Saturday, February 24, 2007
WebSites I Like and Love
I actually evangelize quite a bit for products I love. A little less for those I like. I just took some time to pull some favorites together for a friend, and thought I'd share with you as well.
I'm a huge huge huge fan of www.techsmith.com and their product SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Screencast. They're one of the rare companies that I rave about. I use their products every day. They have awesome marketing and ongoing evangelist ownership/customer inclusion. They really are amazing.
I'm a big fan of FeedBurner.
I love www.mybloglog.com � you can see how it works on my website � add your photo, and you�ll see how it becomes a bit addictive to see yourself and experience some vanity as you browse the web.
LOVE www.etsy.com
I've become a HUGE fan of www.37signals.com � after reading their PDF, Getting Real (I highly recommend you read that).
Big fan of the beta-product EyeJot (check it out on top right of my blog) and also, google their Demo 2007 presentation.
Someone recently told me about www.fon.com. I haven't used it/installed it, but I love the concept.
I love the idea behind Redfin. But I don't think they're being bold enough about picking a specific market niche (i.e. first-time homebuyers) and engaging their many users as paying subscribers/members with value-add services. By trying to be all things to all people (buying home, selling home, web2.0 app, etc.) they're turning into just another discount realtor/web service. Too many people say "aren't they just like Zillow?". That's a problem for them. But, great idea to shake up an industry that hasn't changed much since the purchase of Manhattan.
I Love LinkedIn and Plaxo -- they work perfectly together, and both do one thing extremely well (LinkedIn for networking and Plaxo for keeping contact information current) -- in fact, there's an example of a merger made in heaven.
I've really liked www.yottamusic.com but I can't say that I love it � it was recommended by Fred Wilson (see below). It's definitely a better front end for Real�s Rhapsody music subscription service (I pay $10/month for that� it plays thru Sonos in our house� is awesome� wireless access to all music on my computer and also on Rhapsody� so basically all music every made).
For sending large files (will be very important in new world of Video/Audio files which are enormous and don�t work well with traditional email), we�ve found www.sharefile.com to work much better than www.yousendit.com and www.pando.com.
I've been really happy with www.carbonite.com -- at $5/month, this online backup solution has been great. Of course, I haven't had a system meltdown where I've had to access the data, so for all I know they could be deleting it upon receipt! (but I doubt it :-) )
In the personalized product space, I've liked my experiences at www.zazzle.com and www.threadless.com (I like them better than the leader, www.cafepress.com)
From the Business 2.0 article about 25 new companies to watch, I really liked the idea behind www.SuccessFactors.com. Simple performance management tools are sorely needed by business, IMO. Seems like everywhere I've gone, everyone is recreating the same wheel/process.
I'm actually not much of a fan of www.squidoo.com (This is Seth Godin�s company). It's always feel like a spam generator to me. For a guy who is such a genius, this one just falls flat. Definitley no Purple Cow.
I feel pretty sure that Alexa is gonna be rendered irrelevant very soon by Google, Yahoo and/or MSN, when they launch a better service (since they own the toolbar market).
Finally, if you only have time to read one blog, this is the one I'd recommend:
Fred Wilson at http://avc.blogs.com.
What did I miss?
I'm a huge huge huge fan of www.techsmith.com and their product SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Screencast. They're one of the rare companies that I rave about. I use their products every day. They have awesome marketing and ongoing evangelist ownership/customer inclusion. They really are amazing.
I'm a big fan of FeedBurner.
I love www.mybloglog.com � you can see how it works on my website � add your photo, and you�ll see how it becomes a bit addictive to see yourself and experience some vanity as you browse the web.
LOVE www.etsy.com
I've become a HUGE fan of www.37signals.com � after reading their PDF, Getting Real (I highly recommend you read that).
Big fan of the beta-product EyeJot (check it out on top right of my blog) and also, google their Demo 2007 presentation.
Someone recently told me about www.fon.com. I haven't used it/installed it, but I love the concept.
I love the idea behind Redfin. But I don't think they're being bold enough about picking a specific market niche (i.e. first-time homebuyers) and engaging their many users as paying subscribers/members with value-add services. By trying to be all things to all people (buying home, selling home, web2.0 app, etc.) they're turning into just another discount realtor/web service. Too many people say "aren't they just like Zillow?". That's a problem for them. But, great idea to shake up an industry that hasn't changed much since the purchase of Manhattan.
I Love LinkedIn and Plaxo -- they work perfectly together, and both do one thing extremely well (LinkedIn for networking and Plaxo for keeping contact information current) -- in fact, there's an example of a merger made in heaven.
I've really liked www.yottamusic.com but I can't say that I love it � it was recommended by Fred Wilson (see below). It's definitely a better front end for Real�s Rhapsody music subscription service (I pay $10/month for that� it plays thru Sonos in our house� is awesome� wireless access to all music on my computer and also on Rhapsody� so basically all music every made).
For sending large files (will be very important in new world of Video/Audio files which are enormous and don�t work well with traditional email), we�ve found www.sharefile.com to work much better than www.yousendit.com and www.pando.com.
I've been really happy with www.carbonite.com -- at $5/month, this online backup solution has been great. Of course, I haven't had a system meltdown where I've had to access the data, so for all I know they could be deleting it upon receipt! (but I doubt it :-) )
In the personalized product space, I've liked my experiences at www.zazzle.com and www.threadless.com (I like them better than the leader, www.cafepress.com)
From the Business 2.0 article about 25 new companies to watch, I really liked the idea behind www.SuccessFactors.com. Simple performance management tools are sorely needed by business, IMO. Seems like everywhere I've gone, everyone is recreating the same wheel/process.
I'm actually not much of a fan of www.squidoo.com (This is Seth Godin�s company). It's always feel like a spam generator to me. For a guy who is such a genius, this one just falls flat. Definitley no Purple Cow.
I feel pretty sure that Alexa is gonna be rendered irrelevant very soon by Google, Yahoo and/or MSN, when they launch a better service (since they own the toolbar market).
Finally, if you only have time to read one blog, this is the one I'd recommend:
Fred Wilson at http://avc.blogs.com.
What did I miss?
Labels: favorites websites
