I don’t know. You wait for a startup to come up a particular idea, then two come along at once. Identity is a big deal on the Web. But with so many social profiles to keep track of, how do we manage it all?

So idlasso and retaggr have arrived to to help us. Coincidentally, they are two UK-based startups doing very similar things, which have launched very close (in timing and idea) to each-other.

With idlasso you create personalisable cards that reside on your own idlasso subdomain. These can be used as widgets on your blog etc or used in a facebook app. Each account (e.g. your Twitter) is verified manually, but the process for me was pretty painless. (If it works) here’s my badge:

And if you add your friends on idlasso it’s possible to see which networks you are connected on and those that you’re not (but could be). This makes it easier to fill in gaps in your social graph.

idlasso is actually one half – George Palmer – of last year’s meecard – the two original founders of which has gone their amicable separate ways.

However, Retggr is further down the line with the formalities and has a growing and experienced team which includes Ivailo Jordanov – Previously, founder of zoomf.com, and member of the founding management team at Espotting/MIVA; CEO Jonathan Bunis – previously CEO at Cellectivity, President/COO at Espotting/MIVA and UK/International management positions with DoubleClick, BroadVision, and Sybase;
Nicholas Smit – Senior technologist; Andrew Kempe – Previously held senior technology management positions at Espotting/MIVA.

Retaggr users can create an interactive online “business card” featuring all their social profiles which can be embedded anywhere online and will also automatically appear on all retaggr enabled sites where users interact. When a user sees a card they would like to keep and refer to later, they can bookmark it and all bookmarked cards are available within their retaggr account.

(If it works) here’s mine:

The widget means people can view information on the card without having to leave the
site where the card is embedded. What retaggr is finding is that 59% list their blog on their card, while 46% add twitter. Then it goes to YouTube, delicious, flickr , Skype, LastFM, GTalk, LinkedIn and FriendFeed in that order. They are finding that mail signature badge is popular (see here).

What’s the point? Well if they can get enough distribution, they can start selling the ad inventory on the widgets, plus bring in premium services around identity management.

UPDATE: Make that three UK projects: Developer Darren Stuart has put up justaddme which he says has “500k in traffic a month and has been live since feb”.