Last month we wrote about the launch of We Are Hunted which uses semantic technology to find out, based on what’s happening on the social web, what the most popular song at any particular moment in time is.

Well, We Are Hunted (WAH) are back with a new service - The We Are Hunted Twitter Chart, which looks specifically to chart the number of plays an artist is getting on Twitter.

Richard Slatter from Wotnews/We are Hunted explains how the charts are created:

By combining this data with the insights from our global charts we calculate the live Twitter chart. More than just a straight count of artist mentions, the We Are Hunted Twitter Chart reflects which artists are being played most by Twitter users.

For me, that difference (focus on actual plays, not buzz) will make a big difference in the value of the charts for the various types of people who might use them (music seekers, marketers etc.)

Part of the reason for focusing on Twitter would appear to be because it’s the most real-time component of social media. This is reflected in some of the stats the WAH team have pulled out of the broader WAH tracking.

You can get examples of results on their research page (including the chart below, which shows the Beastie Boys blow up on Twitter in line with the release of the new Star Trek featuring a young Kirk blasting their their song, “Sabotage”.) The immediacy of this information and the potential it creates for new ways of doing business in music is staggering, in my mind.

You can check out the We Are Hunted Twitter Chart HERE. Can’t wait to see what the WAH crew comes up with next.

So the big news this morning is that Google has demo’d a prototype communication and collaboration (C&C) tool called WAVE, which they believe will modernise/revolutionise the way we interact with other people.

Google WAVE, which was first shown to the public at the Google I/O conference in San Fran last night (Sydney Time) is basically an attempt to ditch legacy systems, like email (it’s decades old now) , and build something more in tune with how people are communicating and collaborating these days.

The great news from a local perspective is, of course, that the Wave team is based in Google’s Sydney offices (led by the Rasmussen brothers who basically created Google Maps) so Sydney may very well be at the forefront of the C&C revolution.

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From the looks and sounds of things (Come on Google - hook me up with a demo, will ya?) it’s a mix of email, groups, IM, File Sharing etc. with a strong focus on the growing trend of real-time communication. The overall goal appears to be to allow free form communication and collaboration (C&C) with the ability to add structure according to context.

If that’s the case, the idea of contextual rather than chronological, or even directory/folder based, structuring of C&C is going to be a massive step forward for the C&C world.

So what does Google plan to do with Wave?

Well, the most obvious focus in the official Wave communication is the fact that they are going to Open Source “the lion’s share” of the technology. The point of this, according to Lars Rasmussen, is to build adoption of the underlying protocols. Essentially, the plan is to build a new C&C platform, accessible from almost anywhere on the web (they’re trying to deportalise C&C as part of Wave, as well) that anyone, competitors or not, can build products and services around.

With that in mind we should be real about what Wave appears to be. This is an attempt by Google to control the direction of C&C for the foreseeable future. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if Wave is as good as they think it will be, but it’s important to keep things in perspective.

Interestingly, Microsoft has also seen the C&C vision and has been promoting Unified Communication and Collaboration (UC&C) as their enterprise-focused communication strategy for the past 6-12 months - so there’s going to be a ding dong battle for this space in the near future.This is especially true when you consider that Wave will be able to be used as both a cloud-based and behind-the-firewall service…can anyone say Exchange/Outlook/SharePoint compete…?

I don’t want to delve too much more into Wave for now, simply because I haven’t had a play with it yet. No doubt there will be a lot more to speak about soon, so keep an eye out for future stories. If you want more info you can check out the official release form Lars Rasmussen, or even the TechCrunch interview with the leads of the Wave team.

In the meantime, a massive well done to the Sydney Google team for having the nuts to try something this ambitious and for getting it this far.

I’m a pretty crap golfer. Let’s just get that out of the way. I’ve tried to get into it, but golf-cart racing is as much fun as I’m probably ever going to have on the course.

So, for a golf-focussed startup to catch my attention says something about how interesting Lind Golf’s pitch is (hey! I think I made a golf joke there…)

So what is Lind Golf?

It’s a new website that offers customers the chance to design, customise and personalise their own golf clubs and accessories online.

The brainchild of twenty-five year old Sydneysider, Brad Lindenberg, Lind Golf is trying to compete in the massive market that supports the game of golf, by using technology to jump ahead of the curve.

Essentially, what that means is that you can hop onto the Lind Golf site and put together completely customised golf clubs and accessories without having to leave the comfort of your computer chair.

When I say completely customised, I’m not joking either - the site offers more than 50 Million combinations to make sure the end product is exactly what you want.

Now, the truth be told, all major golfing manufacturers have been offering various levels of customisation for years. By going online however Lind Golf has really positioned itself well to compete.

As Lindenberg explains:

Our online presence enables us to offer our customers ten’s of millions of ways to build a golf club. It also enables our customers to receive the best prices because we are manufacturers ourselves and have no middlemen in the distribution chain. We’ve been selling golf clubs online since 2005 and we’ve proven there is a market for it. We’ve simply taken it to the next level with the new Lind Golf.

I also asked Lindenberg if he felt the major manufacturers would follow his lead and this was his reponse:

Potentially, however they have a lot invested in their traditional channels. They would find it difficult to keep their bricks and morter channels happy while selling directly online as online sales would canabalise their offline sales. If they wanted to replicate the Lind Golf model they would probably have to establish a second brand, or acquire an existing online brand.

For me, what this really amounts to is Lind Golf positioning itself to take advantage of the future of shopping - i.e. a mixture of e-commerce and mass customisation . The latter of these (I mean, even I’d love to sport some of those custom designed golf club heads on the 19th hole) is going to be a bigger and bigger factor over the coming years and I have a feeling that one day there will be a lot of big name execs who wake up and wonder where the hell their biggest competitor, Lind Golf, came from.

While selling physical products may not be seen as the sexiest area in the online world, there’s no denying that Lindenberg has fully understood future trends and the value web technologies can bring to the golf-enthusiast industry.

Should be an interesting one to watch.

Aussie Social Media Monitoring service BuzzNumbers has put out a press release today saying that Claire Werbeloff, the “Chk Chk Boom” chick, has generated more than 41,000 conversations online since Monday last week. BuzzNumbers puts the value of those conversations at more than AUD$200,000 in equivalent advertising dollars.

While the numbers are interesting from a social media/viral hit point of view, for me the real thing of note is whether or not she’ll be able to do anything with that and the lessons startups can take away from the Claire Werbeloffs of this world.

I know, having spoken to many, many tech “entrepreneurs” over the past couple of years, that there’s a pervading belief out there that if they could just get some widespread, mainstream publicity for their startup that they’d be more or less set. This is particularly the case for consumer-focused startups.

That belief is simply not accurate.

Awareness is one thing. Having something of value that makes people hang around is something completely different and the basis of a solid business.

I receive Press Releases from startups all the time. I know that people don’t just send them to me, i.e. if I’m receiving them, then guaranteed that in most cases tech journos from large media orgs are also receiving them.

Now, TechNation Australia was created to build awareness of the Aussie tech/web/mobile startup industry so I’m likely to publish a story even if your startup isn’t demonstrating a huge amount of value just yet. And that’s OK as well, i mean - TNA is about building early awareness not about generating masses of traffic in some sort of “TNA-effect” to your site, so please keep sending as much info as possible about your projects to me.

That having been said, it worries me, for various reasons, that professional tech journos are receiving a multitude of press releases from low-value startups looking for traffic spikes.

In light of that, the question I have for Aussie tech entrepreneurs is:

If your startup suddenly had 41,000 online conversations about it would you be able to demonstrate enough value to convert new visitors to return visitors, or would you blow the opportunity?

My feeling is that most Aussie startups would blow the opportunity. I know that’s harsh - but I think it’s fair.

So, IMHO what’s the answer? It’s important to return to the idea I brought up earlier - value. Focus on value over traffic and your chances of long-term success are high. Focus on traffic over value and you’ll struggle.

That, in and of itself, oughtn’t be shocking. The shocking thing is that it takes someone like Claire to refocus our attention.

Welcome to the May‘09 installment of the Top 100 Aussie Web Startup Index.

Sites from startup-australia.org are ranked and listed below. If you think that a site is missing, or that one oughtn’t be included on the list, then feel free to edit the wiki…

i.e. there’s no need to complain about who’s on the list or to ask to be included…everything comes from that wiki - so edit it as you see fit.

Sites are ranked based on an average of Alexa and Compete traffic data.

In addition to the Alexa and Compete traffic data are the following fields which, while they aren’t included in the actual rank calculations, add deeper insight into the startups on the list

• Quantcast -  data from Quantcast.
• Hitwise - Hitwise Australian traffic rank.
• Change - Change in the startup’s ranking between Nov and Dec.

NB: All columns are sortable, just click on the heading

Congratulations to all the startups that are appearing for the first time and to those who have improved their ranking.

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PROMOTE THE FACT YOU’RE A TOP 100 MEMBER

I figure that if you’ve made the list you ought to be able to promote the fact, so from this month onwards I’m providing a badge that you can place on your website to let the world know how rad your site is!

To get your own badge like the one above (only if you made the list…of course) all you need to do is cut and paste the below code into your site!

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Now onto the list…

Top 100 Aussie Web Startups

Don’t know why I haven’t seen this site before, but I just fell over I Hate Holding and I think I’ve found the stop-gap measure we need until companies realise they need to be more open and make themselves available the way we want, not the way that’s convenient for them.

The site was first released over 18 months ago (though it’s still in  Beta) but it’s new to me, so I want to give it a boost. Before anyone starts flooding the comments (that would be a nice change, actually…) with stuff about other sites that solve this problem overseas, the point of I Hate Holding is that finally Australian specific info is available.

Founder, Sean Riley, Explains the rationale for the site

The idea for iHateHolding came to me during one the many moments of frustration-during-phone-prompt-navigation that myself, and no doubt countless others have painfully endured over the years.   I’m usually a patient guy, but this sort of crud makes my blood boil.

iHateHolding.com is a free, user edited web site that anyone can edit and add to at any time, without restriction. It allows users to add shortcuts to phone numbers that will allow the caller to speak with a real person quicker and easier than listening to countless prompts.

The site only has numbers for about 40 companies at the moment, but that covers most of the usual “please hold” suspects like Banks, Airlines and Telco’s - so it’s a good start. Hopefully in the near future more numbers will be added and finally we’ll be able to get some of our valuable time back

Check it out.

If you asked me which industries would most likely benefit from Web 2.0 technologies I don’t think the construction industry would be anywhere near the top of my list.

If you asked Jason Langenauer, however, construction would be right up the top, which is why he founded Constrex.

What Constrex does is provide an online platform/marketplace for construction companies looking for subcontractors to complete their projects.

In some respects, they’re operating in a similar space to companies like Service Central and WhoCanDo, but instead of targeting small jobs (such as home renovators looking to find a builder), they’ve developed the platform to support the enterprise functions (such as document management, audit-trails, multi-user accounts) that construction companies need to find, and manage, subcontractors.

Aconex has made a massive businessout of focusing on providing online services to the construction industry as one of it’s core markets, so there’s definitely some potential there for Constrex and it’s online marketplace.

Langenauer’s background is in Engineering at large scale construction/mining companies, so he has a good idea of the need from the company side. It must have been this experience that led him to realise that a real problem for construction companies is finding good subcontractors.

Langenauer explains the rest of the Constrex offering:

The other half of the service we provide is market intelligence – finding subcontractors who provide the best value to the construction companies for the work they want subcontracted. Again, while WhoCanDo and ServiceCentral do this sort of thing at a small scale ( e.g. “We’ll find you a tradesman with a good reputation who can build your new driveway”), there’s nobody really doing this at the major projects level (“We’ll find you a subcontractor who has previous experience in building sewage pump stations to Sydney Water standards, has ISO9001-certified quality management systems, and can provide a safety management plan compliant with legislation and your client’s requirements”). That’s the niche Constrex is trying to fill.

A quick look at the pricing model shows that this market intelligence is obviously where Langenauer feels that the most value is being added by Constrex. Where companies award a tender to someone they’ve put on their bidders list the service is free - where they award it to someone Constrex finds for them, they pay  3.15% of the value of the subcontract as a comission to Constrex.

That 3.15% is big enough, and the size of the deals that the construction industry is working on large enough, to ensure that if Constrex can overcome the important critical mass issues that the business could be incredibly successful.

Big night at CeBIT last night with a mix of International Diplomats, general end of show festivities and the annual CeBIT awards, which recognise the most innovative exhibitors at CeBIT.

“The CeBIT.AU Awards is our opportunity to honour and pay tribute to the spirit of innovation and excellence that helps drive our industry and to encourage our region’s entrepreneurs to show the world their drive, determination and talent,” the Managing Director of Hannover Fairs Australia, Ms Jackie Taranto, said.

Representing the Webciety crew in the awards were Siteflex and Hiive Systems.

Siteflex picked up the CeBIT.AU Excellence in New Media Award 2009, “recognising companies, products and services in the New Media, from digital platform companies, digital audio and video delivery systems to electronic marketing firms, content development firms and content integration services”

To quote the team on twitter - “CeBIT.au Excellence in New Media Award 2009 winner: Siteflex (via @cebitaus2009) #cebit #webciety - w00t!”

Hiive Systems grabbed the CeBIT.AU Early Innovators Award 2009, “a showcase for pre-commercialisation ideas, innovations and prototypes of our research and development community in Australia and New Zealand” for their client tracking software, Affinity.

Hiive Systems Founder and MD, Geoff McQueen, had this to say:

“The win caps off an incredible week for us, with us passing the milestone of more than a million client interactions tracked, and then our launch of the newest version of Affinity by Dr David Skellern, the CEO of NICTA.”

You can checkout all the award winners from the night HERE

Hiive Systems, makers of Cloud-based CRM system, Affinity, have announced they’ve passed 1 Million client interactions on customer sites. The number is interesting because it highlights just how much business is being done on Affinity. It also suggests that Affinity is more than capable of scaling up to handle its continued growth.

The news comes just in time for release v3.1 of Affinity which has added new interface features, more friendly navigation and a new dashboard to make it easier to get your hands on those all-important metrics.

Earlier this year we included Affinity as a reason why Australia is becoming an Enterprise 2.0 hub, and these new bits of news go to prove that Hiive is fulfilling its potential.

You can check out more about Affinity at www.hiive.com.au/affinity/

Social Travel site Travellr came out of private-beta today with an official launch at Webciety.

The site, which has been in private-beta for the past few months, aims to help people get local knowledge of the places they’re going to visit…not from a tour guide or a lonely planet book, but from actual locals who respond to community member questions.

Co-founders Ian Cumming and Scott Woodhouse have worked overtime to bring the site launch forward to coincide with Webciety, but at first play it looks ready to be public and there’s enough content to give people a feel for what the site will be good for when more people come on board.

You can check out the public Travellr site at www.travllr.com