Commerce

Happy Valentine's Day from Webware. We don't have chocolate, flowers, or cheesy cards for you, but we do have a roundup of Valentine's Day-related Web services and specials for you to get in touch with that special someone.

>> YouTube is offering video valentines. You've got six kitschy and humorous videos to choose from, featuring a slightly overweight cupid who causes more harm than good. For quick and easy personalized Webcam videos to your sweetheart, try out Viddler or Gabmail.

>> If your honey is stuck in the office all day, cheer him or … Read more

Yesterday 37signals founder Jason Fried posted about the team's upcoming contact management app called Highrise. The goal of the app is to help you manage contact information in a better way than relying on Post-its or your current software-based customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Think of it like a Rolodex but with collaboration and more space to write things down. Many people can have access to the same records at once, and from the announcement, 37signals thinks they can do better than your current CRM.

In many ways Highrise is a solution for a problem with Web communication technology: … Read more

>> MTV online strategy to help Viacom take on YouTube? Viacom wants you to watch clips of its popular TV shows on the Internet, but it doesn't want you to do so on YouTube. At the beginning of this month, Viacom had YouTube take down more than 100,000 clips of Viacom-owned content. Now it's spreading them out among its sites, including ComedyCentral.com and MTV.com.

>> Belgian court rules against Google over copyrights. Belgian newspapers apparently don't like Google, as they've barred the company from caching its stories for news clippings. The … Read more

Launched last October, Competitious lets you quickly and easily compare your Web site with your competitors' sites. After adding their URLs, you can compare traffic, make detailed comparison charts, and keep track of press (both good and bad). The goal is to get a quick snapshot of your competition and have the tools to keep tabs on them in hopes of making your own site better.

There's a strong emphasis on collaboration, as you can invite others to join your Competitious project. Each of your collaborators can use the Competitious bookmarklet to add stories to each competitor's profiles. … Read more

Boston--I just met with Andy Estes, the ambitious CEO of Nearby Networks, which runs FindNearby.net. This service is a mashup of Google Maps, Amazon, eBay, Craiglist, and WalMart.com. You tell it where you are and what you are looking to buy, and it will find the items available for sale near you. Items are color-coded on the map by type of sale (auction, private party sale, retail). Auctions about to expire are red.

It's a really cool way to find an item you're looking for if you're itching to hop in the car to go … Read more

Facebook has introduced all sorts of interesting things to social networking culture. It began with a poke, and more recently allowed you to set people on fire (virtually, of course). As of yesterday, users are able to purchase and send virtual gifts (in the form of emoticons) to their friends on the service for $1 each, to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and promote breast cancer awareness.

The icon set was designed not by Facebook but by Susan Kare who made the icons for the first Mac, including the notorious bomb icon which showed up every time … Read more

As some of you may know, I host a weekly video feature on our sister blog Crave, where I talk about fun tech-related stuff that's going on in New York City. This week, my video turned out to be rather Webware-related, so I'm posting it here for you as well. In this clip, I go over to Etsy Labs, the new real-world communal space opened by online handmade craft marketplace Etsy. It's a really cool convergence of the online and offline, in a way that kind of made me wonder--will the next iteration of the Web see … Read more

Moving can be a strange experience. Even stranger are the people you meet along the way. TenantMarket is a new service that plays matchmaker for both landlords and potential tenants in an attempt to avoid potentially bad living situations. You simply give TenantMarket details like length of employment, credit status, and reasons for moving, and it will match you up accordingly.

Landlords pay to have their listings matched up, and the system provides them with a fresh set of "leads" to contact. Likewise, potential renters are e-mailed personalized offers about new places that match their criteria. It's … Read more

Wal-Mart is joining the fray of movie download services today. Its new store (which is mysteriously unfriendly to Firefox) features movies from all six major studios including Disney and Sony--two studios that have a long history of proprietary use and ties to competing download services.

Films range from about $13 to $20 and can be watched almost immediately depending on your connection. Movies are managed and played through a custom player that runs only on Windows PCs. You also can watch the movies in Windows Media Player. Like the iTunes Movie Store, titles released on DVD will be available … Read more