The Global Venture

In one of my previous pots I shared with you an idea about providing a location based vision to the Internet.

Today I have found some similar initiatives:

1 ) GeoURL

"GeoURL.org is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. Find your neighbor's blog, perhaps, or the web page of the restaurants near you. GeoURL is listing 1,681,046 sites". On the image you can see the red points representing blogs in the world. So many points!

2) A2B

A2B.cc is much more elaborated than GeoURL

A2B provides a location based search engine which allows you finding the nearest web sites to your location.

A2B.cc also allows mobile searching and works with free GPS software (See our post on GPS software)

It seems to me it does not work very well because I am in Shanghai and the first site I get is about a the weather at a UK base in Antarctica!!!

3) Local.com

Local.com is another location based engine with a more refined aspect. However, it does not even support IP geolocation. You have to write the city where you are.

I tried to find restaurants here in Shanghai but the search engine says it does not know where Shanghai is (???).

But they are working hard on this because they have just been granted a US patent for "indexing and retrieving web-related information by geographical location". Local search is a patent-mined field!: Google, Local.com, Verizon, Geomas (this is another competitor but it seems to me taht their business model is more like selling software, not really web2.0) and much more

5) Loki.com

Loki.com is a location based search and navigation toolbar. But you have to download it and I am too lazy for this!

6) Google

What to say? Read it in this blog

I will try to find more information about this. Probably in pages related to the Where 2.0 Conference in California

The idea about location based Internet is not bad! but these implementations don't seem too me very attractive. I wouldn't be a user of any of these applications.

I bet there must be another way of doing it

Coming to our discussion about how much sense it makes to clone hotornot ....

The idea behind www.hotornot.com is very simple. You see pictures of boys or girls and you have to give them a mark from 0 to 10.  This is simple and very time killing when you are bored in the office. Of course, there is no adult content. 

Well... Hotornot has been cloned zillions of times:

Just to mention some examples:

• "How much do I rock?", which is part of the famous ning. Ning is a site which allows you to create your own social network. In other words, ning allows you to create your hotornot without writing any single line of code.
• Mackable: created in 2006, this clone really improves the aesthetic and usability of hotornot. However most pictures are more provocative
• Uniteddogs: hotornot for dogs
• Australian clone of hotornot
• Here you have another clone. You can even download the source code
• YesNoMayb.com: "Yes, No, Maybe" 
• Sexyornot.us: what can I comment?
• sexyono.com: a clone in Spanish language.
• Hi-rater. You can download the source code
• In this site or this one somebody wants to get a hotornot clone coded for a few dollars. And may people answer.
• Ratemypicture: Another clone but without the fast voting approach of hotornot. Here you have to click thousands of links.
• Ratemyface: you must be logged in to use it. Who will spend 3 minutes registering if you can use hotornot?
• gujaratimatrimonial.info
• This is not really a hotornot but in this page you can find links to sites where you can download or buy for much less than 1600 million USD the source code of a flikr clone, youtube clone, netvibes clone...

The is one application that stands out from all the others: hotcaptcha. It is so genuine!!

You know every time you create an account in some site, you find a picture with some blur text you have to enter to prove that you are a human and not a machine. Well the approach of hotcaptcha is funnier. You have 9 pictures of boys/girls and you have to choose the three of them who are good looking.

Does it really make sense to clone hotornot?

Postcript:

I would really like to know if there are some Chinese hotornot. I am sure that Chinese celebrities like Furong Jiejie (芙蓉姐姐) would love it (haha!). If you know some please leave a comment or tell me on the blue instant messaging gadget on this blog.

By the way did you know that hotornot inspired Chad Hurley and Steve Chen to create youtube? didn't you? Then, read this article from the New York Post