There's an interesting new search portal that could become important as a way to share, rent, or borrow just about anything.
Moogul, as it's called, still seems to be in the beginning stages of build out, and while I found it to be of little value to me right now, I suspect that if I come back months from now, I'll be much more interested. With some momentum, focus, and the right press, this could become a household name, and right up there in usefulness with Amazon, eBay, Snapfish, Google.
It seems to be an online marketplace where you can either request to rent or share something (anything), or post a description of what you want to rent out or share.
Search for a "Nikon Camera" and you will see books and movies about Nikon Cameras. No actual cameras, but I suspect it won't be long before cameras, sailboats, trucks, beach houses, and even teams of engineers (remember eBay?) will be available for rent or borrow.
As I'm reviewing this, I can't help but think of all the things we (as consumers that tend to purchase individually and not as small groups) get for occasional use. We buy lawnmowers, tools for weeding and trimming, riding mowers, combines (think big farms), motorcycles, kayaks and canoes, and more. We buy these things and only use them when we want to. The rest of the time, it sits somewhere and wastes valuable garage space or takes up half the lawn.
What if, instead of buying a tree trimmer and using it once a year and sitting it in the garage doing nothing, you could loan or rent it out throughout the neighborhood so everyone could use it...which is usually only to cut that one ugly dead branch dangling awkwardly. Nobody ever uses it so much that it can't be shared. Do they?
And if you were to add a local element to the process, you then would have a setup where a small community could share (at little or no cost) something that normally costs something more for each person. The people renting only spend when using it and they don't have to store it. The person offering something to be rented receives some of the initial investment back, even though some wear and tear occurs...which in the case of a tree trimmer would be minuscule.
Overall, this scenario seems like a win-win to me. I think it's just a matter of time before momentum takes hold and this site scales big time.
