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:

As journalists and bloggers increasingly turn to social networks and the blogosphere for their research and information, the text-heavy, one-size-fits-all format of traditional press releases seems somewhat antiquated.

Press releases are increasingly being replaced with a deconstructed format where information is divided into special, more useable sections. This new type of news dissemination is called the Social Media News Release (SMNR).

A new site, launched by a company called Liberate Media, aims to be a leader in this growing phenomenon.
Pressitt.com, launched in public beta in April of 2009 out of the UK is based on the theory that the time has come for a free, accessible-to-all SMNR service to be made widely available within the UK market and beyond, to raise awareness of the SMNR among PR agencies in particular and help encourage take-up.

Pressitt allows you to create your own social media news release (SMNR) – also known as a social media press release (SMPR) or social media release (SMR), and publish it to an online community of journalists, the blogosphere and the general public.
Read More >>

By: Co-Editor, RB:

A news site recently launched out of Sunnyvale, California seeks to make shopping more fun and more analytical. The site, DidYouSwipe.com (referred to on the site as Swipe) was launched on May 26, 2010.

Swipe aims to be a fun and easy way to share and find shopping information in your city. Using Swipe you can tell your friends what you want to buy and find what they are buying. Swipe helps you shop street smart by giving you access to prices and product reviews recommended by your friends and other people whom you trust.

You can share the inside scoop on countless everyday purchases such as food, clothes, gadgets, furniture, books, tickets, gyms, cars, holiday packages, games etc. Swipe starts social conversations around purchases and helps you discover prices, deals, opinions, locations, stores, products and shoppers in a fun and competitive game environment. Swipe helps you answer the questions “what did you buy”, “where did you buy it” and “how much did you pay for it”. It is essentially seeks to be like Yelp, Price Grabber and Foursquare.
Read More >>

By: Co-Editor, RB:

The point of most networking sites is to allow likeminded people to get together and use these relationships to further themselves professionally. The point of job placement sites is obviously to help members find employment. A natural fit would be to combine those two features in to one site. A site launched last year out of London seeks to do just that.

Wisestep.com is a professional networking website which rewards its networkers for referring jobs onto the website.

WiseStep.com will try and make networking with other people a rewarding experience in a tangible way.

The site provides the following exclusive features provided for recruiters:
1) FREE Application tracking system
2) Job Posting FREE
3) Managing your company Referral process is FREE
4) FREE Parent/Child account to work as a team or manage a team

They plan on adding many more exclusive features as they grow.

You can search for jobs in many places from Europe, United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
Read More >>

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.
Read More >>

By: Co-Editor, RB:

A newly launched site out of Singapore is seeking to provide an application wherein you can manage all of your business’ appointments. The application is set up specifically to suit the service industry.

GetyourAM.com manages appointments between staff and customers for businesses. It spots a clean UI, automated scheduling via web and SMS, automated appointment and reminder notifications, appointment history analytics, auto sync with personal calendars like Google calendar and many more.

It is simple to use and is different from other software products that merely allow businesses to make appointments. Its true value is in its ability to totally automate the appointment management process. YourAM is a web based solution. There is no software to install.

Its features include:
Smart Appointment Scheduling-Automatically resolve available time slots, prevent appointment clashes and save you time and scheduling headaches.

SMS and Email Notifications-Keep your staff updated about their appointment status automatically so they won’t missed another cancelled appointment.

Manage Appointment Requirements-Automatically schedule staff and resource required, no more angry customers due to scheduling mistakes.

The desktop is uncluttered and user-friendly. Scheduling appointments is easy and intuitive via home page tab, drop down menu, and boxes for name and phone number. The member status tab can be used to indicate days that employees are on leave or unavailable on certain dates. Account setup allows users to determine appointment duration, operating hours, notification designations, and the like.

The pricing model is listed on the site and is easy to understand. You can give the application a try for free. If you like it, you sign up for one of the paid plans the site offers. The services range in price from $8 per month to $39 per month depending on the number of SMS that can be sent, and the number of employees.

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.
Read More >>

By: Co-Editor, RB:

Continuing our theme of crowdsourcing and freelancing, we bring to you the story of another startup called NapkinLabs.com out of Boulder, Colorado. The name comes from the idea that tossing around ideas on napkin. It is that metaphor that best describes the type of collaborative process the site seeks to foster.

NapkinLabs.com is a turn-key crowdsourcing platform that enables companies to collaborate with customers, experts, and employees to accelerate the creation and development of meaningful new products that fuel growth.

The Company’s vision is to redefine how companies interact with consumers and experts outside of their walls. By enabling companies to democratize their innovation processes, NapkinLabs.com believes, it can make large companies more nimble, while providing experts and consumers around the world the opportunity to work together to form breakthrough products and services.

As opposed to most open innovation software, which is transactional in nature (I submit a problem, user submits a solution) NapkinLabs.com is collaborative, enabling large groups to work together to build and refine solutions to complex problems.
Read More >>

By: Co-Editor, RB:

We have seen a trend towards vacation homes or time shares in this country over the last decade. What was once a European affectation, we now see in North America.

Previously, we have covered SecondPorch.com  which is a Facebook application that allows users to trade and rent vacation homes among their friends and networks. We also covered Mimbeo.com, a free vacation rental portal.

Newly launched MetroFlats.com, a Clifton, New Jersey based startup, is a vacation rental marketplace that enables hosts and renters to connect with one another on a secure network. Very similar to Mimbeo.com, you can search for vacation rentals by location.

While Mimbeo.com has a strong presence in Minneapolis, Metroflats.com has a strong following in New York.

All members of the MetroFlats.com team stay in vacation rentals while traveling to gain a solid understanding of the marketplace.

They have a nice data base of New York properties and their prices are affordable. However, they are currently limited to New York and/or Miami.

It is unclear how the site is monetized. I presume they are marking up the price they get from the renter.