As DEMO 09 continues, so do the companies seeking to find what one panel judge described as the “glimmer of greatness.” The day began with Answers.com and their presentation of a revised front-end, multi-language translation, and an emphasis on a unique proposition not offered by its primary competitor. That is, why not come to a site where you can do both: retrieve and edit answers from a crowd-sourced wiki platform but also have access to a library of over 250 licensed reference sources that also offer you concrete results. This balance seems to be paying off based on site traffic and overall web rankings; hints of a future mobile application would only increase Answer.com’s social presence.
With an already established business model, Article One Partners, which specializes in crowd-sourcing patent research to experts globally, not only has a service required by the majority of the Fortune 2000 but it also seems to be gaining traction due to the comprehensiveness of its research. Weels Corp. was focused on presenting a web-based sharing tool focused on file sharing and social network integration. While it enters a segment full of already established competitors, Weels aims to be ultra-versatile across all of the web’s major content platforms.
Enter LeapFile with file-sharing for enterprise and providing end to end data encryption. With small businesses increasingly adopting Google Apps and large enterprises already utilizing file-sharing services, LeapFile seeks to generate interest by showing that if offers a superior security solution to enterprise clients. What Symform proposes is the encrypted P2P sharing of files to create affordable crowd sourcing for individuals and businesses; the DEMO show case of the product illustrated how other users, though the information is encrypted, can easily access whatever portion of your information is stored on their computer. Whether this is a risk businesses and individuals will take should determine the service’s adoption going forward.
Other highlights from the first part of the day were Hashwork and Zorap. For companies looking to enter the social media landscape, Hashwork provides one of the most effective interfaces for doing so. Setting up a company account allows for two-way coordination of data and posts between social networks, the setting up of a company Hashwork social profile, and an interface that mirrors the aesthetic prevalent among the most popular social sites. But how will all of this integrate into the, for example, Fan Page advertising that is almost mandatory today? Zorap, a video, photo, and media sharing platform, was well-received by the audience and allows the dragging and dropping of content with rooms of up to 50 friends.
The API and Social Marketing categories included companies such as 80legs for web crawling, Native Tung for real-time automated web content translation, and CallSpark! for mobile phone number search pulled from directories and public social network listings. Pho.to offered an interactive and versatile online photo editing app with excellent one-click photo editing actions and fully customizable white label implementation. Burt AB presented an analytics platform for online display and rich media campaigns while RumbaFish‘s online social media advertising platform found strength in the versatility of its campaign management interface. Already established and in use by some notable media partners, Glam Media presented its Tinker application and found appeal in its potential pairing of real-time streams and brand advertising.
(Photo by DEMO)
