Business is not just about partnerships anymore, it is about friendship and building personal relationships. Not only is Payoneer a fantastic partner and payment method, they have become personal friends of those at 2Checkout.com.

This year I was given the opportunity to attend TechCrunch 50 with our friends at Payoneer. I had not heard of this conference before and was intrigued when I found out that 50 companies would be launched over a three-day period. In addition to 50 great new products, they had assembled an amazing line up of speakers and a panel of expert advisers that sparked lively discussion and debate during the conference.

I would like to introduce you to a few of the businesses that I felt showed great promise.

• hangout.net - This is a place where MySpace becomes your space. It is a virtual world that you can customize to your liking. You are able to play video games in real time, you can play music, or you can join friends rooms and jump into them to experience their area. If that person is online, you can converse with them through your PC. What I found to be the best feature is that others are able to buy real products from your virtual space
• Blahgirls - This product, shown by Ashton Kutcher, is described as school activities for kids. It is an interactive celebrity blog for teens. Ashton is looking to partner with YouTube in this endeavor because it is based on a lot of video content. Product placement promotions would work well here.
• Adgregate Markets - Now this is nice: a widget that keeps the user at the publisher’s site and allows them to purchase the product from that site. If the widget is placed on an unsecured site, no worries, anything contained in the widget is completely secure. Great for affiliate programs, it turns banner ads into transactional ads.
• OtherInbox - Tired of receiving spam? This product allows you to create multiple e-mails with your own domain name. No matter what subscription you sign up for, it will be delivered to a folder for that signup. Example: your Facebook notices will go to facebook@yournameplace.com, your Time Life notices will go to TimeLife@yournameplace.com. It truly is the cure for e-mail overload.

Again, I thank Payoneer for turning me on to TechCrunch 50 and I look forward to attending or possibly showing at TechCrunch next year.