2ReCall

2ReCall is a great application of VoIP technology. It lets you record a phone conversation without any software or hardware, from any landline or wireless phone. The concept is simple- you call their 800 number, and then initiate the actual call to receiver via their VoIP service. Once the call ends, you can log into your 2Recall account online and listen (and annotate) the conversation in .mp3 or .wav format. Obviously, the service is not free, but their plans didn’t sound expensive.

Mercedes A-to-S

The A-to-S website of Mercedes-Benz is a great example of interactive marketing in style. Although it’s essentially a commercial for their product line, it hardly feels that way while you cruise through the site. There is apt mix of mystery, elegance and creativity here- you need to experience it for yourself.

1-800-FREE411

1-800-FREE411 is just like 411, only better because it doesn’t cost anything. In case you wonder who pays, it’s thier advertisers (you are subjected to short ads during the call). And if you are interested in one of the offers in the ads, they’ll connect you to the advertiser.

Very cool concept, and judging by the press and numbers they have made, it is destroying the traditional 411 market. Another great web 2.0 application.

BookMooch

BookMooch is a online community for exchanging books. You put up the list of books you can trade in, and for each one you mail out, you get a credit in the system. Then you can redeem credits for ‘mooching’ the books you want.

Good concept. No particular business model – it’d funded by a serial entrepreneur who honestly claims that he doesnt need to make more money. That is a first.

loopt

For $2.99 a month, Loopt users can invite others into their network, where they will appear on a live Friends Map. In addition to locating friends, they can tag a good restaurant or record shop to share with others, and receive an alert when a friend is nearby. Neat Idea.. but only works with ‘Boost’ mobiles. They claim “other Carriers coming soon!” [Site Link]

SellaBand

Sellaband lets your buy ’shares’ (they call them ‘parts’, but its the same concept) of upcoming music bands, based on the free mp3’s you hear from them (also available on the website). Once a band accumulates 50K $ worth on shares, they are given a green light to a recording company contact for making CDs. Everyone gets a cut of the the website ads, CD sales and gigs that the band does. Very cool idea- can be applied in multiple domains, I think. [Site Link]

jaxtr

Another interesting (and cool) idea – let web users talk with each other with respect to a common item of interest (blog/news etc). A reader can just click on the jaxtr button and talk to the blogger/publisher/owner. The call is anonymous, of course. We’ll just wait for this one to get abused. [Site Link]

Blufr

Brilliant. Blufr is an enormously entertaining website by the parent company Answers.com.

The site has ‘bluffs’ on its main page – one at a time – and you have to answer if its fact or bluff. ‘Polar bears dont have belly buttons’ is the question – and as soon as you click on ‘Way!’ or ‘No Way!’ buttons, you get the answer, along with a % of how many people were fooled by it. Cool. What’s even better is that there is no need to register/sign-in.

Painless, useless and entertaining. Nicely done.

Bookcrossing, Where’s George, Phototag

It’s an idea that’ll spark interesting discussion at any lunch meeting – register your book on Bookcrossing , get a unique id, print it inside the book and leave the book in a public place (subway, airplane seat pocket) with a message like “I’m a Bookcrossing book, read me and find out where I’ve been by going to Bookcrossing.com”. The idea is that people would like to track the movement of books ‘left loose in the wild’.

I’m not sure if my relative inexcitement is shared by others. But I respect internet’s power to enable such ingenious experiments. So this post gets the ‘Cool’ category.

By the way, they concept is not original – Where’s George tracks 1$ bills in the wild, Phototag tracks disposable cameras. Now why didn’t you think of something like this? Too busy working 9-5, I guess.

FON

FON is the largest WiFi community in the world (at least they claim to be). Its their concept I like so much: every member buys the ~5$ special router to create a community. As long as the member is in the ‘community network’, he/she doesnt have to pay for net access – just logs onto the nearest FON access point.

The service is very popular in Europe, and is gaining in US (hasnt reached my geolocation effectively though.. sigh!). Regardless, what a marvellous concept. Beam me up, Scotty.