Collective Intellect is a research company that provides tracking, filtering and ranking media research for the Fortune 500. The company uses a combination of algorithms and humans to identify emerging New Media and traditional media content across blogs, discussion boards and social networking websites. The company says their approach produces more comprehensive, timely and relevant results than traditional web search tools. Customers use Collective Intellect technology to:

• track information related to stocks and investing
• support public relations and investor relations activities
• facilitate customer support outreach programs
• create product management market research feedback programs
• develop interactive forums where customer relationships can be nurtured

Source: Collective Intellect, via Techcrunch

If the Internet is about facilitating connections, then anything that enriches those connections by making them more personal and multi-dimensional will be attractive to users.

That’s why I find the emergence of companies like ExitReality exciting. According to their website they are “a new social media platform that aims to improve your online experience with an enhanced 3D, multi-user, immersive messaging environment..”

You can create virtual photo galleries for you and your guests to walk through and discuss, post video clips that “transform into 3D flat-screen TVs that you can enjoy watching with your friends,” and “see and interact” with your friends while chatting with them online.” How cool is that? 

I'm curious to see if it can be used to facilitate online meetings and conference calls - could be a great option if the software isn't time consuming to learn to use.

ExitReality, via Techcrunch

In the 70’s there was a great commercial featuring a sweet-tempered Mother Nature who becomes enraged when she discovers that what she thinks is butter is actually Chiffon margarine. If you’re old enough you might remember the tagline: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” (Watch the video of the spot in our left sidebar.)

The latest company to get slapped down is Slide, a company that makes widgets to help people express themselves, says Techcrunch. Apparently company employees wrote a slew of fake reviews on the company’s own reviews board.

Are you tempted to lob some false comments on a blog or forum to get some good buzz for your brand?  Just don’t do it---chances are you’ll get caught. And since actions speak louder than words, people will judge your brand by your company’s bad behavior.

Bazaarvoice utilizes consumer-generated content to drive customer loyalty and multi-channel sales. Solutions include products to enable customers to rate and review products, ask and answer questions, and share personal experiences to build an online community, establish brand loyalty, and increase buyer confidence.

They also include solutions to enable brands to capture, publish and syndicate consumer-generated product reviews.

FriendFeed enables users to keep up-to-date on and discuss the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing.

Source: FriendFeed.com

"Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging , social classification, social indexing, social tagging, and other names) is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast to traditional subject indexing, metadata is not only generated by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary."

Source: Wikipedia

LiveUniverse is an online media and entertainment network. They operate several websites across three core verticals: Video, Social Networking & Music. They operate LiveVideo a social networking and video destination as well as a video network and widget network.  (social network, online video, entertainment, widget, etc.) .

via Techcrunch

Garageband is a social music service and community dedicated to discovering the best independent music. Members can hear new artists before they become famous, download free MP3s, add favorities to your blog or MySPace and help pick hits and win prizes by reviewing music.

iLike is a social music discovery service and community born out of Garageband that lets consumers get personalized recommendations and follow what their friends are listening to.

via Techcrunch

Sugar Inc. is an online media company of blogs and websites that seeks to be “the definitive online media company for trendsetting, passionate women ages 18-44. Sites and communities include Shopstyle and the Sugar Network which includes PopSugar, SugarLoving, BuzzSugar, BellaSugar, FabSugar, CasaSugar, YumSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, GiggleSugar and DearSugar.

via Techcrunch