With social networking dominated by colossal sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, it might seem that there's not much room left for smaller fish. But the web thrives on the long tail of consumer needs. Case in point: UnevenFeet. As the name suggests, this recently-launched Australian site is for anyone with two feet of different sizes. Until now, these people may have had to buy two pairs of shoes to get a perfect fit, but no longer. Uneven Feet records people's shoe sizes and finds their 'opposite matches', enabling them to arrange shoe swaps or joint purchases and continue life unimpeded by sloppy-fitting footwear.

The way for Uneven Feet has been paved by the growth in social shopping and swap marketplaces. Founder Jonathan Lee—whose own shoe shopping pains inspired the site's creation—sees revenue potential in affiliate sales once the community grows. On a global scale, if even a tiny percentage of people feels their 'uneven' feet are a big enough issue to act on through the website, that could become a sizable audience. Any more anthropometric niches out there to capitalize on?

Website: www.unevenfeet.com
Contact: www.unevenfeet.com/contact.php

Spotted by: Jonathan Lee

Real-time price search has arrived, and with it some unexpected bonus features for consumers. German site Apnoti claims to have the first search engine to index prices for the German, American and French markets in real time. Currently in beta launch, the engine crawls over 65 million items in more than 10,000 affiliated stores for each and every search request, presenting users with a comparison of products' price trends over the past four weeks and current prices, accurate (in theory) to the past few seconds. Apnoti differentiates itself from other price comparison services which usually rely on daily updates by their operators, claiming that these services cannot cope with the price fluctuations that often occur throughout the day.

According to Apnoti's creators, sudden price drops and fluctuations of up to 90%—usually due to retailer error—are a regular occurrence. To help their German users take advantage of these mistakes, Apnoti launched another purported web first: Preispanne.de ('price breakdown'), a free email alert service for huge price drops. Users enter their email address and select which product categories they'd like to monitor. When a price drop of over 50% occurs, they will be immediately alerted by email so they can pounce on the super-bargain before the retailer has a chance to correct it. Web store Otto.de recently learned this to its cost, when they received 6,534 orders for a EUR 2,000 MacBook mistakenly reduced to EUR 49.95.

Ethics aside, the services offered by Preispanne and Apnoti meet the demands of two powerful consumer trends: transparency and real-time everything. Online retailers will have to stay on their toes if they're to stay in the game! Meanwhile, opportunities abound for entrepreneurs who can make the most of real-time transparency. How about a cheeky webstore off the back of Preispanne's alerts?

Website: www.preispanne.de
Contact: www.apnoti.com/support

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

Prompted by a satisfied customer who claimed he'd be even happier if he didn't have to hold on to a piece of paper for five years to retain the warranty on his new espresso machine, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen saw a gap in the market: digital storage for all of the guarantees and warranties that consumers accumulate alongside their purchases.

Reisby Nielsen, a fourth-generation Danish retailer of cookware and home furnishings, launched the Garanti Hotel to help solve the common annoyance of product paperwork that piles up but can't be found when it's actually needed. Consumers who sign up with Garanti Hotel can upload their warranties and access them online whenever and wherever they're needed—at home or when bringing in a product for repair. While retailers don't have to participate in the scheme for consumers to save documents, Garanti Hotel is encouraging them to sign up in order to streamline the endeavour, ideally enabling stores to send documents straight to a consumer's Garanti Hotel account. The company doesn't sell warranties or get involved with the fine print; its sole purpose is to provide a consolidated storage space for buyer protection documents.

The firm's ultimate goal is to have a wide range of retailers offer Garanti Hotel as a valuable service to their customers, both in Denmark and internationally. Considering most stores have their own priorities when it comes to providing guarantees, it won't be easy to persuade them to add another step to their sales process. However, considering the potential gains for consumers, this notion is one to look into if you're in retail.

Website: www.garantihotel.com
Contact: info@garantihotel.com

Spotted by: Claus Schioldann von Eyben

According to the World Customs Organisation, counterfeit goods account for between five and seven percent of world trade. In an effort to counter the counterfeiters, Hong Kong's government is working to facilitate efficient product authentication. In June, the region's dominant duty-free retailer Nuance-Watson pilot-launched an authentication kiosk in its Hong Kong Airport Travelcare Express store. The kiosk allows customers to scan a product's label and follow its supply chain history to verify authenticity. Since fake medicines are of particularly acute concern to regulators, the pilot is focusing on pharmaceutical products.

The kiosk is part of a wider government initiative—BarcodePlus—which is supposed to become Hong Kong's portal for product quality and safety information. Due for official launch next month, BarcodePlus will enable users to not only verify the authenticity of a product, but also to find information about its shelf-life, origin, ingredients and packaging. Consumers will be able to access the service online or via SMS.

The 'product life story labels' we've covered in the past—from spinach to sheep—were mainly about sustainability and unearthing the softer sides of authenticity. With BarcodePlus, on the other hand, traceability is being put to work to protect consumers and profit margins. One to keep an eye on if you operate in markets flooded with knockoffs!

Website: www.barcodeplus.com.hk
Contact: info@barcodeplus.com.hk

Spotted by: Judy McRae

This Smarter Cities post is supported by IBM. Read more about building a smarter planet on IBM's A Smarter Planet blog.

The world of iPhone apps is increasingly crowded. And while there are several that help users to find convenient meeting points, MeetMe is the first one to integrate both Google Maps and Yelp reviews.

In order to find an appropriate meeting location, users input Point A and Point B, and the type of venue they'd like to meet at. For instance, users can pinpoint the best sushi restaurant halfway between Boston and Philadelphia, or a romantic hotel between York and Manchester. The USD 1.99 app then provides a list of suitable locations complete with Yelp recommendations. Once a location is selected, MeetMe emails both parties a map complete with driving directions. If users prefer to meet closer to one point or the other, the distances can be adjusted. MeetMe points out that the app can also help plan road trip stopping points. MeetMe works worldwide and, according to reviews, has fewer accuracy problems than most mapping apps. It's also ad-free, so users can be sure the recommendations they're receiving aren't promos in disguise.

In theory, the app could help cut down on miles traveled because both parties will be encouraged to drive the shortest possible distance, instead of relying on meeting points that are familiar to both, but might not be most efficient. Mobile applications like MeetMe aren't just convenient tools for consumers—if widely adopted, smart navigation can reduce miles travelled and hours spent on the road. It can also help prevent congestion by feeding commuters real-time and predictive road data about potential traffic jams. As our everyday tools become ever more sophisticated at navigating cities, opportunities abound for entrepreneurs than can help us unlock location-based data in useful and intuitive ways.

Website: www.aboutmeetme.com
Contact: ideas@aboutmeetme.com

Spotted by: Adam Finkle