SandhillToad.com - There´s a Toad in Every Portfolio

Sandhill Road in Menlo Park, is notorious for its large concentration of venture capital companies; it"s the capital equity equivalent of Wall Street. The site Sandhill Toad takes it"s nom de guerre from that well-heeled road and takes up the opinions of the people, or Toads as the site has chosen to call its users, and places them on personal front pages; each Toad is given his/her own space to put down articles, news items, etc that are of interest to them. Fellow Toads vote on each submission, giving a thumbs up or down; if a story"s got enough votes, it gets a spot on the user"s front page. Unlike other networks in which you must be invited to become someone"s friend, anyone can choose their own Toads with or without consent and it"s not a mutual relationship-- hence the Toad apellation. In the world of opinion, you"re probably just another Toad to someone else who hasn"t the faintest idea who you are, even if you happen to agree with them. It"s all about ranking and choosing those whose opinions you trust. If you don"t want to become a Toad you"re perfectly free to browse stories, but to add Toads, submit stories, vote, and all of that goodness you"ll have to sign up.

"SandHill Toad is a site where you can share whatever you find interesting on the web with people who value your opinion (whether you know who they are or not), and where you can also find what"s interesting from people whose opinion are important to you - whether they know who you are or not.

The site has quite the catchy name, and apart from that the idea is sound. Having Toads as opposed to friends is also a nice touch as is the concept of a personal front page. Could be a fertile ground for business/investment info and tips.

The site depends completely on the number of users it garners; currently there aren"t so many. There are similarly themed sites and Sandhill doesn"t offer much in the way of innovation. The features are rather lacking as well.