Zeus of the ‘NetReviews of the Coolest Sites on the Net

If you own a business, or are in charge of the legal aspect of things for a business, there’s a website that might be able to help you out…and for free!  LawPivot.com is a question and answer site, similar to Quora, except that this site is focused on business legal issues.  And since everyone knows hiring a lawyer (even for a small issue) can be expensive, this site can help ‘treps and others save lots of money.

The process is pretty simple and straightforward.  There are two options; you can either ask a confidential question or a public question.  If you ask a confidential question, LawPivot will suggest relevant lawyers to answer your questions and then you can send your questions to those lawyers or others that you hand-select.  If you ask a public question the LawPivot community lawyers will answer your question in a public forum where others will be able to benefit as well.

I think it’s a great idea for a site that will definitely be able to save business owners lots of money while also helping to find a good lawyer if the issue is a more complex one.  As always I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Going back to the early days of the web, and even still today, a popular place to ask questions and get answers were and still are forums.  Simple, straightforward, and usually niche specific, forums allow users to post questions and get answers.  But that’s pretty much it.  Not to mention the issue of SPAM.  Luckily there are a couple of sites out there that are trying to revitalize the world of Q&A  (see my previous post on Quora).  Recently I came across a new site in this niche called Namesake that looks very promising.  Namesake initially caught my attention because, number one I think they selected a great name and number two the design, usability, look and feel, and colors used on their site look very professional and work really well.

This site is still in its early stages so there’s not a ton of questions and answers or conversations yet, but I’m sure that will change as it begins to catch on with more and more people.  I think this site has a ton of potential and I’m excited to see what the future holds in store for them.  I recommend joining and checking the site out for yourself…and then come back and leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Do you enjoy waking up early on a Saturday or Sunday and driving around your neighborhood looking for yard sales?  I would totally be one of these people if it wasn’t for the waking up early part.  Me and mornings don’t get along.  For those of you who are like me, there’s a website that can help take care of this aversion to the AM.  The site is called Yardsellr.  The genius of this site is the social aspect and the deep integration with Facebook (and Twitter, but the focus is more on FB).  Once logged in (through Facebook Connect) you can begin buying and selling things online in a little as 60 seconds.  It’s that easy.  No more getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, or showering…at least before 9am on a weekend.

One of the other things I like about this site is what they call “blocks”.  They have over 4,000+ blocks that range from Jewelry, to Star Wars, to Baseball Cards and everything in between.  Also when you put something up for sale they will not only spread the word on your block, but also in the news feeds of millions of Yardsellr fans on Facebook.

There are tons of items just waiting to be bought (and if your closet, garage, storage room, etc. is like most there’s probably tons to sell too!).  So what are you waiting for?

If you’re like me and love to try new foods then you might find this site interesting.  It’s a combination of Yelp and Foursquare in that the focus is on restaurants and users can earn points and badges.  However instead of multiple reviews/descriptions this site makes food the star (as it should be).  Foodspotting allows users (aka Foodspotters) to either upload or email pictures of the food they’ve tried at various local restaurants.  From there the community can nominate (known as “noms”) the foods they’ve tried and liked the best.  Users can earn points and keep running lists of foods ‘spotted’, ‘nommed’, and ‘wanted’, of course in addition to earning badges such as ‘Seafood’, ‘Dessert’, and ‘Sushi’.

They also have a very cool (and free) iPhone app that perfectly replicates the website experience.  I think an app like this is absolutely necessary for a website in this niche and they definitely hit the nail on the head.  If you have an iPhone I highly recommend downloading the app (just go to the App Store and search ‘foodspotting’).  So what do you guys think, next time you’re hungry but don’t know where to go would you consider checking out Foodspotting?

You might have already heard about this site but I thought I’d share it with those who might not have (or for those who have and weren’t sure what it was all about).  Foursquare is for use on mobile devices (specifically smart phones like the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Palm, etc.) but can also be used via text message for those users on non-smart phones within the U.S.  After downloading the Foursquare app onto your phone (completely free) you can begin to ‘check-in’ at different locations.  The check-in process is based on your location (using GPS) and is pretty simple; all you need to do is select your correct location from the list.  If for some reason the business/location is not listed you can add it and then check-in.  You can also leave a short message, 140 characters or less, describing your experience.  Sounds interesting.

The question is why would anyone use this?  To address this issue, Foursquare has created a game style format with points and badges where you can login in at the end of each month and see your stats.  The ultimate goal behind this is to become “mayor” of a certain business location (your local Starbucks for example) which is achieved by checking in at a particular location more times than any other fellow Foursquarer.  Once you are mayor of that location you unlock the mayor’s badge and in some instances can receive a discount off of purchases ($1 off purchases at Starbucks) simply for being mayor of that location.

I think there’s a lot of potential in this new geo check-in arena but Foursquare is dealing with quite a few competitors at the moment and some pretty formidable ones at that (Yelp).  It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds over the next 6-12 months.  What do you think, would you use a service like this?

If you’re like most people then I’m sure you’ve browsed through online classified sites, such as Craigslist or Backpage, looking for a good deal on one thing or another.  But I’m sure a lot of people out there have the same worry I do.  Can I trust the people selling this stuff?  Are they being honest when they say it’s only been “slight used” (I know they’re probably not but still…).  And on the flip side, I’m sure sellers are thinking, can I trust these people who want to come look at whatever it is I’m selling?  Unlike Ebay where there usually isn’t a physical exchange of the product, with Craigslist there usually is.  This can be a scary and sometimes dangerous thing.  So what can be done to help make these types of online classified sites safer?

Enter ListSafer.com.  Seeking to make these marketplaces safer, ListSafer has created a platform where both buyers and sellers can create profiles where they can upload photos, as well as post ratings and reviews on the other users that they buy from as well as sell to.  I think this is an interesting concept that could start to catch on pretty quickly, especially for those people who use Craigslist or Backpage frequently.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if ListSafer badges started popping up on these and other online classified sites in the near future.

Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that you can follow me on both Twitter and Facebook to receive updates of all my latest posts.  If you follow or friend me you will also get tweets and updates with links to cool websites I come across that don’t make it onto the blog, but are still cool or interesting and that I think are worth passing along!

If you would like to suggest a site that you have come across or that you started and run yourself, feel free to email me at admin@zeusofthenet.com or send me a tweet @ZeusoftheNet.  Look forward to the suggestions!

With the proliferation of social networking sites on the Internet these days, I figured why not blog about a site that’s helping to add to that proliferation.  I actually heard about Ning.com a while ago, but was just recently reminded about them again so I decided I would go ahead and share the site with you.  Basically Ning is a cool site let’s you create as well as join new social networks.  You can join any social network that either your friends or fellow Ningers have created, and they work in a very similar manner to Facebook or MySpace.  The main difference is that you only have to create one profile and you can either join other social networks or can start your own with the profile you created.  It’s pretty simple to join, you just have to give your name and email, then a password for your login and that’s it.

There are many ways this site could be used, from personal to professional, for businesses, and pretty much everything in between.  Currently there are social networks for Rottweiler lovers, Shakira fans, and of course Women’s Tackle Football.  So check out Ning and yours could be next!

Although previously unheard of, this social networking site is poised to burst onto the American social networking scene to take on two Internet behemoths.  As far as social networking sites go MySpace and Facebook are by far the biggest players, with no real competition.  That might not be the case by the end of this year. The name Hi5 is virtually unknown here in the U.S., but that isn’t the case overseas.  Hi5 is the number one social site in over 30 countries spanning the globe from Latin America, to Europe, to Asia, and Africa.

What sets this San Francisco, California based company apart from its huge competitors is its language flexibility.  Offered in over 40 languages (with more than 60 additional languages planned for the near future) they are way ahead of their competition.  Currently with over 80 million registered users in over 200 countries, Hi5 is in the perfect position to be the most popular social networking site in the world.

If you’re looking to try out a new restaurant, bar, hair salon or dentist but aren’t sure where to go or which one to choose, check out Yelp.  Soaring in popularity since Google began including reviews from Yelp on their local listings section, the concept is simple: a place to talk about what’s great and sometimes what’s not so great about the places and business you visit.  Known as Yelpers, the users that comprise Yelp make the site what it is.  The very definition of Web 2.0, Yelp is a great site for users and businesses to find each other, and learn more about what the other is all about.

Once an account is created (free of course) you too can become a Yelper and upload photos, add a bio, and most importantly begin reviewing!  And with the addition of Mobile Yelp users on the go will never again have to randomly choose a restaurant or bar without first seeing what their fellow Yelpers have to say about it!

**Update** Yelp now has both an iPhone and iPad app, both of which are free. Since I wrote this post I’ve come to use Yelp all the time, especially when I’m trying to decide which restaurant I want to eat at. If you have either one of these devices, I highly recommend downloading their app.