To that end, start-up Redbeacon.com took the top prize for its innovative model that allows users to search for services among rated providers and connect directly with them to set up appointments and receive quotes. Search results are organized based on a variety of user feedback that includes reviews, ratings, and proximity.

As Redbeacon’s press release explains:

“Consumers describe what they need done and specify when and where their job should take place. Using patent-pending machine learning and semantic technology, Redbeacon determines the best local service providers for the job. If matched, service providers get notified by email and text message and are given the opportunity to submit a price quote. Consumers can then select and book appointments with their top choice service provider based on a comparison of business profiles, price quotes, and ratings and reviews from past Redbeacon consumers.”

Picking up on this trend, the Atlantic Monthly reports last month on sites that have similar models to Redbeacon, pointing to the new wave of .coms seeking to satisfy this demand for consumer opinions online. These ratings sites allow users to offer up their personal spin on virtually anything, but I feel Redbeacon sets itself apart by providing utility for a wide variety of services and situations with a great search.

[image via Chanaye J. Thomas]

Seth Godin refers to this situation as a “surplus of attention,” a reversal of the previous trend that saw marketers buying up ad space wherever they could and at premium prices because there was only so much that people were looking at and it typically translated into increased profits for everyone.

Now we’re looking at a situation where there’s so much real estate that the options of where to try and capture an audience are almost too vast. Advertisers don’t know how to handle so many choices to leverage this situation and therefore are missing out on our collective time spent online. Godin sees the solution as “hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant,” as the direction we need to be heading.

And while this trend, is more geared towards marketers, I see parallels within the business world, particularly when looking at new tech start-ups because this is the landscape that they will be navigating. Understanding the demands of the your potential customer in any environment, but especially online will have a huge impact on the success of your offering, whether product or service.

[image via katielips]

Inspired by Cisco CEO John Chambers and to support this effort, Donahoe has been personally visiting many of eBay’s strongest sellers, interviewing them using little more than a Flip video camera and his own questions. He has called the process “eye-opening,” saying “it’s incredible how they make a business out of nothing, really. They find inefficiencies in the supply chain and are able to create businesses around them.”

The kind of business 101 that you wouldn’t expect a successful CEO to need, but this feedback has taught him how to make improvements in the eBay operation. Insights that he has gladly shared with his own employees. While he might not be the first corporate decision maker to undertake this kind of first person fieldwork, it’s still stands as a powerful example of what getting back to your roots can bring to your company at any stage.

[image via Aaron Escobar]

But that’s not to say that waiting is necessarily a bad thing either. If you believe enough in your model, then owning that space has the potential to pay off in the long run, just look at Google. Besides under or overvaluing a company, that speculation, while it might not generate revenues, can grow interest and keeping the platform free for long enough, can build your audience. Important considerations for the long term sustainability.

In the case of Twitter, while they have certainly risen to the level of a phenomenon, one has to wonder how much longer they can prop up their service on top of a foundation that’s shaky at best, before it topples under the collective weight of its user traffic without monetizing the service. Bigger question is, do they have a revenue plan that they are prepared to execute on?

[image via dandeluca]

Within the marketplace, this paradigm has been extremely successful at reaching the widest possible audience and translating directly into more sales. The Flip Ultra single-use video camera is a perfect example of this. While it might not offer the most features or produce the highest picture quality, it’s not designed to capture the “expert” audience and is instead, built for the mainstream who are simply looking for utility.

There are a three very salient points from the piece that are worth noting:

“This trend is ideally suited to the times. As the worst recession in 75 years rolls on, it’s the light and nimble products that are having all the impact—exactly the type of thing that lean startups and small-scale enterprises are best at.”

“Companies that focus on traditional measures of quality—fidelity, resolution, features—can become myopic and fail to address other, now essential attributes like convenience and shareability.”

“Disruptive technologies often enter at the bottom of the market, where they are ignored by established players. These technologies then grow in power and sophistication to the point where they eclipse the old systems.”

I also thought it was interesting to see how this model not only transforming products (specifically technology), but is being to bleed over into service industries with the advent of e-lawyering – online documents and advice – and micro-clinics – streamlined versions of healthcare.

In the end this idea seem to be supported by the Pareto Principle which states that 20 percent of the effort, features, or investment often delivers 80 percent of the value to consumers, and as we’re seeing this increasingly becoming good enough.

[image via victoriapeckham]