Power to the people

Intel is channeling the power of crowds in an effort to "stay on top of the latest software trends and cool new startups," according to Wired.

This week the company publicly released Digg-like voting site CoolSW ("Cool Software") which, through a user ranking process, pushes the most popular software startups to the homepage.

Before becoming public, CoolSW was an internal site with the same purpose, but there were simply too many startups for Intel's 90,000 employees to track on their own.

Other companies unleashing the power of crowds include Simon & Schuster's MediaPredict, which has been called "the American Idol for books," Dell's lifesaver, IdeaStorm, and CrowdStorm, a social shopping site.

The search for a firm with Google's unique chemistry and growth potential is an obsession that's catching. Some enthusiasts have dubbed virtualization firm VMware "the new Google." Upon its IPO last summer, it was earmarked as a growing Microsoft competitor.