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In today’s Is It Real?, we present another Web 2.0 technology/service, give a brief description of what it’s about, and then challenge you to decide (without the help of the web at all) if it is real. We reveal the real answer the following Friday (as part of our Friday Fishwrap feature). Now that we understand the rules, let’s get started:

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Today, we feature one of the most advanced, unique concepts I have seen in the last few months: a social networking application called “HoffSpace” - centered around David Hasselhoff. Here is an excerpt from David’s very own introduction:

“In my travels round the world I have always been surprised that no matter where I go people recognize and know me, from Europe, Australia and India to the Philippines and the Zulu Nation in South Africa…while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me… So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me.”

Hence, he has launched HoffSpace - videos and photos of the adventures of his very own life (THAT NO ONE ELSE GETS TO SEE) and also from the lives of other members. He’ll also feature “Hoff TV” where (as he describes it): “I go live often.” There are chat features, the ability to create home pages with personal interests, music features, video and photo uploads…virtually everything one needs to create an online social community…all based around David Hasselhoff.

The byline of Hoffspace: “One man or woman CAN make a difference...”

So, readers of yooRyoo, I challenge you to vote below: is Hoffspace real? We’ll tally your votes all week long, and let you know the real answer on Friday.

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Happy Sunday, yooRyoo followers. As you know, every Sunday we like to bring you a feature called “Is It Real?” - where we present a web 2.0 company or technology, give you a brief overview of the product, and then ask you to decide if it’s real or not. We reveal the answer to you on Friday, so you have a whole week to vote!

Here’s the catch: you can’t use the web in any way to determine if the company is real or not. You just have to guess, based on what’s presented of you. So, without any more ado, here is this Sunday’s “Is It Real?“…

As you know Facebook allows members to gather together under formal “groups” - thus, proclaiming your likeness with other denizens of this social network. To that end, Facebook users have created a group called “I Tend to Fart in Public” with the following description:

This is a group for sharing horror stories about farting in a socially unacceptable setting. it’s happened to all of us and we could all use a safe place to talk about it.

There are currently 23 members of this group, but once the word gets out, they expect an explosive rise in new members…

Is "I Tend to Fart in Public" a real Facebook group?

• Maybe - because when I fart in public, I let out silent ones...so no one knows it's me (67%, 2 Votes)
• Yes - since I tend to fart in public all the time, this must be a real group (33%, 1 Votes)
• No - I can't imagine ever farting in public...I always do it in the privacy of my office, home or car. (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

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It’s time for the weekly installment of Is It Real? - where a Web 2.0 company or technology is presented, along with a brief description of what the product actually does and then we ask the yooRyoo readers: is it a real company or not? Here’s the catch - you can’t use the web in anyway to help you with your guess!

We’ll run the poll all week, and provide the answer next Friday. Think you’re up to the challenge? Let’s go:

Imagine this scenario: you got your Twitter account and found two dozen people to follow (and maybe half of those follow you), but you really don’t feel popular enough. But, some of the people you are following have hundreds - thousands - of people they follow. Surely there’s a reason for their popularity. So, how do you get as popular on Twitter?

No problem - Twannabe is here! Twannabe allows you to enter in the name of one of your “Twitter Heroes” and it automatically determines which of those thousands of contacts you should be following!!! Simply add those contacts to your “follow” list, and voila - Twitter popularity automated for all of us Twitter poseurs!

Note: this is limited to only 2000 contacts…sorry!

So, Is It Real? fans, it’s time to ask: Is Twannabe Real? Vote below!

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Is It Real? is a Sunday feature on yooRyoo where we introduce a new Web 2.0 company and ask you to decide whether or not the company is indeed real, or if it is something we made up. We’ll give you the company name, a description of the services and any additional detail that we think might be helpful for you to decide.

Your role is to review the company, and without the help of Google or any other online source, determine if it is real. Vote with the poll below - polls will be open until Friday, in which we’ll reveal the answer in that Friday’s Fishwrap.

So, without further ado, here is this week’s company: Ribbit - an Open Platform for Telephony Innovation…

Ribbit’s team is comprised of traditional telephony experts, “Voice 2.0″ experts as well as various web development, social media and infrastructure experts.

Ribbit is an open platform for telephony innovation giving their developers unprecedented access to their technology through the Ribbit API and allowing them to innovate at will. Their business is built more like a software company than a phone company, counting on their developers to create the next generation communications solutions the world has been waiting for.

Their first product is called “Amphibian” which allows users to manage mobile voicemal like email through widgits in iGoogle and Facebook, and “Experience Caller ID 2.0 - dip into the social web and know not just who is calling but what the caller has been doing.”

So, Is It Real? fans….Is Ribbit real? Vote below, and let us know your thoughts. Answer revealed this Friday!

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Time for the second installment of “Is It Real.” With all of the excitement surrounding the new iPhone 3G, and the release of the much anticipated iPhone apps store, a number of exciting applications are now available through iTunes. But none as more powerful as this week’s “Is It Real?” entry:

MiPhone (pronouned “My-Phone”) is a unique social-networking tool that allows iPhone users to identify other iPhone 3G users (using the internal GPS device), so they can mingle and congregate, and generally look down at all non-iPhone cell-phone users.

For only $4.99, MiPhone is available through the iTunes app-store for a limited time.

So, “Is It Real” fans, it’s time to guess - is MiPhone real?  No fair searching the apps store in iTunes to find out! The real answer will be given this Friday!

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In an effort to bring you the newest and bestest Web 2.0 technologies, the editors are yooRyoo are starting a new Sunday feature “Is It Real” where we scour the Web 2.0 landscape to profile new companies. We will give you the name of the company, and a brief description of the technology. You’re mission (if you choose to accept it) is to determine if the company is real or not - and you can’t use Google for help!

Use the buttons below to cast your vote - we’ll give you the answer on the following Friday Fishwrap. So, without further ado, here is the very first “Is It Real”

…

Company name: WhoIsI - A service designed to help you keep track of your friends

There are sites similar to whoisi popping up all over the Internet. Each one claims to help you keep track of your friends and each one of them have the exact same qualities:

• The site asks you to sign up for an account to try it. (It’s free and easy!)
• They ask you to give them your gmail password so they can mine your contact information and try and connect you with lots of other people who are also on the site.
• Then you’re allowed to blog, comment, collect, connect, make friends, mail your friends to let them know you’re on this cool new site and that you should make an account too.

There’s a basic problem with those steps. Every one of those sites requires that you have your friends sign up and partake in the site, make the same friends over and over again, and hopefully find the site useful. The result? Social networking overload. Friends uttering “ugh, not another fracking account that I have to take care of.” Every site needs to scale and handle millions of users to have the kind of reach that any one individual needs to be able to reach enough of their friends.

Instead of asking you to sign up for an account, you can just start using whoisi. Find someone on the site you want to follow? Just click the “Follow Person” next to their name. No signup, no nothing. All it does is set a cookie. And if you want to save that login so you can connect later or log in from another machine? Check out the “Login Later” link on the right hand side and bookmark the magic url. It’s as easy as that. You can stay as anonymous as you want.

The real difference between whoisi and other sites is the way that keep track of your friends. Much like an RSS reader where you add feeds of people you know and keep track of them, whoisi asks you do do the same. Except that you’re asked to create entries for your friends first and add all of their feeds. That small amount of work that you’ve done makes it easier down the road for someone else to come along and follow that person as well. Your friends don’t have to participate in whoisi for you to be able to keep track of them, but if they do down the road, you’ve made it much easier for them.

Whoisi borrows this idea from Wikipedia. That collectively humans can build a great database of knowledge with great collaborative tools. Whoisi doesn’t use robots and doesn’t use spiders. Instead it relies on humans who are interested in what fellow humans are up to.

Whoisi uses a time-based approach to seeing what your friends are doing. No more read/unread status indicators or mail-like 3-pane views. Just a very simple and elegant flow of information from your friends. You can scan quickly and see what’s going on, look at what you want and then move on to the next thing. It’s about flow.

…

So, is WhoIsI real? Vote now!

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