Web2Spot

Did you Shvoong your homework today?

2007-10-07T01:16:00.002+02:00

Shvoong Homework is a new product for students. Shvoong Homework is designed to assist students of all ages manage and organize their homework. Instead of using messy and disorganized notebooks, students can use Shvoong Homework to type-up their schoolwork, keep it organized, and then share it with individuals or groups of classmates, the entire class, students from other schools entirely, or no one at all.
Students can now create a timetable for their personal classes and for scheduling exams. They can create an unlimited number of notebooks for class notes, homework, summaries, and exam preparations. The new product can definitely help out students world-wide, Shvoong supports 30 languages!

Shvoong the world-wide center for abstracts, summaries, reviews and short essays has also partnered up with Yedda the social knowledge search, to provide readers with a Q&A area. Now, on every article written and posted on Shvoong readers can ask related questions, get answers from the community and explore frequently asked questions.

Discuss anything on Youfig

2007-10-04T02:10:00.002+02:00

At youfig small groups of 8 collaborators are assembled into groups and are given a dedicated workspace to discuss any topic. Starting a discussion is quick and easy. After creating the topic youfig will suggest other knowledgeable collaborators to help you out with figuring, planning or brainstorming your topic.
In addition to collaborating with the other group members through the discussion board youfig lets you create a document on the topic which can be exported to txt or html format.
Once a topic is closed collaborators are asked to rate each other's contribution to the topic and also to vote whether they agree with the team's collaborative output. The more you contribute to discussions the more points you can earn, points are shown on your profile and are used by others to evaluate your participation.
I found youfig to be a very comfortable environment to discuss anything with other people.

Technorati Tags: youfig collaboration discussion israel web 2.0

Zoozla try to simplify digital life

2007-08-29T00:32:00.003+03:00

Israeli based Zoozla has created a simple desktop application for easily managing your uploads and publishing your content. Currently its in beta and only supports Youtube, Revver, Gallery and Flickr. By selecting one of these sites you can upload files directly to your account. It seems as if they plan to support additional sites like Facebook, bebo, Vox, Photobucket, etc.

They've added some other features to the application that allow you to notify your friends by email when publishing new content, create quick contact lists, resize images.
Try it out, very simple indeed and can save you some time.

free download

Technorati Tags: desktop flickr revver israel web 2.0 youtube zoozla

iMedix invites for you!

2007-07-09T15:46:00.004+03:00

iMedix the medical search engine which I covered two month ago has begun alpha stage. The service is currently available by invitation only and is gaining members very quickly according to the founders.

iMedix search results combine health information from top sources across the web and from peoples health blogs. The interesting part about iMedix is the health blogs results which are posts written by people with similar conditions you searched. Each member gets a blog to share thoughts and health experiences.
The Blog Lobby is where you manage your posts and once you're ready to publish you can decide which communities will benefit from your post the most. So lets say you suffer from Chronic Urticaria God forbid!, the best community to share your stories with would be the Allergies community.

I think that once users begin to actively build the communities and heavily participate in the blogging, the search results will be enriched and the posts will significantly add value.

I've got 50 exclusive alpha invitations to give out. So if you want to join and be one of the testers just email me or leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you one.

Photo of the proud and healthy iMedix team.

Technorati Tags: health imedix medical israel web 2.0 search engine

Think you know football? Join playSPEX!

2007-07-09T06:19:00.002+03:00

Last November bp Interactive closed an investment from LGiLab for their first project and now the playSPEX site is open for early registration! playSPEX - "The sports exchange" are operating in the fantasy sports area where others are playing, others like Yahoo, CBS, ESPN and Fanball.

Fantasy sports are very popular in the US with over 16 million players, so by the heavy British accent of the playSPEX flash video announcer I can only assume playSPEX are targeting the European/English market which are know to be sports fanatics.

In the meantime if you're a fantasizer sign up and get ready for the upcoming season. playSPEX promise to send real cash to your credit and then you can use your cash credit in order to purchase your favorite players from the sports exchange, build your virtual dream team and join the challenge or sell your free players to others and earn real cash profits.

playSPEX is expected to launch in 2007. See you on the court.

Technorati Tags: playspex bp interactive lgilab fantasy sports web 2.0 israel

Video, Photo & RSS Snap Shots

2007-05-30T00:53:00.002+03:00

Since I last covered Snap - the visual interactive search engine, they've added many enhancements to their preview bubble and also improved their search engine visualization. Here are a couple of the most recent Snap shots available:

Snap Web Classic - Is the traditional search engine result page (10 blue links) but with Snap Shots enabled. Now you can decide how you prefer viewing the search results. If you like preview and find them useful you could switch to Web Enhanced which is more innovative in terms of previewing results and which also supports keyboard up and down arrows etc.

RSS Shot – When a link to a site has a RSS feed, instead of a PreviewShot it will show the headlines & excerpts of the latest stories. This should increase the engagement of your readers. The RSS Shot feature isn't enabled yet for all Snap users but it should be fully released in the near future. I noticed this on some blogs and it's very useful but now there isn't a way to have a quick PreviewShot. Maybe they should add a PreviewShot tab in the bubble.

Video Shot and Photo Shot - Now supports all major video and photo sharing sites (YouTube, Metacafe, Google Video, Xanga Video, Revver, PhotoBucket, Flickr, PicasaWeb…)

A zoom feature was added-look for the little magnifier glass at the top right corner of the bubble.

Related Searches - Those will be displayed instead of the search box and should provide users with suggestions to searches that are related to the site being previewed. The "related searches" feature is not fully released and can be spotted on some blogs.

According to VP Product Jay Meydad, additional types of Snap Shots will be released soon. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: photo shot rss shot snap snap shot web 2.0 video shot

blogTV - broadcast yourself!

2007-05-24T18:57:00.002+03:00

With a slick design and an extremely easy to remember domain name blogTV is live! blogTV is a great place to broadcast yourself just by plugging in a webcam and starting your own TV show. Some of the features included are online interaction between the broadcasters and the viewers, recording and archiving broadcasted shows. blogTV allows the viewers to bookmark, email, subscribe, embed and rate the videos. The .com joins the two previously launched sites. Canadian blogTV - a social network destination developed specifically for Canadians to showcase their talents and the Israeli blogTV powered by Tapuz, Israels leading portal. Tapuz are the creators behind the blogTV project.
So, if you want to create live reality shows or watch other people offering their reality shows go to blogTV.

Is blogTV going to become a vlogging platform by providing the members with a blogTV sub domain name and by allowing the vlogger to fully control his own vlog space? just like blogging...

Technorati Tags: blog blogtv israel tapuz web 2.0 vlog

iMedix - Health belongs to the people

2007-05-15T03:40:00.002+03:00

I can't think of more crucial topics that require knowledge sharing than health and medicine. This is definitely a space where many people have many questions and fears. Naturally, they are seeking answers from the community.
iMedix are soon launching a medical search engine based on user generated content.

Iri Amirav tells me today about iMedix (formally Remedix). Iri Amirav and Amir Leitersdorf, founders of iMedix are both experienced entrepreneurs. Iri previously served as Marketing Director at Metacafe and Amir as CTO at Movota which was acquired by Arvato mobile and prior to that as CTO at Tapuz search engine.
He says they plan on revealing a new user experience to medical search. The search engines dynamic learning algorithm provides the user with information relevant to him/herself and this is determined by the users ranking.

Two types of results are provided:

Reliable health information from the top sources across the web
Information from people who share health experiences similar to the person searching

Iri explains that currently only 16-18% of users searching for medical information are satisfied with the results and that their solution will increase these results by creating a social network that enables people to share health issues.

In the future I think leveraging these strong capabilities by allowing users to recommend and rank doctors specializing in a related medical area would provide the users with an added value in the real world. This way users would benefit from the community's medical treatment experience.

iMedix is in alpha and is soon to launch. Sign up for their launch alert.

Technorati Tags: health imedix medical israel web 2.0 search engine social knowledge social network

Coming soon...

2007-04-10T03:34:00.002+03:00

Three more Israeli based super stealthy Internet startups I bumped into lately are Remedix, Kitchenbug and Digital Blonde. I don't have allot of details but they all look interesting.

Remedix is a community oriented health search engine, enabling consumers to easily find, contribute and share information with other people. The companys proprietary search algorithms and learning system technologies allows people to make better health-related decisions and provide them with information regarding their health.

Digital Blonde are creating an online music production school. They want to teach musicians how to produce music, help them promote it and give them the knowledge. Head over to the website and watch how former MTV Star Becky Griffin pitches the company.

Kitchenbug is in private alpha and it involves food obviously. Just looking at the photos from the landing page made me hungry.Sounds tasty.
I hope it's not too early but all three are launching soon. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: beta alpha stealth mode israel web 2.0 kitchenbug digital-blonde remedix

5min, Sharing your knowledge by video

2007-04-01T20:20:00.001+03:00

Another user generated video site joins the crowd.
5min are creating a place for users to find and post short how-to videos in any field, a place to share your knowledge. They plan to create a Videopedia. Their approach is similar to videojug that have been around and aim at targeting the same niche.

There is one very attractive feature that 5min have and the others don't - a Smart Player! The smart player enables the viewer to watch the video in slow motion by controlling the speed, zoom in and out, view the video frame-by-frame, smoothen the video quality and other functionalities. The smart player is flash based and gives the feeling of a video editing dashboard. During upload the creator can enhance his how-to video by adding a textual storyboard to the video.

5min can stand out from all the other video sites and compete so why are they limiting to explanatory videos?
They have something unique. There are many times I want to slow motion or zoom in to the strange youtube or metacafe videos I get and they are not how-tos.
The site is still in beta, therefore the embed code for the 5min player isn't enabled yet. So here's the link to the most viewed video.

Technorati Tags: 5min video knowledge israel

SemantiNet - Connecting the dots...

2007-03-24T03:09:00.001+02:00

After reading the article published in TheMarker
about the new Israeli startup by Yossi Vardi I rushed to
see what its about. Ya, you guessed right it's in stealth
mode and there's nothing really to see except for an
opening blog post describing a futuristic universe from the day it was created till the days Semantic technologies were evolved. The Semantic Web - Actually quite an interesting bit. You can only imagine onCharm the first product to be released by SemantiNet.

Semantinet develops a semantic framework solution that allows for rapid deployment of web-mashups, applications and services.

According to TheMarker, Tal Muskal the person behind the idea approached Vardi 6 month ago and presented the technology he's been developing for a couple of years. Tal says it wasn't difficult convincing Vardi to invest after showing him a prototype of something that was kind of working. He also said that they soon plan on getting more funds.
Keep an eye out and if you hear anything let us know.

Technorati Tags: semantinet yossi vardi semantic web oncharm israel

Social knowledge by Velingo

2007-03-13T03:23:00.000+02:00

"Social Knowledge means taking the results from the larger community of Internet users based on an instant analysis"
That's what Velingo are doing, they have developed a Web 2.0 solution which enhances search dramatically. It's called Social Knowledge and it plugs in to any search engine. The Velingo search engine system relies on users search results for optimizing future search results, in other words its performing social searches and eventually producing more accurate results .

This is how it works:

The user initiates a search by sending a query to the regular search server.
The search server sends a request to the Velingo Server that
sends a response. This response contains the additional data that is embedded into the Search result page
and is sent back to the user.

The page tags are created by the Velingo server and describe a set of tags for the whole result page. Document tags are related to each document.

Technorati Tags: search engine social knowledge velingo

Vote for Web2Spot on Snap contest !!!

2007-03-08T01:53:00.001+02:00

Snap came out with the "Extreme makeover contest" for improving their Snap preview widget. They're giving away cash for the best ideas that are submitted. The contest ends on March 15, 2007. First prize takes $2500, second prize $1000 and third prize $500 plus the two best comments will receive $500.

Right now my idea has 5 votes which isn't that bad and I really think its a good idea. Go check it out, add your own ideas and vote for me. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: contest snap web2spot

Spotback launches awesome rating widget

2007-03-08T01:08:00.001+02:00

Spotback just announced their new widget. Its currently in closed beta but you can get a glimpse of how it works on the Spotback blog posts footer. You can also sign up for the beta here.The widget lets you rate anything using the cool slider just like on Spotback news.
In addition they're releasing a few other tools that let you expose your blog content.

So if you're a blogger go get it, I have.

Technorati Tags: spotback widget

FMS vs. ZMS

2007-03-07T01:51:00.000+02:00

After Zlango and their icon-based language (ZMS), now comes Fontip with MyFont - a font messaging service (FMS). Both are offering a next generation text messaging enhancement to the heavy sms users as a downloadable java application to the mobile device.
Both products are similar in essence and are targeting the same market but are also different obviously. One has created an unusual icon language and the other has created a collection of designed fonts.
I couldn't help noticing the similarities when first reading about Fontip on De Gardener.

Both companies are based in Israel. Is this becoming an Israeli niche and where else is ~~text~~ messaging headed?

Technorati Tags: fms fontip israel mobile zlango zms

the.co.ils Web Startup 2007

2007-03-03T18:59:00.000+02:00

Great initiative by the.co.ils blog founders. The TWS 2007 event is where any Israeli Web 2.0 startup can compete for being selected as one of the 10 best and having the opportunity of presenting their web project in front of a very respectable group of judges and eventually to collect some cash.
The event is open for anybody that wants to take part as a contester or as a viewer. It should be a great place to come together with web entrepreneurs, VCs, angels and web professionals.
Not only can the 10 finalist take a shot at approaching the investors...anyone can.
The TWS 2007 is going to bounce the Israeli websphere and position it globally.

Technorati Tags: the.co.ils israel tws2007 startup entrepreneur

Yedda raise $2.5 million

2007-02-28T23:08:00.000+02:00

Yedda announces a $2.5 million financial round.
Congratulations Yedda!!!
see more on globes.

Technorati Tags: yedda israel

Israeli Gymalaya sold for 217 million USD

2007-02-25T01:42:00.000+02:00

Four of Gymalaya's co-owners managed to fulfill the Israeli dream. They sold their startup company to an American corporate for 217 million dollars. Now they can make all their fantasies come true.
This is the story of the new comic drama "Mesudarim" ("financially secure" in Hebrew) on channel 2, about four buddies. Playing the roles of CEO (Asaf Harel), VP Marketing (Asi Cohen), Chief programmer (Erez Kliener) & Designer (Maor Cohen).

Watch the first episode here. Even if you aren't a Hebrew speaker watch the first minute and a half as they get the dramatic phone call.

Indeed the ultimate dream!

Technorati Tags: channel 2 hebrew israel mesudarim startup tv

New: Internationalized Metacafe

2007-02-20T01:23:00.000+02:00

Now you can watch videos from your own country and in your own language. Metacafe has become more personalized and internationalized.

Select the country you want to see items from (default is your country).
Select the language (Local,English or Both).
Select the items' description and title language you prefer watching.

You can also search for videos in your chosen language, including foreign characters, such as Japanese, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, etc.
So on your next video upload you can select the language and location of the video.

Technorati Tags: international metacafe

Snap dilemma...?

2007-02-14T23:46:00.000+02:00

My feelings are mixed when it comes to Snap and their Snap Preview Anywhere (SPA) product. I think that in general the product is genius and that it has many advantages. I do agree with snap that "all parties win" - the user gets a better experience, the publisher keeps the user on their site longer and they get an incremental monetization opportunity. And Snap get more exposure and awareness of its search engine.
On the other hand and mostly what bothers me is the "pop-up" effect. Nothing to do about it - I can't ignore the feeling of a small window popping up and covering a part of the reading area. It's a bit annoying to me.
I do have two suggestions for Snap. First, I would consider widgetizing the bubble. What I would like to see is a dedicated window frame on the blog sidebar for example, showing me the previews on the side and not the way it pops up now. There is a problem with my suggestion when the Snap widget isn't seen when the page is scrolled down.
My second suggestion may solve this problem and is related to the first one. As part of the options given to the end-user in the bubble why not let the user determine where on the page would he like the bubble to pop-up. Or even better, why not make the Snap bubble dragable - is this doable??

By adding Snap icon trigger as part of their new features I think they came very close to perfect and convinced me to add SPA to Web2Spot. Last week a few other enhancements were released:
You can customize the bubble color theme and logo and add a SPA on/off badge to your blog allowing the end-user to turn on or off the previews.

Now you're asking yourself why I'm covering Snap on Web2Spot when my blog is dedicated to Web 2.0 companies that are made in Israel? So, actually there is a relation because Snaps vice president of product Jay Maydad is originally from Israel and before moving to the US Jay worked for ICQ. This one's for you Jay. :-)

Technorati Tags: image search snap spa

JAJAH Beta program: Cool dynamic buttons

2007-02-11T00:47:00.000+02:00

Jajah are introducing the dynamic buttons and are inviting to join the beta.
Jajah Dynamic Buttons are a revolutionary new way to make contact and stay in touch with people that you meet (or want to meet) on the internet. They let people reach each other in a variety of ways, without revealing private information such as their name, phone number or email address.

The key benefits:

Your phone numbers and Emails address are not visible to anyone. if you change number or location all your buttons simply auto-update.
You can dynamically set your availability for each channel (call, voice mail,text message, Email)
You can create multiple buttons that behave differently to perfectly fit your needs in a specific situation.
You can spread your JAJAH Dynamic Buttons not only by placing HTML code snippets but also by using a specific URL that leads directly to the respective button.

Technorati Tags: button jajah jajah dynamic buttons voip

eSnips side project

2007-02-08T16:10:00.000+02:00

Movers 2.0 is another sort of Web 2.0 directory that tracks the traffic trends by using the alexa API. In addition graphs are extracted from compete and other data is extracted from Google and Google blog search. The Web 2.0 tracker was developed by Eran Arkin a member of the eSnips team in his spare time. They do have a minor bug when more than one graph is opened together (see below). I really like the site it's a nice toy but I would be happy to see a compare feature that allows to select a number of sites and compare them side by side.
(via Techcrunch)

Technorati Tags: esnips movers 2.0

Go2Web20 2.0

2007-02-08T01:05:00.000+02:00

I come back home after a few days vacation from where I had no Internet access to discover Go2Web20.net relaunched. Thats definitely great news!
After reading the somewhat hallucinatory Techcruch thread and Orli's post I'm a bit frustrated to find the service is unavailable (a few hours now). I'm positive the new features are a great upgrade to the directory, especially the slow loading issues that are claimed to be fixed.
Waiting to see it in action.

Join SupportSpace Supporters' Cafe

2007-02-04T16:44:00.000+02:00

SupportSpace open their beta program and the supporters' cafe to tech support pros.
SupportSpace is planned to go live in mid 2007 offering an easy-to-use online tech support platform.
If you're a tech pro and like to help people solve technology problems, if you want to network with other pros go join the supporters cafe.

Think of the Supporters' Café as a social network for tech support pros. A place you can go to learn and expand your knowledge base. Where you can meet other people like you and share ideas. And where you can actively participate in building and making the SupportSpace platform, services and supporter community the very best that it can be.

WorkLight - Enterprise 2.0 product

2007-02-03T23:39:00.000+02:00

Serendipity introduces its premier product offering, WorkLight, at the DEMO 07 conference. Worklight is a secure and scalable server-based software product that provides information workers and customers with customized and personalized "Web 2.0-Style" access to corporate data that resides in enterprise applications. For the first time, application data are available via data services and technologies such as RSS, Ajax, desktop and web-based gadet/widgets, social bookmarks, application mashups and more.
Serendipity was selected to be a part of DEMO, a semi-annual conference that gives attendees a sneak peek at emerging technologies and new products.

With Worklight:

Enterprise application data become just like web content; accessible in the same form as web content and by means of the same web technologies. Furthermore, application data and web content can be freely mixed.

People at work will use the same services familiar to them at home to access enterprise data: personalized homepages such as Google, Yahoo or Microsoft Live, RSS aggregators, desktop and web-based gadgets and widgets, social bookmarking, etc.

Information workers define their own user experience – at work as well as at home. Mini-applications are created by end-users themselves and are shared with colleagues and peers.

User-created applications conform to strictest IT compliance and data security policies.

Most RSS vulnerabilities arise from the fact that RSS was intended to be used to syndicate and deliver public data. As such, little attention was given to securing the different facets of data retrieval, delivery, and presentation.

One of the main features is the WorkLight secure reader.The reader supports the following key functionality:

Multiple means of authentication are supported, including basic HTTP and form-based authentication.

Encryption of all data using SSL.

The creation of a secure channel with the WorkLight server, so that sensitive corporate data never pass through the home page provider (e.g. Google) and are never cached on their servers.

Protection from a variety of potential attacks, such as cross-site or cross-gadget scripting

Read more about the Secure RSS Reader here.

This is revolutionary!!