A Wider Net

Business 2.0 magazine recently featured a list of 25 startups to watch. Among those are some interesting companies for marketers to watch and event planners to use. There are also a few companies that probably shouldn’t be considered “startups”, especially at the current web2.0 business development pace, but forgiving that, here are some examples. Oh, before I go onto the list, can I just say that’s it’s time for a new naming trend? Dropping the last vowel (or all of the vowels) from your name is going to look mighty dated pretty soon. There are a bunch of branding teams who might want to try hardr.

The list:

1. stumbleupon - Find web sites based on your interests and habits
2. slide - creates embeddable photo slide shows
3. bebo - Watch - 30 million users - might be where the fickle myspace and facebook users are flocking
4. meebo - Instant messaging ajax application that gets around firewalls
5. wikia - Watch - user-written magazines might be the next big thing in publishing
6. joost - Watch - founders of Skype and Kazaa have cred and this video network already has viacom
7. dabble - organize videos into playlists you can share
8. metacafe - Use if you’re pushing videos on You Tube
9. revision3 - Use (watch diggnation if you’re trying to stay on top of geek tech)
10. blip.tv - video platform for syndicating serial shows
11. fon - trying to leverage everyone’s wifi routers for common use
12. loopt - Watch - app lets friends keep track of where their friends are - has awesome location-sensitive targetting potential
13. mobio - Watch - speaking of location-sensitive targetting… mobile services like local movie listings.
14. tiny - Try - might be a moblogging event candid miracle.
15. soonr - Try - allows you to find and view stuff on your desktop through your phone.
16. turn - Consider - a new online advertising model.
17. adify - Consider - online ad marketplace with 4,000 publishers.
18. admob - Consider - ad distribution service for mobile phones. I hate the thought of ads on my phone.
19. spotrunner - need a cookie-cutter 30 second TV ad?
20. vitrue - allow your customers to upload videos about your products
21. successfactors - a six year-old company with $100 million in revenue is a startup?
22. janrain - helping you log in once, and access multiple sites with passwords
23. logoworks - The online logo buffet line
24. reardencommerce - also not a startup but worth a look for personal travel and agenda planning.
25. simulscribe - Try - converts voice mail to text emails.

Nice article on mobile marketing. Mobile phone marketing, that is. The phone marketers seem to have stolen that term. What, now, do we call mobile marketing when it refers to themed Winnebago’s, expanding tractor trailers, and buses full of XBOX’s? Vehicular Marketing? Wheel-ality Marketing? Global-Positionally Variable Marketing?
I noticed Wikipedia doesn’t have the answer:

Excerpt: Mobile Marketing can refer to one of two categories of marketing. First, and relatively new, is meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a mobile phone. Second, and a more traditional definition, is meant to describe marketing in a moving fashion - for example - technology road shows or moving billboards.

Adobe recently announced that Flash Lite 3, to be released in the first half of 2007, will include support for Flash Video. Exactly what this will mean to content creators is unclear, but we are continuing to head towards global flash video domination. Microsoft seems fixated on HD video, having engineered the compression code for the HD-DVD format. Flash video has enabled a revolution in web video interface design, and as phones get more powerful it seems likely that some of that revolution will rub off into everyone’s handhelds.