Goowy link is mispelled.

Goowy link is mispelled.

Connect 2.0

Space

Seamless connection, collaboration combined with virtual storage from anywhere that is available to my mom and she can actually use that is connect 2.0.

Panelists

Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC and Editor, Software Only

Bradley Horowitz, Director of Technology Development, Search & Marketplace Group, Yahoo!

Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch

Airena (www.airset.com)

At home or on the go you can use web browser capabilities on your desktop or mobile phone to manage family, work, and social group schedules and communications. Web service is free but syncing with mobile phones costs $5. Currently, Airena is available on Verizon. Currently more than ten percent Verizon subscribers who subscribe to Airena is converting to the paid service. The kink is that only one third of paid subscribers actually become active mobile users. Panelists concluded by indicating concern about lack of differentiation from other mobile integration services and the busy web interface. In general it is a cool idea, but I am not sure why Yahoo!, MSN, etc can’t just add these features. There business model of charging monthly mobile access fee makes sense, but I imagine there will be a free service option on the market soon enough. Impressive that they even have a deal with Verizon, but I think they will have a hard time getting broad device coverage.

Box (www.box.net)

Box.net provides free secure online storage that can be accessed from anywhere. You can use it as backup folders or as a sharing platform. Box.net wants to be the ubiquitous “my documents” on the web. Definitely the youngest presenter I’ve seen today (Did you get the day off from high-school today?). With Mark Cuban as an investor, 5K paid users, and 1G of free storage, an Ajax web-based document editor in the works, and tons of cool features I think they have a good shot a figuring the online storage space out.. I am just not sure I am willing to pay for a commodity.

Goowy (www.goowy.com)

Probably tied with Riya for my favorite company today, Goowy has built a stunning virtual desktop environment to displace your Window start menu and My Yahoo! home page. Goowy allows you to manage all your email, IM, and calendar accounts in one place without giving up on functionality. In addition, I love their fresh, clean, and fun mini home page creator. The major concern from the panelists was their ability to compete with Microsoft Live and everyone else who in trying to own the virtual desktop space. I think they can differentiate with rich application functionality, and an unrelenting focus on user experience.

Meetro (www.meetro.com)

Technically speaking, Meetro is radius and proximity based software. In layman’s terms, it finds like-minded people around you instantly wherever you are. Meetro is PC based service, not a mobile service which makes little sense to me. I’m not really sure I want to know, or even care, where my friends are while we are together on IM on a PC. Anyway if I we’re on IM, can’t I just ask them? I understand the idea that I might want to meet a friend of a friend that might be in the same room as me, but I see these instances as fairly limited, unless perhaps I’m a college student trying to make new friends. The panelists seem to agree with me that a better application would be mobile based, but then again, do you really want everyone to know where you are?

Connect 2.0

Space

Seamless connection, collaboration combined with virtual storage from anywhere that is available to my mom and she can actually use that is connect 2.0.

Panelists

Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC and Editor, Software Only

Bradley Horowitz, Director of Technology Development, Search & Marketplace Group, Yahoo!

Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch

Airena (www.airset.com)

At home or on the go you can use web browser capabilities on your desktop or mobile phone to manage family, work, and social group schedules and communications. Web service is free but syncing with mobile phones costs $5. Currently, Airena is available on Verizon. Currently more than ten percent Verizon subscribers who subscribe to Airena is converting to the paid service. The kink is that only one third of paid subscribers actually become active mobile users. Panelists concluded by indicating concern about lack of differentiation from other mobile integration services and the busy web interface. In general it is a cool idea, but I am not sure why Yahoo!, MSN, etc can’t just add these features. There business model of charging monthly mobile access fee makes sense, but I imagine there will be a free service option on the market soon enough. Impressive that they even have a deal with Verizon, but I think they will have a hard time getting broad device coverage.

Box (www.box.net)

Box.net provides free secure online storage that can be accessed from anywhere. You can use it as backup folders or as a sharing platform. Box.net wants to be the ubiquitous “my documents” on the web. Definitely the youngest presenter I’ve seen today (Did you get the day off from high-school today?). With Mark Cuban as an investor, 5K paid users, and 1G of free storage, an Ajax web-based document editor in the works, and tons of cool features I think they have a good shot a figuring the online storage space out.. I am just not sure I am willing to pay for a commodity.

Goowy (www.goowy.com)

Probably tied with Riya for my favorite company today, Goowy has built a stunning virtual desktop environment to displace your Window start menu and My Yahoo! home page. Goowy allows you to manage all your email, IM, and calendar accounts in one place without giving up on functionality. In addition, I love their fresh, clean, and fun mini home page creator. The major concern from the panelists was their ability to compete with Microsoft Live and everyone else who in trying to own the virtual desktop space. I think they can differentiate with rich application functionality, and an unrelenting focus on user experience.

Meetro (www.meetro.com)

Technically speaking, Meetro is radius and proximity based software. In layman’s terms, it finds like-minded people around you instantly wherever you are. Meetro is PC based service, not a mobile service which makes little sense to me. I’m not really sure I want to know, or even care, where my friends are while we are together on IM on a PC. Anyway if I we’re on IM, can’t I just ask them? I understand the idea that I might want to meet a friend of a friend that might be in the same room as me, but I see these instances as fairly limited, unless perhaps I’m a college student trying to make new friends. The panelists seem to agree with me that a better application would be mobile based, but then again, do you really want everyone to know where you are?