By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

While Facebook searched for ways to monetize its behemoth of a site. Other business are seeking ways to use the power of Facebook to create their own businesses

Launched on November 12, 2009, a Cape Town, South Africa startup called Personera.com is seeking to use Facebook for its own purposes.

Personera.com allows people around the world to design and order print products personalized with their Facebook content. You can use your Facebook account to sign in, customize and order your product.

Personera’s service allows people to use their Facebook accounts to log in through Facebook Connect, and make their entire social network content instantly available for product personalization. Users are able to choose a theme, automatically add their friend’s birthdays and events each day, and drag and drop their favorite photos into the monthly layout.

A high quality 12-month, 32-page printed calendar then is delivered to their mailbox. The service itself costs $24.95, but that includes shipping to anywhere in the world.

Personera.com feels that there offerings mark a significant shift for the mainstream calendar market, because their fast and easy individual personalization becomes available to more than 300 million mainstream Facebook users worldwide.

The ideas behind Personera.com were dreamed up by co-founders Sheraan Amod and Jaco de Wet, self-described “evangelists” in the radically separate worlds of web and print.

“By combining our passion for old and new media, we looked to find the best of both worlds - a simple way to customize print to the same level that people have come to expect online” the pair said in a joint statement announcing the launch of the site.

The site is real simple to use and with the launch behind them, Personera.com looks forward to creating new markets in old media.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Not all fundraising and charitable organizations are long-term ventures. Moreover, these charities have the infrastructure and capital base to last as going concerns. However, many fund-raising/charitable efforts are short-term efforts to raise money for a specific purpose. For example, raising money for individuals with cancer, raising money for accident victims, or raising money for an injured firefighter.

In these circumstances, keeping overhead down and reach donors quickly and efficiently is paramount.

A Chicago based web startup called GiveForward.org is providing an answer for these situations. Started in August of 2008, GiveForward.org provides free personal fundraising pages to individuals to raise money for friends and family members battling illnesses like cancer.

The Chicago Tribune has called GiveForward.org “The future of medical fundraising in the Internet Age.”

GiveForward.org helps individuals raise $10K, $20K and even $30K + to pay for their friends medical expenses. It gives people an easy way to help their friends and loved ones when they need it most.

By incorporating social media such as Facebook and Twitter to help empower users, GiveForward.org raises money from people all over the country for good causes. It is turning the idea that social media is frivolous on its head.

Co-founder Desiree Vargas, worked as a specialist in collegiate entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City and as an independent consultant for Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors. Her passion for philanthropy and the role that young and small-scale donors can have on our communities has been a cause celebre. When not working, she spends her time inventing new recipes that don’t always work, walking her golden retriever, Ellie, and going to Zumba. Desiree likes Hangar One, cheese, and kicking Ethan’s butt in bar trivia.

She remembers being distraught when Hurricane Katrina hit because she wanted to employ the same practices we used every day with the few dollars that she personally had to give. But, there was no easy way to give directly to a family wanting to rebuild. Her and her colleagues talked openly about how much more we would give if we knew money wasn’t being lost in the bureaucracy. She thought to that there should be a site where people can give directly to people and causes they care about. Eventually GiveForward.org was born.

A review of the site sees also kinds of spirited individuals stuck on horrible situations not of there own making. With GiveForward.org caring and giving people can reach these people and give then the financial support they need.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

What if Google Maps were more than just a place to get directions and local information filtered by Google. What if you could go to the house you grew up in on a map, post a note in your old neighborhood and find your childhood friends?

That’s the idea behind ZoomAtlas – a map that aims to be friendlier, social, and more informative than any other map service out there. The wiki-mapping site that launched on Monday, November 16, 2009, has built a detailed, photo-realistic map of the United States, blending satellite imagery with user-edited details, lending a realistic description to specific neighborhoods or areas.

The free site combines the technology of interactive maps with the social networking of Facebook for users to post notes, stories and insights to reconnect its users with friends, family and places from their past.

Site-customization tools users can update map details including roads, railroads, waterways, sidewalks and property lines to miniscule landscaping details like grass, flowers and bricks on residences, restaurants, schools, parks, workplaces and more. Beyond updating location-specific aesthetics and details from the past, the map enables users to post information and notes for family and friends at important locations in their collective lives.

“Facebook is a great tool to find and connect with people using the site, but what about those who aren’t on Facebook, or what about connecting with the places, not just the people, from your past?” asks Mark Sherman, founder and CEO of ZoomAtlas. “Our beta testing found users want more than to simply connect with people, they also want to share their experiences, recommendations and expertise about the places they know the best. ZoomAtlas creates a geo-social networking experience that takes social networking to the next level through an interactive map that is friendlier, social and more informative – interactive map meets Facebook as a place for people to reconnect with their past by mapping their lives.”

“ZoomAtlas makes all notes and details logged available to the top search engines so that any search for any combination of the information entered is likely to result in a successful hit to reconnect – even when an individual being sought is not a user of the site,” said Sherman.

Individuals are encouraged to post as much detail as possible about a place or memory to increase their chances of reconnecting with people from the past. They can also map their lives using the LifePath feature, which creates a visual timeline of the places they have been and lived. The timeline can then be posted on Facebook to share with friends.

The ZoomAtlas database currently contains 140 million places in the United States. The database will continue to expand over time as users add places and map their lives.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Vacation homes seems to be the flavor du jour on the web. I recently did a story on mimbeo.com. Now there is another company who has a different spin on accessing vacation homes on the web.

SecondPorch.com is a brand new innovative, Facebook application that allows user to trade and rent vacation homes among their trusted group of friends and networks. Based in Portland Oregon and launched SecondPorch.com is the first socially enabled vacation home site available on Facebook. Its Facebook application is titled “Rent & Trade Vacation Homes”.

Vacation home rentals are a growing $50 billion industry. Currently there are 8 million second homeowners in the United States alone, of which less than 25% are used as rentals. In today’s tight economy, SecondPorch.com is offering a chance for consumers to significantly save money, as well as create a new outlet to recoup investments of owners strapped by second mortgages.

Brent Hieggelke launched SecondPorch.com not just because vacation home rentals are the fastest growing segment of the lodging industry, but also because he had a rental horror story of his own. Apparently a few years ago, Mr. Hieggelke’s father rented his vacation home through traditional means only to find that the group of 20 men hosting a bachelor party managed to cause about $4,000 worth of damage including a fireplace glass door broken, all of the pictures on the walls of historic photos had been broken, and glasses of red wine had been smashed against the walls. Mr. Hieggelke knew right then that someone needed to create a way to rent or trade vacation homes among a trusted group of friends thus Second Porch was born.

SecondPorch.com has an attractive; easy-to-use design allows users to display property photos, information, and updates on their profile pages. Travelers can also post queries for specific trips and homes sought through a feature called “friendsource.” User can choose to “follow” a property, which allows them to bookmark the home listing and receive updates. They can view or discuss homes their friends are following or have recommended and decide if they want to follow those homes as well.

SecondPorch.com integrates with Facebook’s wall stream messaging, which allows friends to discover their friends’ vacation rental homes (and the application) through tasteful updates, photos, and teasers. Simple to use filters help users to find homes using standard features, including rate, number of bedrooms, and location; along with unique filters for relationship and whether available for rent or trade.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

For many people the Internet is a vast, unwieldy, intimidating organism. For other it is a vast playground with fun around every corner. For others it is merely a business. No matter where you fit on this spectrum, it is nice to learn and get feedback on various websites you might encounter.

Hiztoria.com, a Kansas City based start up launched in July of 2009, is a place for people to share and discover anything and everything about websites. Users can rate, review, share, and discuss websites both big and small. Users can earn points and level up by contributing to the site and writing reviews.

A totally revamped Hiztoria 2.0 is launching in a few short weeks. This brand new version of our Hiztoria will feature brand new designs and improved features.

As stated, Hiztoria can be used for web behemoths like Facebook and Google, to even the minutest websites in the corners of the Internet universe. Every website has an unknown counterpart or competitor, and Hiztoria plans to reveal the true gems in the ever-expanding digital world. Hiztoria users can do more than just rate, review, and talk about websites; users also even have the power to add new websites to Hiztoria.

Currently, there are over 1000 websites reviewed in the Hiztoria directory. You can sort them by name, category, most views, most fans, rating or date added. In case you are interested, Facebook.com has the most fans and Espn.com has the highest rating.

According to its blog announcement new features on Hiztoria 2.0 will include:
· A totally re-designed User Profile.
· A notification system that lets you know when your submissions are approved, when you earn points, level up, and more.
· A REPLY system for all comments (It also lets you delete, and report comments)
· A professional Forums system (A very clean design, complete with a notifications system to let you know when people reply).
· Easier navigation (No more dead ends, every link has a purpose now).
· A cleaner interface.
· A widget for webmasters. (This lets you put a link to your website’s Hiztoria profile on your own website).
I really enjoyed cruising around on the Hiztoria site a look forward to the redesign.

Post from: GreatStartups.com