Beta Watch: Circos, Sosius, and Blist

Circos: Descriptive Searching

When you're looking for a hotel or restaurant, knowing only where it is or how much it costs may not be enough. Are your kids welcome? Is it relaxing or romantic? Circos is a search engine that captures criteria that most engines don't. You can choose from descriptions, such as "fun" or "spacious," as well as from concrete characteristics, such as "flat-screen TV" or "valet" for hotels. Circos searches user reviews from such sites as TripAdvisor to find spots that meet your criteria--but it can't always distinguish context. Results for one recommended vegetarian restaurant in New York included this review: "Vegetarians, beware!"

Sosius: Team Workspaces Without a Server

Have you ever used Microsoft's SharePoint, which lets you create shared workspaces for long-distance project collaboration? Neither have I. Among the top reasons most people don't: It's expensive and it requires a server. The free Sosius, which hosts your workspaces, addresses both objections. You can invite coworkers to join your team and share calendars, divvy up tasks, collaborate on documents, hold discussions, and more. I found some of Sosius's customization tools clunky, but the service could be a boon to smaller companies with remotely situated workers.

Blist: Databases With Pretty Faces

You can certainly find online database-creation services that are more powerful or more sophisticated than Blist (one is Zoho DB & Reports), but you'd be hard-pressed to find one that's more attractive to look at and work in. Unfortunately, though Blist's Flash interface is filled with attractive icons and glowing buttons, this free Web app feels particularly beta-ish. When I tried it, lots of the buttons were grayed out, apparently because the features weren't functional yet. Though setting up a simple, flat database was fairly easy, neither running filters nor creating charts was clear to me. And the help section is nearly nonexistent so far.