People have been getting together and pooling their money to buy gifts for friends for years. Shareagift is a new tool that aims to make that process easier. In five simple steps, anyone can organize the purchase of a group gift for a mutual friend, colleague, or family member – all without having to deal with receiving multiple checks or making change for people who only have cash.

Shareagift probably isn’t a web-app you’ll use every day, but it is something that’s useful during wedding season or when you plan on attending a housewarming party or some other type of event that usually requires the purchase of a gift. Rather than calling your friends and asking everyone if they’d like to go in together on a bigger item, you can click over to Shareagift and create a ‘Gift Page’ in honor of the recipient. Each page should have the name of the recipient, the occasion, gift information, contributions, and a message to the people you’re inviting to take part. You can then share this page with your friends via Facebook or email. Friends who visit the page can contribute money toward the gift with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account, and you can keep track of how much money you’ve raised by checking back at Shareagift at any time. When you reach the target goal, which should be the amount of the gift, the money you’ve collected will be deposited into your bank account or PayPal account and you can go ahead and buy the gift.

In addition to all its cool money-collecting features, Shareagift also features a “Find a Gift” tool that people can use to select the perfect gift for any occasion. Although most people will think of Shareagift as the ideal tool for buying group birthday presents and housewarming gifts, it can also be used by engaged couples who are interesting in registering for certain large-ticket items, like honeymoon excursions, or by high school students whose extended families are eager to help them save for future college expenses.

Practical Uses:

• Get together with your friends to buy a friend a stereo for his birthday
• Ask wedding guests to donate to your honeymoon fund
• Buy a gift with your siblings for your parents’ anniversary
• Collect money for a group present from friends who live far away

Insider Tips:

• People who don’t reach their target amounts can still extract the donated money to spend on a different gift
• Shareagift will deposit money in any bank account or PayPal account
• Contributions can’t be changed once they’ve been submitted, but a user can decide to contribute additional funds at any time
• Organizers can check who they have sent invitations to by clicking the ‘Edit’ tab

What we liked:

• Shareagift makes it easier for people to collect money for work-related events and parties
• Asking people for money is less awkward when it’s done online
• Users can pay with credit cards, debit cards, or through PayPal
• People can check out potential gift ideas right on the Shareagift page

What we didn’t like:

• Shareagift asks for a $1 admin fee when people make contributions

Alternatives:

• Invested.in – http://invested.in
• Kickstarter – http://www.kickstarter.com

Company Info:

• Launched: September 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
• Founded by: Justine Angelli
• Web site: http://www.shareagift.com

Costs:

• $1 admin fee for contributions

Overstat is a tool that people can use to test their websites and find out what areas or sections are drawing the most interest from visitors online. The analytics tools to run these types of optimization tests have been around for a while, but what makes Overstat unique is its simplified format. With Overstat, virtually any web publisher can optimize his or her site without spending the time or money that is oftentimes necessary to hire an expert consultant for the job.

The way you use Overstat will depend on your individual needs, based on the type of website you run. Let’s say your job includes managing the website for a retail store and you want to know why more people aren’t clicking on your “store locator” tab. Sign up for an account with Overstat, launch it as an overlay on your retail store’s homepage, and check out the heatmap feature to see where people are clicking on your page. If you notice a lack of action around your “store locator” button, then that might be a sign that it’s time to move it around. Before making any rash decisions, click the “top links” button to directly see which links are being clicked on most. For further testing, you may want to create a clone of the page and make certain variations—such as bolding the link or moving it around on the page—in an effort to see what will work best. Once you’ve tested a few variations, you’ll be able to see which layout changes will make the biggest impact.

Overstat offers a number of useful tools for advertising executives, web designers, and anyone else who is expected to achieve certain online marketing goals. Among these is the “form fixer,” which automatically tweaks forms to make them more functional from the user’s perspective. By using Overstat to its full capabilities, people can optimize their homepages and reduce bounce rates without any help from outside professionals.

Practical Uses:

• Find out why more people aren’t signing up for your online mailing list
• Visually see which of your homepage links are being clicked on the most
• Use Overstat’s analytics tools to improve your homepage’s SEO
• Make changes to your web copy or design and track how visitors respond

Insider Tips:

• Top link pins show how often people are clicking on each homepage link
• Overstat’s JavaScript doesn’t actually change the functionality of any webpage it is embedded on
• The size and transparency of Overstat’s heatmaps can be adjusted
• Change the text or layout and use A/B testing to see how visitors respond

What we liked:

• Anyone who can copy/paste code into their website can use Overstat’s tools
• Users can see which pages in the registration ‘funnel’ are turning their visitors off
• Any site that aims to generate sales can benefit from A/B testing
• Heatmaps are a great tool for people who favor visual representations over streams of numbers and data

What we didn’t like:

• People can’t operate Overstat on their iPhones or iPads

Alternatives:

• Optimizely – http://www.optimizely.com
• Visual Website Optimizer – http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com
• YouEye – http://youeye.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Leah Edwards, Matthew Cordasco, and Trevor Hughes
• Web site: http://www.overstat.com

Costs:

• Tester plan is $49/month
• Optimizer plan is $199/month
• Converter plan with custom pricing

Business owners know that a professional website is necessary if they want to promote their companies and attract an online audience. The problem, for many, is the cost and time associated with building a robust business website. Onepager is a solution that professionals can use to create one-page business websites in very little time.

If you’re looking for a simple business website that your customers can use to find your store hours, location, and other basic information, then Onepager is a great solution. To create a custom website from scratch, enter your company name and upload a logo. Choose from one of Onepager’s professionally designed themes or create your own theme using the tools provided by the web-app. Next, you can decide which types of content to post on your new page. Check the box next to each section you want added to your site. Onepager lets you add a tagline, contact information, store hours, location maps, a list of services, and an ‘about us’ section on you site. The sections you select will show up on your edit-able page, where you can type directly into each section box and add the content you want to see. When the page looks and reads like you want it to, just click “Save” and you’re almost done.

When you use Onepager, you can register a custom domain, use a domain you already own, or use a special Onepager web address. Onepager makes it easy for people to update their pages at a later date by logging back into the site at any time and making however many changes they want—all without having to contact any admins or pay an IT staffer for help. The web-app’s analytics tools can also be used to tell where new online visitors are coming from and how they’re finding a particular business’ website.

Practical Uses:

• Create a professional website for your business
• Help people find where your retail store is located
• Give your business an online presence
• Purchase a custom domain where customers can find your website

Insider Tips:

• Onepager websites are built with search engine optimization in mind
• Website updates can be made through Onepager
• People can user pre-made themes or create their own designs
• Users can purchase their domains through the Onepager site

What we liked:

• Businesses that didn’t have a website this morning can have a fully functional site by lunchtime
• Onepager sites contain all the information that’s relevant to a business and nothing more
• Websites can be built in very little time
• Landing pages can be customized in any number of ways

What we didn’t like:

• Onepager’s one-page websites may not be robust enough for every business

Alternatives:

• Homestead – http://www.homestead.com
• Preation – http://www.preation.com
• Spitfire – http://www.getspitfire.com

Company Info:

• Launched: August 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: New York, New York
• Founded by: Eric Tarn, Matthew Shampine, Matthew Moore, and Yin Yin Chan
• Web site: http://onepagerapp.com

Costs:

• Monthly plan is $10/month
• Yearly plan is $96/year

MyNextCustomer is a tool that small to medium sized businesses can use to keep track of how well they’re luring in and catching potential customers. The web-app uses various analytics tools and metrics to measure the number of calls and sales leads that come from social media accounts, SEO, paid search engine ads, and offline marketing campaigns.

If you’re the person who’s frequently responsible for putting together marketing reports for your company, then you will definitely want to check out MyNextCustomer. Once you’ve linked MyNextCustomer up with your social networking accounts and dropped a line of code into your company site, you can sit back and let the web-app keep track of how incoming visitors are finding your business. Not only does MyNextCustomer keep track of how people are finding you online, but it also tallies up information about offline contact and incoming phone calls. In minutes, you can create impressive reports that your bosses can review to find out which sales tactics are working and which are not. You can also build charts and graphs comparing the success of various marketing initiatives. You can even determine which keywords are bringing the most people to your company site thanks to MyNextCustomer’s useful analytics tools.

For businesses that conduct a fair number of transactions by telephone, MyNextCustomer has additional call tracking and recording features that make it possible for staffers to follow up on missed opportunities. Not only does MyNextCustomer make it easy for companies to track the success of their online and offline marketing campaigns, but it offers innovative tools that companies can use to determine which tactics are stimulating sales and which underperforming campaigns are worth dropping completely.

Practical Uses:

• Compare various advertising campaigns to determine exactly what works
• Find out which keywords are bringing customers to your site
• Follow up with potential clients who called and hung up without leaving a message
• Create stimulating marketing reports to present to executives at your company

Insider Tips:

• Google AdWords and Yahoo/Bing campaigns can all be tracked in a single spot
• Create unique phone numbers and URLs to track the effectiveness of offline ads
• Users can check the top performing keywords that bring people to their sites
• Find out the average length of time a customer is left on hold before reaching an associate at your company

What we liked:

• Companies can make better use of their ad dollars by investing in the marketing plans that actually work
• Users can track their website analytics by adding a simple line of code to their site
• MyNextCustomer will track social networking sites that are linked to a user’s account
• Managers can listen to their employees’ sales calls to find room for improvement

What we didn’t like:

• Immediate phone support is only available to users with Pro accounts

Alternatives:

• Chartbeat – http://chartbeat.com
• ClickTale – http://www.clicktale.com
• Rapleaf – https://www.rapleaf.com

Company Info:

• Launched: December 2009 (Private Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: George Revutsky and Dustin Kittelson
• Web site: http://www.mynextcustomer.com

Costs:

• Basic plan is $99/month
• Plus plan is $199/month
• Pro plan is $399/month

LearnVest is a website that offers information and support for women looking to take control of their finances. In addition to an array of money-related articles and advice columns, the site offers specialty bootcamp programs and budgeting tools that have been designed with women in mind.

You could spend days perusing all the informative articles and Q&As on LearnVest, but you’ll need to sign up for an actual account to really get use out of the site’s latest classes and tools. Tell LearnVest a bit about yourself and link up your bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and loan information just like you would with Mint or any of the other money-tracking websites. Once you’ve chosen a pricing plan that makes sense to you, you can get started taking advantage of the site’s many female-friendly tools. Get your bearings by taking a brief tour around the site, or head directly to your dashboard page to get going. Click on the Financial Inbox to see all your latest transactions automatically parsed out by category, and create a series of budgets based on how much money you have coming in and going out each month. LearnVest will take the data you’ve put in and create visually pleasing graphs that show just how much you’ve spent in various categories so far this week or month.

Upgrade accounts to get access to a number of premium features, like specialized financial courses and personal sessions with a certified financial planner. If you’ve got a burning question that only a financial expert can answer, then you can sign up for a one-time day-pass to get access to LearnVest’s specialized team of money managers for just 36 hours at a time.

Practical Uses:

• Find out where your money is going every month
• Learn the necessary steps it takes to improve your credit score
• Keep track of how much money you’re spending on food and entertainment
• Talk to a certified financial planner about any money questions that are on your mind

Insider Tips:

• For security reasons, LearnVest doesn’t store bank passwords or data on its site
• Budgets can be automatically curated or customized to reflect future goals
• Most questions sent to LearnVest’s CFPs are responded to within one day
• Day-passes last for 36 hours

What we liked:

• LearnVest is designed in a female-friendly way that’s fun and inviting without being condescending
• Bootcamp classes are a cheap way for anyone to learn about finances
• Budgeting tools will automatically track how much money a user spends without any data input necessary
• Users can take advantage of free checklists to learn about all sorts of financial topics

What we didn’t like:

• Although LearnVest offers a number of budgeting tools, it does not have any goal-setting features for future planning

Alternatives:

• Bundle – http://www.bundle.com
• Mint – http://www.mint.com
• MySpendingPlan – http://www.myspendingplan.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: New York, New York
• Founded by: Alexa von Tobel
• Web site: http://www.learnvest.com

Costs:

• Free accounts
• One-Day Pass is $4.99
• Three-Month Access is $39.99
• One-Year Access is $129.99

Credit card fraud is rampant, and even minor billing errors can end up costing families thousands of dollars in fees over time. BillGuard is a tool that helps protect against these costly mistakes by scanning its users’ credit cards and debit cards daily and sending alerts when secret fees, billing errors, and intentional scams or fraud seem to have occurred.

Unlike many of the other tools that claim to monitor consumers’ credit for instances of atypical behavior, BillGuard does not charge people a dime for its services. The protection it offers credit card and debit card holders is completely free. Enter your email address, create a password, and give BillGuard your zip code to begin. Select which cards to protect by typing in the name of your bank and entering the username and password you use to access those accounts. Once BillGuard establishes a secure connection with your bank, your work as a consumer is basically done. Going forward, BillGuard will scan your cards daily and monitor your transactions for instances of fraud, scams, or erroneous subscription fees. An alert will be sent out immediately if strange behavior is discovered, giving you ample time to notify your credit card company and stop any related charges from going through.

To determine which purchases could be fraud, BillGuard uses more than 100 automated tests. The service also tracks consumer complaints across the web and flags purchases or fees that seem similar to those that have been flagged in the past. By verifying any transactions that seem sketchy, users can help BillGuard refine its algorithms and hone in on fraudsters that are targeting users in a specific area or those with a specific type of card. BillGuard users receive automated reports each month letting them know what the service has found, even when major problems have not been discovered.

Practical Uses:

• Protect yourself from identity theft and credit card fraud
• Put a hold on any credit card charges that seem suspicious
• Find out if an online service is billing you for a subscription that should have been stopped
• Receive email alerts when an unknown company starts charging your debit card

Insider Tips:

• Verify questionable transactions to help BillGuard’s algorithms get more refined
• BillGuard scours the web for information on fraudulent companies
• Monthly reports show how many charges were flagged on your cards
• User can find out how much they spend in credit card fees each month

What we liked:

• BillGuard notifies people immediately via email when fraud is detected
• People who don’t check their statements each month can make sure they aren’t getting ripped off
• Monthly scan reports serve as a reminder that BillGuard is always working in the background
• BillGuard tracks debit card transactions, in addition to credit cards

What we didn’t like:

• Some users may be hesitant to hand over their bank login information to BillGuard

Alternatives:

• BillShrink – http://www.billmonitor.com
• Mint – https://www.mint.com
• MyJibe – https://myjibe.com

Company Info:

• Launched: November 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: New York, New York, and Tel Aviv, Israel
• Founded by: Yaron Samid and Raphael Ouzan
• Web site: http://www.billguard.com

Costs:

• Free

What’s the secret to growing a garden that’s full of healthy fruits and vegetables? For many, it’s an app called Smart Gardener. At-home gardeners who use Smart Gardener can get access to special tools, garden plans, and advice that’s customized based on a number of unique factors. By taking into account a garden’s geo-location and the gardener’s family size, and by utilizing a complex weather mapping algorithm and a database of more than 500 plants, Smart Gardener can help anyone get a green thumb.

The first step when looking to get advice from Smart Gardener is to set up a virtual garden. Create a garden layout that reflects the size and shape of your beds by dragging and dropping various shapes into place. Next, choose the plants you’re planning to grow. Not only does Smart Gardener keep track of what you’re growing, but it also offers recommendations on what you may want to start planting next. Based on the information you put in, Smart Gardener will come up with a customized plan. Included in this plan are weekly to-do items, which are sent directly to your email inbox. Smart Gardener will guide you through the steps of preparing the ground, planting your crops, caring for your seedlings, and harvesting your fruits and vegetables at the end of the season.

Smart Gardener offers a number of community-building tools that help gardeners connect and learn from each other, too. Users can share their gardens with others, and even keep journals full of notes about how their crops are coming along. Smart Gardener is a fun resource for avid gardeners and novices who are just beginning to learn the ropes.

Practical Uses:

• Find out what types of crops will grow best in your climate
• Get advice on how to set up a backyard garden
• Keep track of when you planted various seedlings and when the first sprouts started to appear
• Talk to people from around the country who share your passion for gardening

Insider Tips:

• Smart Gardener has a database of more than 500 plants
• Users can find out where to purchase the seeds that are being recommended for their gardens
• Smart Gardener’s advice is based on a user’s geo-location and household size
• Tracking journals display entries from other users who are growing the same plants

What we liked:

• Smart Gardener’s garden plans takes the mystery out of growing a successful crop
• Garden bed layouts can be adjusted very easily with drag and drop technology
• Users can get shopping lists with everything they need they need to pick up at the nursery
• A gallery of garden templates is available for people who aren’t sure where to start

What we didn’t like:

• Since Smart Gardener is relatively new, the community aspect of the site isn’t as robust as it could be

Alternatives:

• folia – http://myfolia.com
• Grow the planet – http://www.growtheplanet.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Healdsburg, California
• Founded by: Kristee Rosendahl
• Web site: http://www.smartgardener.com

Costs:

• Free

Here’s a little secret: Not all small business owners are whizzes when it comes to accounting and financial matters. To help these struggling entrepreneurs, Yendo was developed. The financial accounting web-app can be used to manage a business’ invoices, purchases, expenses, and payments to vendors.

Yendo is a full-figured app that has more features and functionalities than the average business owner might need. Check it out for yourself by signing up for a free trial. One of the first features you’ll want to check out is Yendo’s invoice management system. With Yendo, you can create and send invoices via email and then record payments or track overdue bills online. Click over to the “Sales” or “Purchases” tabs to create business reports, balance sheets, and profit/loss statements. These reports can then be exported to XLS and PDF for easy sharing with investors and colleagues. Yendo also offers a number of tools to aid in expense tracking. Rather than waiting until tax season to frantically gather business receipts for write offs and deductions, you can use Yendo to record expenses and save receipts all year long. Expenses can be separated out by employee, making it easy to see who is spending what at your office.

For business owners who want the tools to manage their finances online without the burden of being 100 percent in charge in case something goes wrong, Yendo offers a special feature that gives accountants and CPAs direct access to their clients’ accounts. Although Yendo faces stiff competition from competing web-apps, the system’s bevy of top-notch features and comparatively low pricing options make it a winner.

Practical Uses:

• Send invoices to clients for completed work
• Create profit/loss statements to share with investors
• View your bank balance and see how much money is available at any given time
• Make a monthly budget forecast that managers can use when planning events

Insider Tips:

• Users can set up recurring invoices to be sent out to certain clients periodically
• Yendo offers advice to businesses on how much sales tax to collect
• Reports can be exported as XLS or PDF files
• Yendo works on smartphones and tablet computers

What we liked:

• Users can give their accountants special access to their accounts
• The receipts that staff members submit can be recorded in Yendo as expenses
• Yendo keeps track of which invoices have been paid and which are overdue
• By tracking invoices and on-time payments, Yendo can help identify a business’ best and worst customers

What we didn’t like:

• A number of similar accounting applications already exist, and people who are happy with their current systems are unlikely to switch over

Alternatives:

• FreshBooks – http://www.freshbooks.com
• QuickBooks – http://quickbooks.intuit.com
• Xero – http://www.xero.com

Company Info:

• Launched: January 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland
• Web site: http://www.yendo.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Solo plan is $9/month
• Standard plan is $26/month
• Premium plan is $52/month

Room 77 is a hotel review website that isn’t trying to compete with TripAdvisor or the hoards of other similar services online. Instead, Room 77 is going deeper. Long after a family has decided how much to spend on accommodations and chosen where to stay on their next vacation, they can visit Room 77 to determine which room to ask for once they’ve arrived. Room 77 is a service that helps people pinpoint the best rooms at resorts and hotels around the world.

Start your investigation by entering the name of a hotel into the search bar on Room 77’s main page, then select a category based on the room type you reserved. Set your room preferences based on how important the floor, view, and elevator proximity are to your stay. In the blink of an eye, Room 77 will determine which rooms match your preferences most closely and present you with a list of options. Color-coded room listings give you an idea of how closely a specific room matches your criteria, with green listings matching the closest and red listings having the weakest match. Click on any room number to see a virtual representation of the view from that room and see additional information such as the room size, smoking status, and bed type. While some room view images are real – generally submitted by users – most are simulated images taken from Google Earth.

When a user finds a room with an agreeable location and view, he or she can click to make a reservation, visit the hotel website, or get information on how to request that particular room. By following Room 77’s step-by-step directions, users should be able to secure the rooms they want and hopefully have a better experience during their upcoming hotel stays.

Practical Uses:

• Find the best room for your upcoming vacation
• Reserve a room that has the best view of the pool
• Make sure your mother in law gets a room that’s far away from the elevator
• Get information on which rooms to avoid at certain hotels

Insider Tips:

• Find the best room overall by not selecting a category or changing the default preferences
• Room 77 provides directions on how to request specific rooms at different hotels
• Users can submit their own photos of the interiors of hotel rooms
• Use Room 77 on an iPhone by downloading the app from the iTunes store

What we liked:

• Room 77 can help people get access to information that was previously unavailable
• People who have rooms with better views usually have a better experience overall
• Instructions on how to reserve specific rooms are very detailed
• People who haven’t booked their hotels yet can do so by clicking on a link on the Room 77 site

What we didn’t like:

• The virtual room views generated by Google Earth may not always be 100% accurate

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: February 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
• Founded by: Brad Gerstner
• Web site: http://www.room77.com

Costs:

• Free

Health insurance is confusing, there’s no way around it. As if managing multiple deductibles, premiums, and co-pays wasn’t complicated enough, families today are also struggling to keep track of their ongoing claims and payments for services already rendered. Simplee is an innovative expense management system that helps individuals and families keep track of how much they’re spending on medical expenses and hopefully saves them some dough in the process.

Before you can start saving money, of course, you’ll need to sign up for a Simplee account. Take a few minutes to link up all of your various healthcare accounts and add any insurance plan information to Simplee, and then head to your customized dashboard. Here, you’ll find the total dollar amount for all the healthcare services you’ve utilized in the current year, along with your total spending, insurance deductibles, doctors’ visits, and pharmacy transactions. If you have an HSA or an FSA account, this is also where you’ll see your current balance. Click on any medical bill to see a detailed list of charges and a breakdown of the services rendered. Simplee will post any important messages for you – such as updated bills or hospital notices – in a special section. Even better, the site will send you an alert when it finds calculation errors in the bills you’re being sent.

To view how this year’s medical expenses stack up to previous years, click to the Simplee pie chart. Here, you can visually see how the needs of everyone in your family have changed over time. Not only do these charts show you how many appointments each person has had, but they also point out how many appointments were “in network” and “out of network,” which is key when looking at the overall cost. Seeking out information and insight about medical bills has traditionally been difficult at best, however Simplee is an app that aims to take the shroud off of the complicated process of medical billing and prevent families from overpaying on erroneous hospital bills.

Practical Uses:

• Keep track of how much money you’ve spend on medical co-pays this year
• Find ways to trim costs on family healthcare expenses
• Quickly see what the deductibles and limits are for your various insurance plans
• Receive notices when medical billing errors occur

Insider Tips:

• Link up your FSA and HSA accounts with Simplee to fully utilize the site
• Check the message center to find out about updates to your accounts
• Simplee automatically checks bills against its users’ healthcare plans when looking for billing mistakes
• Users can check Simplee to find easy-to-understand information about what procedures their insurance plans do and don’t cover

What we liked:

• Users can import all of their healthcare accounts and plans into one system
• Simplee helps people understand what they’re being charged for with detailing billing explanations
• Simplee can actually save people money by automatically checking all bills against insurance plans and existing accounts
• Family medical histories can be reviewed by logging into a Simplee account

What we didn’t like:

• Individuals who value privacy may not feel comfortable importing their medical bills and healthcare information into Simplee

Alternatives:

• Cake Health – https://cakehealth.com
• Qliance – http://www.qliance.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2011 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
• Founded by: Tomer Shoval, Roberto Rabinovich, and Tom Tsarfati
• Web site: http://simplee.com

Costs:

• Free