1. The idea of renting items from your neighbors is making a comeback.
2. Back in 2000, a Web start-up, rentanything.com, tried getting Internet users to rent, or list for rent …
3. …. items not normally associated with the rentals market.
4. The company raised $3 million from venture capitalists …
5. … and then fizzled — there is no record of it on the Internet Archive after 2003.
6. All these new startups want to be the eBay for online rentals.
7. There are two big challenges facing an online rentals community.
8. The first is building critical mass —
9. … prospective renters won’t come clicking until there is a good selection of lenders,
10. … and vice versa (=renters).
11. So all these new start-ups are doing deals with traditional offline rental firms, …
12. … to add cars, party goods and the like to their sites.
13. They want to use that initial selection to attract early customers, …
14. … and convince them in turn to consider renting out everything from …
15. That leads to the second problem, which is trust.
16. Do you really want to rent out your lawnmower to a stranger, …
17. … even if it earns you a couple of extra bucks?
18. To tackle that concern, the companies are creating eBay-style feedback and ratings systems …
19. … to build trust among participants.
20. It won’t be easy to clear both hurdles in every local community they want to service.
21. But you can bet if any of them do show momentum, acquisition-minded companies like eBay will come knocking.
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