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8 Tech Companies to Watch in 2011
1. Minimal, Inc.
This Chicago-based design firm finished off 2010 by completing the most successful funding campaign in Kickstarter history. Its TikTok+LunaTik iPod Nano watch conversion kits raised more than $940,000 from more than 13,500 backers and garnered the kind of attention that should help launch this company to new heights in 2011. The gadget accessories market has a new player.
2. StumbleUpon
OK, so StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, so it’s not new to the scene. But with Digg’s fall this year and StumbleUpon’s planned release of premium features and publisher pages early this year, it has the potential to scale and be exposed to more users. And considering it’s a big source of traffic for many news sites, it may start investing its time into figuring out how to leverage the site further and connect with its community on the site.
3. Amimon, Inc.
This Israeli company has perfected its wireless HDTV system over the past years. Imagine plugging a tiny USB device into a laptop, and then displaying its output in full 1080p HD resolution on a monitor 100 feet away, with no lag. Amimon has already introduced one of its own products, but the big deal is the presence of its superior wireless HD standard (known as WHDI, or Wireless Home Digital Interface) chips built inside numerous other products, such as laptops, projectors, TVs and set-top boxes.
4. Bloom Energy
If there is any company poised to revolutionize the energy market, it’s Bloom Energy. The Bloom Energy Server (a.k.a. the “Bloom Box”) changes inputs like natural gas or oil into clean, reusable energy. It’s actually a dynamic fuel cell that creates energy through a chemical reaction. The company has raised more than $400 million to date and is testing its technology with Google, eBay, Wal-Mart and others.
5. Skype
Its recent outage notwithstanding, Skype has been on an impressive run since its breakup with eBay. Usage is at record levels, and features like group video chat and deep Facebook integration have reminded us that Skype is a top tier consumer and business web company. In 2011, the company is likely to go public, and with it, face a whole new level of scrutiny and expectations. Google will also continue to gun at Skype with enhancements to Google Voice (free U.S. calling for Gmail users through 2011 is an obvious sign of that), making the company all the more intriguing to watch.
6. Tumblr
With $30 million in funding in its coffer and increasing content curation (not to mention 14 book deals born from its blogs), Tumblr could be shaping up into a much more organized — and ad-worthy — hub for entertainment. We’re interested to see if the company spends that money wisely — and how.
7. Clicker
The connected device ecosystem is still evolving, in large part because of the battle over control between content publishers, device makers and consumers. Clicker is managing to avoid the battle itself and is instead focusing on making it easy for users to find content, irrespective of what service that content might use. The company recently branched into recommendations and has mobile apps, supports Google TV and the Boxee Box and has a killer web app.
8. inDinero
<inDinero is looking to replace much of what accountants do for small businesses, giving them a real-time financial overview of their company in the process. It changes how you track cash flows and expenses. It’s funded by Y Combinator and star angel investors and led by savvy entrepreneur Jessica Mah, who graduated from college when she was 19.
5 Web Technologies and Trends to Watch in 2011
In 2010 we saw the rise of HTML5, the maturation of CSS3, the release of Rails 3.0, and the widespread adoption of the @font-face selector (part of CSS3) — among other things. In short: it was a busy year for advancing web development technologies.
What will 2011 hold?
Below is a list, compiled by Mashable editors of some of the web technologies and trends we think should be on your radar for the coming year. These aren’t all straight up web dev technologies, per se, but they’re all things that will have an impact on website and app development in 2011.
1. jQuery Mobile
jQuery has become practically synonymous with JavaScript, in large part because of its extensibility, ease of use and strong project leadership. With the goal of being a touch-optimized web framework for tablets and smartphones, jQuery Mobile is one of the most visible projects aiming to take cross-platform, cross-device web development for mobile browsers to the next level. As more and more developers consider building apps with HTML5, a solid mobile JavaScript framework becomes more and more enticing. jQuery Mobile has the pedigree to become the de facto JavaScript framework for mobile.
2. Hardware-Accelerated Web Browsers
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is lightning fast, thanks to its use of DirectX 10 and hardware acceleration, vastly improving the speed and capabilities of the browser versus its competitors. Thanks to that envelope-pushing from Microsoft, Google and Mozilla are quickly scrambling to match the hardware acceleration capabilities of IE9. Next year, your browser is going to feel a lot faster.
3. Node.js and Server Side JavaScript
The Node.js website describes it as an “evented I/O for V8 JavaScript.” Essentially, it’s a toolkit for writing event-driven servers in JavaScript. What does that mean? In simple terms, it means no waiting around for slow I/O operations to complete before moving on to other operations; and for Node.js specifically, it means doing it all in server side JavaScript. For things like real-time web apps, web crawlers, file uploading, streaming, etc. — where speed is paramount — this is very important. Node.js represents the beginning of what I expect will be a wider spread adoption of server side JavaScript in 2011. For more on what Node.js is and how it works, check out this excellent overview on Simon Willison’s blog.
4. Real-Time Clickstream Sharing
There are tons of ways to share what you’re reading on the Internet — social sites and other online publishing tools made waves this year, with mass integration of share buttons and the gradual adoption of desktop clients, widgets and bookmarklets, which all made sharing easier. Real-time clickstream sharing is the next step in sharing your personal online experience, and 2011 is the year that will decide if the Internet is ready for it or not. Keep on sites like Sitesimon, Voyurl and Dscover.me.
5. NoSQL Databases
NoSQL, a loosely defined term used to describe alternative database engines that generally don’t follow the traditional relational database schemas widely in use, has been on the rise in recent years. Notable
alternative databases that gained attention recently include Google’s BigTable, Amazon’s Dynamo, Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, CouchDB, Voldemort and Riak. Of course, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater — different doesn’t necessarily mean better. There are always trade-offs when choosing one data model over another. As Ted Dziuba wrote, “by replacing MySQL or Postgres with a different, new data store, you have traded a well-enumerated list of limitations and warts for a newer, poorly understood list of limitations and warts.”
Still, the explosive growth of alternative database systems in the past couple of years definitely singles NoSQL out as a web technology trend to watch in 2011.
10 Websites to Watch in 2011
There are more than a trillion URLs in Google’s index. Yes, that’s a one with twelve zeros after it. And Google crossed that milestone two and a half years ago. With so many sites on the web in 2011, how do you know which to pay attention to?
Mashable’s editors haven’t quite visited a trillion pages, but we’ve checked out a lot in the past year, and we’ve compiled a list of 10 websites we think are poised to have big years in 2011. Some of these are relatively new sites we think will catch the mainstream’s attention next year and others are older sites that we think will finally hit the big time in 2011.
Check out our list below and let us know in the comments which websites you have your eye on for the coming year.
Read more…
Mashable’s editors haven’t quite visited a trillion pages, but we’ve checked out a lot in the past year, and we’ve compiled a list of 10 websites we think are poised to have big years in 2011. Some of these are relatively new sites we think will catch the mainstream’s attention next year and others are older sites that we think will finally hit the big time in 2011.
Check out our list below and let us know in the comments which websites you have your eye on for the coming year.
1. Kickstarter
Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for creative endeavors, was founded in April 2009 and had what many would consider a break-out year in 2010. But the site could be poised for an even bigger 2011. The unique all-or-nothing approach to funding has struck a chord with both creators and funders and is allowing enterprising individuals to bypass traditional establishments to create films, music albums, events, and even products. Kickstarter helped hundreds of projects raise millions of dollars in 2010. Look for that number to continue going up in the next year.
2. OpenLeaks
OpenLeaks may very well be the WikiLeaks alternative in 2011, not as a destination, but as an enabler for media organizations to do the same as WikiLeaks. OpenLeaks, unlike WikiLeaks, seeks to be an intermediary between whistleblowers and other organizations and includes former members of WikiLeaks, most notably, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The site will focus more on being a technological service for news organizations, likely enabling them to make it easier for their readers to submit such leaks to their own sites. This may keep the scrutiny from politicians and officials — something WikiLeaks has had to battle with this year — away from OpenLeaks, as they won’t be the ones publishing the material.
3. Klout
As social marketing starts to surpass traditional marketing methods, companies will look for influential individuals who can rep their product well. Klout is one of the tools that companies use to gauge who the social influencers are. Look for them to make some big moves in 2011.
4. Hipmunk
Hipmunk is fixing everything that’s wrong with flight searches with a tool whose usefulness is immense. Once people get used to the interface and start telling their friends about it, Hipmunk’s popularity will skyrocket.
5. Gilt Groupe
Gilt Groupe, which hired its 500th employee in 2010, is rapidly expanding into new verticals (such as location-specific group buying deals, a la Groupon) and territories (like Japan). Its next target? Full-priced retail. It’s launching a men’s e-commerce site in February. Expect to see further development in that area and the geographical expansion of its existing products in 2011.
6. Diaspora
Diaspora, the open source social network platform, released its code and opened up to private alpha invites recently. The platform was dubbed the alternative to Facebook, during Facebook’s privacy fiasco, and generated a lot of buzz. But as the platform opens up to more users in 2011, we’ll see how people react to it and whether it’s something that will actually be an alternative option to the social networking giant
7. Quora
Quora has clearly found its place with the early adopter set and a number of active, high profile users who make the service interesting to engage with. In 2011, it will be interesting to see if the company is able to expand its audience while maintaining the quality Q&A that has made it so attractive to users thus far. In turn, we’ll see if it’s the next big thing or has a destiny more like that of FriendFeed, a community that was initially popular with early adopters but never found a mainstream audience (but ultimately found a home at Facebook).
8. Grooveshark
Among the many music streaming services in existence today, Grooveshark is one of the few that is both free and available to Europeans. It has a sleek, Google-like interface and a database with a huge amount of music (the service lets anyone upload music, so you can find many obscure, unknown, local or upcoming bands there). It also has an interesting array of features, such as skinnable interface, playlists, music sharing and promotions that don’t feel like ads, and it relies on a freemium business model that offers just enough to entice users to subscribe. Barring possible problems with copyright holders and cash flow issues, which always threaten to shut down services like this, Grooveshark might be the next big thing in online music.
9. Drupal
WordPress might get most of the love in the open source CMS space (for good reason), but Drupal provides a powerful option for individuals, organizations and brands that want to power complex, robust sites. With Drupal 7 set for release in early 2011, the Drupal team is actively addressing the one area the CMS has always received criticism: Usability. Thanks to shops like Development Seed and Lullabot, the Drupal ecosystem is becoming extremely impressive. Acquia, the commercial company from Drupal founder Dries Buytaert, continues to raise funding and offer an array of commercial and support services that better enhance the platform as a whole.
10. Foursquare
I expect Foursquare to scale to an even bigger level in 2011. I won’t be surprised if it starts to acquire smaller companies or make a major move to Silicon Valley, in order to make that happen.
10 Apps to Watch in 2011
There are more than 200,000 apps in the Android market. There are more than 325,000 apps available for iOS devices. Even the fledgling Windows Phone 7 app marketplace already has greater than 5,300 apps. Throw in the wide world of web applications and, forget about it: you’d need many lifetimes to try them all.
However, there are just 10 apps you really should keep a very close watch on in 2011. The list below represents the 10 applications — for mobile and the web — that Mashable editors think will be worthy of your attention in 2011. Let us know in the comments which of these picks you agree or disagree with, and which applications you’re excited about for next year.
Read more…
However, there are just 10 apps you really should keep a very close watch on in 2011. The list below represents the 10 applications — for mobile and the web — that Mashable editors think will be worthy of your attention in 2011. Let us know in the comments which of these picks you agree or disagree with, and which applications you’re excited about for next year.
1. The Daily
The Daily is the News Corp’s iPad-only newspaper that is set to launch in January with each daily edition costing $0.99 to download. News Corp has invested a lot resources by hiring some 100 journalists andattracting top talent. Rupert Murdoch is trying to reinvent the daily distribution model and move it to the iPad. Because it’s such a big investment and features original content for the iPad, it will be an app to watch.
2. Ge.tt
Since Drop.io was purchased and disbanded by Facebook, there’s certainly a need for free, web-based, acount-less and super simple file sharing. Ge.tt’s unlimited file size allotment, temporary URLs and elegant design make it a good candidate to fill Drop.io’s shoes – that is until Facebook or Google finally build something more powerful.
3. GetGlue
GetGlue is one of the few checkin apps that offers something the other major players (i.e. Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, SCVNGR, Loopt, etc.) don’t: checkins for activities performed mainly in the home. It also has one of the best recommendation engines I’ve come across. There’s considerable incentive for brands to partner here, which should bring GetGlue into the mainstream the way (if not to the extent) that Foursquare was brought in in 2010.
4. Bizzy
Fledgling startup Bizzy relaunched its website in 2010, focusing on customizing local recommendations based on a user’s favorite locations. In December, it also relaunched its iPhone app that enables users to find nearby recommendations on a simple Google Maps integration. The Bizzy team has more functionalities in store for us in 2011, which may make it as useful for finding local places to visit — if not more so — as Yelp, Google Maps and Foursquare.
5. Flipboard
Launched earlier this year as the iPad’s social magazine, Flipboard transforms social and news feeds into an interface nothing short of gorgeous, but the company and its founder Mike McCue have far bigger plans as they try to reshape news and journalism. Watch out for some big moves in 2011.
6. Kik
Kik is like BBM, but it works across iPhone and Android phones, which makes it infinitely more useful for staying in touch with friends. It’s a free, instantaneous alternative to text messaging that also allows users to see when their messages are received. No wonder more than 2 million people downloaded it within the first three weeks of its launch.
7. ShopKick
Although it currently lacks the consumer awareness or social utility of Foursquare or Facebook Places, Shopkick might have the most commercially viable model in the checkin space. Coupons are a concept that the mainstream inherently “gets” and wants. Retailers want to offer location-based programs that are verifiable (and Target and Best Buy have already signed on). And the ubiquity of smartphones will only increase. All of that leaves Shopkick in a position for a breakout year.
8. Path
With obile photo sharing becoming more popular and Path’s focus on being a personal network, and setting a limit to the number of connections you can add, will attract users looking to connect with their real-life connections. Also, focusing on mobile is smart, considering more users are now checking social networking sites on their mobile phone than e-mail. The founding team also has some star power with the likes of former Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin, Macster co-creator Dustin Mierau and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning.
9. Instagram
Instagram made a big splash in 2010, having created the first (successful) social photo experience for the iPhone, and thus making it a likely acquisition target in 2011.
10. GroupMe
If you think SMS is exploding, wait until you see what happens in 2011. Phone calls are going the way of the dinosaur for the less intrusive and more manageable stream of texts coming to our smartphones. GroupMe is poised to bring group texting to the masses with its $9+ million funding round and rapidly growing user base.
