30 Jun Cool tools for hot markets
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve come across two interesting products that are making strong entrances into developing growth markets.
The first, with enhancements announced today by Terra Lycos, is Blog Builder, an elegantly simple, yet complete, blog creation tool and hosting service. (You’ll find it at http://blog.tripod.lycos.com.)
Blogging is rapidly transforming from an insular, early adopter market into a mass growth market. And companies like Terra Lycos are taking advantage of this turn of events. Google, Six Apart, and others all provide capable blog tools. But Blog Builder is uniquely targeted to the mass market.
The user interface is very clean, providing a what-you-see-is- what-you-get graphical approach to building blogs. These tools give first-time bloggers a head start on creating attractive and full-featured Web logs. There are templates for common blog types, such as baby sites, teams and clubs, and community blogs. Still, Blog Builder offers the controls and features that experienced bloggers would expect, including mobile blogging tools.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Terra Lycos is offering a flexible and capable tool for individual expression. Terra Lycos is the parent of Tripod, one of the earliest community Web sites, founded by Bo Peabody in the mid-’90s. Lycos continues its lead among online publishing sites, combining easy-to-use blogging tools with Web hosting, domains, and more generous storage space for photos and audio and video clips.
Terra Lycos offers Blog Builder in various packages from a free trial to $19.95 for high-capacity blogs with e-commerce capabilities.
The second tool comes from a U.S.-German-based start-up called Blinkx, which enters the quickly heating market for Web information management tools. (In recent weeks, I’ve written about Onfolio and Pluck.)
Blinkx, the information management tool, uses an array of techniques to search for information across both your hard drive and the Web. Based on technology licensed from Autonomy, the Blinkx Windows client finds Web pages and news, along with locally stored documents. The search is lightening fast and extraordinarily convenient. Move your cursor over any results and Blinkx provides a synopsis of the file or Web page, compiled from the meta data associated with that file or link.
Blinkx is a dynamic tool that deserves a spot on every desktop. It allows anyone to navigate the Web by searching for concepts, rather than entering URLs or guessing keywords. Because Blinkx understands concepts as well as keywords, it delivers appropriate results with great frequency and accuracy.
Best of all, Blinkx is free. You can download the client at www.blinkx.com.
These two cool tools should turn up the heat on their respective markets. Download them and see for yourself.
End Notes
Another salvo has been launched in the fight against spam. VeriSign unveiled a set of services designed to intercept, scan and filter messages before they clog customer servers. The overall goal is to cut down on unsolicited email and online fraud. Email traffic will pass through management, security and anti-virus engines before being allowed out to customer sites. Called VeriSign Email Security Service and the Anti-Phishing Solution, the offerings will be available mid-July . . . Security is getting beefier for wireless LANs. The 802.11i spec received approval from the IEEE. It adds the Advanced Encryption Standard to the 802.11 standard. AES will answer some of the criticism of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) . . . The presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party is putting the Bush administration on the hotseat about its technology policies. Sen. John Kerry says Bush is lacking in a commitment to technology and said, if elected, he would restore technology leadership in the U.S. Kerry called for a tax credit to increase broadband access and said he would like to see an auction of the television spectrum that would contribute to future technology investments. Kerry said that a buildout of the broadband network could lead to more than $500 billion added to the economy, according to the IDG News Service.
DEMOmobile 2004
The search is under way to find the 50 products that will launch at DEMOmobile 2004, September 8-10, 2004, in La Jolla, California. DEMOmobile is a high-visibility launch platform that will set your company on the path to success. It’s the best venue for positioning new mobile and wireless products and establishing strategic relationships with the players who will lead you to success. The conference’s stringent selection process and excellent reputation serves as an endorsement for your product as it comes to market. DEMO events have helped companies like Palm, Handspring, IBM Pervasive Computing, Logitech, Mirra, Tapwave, Macromedia – even Microsoft – launch their products, create critical business relationships, and sell to thought- leading early adopters.
DEMOmobile 2003 demonstrators benefited from more than 162 million media impressions before, during, and long after the event.
Visit: http://www.idgexecforums.com/demonstrate/tour/index-demo2.html to learn more and complete an online application.
DEMOmobile 2004
September 8-10, 2004
Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines,
La Jolla, CA
http://www.demomobile.com/M4DL
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Chris Shipley is the executive producer of NetworkWorld’s DEMO Conferences, Editor of DEMOletter and a technology industry analyst for nearly 20 years. She can be reached at chris@demo.com. Shipley, has covered the personal technology business since 1984 and is regarded as one of the top analysts covering the technology industry today. Shipley has worked as a writer and editor for variety of technology consumer magazines, including PC Week, PC Magazine, PC/Computing, and InfoWorld, US Magazine and Working Woman. She has written two books on communications and Internet technology, has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence, and was named the #1 newsletter editor by Marketing Computers for two years in a row. To subscribe to DEMOletter please visit: http://www.idgexecforums.com/demoletter/index.html.
This column was reprinted with permission of Network World Inc. All registered trademarks are owned by IDG. More information can be found at http://www.idgef.com.
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