By: Co-Editor, RB:

There dozens of websites that offer free online classified ads. For example, SalesSpider.com  is a large social network for Small and Mediums Sized Businesses (SMBs). In additional to the online social network aspects of the site they offer free classified ads.

Now comes a new site called ListHere.com. Launched in June out of Utah, the site purports to be a free online classified service overlaid with business offerings for SMBs.

The team at ListHere.com acknowledges that there are a ton of free online classified sites, but they feel most of them are lacking. The problem with those sites according to ListHere.com is their inability to handle online postings, and the limited ability to search within different cities, states, or even nationwide.

ListHere.com offerings paid business listings for local businesses, so there is no more re-posting and cluttering everything up. It also offers segregated online postings – if you can’t find it locally.

The site recently had a facelift. Unlike other free online classifieds, ListHere.com grants users you the capability to search multiple cities, states, and any combination thereof. This means that if you’re looking for a new job but are open to possibilities that you can search for “Network Operations” in Los Angeles, Florida, and Ohio all from one search.

On top of this functionality, they have also introduced what they call “online ads”. This is a paid only type of listing that will only show if you want it. On the left-hand side of your navigation you will see an indicator showing “All”, “Offline”, and “Online”. The online ads are paid at $0.10 a click to an advertiser’s site, and only show up if you want them to.

So if you have fund other classified sales sites wanting, check out ListHere.com.

By: Co-Editor, RB:

Here is a site that seems like more of the same. But on further inspection it has some merit and originality. TeamLab.com is a collaboration platform developed by Ascensio System SIA, a Riga, Latvia company providing IT solutions for corporate and personal use.

TeamLab.com is an open source free platform for project management and business collaboration. TeamLab allows employees to organize business tasks and project milestones, monitor project member’s activity, share documents, and maintain a corporate blog, forum and events feed.

TeamLab is provided in two deployment solutions: as a hosted version in the cloud (free) and as open-source software.

TeamLab acknowledges that there are numerous services operating in this space but they point out that they are either payable, ad-based or offered free with very limited basic
functionality.

TeamLab.com gives away TeamLab with no limitations, at no cost and it is ad-free. Moreover, they have an extra guarantee for data safety of a corporate client, in particular the availability to back up their own portal and deploy it on their own servers at any time.

TeamLab is a free and easy software solution for corporate and personal use.

By: Co-Editor, RB:

The Software & Information Industry Association, the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry is belived to be the first to coin the phrase Software as a Service (SaaS). In a paper dated Febraury 2001, it described Saas thusly, Software as a Service (SaaS), commonly referred to as the Application Service Provider (ASP) model, is heralded by many as the new wave in application software distribution. Following the maxim that “the Internet changes everything,” many believe that traditional packaged desktop and enterprise applications will soon be swept away by the tide of Web-based, outsourced products and services that remove the responsibility for installation, maintenance and upgrades from over-burdened MIS staff.

Some analysts and industry members believe that packaged software, as a separate entity will cease to exist. While such drastic predictions have not yet happened, due to technical and business issues, the spirit of this change – the delivery, management and payment of software as a service rather than a product – is affecting all participants in the software industry.

In the decade since this paper was published the success of SaaS has been mixed. Many cite the high service cost, integration difficulty, and technical requirements of Saas. However, others cite long term savings in using SaaS.

A new company is banking on the idea of SaaS to launch what they describe as “Rich Calling”.

Ringio.com of has taken two SaaS ideas that, thanks to the Internet, have won acceptance among small businesses – CRM and hosted phone service. It has married the two and additionally made their offspring mobile.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

Another area of innovation and opportunity we have seen a lot of over the past few years has been in the area of freelancing. We have covered several companies that are involved in this space including LimeExchange.com (Outsourcing For Small and Medium Business), and 99designs.com  which is based in Melbourne, Australia and is the largest marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design.

Now comes another startup from Australia, this time out of Sydney called TaskArmy.com. TaskArmy.com takes a different approach to the existing freelance marketplaces.

At TaskArmy.com, freelancers can list their services at a fixed price, and potential clients can browse and very easily outsource some of their tasks.

As we all know, the freelancing world is growing fast because of the global financial crisis. Many people realize that there is no such thing as job security and started freelancing as a way to maintain control over their economic well-being.

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli, a 27 years old French entrepreneur with a strong software developer background is the founder of TaskArmy.com.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

Many brick and mortar business have found extra streams of revenue by selling online and one would expect many more to follow. In addition many folks who would be relegated to flea markets or other non-traditional venues to sell their wares are finding success selling on line. The question facing these folks, especially if they are new to e-commerce, is what software to use and what software best suits their needs.

With over 100,000,000 results in Google, when you do a simple search for “shopping carts,” it’s likely you don’t know where to start.

ZippyCart.com, a Seattle based startup launched in June of last year, is a site that has a clear mission: allowing people to easily find and compare the many different e-commerce software solutions that are available.

The site provides detailed reviews and interviews on the many available solutions, and by having a significant number of the Internet’s top ecommerce software solutions in the same spot visitors can make quick comparisons until they arrive at their own conclusions.

ZippyCart.com bills itself as the most unique and comprehensive ecommerce comparison site online.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

The startup world and the Internet are replete with sites that recommend travel sites, restaurants, bars, entertainment and the like. I have come across a site that takes the opposite tact and thus it aroused my contrarian nature.

AvoiditNYC.com bills itself as New York City’s first and only comprehensive negative review website. The site was launched in December of 2009.

As the founders state on the site review websites typically have mostly positive reviews, which cause negative reviews to be overlooked or disregarded. AvoiditNYC.com is the first comprehensive negative review website allowing users to share their bad experiences and vent their frustrations, but actually have their opinions acknowledged.

Further, the founders hope that the website will provide business owners and managers with a unique opportunity for business improvement through seeking negative consumer opinions and learning about their wrongdoings.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

This past October we covered a company called Flatrate Moving. FlatRate provides customers with a single all-inclusive price for any and every type of move, which eliminates the questionable pricing methods that are inherent in the nature of other moving companies.

Now comes MoversCorp.com. MoversCorp.com was launched this past September out of Salt Lake City. Moverscorp.com is a unique online marketplace, it connects moving companies and consumers. Moverscorp.com allows the consumers find, compare and instantly hire a moving company online. The site is easy to use and full of helpful information

I have heard many a nightmare moving story about moving companies such as overpriced moves, unreasonable hidden fees, even entire truck of household goods taken hostage. Finding the right local movers can turn into a time-consuming and difficult task.

Now you do not have to spend hours on the phone by calling different moving companies to get moving quotes and references, you can obtain all that you need with the click of a mouse.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

As Thomas Friedman discussed in his best selling book-The World Is Flat  technology has given the world great opportunities for individual empowerment. Similarly, GreatStartups.com has no geographical boundaries when it comes to looking at companies operating on the Internet.

In that regard, we have come across a new site based in Turin, Italy called HiNii.com.
Currently in beta, HiNii is a web service that helps people to discover new things to do in leisure time.

HiNii means “Hello Nii”. Nii is the little green men who are connoisseurs of travel, art, entertainment, restaurants and especially leisure time. Therefore Nii is the advisor/search engine that proposes you the itineraries, locals and places where you can spend your free time. In reality HiNii.com is more of a project at this point than a business.

HiNii proposes a list of activities like restaurants, museums, beaches and more, depending on the type of day you want to spend. These items are subdivided based on city, and activity or category.
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By: Co-Editor, RB:

Companies often discuss the value of feedback. Obviously having a clear idea of how your product and service is perceived is invaluable. But the methodology and cost of gathering such data can be imprecise and expensive.

BubbleIdeas.com, out of Singapore, is leadership 2.0 solution which helps one figure out true feedback from a mesh of ideas. In the 2.0 space today, there are many solutions which help leaders to broadcast into an open crowd (example, Twitter).

However, the reverse of that (broadcasting in to the company) is not possible. When it comes to listening, a company leader is mostly unable to figure out meaningful voices from the crowd and is therefore more-or-less unreachable to the smart generation.

BubbleIdeas.com lets leaders listen to a very large group of people with all the control that they need. It is designed specifically to meet large scale traffic scenarios. BubbleIdeas is designed to help figure out the meaning and direction of popular conversation and not just top voted ideas. This provides a company with the understanding of the burning issues of the moment and the ability to nip catastrophic problems in the bud.

With the advent of Government 2.0, BubbleIdeas believes that its product provides a great fit to help fill a gap in the available listening technology.

As commentators have pointed out, Bubble Ideas is essentially a debating platform, and having varied participation can give companies a better understanding of the way a product or service is being perceived.

By: Co-Editor, RB:

The first cash register was invented by James Ritty following the American Civil War. He was the owner of a saloon in Dayton, Ohio and wanted to stop employees from pilfering his profits. He invented the cash register in 1879 after seeing a tool that counted the revolutions of the propeller on a steamship. It was patented in 1883.
The first registers were entirely mechanical, without receipts. The employee was required to ring up every transaction on the register, and when the total key was pushed, the drawer opened and a bell would ring, alerting the manager to a sale taking place. Those original machines were nothing but simple adding machines.
Today cash registers are basically PCs with software designed to do myriad tasks. A new website is looking to compete with the big boys in offering affordable software to lower point of sale costs.

Chicago based CashierLive.com offers easy to use web-based point of sale software. Cashier Live has positioned himself as a disruptive competitor to Microsoft’s and Intuit’s point of sale offerings. Cashier Live utilizes web-based software to lower the costs of point of sale software. Others in the traditional point of sale business charge $1,000 plus in upfront costs, while Cashier Live has no upfront costs at all. They have signed up over 650 stores since launching in early February, 2010.

In addition to software, CashierLive sells point of sale hardware or a complete point of sale package.
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