The 10 Most Innovative Web Companies

The web has completely changed how people interact, how business is done and basically the day-to-day life. To be influential in this economy, it is almost imperative to operate an efficient and consumer-friendly website. If you expect to be a top company without a website, you are bound to be missing a large percentage of the market share. These top 10 companies have created websites that have taken off at extraordinary paces and have many other companies following in their footsteps.

1. Twitter

In 2009, when Twitter began, they had around 20 million users and today they have more than 200 million! When the company first began, they were unsure of how they were going to collect money. They allowed users to sign up for free with no extra charges added. When the economy began to take an upturn, Twitter created ads that companies could buy that would cost them around $100,000 to purchase.

2. Google

Google has seemed to stay at the top of their game ever since they entered the web economy. They have been ever expanding ever since creating the Google website with all different things that users can "play" with. With all of these applications that users were freely allowed to use and view, it was also unsure for Google how they were actually going to make their money in the beginning. Google then created AdSense and AdWords for companies to be able to advertise and show up in their search results. In addition, Google also created Google Instant which has a 98% adoption rate. There are approximately 2 million searches a second and 3 billion per day.

3. Zynga

Zynga is the company that created the FarmVille game for Facebook. With their 400 million dollar return from the game, they decided to create CityVille which was released in January. After only a month, CityVille had 100 million users, making it the number one app on Facebook. Presently, the Zynga companies net worth is estimated to be $7 to $9 billion. At the rate that this company is going, they can only see the bright future ahead.

4. Netflix

Netflix began by their mail-in DVD business. In order to block out the competition, Netflix began streaming services in the United States and in Canada. From 2010, it is estimated that Netflix profited approximately $2.2 billion in revenues. Netflix has more than 20 million subscribers which has in turn basically over-run BlockBuster.

5. Foursquare

Defending its competitive position, growing exponentially, and making check-ins a must-use marketing tool for major brands. Astronaut Douglas Wheelock earned the NASA Explorer Badge when he checked in while orbiting the Earth; a story that reflect Foursquare's meteoric rise. The company now hosts around 7.5 million users, a 50% increase from September 2010.

Most significantly, the company has steamed ahead in the face of growing competition from Gowalla, Google Latitude, Loopt, and especially Facebook Places. It launched a brand new version of the service in March, unveiled an innovative merchant platform, and has some half billion check-ins in the last year alone.

6. Tumblr

For turning stray thoughts into big business. The New York based almost Twitter except without the "how many characters you can use" restriction, is drawing around 30,000 new members each day. More impressively, around 4 billion page views per month. In November, it scored between $25 million and $30 million from investors, bringing its total past $40 million.

7. Crimson Hexagon

For developing a revolutionary way to monitor and measure Twitter chatter. Crimson Hexagon began at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science but has grown into the prime analytics tool for HP, Microsoft, and CNN, which use the website to gauge public perceptions.

The company monitors the Web, tracking and learning the specifics of what people are saying in social media in real-time. Beyond the positive-or-negative analysis of keyword and semantic searches and with as much as 97 percent accuracy.

8. Stocktwits

Created the CNBC of the digital age. On this site, live streams are pulled from Facebook and Twitter; recently acquired service Abnormal Returns culls the best financial news stories from the Internet; weekly Webinars and video market recaps are offered; and StockTwits.tv features original programming around the clock. In other words, StockTwits has become an indispensible real-time financial tool for the social media age. It also boasts more than 300,000 monthly unique hits.

9. Microsoft

Reinvented their search market competition with Bing, the only REAL Google challenger left. Thanks to strategic partnerships with Kayak, Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook, Bing has begun nipping away at Google's market share and kept competition from becoming a monopoly. Earlier this month, Bing became the second most-popular search engine worldwide.

10. Conaco Productions

Kept Conan relevant long after he was yanked off the air. Even after his unfortunate departure from NBC, Conan O'Brien kept his brand red-hot thanks to a squad of 8 full-time Team Coco Digital staffers running his social media like pros.

The millions of views on YouTube, hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook, and millions of followers on Twitter. To hype his TBS show's November debut, Conan's team also started a 24-hour live webcast of the production, built fan pages on Flickr and Tumblr and launched a bright orange Conan blimp, which spotters could check into on Foursquare.

Is Prime Appealing Enough to Shutdown Netflix?

There are many Internet-based movie rental and TV series subscriptions available, which have become very popular in the last few years. Many people have noticed the closing of many movie rental stores, like Blockbuster. These closings are due to the more convenient way of receiving and watching movies or TV series; one of the most popular and well-known subscription services that has somewhat directly shut down movie rental stores is Netflix. Just as technology has changed so many things in the past decade, we are now seeing the effect that technology has on movie rentals.

Netflix allows subscribers to view movies and TV shows unlimitedly for $7.99 a month, or around $96 a year. People watch these rentals over the Internet on their TVs with a Play Station 3, Xbox, or Wii gaming system; viewers also have the option of streaming the rental on a computer. Another service that Netflix offers to subscribers is the unlimited rental DVDs that they mail to the subscriber for rental without due dates, and therefore no late fees; this service is $2 extra per month. Blu-ray is available on Netflix. In order to allow potential subscribers to try it before buying it, they allow a free 1-month subscription that entitles each Netflix service to be used.

Amazon has recently put out a product called Prime that allows unlimited, instant streaming of movies and TV shows. It is $79 a year. The videos are capable of being viewed on computers, TVs, Blu-ray players, and many other TVs that are able to connect to the Internet. HD is available for Prime. This membership has other benefits than just movies and TV shows for a cheap price per year; it entitles members to fast 2-day shipping on Amazon products. Prime, like Netflix, entitles potential members to a free 1-month trial.

There is not much of a difference between Netflix and Prime. Both services allow unlimited, instant streaming of movies and TV series, and both require Internet connectivity. The costs are slightly different, with Amazon’s Prime being $17 cheaper per year. It also gives members extra benefits, while Netflix services only include movies and TV series. Netflix has a wider library than Prime does, but both offer new releases, which is a common category of movie rentals. Neither service has commercials or ads in their videos, yet both services provide HD streaming.

An interesting topic is what will be the next big subscription service that beats out Netflix. Will it be Amazon’s Prime? There is much hype about Prime, but is there enough of a difference in it, including its extra benefits, to encourage people to subscribe to Prime instead of the so well known Netflix? And, is Prime appealing enough to draw Netflix subscribers away from Netflix and onto Prime?

Because there is such a small difference in Netflix and Prime, the best way to decide which subscription is right for each individual’s lifestyle is to try out the free trials on each of the services. Some households might not have the correct TV components to work with one service, and therefore the other service would be the right option for them. The movie and TV series may also be slightly different, therefore getting a feel for each of the libraries would be a great way to decide which service is a better personal fit.

Although Amazon’s Prime is not yet appealing enough to take over what Netflix has become, it has high potential to become the next “big thing.” Just as Netflix ended Blockbuster’s business, Prime may be the next Internet-based movie rental subscription that outruns the huge accomplishments of Netflix.

The Pros vs. Cons of the Apple TV

The Apple TV sold in stores today is not the same as the original Apple TV idea. The original Apple TV has been discontinued and Apple has started selling the black second version. Many people have a distorted idea on what the Apple TV actually is. The Apple is NOT like a TV that you would originally think of. It's a small device about the size of your palm that allows you to do certain things not applicable on a normal television set. The device connects into your TV and you can control what you watch from a remote, MacBook, or iPad. You can rent HD movies, watch Netflix instantly, rent TV shows, and stream photos and music from your computer to your TV.


We'll start with the pros of the Apple TV. One of the pros is its small and sleek design. Tech savvy people are everywhere these days and demanding the "coolest" devices with unique and easy to use designs. The size is small and extremely fast in speed. Another plus regardig the Apple TV is consumer friendly interface. The interface is easy to use and navigate through. Along with the interface, the remote is very simple to use and navigate through the interface. The upgrades of different ports including an HDMI port allow easy connection between the Apple TV device and the newest and latest technology in televisions. The Apple TV streams the data from the Apple TV onto your television set rather quickly and without problems. In addition, it is also cheaper than the mac mini.

Now for the cons of the Apple TV. For one, it has limited capabilities. It cannot play CD's, DVD's, or record programming such as a DVR would do. The different connection cables (for example, the HDMI cord) have to be purchased separately. This cord is basically needed in the attempt to connect the Apple TV with your own television console. In addition, the Apple TV is not compatible with older televisions which may cause a problem for some people. The processor cannot be updated so if there were to be a new version to come out, you would just have to buy the product all over again at a pretty high price, leading to our next point. The Apple TV may seem relatively expensive to some regarding its capabilities. Presently, the Apple TV costs $99. In addition, when streaming from Netflix, the resolution is dependent upon your Wi-Fi connection and therefore data could be lost. Also, the DVD rentals are said to come out the day it's released but that seems not to be the case. At times, it takes up to a month for a new movie to come out. One last negative about the Apple TV is consumers simply do not know about the product. Apple could do a much better job in putting this product into consumer's minds when out purchasing a TV or looking into a Netflix account.

The Apple TV would suit different people in different ways. If your extremely tech savvy and like immediacy and the latest movies and apps, then the Apple TV may still be lacking. On the other hand, if you are a consumer just looking for a "cool" and sleek toy to watch a couple movies and TV shows here-and-there, then this may be the perfect device for you!

technology keeps coming and coming and coming...

During Christmas Break when I was at home, I really wanted to see The Lion King, but since we do not have that on DVD, I searched for an old VHS. We had kept a lot of old "tapes" partly in denial that VHS would ever be obsolete, and partly because of the nostalgia factor. I pushed the giant plastic contraption into the VCR (that I had to hunt down out of the attic), and waited for the clicking and humming and all the other sounds associated with a VCR preparing to show a movie. So as I used the "tracking" button for the first time since the late 90's, I started to think about my childhood compared to today’s children’s childhoods...

Do you remember growing up with VCRs and VHS tapes? I have many vivid memories of these large tapes - whether it was looking through the movie cabinet at all those big plastic cases to pick out a movie, dodging them flying through the air when my older brothers threw them at me, or having to rewind before returning to the video store when we rented.

Did you know that the average VHS tape weighs about 7.4 ounces?

However, we now know there are much better options for home entertainment, but in the late 1970's and early 1980's people were ecstatic to own a VCR player. People were actually given the choice of what they wanted to watch on television instead of just normal television programs. People were offered freedom to pick out a movie and bring it into their homes and watch it on their own television set.

After only about 15 years of rewinding the film, hauling around these heavy things, and daring not to flip open the lever and touch the tape inside the VHS tape, DVDs hit the market hard in March 1997. Thank goodness!

Weighing just .58 ounces, movies on a disc were brand new to America and were so convenient that we kissed the days of rewinding goodbye and were allowed to just click the menu button and select the scene of the movie that we wanted to watch. This was such a big improvement from fast forwarding through the whole movie to watch the last 15 minutes or having to rewind through the entire movie to start it over.

However, researchers worked very hard to improve DVDs since many people ended up scratching the discs and then they were unreadable. So, in November 2006, Blu-Ray came out weighing about .34 ounces.

Blu-Ray overcomes DVD readability issues by placing the movie data on top of a 1.1 mm thick polycarbonate layer, which protects the disc from fingerprints and scratches.

Now that we have moved past large VHSs and skipping DVDs, we are currently in the Blu-Ray era. Except if this movie technology follows the previous pattern, Blu-Ray too will be gone by 2015 or 2020. What do we have coming to us next? I for one am still watching DVDs and occasionally Blu-Rays, but I understand that DVDs are on their way out, but I will be sad when the day comes when Best Buy no longer has DVDs on their shelves. However, my children will probably never even know what a VHS is and maybe even a DVD. This concept is very bittersweet to me.