In a blog post from 2006 titled, " The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy ," Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki wrote, "you cannot drive your competition crazy unless you understand their strengths and weaknesses." Kawasaki undoubtedly knows what he's talking about, and his advice - while almost 4 years old - still rings true today. If you've got a great idea for a startup, knowing as much about your potential competitors is invaluable, and the people behind Competitious know this as well as anyone. That's why they created their handy application for keeping close tabs on the competition. Sponsor Developed by RivalSoft, the makers of RivalMap , Competitious is a free service that allows users to collaborate on numerous projects for tracking industry competitors. You and your team can gather and collect news clips, build feature comparison matrices and keep an eye on traffic trends with Alexa data. The comparison matrix feature is very useful and we here at ReadWriteWeb are even putting this feature to use in researching an upcoming report. However, entering in individual features for each company can become a bit tedious. It would have been nice to see Competitious offer a list of popular companies whose core features could be automatically placed into a matrix. Users would also benefit from suggested competiors for any given company based on what other users are comparing, but perhaps these features are on Competitious' roadmap for the future. The traffic graphs can only be seen if your competitors are ranked in the top 100,000 on Alexa, which can be a problem for small business with equally small competition. Competitious does claim, however, that they are working on "a much more robust traffic system" for their post-beta release. In the meantime, free site analytics services like Compete and Quantcast can provide data for those hard-to-reach sites. Despite its early flaws, with the ability to easily compare any number of companies in a side-by-side fashion, Competitious is a convenient solution for researching that "competitors" slide in your startup's pitch presentation. Discuss

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Know Thy Enemy: Competitious Helps You Stay Ahead

Best known for its movie stars, sun and surf, Los Angeles probably isn't the first place you'd think to breed technology. But when you consider the influence of investors like Jason Calacanis and Mark Suster, in addition to the fact that companies like

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Never Mind the Valley: Here's Los Angeles

Today marks the official start to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas where all of the biggest electronics manufacturers show off their coolest and newest products. While CES is mainly a gadget show, entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing should pay close attention to the innovative ideas being pushed into the consumer market. The big show is just getting underway, but we are already seeing some trends emerge that could point to new opportunities for startups in 2010. Sponsor Televisions On everyone's CES prediction list this year are new TV technologies, including 3D viewing and the apparent rebirth of Web TV . Recently, various set-top boxes have brought web apps into our living rooms, including the Roku player , and BluRay players with Netflix , YouTube and Pandora integration. As we reported earlier this week, Skype has partnered with LG and Panasonic to integrate their service with new Internet-connected HDTVs. In addition, Internet media aggregator Boxee is marketing their brand new Boxee Box set-top device, and Yahoo! announced plans today to expand its presence in the living room. As more media and applications migrate onto televisions, startups will have the opportunity to find new niches and provided services on these new products. Automobiles Another trend is the implementation of new technologies into automobiles, and as we mentioned yesterday , Ford's new MyFord Touch is leading the way. By placing LCD touch screens in the dashboard and turning the car into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, Ford is opening doors for new platforms in the automobile. Current companies are already taking advantage of the the growing auto-tech industry. Streaming music service Pandora recently announced a partnership with Pioneer to bring Internet radio to your dashboard - albeit for a hefty $1,200 price tag. When the day comes that everyone has a connected car that can sync and share data, startups will be needed for services that organize and make use of these new forms of information. Augmented Reality And finally, while we may not see a plethora of new gadgets in this space at CES, augmented reality looks to make a huge splash in the consumer electronics market in 2010. Right now, most AR experiences are on cell phones or desktop computers, but fans of augmented reality expect to see some Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) or new transparent LCD screens in the near future. The potential for augmented reality has been flying under the radar for years, and only in recent days have improvements in technology allowed for it to begin to flourish. AR is a quickly expanding field with many opportunities for innovation, and is a field in which startups could quickly find a foothold. Discuss

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TVs, Cars, AR - Oh My! Hot Tech Trends For Entrepreneurs At CES

It's too often that we read about a startup with an intriguing idea only to be completely turned off by the bland-looking design of their website. Granted, we don't all have the Jedi-like abilities it takes to create a snazzy logo or website, so when we need something designed, we outsource it to a graphic designer - and there are tons to choose from. In most cases, the company in need will look over a selection of designers, review portfolios, and pick one to come up with a design. But why only choose to employ the abilities of one designer when you can crowdsource the project and pick from an unlimited number of submissions from a vast community of designers? The controversial but still successful crowdSPRING does just that. Sponsor Founded in 2008, the Chicago-based company is an online marketplace for creative services that connects small business in need of graphic design with freelance designers. The business creates a project, outlines the details and requirements of the design, sets a deadline and places a cash reward for the potential winner. Then designers submit their entries and once the deadline is reached, the company picks a winning design. CrowdSPRING has recently been at the center of heated debates in the design community as some denounce the site for promoting "spec work" - a term used to describe work done without any guarantee of compensation. Sites like Spec Watch and NO!SPEC are attempting to raise awareness about spec work, pinpointing sites like crowdSPRING as unethical businesses. "There is a certain irony in spec work," writes Elisabetta Bruno on NO!SPEC. "A prospect requesting it is ultimately saying, 'My project isn't important enough to hire a professional who will take the time to understand my situation and goals and invest the time needed to create a suitable solution'." For providing their platform, crowdSPRING takes a 15% cut on all deals made through the site, but offers a money-back guarantee if a project receives less than 25 entires. If your project passes this number, you better be satisfied with the designs because you're then "promising to pick a winner," the site says. Regardless of these criticisms, crowdSPRING has continued to grow, claiming that over 47,000 designers use the site in over 150 countries, and that more than 6,000 contests have been completed. The company has even attracted large brands like Italian pasta company Barilla, which has created a contest calling for a unique new pasta shape with three $1,000 payouts. Discuss

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crowdSPRING: Creative Solutions Platform or 'Spec Work' Enabler?

In a world where emails, phone calls, texts, and Tweets constantly bombard us, it is getting harder and harder to manage the firehose of data and information being thrust our way. For young companies to succeed this environment, it is imparitive they become organized and efficient lest they fall behind and quickly become overwhelmed. While there is no shortage of online solutions, it can be hard to know which one is the right tool for the job, so here's a list of five web applications to help kick-start your company and keep it organized without breaking the bank. Sponsor Google Apps - Google's collection of web apps includes solutions for corporate email accounts, calendars or contacts, but its best use for a new startup is with document sharing. Using Google Docs to collaborate on text documents, spreadsheets or even presentations is far more efficient than sending a file in an email attachment. In recent years, Zoho has become an increasingly competitive enterprise alternative to Google, even adding integration with Google Apps . Zoho has also introduced more features that help it stand out against Google Apps, including their own CRM solution that aims to compete with Salesforce.com . Basecamp - We here at ReadWriteWeb use Basecamp on a daily basis for managing ongoing projects and reviewing edits of our stories. Developed by 37signals , Basecamp offers a great interface with an easily read dashboard of the latest activity, as well as to-do lists, milestones and email alerts. For the on-the-go entrepreneur, there are a handful of mobile Basecamp apps ranging in features and price. Personally, I recommend using Insight for iPhone , which was rebranded from Encamp and recently recommended by 37signals . Dropbox - Whether it's large financial spreadsheets, or Photoshop mockups of your website-to-be, you are going to need somewhere to store all your files. Dropbox makes all of these easy and relatively inexpensive, offering up to 100 GB for $20 a month. But it's not just storage. Dropbox can automatically sync with folders on your desktop, creating an offsite backup of your vital startup files in the cloud, which any member of your staff can access. An alternative solution would be to use Box.net , however their pricing plans are higher than Dropbox's and are aimed at larger corporations. Dimdim - The next time you find yourself struggling to explain an intricate concept to your coworkers through a text document or presentation, check out Dimdim and use the power of screen-sharing to make your point crystal clear. One of Dimdim's best features is that their product works entirely from within your web browser without the need to download or install any extra software. Screen-sharing services like Dimdim can save a young company hundreds if not thousands of dollars in travel expenses by providing a much more efficient way to meet and share information. Also a notable service in this space is Citrix's GoToMeeting . However, like Box.net to Dropbox, its pricing is much higher than Dimdim's. MindMeister - Between the last two semesters of graduate school, I worked on a collaborative ten-week reporting project, and used online mind-mapping app MindMeister extensively to stay organized. The application is a great way to keep those more abstract ideas organized in an easy-to-understand way. Countless startups have mapped out their product ideas and business plans on giant whiteboards, and now the whiteboard has gone digital. MindMeister makes it easy to create and share mind maps and flow charts, and best of all, its free to get started. Photo by Flickr user simax . Discuss

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5 Web Apps To Keep Your Startup Organized

Social media is likely to be factored into your ad budget for the new year, but the problem is deciding which format best suits you. While highly controversial, tech influencers like Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble are being paid to tweet periodic product endorsements. The question is: Are sponsored tweets are worth it? ReadWriteWeb caught up with Likes.com co-founders Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan as they make the case for conversational advertising and the sponsored tweets landscape. Sponsor Similar to Ad.ly and Sponsored Tweets , MyLikes is a service that pays influencers to Tweet about specific products. In what resembles an AdWords -style dashboard, advertisers create a budget for their campaign and set the parameters and URL for where they'd like endorsers to redirect their friends. This month, Moo created a campaign in the hopes of selling business card packages to US-based users. Rather than being forced to endorse Moo, members chose to endorse them from a long list of companies. From there the endorser creates a short line about why they like a particular company with a link to pre-populated images, video and the campaign URL from their blogs and Twitter accounts. Bindu believes that because the network gives users options in who to endorse, the sponsored tweets become more authentic and better targeted to the user base. On a cost-per-click basis, campaigns range between $0.20 - $0.60 cents per click based on the influence of the endorser. If you compare this against some of the higher priced AdWords keyword campaigns, Twitter sponsorship is quite reasonable. While a budget analysis is an obvious indicator of whether or not you should sponsor tweets, another factor to consider is your company culture. When Izea's sponsored tweets program launched in late June many questioned the process of disclosure and the role of a social media influencer. While the FTC Act revisions make the space more regulated, they don't change the fact that your stakeholders may simply be put off by the practice. I'm going to answer your question about sponsored tweets with another question, "Are sponsored tweets more cost effective than your current click-thru campaigns and will your audience embrace it?" Discuss

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Should You Reserve Ad Budget for Sponsored Tweets?

Quora , the super stealthy startup that was started by Facebook's first CTO Adam D'Angelo and that is now in private beta, is beginning to crack its doors open for press, and the ReadWriteWeb crew is impressed and already mildly addicted. It's a user-generated Q&A with real-time elements. It's useful and fascinating, with similarities to apps such as Google Wave, Aardvark, FormSpring.me - but it's beautifully built and easy to use off the bat. Read on for details on how to get your invitation for this still-private site. Sponsor Topic experts in all areas of technology, design, startups and other areas are quickly populating the site. Users follow topics and other users, then get to participate in conversations around those topics or with those people. One of our favorite aspects of the site so far is that you can ask and answer provocative questions anonymously. To get an idea of how the site works and what it looks like, check out these screenshots: Since the invite process is a lot like Google Wave (each user gets a small number of invitations to email to friends), we've decided to pool our invitations and give them to our Facebook friends. So, if you go to the ReadWriteWeb Facebook page (and if you're a fan, please add us and leave us a comment so we know who you are!), you'll see a short screencast from Marshall Kirkpatrick with the email address for your to request your Quora invitation. We've got 100 invites to give away. The first 100 folks who email the address Marshall gives in our Facebook video will get them. Good luck, and thanks for reading and watching! UPDATE: Invites are gone, folks! If you didn't see one, check your spam folder. If you don't see one, try asking around Twitter or in the comments here. If you got your invite and are now inside Quora, leave us a comment and let us know what you think! We'll be posting an in-depth analysis of the site later today, and we'd love to know what you think. Discuss

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