GoLark Archive

NY-based GoLark launched their events listing service last December. Most have called it a "Digg for events" based on the voting system that GoLark utilizes. The site utilizes an IP lookup and offers you location based events on the initial load. You can select any location you are interested in as well. Currently NYC has the largest number of listed events in the GoLark system.

To learn more about GoLark, I spoke with CEO Harlan Stern (no relation). Harlan describes GoLark as, "a really simple events sharing service." Harlan is most excited about their natural language processor for entering events into the system. This means when you enter an event you can type something like, "tuesday at 8pm" or "every monday at 2am". This can help when attemping to create complex events.

There are tons of events sites online and GoLark has no easy task. They will fight with some of the largest players in the game when it comes to event planning. GoLark seems to focus on fun and entertainment, for example they have the free coffee events listed at Dunkin Donuts and a good number of concerts as well.

The GoLark team is currently made up of three close friends. They have taken bootstrapping to a whole new level. They have rented a house on the beach in New Jersey during the winter to keep costs as low as possible.

Harlan tells me that they most likely won’t add an events crawler to index other event planning services including Upcoming and Meetup. My concern with not crawling the other services is that it will be hard to ever convince site visitors that GoLark will have all of the events in their area.

We spoke briefly about their business model and Harlan noted that it will be a combination of ads and a variety of data aggregation offerings.

Below are five of the newest startups according to Killer Startups for the period ending December 15, 2007. Check out previous Killer Startups posts.

GoLark.com – What Larks in Your Town

The question of what to do is a classic; it seems never to be answered. There are in fact whole voluminous, books dedicated to the subject. However, for a quick primer on the matter you couldn’t go wrong in trying GoLark. GoLark helps you find out what’s going on in your area. Whether it’s a food fest, a concert or a museum exhibition, GoLark will keep you informed. read more »

ProductClash.com – Social Shopping Comparison

ProductClash.com provides the ability to find user generated and user rated product information. Doing so, they give decision makers the ability to include the opinion of other people in making a buying decision. What they believe is that making a choice is more than just an individual process based on rational criteria. A purchasing decision is based on three main criteria: The influential power of other people, the emotional connection to the brand or product category, and the underlying rational need for a product or a service. read more »

NapAds.com – Napkins with Hi-Def Advertisements

NapAds is a powerful, new approach to social advertising. They have spent the past year developing its exclusive social network consisting of bars and nightclubs. NapAds are provided to its network members for free in exchange for allowing NapAds.com to place NapAds inside their venue. Their exclusive Hi-Def napkins allows for any print campaign to be duplicated on to a standard beverage napkin. Once the napkins are printed they are provided to the bars and lounges free-of-charge. read more »

EyeSpyGolf.com – Google Earth US Golf Courses

EyeSpyGolf.com allows golfers to view every golf course in America (over 16,000) on Google Earth via a state by state, county by county directory system. Each course has been given their own page with address, contact details, weather forecast, green fees, Google Maps and the all important, link to Google Earth, so golfers no longer have to troll through Google Earth hoping to find golf courses in their area. read more »

PimpMyNews.com – Text To Speech News and Blogs

No time to read the day’s news on your homepage before hopping in the car and rushing off to work? Check out what Pimp My News, a new text-to-speech service which converts your favorite news and blog sites into audio. When you create a free account with Pimp My News, you’ll be able to specify which news sites and/or blogs you wish to have PMN convert to mp3 files. You’ll then be able to listen to these files on your iPod, computer, iPhone, and other mp3 playing devices. read more »