If Facebook users can conjure up real-world flowers, candy and drinks from within the social network, then why not give them a way to capture their favourite Facebook images in a real-world photo album? Better yet, why not make it free with a little advertising support? That, indeed, is just what HotPrints does, thanks to a set of new apps for both Facebook and Bebo.

HotPrints' new HotBook app gives Facebook and Bebo users a way to bring their social network photos to life. Users simply indicate which images they'd like to include in their 16-page, soft-cover HotBook; there are currently nine themes to choose from in designing the compilation, which can be shipped anywhere in the world. Perhaps best of all, UK-based HotPrints has teamed up with select partners to sponsor one free book per month per customer, including even shipping and handling. Advertisements are included, but not on the same pages as the photos; rather, they're removable full-page inserts. In addition, for every 10 friends who install the HotPrints application, HotPrints credits the user for another free book. Those who would rather skip the ads, meanwhile, can pay USD 2.99—GBP 1.99—for an ad-free version.

With more than 300 million active users and 2 billion photos uploaded each month on Facebook alone, it would be difficult to find a better place to give out free photo love. Add to that the examples we've already seen of free photocopies, printing, notepaper, phone calls and notebooks, and the message is clear: there will never be too much free love!

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

On most levels, news and the internet are a match made in heaven. Instant publishing, access to a global audience, hyperlinks, multimedia, etc. Nonetheless, many publishers are struggling to create a profitable business based on advertising alone, and are considering moving at least part of their content from free to fee.

Aiming to make it simpler for publishers to charge for their content, newly-launched bitcents offers an easy to integrate micropayment system. Instead of each publisher having its own subscription and payment method, readers will be able pay once to access paid content—archived articles, in-depth stories and other types of (premium) material—from all publishers working with bitcents. The company adds an interesting twist: it's inviting developers to create subscriber networks. Each network will recruit its own readers, who will have access to content from all of bitcents' publishers. The idea is that subscriber networks will create their own tools and/or methods of content curation to differentiate themselves from other networks and to attract their own audiences. In return, they'll receive a cut of the revenues created by sending readers to publishers' paid content. (A sample subscriber network can be found here: tppnce.)

Of course, for bitcents to work, it will need to attract enough publishers who produce content that readers are willing to pay for. Meanwhile, other ventures—like the soon-to-be-launched Journalism Online—are also working to create a new economic model for the news industry. Keep a close eye on this space—change is in the air, and business opportunities won't be far behind.

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

Spotted by: Anne Hansen

From an online store that specialises in personalised gifts comes a literary appeal to anyone's vanity. GettingPersonal sells classic novels—mostly as gifts—that let recipients and their friends star as the main characters. Taking a concept we've already seen applied to travel guides and stories for younger children, the company has chosen a range of books with lasting appeal (and without pesky copyright issues). For the romantics there's Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet; adventure-seekers get Robin Hood and The Hound of the Baskervilles; those after something more sinister can take their pick from Frankenstein and Dracula, while Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz provide a healthy dose of fantasy.

Gift packs cost GBP 19.95 and include the chosen novel's cast list, which gives a brief rundown of each of the five main characters. Customers decide who they would like to put in each role and submit the information online or by post. Within 28 days, the personalised classic is delivered, featuring the name of the main character on the cover and the revised names of all the main characters throughout the book. Otherwise, the story remains the same. There's no doubt that consumers enjoy seeing their name in print—one to adapt for popular classics in other languages?

Website: www.gettingpersonal.co.uk/personalised-gifts/personalised-classic-books.htm
Contact: www.gettingpersonal.co.uk/contact_us.asp

Spotted by: John Smith

It should no longer come as any surprise to brands large or small that they are the subject of conversation online—whether they participate or not. Launched by Seth Godin, Brands in Public is a new site that aggregates all those diverse conversations and presents them through a unified public-facing dashboard that gives any brand the chance to lead the discussion.

A Google search on a brand name may retrieve many of the online conversations going on out there, but Squidoo-powered Brands in Public differs by virtue of the fact that the brand in question can curate the conversation. By sponsoring the page about its brand, a participating company can edit the introductory text, highlight the tweets and posts it likes, point to its blog, videos, Twitter feed and corporate website, and even—if it's truly bold—highlight ways to get in touch. No censorship is involved, since the automatic feed of conversations from across the web—via Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google Trends and more—is just that: automatic. Rather, it is through the left-hand side of any brand page that the company in question can answer its critics, highlight its fans, contribute questions or quizzes, or point to its official materials. So, rather than passively monitoring the public conversation, in other words, participating brands actually coordinate it and shape it as it happens. Brands in Public is supported by Boston-based BzzAgent. The cost of participation for a brand is USD 400 per month; no long-term commitment is required. For nonprofits, however, there's the chance to be selected for a free Brands in Public page, thanks to a special selection process at the beginning of every month.

There's no doubt consumers will talk about pretty much any and every brand under the sun—again and again, in forum after forum, and probably with widely varying results. It's by having a hand in those conversations, however, that brands can embrace what our sister site would call foreverism and turn transparency tyranny into transparency triumph. Bottom line, as Brands in Public puts it: "People are talking about you. Are you going to show up?"

Website: www.squidoo.com/brandsinpublic/hq
Contact: bzz@bzzagent.com

Last year we reported on Bin Ends, who gave the public the opportunity to take part in wine tastings via Twitter. Last month, a London restaurant got in on the social media act by crowdsourcing their wine list selection. L'Anima, Time Out's pick for Best New Italian Restaurant 2009, hosted a tasting for six wine experts, including wine writer Anthony Rose, wine vlogger Denise Medrano and resident sommelier Gal Zohar. The tasters formed three teams to sample Zohar's short list and settle on the final selection. "Unfortunately," said the sommelier on his blog, "these enthusiasts, rarely agree with each other." That's where the public came in.

For three wine categories where the experts couldn't reach a consensus, L'Anima uploaded videos of each team pleading their case. Members of the public, who had been given advance notice of the wines and were updated on the selection process, were then asked to vote for the wines that they'd like to have in the restaurant. The exercise proved a successful marketing tool for L'Anima, not least because a prize of free wine and a tour of the restaurant was up for grabs for a randomly chosen Twitterer who tweeted about the process. And L'Anima's audience benefited too, getting its nose into proceedings that were once the exclusive domain of experts.

Website: www.lanima.co.uk
Contact info@lanima.co.uk

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann