Mumbai: The Internet is a wide canvas, not necessarily restricted to utilitarian services such as travel or job portals. Here are three start-ups trying their hand at something different.

ThinkingSpace Technologies is an online event management platform for small and personalized gatherings. This could be a birthday party at a restaurant or a group headed for a movie. The company’s online product ActiveCiti lets a user create events, send out invites and create forums for planning.

ActiveCiti, says the company, “writes shamelessly simple, extremely easy-to-use software which solves everyday problems and helps in making your life a wee bit simpler”. Based in Pune, three former engineering college classmates Saurabh Jain, Gaurang Sinha and Rishi Agarwal set up the company in April 2007. (www.thinkingspace.in)

Radioverve.com is a Bangalore-based Internet radio station that only plays Indian music by independent local artistes -- think college bands or local artistes who have not been signed on by a major label. The idea is to offer music that is not easily available in stores. It sources music directly from the artistes. “There is a lot of great music out there by independent artistes,” says Radioverve co-founder Shreyas Srinivasan. The site features eight stations currently, including rock, classical and folk music. (www.radioverve.com)

Paahijen.com is an online notepad for local language text. It lets you generate text in Indian languages using a regular English language keyboard. The language text can then be copy-pasted anywhere you want – emails, scrap, blogs. Paahijen, which means “I want it” in Marathi, is available in 11 Indian languages. The Pune-based company was started in February 2007 by Abhijit Gadgil and Siddharth Karandikar. (www.paahijen.com)