Mahalo.com is a web directory (or human search engine) launched in alpha test in May 2007 by Jason Calacanis. As of January 2008, the project is in beta test. It differentiates itself from algorithmic search engines like Google and Ask.com, as well as other directory sites like DMOZ and Yahoo by tracking and building hand-crafted result sets for many of the currently popular search terms. Mahalo means “thank you” in Hawaiian.

Mahalo’s directory employs human editors to review websites and write search engine results pages that include text listings, as well as other media, such as photos and video. Each Mahalo search results page includes links to the top seven sites, as well as other categorized information, and additional web pages from Google. The company also pays freelancers to create pages for piecework compensation in the Mahalo Greenhouse – the pages are approved by a full time staff member prior to appearing in the main index.

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Picasa Web Albums (PWA) is a photo-sharing web application from Google, often compared to programs like Flickr and Zooomr.

It allows users with accounts at Google to store and share 1 GB of photos for free. Users can purchase more storage space, which can be shared between Google services.

Users may upload pictures either via a web interface, Picasa 2.5.0 or later[4] on Microsoft Windows, using the Exporter for iPhoto, the Aperture to Picasa Web Albums plug-in, or Uploader on Mac OS X, or F-Spot on Linux. In both paid and free accounts, the actual resolution of the photo is maintained (even though a smaller resolution photo may be displayed by the web interface), and the original photo can be downloaded.

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OneSeason.com, an online sports entertainment company, today unveiled the first sports trading platform in the United States that uses real money. Created by sports fans, for sports fans, OneSeason.com enables users to compete, interact and have a vested interest in their passion. Users showcase their sports knowledge by acquiring and trading virtual shares of their favorite players, teams and leagues realizing market returns based on their skill.

On OneSeason.com users build a “Sportfolio” as they trade shares, called Synthetic Ownership Interests (SOIs), via a free market system that is driven solely by supply and demand. Users determine who is issued, when they are issued and the valuation of every issue. While blue-chip stocks fluctuate based on earnings, OneSeason.com’s SOIs change based on public perception in the market; which could include game performance, off-field activity, legacy prospects and fan opinions.

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Gyminee is a new social network focused on health and fitness, with work out and tracking tools included in its service. The site is not yet live, but I got to test drive the private beta.

There are two main components of the site: your locker room, and your workouts. These two components work hand in hand to help you track your progress and stay on track. Enter in the goals you’d like to set for yourself. You can track several aspects of your health and fitness, like water intake, body weight, chest size, etc. These goals will all show on your Locker Room page, and be mapped on a line graph as you add your progress in on a regular basis. Workouts will also determine your progress.

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Scour Inc. was a multimedia search engine on the internet, and provided Scour Exchange, an early peer-to-peer file exchange service. Scour was founded by five students (Vince Busam, Michael Todd, Dan Rodriques, Jason Droege and Kevin Smilak) from the Computer Science Deptartment of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1997. It moved into the spotlight in 1999 when former Disney president Michael Ovitz bought about a quarter of its shares.

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