We've already covered numerous examples of women-only taxi services over the last year or so, and now the idea appears to be spreading to public transportation as well. In Mexico City, where millions of women bus riders have long endured groping and verbal abuse en route every day, a new, women-only bus service aims to create a safer and more comfortable ride.

Mexico City created women-only subway cars years ago, and police reportedly enforce the segregation at rush hour. Beginning earlier this month, however, the same concept has been brought to the city's crammed buses under what's known as the Athena Program. Equipped with pink signs on the front to distinguish them, Mexico City's 22 women-only buses currently serve three busy routes throughout the day, and plans are in the works to bring the total to 15 routes by April 2008. "Women were asking for this service because of the sexual harassment, especially groping and leering," Ariadna Montiel, CEO of the bus system, told the Associated Press.

Women-only buses and (subway) trains have also appeared in Egypt, India, Brazil, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan, along with taxis in the UK, Russia, India, Dubai and Iran. This trend shows no sign of waning; next, in more car-centric locales, how about women-only parking garages...? (For more examples of how companies are targeting women, check out our sister-site trendwatching.com's female fever briefing.)

Website: www.rtp.gob.mx
Contact: tgonzalez@rtp.gob.mx

Spotted by: RK

Customised content has long been held up as the Holy Grail of digital publishing, and idiomag is making that promise a reality with a personalised, daily digital magazine about music that is based entirely on members' individual interests.

Launched just over a year ago, UK-based idiomag uses a system of weighted tagging to customise both content and advertising to readers' personal musical tastes. Readers initially name their favourite music topics and weight the relative importance of each of them in the content they will view. idiomag then uses that information to serve articles, tracks, videos and other multimedia content in a high-quality, audio-visual virtual magazine format that readers can enjoy in page-by-page fashion. idiomag has content partnerships with publications including Billboard, 365mag and Hip Hop Nation as well as popular blogs such as Aurgasm and BlogCritics. It has also built up a large team of its own journalists across the UK. As readers rate the appeal of the content they view, idiomag intelligently adapts subsequent issues to reflect those changing preferences.

Not insignificantly, advertisers benefit from idiomag's personalisation system as well, with the ability to serve nonintrusive, full-screen and rich-media advertisements that closely match readers' interests. A newly incorporated social element, meanwhile, uses Facebook integration to let readers get their idiomag within the social networking site, view their friends’ magazines and capture articles they like, submit articles, and view trends and favourites among the other idiomag readers on the site. idiomag also offers widgets to incorporate the magazine on other social networks, blogs or home pages. Subscriptions to idiomag are free for readers; advertisers are charged on a CPM basis, and revenue is shared with content providers based on their content’s popularity.

When readers get the content they want and advertisers reach their target audiences in a targeted way, it really is hard to see a downside. One to bring to other niches, localities and topic areas!

Website: www.idiomag.com
Contact: andrew.davies@idiomag.com

Spotted by: Cagla Pakel

If the current sub-prime lending crisis in the US and the UK proves anything, it’s that even traditional lenders can act irresponsibly, despite the myriad government regulations designed to hold them in check. That sobering fact, together with the tightening liquidity and a possible upcoming recession, should give a boost to so-called peer-to-peer lending. For the uninitiated, P2P lending websites directly match borrowers seeking relatively small amounts of cash with private individuals willing to lend them the money. Borrowers post their needs, lenders make offers and everyone benefits from bypassing lending’s traditional middlemen who package loans for a fee.

We first looked at P2P lending nearly three years ago when we profiled Zopa, a UK start-up which we described as “like eBay for money”. Since then we’ve covered other fast-growing P2P start-ups in the US, the Netherlands, Germany and China. And last week, Fynanz, which focuses solely on loans to students.

The latest entrant on our radar screen is Fosik, which brings P2P lending to Australia. Like its counterparts elsewhere, Fosik touts the benefits of using the site’s tools as a way to formalize lending arrangements among family members and friends. Plus, the site notes that investors—whether they know the people they’re lending to or not—can benefit from returns that reach 10 percent or higher.

Meanwhile, signs abound that the P2P lending is rapidly maturing. Prosper is seeking to create a secondary market around its loan portfolios. This would allow lenders to get quick cash by selling their loan portfolios to other investors. Is it too late for entrepreneurs to get into the P2P lending space? Probably not. Whether launching in new markets, targeting specific audiences or offering different types of financial services, there’s still plenty of room for peer-to-peer banking to grow.

Website: www.fosik.com.au
Contact: www.fosik.com.au/About/Contact.aspx

Spotted by: Tom Flaherty

Ubiquitous computing is a trend that's oft discussed and less frequently seen, but a shining new example just opened in New York City's luxurious St. Regis Hotel. A restaurant called Adour now features a technology-driven, interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available.

While the decor of the 72-seat restaurant features hues reminiscent of burgundy and chardonnay, Adour's 4-seat wine bar is constructed from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin. Built-in interactive technology from Potion Design helps patrons choose a wine by allowing them to browse Adour's complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface.

The first menu, for example, prompts guests to choose from a list of selections including By the Glass, By the Decanter, Sparkling Wines, Red Wines, White Wines, etc. Additional choices follow from there, including lists of countries, regions and wines. When a guest selects a particular wine, a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes. Adour’s Wine Director manages the wine list using a custom-designed content management system and can update the interactive bar daily or for special occasions. Adding a personal touch to its high-end experience, Adour also offers temperature-controlled, private wine vaults in its 12-seat private dining room to give guests a way to store their very own wine collection.

Besides being an upscale novelty, Adour's interactive bar feeds modern consumers' apparently insatiable infolust with relevant information, and it incorporates that information into the real-world dining experience. It also educates consumers about wines, providing them with key status skills that (they hope) will elevate them above the rest of the crowd. All that and a highly engaging experience too! Mark our words: There's more of this to come...

Website: www.adour-stregis.com
Contact: alainducasse@adour-stregis.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

HOLZundEISEN—German for wood and iron—sells equipment for a new sport that's taking off in cities around the world: urban golf. Also known as cross golf or street golf, urban golf isn't limited to country clubs, and its players don't have to fork over exorbitant greens fees (although a good personal liability insurance is advisable). Instead, they play their rounds on building sites, campuses, rooftops and quiet streets.

Since urban golfers literally hit the pavement, HOLZundEISEN’s iron is extra durable. It's equally suited to long and short shots, a definite advantage for golfers trekking through the city without a caddy. As befits a democratic game, the club is priced at an affordable EUR 22.

The tongue-in-cheek brand, which describes the club's design as 'high-porno-anti-glamour style', was founded by two German students aiming to promote the burgeoning sport. Besides its urban iron, HOLZundEISEN also offers tips and a Google map marked with urban golf 'courses' across Germany.

One to distribute outside Europe? Or find your own up-and-coming sport and cater to its underserved players. Since manufacturers in China and other low(er) cost production countries are increasingly accessible, designing and manufacturing equipment for niche (sports) audiences is more feasible than ever.

Website: www.holzundeisen.de
Contact: info@holzundeisen.de

Spotted by: A.L.