Revisiting Supernova’s Connected Innovators

words by Ann Crane, pictures by Brian Solis

13 connected innovators or 12 plus a fake

The evening Networking Gala was the final Supernova extravaganza, open to all attendees and hosted on the impressive Imperial Floor of the Westin St. Francis, which included 2 top area restaurants with aerial views of San Francisco. The event also provided a showcase of Supernova Connected Innovators. From the scores of applicants, organizer Kevin Werbach and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington selected the top 12 and judges/panelists Julie Hanna Farris, Josh Kopelman, Paul Kedrosky, and Mike Arrington had rated the innovator’s five pitches and shared their opinions on each one’s viability.

Posted below is a short overview of 12 innovators from the Supernova Connected Innovators program, selected as likely to make an impact on the connected future.

adap.tv
Amir Ashkenazi(CEO and Founder)
Understanding that online video medium is growing exponentially with more than half of the American Internet population viewing video content online, adap.tv is a new, cutting-edge ad network designed specifically (and desperately needed) for the online video medium. adap.tv displays highly relevant ads that can be clicked-through to the ad’s web page.

AdaptiveBlue
CEO Alex Iskold
Realizing that semantics and context play a critical role in personalization, created “BlueOrganizer”, creating personalized browser pages with shortcuts based on content. Another product, “Smartlinks”, lets site publishers and bloggers insert smartlinks in their own content.

Aggregate Knowledge
Paul Martino, CEO
Provides service that let site owners insert links on pages, providing real-time, collective merchandising and navigation capabilities.

CastTV
Alex Vikati, co-founder and president of CastTV
described themselves as building the web’s best video search, providing the best way to find all your online videos, from TV shows to movies to the latest celebrity, sports, news, and viral videos. CastTV is currently an invitation-only beta service.

Critical Metrics
Site where every week, artists, DJs, music, tv networks, newspapers, magazines, retailers, and bloggers recommend their favorite new songs. Critical Metrics keeps track of recommendations and playlists across all media so you can easily find, try, and buy the best new music. Critical Metrics is currently free.

Jangl
Provides service where you can talk to your online friends on the phone, no computer or download required, call people anywhere in the world, keep your number private when dating, buying or selling, leave anyone voice mail from your phone. Launching Facebook integration soon.

Pando Networks
Pando is free P2P software that makes publishing, sending and downloading large media files fast and easy. Makes it simple to email large attachments, IM a folder, or publish downloadable videos to the Web, even download full-screen HD Internet TV.

SodaHead
Service that allows you to create public opinion polls and insert them on your own site.  Create a poll and share it with your friends, or share it with experts identified by the SodaHead community, or even share it with complete strangers. Then choose to rely on the conventional wisdom, the opinion of your friends, or the experts.

Spock
A search engine, specifically, a people search engine. Name = everything it can find and where it found it. uses tags, and users can vote on accuracy of tags as well. With over one hundred million people already indexed and millions added every day, Spock is building the broadest and deepest people specific search engine. SPOCK is currently an invitation-only beta service. If you want an invitation, email us at dontpot at gmail.

Wize
Aggregates user and expert reviews, attempting to make the process of product research easier, quicker and more relevant. Ranks by price, brand, Wize Rank and buzz, searches more than 7,151 websites, ranks almost 30,419 products and features more than a million user and expert reviews.

ZenZui
Makes your phone screen a portal into your own customized interface, navigate personalized, cached content in the form of Tiles. Using your thumb, two taps get you directly to any Tile, constantly refresh your Tiles in the background, so they’re always fresh, available, and ready to be Zoomed.

Zing
Provides software that mobile device manufacturers can use to allow users to collect songs from live digital streams using Wife, wherever you go, whenever you want. simplifies how you collect and manage your playlists, ay integrated into one device that’s always on and ready to play.

Fake Site: ZapMeals
Ivan McClure & Wayne Lambright, described an online food ordering & delivery marketplace, matching hungry consumers with independent local food preparers and a network of local delivery providers. That’s a fancy way of saying we do great fast food… only faster, or faker as it turned out.

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