EightBlack.

I seem to be knee deep in start up’s lately. And proudly, all Aussie. Well, actually - that’s patriotic nonsense. In fact, I would argue that it’s much harder for a start-up to get traction downunder than it is offshore. Our funding sources are too limited. As is the talent pool.

If you put down on your tax return “Venture Capitalist” in the box occupation, 2 guys in a government vehicle would come around, put you in an immigration detention centre and a very unpleasant women with a rubber glove would proceed to crawl up your arse with a very large toilet brush.

Or something like that.

Before you start wailing, I know there are always exceptions to the rule.

I reckon Hippo has legs. Thats why we’re delighted they’re our newest client. I think Chris and Johnny are on to something. And I definitely think Mark and Rob are going to give the search industry a run for it’s money.

We’re also having a crack at something ourselves. Too early to tell but I’m listening to Marc Andreessen and reading this post by Rich Skrenta and Uncov.

God, I pissed myself laughing when I read this on Uncov. Open the page. And then look to the right hand corner. Exactly.

I remember being at Guy Kawasaki’s Garage.com conference in New York back in Web 1.0 (or whatever you want to refer to it as). I remember being interviewed 3 times by PeoplePC and contemplating moving from the midwest to San Francisco with a 4 month year old son. God, I’m glad I didn’t.

Remarkably, PeoplePC is still alive.

The crazy thing is that even amongst all the hysteria back then, people’s logic sort of went south. I know mine did. I got carried away with the internet dream without understanding the most important thing.

Who are you going to sell it to? (the”it” being the product, the service, the application).

I remember Chris Mander telling me a little while ago he was leaving Theme Park to go off into the wild blue yonder of start-up land. Ok, I thought it. Must be a good idea idea because Theme Park was a pretty well regarded digital outfit. And he already had the coolest offices in Richmond.

His idea lauched a little while ago. His email sat in my inbox under one of those classifications “must get around to reading”.

I’m glad I did.

I think Docoloco has got legs. Its clever. And if it gets traction, it will do well.

Local search has got a lot of room left in it and Docoloco is approaching local search in an innovative way - by letting the user base populate the database. Is it scalable? I think so. There’s also the potential for a social networking element in addition to a transactional portal to spring up and I’m sure Chris and his partner in crime Johnny have got a vision for the future about where they want to take their application once critical mass has been reached.

Its easy to see the Theme Park influence in the design of Docoloco - its sleek, elegant and above all is simple to use.

The video tour is here. Bravo is all I can say.

Personally, I think its been a bit quiet on the web.

I know Facebook is all the rage at the moment (and picking up speed like a runaway freight train), Google is defending its recent financials, as well as quietly tip-toeing into the spectrum race (about as quietly as a 300 lb gorilla can anyway), Microsoft is buying up as many online ad companies it can get its hands on and theres somewhat of a renaissance going on at Yahoo!

There’s also a little company called Twitter thats making a splash - I first came across these guys at Web 2.0 Expo earlier this year.

But its all a bit “Business As Usual” sort of stuff. Nothing riveting. Nothing that jumps off the page. Or so I thought.

I was listening to a voice post from John Battelle and he was talking about the preparation thats going on for the upcoming Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in October.

I’ve talked about this a little bit before, but you cant help but be impressed by the line-up of presenters and key notes. Battelle goes on to state:

“I do this thing with some of the players of the big platform players - Google, Yahoo!, Vicacom, EBay, Microsoft and I’m really going to push with these guys towards the edge. Its not just the new hot start ups or edgy markets or places where the web hasnt caught up yet, but what are they doing about operating on the fringe….”

The voice post is here for those who want to listen.

It got me thinking about a meeting I had late last week. I’ve posted about MyLiveSearch before and the 2 smart brothers behind this new search technology. They’ve had some decent initial coverage.

Well, there’s not much I can share at this stage due to a non-disclosure agreement - but I will say this. I think, just maybe, that these guys might be on to something. I saw a real, live, working demo of the search interface and it took me a while to truly appreciate what they have done.

If successful, MyLiveSearch could well and truly invert the entire search space. Thats if they’re allowed to. The beta version is due out in 3 weeks or so. It might very well change the way you think and “search” on a daily basis.

Will it threaten the Google juggernaut? Maybe not. But it will catch their attention. And the Gabriel boys might just find themselves working from a Mountain View address in the not too distant future.

These sorts of applications are the “edge” that I think Battelle refers to. And its not until you see it first hand, that you truly marvel at the way the web is continuing to evolve.

I never tire of talking with Michael Hewitt-Gleeson because he is one of the smartest guys I know. Most people that know him would agree that he is one of the most under-rated resources in corporate Australia.

Sometimes I think he likes sitting below the radar, despite his global achievements.

We had a good time this morning. Here’s the link to the call, or you can listen right from within this post by hitting the play button.

Transcription to follow. Standby.

PS. And here it is.