Web Startups Profiled A Year Ago, Where Are They Now?

I began profiling new web startups over a year ago and since then it has become my most populated category. I decided to delve into my archives and pull out some of the startups I wrote about in January of 2007 to see where they are now. I’ve linked to my reviews of the startups below so you can read about them if you have never heard about them before.

AdBrite InVideo – Not a new startup but a new service within a successful web advertising company. You don’t hear much about InVideo nowadays, even though it was written with praise by a lot of blogs back then. Including me.

Shuzak – A social network for the geekiest of the geeks I profiled them way before anyone else. They hit the limelight though when ZDnet wrote about them and subsequently got some digg exposure. {Why doesn’t that ever happen to me?} They seem to be pretty flat now, a lot of the “Interesting Topics” only have like 4 – 5 votes. Looks like they need some marketing tips.

PlugIM – When I wrote about them they were already making strides in the user driven internet marketing news department. Since then they have grown, my only gripe is that they have not changed in terms of looks as most of the other user driven sites have – like digg. Perhaps a new look would drive new users. I still don’t know why the top stories have such less “plugs” given the traffic levels they seem to have?

designPATHS – It’s dead. Like totally!

PriceProtector – Price Protectr makes it simple to keep track of your purchases and get your money back. They seem to be doing it quite well. Just don’t know how they make any money?

LiveVideo – It’s a video site. They grew at an alarming rate at the beginning of 2007. The past 3 – 4 months have shown them steady out, probably because of the influx of video sites that last year saw. Still going strong though!

Plugoo – It helps you place a IM chat window on your blog, directly linked to any IM client of your choice. I tried it on my blog too. It actually helped me get to know about another startup – KillerStartUps.

KillerStartUps – Gonzalo from KSU started chatting with me via the Plugoo IM and that’s how I got to know about them and eventually did a writeup. They have become one of the de-facto sources for new web startups. More than TechCrunch can handle!

SplashCast – They seem to be doing well. I wanted to use them in the beginning for some projects but never really got around to doing it. I had to actually take down the review as it was under embargo due to being profiled at demo.com conf. So, YES! I “broke” the news before TechCrunch there…kinda.

RendezVoo – It’s dead too! Like totally as well!

Zimoz – They got bought out and are now Postalz. Good for them!

Walamu – Doesn’t look like much is happening with this online college classified site.

Sponsored Reviews – They were at one time my highest money makers for this blog. It’s sad to see nothing but crappy advertisers on their site now. Plus, I don’t think how they have their system set up will be profitable in the long run. Especially not with Social Spark coming up.

That’s about all the startups I wrote about last year in January, and a small overview of where they are now. Sad to see that some had to shut up shop.

Are you using any of the services above? How has your experience changed with them over the past year? Let us know in the comments.