Web 2.0 Summit: And The Launch Pad Winners Are ...Web 2.0 Summit: And The Launch Pad Winners Are ...

Last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco I ran through the contestants in the startup beauty pageant known as Launch Pad, and asked for readers' votes on the one Most Likely to Succeed. The results are in -- plus I'll reveal the actual winners chosen at the summit.The readers's choice in a landslide was TripIt, which a surprising number of information.com readers already are using. Typical comment: "I forwarded my JetBlue purchase confirmation in and the magic happened. Unbelievable, how do they do it?!"

As someone who has experienced his share of travel-and-logistics screw-ups, I happen to agree. Alas, the Web 2.0 Summit audience did not. Summit co-chair John Battelle handed out four awards at Launch Pad, based unscientifically on audience applause: Best in Show, Best Presentation, Most Creative Idea, and Most Likely to Exit Soonest.

Best in Show was CleverSet, a "relevance engine" that uses Relational Bayesian Modeling to provide online shoppers and retail Web sites with "true personalization." Ghost, which stands for Global Hosted Operating System, took Best Presentation (the picture of the 20-foot wall separating Jerusalem, where one Ghost founder resides, and the West Bank, where the other lives, was a big hit). Most Creative Idea went to Spiceworks, an ad-supported, Web-based provider of IT management tools to small and medium-sized businesses. And Most Likely to Exit Soonest went to CleverSet again.

TripIt did get a lot of applause and some praise from the venture capitalists on the panel, although one asked "What happens when the airlines or the big travel providers decide to do this." I'll still be a user, though.