3 Awesome Community-Oriented Apps

**Waqas** · August 27, 2011

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Each weekend, Mashable picks a few startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.

This week we turn our attention to startups building applications that have impressive community appeal.

ShareMyPlaylists, for instance, is a music playlist-sharing site for Spotify users. Givvy is a gift store that wouldn’t exist without the gift ideas and contributions of Facebook users. And LifeKraze taps into the power of your personal community of friends and followers for motivational purposes.

So get in the give-a-little, take-a-little spirit and check out these interesting application and services.

ShareMyPlaylists: Music Discovery for Spotify Users

Quick Pitch: ShareMyPlaylists.com is a platform to discover new music on Spotify through playlists.

Genius Idea: The Playlist Generator auto-generates playlists based on your musical taste.

Mashable’s Take: Spotify’s music-listening experience is structured around the playlist. If you don’t want to bother building your own or are simply in the mood for something new, take a gander at ShareMyPlaylists.

ShareMyPlaylists offers a community-based, give-and-take playlist experience. You give your playlists and get access to others in turn. Use the site to search and explore playlists of interest, or turn to the Playlist Generator to pump out a playlist personalized to your tastes.

You should have plenty of music to choose from; more than 100 new playlists are uploaded to the site each day. There’s even a new iPad app to boot.

Givvy: Facebook App Helps With Gift-Giving

Quick Pitch: Givvy is a social shopping app that helps Facebook users discover, share and curate gifts online.

Genius Idea: A gift store by and for the people of Facebook.

Mashable’s Take: Facebook has become the de facto way to keep up with friends’ birthdays and anniversaries. Givvy’s Facebook application harnesses this special-occasion data and marries it to product recommendations from Facebook friends and top curators. The end result is a gift store experience entirely sourced from the Facebook community.

Follow Givvy curators for gift recommendations that come highly recommended. Post your own ideas and create gift lists to share with friends and family members. You can even shop by personality type — maybe you’re in search of a gift for a hipster or wine lover, for instance.

LifeKraze: Community-Based Motivation

Quick Pitch: A motivation platform that uses a competitive point system to encourage individuals of all ages to live actively.

Genius Idea: Get positive reinforcement and perks for being active.

Mashable’s Take: What have you done? LifeKraze gives you 160 characters to answer that prompt. You can also add links, photos and videos as visual proof. Share your activities and accomplishments, big or small, and the community will reward you with Kraze Points — everyone gets 200 points to spread around each day — if they find your feats impressive.

The startup takes a simple approach to motivate users to lead more-active lifestyles. It scraps the logistics associated with pre-planning — goals, rules, restrictions and so forth — in favor of a positive reinforcement system that rewards users for a job well done, as judged by followers. Earn enough points and you can cash them in for discounts and products from the site’s brand partners.

LifeKraze has raised $1.25 million in funding, and has 20,000 users and 16 brand partners.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PLBernier

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: Givvy, LifeKraze, ShareMyPlaylists, Startup Weekend Roundup

For more Startups coverage: