Webware Roundup

Frustrating service at restaurants and dry cleaning horror stories are all too common. When you have a bad customer service experience, it's likely you want to take action, but aside from the Better Business Bureau, where else can you turn? MeasuredUp is a new social networking site that exists solely to let people post their experiences (good and bad) with local businesses. Similar sites already exist. Yelp and Yahoo Local are two good examples of community-based sites that offer a place to swoon or gripe, but neither aim to inspire massive changes from businesses. Between the poor efficacy for online petitions in general and a lack of localization features specifically, MeasuredUp won't fulfill its potential without some maps and a large user base.

Coordinating family affairs can be tough. When you stack up school, sports, work, and transportation, there's a lot of schedules to take care of. Famundo is a collaborative service that lets families manage the basics such as a calendar, an address book, and a message board. In addition, there are some things you typically see in business collaboration tools, such as basic file sharing and list management (for shopping or to-do lists). Famundo is free to try for two months, then it's $10 per month (or $99 per year). The price isn't so hot, but organizations can get Famundo subscriptions for free. As a small perk, Famundo donates 10 percent of family subscription fees to a Famundo organization of your choosing. An interesting fund-raising concept, but $99 is a bit steep these days for 1GB of storage, shared e-mail, and calendars. We'll stick with a giant calendar on the fridge.

Borrowing money is the pits. The usual options are pawning off your possessions, selling yourself to the bank at dismal interest rates, or approaching family members for a loan. And those are just the legal options. FYGO is a community-driven site that lets users borrow from a group of people and negotiate the interest rate. You still pay interest, but with FYGO, you directly pay those who lend you the money rather than pay an institution. What's nice about going through FYGO instead of a bank is its low fee structure, $1 to $3 for loans. Compared with the percentage that a bank might charge, it's an attractive prospect. If you've got money to spare, check out Prosper (which we covered in March), a nearly identical service that lets you preauthorize loans that match your requirements, so you can earn interest without having to manage your account.