Fashion advice from the street

Have you ever passed a stranger on the street and wanted to ask them where they bought their fabulous shoes or coat from?

Well, for those living in the UK cities of London or Manchester, Stitsh has come to your city and solves the problem for you!

Stitsh is a fashion, come retail, come lifestyle website. The concept being to display outfits of genuine people on the street and link them with retailers, so you can buy the same or similar items.

Read more about Stitsh recently featured in the Guardian’s blog spot:
Elevator Pitch: Fashion site Stitsh combines retail with street cool.

Shopseen: A Lifestream for Shopaholics

Source: Mashable

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Shopseen

Quick Pitch: Social shopping for local shoppers. Post pics of interesting products, find out what’s available around you now and earn gift cards to the best local stores.

With Shopseen you can either sign in via Facebook Connect (sign in with Twitter is coming soon) or create a new account. Then you can use the site to share products and accompanying personal photos from your shopping outings. Other users can then like or comment on your seen product, or add photos of their own.

Read more…

Twittering and watching YouTube videos ‘makes workers more productive’

A report by the Daily Mail revealed an Australian study found surfing the internet for fun during office hours actually increased employees productivity by nine per cent.

Study author Mr Coker said surfing the net helps workers to rest their brains
Study author Brent Coker, from the University of Melbourne said ‘workplace internet leisure browsing,’ or WILB (Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing), helped to sharpen workers’ concentration.

‘People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,’ he said.
‘Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity.’

According to the study of 300 workers, 70 per cent of people who go online at work engage in WILB. Among the most popular activities are reading online news website, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

‘Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity,’ said Mr Coker.

‘That’s not always the case.’

However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were online for less than 20 per cent of their total time in the office.

‘Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without,’ he said.