If that isn’t enough … they pay you to use their search engine technology. You’ll earn 1 point for every search you make, up to 100 searches a day. If you rate a result or comment on it, you’ll earn another point (for a maximum of 3 points per search). Once you accumulate 6500 points, you can cash them in for a $25 Visa gift card (those outside the US will get a $25 payment through PayPal).
To earn even more points, refer your friends! Scour adds 25% of the points they earn to your account.

I am really excited about where this site is going. The best part is that those who sign up now are part of the beginning phases of the project. This site is sure to last for a long time and signing up now allows you to be considered as on of the beta testers for a site that someday could be one of the most popular sites on the web.

Withing 5 minutes I had earned of 350 points just by inviting some friends and downloading the toolbar of which I ended up not even using as I added the FireFox search widget instead. I installed the search widget so that whenever I search from FireFox it automatically searches through Scour which actually searches Yahoo, Google and MSN all at once and racks up points for me.

**How to get the FireFox widget**
After you sign up for an account visit the “goodies” page (link at the top of the page) and then scroll down to find all the available widgets.

Visit Scour and sign up for an account (takes 5 seconds) check out the system. Heck, Google, Yahoo nor MSN pay you to use their search engine … why not use their results and make money from it!

Over the last few years millions of people online have been told that if they joined this site and did this and this that they would receive payment for their time and services. Many sites online have kept their word and have paid those people for their time and services but there are a huge list of websites on the web that haven’t. The aim of eBuckReviews is to shine the light on those sites that have been good on their word and shut the lights out on those that haven’t.

The site just launched today and so there are only about 10 reviews on the site right now and so far they are all pretty positive reviews however the site will soon be posting a listing of site online that are scamming millions of people. The reviews currently posted on eBuckReviews are all postive reviews from companies that have kept their promises. I encourage you to check out the site and maybe even sign up with some of the sites reviewed and earn yourself some extra cash on the web. I personally am now a member of both SwagBucks and Scour. Check out their reviews!!

After you check out the site come back here and let us know your thoughts about the new startup. Maybe share some ideas you have for the site!

I signed up with the service and it seems like a great tool. Unfortunately, it looks very similar to every other social network on the web although I can see how it would be a great resource to connect with those that share your interests.

Check out the site, sign up for the service and let us know what you think.

Taroby is a web 2.0 based messaging and collaboration suite that enables sharing of email accounts among team members. Sharing implies that emails are accessible to all team members working on a particular assignment or project, with the possibility to assign messages directly to individual team members.

In traditional email clients, the inbox is a mere interface to read and write emails. Taroby however is something different: Through its innovative functions, it makes the inbox much more powerful than ever before, providing new strategies and a competitive edge to the user for working more efficiently and productively. It empowers “normal” inboxes with a complete work flow, task management and ticket system and thus helps organizations to holistically improve their internal and external communications. It is ideally suited for SMEs or work groups of any kind.

Check out Taroby and let us know what you think.

So I was surfing the web today and stumbled upon SwagBucks. SwagBucks is a relatively new startup that pays you to search with them. I have seen these around on the net before but to be honest I paid very little attention to them as they weren’t laid out well nor were the results on point. Surprisingly SwagBucks is not only laid out well but also is connected with “Google” and “Ask” for the results.

So I thought, what the heck, let’s sign up and see what happens. To my surprise sign up took like 30 seconds and I was instantly searching for stuff and earning SwagBucks. You might be asking, how do you earn SwagBucks? The answer is, just by searching. I personally have set SwagBucks as my default search engine in FireFox (see below on how to do this). As I search for things I am given SwagBucks. For instance, as soon as I signed in I did a search for UltimateStartups.com and I instantly got like 3 SwagBucks. It was that easy.

Now, SwagBucks are not real dollars but they allow you to purchase stuff from their “SwagBucks Store” which is packed with goodies. Everything from ITunes gift cards, clothes, to even old school basketball cards. I am rather impressed with the selection of goods. Not only that but you don’t have to get thousands of SwagBucks to purchase something. I only have 5 SwagBucks right now and am already able to purchase a list of stuff.

Like I have said, I have seen many pay to search engines over the last few years and none of them have been all that successful however I personally believe that SwagBucks has a great chance here. The layout is great, speed is great, commission is great, and sign up is super easy!

I encourage to not only check out the site and sign up for the rewards program but also to set SwagBucks as your default search engine (see below on how to do this). It’s just like having Google.com and Ask.com as your default. So it will always provide you with great search results.  Test it out for a week and let me know what you think!

**To Set SwagBucks As Your Default Search Engine**
First you must “click here” … then on your left side you will see a menu. In that menu you will see “toolbars”. Click that button and you will be taken to a page with a few different options for you! They provide you with options for Mozilla (FireFox), Internet Explorer, and Safari. If you use Flock you can use the Mozilla plugin and it will work for you.

** UPDATE ** POSTED October 29th, 2008 **

The creators of SwagBucks have launched new denominations of SwagBucks. You can now win 10, 20, 50 and even 100 Swag Bucks for each search! If you haven’t signed up for a SwagBuck account you should asap!! I use SwagBuck search right now as my default search engine in Firefox and am constantly winning SwagBucks. My biggest problem right now is deciding on if I want the 8 GB iPod Touch or the 19″ Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD HDTV. I hate decisions like this! LOL

Like I said the tool is extremely easy to use. You simply click browse to find the pdf that you wish to covert to Microsoft Word. Once you find it you click “Convert to Word”. Within a few seconds you will see some text appear under the browse box that says “Conversion Completed” and then a link that you click which will download your word document.

Now this tool is a great idea but I am stuck wondering how this “person” or “company” is paying for their hosting, bandwidth and future developments. I don’t see any ads on the site nor do I see any donation button.

My recommendation is to show and ad on the site while the pdf document is being converted to word. Now, I know, you all are saying “I hate those ads”. I do too but I also understand that it takes money to run a site so unless I want to send the site some money … I can’t complain.

What are you thoughts on this new tool? Think it has potential? Anything you would change?

Could this be the next big legal fight? That I don’t know. The site is powered by SeeqPod which launched last may and allows you to search for songs and add them to a playlist to play online however, Hushie actually allows you to download the music for free. Personally while I think the idea of the site is great … I really don’t know how long it will “legally” last.

Also, the site is in my mind “stealing bandwidth” from websites around the web. The engine searches for MP3’s on the web. So let’s say I have a song hosted on UltimateStartups here. The Hushie Engine would find my mp3 and would not only allow people to listen to the song from my server on their site but they also would provide the song as a free download.

While I always encourage people to check out new startups … I think this startup will be short lived. I believe someone will put the smack down on this site with a few months of it’s popularity.

I normally don’t post negative reviews but I do not believe in people breaking the laws and stealing from others online. This site is doing both unfortunately.

What are you thoughts?

Maybe this is a great startup just because it is something that I have been looking for but I have to believe that there are others around the globe that are really going to enjoy using this great new software.

Now this site officially launched from Beta on October 22nd (aka yesterday) and according to the blog they are having some problems with the massive amounts of traffic. So if you have problems accessing the site please have patience and allow the owners to get the servers situated. They weren’t expecting the load of traffic that they got after launching and are now working performance improvements so please give them a little slack.

Never-the-less, check out the site, let me know what you think. Let the owners know what you think! Let the world know what you think!

InSpot is a site signed up to help in the communication process. If you are sexually active with multiple partners then InSpot will help you contact them if you should be diagnosed with a STD. The website allows you to send an ecard to anyone that you have been in contact with over the last six months. The ecards aren’t intrusive. They more less just say “I have been diagnosed with a STD and you should get tested”.

I understand the motive behind the site, they really want to open up a form of communication. Imagine getting an STD from someone and then passing it onto someone else. That person may never know unless you tell them but you might be embarrassed or feel to bad to tell them in person. Well, rather than not telling them at all,  you are now able to send them an annonymous ecard to let them know that they should tested. I really commend them for coming up with something like this although I wish there was more out there that educated people how to be safe or to not play at all and be committed to one person. I mean, that’s the way it use to be … couldn’t history repeat itself in this area? lol

Overall, I wish the best success to this new startup although like I said I hope they launch a few campaigns to limit the amount of random sexual relations going on around the world. Just my thought. What’s your take on it all? What do you think of the idea?

Powerset’s first product is a search and discovery experience for Wikipedia. This isn’t a new product for most of us as it launched in May of 2008 but I believe due to the fact that Powerset was acquired by Microsoft in August of 2008 I am sure that Powerset is going to become a name that the web becomes familiar with.

Powerset’s technology really changes the search process. How? In the search box, you are able express yourself in keywords, phrases, or simple questions. Once you click “Explore” you are taken to a results page in which Powerset gives you more accurate results, often answering questions directly. It also pulls information from multiple articles to the results page so you can easily find your answer. And if that’s not enough, Powerset follows you into the enhanced Wikipedia articles, giving you a better way to quickly digest and navigate content.

I also found out that while Wikipedia is the main source for the information provided in Powerset’s results, they also use another database called Freebase, which is an open, community developed database of the world’s information provided by Metaweb.

Below is a quick video showing you some of the benefits of this relatively new engine.

Overall, I am rather impressed with this technology. It’s a good start on the journey. This about this, if we can teach a computer our language, it’s not far off before Rosie (from the Jetsons) starts making me coffee and washing my laundry. Never-the-less, check out this newer startup and let me and Microsoft know what you think?

On a side note, I am rather harassed that they included Obama’s name in the video. Subliminal?