There is a great write up today on VentureBeat about Avanoo recently launching. For those of you who have not heard of them ,they are a site that taps into the wisdom of crowds in order to offer up answers to many of life’s questions. They have built upon the popular notion popularized by James Surowiecki’s in his book, “The Wisdom of Crowds“. The general notion is that a crowd is smarter on a whole than the smartest individual contributor.

Avanoo is taking this concept to a whole new level and providing the ability for an opinion seeker to narrow down their search for an answer to their question to the group that mostly aligns to them self. For example, a 25 year old guy looking to buy his wife their first anniversary present would be more likely to follow the advice of like minded individuals (meaning of the same age, sexual orientation, marital status) than say that of a group comprised of 60 year old divorced, bitter, men. Get the picture?

One of the founders, Dan Jacobs, gained a bit of notoriety back at the beginning of the year by publishing his account of an experience they had with a certain VC when they were shopping their idea to the various VC firms. He changed the name to protect the innocent, but it did not take long for anyone to understand who “Dude Yamaha” was.

Dan is a great guy, I have exchanged several e-mails with him over the months, and I wish him and Wilford all the success. I think they have tapped into something here, and I am excited to see where Avanoo will go.