Mixergy – Created by the business master Andrew Warner, Mixergy is here to inspire ambitious entrepreneurs by providing a startup hub that is well-saturated with insightful and inspiring input of “experienced mentors.”  Andrew’s huge business success -during his 20s- and experience inspired him to establish an easily accessible place that introduces you “to doers and thinkers whose ideas and stories are so powerful that just hearing them will change you.”

By holding live speaker events and including online interviews with big entrepreneur names such as Timothy Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuck, Paul Graham and Jimmy Wales, the bubbly Mixergy is all about sharing ideas, success stories and entrepreneurial how-to’s.

For an example of the fascinating content you will find on Mixergy, see the inspiring conversation in the online interview of Intern Queen’s Lauren Berger, talking about how to reach 100+ press hits.

Gather – This site offers a totally different approach to staying up to date with what’s going on in the world and in our life. It is “the place where millions and millions of people come for fresh perspective on what’s happening now. Gather members can share their own views and join in conversation with others who share their interests.” Thanks to their broad network of talented freelance writers and dedicated members, Gather offers great content for over 15,000 (!) groups.

See this cool gardening group I found on Gather. I think I’ll join this group to get some much needed tips on how to keep my plants alive and well…

Motherboard.tv –  Keeping track of technological advances is rather easy; quick headline-skimming on TechCrunch, Wired or any major newspaper these days will do that. But one aspect of technology that is often difficult to track and explore is tech’s cultural dimension. Dell’s Motherboard offers just that, in the most professional, engaging and alluring way possible.

According to their About page, Motherboard is “an online video network and community focused on the exploration of the nature and culture of technology, as viewed through the lenses of curated editorial content, community, and dialogue.” Tap into original content videos covering a plethora of topics including film + video, music, art + design, gaming, environment + the body, and ‘wonderful.’

Among seemingly infinite informative delights, you will find all the hottest topics buzzing around the Web right now, such as the Gap logo conundrum, or check this video showing the solution to the mysterious bee shortage in the US. Each video is accompanied by superb textual content, which makes any session on Motherboard a most enjoyable didactic experience.

ooVoo – Video chat is all but new. Google does it, so does Skype; MSN offers it as part of their Messenger service, and online video conferencing is also provided by Rounds. And this is just a quick list. ooVoo tries to be different, and in fact, based on a recent study commissioned by ooVoo, 8 out of 10 Skype users apparently prefer ooVoo over the former.

Let’s see how it measures up to or, if it really exceeds Skype as ooVoo claims. In terms of features, ooVoo offers video chat, video conferencing, phone calls and desktop sharing (that’s right). Right off the bat, desktop sharing is a crucial business tool I can definitely see coming into high use. Secondly, the ooVoo video chat is possible with friends and colleagues who don’t have ooVoo installed. You simply provide them with a certain link you receive from ooVoo after you sign up, and your friends’ browser will use that link to get in visual touch.

So, final verdict? ooVoo is easy to use, the sound and visual quality is terrific (which reminds me of those countless times when Skype lacked sound and video quality), and the video chat feature is free. I’m going to switch from Skype and give ooVoo a real test drive. Seems worth it!

The complete list of all ooVoo’s features is right there on their homepage. You should also check out their business solutions overview. See the screen shot below of my ooVoo profile, offering the video chat link for friends ooVoo-less. That’s ingenious!

Twitcam – Experience a whole new kind of Twitter with Twitcam, the priest who has brought together under God tweets and video. How does it work? Set your webcam and turn it on; sign in with your Twitter account log in info; start Twitcamming.

The Twitcam interface looks great, it’s easy to work with and interaction with other twitter users is a lot of fun. Your Twitcam broadcast is automatically posted to Twitter (video description and link), and your following audience sees it all. Twitcam also makes it easy for you to stay connected with your Twitter friends without the need to switch back and forth between the two sites; it’s all accessible from your broadcast page on Twitcam!

When you’re finished with your video, don’t worry; Twitcam archives it so you’ll have it on your page next time you log in. I wonder when there will be an option to video chat on Twitter. I hope Twitcam will take on the challenge…

Ignite – This great concept reminded me of TED, only that Ignite is more bite-sized, offering five minute videos and talks of inspiring and insightful ideas and theories. Ignite is not so much a website as it is an event and phenomena; Ignite events have already taken place in over 100 cities worldwide, where presenters “share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.”

Ignite events are sponsored by Bing and Facebook, and I strongly encourage you to visit the site if only to explore their video section of past Ignite talks and events. The next couple Ignite events will take place in Portland, Phoenix and Denver (Sep-Oct 2010), so if you’ll be around these locations this and next month, I suggest you stop by. See the video below I enjoyed watching, by Julia Grace on Are You Really as Cool as You Seem on Facebook? Happy discoveries…

BlurryPeople – Online video chat can be quite controversial and, well, a bit too explicit as we have seen with Chat Roulette. As long as there is no censorship or filtering mechanism to these chat services, there is always the risk of meeting ‘unbalanced’ people, and in worse cases, sexually deranged users. BlurryPeople is a video/audio chat service that has decided to put its foot down and create a feedback-based system that takes out the impure and abusive aspect people are sick of in chats.

What BlurryPeople have done is simple, effective and it works like a charm; when you sign up and start video chatting, you can’t set in advance the desired profile of the people you want to meet online (age, gender, etc.). You meet total strangers, and for the first few minutes both users see each other blurred. As the conversation continues (meaning there is mutual interest), the fuzzyness starts to clear out. When you’re done talking, you are both asked to rate each other, and based on that rating you will or will not be able to filter out your next chat’s partner search.

Great idea, good execution and appropriate ethics implementation make BlurryPeople the sane choice for today’s video chat.