In a recent discussion of potential “semantic” products, I was pointed to the Crunchbase.com URL you see above.
Exploring the related tags and their related tags will give you an idea of potential competitors in a particular area.
Even more interesting is to do domain specific searches with your favorite search engine to see how many potential competitors are mentioned in mainstream business publications.
Or whatever market segment you have as a target for your service and/or software.
As opposed to geek literature.
I say that because the geek market is small in comparison to other market segments.
You can also use Crunchbase to identify companies that are successful in areas of interest so you can study their advertising and marketing strategies.
Their strategies will have to be adapted to fit your service/product but you can get a sense for what is likely to work.
In what innovative ways would you use Crunchbase to evaluate a market and/or develop marketing strategies?