Seven Innovative Sites You Need to Check Out Right Now

With all the chit chat about the “best next thing” in the digital realm, it’s easy to forget exactly what sites were mentioned. Fortunately, we compiled a list of some of the most innovative companies on the web and where to enjoy their greatness.

This is in no way a complete list but a decent primer to get you signed up to a bunch of fantastic new services that will have you spending many, many more hours staring at your screen (all the more reason to buy one of those “walking desk” treadmill workstations).

Many of these were mentioned by Tommy Giovagnoli of Anthem Worldwide in the “Next-Gen Creative Review: Augmented Reality, HTML5 and What’s Coming Soon” session; others were tossed out in some of the keynotes. One exciting aspect of most of these websites is their social aspect - many have mobile capabilities as well. If there are other places to dabble on the web mentioned at ad:tech, feel free to drop some names in the comment section.

Pinterest: Alright, maybe everyone knew about this already. But the social network where you get to “pin” to your heart’s content and share your favorite things with friends got lots of love at ad:tech. The site is brilliant because the founding idea is so simple—basically a massive online bulletin board. Guy Kawasaki and Rob Scoble couldn’t say enough nice things about Pinterest’s freshness. You have to request an invite, so better get started soon.

The Art of Flight: The Art of Flight is a snowboarding documentary sponsored by Red Bull. Even if snowboarding isn’t your thing, the HTML5 navigation on the film’s site is thrilling—moving from page to page feels like shredding a mountain. That is, if your office was a mountain.

The Johnny Cash Project: Google decided to make Johnny Cash’s last music video for his song “Ain’t No Grave.” They did this by enlisting over 250,000 artists to create stills and ended up with a gorgeous, poignant flipbook. Each still can be pulled up and admired or watch the video for their compounded effect.

The Wilderness Downtown: Google also commissioned this project, a personalized music video for Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown.” Enter the address of your childhood home and watch as a runner dashes to your doorstep. Later, try not to cry as you write a note to your former self.

Showyou: Showyou is a simple, yet elegant, app for the iPhone, iPad and Kindle Fire. Basically, it collects all the videos your friends share on Facebook and Twitter and compiles them into a graceful grid.

Cowbird: Like Pinterest, you must request an invite to Cowbird’s small storytelling community. The evocative, media-rich short stories make the waiting period well worth it. The in-depth coverage of the Occupy movement, filled with images, audio and video, is worth checking out no matter whether you’re part of the 99 percent or 1 percent.

Turntable.fm: Sitting on the “Digital Killed the Radio Star” panel, Turntable.fm was definitely a youngster compared to Pandora and even Spotify. The founding idea—an online club with multiple “rooms” where you can DJ (or just listen) and share your musical tastes with friends and strangers—is unique, awesome and an interesting way to meet fellow music lovers.

This article is part of Allvoices’ series on ad:tech, the largest digital marketing and technology conferences and expositions. Check out allvoices.com/adtech for more of Allvoices’ ad:tech San Francisco event coverage. This series is supported by ad:tech.