A neat new site for startups

In true Web 2.0 spirit, Killerstartups is a great new site which covers several Internet startups a day, and allows its users to vote on the probability of the startup's success. You can give them a support vote (making them rank higher) or you can choose
between the following:

• Go IPO
• Get VC $
• Be Bought
• Survive
• Bomb

To say it in their own words:

KillerStartups.com is intended for internet entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and CEOs of internet companies. We review around 20 startups per day, so you have plenty of internet startups to check out. Vote for the internet startup you think will be a killer. That way, together, we can find the next killer internet startup!

They have different categoris of which one especially geared towards social networking.

European Web 2.0 contest: the 15 who go to Madrid

Remember how I talked about the Web 2.0 contest for European startups in April? They have selected the best 15 who will go to Madrid in two days. Since some of them are social networks I include them here; others are just interesting to know about.

• Panoramio.com : Photo-sharing of geolocated photos. Panoramio offers 2 Gb of free storage for photos. The site has 330.000 registered users and 1,1 million geolocated photos.


• 11870.com : "a real-life delicious" where you can remember and share with your friends all kind of places (from business to sculptures) around the world using comments, tags, photos and videos. Launched in feb 07, reached #1 in technorati.


• Trivop : Trivop is the first videoguide for the hotel industry. It's a mashup with video, map and comments from users (through tripadvisor). We are convinced that video give travellers the transparancy they need before booking as today just a few photos is not sufficient enough. We want to become the youtube of the hotel industry.


• Tupalo : Tupalo is a social mapping network for local and independent culture, allowing members of elusive niche cultures to add, rate, review, search and tag their favorite local businesses in major cities around the world via PC or Mobile devices.


• Personalised Information Environment : A new internet application developed by a hungarian team can virtually learn what kind of tv shows and movies do the users like, and make recommendations for the following days accordingly. Musorajanlo.hu applies the latest technologies: machine-learning and data-mining, all executed on a grid.


• Hipoqih : hipoqih.com is a system composed by a Web and plugin for mobile devices that allows to record alerts and URLs associated to any geopoint in the planet. These alerts can be seen automatically in terminals with the plugin when approaching that geopoint, so that the information arrives when you get to the place that interests you.


• Nvivo.es : Gig based social network. Its main objective is that you never loose that gig again. Follow your favourite bands and coolest venues of your city, met other fans and interact adding comments, tags, joining and attending gigs and get or ask for all the gig info you need. With Musicbrainz, last.fm, Google Maps and 11870.com mashups. Live music fans never got that


• Easy.soziety : soZiety is a language-learning social network based on Skype. soZiety is a great, dead simple method people can use to have fun learning a language while meeting new people and making some bucks.


• Properazzi - the property search engine : Properazzi is a crawler-based web 2.0 property search engine for all of Europe. We launched in March 2007, and currently list 1.8 million sale and rental properties in 45 European countries, in all European languages and currencies. We're backed by Mangrove Capital Partners (Skype, Quintura, Nimbuzz). We've got a highly international team and are based in Barcelona, Spain.


• Menéame : Meneame is the leading Digg-like website in Spanish. It helps anybody promote news from any source by creating new pages according to users's votes. It was launched in 2004 from Mallorca.


• SlideBurner : SlideBurner allows you to share and discover easily slideshows/presentations (PowerPoint or OpenOffice files). Upload your files and they can quickly be viewed online in any web browser on any platform. You have full control on the security of your slideshows; you can select precisely the person who can access your data. You can also create groups around your fields of interest. Moreover, the site is multilingual; for the moment it is available in French and English.


• Sclipo : Sclipo is a Social Skills-Network based upon user-generated videos: Users can share and promote their skills through video and connect with other users based upon skills they care about. Sclipo is a platform for any kind of skills, such as cooking, well-being, technology or sports. All content is 100% user-generated and evaluated. SCLIPO stands for: Skills + CLIP + yO (=I)


• Anywr.com : Anywr is a web and mobile system that offers simple, yet powerful services for managing contacts, calendars, events and communications virtually from anywhere: using browsers, mobile devices or any other of the over 750 million compatible devices available today.


• 5min : 5min is a place to find short video solutions for every practical question, and is also a place for people who want to share their knowledge. 5min's vision is simple: any solution can be visually explained in 5 minutes. Users of the 5min platform will benefit from a visual illustration of any solution through a Smart Player. Unlike all of the video sites on the net, 5min created a video player that is adjusted specifically to the instruction field.


• QuestionForm : questionform is a web application for creating, publishing and analysing online surveys and forms.The 15 projects will have 5 minutes each to present themselves and another 5 minutes to answer two questions from the judges and the public. People coming to the event will also vote on the best projects.

The 5 best projects, which will be presented in Bilbao on May, 24th. If you want to come to the event, you can register here.

It starts at 15.00 and is followed by a networking evening party.

Thanks to Jose A. del Moral for keeping us in the loop.

Skype

Okay, I think this pretty much sums it up right?

To all of you who have asked me why I wasn't on Skype - I've seen the light and I've got with the program ;-)

Feel free to give me a call on an.de.jonghe

(Yes this is another ploy not to work on my editing)

Editing stage is not Hibernation (but sort of)

Ok everyone, it is official: the editing phase ( the stage most dreaded by writers) has begun. From tomorrow onwards I will dedicate myself to the polishing & structuring of the manuscript on Social Networks. I am still wrestling with the decision on how to divide the book: by target audience, technological platform or geography, or a mixture of some? Any thoughts on the subject; feel free to let me know. In the meanwhile I will think of some excuse NOT to spend my day off on editing...

nb Even my ghostwriter (see picture) has had enough...

Our online community is taking of...

As you know Social Networks Around The World is no longer a book in progress but also a virtual community where Founders & Topnetworkers meet and exchange ideas. After one week online word of mouth has spread and 98 people have registered already. Obviously if you are a Founder or a Black Star, TopLinkedin, Open Networker, Power Networker or any other with the same goal, feel free to join. Like all good things in life, membership is free but only open to those who are serious about networking online.

A Meta Social Network for this Community

Hi Everyone,

In order to give everyone who has been helping me with information & research on my new book more visibility and a chance to interact, I've launched an informal network yesterday:

"Social Networks Around The World"

The idea is to exchange information on how to improve networking online & ofline, to meet other Power networkers and to discuss new developments in the field. Get to know your international counterparts!

Contest for European Web 2.0 companies

During my research for my book on social networking worldwide, I have had the opportunity to get in touch with a great many of interesting people who are either founders of a social network, or connected to the subject in another way. One of these people is José, who is one of the founding partners from Alianzo, a Spanish social networking company. Alianzo has launched a European contest for Web 2.0 companies today, together with some partners. I include José's mail herunder for all of you who are interested in participating in the contest. A good initiative on the European marketplace, so they have my support!

Dear An,

We are organizing a European Web 2.0 contest, which I think can be interesting for you. Submissions are accepted for blogs, wikis, social networks or any other website which makes a high use of Web 2.0 components, such as tags, RSS or Ajax. Companies and people from any European country willing to present their projects just have to submit them to http://www.startup2.eu. The contest will value not only the quality of the website but also its business sense. Internet users and a special committee will select 15 projects to be presented in an event in Madrid, Spain. A jury will then choose the 5 best projects in order to present them on May 24th in a special Web 2.0 event in Bilbao, Spain. They will all apply to interesting awards, such as an advertisement in Techcrunch, a trip to a one-week training program in Cambridge or public exposition of the project in a business congress.The contest is organized by three Spanish organizations: Alianzo, La Caixa bank and Spri development agency. The jury is formed by 10 Web 2.0 and investment experts from 9 European countries, such as Martín Varsavsky, Loic Le Meur, Paolo Valdemarin, Rita Silvério, Daniel Waterhouse, Philip Lenssen, Guido Van Nispen, Ola Ahlvarsson, Enrique Dans or Sandrine Szabo.

Kind regards,
José A. del Moral
Alianzo