Announcing The TechCrunch50 Finalists

We’ve gone through more than 1,000 companies to get down to the final 50 (okay, 52) that will present on stage at TechCrunch50 starting later this morning. We will be covering all of the companies as they present onstage or shortly after. But for now, here’s a list of all the companies that made it (except the last one, which will be picked from the DemoPit by the audience at the event).

Learn more about these companies on CrunchBase by clicking “CB”. You can also visit the official TechCrunch50 website to watch their presentations live, or stay tuned right here for coverage throughout the week.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Session 1: Youth and Culture. 9:00-10:15am

• Blah Girls (CB)- Backed by Ashton Kutcher, Blah Girls is a gossip site that features a group of animated teenage girls who provide opinions on what’s going on in the world of entertainment
• Tweegee (CB) — A hub for tweens, Tweegee offers the youth market a suite of online tools for social interaction and organization
• Shryk (CB) — Web-based financial software for children aimed at promoting financial literacy and good saving habits
• Hangout Industries (CB) — Blends social networking with virtual worlds by creating a 3D, online environment where 16-24 year olds can chat and share media

Session 2: Memes & News. 10:30 – 11:45am

• DotSpots (CB) — Tracks the memes spreading across the web, aggregates the content associated with them, and gives everyone Wikipedia-like control over that content
• Angstro (CB) — Lets you set up a feed of news about your friends, instead of news by your friends
• LiveHit (CB) — Tracks the music, videos, and entertainment sites people are clicking on right now
• Quant the News (CB) — Creator of StockMood.com, a service that tracks the sentiments of online news stories about stocks and then measures their potential impact on the direction of those stocks’ prices

Session 3: Enterprise. 2:30 – 3:45pm

• FairSoftware (CB) — Creates virtual shares around software projects that gives each contributor a portion of any resulting revenues
• Yammer (CB) — A web application designed for businesses and organizations that asks its users to answer the question, “What are you working on?”
• Connective Logic (CB) — Along with the company’s real-time middleware, Blueprint will make it easier for developers to design, generate code, and deploy complex multi-core software applications without requiring expertise in multi-threaded software development
• Devunity (CB) — A platform for writing code in a browser-based editor that doesn’t force developers to use a proprietary layer
• OpenTrace (CB)- Traces items through the supply chain and adds them together to show the impact of products on the environment

Session 4: Advertising & Commerce Monetization. 3:45 – 5:00pm

• Burt (CB) — Collects user data to tailor individual advertising campaigns and target users more effectively
• Adgregate Markets (CB) — Brings online stores to consumers through a display ad that is a fully transactional widget
• Adrocket (CB) — Contextual text-based advertising for email; assigns keywords to each address depending on known demographic and contextual data
• OtherInBox (CB) — Provides an easy way to quarantine the spam and the messages you receive from online services

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Session 5: Collaboration. 9:00 – 10:15am

• Tingz (CB) — Offers a unified platform for delivering internet content across multiple devices including mobile phones and PCs
• MIXTT (CB) — A group based social network/dating site that encourages real world interaction that’s more comfortable than the 1-on-1 format of most similar sites
• Imindi (CB) — Based on neuroscientific principles, Imindi’s Thought Engine tries to exceed human thought and help its users find new ideas, concepts, and questions on the Web
• Popego (CB) — Surfaces the most meaningful information from within your social graph based on your interests and other factors

Session 6: Finance & Statistics. 10:30 -11:45am

• PersonalRIA (CB) — Allows users to shadow a professional investment advisor’s portfolio, automatically executing trades (which most brokerage sites cannot do)
• Emerginvest (CB) — A global finance portal that helps you invest in international stock markets.
• ExchangeP (CB) — Dubbed a “fantasy stock market,” ExhangeP’s service allows users to sign up for free and start investing in private companies
• Me-trics (CB) — Lets you see how mood, weight, and goals correlate with other metrics, including web services like Facebook or RescueTime
• iCharts (CB) — YouTube for embeddable, interactive charts

Session 7: Mobile. 2:15 – 3:30pm

• Mytopia (CB) — A gaming platform that lets players compete across mobile devices and social networks
• Tonchidot (CB) — Makes the Sekai Camera, a camera system that aims to merge the virtual and real worlds by using a digital device as a viewfinder
• Mobclix (CB) — An analytics and monetization platform for iPhone developers
• FitBit (CB) — Developing a small wireless sensor called the Fitbit Tracker, which automatically records data about a person’s activities, calories burned, sleep quality, steps, and distance throughout the day

Session 8: Language & Communication Tools. 3:45 – 5:00pm

• Alfabetic (CB) — Translates any blog or Website into another language and places ads alongside it in the new tongue
• Postbox (CB) — Based on Mozilla technology, Postbox saves users time when looking for particular information within their email
• Swype (CB) — A new method of text input on touch screens; does away with traditional “hunt and peck” in favor of a more fluid motion
• DropBox (CB) — Provides an easy way to backup your files, share them with coworkers and friends, and synchronize them between computers

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Session 9: Rich Media. 9:00 – 10:15am

• VideoSurf (CB) — A visual video search engine that allow users to search across millions of videos for a given actor and to view summaries of videos through a series of detected keyframes
• GazoPa (CB) — An image search engine developed by Hitachi that uses visual similarities between photos to suggest matches (rather than simply relying on keywords).
• Fotonauts (CB) — A photo sharing application that turns every album instantly into a Web page.
• Bojam (CB) — Although there are a slew of online music services already on the Web, Bojam is trying to do something a bit different: it wants to connect musicians and allow them to collaborate over the Web.

Session 10: Games. 10:30 – 11:45am

• Grockit (CB) – A “Massively Multi-Player Online Learning Game”
• Akoha (CB) — A web-based social game played with trading cards aimed at spreading good deeds around the world
• Atmosphir (CB) — A platform for creating 3D interactive games by selecting blocks (such as a sand castle tower, fireball-breathing bird, or trap door) and snapping them onto a grid.
• PlaYce (CB) — Provides a 3D virtual world inside the browser for games and social interaction that is based on the real world

Session 11: Vertical Social Networking. 2:15 – 3:30pm

• Birdpost (CB) — A social network for birdwatchers
• Closet Couture (CB) — Fashionistas need a social network too and Closet Couture is looking to give them one by connecting them to other fashion lovers, stylists, and retailers
• Footnote (CB) — For those looking to create historical records of loved ones or themselves, Footnote offers a timeline-based archive where you can upload photos and documents linked to historical databases
• Causecast (CB) — Causecast leverages social networking to connect nonprofits, leaders, celebrities and brands with those who want to make a difference through good causes
• Shattered Reality Interactive (CB) — A new massively multiplayer online game (think World of Warcraft) that lets the crowd guide the direction of future expansions

Session 12: Research & Recommendations. 3:45 – 5:00pm

• GoodGuide (CB) – Provides information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of products and companies
• GoPlanit (CB) — A one-click travel planner that assembles a customized trip itinerary with the click of a button; also supports mobile microblogging
• TrueCar (CB) – A site that allows users to assess the current market value of their automobiles in a given geographic area
• Goodrec (CB) – A mobile and online recommendation service that provides brief, to-the-point recommendations from friends and trusted sources