Startup Review: Susuh, WhatsUpInRuby, MarkThisDate, FriendFeedLinks, PlantWire

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending May 14, 2008. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

Susuh.de – Service Yourself

Berlin may have more of a reputation for bawdy cabarets, graffiti and a trendy ‘It’ status as the next Paris/Prague, but its creative endeavors aren’t limited to spray cans and spandex. Take Susuh, for example. Susuh is a new startup that caters in services. This is fitting for Berlin, who’s seen its share of unemployment problems and has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for years.

WhatsUpInRuby – Following the Conversation

What’s up In Ruby is the first of a series of niche sites that gives you insight into the conversations going on within a specific context, and then takes you to where those conversations are taking place. They find the best sources, filter out the noise, tell you what’s going on, and send you on your way. If you’re curious about a certain topic go ahead and search for it. What’s up in Ruby follows hundreds of Ruby and Ruby-related blogs to deliver you the latest in conversation from the Ruby world.

Markthisdate – Share Your Favorite Events

Markthisdate is a Holland-based site that allows you to download the calendars of your favorite events directly to your favorite calendar program and thereby keep tabs on your favorite things. There are a number of calendars to choose from, for example, the Beijing Olympics, and you simply have to click "add to my calendar" when you would like to download the times and dates of an event to your icalendar.

FriendFeedLinks.com – What’s Hot on FriendFeed

The idea behind the popular site FriendFeed, is finding new and interesting links, articles, sites, etc via your friends. It’s an exercise in sharing the Web 2.0 way. Until now, there surprisingly hasn’t been any FriendFeed memetrackers allowing a Digg-style popularity index to showcase the most viewed items. However, a clever Frenchman decided to change this and made his own FriendFeed memetracker aptly called FriendFeedLinks.

PlantWire – A Flickr Flower Garden

Gardening gets the 2.0 treatment with PlantWire. The site uses publicly licensed Flickr photos to identify flowers and plants. Currently, their floral database contains over 300 plants and over 6000 images. Plants can be searched for by tags, colors (using the ever so handy color pixel grid), and by name, using the search bar. The site uses both common, vernacular names alongside scientific names picked for the USDA GRIN Taxonomy database.