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

If you answered yes to any of these, then you should check out a site called Betterfly.com.  Basically Betterfly helps you to find service providers such as hair stylists, language coaches, massage therapists, and Zumba instructors that are in your local area.  Their website is easy to use and the search and filter options work very well.  In addition to having a great looking site, they also have many cool features.  The first and most important thing that a service provider site needs is reviews!  Thanks to Yelp reviews are a MUST especially for service related offerings.  The nice thing about the reviews on this site is that they are categorized according to the service that’s being provided, which ensures that they are relevant (this is important if a provider offers multiple services across several domains).

Another thing that I think is a great idea is the ‘Availability’ feature.  Betterfly allows providers to show their availability with the option for potential client’s to book directly online!  You can’t ask for a more quick and easy process!  So if you’ve been wanting to learn a new language, find a new hair stylist, treat yourself to a massage, or get back in shape, then go check out Betterfly today!

Luckily we’ve moved past the days of having to use a paper phonebook to find local service providers (I mean really, who uses the YellowPages anymore?). Now we’re onto bigger and better options. We now have local search directories such as Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local, just to name a few. However all of these new local directories lack a few things. They essentially act the same way as the old YellowPages did, listing a business’ address, phone number, product/service offerings, etc. with the added bonus of some reviews mixed in.  While this is a step in the right direction, Redbeacon takes it one step further.

Users can submit a request for whatever type of service they are looking for and can specify when, where, and exactly what they need to have done. Redbeacon will then send out a message to those service providers that match your criteria (that have of course created a Provider Services account) and then those providers can bid on your service request. From there you get to choose which provider you want to go with, based on their bid price, reviews, etc. Best of all this can all be done online, absolutely FREE.

In my opinion this site has a lot of potential. However I think for it to really take off, it’s going to need a lot of qualified service providers actively involved and bidding on service requests. What do you guys think, would you consider using Redbeacon for your local business needs?

Launched in February 2008 this site is the latest in a line of niche social networking websites.  However unlike the hundreds and hundreds of other social sites that have fallen by the wayside, this one appears to have what it takes.  BrightFuse is a self-proclaimed “talent community” that aims to “give professionals a tool with which they could network and interact easily with other professionals”.  The site is completely free to use, anyone can create a personalized professional profile to connect, interact, and network with fellow industry peers and other professionals from around the globe.

With more and more research and fact finding being done online by those decision makers in HR departments all over the world, it is becoming necessary to maintain and control your personal online presence.  BrightFuse enables its users to create a professional webpage (similar to LinkedIn) where their work history can be showcased in a very presentable way, basically amounting to an online resume.  With the way the economy is going, this is one social site that you won’t want to pass on because who knows if and when that pink slip will come.  Take advantage and become a part of this growing community as it continues to expand throughout the recession and beyond.

My apologies for the pun, but if you are in the market for a new job, and with the way this economy is going many of you probably are, then pay a visit and immediately bookmark Indeed.com.  This job search aggregator site pulls listing from dozens and dozens of other high profile job sites such as: Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs; as well as dozens of smaller and lesser known jobs sites.  It also pulls listings from the careers or jobs section from companies websites themselves.

The site is very easy to use, all a visitor to the site has to do is type in the job title or keywords they are searching for, the location, and hit ‘Find Jobs’.  Indeed.com is essentially a customized search engine, but one that is done right.  The query results page looks exactly like a Google results page (I’m sure no coincidence), including Adsense on the top, bottom, and right hand side.

With less and less time to get things done these days, everybody is strapped for time.  This site is the perfect timesaver for those who don’t have the time or patience to search each job site one by one.