 different sources and boasts of over 150 partnerships. Dabble is a privately owned company based in Berkely, California and is still in beta testing phase. Dabble has three people on its management team and one person on its board of directors.

For more information about Blinkx, click here.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, AerovectRx Corporation is a privately owned corporation that works with aerosol therapeutic treatments for respiratory diseases and disorders, such as asthma, COPD, and IPF. AerovectRx also produces aerosol therapeutic treatments for cancer. The general therapeutic aerosol that AerovectRx produces for cancer is for the treatment of lung cancer, both small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. AerovectRx also deals with aerosol anti-infective treatments for respiratory bacterial and viral infections, such as pneumonia, enduced by either a virus or a fungus that can be life threatening if the infection is severe enough.

Respiratory disorders, such as asthma, COPD or IPF count for the highest number of respiratory disorders affecting people across the world. In some cases asthma or COPD can cause attacks severe enough that the sufferer needs to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized. In some cases asthma attacks can be severe enough to cause life threatening situations by severely impairing the flow of oxygen intake into the body. AerovectRx does not only produce the therapeutic aerosols to treat these respiratory disorders, the company has also developed a revolutionary new technology to aid the delivery of the solutions into the lungs. This technology is the company’s proprietary AeroCell Nebulizer with the AeroCell disposable cartridge technology that also reduces the risk of infection.

Cancer is another disease that affects a large number of people. The number of people suffering from lung cancer is staggering, and AerovectRx produces therapeutic solutions that can treat both small cell and non-small lung cancer. According to AerovectRx’s own data, the average life span of a patient with untreated lung cancer is about eight months. One of the reasons that lung cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to cure is not just that the lack of an early diagnosis, but the main problem is that most of the cancer treatments are delivered by injection. Injections do not always deliver the medicine directly to the source of the cancer. While injections take a while to get to the lungs, the revolutionary aerosol treatments for lung cancer that AerovectRx has been developing treat the lung cancer more effectively, since it goes directly to the lungs, which is the area afflicted by lung cancer. These treatments can also be delivered to the lungs with the AeroCell Nebulizer.

The third area of focus that AerovectRx deals with in respiratory medicine is in aerosol drugs to fight respiratory infections. There are some bacterial respiratory infections, however, the one respiratory infection that kills the most people is either viral or fungal pneumonia. In many cases of respiratory diseases, like with lung cancer, the treatment is usually injections. In the case of pneumonia, the majority of these cases end up in either fatalities or serious life threatening situations, requiring the hospitalization of the patient for a long period of time. The revolutionary treatments that AerovectRx is developing to fight respiratory infections are delivered to the disease in the lung via the AerovectRx AeroCell Nebulizer.

AerovectRx Corporation is a rather large company with 41 people on its management team and seven people on its board of directors. Furthermore, AerovectRx Corporation also has seven advisors that work with the company’s executives. AerovectRx was founded in 2006 and closed its seed funding in 2008.

Some of the noteworthy events in the young life of AerovectRx Corporation is in April 11, 2006, when the company got the clearance needed from the FDA to market and commercialize their AeroCell Nebulizer and its disposable inhaler able medicine cartridge. The article published in AerovectRx’s company publication also announces that AerovectRx’s new revolutionary technology would deliver a whole array of special points of care medication to treat a large variety of respiratory diseases and disorders. The delivery of these medications treats the lungs more effectively than injections and is also attractive, since unlike injections, inhaled medications are not painful.

On November 1, 2006, AerovectRx joined forces with the US CDC to develop the intranasal flu vaccine. The company received over $750,000 in funding and the creating a quicker delivery system to deliver the flu vaccine without the waste and toxic preservatives in the injectable vaccines.
AerovectRx Corporation’s investors include Georgia Venture Partners and Emergent Growth Fund, which invested $1.2 million in seed funding in April of 2008.

Founded in 2004, Georgia Venture Partners, or GVP has a mission to finance companies that are either in the seed and early stage in the life sciences industry; and has an interest to the population of the state of Georgia. The vc firm believes that within the state of Georgia and its institutions, there is a growing interest in the life sciences industry and the mission of GVP is to support the entrepreneurs who want to build strong companies in the life sciences industry in Georgia. Some companies in GVP’s portfolio include Abeome, Altiris Therapeutics, Artarain Medical, Aruna Biomedical, Inc., Biofisica, CytoDome, Insectigen, Spectra Analysis, and others.

The Emergent Growth Fund is a group of angel investors who share the same focus and interests on early stage companies. Emergent Growth Fund was founded in 2003 and also has the active support of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. Some companies in Emergent Growth Fund’s portfolio include Cliniplace, Prioria, Smart Structures, Inc., Wilmington Pharmaceuticals, LLC, and others.

For more information about AerovectRx Corporation, click here.

Admob is a company that allows marketers to market their products on all mobile telephones or other communication devices. It does have a unique service, but it is not the most user friendly service out there. To use Admob, you must first create an account with Admob and registration is free. To create an ad, however, that costs something.

First of all, the registration process seems rather simple, but it can be quite problematic. It is very slow and if you try logging in before your confirmation email comes in, you will not be able to log in and you will get a notice that states that your user name (email address) and your password does not match. This can be confusing since this can make you think that you did not type your password right or forgot your password. The confirmation email is slow in coming and you also need to pay attention that the email comes into your inbox, sometimes it will end up in your spam or trash file in your email account.

Generating advertisements is done in the marketplace page of the Admob website. In the marketplace you have a series of tabs from which you can choose what type of ads you can create.

The first tab is the Ads Tab. In this tab, you have the option to either create a regular ad for any mobile device, an iPhone ad, iPhone App Tracking, My Landing Page, Daily Budget, Ad Balance Notification, and Reporting. These options give you everything you need to create and manage your ads. The My Ads option gives you a list of all the ads that you have created. The Create Ad option allows you to create an ad for mobile devices and phones and will appear in all phones. The first thing you would need to do is to add text to your ad. You can type the text or you can copy from one of your existing ads. After adding the text, you can either choose to place the ad on an existing landing page or create a landing page with Admob. If you do not have a landing page, you need to create one with admob. Creating a landing page on admob, you should note that you must upload an image and it has to be either a PNG or GIF format. Bidding on small phone or SMS ads is incredibly cheap, one penny is the minimum bid. This ad will then be sent to what ever carrier or country you want the ad to target. You can even choose what country or carrier you want your ad to go to. You can choose to all carriers and all countries, United States only, United Kingdom only, or Custom Country or carrier. Suppose you want to target your ad to Georgia and to one or more of Georgia’s carriers. Click on the custom country point, and to get Georgia, you need to click on the little arrow next to Asia and you will find Georgia. To make sure your ad will only go to Georgia, you need to remove all the check marks from all other countries and continents if you want your ad to go only to Georgia and not to any other country. Click on the little arrow next to Georgia and you can see that the three main carriers in Georgia are Beeline Georgia, the Georgian branch of Russian cell phone carrier, Beeline; Geocell, and MagtiGSM. You also have an option for other carriers, but the three listed are the major carriers in that country. Suppose you want your ad to be targeted only to the three major carriers, remove the check mark from the others box and in the box below the country and carrier box you can review your ad and you can also go back up and edit the ad if you choose to. If you want to create your ad, click on the create ad button at the bottom of the page. If you have everything required filled out, your ad will be successfully created. If your account is empty, Admob will let you know with a red bar stating that your account is empty and you can click on the link on that red box to add funds to your account.

Adding funds can also be found under the My Account Tab and click on the add funds option. When you are in the add funds option, you will come upon an online payment form where you will be prompted to type in all the payment and credit card information, like ordering anything from an online store or service. This form will first prompt you to add the amount of funding that you want to place into your account, and the minimum funding you can place into your account is $50.00. Below that, you will be prompted to enter all your credit or debit card information, such as your salutation or title (Mr. Mrs. Ms.), name and last name, credit card type, credit card number and the card security code, etc. Admob accepts all major types of credit cards, Visa, American Express, Discover, and Mastercard. Admob does not accept paypal, which can be a drawback for those of you who like to use paypal for your online payments.

Now that you have added funds to your account, you can go back to the Ad Tab and see what other options you have. More and more people are getting iPhones and you also have the option to create an iPhone ad. An iPhone ad is different from an ad for other cell phones, since the ad for cell phones usually comes as an SMS message. With the iPhone, the ads can be graphic and eye-catching. When creating an iPhone ad on Admob is to create an action, what you want the iPhone ad to do. Admob has a very hi-tech set up when it comes to iPhone ads, and you can choose the ad to come as a web action, appear in the App Store, the ad can also come up when the iPhone is in call mode, video, audio, iTunes, Maps, and Canvas. What ever action you choose, the basic construction of the iPhone ad is the same, it just depends on what app it will appear in. After choosing your action, you need to create an ad name and then add text to your ad. You have an option on uploading either an image or adding a symbol in the image corner of the ad. If you choose to upload an image, the image must be less than 75KB and the corners will automatically be rounded. Then, like with creating an ad for a regular mobile device, you have the same option but you can only choose the countries. This is because not all carriers support the iPhone. You also have the option When you are finished your ad, click on the create ad button. You will also notice that you need to put in a minimum bid. The minimum bid for an iPhone ad is 20 US cents and the high bid is 89 US cents. If you choose to delete these ads, you can do so in the ad manager, which is what appears first when you click on the Marketplace link. The next feature in the Ads Tab is the iPhone Apps Tracking option, which allows you to track iPhone downloads from the App Store and can give the information needed to write better ads for your business.

The next option is the My Landing Pages option, which allows you to manage your landing pages.

Under the Ads Tab, you can also manage a daily budget, get notices when your ad account balances run low, and get reports on how your ads are doing.

The next tab is your Sites & Apps Tab, which allows you to manage your sites and apps.

The third tab is the My Account Tab, which besides allowing you to add funds to your account, this tab also allows you to manage orders, provide information for your website publishers, transfer funds, redeem coupons, and change your password.

Omar Hamoui is the man behind Admob as the company founder and also serves in the company’s management as CEO. Mr. Hamoui also sits on Admob’s board of directors and what is the most amazing is that Mr. Hamoui founded Admob while he was still a student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006, when he was working on his MBA. Mr. Hamoui also graduated from the University of California with a BS in Computer Science and has also ran several tech companies, which include Vertical Blue, GoPix, and Fotochatter, which is an online social network.

Admob’s investors include Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners.

Sequoia Capital is a global vc firm that has offices in the United States, China, Israel, and India. Sequoia invests in companies who are in all stages from seed to public and mezzanine funding. Some of the best known entrepreneurs who have partnered with Sequoia Capital include Steve Jobbs of Apple, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, and others. Some other companies in Sequoia’s portfolio include AdBrite, Advanced Power, Afara, Agile, Barracuda Networks, and others.

Accel Partners is a global vc and private equity firm that has been around for over 25 years and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and China. Some companies in Accel’s portfolio include Glam.com, JBoss, Facebook, MetroPCS, Real, and others.

Admob does have some competitors but the one major competitor of Admob is AppLoop, which is a service similar to Admob, generating ads for mobile applications. AppLoop was founded in 2008 and is based in Silicon Valley, California with two employees. AppLoop is a privately owned company.

For more information on Admob, click here.

I’m sure that among you are some college students or have children who are college students. Well, Chegg.com is the company for you. Many college students have difficulty finding the textbooks they need for their college classes, or their college bookstore might not have the textbooks required for their courses in on time for the beginning of the semester. The bookstore on many campuses might charge a hefty price for those textbooks, or in these difficult financial times, students might not have the money to buy the books from the campus bookstore. Have no fear, Chegg is here. Chegg.com has everything a college student needs for his semester at school. In order to use the services offered by Chegg.com, you must sign in and have a completed profile. Signing up for use of Chegg.com’s services is free, but where Chegg.com makes its money is in the fees for renting or buying books from its service. Even so, Chegg.com offers textbooks for college courses at a lower price than the campus bookstore.

To register into Chegg.com is very simple. First you need to type in your email address, type in a password and retype the password, and type in a security code, which appears as a set of numbers and letters that are in some kind of sketch and you have to type those into a box next to the image. You will then be logged into the Ghegg.com network. As you get into your new account, you will notice that your profile is only 50% finished. Then you will be prompted to edit your profile to complete it. Chegg.com will ask your name, grade level, etc. You might have to repeat this process a couple times before your profile is 100% complete. Once it is complete you are ready to go.

Chegg.com gives you the option to rent, buy, or sell textbooks. Furthermore, for those of you who like environmental policies, Chegg.com promises to plant a tree for every rental book that is returned. The way the system works is very simple. First of all, your profile will have the school that you are attending and the year you anticipate to graduate. Chegg.com will search the database of your university to have the books you will need for your courses. If you choose to rent a textbook, you will see that the standard rental period on Chegg.com is for about 125 days, the length of an average college semester in the United States. You also have the option to extend your rental period or even purchase the books you are renting. With Chegg.com, you can even sell your books, if you do not need them anymore.

Ok, all this sounds great, so how does it work? Very simple, first go to either the rental or purchase tab and type in a title of a book that is required for your class. Suppose you are a student at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana and you have a political science class and your required reading is “The Essentials of American Government,” Chegg.com will prompt you to either type in the ISBN number of that book or the title of the book. Once you type in the title, you will see that a list with all the books on that subject will appear. The book covers will also be visible, which is also useful, since some professors like to show their students what the book looks like. Just go down the list and find the book you need and click on the link next to that book. Suppose the book you are looking for is actually “The Essentials of American Government and Politics Today.” Simply click on the link next to that title. Once you have clicked on that link, you will find an overview of the book and the rental price. In this case, the rental price is $53 for the semester. If you choose to rent this book, all you need to do is to click on the rent button and the book will be placed in your shopping cart and then it is just like ordering anything else online. You proceed to the checkout and either rent or order using your credit or debit card or your paypal account. It’s that simple.

Well, the semester is over, so now the question is how do you return your textbook when you are finished with it. You just log into your account at Chegg.com and you will see four steps: rent, receive, return, and plant a tree. Click on the return option and you will see an orange button to return your rental book and a yellow-orange button to sell a book you do not need anymore. Click on the return button and theoretically you should get the sending information to send the book back. If you want to sell a book, click on the sell button and you will be prompted to enter either your book’s ISBN number or the title of the book. Once you have typed the number of this book, Chegg.com will tell you what this book is worth if they can sell it, if not Chegg.com will tell you that they cannot sell this book and will ask you if you want to donate it. If you choose to donate the book, Chegg.com will plant a tree for the book and you can click on the square of what you want to do and then you will get the sending information. Chegg.com will also offer free return shipping on returned books.

Chegg.com prides itself on being green and also has a policy of planting a tree for every book rental or book donated to the business. Chegg.com also gives tips on living green by walking or biking, using energy efficient light bulbs, selling used books, etc.

Chegg.com was started by Osman Rashid, who had over 13 years of experience with running startups and early stage companies. Mr. Rashid also works at Chegg.com as the company’s CEO. Mr. Rashid has extensive experience in software design, business management, and marketing.

Chegg.com was founded in 2003 and is a privately owned corporation based in Santa Clara, California. The company’s board of directors has two people, Eric Di Benedetto and Samual Spadafora.

Mr. Di Benedetto has over 15 years of experience in technology by working in Silicon Valley and has also invested in many Silicon Valley startups. Mr. Di Benedetto has invested in over 40 companies as an angel investor, nine of which are now publicly traded in the stock markets. In 1997, Mr. Di Benedetto has founded Convergence Partners. Mr. Di Benedetto graduated from ESSEC in Paris, France with a BA and an MBA in Mathematics and Physics.

Samual Spadafora is chairman of Chordiant Software and has over 30 years of experience in the hi-tech industry. Mr. Spadafora also worked for Sun Microsystems and also worked in key management positions at Altos Computers. Mr. Spadafora graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Chegg.com’s investors include Active Starts, Convergence Partners, Gabriel Venture Partners, and Primera Capital.

Active Starts is an angel investment firm that primarily focuses its investments on startups in Southern California and in the software and tech industries. Active Starts help entrepreneurs attain the maximum validity of their markets that they are trying to be successful in. Active Starts is the brain child of angel investor, Eric Di Benedetto, who is also the founder of Convergance Partners. Some companies in Active Starts’ portfolio include GoFish, Plastyc, Lending Club, Rate It All, Real Travel, ChairMail, BuzzLogic, RapLeaf, IdeaBlade, and others.

Convergence Partners is a vc firm founded by both Eric Di Benedetto and Russ Irwin. Convergence Partners primarily invests in startups in the communications and IT industries. Some companies in Convergence Partners’ portfolio include Amphire, Azaire Networks, Clickability, IdeaBlade, Penguin Computing, and others.

Primera Capital is a vc firm that invests in entrepreneurs who have an innovative product that has good market potential. Primera Capital invests in all stages of a company’s life and invests primarily in the software, internet applications, and mobile and wireless industries. Some companies in Primera Capital’s portfolio include Infolinks, GTNexus, RoamWare, JitterBit, and others.

Chegg.com does have a few competitors. The two major competitors are Alibris and DormTrader.

Alibris is a service that connects people who enjoy books, music, and movies to a myriad of book and media sellers worldwide. Alibris is based in Emeryville, California and was founded in 1998. Like Chegg.com, Alibris also sells textbooks. Alibris is a privately owned company and has nine people on its management team and seven people on its board of directors.

DormTrader is a book selling service which is also a Facebook application and was founded in 2008 and is based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. DormTrader is a privately owned sole proprietorship and has only one employee, who takes care of the landscaping and maintenance of the company’s grounds.

For more information about Chegg.com, click here.

Nowadays, environmentalism, living green, and our carbon footprint seem to be a growing issue in large groups of society worldwide. High fuel prices, the threat of carbon tax, and the green fad is leading to all kinds of new innovations in the automotive industry. One of the greatest innovations is being developed by Aptera. The car being developed by Aptera is definitely unique. Seeing the car, you might think that it is not a car at all, but some sophisticated small airplane. The car’s unique design is shaped like the fuselage of someone’s unique airplane featured in a Popular Mechanics magazine, it is actually a new bread of car, that can work on both gas and electricity. Aptera also has great potential in the market because of the car’s green design. The interior of the car, including the appulstry on the seats are all made from recycled plastic cups and bottles. The car is fuel efficient because of its aerodynamic design, causing less drag and allowing the driver to excellerate quicker without gunning the engine and burning excessive fuel. Another environmental or green feature of the car is that it is also equipped with an electric motor, not a gasoline or diesel engine, but it needs to be recharged by being plugged into the wall. The drawback of the car is that it is very small and seats only two people. The Aptera car can go for 100 miles on one charge. The car needs to be recharged for one night, which might not be the ideal car for those who drive frequently.

Aptera and this unique car is the brain child of entrepreneur Steve Fambro, who grew up with a love for cars and work on cars, since before he could drive one. Mr. Fambro, in his early adulthood has served in the Army, where he worked as an electrical engineer, repairing electronic equipment. Along with the rising tide of the green movement, this sprung the idea of building a very efficient car that does not run on conventional fuel, but to use electricity. Mr. Fambro also has experience in aviation, as one of his hobbies is flying composite airplanes. These factors were all influential in the Aptera car’s design. Mr. Fambro’s love of composite airplanes is the driving influence of the aerodynamic design of the car’s body, his experience in electrical engineering was the driving force in the creation of the car’s electric motor. Being environmentally friendly is the reason for the interior to be made from recycled plastics. Besides being the founder of Aptera, Mr. Fambro is also the company’s CEO.

Another cofounder of Aptera is Chris Anthony, who is also the company’s COO. Mr. Anthony is an avid boat builder and also founded Epic Boats, LLC. Epic Boats, LLC is also a successful company with special resin compounds used for the construction of the company’s boats have also played a role in creating the material used for the body of the Aptera car. Mr. Anthony also has quite a bit of experience and knowledge in both hydrodynamics and aerodynamics, used both in the constructions of his boats at Epic Boats, LLC and the Aptera prototype car. Mr. Anthony also used his knowledge in both hydrodynamics and aerodynamics to build award winning high-speed whitewater kayaks.

Aptera is based in Carlsbad, California and is a privately owned corporation. Aptera’s investors include Idea Lab, Esenjay Petrolium, the Quercus Trust, and Google.org.

Idea Lab is a vc firm that thinks ahead to build groundbreaking companies. Idea Lab mainly likes to invest in entrepreneurs who have a product or service that is innovative and will change the way we live, work and think. Some of the companies in Idea Lab’s portfolio include Cooking.com, Petsmart, eToys, Desktop Factory, and others.

Google.org is the philanthropic arm of Google and is dedicated to investing in companies that have exceptional green-tech product prototypes.

Aptera does have a competitor, Tesla Motors, which is a company that is aiming to build a sports car that runs solely on an electric motor. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and is based in San Carlos, California. Tesla Motors has 270 employees and four people on its management team.

For more information about Aptera, click here.

A unique market has appeared in the internet industry. This market is also part of the growing social networking market, but this company actually allows you to create your own social network and even make it either a public or private social network. Introducing Ning, the online social network creator. In order to create an online social network on Ning, you have to sign up for the service and it is free. Ning generates it revenues on advertising, using Google ads that are incorporated into all the networks.

From the surface, Ning programable platform looks good, however, their signing in process can be challenging. To sign in, you must type in your name, email address, a password, and you must choose your country of residence and your local postal code; zip code if you are in the United States. This process is rather simple, but when you go to create your social network, this might be a bit of a problem. Your API can only contain letters, no symbols, and some people may already have the API address you want and you might have to modify it. You might have to try a few times before your API is successfully registered. As you build your profile, Ning allows you to upload your own photo and add other personal information that you would like to add to your social network.

Once you are ready to create your own social network, as mentioned before, you can make your network either public and open to everyone or private and open to a few select friends of yours. This is the first option as you go on to create your social network. Above that is the name of your network. Below the public or private option, you are prompted to type in a tag line for your social network. After the tag line, you will need to type in a short description of your network, which cannot be more than 140 words. Below that you will be prompted to type in keywords for your network to make it optimized for the search engines.

After all the important aspects of your network are typed in, you will need to select your language, country and zip code or postal code. After that, you can click next.

After clicking next, you will open a page that will allow you to add features to your website. On this page, you can add all kinds of features; including forums, groups, blogs, music, descriptions, or chats. Adding these features is very easy, simply drag them into your network diagram. For adding the chat feature, you need to click on the check box next to the chat symbol. After you are done with all that, click on the next button.

After you have clicked the next button, you will open a page that allows you to customize your social network. You have six designed webpages that you can choose from to build a face to your network. You can also make your themes unique by selecting all kinds of tabs that allow you to customize all the features of the template that you chose. You can click on the all options tab, which allows you to change the colors of every feature of the template that you would like to change. You can also allow members to change the color of the text if you like that sort of thing. The advanced tab is for those of you who are the great programmers and like to mess around with html and css codes. This is one thing that Ning has that makes it great. It has the basics for beginners and all kinds of advance programming features for those who are internet and html savvy. There is something for everyone here.

Once you have chosen to change what ever features you wanted to change, simply click on the launch button to launch your social network out there in the wild worldwide web.

Once you have launched your network, you can always edit features to your network pages at a later time if you choose to do so. In fact, to keep having the search engines indexing your network, you should change things periodically. In this respect, Ning does not only allow you to build your very own social network, but give it the professional fling to it as well.

How does the social network that you have just created work? It works great. You can add all kinds of features at any time, post blogs and even allow others to comment on your blogs if you wish. Once you have successfully launched your new social network, Ning will send you an email with the URLs and APIs of your new social networks.

Who are the people behind Ning? Ning was created by two internet innovators, Gina Bianchini and Marc Andressen.

Gina Bianchini is a cofounder of Ning and also serves as the company’s CEO. Ms. Bianchini has had quite a bit of experience in the social network industry. Before participating in founding Ning, she worked at Harmonic Communications, where she was also a cofounder of that company and CMO. Prior to that Ms. Bianchini worked at CKS as Director of Business Development and Investor Relations, as well as at Goldman Sachs, where she worked as a financial analyst. Gina Bianchini graduated from Stanford University with a BA, and then went on to the Stanford School of Business, where she received an MBA.

The other cofounder of Ning is Marc Andressen, who serves the company as the chairman. Mr. Andressen is also an investor, who has invested in several startups, which include Digg, Plazes, and Twitter. Mr. Andressen is an avid blogger and is also a multi-millionaire software designer behind designing Mosaic, which was later to be known as Netscape Navigator. Mr. Andressen also founded Netscape, which was the producer of Mosaic and later Netscape Navigator, which was the world’s first web browser until Microsoft developed Internet Explorer. Other experiences that Mr. Andressen has under his belt, including working for Opsware as the company chairman and later as the CTO of AOL, when AOL received Netscape as an acquisition. Mr. Andressen graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences.

Ning has also gotten a fair share of coverage in the media. In a CNN report from May 29, 2009, Ning was reported to be changing the future of social networking by allowing users to create their own social networks. CNN also reported that in January of 2009, Ning has had over 4.7 million unique visitors and over a million social networks.

On April 23, 2009, Gina Bianchini was interviewed by CNN and she explained on the CNN newscast that Ning would be the social networking industry like cable television was to the television industry. Ning can also allow users to create their own social networks so that people can make new friends who have the same interests. Ms. Bianchini also indicated that with the million social networks on Ning’s server, the social networks can vary from topic to topic. Some of the networks created on Ning include a social network for moms who love to twitter, people who love fashion, etc. Ms. Bianchini also told CNN in this interview that besides advertising, Ning also generates revenues by offering premium services to its network creators and that some people are even using their Ning social networks as businesses and Ning’s premium services work very well for those people.

Gina Bianchini also appeared on CNBC on April 16, 2009 and also talked about Ning. Ms. Bianchini told CNBC that Ning has two methods of generating revenue. The first method is through targeted advertising, which is advertising targeted to specific social networks, for example, on one of Ning’s most famous network, moms who love twitter; advertisers which would target products for moms and twitter users. The other method was by offering premium services to its network creators.

Ning is based in Palo Alto, California and has over 80 employees. The company was founded in 2004 and is a privately owned company.

Ning’s main investor is Marc Andressen, who is also the company’s cofounder. Mr. Andressen invested undisclosed amounts in both series A and B funding for the company.

Legg Mason Global Asset Management invested $44 million in series C funding in July of 2007, and $60 million in series D funding in April of 2008.

Legg Mason is an asset management firm that was founded in 1899 and over the past 110 years has evolved into a global asset managing outfit, with offices in Poland, Australia, and based in Baltimore, Maryland. Legg Mason has an investor arm of its corporation, which invested in Ning. Some of these investment arms include Legg Mason Capital Management, Legg Mason Global Equities Group, etc.

Ning does have quite a few competitors, however, KickApps is the one that stands out the most. KickApps also has a service similar to that offered by Ning, allowing people to create their own social networks. KickApps is a privately owned company that employs 80 people and is based in New York City. The company was founded in 2004 and has 11 people on its management team.

For more information about Ning, click here.

Though Ning created the market for online social networking, competition did not take long to appear on the horizon. KickApps is an online social network service that also offers its users to create their very own social networks, and strickingly similar to Ning. Registration, however, takes a long time, depending on the internet connection you have.

Like Ning, KickApps also allows you to customize your social network, but Ning appears to work much more smoothly that KickApps. Ning is very user friendly, where as KickApps can have some glitches here and there when you are creating your social network on KickApps. Another drawback of KickApps is that the choices available to network creators are very limited. Yes, they have more appearances for websites than Ning has, but Ning also allows its network creators to mess around with htmls and to change the colors of the social network sites. Once you have created your network on KickApps, you have the option to either view your social network or to manage it. One of the problems with KickApps is that there is no link to return to the KickApps editorial page, where the tools needed are to manage your social network. With Ning’s service, you are able to manage your social network right in your own social networking site.

When you are managing your network with KickApps, you can do much of the same things that you can do with Ning. For example, you can add apps to your network simply by dragging and dropping them into a square on the middle of the page. The different apps are located on a bar at the top of the page. The problem is how to incorporate this into your network. Ning makes everything easy to understand. Dragging and Dropping is a method that was developed by Apple, when they designed their first personal computer and this method has been picked up by all kinds of other computer-based platforms because of its easy use. However, with KickApps, it can be difficult to tell where the activation button or link is. Ning makes it much easier with either a next or launch button clearly visible on each page. This may be fine with computer savvy people, who like challenges, but as for novices, this has the potential to turn them away and have them go to Ning, which has an interface that is much more easy to use. KickApps does, however, compensate somewhat for the above mentioned shortcomings by providing links to tutorial blogs written by network creators who are knowledgeable in html code and sometimes you can even find the html code in those tutorials clearly written out.

The founder of KickApps is Prof. Eric Alterman, who is a distinguished professor of English at Brooklyn College and he is also a professor of Journalism at the City University of New York Graduate School. Prof. Alternan also writes many articles for various major media groups, including “The Liberal Media,” as well as Media Matters, which was formerly part of MSNBC. Prof. Alterman is as well the editor of the “Think Again” column for the World Policy Institute, which is part of the New School in New York. Prof. Alterman has also written over six books about media and he is also KickApp’s chairman and sits on the company’s board of directors. Prof. Alterman also sits on the board of directors of FLORA.tv, and affiliate of KickApps.

KickApps is based in New York City and has 80 employees. The company was founded in 2004, has 12 people on its management team, and seven people on its board of directors. KickApps is a privately owned company.

Some of KickApps investors include SoftBank Capital, Spark Capital, and North Atlantic Capital.

SoftBank capital was founded to make solid investments in US based early stage companies in the tech industry. SoftBank mainly invests in three sectors of the tech industry: content, applications, and tech-based services. Other companies in SoftBank’s portfolio include DeskTone, Echo, LiteSpace, Pivot, and others.

Spark Capital is a vc firm that is dedicated to disrupting the markets and likes to invests in companies that have new and innovative technologies or intellectual property that have enormous market potential. Some other companies in Spark’s portfolio include Inform, InTune, Kapteeva, Omgpop, OneRiot, Send Me, and others.

North Atlantic Capital is a vc firm, who’s dedication is to companies with strong management teams and are poised for success in the marketplace. North Atlantic Capital was founded in 1986 and since then it has funded over 64 companies and has over $200 million in assets. Other companies included in North Atlantic’s portfolio include AeroStat, Astadia, CyberTrust, iContact, Synacor, Tangoe, and others.

For more information about KickApps, click here.

The leading pioneer of the travel search engine market, Kayak.com has launched a new separate search engine for the savvy traveler looking for a good price on airfares, hotels, car rentals, and more. Introducing SideStep.com, which is a search engine dedicated to the traveler. SideStep.com is free to use and generates its revenues from advertising and featuring travel agents. You also have the option to register an account with SideStep.com to get regular emails on travel bargains, but it is not necessary.

How does SideStep work? Well, if you are familiar with its parent company, Kayak.com, it works on the same time. When you open the SideStep website, you will see at the top right-hand corner of the website with the option to sign in if you are a member of SideStep.com or the register option, if you choose to do so. In the middle part of the page there is a set of seven main tabs and next to those seven tabs that allows you to subscribe to an online newsletter and feedback, where you can leave feedback.

The first main tab is the Flight Tab and the SideStep homepage opens on that tab. This tab is the tab for finding the flight to your destination and what the price of the airfare as well as a timetable of those flights. For example, if you would like to fly to Moscow, from Chicago, you need to type from the departure city Chicago. If you know the airport code, such as the airport code for Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is ORD, you can type that in as well. If you do type in the airport code, it will give you the city and the airport as well as the airport code. In the destination box, you can type in Moscow’s airports or codes. If you do not know the airport codes of Moscow’s airports, just type in Moscow and then click on the search button. You can also choose your dates of departure and return before hitting the search button. You also have the option of choosing a hotel or rental car as well. So, suppose you have chosen a flight from Chicago O’Hare to Moscow, Russian Federation for a trip from June 30 to July 10, 2009, click on the search button after entering the data. After clicking on the search button, you will find a whole list of airlines and their flights along with the price. One thing you should note is that annoying pop-up ads will come up during the search. In this search, you will see that there is a large variety of airlines that fly to Moscow from Chicago. You can choose to fly either United, Delta, American, Multiple Airlines, BMI or Lufthansa. On the list you can also click on the more details link for details of the flight. This gives you information on airports, with stops and times and price. It will also give you information on which agencies that you can use to book these flights online, such as Orbitz or Priceline, etc.

The second tab of the main tabs is the Hotels Tab. When you click on this tab, you will find that you can type in a city where you want to book a hotel and a date for checking in and checking out. You have already booked a flight to Moscow, so now you need a hotel. Type in Moscow, and the checkin and checkout dates should correspond with the dates of arrival in Moscow and departure from Moscow. For example. If your flight from Chicago to Moscow arrives in the morning of the next day after your departure from Chicago, July 1, type in July 1 for the checkin date. Your checkout date should be the date of your departure from Moscow. Click on the search button to find the hotels available in Moscow. You will find a whole list of hotels and the price per night. You will also find the star rating of the hotels. Suppose you want a cheap hotel. You can scroll up and down the list and you will find, for example that Hotel Milan is rather affordable with a $85 per night fee and is a three-star hotel. If this hotel suites your needs, click on the details link for this hotel. This will give you a list of all the agencies and their prices, taxes and service fees per night to book the hotel. You can also write comments of reviews of this hotel if you choose to do so.

The third tab is the Cars Tab, which is designed to help you to rent a car at your destination. You already have your flight and your hotel, now you might need to rent a car. You can type in the pickup location and drop off location. Logically you would want to pick up your car at the airport where you arrive. Suppose you arrive at Moscow’s Domodiedovo Airport. Type in either the airport code, or the city and the airport name, make sure your dates correspond with your arrival and departure dates. One nice feature of SideStep is that the dates will stay fixed throughout your entire search, then click the search button. Upon clicking on the search button you will find all the car rentals at Domodiedovo Airport and you can also click on details to find out more or even email the rental organization. You will also find the price per day.

The fourth tab is the Vacations Tab, which allows you to plan your vacations by booking your flight, including a price for both you and your spouse or significant other and children, if any are going with you. Works just like the Flights Tab.

The fifth tab is the Cruises Tab, which is dedicated to booking cruises. To find out about cruises available, you can choose a destination from the destination menu. For example, you want to go on a Trans-Atlantic cruise, click on the Transatlantic choice on the destinations menu. Then select your state of residence, and you can also choose a length of your cruise to be a specific length or any length as well as either any cruise line or a specific cruise line. Once you have made your choices, click on the search button. You will find that the only cruise line that offers Transatlantic Cruises is the Cunard Line and the ship that makes the cruises is the Queen Mary 2. You can see that there are three Transatlantic cruises, one is eastbound with the departure from Brooklyn to sail straight to London, South Hampton. You also have two westbound routs with the Queen Mary 2 sailing from London with ports of call being Halifax and the final destination being Brooklyn. You will also find the prices of the staterooms available on the ship.

The sixth tab is the Buzz Tab which is a tab that allows you to find the cheapest flights from your home town to 25 different cities.

The seventh tab is the Deals Tab, which shows you the best vacation deals available to all kinds of different destinations worldwide.

SideStep is based in Santa Clara, California and was founded in 1999. SideStep has 14 people on its management team and twelve people on its board of directors.

SideStep’s investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Saints Capital, and Trident Capital.

Norwest Venture Partners is one of the oldest vc firms, operating for over 48 years and has over $2.5 billion in venture capital under its management. Norwest Venture Partners invests in all stages of a company’s life and the sizes of investments can range from $1 to $3 million to $30 million. Some companies in Norwest’s portfolio include 3jam, Adzilla, BRAND.net, Cameraworld.com, Centerd, DeCarta, and others.

Saints Capital is based in San Francisco, California and invests in secondary investments of a company. Saints Capital is also an active investor with one of its general partners joining a portfolio company’s board of directors or management team. Some companies in Saints Capital’s portfolio include 3Par, Acorda, Acsis, Adexa, Allied Textiles, and others.

Founded in 1993, Trident Capital is both a vc firm and a private equity firm that has $1.6 billion of capital under its management. Trident invests in companies of all sizes and in multiple industries. Some companies in Trident’s portfolio include HIP Digital, Kayak, Spire, Timelines, Pegasus, US Interactive, and others.

SideStep does have some competitors. Its major competitor, however, is Priceline. Priceline is an online service for leisure travelers to enable them to book flights, hotels, and car rentals. Priceline was founded in 1997 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and is a privately owned corporation.

For more information about SideStep.com, click here.

Yet another travel social network joins the online social network market, which is becoming a rather competitive market. Dopplr is a traveler social network that is somewhat different from the conventional social networks related to travel, such as Ruba.com and Tripwolf. What makes Dopplr.com different is that it makes your pravel tips more private and allows you to add emails of some of your close correspondents, whereas Tripwolf and Ruba.com make your travel tips public. Dopplr.com is not for everybody. For those of you who like to share their travel tips or past trips with anyone, Ruba.com and Tripwolf are more for you. Dopplr.com, however, is more for the business traveler or the personal traveler who travels frequently and wants to share your information with only a select few, whom you know. Dopplr.com also works together with other social networks, such as Linkedin, Facebook, etc. One other drawback to Dopplr.com, is for those of you who are more conservative or are opposed to the idea of a “carbon footprint,” which is hot in the news today; you might not like Dopplr.com since it has a section which calculates your carbon usage for your trips.

How does Dopplr.com work? Well, quite simple. First you need to sign in or join the network. Joining the Dopplr network is free and you need to add your email, your name, have a screen name, and you need to type in and retype a password. Once you typed this information in, you can type in a list of emails of people, with whom you want to share your travel tips. You do have the option of typing in those emails at a later time. You can even type your own greeting in with that list of emails.

Once you are signed into the Dopplr network, you will have five tabs to view. The first tab is your overview. Your overview will tell you where you are, the time in your home town, and you can also write your own journal in the overview tab. Your overview tab also has a map of popular destinations.

The second tab is the “Your Trips” tab. This tab allows you to put in all your past and present trips. You can write about the destinations where you have been to and how the airports at those destinations are, where there are good hotels, restaurants, etc.

The third tab is the Tips tab. This tab allows you to write tips about the places you have been to or frequent. These tips can also be emailed to your contacts in your email lists.

The fourth tab is the Fellow Travelers tab, which is a tab that lists the group of people in your contact list of people who also are frequent travelers. You can email fellow travelers and share information about different destinations and what is noteworthy about these destinations.

The fifth and the last tab is the Carbon Tab. This is what might turn some people off or attract others, depending on their views on the carbon footprint issue. To this tab you add your trips and then Dopplr.com will anonymously add your trip to the AMEE servers to calculate your carbon usage.

Dopplr.com also has an online store on its website where you can order various different types of travel items or services. Some of the products and services in the Dopplr Store include WiFi services throughout European airports, guide books, map stickers, and others. Some of the services that are very useful for the internet savvy traveler, especially for business travelers, is the Trustive International WiFi connection service. This service is available in 65000 hotspots worldwide. Prices at the Dopplr Store are marked in different currencies, mainly in the British Pound, the Euro, or the US Dollar, depending where the product or service is based in.

Dopplr also has a blog where you can write blogs about travel related subjects or read other blogs from other travelers on Dopplr.com.

Dopplr.com was founded in Helsinki Finland in 2007 and is a privately owned corporation. Dopplr.com also has offices in London and in Silicon Valley.

In January 4, 2009, Lisa Sounio, member of Dopplr.com’s board of directors, was featured in the Guardian’s Observer, where she discussed that Dopplr.com is the travel social network for the Facebook and Twitter generation of travelers. In the Observer, Ms. Sounio stated that Dopplr.com allows users to keep track of their fellow travelers online and can share information about trips with their fellow travelers logged onto the Dopplr network.

In Time Magazine, in the February 4, 2008 issue, Dopplr.com was featured in an article titled “Let’s Go to Lunch in London,” where the author of the article wrote that Dopplr.com “takes the luck out of meeting up” for frequent travelers. The article went on to further state that Dopplr.com allows users to plug in all their trips for months to come and share information with fellow travelers. Furthermore, Lisa Sounio, who was then Dopplr.com’s CEO was also featured in the article.

Dopplr.com’s investors include Martin Varsavsky, Reid Hoffman, the Accelerator Group, Joichi Ito, and other individuals.

The Accelerator Group or TAG is a vc firm that works with both entrepreneurs and global vc firms to build companies in the internet and telecommunications industries. Some other companies in the TAG protfolio include Kublax, My Builder, My Heritage, OpenX, Wonga, etc.

Dopplr.com received its seed round of funding in September of 2007, and series A funding in September of 2008.

Dopplr.com does have some competitors. The three major competitors of Dopplr.com are YowTRIP, Triplt, and TripSay.

YowTRIP is a traveler social network which offers a service similar to that of Dopplr.com. YowTRIP is an online gathering of world travelers and allows members of the network keep track with other travelers logged onto the site where ever they are, whether at home or on the road; also similar to the service provided by Dopplr.com. YowTRIP was founded in September of 2007 and is based in Montreal, Canada.

Triplt is a travel network that is designed for the do-it-yourself traveler and allows the user to plan their trips and create a master itinerary. Triplt was founded in October of 2006 and is based in San Francisco, California. Triplt is a privately owned company and employs 8 people along with three people on its management team.

TripSay is a travel social network which is a website that has an intelligent network which can help travelers who want to make their next trip a unique adventure. TripSay was founded in 2006 and is based in Helsinki Finland, like Dopplr.com. TripSay is a privately owned corporation.

For more information about Dopplr.com, click here.

The internet is always generating new markets, from internet related products to services. Finding a job can be very difficult for some people, who may not necessarily know how to look for jobs or have had enough of reading the classifieds to find a job. Well, the internet has generated a market for those people too. Not only is this a large lucrative market, but a competitive one as well. One of the companies in this market is Simply Hired, which is dedicated to finding you a job. The website is actually a search engine dedicated to scan all areas throughout the United States and you can find either a part-time or full-time job by simply typing in your zip code. You can also register with Simply Hired to get even more benefits, though you do not need to be a member to search for jobs on the site.

If you do choose to be a member of Simply Hired, some of the benefits include managing email alerts, manage searches, and post resumes online. Registration does not cost anything.

The way Simply Hired works is that you have a search bar where you can write the description of a job you are looking for and by typing you zip code, you can localize your search. You can also click on links at the top of the Simply Hired website to streamline your search. For example, if you click on the local jobs link, you can type in your city and above that you can type in keywords. Suppose you want to find a part-time job for the summer, you can type in the key words “part-time jobs” or “summer jobs.” Simply Hired will find all the part-time or summer jobs throughout your locality. For example, suppose you live in Michigan City, Indiana; you type in Michigan City, IN in the location bar and you have typed in the above mentioned key words, and you will see a whole list of part-time jobs in your area spanning 30 miles from where you live. The first choice that appears in the list is a link that shows openings for part-time and full-time bar tenders in Gary, Indiana. This may be a bit far for some people, especially when a bar tender’s job mainly is in the evening to the night hours. You can also see in green lettering where this opening was discovered and how many days it was posted. In this list, it shows that this opening was posted 13 days ago from Career Builder. This can be a long time and it is possible that the positions may have been filled. Let’s see what happens if we look at the opening. The link explains that a bar tender can expect to make $40 to $60 an hour and explains the job requirements. You can also apply online by clicking on Career Builder’s apply button.

The second choice is an entry level sales position in Michigan City. The green text shows that this opening was posted six days ago by Career Builder. You can see when you click on the link, that this opening was put out by Vector, which is based in Canada and has worked with local stores in Michigan City. If you click on the Apply button, you get a page out of Vector and you are prompted to enter your zip code. Once you type in your zip code, an online application appears where you will be prompted to type in your email, first name, last name, one of three telephone numbers, and your street address. The application will also ask you if you are under 18 years of age and you will have to select a point that is next to a yes or no. This question also implies that you must be at least 17 and a high school graduate. Under that question is another question that asks whether you are a student or not. Again, this question is also a yes or no question. The third question asks what your highest schooling is with two selections, one high school, and the second being college or university. Under this selection you have a text bar, where you are prompted to type in the name of either your high school, college, or university. Another question will ask if you are currently employed or not, a yes or no question, then if the answer is yes, there is a text bar where you can write who your current employer’s name if you are currently employed. After these basic questions, you will be asked if you like to work with other people (important for customer service jobs). This question is to be answered in a paragraph box with 75 words maximum. The last question on the online application deals with your hobbies and interests. This question is to be answered in ten words.

On the original Career Builder page for this job opening, you also have the option to call the company directly, the phone number is posted on the page.

Simply Hired is a privately owned company that was founded in 2003 and is based in Mountain View, California. The people on Simply Hired’s managment team are Gautam Godhwani, CEO and cofounder; Dion Lim, President and COO; Brian Corey, Senior Vice President of Sales; and James Levine, Vice President of Engineering.

At Simply Hired, Mr. Godhwani is the head hancho of the company. He is the driving force that is the key to the company’s success. Mr. Godhwani is an individual who is very ambitious in all of his endeavors, and furthermore he has quite a bit of experience in launching new startups. Some of the other startups that Gautam Godhwani has founded include the India Community Center and AtWeb, which was acquired by Netscape in 1998 and was the developer of the Website Garage, an internet tool for small businesses to fine tune their websites.

Dion Lim is the person who makes sure that everything at Simply Hired runs smoothly. As the company’s COO, Mr. Lim is in charge of all the company’s operation. Mr. Lim is also an entrepreneur who founded startups as well. Before coming to Simply Hired, he founded Epinions.com, which is now Shop.com, Dot-com Petri Dish, and others.

Brian Corey is the wizard at sales and has been the driving force behind making key sales for Simply Hired. Before Simply Hired, Mr. Corey was a sales executive at Monster.com and has over 25 years in sales and marketing experience.

James Levine makes sure that Simply Hired runs smoothly, like a well oiled machine. Mr. Levine is the architect of the technical systems that keep Simply Hired running. Mr. Levine has over 20 years in experience in consulting and has worked with many large companies, such as Sony, Xerox, IBM, Hewlett Packard, and others.

Simply Hired’ s investors include Garage Technology Ventures, Fox Interactive Media, News Corporation, and Foundation Capital.

Simply Hired does have quite a few competitors. Some of the major competitors include Jobster and CareerJet.

Jobster is a website that allows you to build your profile to attract prospective employers. This website has a slightly different approach to the online job search by integrating social networking with a job search and target advertising to link you with other people that could find you a job. Jobster was founded in 2004 and is based in Seattle, Washington. The company has five people on its management team and one person on its board of directors.

CareerJet is the “user friendly” job search engine on the internet. It advertises itself to make it simple for you to find a job on the internet by using its search engine. CareerJet is based in London and was founded in April 1, 2002. CareerJet is a privately owned LLC and two people on its board of directors.

For more information about Simply Hired, click here.

It seems like the social network market never ceases to grow in both the financial value, but the spread of subjects as well. Lately the social network market has been filled with social networks that cover media and pop culture, travel, and now business. SocialPicks is the social network for those people who follow the stock market and other business news. The website is currently undergoing public beta testing and it is being sponsored by some of the leading media names covering the business news, including Tech Crunch, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNBC, and others.

What does SocialPicks offer? Well, social picks offers a service where individuals who follow the stock market can blog each other and discuss all aspects of the stock market, what companies are doing well or not so well, which stocks are good, and so on. To fully participate in the service that SocialPicks has to offer, you need to sign up and create your own account with SocialPicks, and it is free.

Toward the top of the page, you will see a set of tabs. First, is the Home tab, which will take you to SocialPicks homepage. The next tab is the Picks tab. This tab will link you to all the picks that SocialPicks has to offer with all kinds of stock market information. Along with the picks blogs, you can write your own comment for what ever picks that interest you.

The third tab is the Investor tab, which provides you with portfolios of all stocks that are available for investments. You can choose all portfolios, which will show all the portfolios that are registered with SocialPicks website, you can also choose low risk portfolios, which are portfolios of stocks that do not have a high risk and your investments in these stocks are less likely to be lost, yet returns will not be as high either. You can also choose the Medium Risk link, which will show portfolios about companies that show a higher risk and can also provide higher returns. Finally, you can also click on the High Risk link, which will show companies that are the highest risks. This tab can allow investors to make good decisions on what stocks to invest in.

The fourth tab is the Group tab, which is a tab that shows financial groups and as you click on this tab, you will find a whole list of groups and the number of their members. In this tab, you can click on the individual groups that are listed on the group tab. When you click on the links of these different groups, you can find an in depth detailed information about that group and what they discuss. You can discuss about different companies, which ones are bullish or which ones are bearish.

The fifth tab is the Discuss! tab. This tab allows users to have discussions about various events going on in the business world, what company’s stocks are good for investing in, etc.

The sixth and the last tab is the Research tab, which allows you to do research on the different stocks and companies. On this tab, you can find graphs and videos of various companies, how they are faring in their earnings, how their stocks are doing in the stock market, and you can also see how the different markets and stock exchanges are doing. You can aas well get updated currency exchange rates of all the major traded currencies, the US Dollar, the Euro, the Chinese Yuan, and the Japanese Yen. The research tab also shows how various industries are doing. This is all the information any savvy businessman needs to know when planning to invest. On the right hand side of the research tab, below the videos, you have links to updated information about various companies and how they are faring in the market.

SocialPicks is a privately owned company that is based in Palo Alto, California and was founded in 2006. The company’s management team has two people, Weiting Liu, cofounder and Keven Lin, CTO.

In December of 2007, SocialPicks received funding of $500,000 in series A funding from Bay Partners. Bay Partners was founded in 1976 and has since then worked with entrepreneurs who are striving to start their companies and turn them into profitable corporations. Bay Partners mainly invests in new and growing companies that are in the IT and healthcare industries. Some of the companies in Bay Partners’ portfolio include Advanced Power, Envia, OncoMed, DynaTrace, Interact 911, LiveMedia, Likew.com, and others.

SocialPicks does have a few competitors. The two major competitors are Cake Financial and Investor Avenue.

Like SocialPicks, Cake Financial is also a financial social network, which provides much of the same services as does SocialPicks. Cake Financial is a social network that also is aimed at those who are saving up for retirement and have their money in 401k packages. Cake Financial is based in San Francisco and is a privately owned corporation. Cake Financial has four people on its management team and eight people on its board of directors.

Colorodo based Investor Avenue is an online social network for those who invest in the stock markets. This network is for entrepreneurs, investors, and other people in the business community. The company was founded in 2007 and is privately owned. One person sits on Investor Avenue’s management team, Kelly Burton, who is also the company founder.

For more information about SocialPicks, click here.

With more people using the internet in this day and age, online privacy can be a very serious issue. Furthermore, within the United States and the rest of the Western world, adults are using the internet more for getting their tidbits of news and current events and their children are using the internet to socialize with their peers, get help with problems with their homework, play games, or download music. In today’s society, it is estimated that over 87% of children are tech savvy and spend hours on the internet. This can pose problems too. Children may not always make rational or intelligent decisions online. This can be a very serious problem, especially if your children disclose physical information, such as your address or financial information. What can be even more dangerous is if your child arranges to meet someone that he or she has met on the internet. Many teens can also be addicted to the internet and can be spending all their time on the internet and start shunning friends and family, neglecting homework or other obligations. If these are any of your problems, well, now there is a service out there that can help you with these issues and other problems as well. Introducing TRUSTe, a nonprofit company that is dedicated to helping both businesses and consumers manage and maintain their online privacy and security.

TRUSTe also has programs that you can download to manage all your online problems dealing with privacy or security. There is a variety of programs you can download with different prices for the programs. These programs are mainly for e-commerce or e-business people. The first program also provides a service that costs $49.00 per month. This is the basic service, which provides security and a trustworthy seal for people who have an online store or service. With this service, the online businessman can also add the TRUSTe seal onto its website. This program, which has a $49.00 per month provides the user with TRUSTe’s basic services, which include the TRUSTe Verified Seal, which is a seal that is placed on the user’s e-commerce website and makes the website more apt to generate more sales. This service also provides the online business owner with TRUSTe’s Easy Privacy Policy Generator. This is a program that can easily build a privacy policy that will fit the needs of the respective business owners who subscribe to this service.

The next service that TRUSTe provides costs $249.00, but this price, however, does not specify if it is a one-time fee, a monthly fee, or a yearly fee. This service has more options available than the above mentioned service. This service provides the user with TRUSTe’s more involved services without TRUSTe’s seal. One of the services with this program is the Starter Privacy Policy, which is a template that the user can use to put together a privacy policy that is up to the best standards of the industry. The other service put out by this program is the Online Management, which gives the user a platform to manage his policy and his TRUSTe account in one place by using the TRUSTe Online Portal.

The third service package that TRUSTe provides its users is their best service package wich has a yearly fee of $649.00. This program offers the user a Certified Privacy Policy with the TRUSTe Seal, which displays the TRUSTe certified seal on the user’s website and also certifies the user’s privacy policy and has the privacy policy to be endorsed by TRUSTe. This service is also ideal for non e-commerce businesses. This program also provides the user with One-to-One Privacy Consultations with TRUSTe and allows the subscriber to contact TRUSTe’s trained privacy experts about their privacy policies.

If you look at the Businesses Tab on the website, you will also find useful information about how businesses and enterprises can use TRUSTe’s services and services to generate more business on their e-commerce websites. TRUSTe also makes it known that it respects the EU’s Safe Harbor Policy, which can provide the user with world-class tools to do business worldwide.

TRUSTe, however, is not only for online business people, but for the online consumer as well. If you click on the Consumer Tab, you will find a whole wealth of information about online safety and privacy protection tips for the online consumers. The first thing on the list in the Consumer Tab is a PDF file which explains in great detail on how to protect you and your family’s online privacy and security. This instructional PDF file also educates parents and teachers how to protect their children from very real online threats, such as pedophiles, who lurk online for children who might be gullible enough to arrange to meet them at some strange places. Most child abductions that are perpetrated by strangers are of pedophiles who lured their victims from an online chat. This is very important information for anyone with children or deals with children and the internet. You can also click on the Work and Play With Confidence link and you will also find more useful information on this subject. This website also has under the Consumer Tab a whole list of links with tips on how you can protect your privacy online. These links can teach you about spyware, which is a program that you can naively download and it will spy on you every time you are online. Spyware is especially dangerous, because it can make you prone to identity theft by gleaning sensitive personal financial information, such as your social security number, credit or debit card numbers, etc. This link will also teach you about anti-spyware and how to keep it up to date. Other links are available to teach you about viruses and antivirus programs, pop-up blockers and managing your cookies as well.

You also have the TRUSTe Blog, where you can share information on how to police yourself on the internet. You can also get good information from this tab.

TRUSTe is based in San Francisco, California and was founded in 1997 and is a private corporation. The company has three people on its management team and 13 people on its board of directors. The three people on TRUSTe’s management are Fran Maier, CEO; Chris Russell, COO; and Maureen Cooney, CPO and Vice President of Public Policy.

Fran Maier joined TRUSTe as the company’s CEO in 2001 and is a great asset to the company. Ms. Maier has over 15 years of experience in internet trust and privacy. During Ms. Maier’s tenure at TRUSTe, the company grew and certified over 3000 websites, some of which are big household names; which include Microsoft, AT&T, Apple, Facebook, and the NFL. Ms. Maier is responsible for growing TRUSTe from just a service website to a service that provides downloadable software to protect both businesses’ and consumers’ privacy online. Ms. Maier is also a cofounder of Match.com, where she set the precedent for online privacy in the online dating industry. Ms. Maier is also an activist on the issue of online privacy and security, and travels around to give speeches about how people can protect their privacy on the internet. Ms. Maier even went before the US Congress, Federal Trade Commission, and the US Department of Commerce.

As TRUSTe’s COO, Chris Russell has brought to the company over 20 years of experience in growth initiatives for both IT and internet based service companies. Mr. Russell’s experience also includes working for several major companies, such as WageWorks and ArcSite. Mr. Russell also worked for the Oracle Corporation, where he played an important role in launching their On Demand business.

Maureen Cooney is also a great asset to TRUSTe as the company’s CPO and Vice President of Public Policy. She brings to the company deep experience in privacy policy making and has a career in the privacy and security protection for companies in both the private and public sectors that spans over 20 years. Ms. Cooney also worked at the US Department of Homeland Security as the agency’s leading privacy expert, and in her position at the DHS, she made numerous appearances before Congress to discuss privacy issue.

TRUSTe has one major investor, Accel Partners, which is a global vc firm that has been around for over 25 years and has offices in the United States, London, China, and India. The Accel Team is dedicated to the success of the vc firm’s portfolio companies. All of the members of Accel’s team are experienced in various key management positions in the tech industry and also have a great deal of experience in venture development. Accel’s entrepreneurs can benefit from the experience that Accel’s partners have to offer. Some companies in Accel’s portfolio include Facebook, Real, UUNET, JBoss, BitTorrent, the Foundry Network, Riverbed, Glam.com, and others.

For more information about TRUSTe, click here.

Yet another online travel guide club has started to come into the increasingly lucrative and competitive online travel market. There is now a wolf among Ruba.com, Gekko, and Nextstop.com — the Tripwolf. Tripwolf is a travel club that offers a service similar to Ruba.com but takes it one step further. Tripwolf does not only provide travel guides to plan your trips with or create your own guides, it also allows you to book hotels anywhere in the world, see what other people say about different places to go to, etc. Tripwolf has it all. There is even a Tripwolf App for your iPhone. The way that Tripwolf works is very simple. First, like all social networks, you need to register and create your account and user name with Tripwolf and it is absolutely free. After receiving your confirmation email from Tripwolf, you log onto their website. The first thing you will see is a map and a photo. Toward the top of the website you will see a set of tabs. These tabs have different options that are available to you for all aspects of world travel on Tripwolf. The first tab is the guide tab and is the tab that is by default open every time you log onto the site.

The guide tab is basically the dashboard of your account and you have a map provided by Google Maps with the option to see either just the map, satellite imagery, a hybrid of a map and satellite imagery, or terrain. You can search all kinds of travel destinations worldwide, see other guides, create your own PDF travel guide, and a box with links to all kinds of different countries in Europe or Asia. At the top of the website, above the tabs, you can see in orange a search bar, where you can run a search for a certain destination.

The second tab on the Tripwolf website is the gallery tab, which features travel photos from other members of Tripwolf and in this tab you can also upload your own photos from your trips as well.You can use the gallery tab to browse photos about different places to contemplate your next trip.

The third tab is the traveler’s tab. This tab is a tab that features world travelers, and these people who are featured in this tab are avid world travelers who are considered as travel gurus and you can even ask them advice about travel to that particular country. You can also look at each individual’s profile and see where these people like to travel and what their interests and hobbies are and where they live. For example, you see Adena is one of the travelers rated by Tripwolf as a top traveler, you can see where she likes to travel. You can see that Adena lives in the United States, more accurately in the state of Vermont. You can also see that she has traveled to India, Florence, and other places and you can ask her online through the Tripwolf site questions about those destinations. This can be a big help for those who are traveling to a particular country for the first time and want to know crucial information about that country.

The fourth tab is the booking tab. This tab is the tab you want to go to when you are ready to book your trip. On this tab you will find that this is the place for your online hotel booking. Tripwolf will let you book hotels all over the world and even links up with Priceline to give you the best deals for your hotels. You will also find a search bar on this tab, in which you type in a city of the country you want to visit. For example, I want to go to Tbilisi. In the search bar I type in Tbilisi and the search bar will ask you, “Tbilisi, Georgia?” Then below the search bar where you type in your check in date and next to that a check out date. For example, if you want to go to Tbilisi from July 12, 2009 to August 1, 2009. After typing this information, then click on the check rates button. After clicking on the check rates button, you will find a large easy to see list of all the major hotels available in that city and the prices per night. For example, the query for hotels in Tbilisi found that the British House Hotel, located right in the center of Tbilisi costs $115 per night and its rating is also shown, this hotel is a three-star hotel. Other hotels are also featured the same way. You also have links to Priceline and Expedia if you can’t find what you are looking for on Tripwolf.

The fifth and the last tab is the blog tab. In this tab you can write your own blog and read the blogs about other travelers on the site.

Another example of Tripwolf designed for the world traveler, the site can also be translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish, since not all world travelers are Americans, since Europeans travel as well.

Tripwolf is a privately owned corporation that is based in Vienna, Austria and was founded in 2007. The management team of Tripwolf consists of two people and they are Sebastian Heinzel, cofounder and CEO and Alexander Trieb, cofounder and COO.

Tripwolf’s investors are i5invest, Mair Dumant, and Dieter Von Holtzenbrinck.

i5invest is a vc firm that mainly supports seed stage internet-based startups and is run by a group of veteran entrepreneurs who know the riggers of starting a new company. i5invest is based in Vienna, Austria, but the vc firm will invest in Europe and North America and has offices in Vienna, New York, and Silicon Valley. Some companies in i5invest’s portfolio include 123people, Email Charity, Virtual World Papermint, Xandex, and others.

Mair Dumant is a media company that is based in Stuttgart, Germany and also supports new startup companies, which it sees as a potential asset to Mair Dumant.

For more information about Tripwolf, click here.

Based in Texas, Hydro Green Energy is a company that develops renewable sources of energy with the use of hydro kinetic energy. This revolutionary source of energy can be a great source of energy from which entire power grids can generate enough electricity to power large areas. What actually is the technology that is being developed at Hydro Green Energy? Well, the principle is quite simple. Hydro kinetic energy is energy that is generated through the flow of water, such as currents that turn a turbine, or even a generator. Hydro kinetic energ