If your job depends on your ability to follow the “cool” or keep in touch with the latest obsessions–probably true of all entrepreneurs–then it would benefit you to follow new Web start ups. Two sites have emerged on the scene to spread the word on the latest trends.
- Trend Hunter – Trend Hunters create portfolios, the best of which are published in online magazines
- Chictini.com – The more digg-like phenom that let’s users vote on what hits the A-list
Trend Hunter creates a sort of competition between its hunters to see who can find the hottest new developments. Many of the top hunters are involved in the marketing/ad industry or journalists. KillerStartups.com–which isn’t a bad pulse on new business trends either–highlighted Trend Hunter, sourced in media quite often for its data collection on cool.
Trend Hunters add cool trends to their portfolios, and the site publishes the best stuff in over a dozen online magazines. These magazines generate 1.2 million views per month. They leverage this information and group the hottest trends into clusters of inspiration in the Annual Trend Report.
Chictini is more for the hipsters and social darlings who want to spread their choice selection to all their friends and fellow cool cats. In contrast to Trend Hunter, it seems to emphasize the trend posted more than the user who put it there. They integrate this social network with the digg-like voting system to create a community and society for trend hunting.
KillerStartups also posted on the many features of their site.
They want to show what’s hot before it even knows it’s hot. You can vote whether you think a posted item is “chic” or “weak”, and these votes determine whether the posted items make it to the A-list or the C-list. Unlike Digg, you can actually purchase items from the site. Chictini also has a social network set up where you can create a pretty detailed profile page. You can list all of the basic personal details, see the last ten posted items by that person, leave them comments, create a detailed bio, include contact info, and have people join your “clique.” You can even post a song to your profile.
Keep an eye on them both, and you just might land yourself a choice find in the world of trends or come up with that great idea that will make you millions.
