Madison Who’s Who Blog

Whether you’re shopping for a new iPhone, or just getting your holiday list together, you can count on a Silicon Valley startup to make it all easier.  Two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have created a new tool to help you find what you’re looking for on the Internet. It’s called recommendr.com, a website that combines online shopping and peer to peer networking.

If you have questions, recommendr.com has answers because it knows that shopping is social. We sometimes go out and buy things on our own, but many times the process before that is very social. You might ask your friends or even your co-workers about a product before buying it. No matter what you’re looking to buy, you can find it at recommendr.com. From hair products to digital cameras to your next washer and dryer, it’s all there. Recommendr’s founders, currently working out of the CEO’s condo, give you a chance to tell and be told, how to find the best deal, and avoid lemons. It’s not just about simply shopping, it’s about making the shopping process richer and decreasing buyers remorse and helping people to get a lot better products,” said Goh. Online or offline, the way you shop is about to get a little more selective and a little more social. It’s clear that peer to peer networking will soon be intertwined with every aspect of everyday life.

Online peer to peer networking heavyweights such as MySpace and Facebook have added mobile features, and start-ups are scrambling to allow people to share every moment with their network of online friends through voice, text, pictures, and video – all done via mobile phone.

Today’s world anymore is basically a mobile, social experience, at least to most people. However, for those of us who are digitally dependent riding a crowded bus can be more isolating than sitting in a room alone with a computer. However, this is about to change with new advances in mobile phone technology.
Now the mobile phone screen threatens to fill the loneliness that devotees of peer to peer networking sites experience when they are away from their PC.

Peer to peer networking has been a popular thing with teens and young adults, and is now being utilized by business as well. With MySpace and Facebook hitting at a time when mobile phone usage is soaring, networking with peers and businesses alike is always at your fingertips.
Although only 3.5 percent of US mobile subscribers report logging onto a mobile social network site or blog even once a month from a mobile device, according to M:Metrics Inc., a mobile media research firm, investors and entrepreneurs see the cellphone world, with more than 200 million subscribers in the United States alone, as a market with massive potential.

The key to successful peer to peer networks and online networks in particular is that they require an object to connect them. For example people are linked in Flickr by photos, in del.icio.us by bookmarks and in the real world by the school they went to, their job or their hobbies. This is why, in “pure” social networking sites like Orkut and Friendster, Myspace and Facebook communities form. Business are now learning to tap into the power of these communities to market their products, and drive traffic to their websites.  This is only one example of the power of peer to peer networks.

A professional peer to peer network committed to the growth of it’s individual members and the expansion of their shared vision will re-invent itself many times as it expands and modifies it’s configuration in service to that vision. When we speak of peer to peer networking on this website we are describing the social networking and business networking so essential to succeeding in today’s business world.  Having a vital and productive peer to peer network in business is, like a computer network, dependent on the power and energy that the participants in that network bring to the table.  A peer to peer network of lethargic and complacent people will never empower a career or promote a business.

Peer to peer network is a term that is usually employed in the IT world.  However, the geek interpretation of a peer to peer network parallels nicely with how businesses and individuals alike are using social networking sites to network with their peers.

Social networking and business networking is essential to succeeding in today’s business world. A productive peer to peer network in business is, like a computer network, dependent on the power and energy that the participants in that network bring provide collectively.  A peer to peer network of lethargic and complacent people will never empower a career or promote a business. On the other hand, a peer network of motivated and business minded individuals can accomplish more than they ever could individually. 

Be it news about opportunities, business innovations or the best techniques to achieve specific goals, a people peer to peer network can become the vital circuitry that wires a career and keeps it energized.

Lime Wire LLC, maker of the popular LimeWire peer to peer network software, announced that it will open a digital music store.

Initially the store will be a stand-alone website, also accessible from links in the file-sharing software. Subsequent releases will enable users to browse and purchase music directly from within the LimeWire program. The first partners in the new digital channel are IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions. These companies have signed deals with Lime Wire to provide music from their extensive catalogs. Lime Wire is banking on the popularity of peer to peer networks in marketing their new concept. 

Songs in the LimeWire Store will be sold in the universally compatible MP3 format. Customers will be able to buy songs and albums “a la carte” or as part of monthly subscription plans.