Digital Influentials: Stolen From the Headlines - Start-Ups Keeping It Simple - Cory Treffiletti - MediaBizBloggers

I always love a good quote. A quote can be a simple synopsis of a complex idea that can make it easier to convey to a new audience. It can also keep a good idea top of mind by acting as a mnemonic to assist in your memory's recall. Either way, it's a great way to start a day, as well as a column!

"Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge."
-Winston Churchill

Churchill was a complex man, and a wise man. From what I hear, he was also a somewhat arrogant man. The key to success in my eyes has always been to balance hubris with humility. His statement above is quite applicable to our everyday business and the age old idea of K.I.S.S (keep it simple, stupid) and if you balance this idea with the strength of conviction you can be a leader and an innovator. The companies and services in this week's column are poised to become leaders and innovators because they have followed the path to simplicity in their solutions.

This week's list of up and comers comes to us from a few of the recent conferences like TechCrunch 50,where a certain amount of humble hubris can be required to present and defend your ideas, as well as the more established stalwarts like OMMA Globaland iMedia where smart, innovative companies walk the floor to hear good ideas and mix with intelligent people! If you scour the list of companies and attendees you can find some real keepers, such as the following:

We start with ANYCLIP (http://anyclip.com) which promises to be a tool for movie aficionados of all kinds. It's in private beta right now and I am one of the throngs who've been waitlisted, but I've seen it in action and it allows you to search for any clip from any movie instantly. Remember the famously obscure line, "Awww, but I was going down to Toshi station to pick up some power converters"? I do, and now you can watch it too! Or check it out here in the interim

CROWD FUSION (http://www.crowdfusion.com) provides a new and improved set of tools for custom publishing online, making it even easier to create a dynamic, updated Web site. It takes the best of blogging, wikis, tagging and other sources to patch together and create something better than the sum of its parts. It's backed by some impressive names and you can see the CMS in action by checking out OBSESSABLE (http://www.obsessable.com).

PERPETUALLY (http://www.perpetually.com) is a new tool that allows you to keep an archived record of your competitors, your employees or just about any Web site you can find. You create an account and set it to start recording specific sites; pretty easy! It's sort of like your own personal WayBack Machine (http://www.archive.org/index.php).

INSTTANT (http://insttant.com) uses the Twitter stream to create an aggregate of real time news data. Of course, it is really in private beta and doesn't even have a product yet, but sign up and stay tuned because the mock-ups they have look great!

In the world of the iPhone… G PUSH lets you get notifications about when emails come in without having to open your mail app on the phone. YAHOO FANTASY lets you keep tabs and make changes to your fantasy football team, even when they're in last place like mine. And the GUINNESS PUB FINDER lets you… well… you can pretty much guess what that does.

That's it for this week – talk to you in two!

Cory Treffiletti is President and Managing Partner for Catalyst SF. Cory has been a thought leader in interactive marketing and advertising since 1995. Cory can be contacted at cory@catalystsf.com.

Read all Cory’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Cory Treffiletti - MediaBizBloggers.