I periodically engage in an on-and-off conversation with a writer friend about the challenges creative types face in balancing consumption and productivity. This conversation spins off in several directions, depending on how much coffee and/or beer we’re drinking:  the differences between consumption of information and learning; the differences between entertainment and art; re-appropriation and the instinct to seek or disregard “newness.” This dialogue is really all over the place and rather heady but can frequently spark a new line of thinking for me, or at least consideration of a new perspective.

I am a creative and productive person, but when it comes to early adoption of web technology and trends, I am more of an absorber of information than a generator of new insight or perspective.  I am a big fan of tools that can aggregate sources of information and trends, and lay out the basic information for me.  At least giving me the ability to “catch up” within a click or two. I don’t typically engage in the early seek-and-trial behavior that many early adopters do, but I like to know what’s out there.

ynYouNoodle is a resource that aggregates data on startups.  I believe they launched in the middle of last year, but through partnerships and promotion are really starting to swagger recently.  Their Startup Predictor decision making tool is a sharp first product, and seems to be helpful to beta testers.  However, my main utility here is their Scores directory, compiling data on startups from news sources and indexing each with a quantitative metric to enable easy display on category, industry, and publisher top standings lists.

As an added bonus (for me), you can easily click through any of the startup names on the lists to learn more about them.  This will not only give you more in-depth detail on their YouNoodle data, but will simply let you know what these trendy rising-star sites and appliations are.  Easy aggregation and easy consumption of information.

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