Intel looks for “the next Google” with Web 2.0

Today Intel publicly unveiled its first foray into the world of Web 2.0—a bookmarking site where users can submit and vote on all kinds of software, from desktop applications to Web-based services. The idea behind the new Cool Software site, which Intel operated internally before opening it to the public today, is that it will provide Intel—both its research arm and its investing arm, Intel Capital—with an early glimpse of The Next Big Thing.

In a briefing, Intel’s Innovation Acceleration manager, Dave McKinney, told me that “we want to find the next Google, before it becomes Google.” But the problem that the company has in guiding its research and investing efforts is that the pool of potential future Googles is just too big. So Intel decided to “crowd-source” the task of identifying hot new ideas and companies by building an internal bookmarking site where the Intel folks responsible for keeping their fingers on the pulse of the software industry could collectively work to spot future Google (or future VMware) contenders.

Full article: arstechnica.com