Top Web Apps Australia - 2006

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Top Web Apps in Australia
Guest Author · October 30th, 2006
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Written by Vishal Sharma and edited by Richard MacManus

Richard's intro: Australia is a country of 20.75 million people, 14,663,622 of whom are Internet users according to a Nielsen//NR report from
August 2006. That gives Australia an Internet penetration of 70.7%, which is about average for the Western world. Not as high as New
Zealand's though - we're at 76.3% (I had to point that out). A little while ago I asked Martin Wells from Tangler what the web 2.0 scene is like
in Australia. He told me that development is great, but surprisingly small for such a typically tech heavy nation (it has produced the likes of
Looksmart, Atlassian, Seek, MYOB, Micro Forte, Radiata, EServGlobal and Netcomm). He also told me that Australia has a large and skilled
technical workforce, and has a good history with software and innovation.

I always associate Australia, in a business sense, with large and powerful media companies. But Martin told me that so far adoption of web
2.0 techniques within the big media companies has been relatively slow. Personally, I know that News Corp and now Fairfax is active in this
area - e.g. check out News Corp's blogs and the social media links at the bottom of some news stories. But perhaps it's more of a 'bubbling
up' activity from some business units within those big media companies.

Other than a few exceptions (such as TVP and NEO) Australian VCs are too conservative and have little knowledge of Web 2.0 and Internet
business models. For this reason a number of Australian startups - like Omnidrive, Touchstone, PodCast Network and others - are actively
looking for VC funds in the US. The Bulletin recently ran a story explaining more about this.

But enough from me. Let's jump into Vishal's list of top Aussie Web 2.0 apps, which is an update of his previous post...

The Universal Web Storage Platform - Omnidrive
This is a full-scale web storage platform that can be accessed from a web browser, Windows or Mac desktop and even a mobile device. It
allows users and developers to easily access and share content (including multimedia) and files on the web with single click sharing and
publishing. The company was started by Nik Cubrilovic and launched in February 2005 as a private beta. Over 20,000 users from over 70
countries subscribed to the private beta, while some 500 developers are building apps using Omnidrive's API. It was finalist for the IT
category at the 2006 Australian Export Awards and was mentioned in nine msn's The Bulletin magazine.

Tracking favourite sites and apps with alerts on desktop - Touchstone
It keeps track of websites, conversations and interesting bits and pieces that are out on web. Any changes to subscribed sites and
applications are notified to you in many ways. It can even work out how important the new information is and displays an alert that is
proportional to its importance to you. Touchstone has been in development since January 2006, was launched in Alpha in June 2006 and is
ready to go into Beta.

Enterprise Wikis, Project Management, Bug Tracking - Atlassian
It has developed two applications - Jira (bug-tracking software) and Confluence (an Enterprise Wiki). Jira was Atlassian's first product and
half of the Fortune 100 were using an Atlassian product. Atlassian was co-founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in 2002.

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Since its debut, the company has experienced over 40% growth every quarter until the past year or so - and is growing at about 20% per
quarter. It has succeeded financially without taking any funding from any VC or any other third party. [disclosure: Atlassian was until recently
a R/WW sponsor]

Blog search engine - Gnoos
It is a blog search engine which is inspired by Technorati. Its main focus is towards local bloggers. It was co-founded by Ben Barren
(contributor to Web 2.0 Workgroup) and Michael Leone and the main search engine was launched in May 2006. More local features for this
service, available soon, are structured blogging, videos, images and classifieds.

Marketing for bloggers using emails - Zookoda
Zookoda is a blog broadcasting service provider. It allows bloggers to spread the word about their blogs by sending blog summaries via
email. Zookoda provides blog owners with the tools to manage their mailing lists, design their emails, broadcast blog summaries and track
recipient usage. It was launched this year in March and is now up for sale.

To do list - Remember the Milk It allows users to manage tasks online, as any 'to do' list will do. It is integrated with Google Maps, Skype (IM)
and is available on Mobiles as well. This is a very popular application around the globe, with more than 100,000 users from 155 countries. It
was launched in October 2005.

Internet services on mobile - bluepulse
It provides a free program known as bluepulse widgets, that enables delivery of data based on a user's profile to a mobile end-station -
regardless of the network and device used. Services likes instant messaging, movie listings, music, news and RSS are accessible via these
widgets. The company was founded by Ben Keighran in 2002 to develop and commercialise this concept. It finally released its first public
beta version of its technology in May 2005.

Podcasting - The Podcast Network
The Podcasting Network(TPN), launched by Cameron Reilly in 2005, is one of the world's original podcast businesses. TPN produces over
70 podcasts in various categories, to a global audience of 300,000 people.

Next generation internet messaging - Tangler
It is a group interaction and communication platform which combines chat and forums, and delivers it as a web service. Tangler is founded by
Martin Wells and is in beta testing mode. It will be launched in early 2007.

Update: Tangler is calling for groups of 10-20 to test it's group conversation features. Sign up here.


News rating- PerthNorg
PerthNorg is a local user-generated news site. News can be submitted as an article, a link, video, audio or photo. It allows news to be
published and rated separately in different categories like technology, sports, lifestyle, business and others. An interesting feature is that all
story votes are halved after 24 hours to keep the news fresh and topical. PerthNorg was only launched in August this year and hopes to
launch other news sites some time later this year, or early next year.

Digg clone for funny emails - FWDitOn This is inspired by digg.
It allows users to read hilarious emails, do a rating and share it with others. It is an interesting concept and has caught attention from few
Venture Capitalists from overseas. This site was covered recently on Techcrunch.

Digg clone for news rating- Sukk
It's a Digg clone for rating of news from Australia and New Zealand. The site was lunched on September 5th, 2006.

Connecting buyers and sellers - findit.com.au
It's a portal inspired by Craiglist. It provides a free forum for all community advertisements and listings. There are 850 + news agent partners
using this service. It is currently under pre beta and will be launched in February 2007.

Property Search - Suburb View
It's an Australian real estate search engine for properties to sale or rent. Search results are displayed in Google Earth and on the Google
Map. The site was launched in August 2006 and is still relatively new.

Social networking service - Babbello
It is a social networking service inspired by Myspace. It allows people (popular with teens) to write blogs, chat, download ring tones for
mobile, swap photos and more.

File sharing via web links - Zapr
It's an application which lets user create web links to any files on their PC, then those links can be sent to friends via email or IM. Hyperlinked
files can be directly accessed from the sender's computer via the browser, in a safe and secure way. Zapr was founded in 2002 and in May
2006 it launched a beta version.

Community for parents - Minti
Minti provides an online platform for dads & moms to share and rank their advice about parenthood, in a simple way and with lots of fun. It


was launched in March this year after raising USD$1.2M.

Connecting students in Australia - Studentface
It is a social networking service inspired by Facebook. It allows students to share information, swap pictures, videos and more. It helps in
uniting students with similar interests from all over the country. Membership in StudentFace is exclusive to students who are enrolled in an
Australian university and have a valid university (.au or .edu) email address. The site was launched this year.

Other notable Aussie apps are:

Social search engine - Tin Finger
Bookmarking Blogs - AustralianBlogs.com.au
Blog search engine - The Australian Index
Online and Video games - Gamespot
Software - Developers Portal
Personal finance/budgeting - Smooth Budget
Online social community - 3eep
Real estate search - Spyk
Real estate search - Domain.com.au
Real estate search - Realestate.com.au
Blog widgets - WyaCracker

Summary
Thanks to Vishal for providing the list of top aussie web apps! As always, please add any additions, edits or stories to the comments.

This post is part of Read/WriteWeb's continuing coverage of international Web markets. Other countries profiled so far have been Germany,
Holland, Poland, Korea, United Kingdom, Russia, Spain, China, Turkey, Italy, Brazil, France, Japan, India, Austria and Sweden.

Tags: International, web

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Best Community Share

Simon Litchfield • 2 years ago
Check out feedmyapp.com for a daily blast of cool web 2.0 apps.
• Reply • Share ›
0

Emily Brown • 2 years ago
I have been using Tangler Apps for a couple of years now and it's really good I have to say, I have join Tangler communities and forums where I
meet some of renowned hollywood artists like Miley Cyrus, Amanda Seyfried, Bruno Mars, etc. I even use FindIt apps too.
0

Jessie Napleton • 2 years ago
http://www.footysocial.com.au is another great one just popped up.


Website Design Services • 2 years ago
You have unique business goals and you need someone to make the vision of small businesses in real presence on the Internet.
0

Martijn Hen • 2 years ago
I liked
0

AppointmentSMS.com • 2 years ago
Hi Vishal,
Another new Aussie web startup to add to your list is http://www.AppointmentSMS.com - an SMS reminder service for doctors, nurses, beauty salons,
mechanics, or anyone who schedules appointments for their customers.
Its an easy to use web 2.0 site, with a very reasonable pricing structure.
Cheers,
Michael
0

fragrances • 6 years ago

I have to say that many of the ones listed are fantastic companies, so I don‚Äôt think there‚Äôs any reason to fret especially. I think Remember the Mil
for instance, though it might not seem like it, has the potential to become a much-used resource, particularly through its mobile version. Additionally, I
have been reading a lot lately about Australia‚Äôs efforts at developing applications specifically for mobile devices, which could reap big rewards, given t
more people in Asia are now using their cells to connect to the internet than are using PCs or laptops. I do wonder, though, if it is a matter of populatio
Start-ups these days rely to a great extent on being able to catch fire rapidly. America has a large population and a built in global infrastructure that allo
them to push their products on many more. It may not be the lack of start-ups so much as the inability of Australian start-ups to quickly gobble up
market attention.
0

Leane • 6 years ago

Great article!
Came across another Oz startup: CoReap ( www.coreap.com ) - a "social search and bookmarking service". Looks interesting!
0

Web Design India • 6 years ago

A Web page is simply a document written in the Web-formatting language, HTML. It can be one to many screens in length. Now a days that the
commercial nature of the Web is being exploited, Web pages are also used to advertise products, companies, and services. Most corporations are
scrambling to create a strong Web presence in an effort to lure even a small percentage of the Web citizenry to their goods.
0

Website Design India • 6 years ago

Creation of an HTML document is carried out in much the same way as you create any plain text document. The steps involved are:

Open the Text editor.

Start the new document. ( If you are using Windows or Macintosh, choose File --> New. If you are using Unix, type vi or pico to start the editor.

Enter the HTML code and text you want to include.

Save the document. If you are using Windows or Macintosh, choose File--> Save or File--> Save As.
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Aaron Clausen • 6 years ago

Great Article. Its also great to see all the comments come pouring in for all the Aussie web enthusiasts.
I thought some of you may be interested in Rate the PLATE (http://www.ratetheplate.com.au...
Register your number plate anonymously and we'll let you know for FREE if anyone Rates your PLATE or wants to communicate with you. Stay inform
and take action to resolve real world driving incidents by non-violent, open communication.


Businesses: You can't be everywhere at once - How are your vehicles driven?
We are still pretty much informally in BETA, but have been pushing out enhancements very quickly to keep up with user growth and exposure from
being featured on Today Tonight and some national radio programs. There are some really exciting new features and tools being developed right now
we will release in the coming weeks. The site is nowhere near where we want it yet.
Best Regards
Aaron.
0

SEO Expert India • 6 years ago

Australia is largest and powerful media companies.
0

Zu • 6 years ago

Hi Richard, ador.com.au Australian Dining Out Reviews now launched officially. Its a totally community-driven website

to share gastronomic experiences through user reviews. Pls take a look. cheers.
0

Lino Rizio • 6 years ago

Oops! The URL for the SportConnect website (item #40 above) is www.sportsconnect.net
0

Lino Rizio • 6 years ago

If you are involved with the running of any type of sports club, you will be interested in the SportsConnect system. SportsConnect is a web-based clu
administration system that offers basic administration tools for free and offers increasing functionality (for a small subcription fee) for more sophisticate
administration/management tasks.

Check out the website for full details and view the video.
0

Greg Collette • 6 years ago

We are about to launch the beta version of gStepOne, a free web-based, productivity tool designed for use with Google Apps and other web-based to
Check out the YouTube videos from the website: www.gstepone.com.
0

Andy • 6 years ago

Noodle Invitations, for sending free SMS within Aus, has just been released.
The free service lets you send party invitations via SMS and receive replies on the site.
0

1Radio • 6 years ago

Check out www.1radio.com.au, easy to use interface allows you to listen to the most popular Australian streaming radio stations, all from 1 page.
0

Vishal • 6 years ago

Yes Julian Sukk, is history

Vishal
0

Grant • 6 years ago

RedBubble!


http://redbubble.com.au/
0

Julian • 6 years ago

Sukk seems to have .... sukk'd?
0

Gary • 6 years ago

http://globalsurfari.com is a web 2.0 world wide surf forecast site with google map mashup, developed in Sydney, Australia!
0

arvind • 6 years ago

Take a look at www.zipphy.com as well it is simple web 2.0 site for lazy ppl
0

Mark Rimmer • 6 years ago

Rave About It is an Australian website that aims to provide an enjoyable way in which users can search, rate and discuss what they think of services in
their local area and beyond.

www.raveaboutit.com.au
0

Greg • 6 years ago

THouhgt I would add two form a Gold Coast company doing amazing things (again shameless plug)
Just launched - http://www.pikipimp.om - talk about an effective traffic driver.
and http://www.buttonator.com
0

Rustem • 6 years ago

PG Email Newsletter software is an effective solution for online business with easy installation & use, free tech support and free trial. We did all the
programming for you, you need only to install and use all your talent.
0

Geoff Bowers • 6 years ago

Fullasagoog is an all Aussie invention.. and veteran of many years. Basically a hand-picked, web technology blog aggregator:

http://www.fullasagoog.com/
0

Jon Y • 6 years ago

Hey Richard and Vishal,thanks for the plug (I should really pay more attention to my web stats). Congrats on the 'Top web apps in...' series, great idea
mate.
0

Angela • 6 years ago

How are you defining "in Australia"? Omnidrive is headquartered in California and Zapr was founded in Singapore (and both are on the list). Wikimedia a
Wikia have staff in Australia, but wouldn't generally count as "in Australia" (and understandably aren't on the list). It would be interesting to see a "non
Australian web apps in Australia" list for companies that have some presence here without being headquartered here, or for your list to be broadened t
include those. If you know of any that should be on such a list, feel free to add them to this wiki page:

http://wikiangela.com/wiki/Non-Australian_web_apps_in_Australia


alan jones • 6 years ago

Great research Vishal, well done, and thanks for mentioning http://www.bluepulse.com. The additional suggestions from readers makes the article more
useful still.
I wonder though, if people making suggestions should be a more strict on their definition of what constitutes a "web 2.0 app". Some of the suggested
sites don't display any of the technologies usually deployed in a web 2.0 app, or any of the typical web 2.0 business/distribution models.
That's not to say they're not good businesses, or good websites, or good applications. Many of them obviously are!
0

Dan • 6 years ago

We've just released a technology preview of Australia's first real estate search engine at www.realmap.com.au. It's a fairly pure AJAX solution that
integrates (or "mashes up" for the media) property listings with neighbourhood features such as childcare centres, shops, transport and more in both
Google maps and Google Earth. Buyers are directed to agents sites for details and to enquire.
Here's an early review describing it as the best mapping system on the planet - http://www.business2.com.au/?p=253.
Public launch coming, please let us know what you think.
0

Clarke Scott • 6 years ago

Can I add www.wHooiz.com
0

Michelle • 6 years ago

Richard, we were one of the 13 companies invited to LaunchPad at the Web2.0 summit in san francisco recently. Hopefully you'll find time to review us
www.inthechair.com.
In the Chair is Music Performance Software which lets students and budding musicians play with professional bands and orchestras from the first day t
start learning an instrument. They see and hear the band from their chosen seat.
Using their own instruments, they play along into a microphone which picks up their performance and immediately displays on the sheet music if the n
was play correctly or not. It has the ability to work without MIDI input and give real-time feedback on pitch, timing, tone and dynamics.
Game-like and immersive, In the Chair makes practice fun for students.
0

Mountain/Ash • 6 years ago

http://atmail.com/
A company that has been around for many years now (but is not well known here, but has many multi-nationals on it's client list), makes a full platform
webmail service, is developed and supported here in Oz. They recently AJAXed it's interface, taking it into the Web 2.0 category.
0

Lohan • 6 years ago

There's Feedity ( www.feedity.com ) by Melbourne-based Ashotosh Nilkanth ( www.nilkanth.com ).
0

wioota • 6 years ago

How about Hitwise? Or Sitepoint? I mean someone's gotta measure it and someone's gotta build it, right? :)
0

Jeff • 6 years ago

Don't forget:

http://www.bugmenot.com
0


Jinnan Cai • 6 years ago

Buzka is from Perth too! http://buzka.com
0

Nik Cubrilovic • 6 years ago

Richard: I don't know why it would be any easier or harder for New Zealander's to go to the USA - I believe we have the same visa conditions etc. In
terms of comparing Australia to every other country, it is probably the easiest to go to the USA from Australia for a number of reasons. Even Canadian
need permits to work in the USA, while as Australians we get a 3-month pass while entering the country.
It is also easier for Australians because of the existing support network in the bay area, you can usually find somebody you know or can be introduced
before leaving AU.
The key word here is that it is 'easier', establishing yourself and doing well in the USA is by no means easy.. :)
0

Adam Korbl • 6 years ago

Another Aussie original:
Mecanbe, You 2.0 - beta lauching very soon.
To learn more or signup to become a beta tester, head on over to http://www.mecanbe.com
Cheers!
0

Randal Leeb-du Toit • 6 years ago

Good post and great initiative, Richard -- highlighting global innnovation nation by nation can only improve things in the Web 2/Attention Economy
arena. BTW have you thought of doing a study on globally distributed plays in the space, ie those with no real core geographic centre. Could be
interesting.
Looking forward to sharing more with you re Yoick in due course -- stealth mode has its limitations...and to catching up at Web 2.0 next week.
Randal
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Ben • 6 years ago

Richard, we moved our aust company, AgentArts, to the US in 2000 and I would say that it is much simpler to do nowdays than back then. Specificall
with improvements with Visas and the like, it is easier to setup in the US. Our Aust VC investment was predicated on getting into the US. That said, I wo
never suggest that it is easy to shift from one country to another for all the obvious reasons such as family, culture etc.
It has been interesting to observe the blog entries etc about VCs in Aust and how shite they are etc. but I have recently wondered if this is the case of
is more an example of Aust being far far away from the valley and thus the ability of a VC to have any control or leverage on portfolio company's succ
OS being very limited. A few years ago, Evan Thornley, the founder of looksmart.com, Australia's most successful OS internet venture made the
comment that Aust entrepreneurs and VCs should be looking at opportunities that leverage Aust's unique advantages such as mining, wine, sheep etc
Likewise, you see in the valley that VCs will invest in hitech startups as there is a competitive advantage to in that area.
Over the last 6 years we have continued to find that "being in the face" of clients is soooo important and while we have maintained a presence in
Melbourne, there are flights to US every month to visit clients and cultivate relationships which I can honestly say have been key to our survival during
the nuclear winter that was 2001-2005.
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Luke Metcalfe • 6 years ago

I'm CEO of Sydney-based web technology company, Rapid Intelligence and would like to suggest two of our sites:
NationMaster.com would have to be one of Australia's more prolific larger community-driven technologies with over 1 million people per month viewing
and editing world statistics.
FactBites, search engine-encyclopedia hybrid is on Seth Godin's Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List.
0

Jahangir • 6 years ago

Vishal, great site and great review.


0

Richard MacManus Mod • 6 years ago

Nik, do you think it's easier for aussies to come into the US. I know from personal experience that it's hard for kiwis ;-) (no jokes please from across the
ditch:-)).
0

Nik Cubrilovic • 6 years ago

Great post Vishal and Richard, thanks for mentioning Omnidrive. It is interesting to note that a majority of the companies you list have some sort of
presence in the USA, I wonder what the trend is with other countries and if the proportion of companies going or already in the USA is high in Australia
Omnidrive will be launching at the Web 2.0 conference next week in San Francisco, if you would like to signup before than and try out the beta email u
on beta@omnidrive.com
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Alex Pooley • 6 years ago

I'm from Western Australia and I would like to shamelessly plug my web based real time chat app: http://www.scribblehere.com
While I'm at it, what about my blog: http://www.alexpooley.com
With that out of the way, I'd like to mention that I have witnessed very little innovation around here. Forget about web 2.0, we're still struggling with
scripting languages and open source. We're old school down under.
The nice thing about this arrangement is that it's easy to stay grounded. Just when you think of "the next cool idea", you take a trip to the shops and
remember that the masses won't really gives a damn.
Don't forget: http://www.scribblehere.com Wooh! Yeh!
0

Stephen Collins • 6 years ago

Interesting post, and great to see all the awesome work being done here. Sadly, the assessment that management in Australian companies is behind th
8-ball on new web technologies is too true. Adoption of the technology, platforms and concepts behind Web 2.0 is generally woeful, and it's only the
smart startups like those listed here that are breaking new ground.
For me, as someone who works in the web space for a large consultancy, convincing our clients of the value of information sharing, public APIs and th
allowing of data reuse is often a case of the proverbial pushing #$%& uphill with a pointy stick.
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Bronwen Clune • 6 years ago

Thanks for giving PerthNorg a mention Vishal and Richard.

When you write it up an impressive list like that its obvious that there is a lot of innovation takig place here in Australia. And I think a lot of investors are
slowly waking up to that fact.

I know of a few other start-ups coming out of Perth alone and since we are the most isolated city in the world, that is pretty amazing.

Maybe we should have a Perth Web 2.0 dinner ....

Also thought b5media was worth a mention. They have Ozzie foundations ....
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Nic Hodges • 6 years ago

Wow, thanks for giving sukk a mention. We were still thinking we were very much in stealth but it seems word has gotten out and it's almost Alpha now
As someone who spends my days with an eye on web trends with a focus on Australia, it's awesome to see what this country is capable of.

And yes, GoogleMaps was developed in Australia too!
0

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