BRAND OF THE WEEK: Kincafe

I just recently posted Geni as the Brand of the Week, a social collaboration platform for the building of a family tree. But Kincafe (a fun relevant name) is Geni on steroids. It is very intuitive as it is very visual, using icons, images, and less text (text is sequential and slow to the brain). But what is great is that it takes collaboration a relevant step further with photo album building, blog, stories, shared between family members and friends.

I began to muse the opportunities that Kincafe could evolve into. The problem with Web 2.0 is that the hosted services are fragmented–and there is only so much time any of us have to spend sitting at a keyboard. And more user IDs and passwords than we can maintain. This is where the battle will be won, aggregated functionality.

So Kincafe could become a substantive “inner circle” network adding features like auto-prompted birthday greetings or birth announcements, videos, audios–as it is Kincafe is a fabulous way to keep in touch and add meaning to “family” or a group of friends.

I’ve heard musings about Kincafe taking longer than Flash based Geni but I think these are small glitches, easy to overcome. The depth of the service is to be noted. My personal preference is the zoom tool at Kincafe rather than the tedious scrolling at Geni–but hey, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”.

I expect like Geni you can use Kincafe free up to a point. How to monetize this for the founders is a question I am sure I will get an answer to shortly.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: Geni

This hosted app in beta is something everyone can use. More than a tech innovation, Geni is about every human being’s need for meaning and yearning for immortality. It is a user-generated, hosted genealogy application. It operates somewhat like LinkedIn where you invite family members into the community and in turn they do same. The net result should be a detailed at-a-glance picture of family history.

The application gives you a chance to set-up your immediate genealogy for free. After setting-up my children, sisters and brothers, parents, grandparents and aunts/uncles, I am going to have to pull out the VISA card. After setting-up approx. a dozen members, Geni advised me that I used up 30%. Immediately, Geni sent me an email with my temp password.

The app is intuitive in that girls are pink, boys are blue. And an on-screen scroll tool allows you to move around and add to your family tree visually. And I did not have to go in and set a password!–this in itself is a task no one likes when they are just testing the waters. Again intuitive.

What’s nice about this is that family can participate in adding their information about the tree. What I don’t like is that aging members are not on the web–and much of the knowledge is lost to the dearly departed. But hey, family will have to dig (no pun). Geni is to genealogy what Flickr is to family photo albums-live. Perhaps one day Geni will link to databases to help us add that knowledge. It would also be nice if we could skip generations adding ancestors which we happen to know about while we fill in the gaps with family Members. Perhaps Geni will become so robust that it could fill in the blanks. Why not ask for the moon? But one thing is for sure, I’d like to be able to print the tree on a large poster once we have it as complete as possible. Makes a great Xmas present. Add that to the Flickr photo album.

Geni was founded by former executives and early employees of PayPal, Yahoo! Groups, Ebay, and Tribe; so, we can expect this application will just get better and endure. Right now its fun, worthwhile and I’m getting drawn in!

BRAND OF THE WEEK: Zink

The Zink made a splash at the Demo 2007. It was one the darlings of the event–an innovation not unlike the grandeur of the wii. The Zink (the brand name stands for zero ink) is a pocket-sized printer. 

Innovation in technology is not all about user generation–it’s about the user. It was refreshing to see this gadget heading a parade of (albethey awesome) web 2.0 apps.

A true innovation in the printing realm because it prints without ink. The paper is reminiscent of Polaroid (it is offspring) and lasts without yellowing. Simply, the paper is embedded with dye crystals. Zink says, “if your world is mobile, why shouldn’t your printer be?” They also state that the printer is affordable and comes in many sizes, including rolls.

What’s interesting is that Zink can be incorporated into consumer electronic devices turning each into printers. Xbox printer? TV printer? Not sure here. But mystifying.

If you have a camera phone or digital camera, you can put an end to delayed gratification, unshackling yourself from clunky appliances. And save room on these devices for other images.

Zink estimates that the total amount of photos captured by mobile phones will reach 228 billion by 2010. And that the number of camera phones shipped will exceed the number of digital cameras next year.

Don’t run out the door yet, it’s due to be out later this year but you can see a demo.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: Eyejot

Video sharing in a blink! is Eyejot’s trademark mantra. This online video sharing platform requires no downloading of an application to use. Users can create and receive, no ifs, ands or buts. You can start using Eyejot immediately, with any browser and in any platform. And it integrates with mobile devices and iTunes too.

Imagine now instead of keying in a message to your Valentine, you can belt out a dirge on your knees and send it via email. You don’t have to get hosted at YouTube for this! This is an emoticon killer!

I love it. Love it. Love it. Get this on Oprah’s favorite things.

Is Microsoft picking the lint out of its navel?