Yesterday atThe Next Web Conference Startup Rally, the Finnish based startupFlockler, a social curation platform for publishers launched. Flockler’s tools let audience members create topics, which members can then join. Members of a topic can post text, photos, videos and even include embedded code and tweets. Content can be posted with any device including iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Flockler’s user interface is built based on Less Framework and adapts to various screen sizes automatically....

At last week’sThe Next Web Conferencein Amsterdam,Foodzy, a locally based startup won for “Most Remarkable Pitch.Foodzyhelps keep track of what you eat during the day and rewards certain healthy or fun eating habits with badges. There’s also a socialelementto Foodzy, allowing users to discover new products that others you know like as well as which of them have eating habits that are similar. The startup works with local food databases in every country so that products available in a user’s country are suggested in the service when searching for them....

Recommendations are a big deal in the online economy. On YouTube, video recommendations account for about30% of all views. Some have speculated that up to35% of Amazon’s salesare driven by recommendations. And at Netflix, a full60% of all video rentalsare driven by Netflix’s recommendation engine. Clearly, if you get the recommendations right, you can drive transactions. But what about people recommendations, aka introductions? With the explosion of online profiles, the continuing deprecation of privacy, and the collection of location information via smartphones, it would seem that we might be entering into the golden age of professional and social matchmaking....

Gostai, Europe’s long time maker of robotic software has decided to take a stab at developing its own telepresence robots. Meet Jazz, a line of robots that includes “Jazz Connect” technology for telepresence in the office or anywhere in the world, “Jazz Icon” for companies who want to promote their image and “Jazz Security” for surveillance and security. Measuring just 1-meter tall, Jazz robots are mobile, fitted with a camera and connected to the Internet via WiFi....

There was a joke that came from the first great dotcom disaster, that when incubators spring up to incubate nascent incubators, there is a problem. It was true. I’ve recently had the good fortune to meet and befriend a Chicago-based team building what is quite simply the most audacious incubator. Or the silliest. They launch this week, so consider this your preview. MeetJunto, a Second City idea that is designed to help non-technical people build the web company of their dreams....