Paul Lomax - Two Point Oh

Below is a selection of websites considered by many to be part of the Web 2.0 revolution. Believe it or not, it’s a relatively small selection. Some have been around five or six years, and others make up a few of the dozens of start-up sites that launch each day and have been around about five minutes – but all do something quite different to the ‘old school’ websites you have probably come to know and love. And almost all of them have silly names.

Social Networking
Connecting with friends and whatnot

• www.myspace.com – music geeks, teens and wannabe models

• www.bebo.com – kids and teens

• www.vox.com – a bit of culture – travel, photography, books, art and music

• www.friendster.com – actually owns the patent for social networks

• www.orcut.com – a Google project, full of Brazilians for some reason

• www.facebook.com – student central

• www.faceparty.com – thinly veiled ‘pick up’ site

• www.linkedin.com – social networking for business contacts

• www.boompa.com – social networking for petrol heads

• www.mybloglog.com – adds a community to your blog

• www.deviantart.com - photography and all kinds of art

• www.minti.com, www.parentsconnect.com, www.mothersclick.com, www.momjunction.com, www.parentography.com, www.mommybuzz.com, www.famundo.com, www.mayasmom.com - parenting is a popular subject!

• www.fygo.com, www.zopa.com, www.prosper.com  – social lending, borrow from people, not banks

Social News
News by the people for the people 

• www.digg.com  – the biggest, full of geeks but covers many subjects
• www.slashdot.com – web1.0 survivor and the original article – but only tech
• www.inform.com - world affairs and politics specialist
• www.newsvine.com – also a serious slant – the pitch is you create your own ‘column’ 

Social Bookmarking / Search
Not only can you keep your bookmarks in one place, you can see other people’s fave sites 

• del.icio.us – market leader despite the name, now part of Yahoo. Simple but limited.
• ma.gnolia.com – similar to delicious but arguably easier to use
• www.searchles.com – blend of delicious and dig
• www.lijit.com - search people’s blogs
• www.ozmozr.com – share RSS feeds (I think, it doesn’t explain itself too well!)
• www.stumbleupon.com – been around a surprisingly long time, useful toolbar 

Media Sharing
Searching for ‘funny cats’ on youtube is an hour’s entertainment 

• www.emokoo.com – merges your youtube videos and flickr photos in one place
• www.dailymotion.com – an alternative to youtube
• www.youtube.com - video sharing market leader
• www.brightcove.com – another youtube alternative
• www.flickr.com – one of the most well known photo sharing sites
• www.piczo.com – make your own web pages and rate other people’s – aimed squarely at kids 

Localisation
Making the global village local 

• www.craigslist.com – the bane of regional newspapers, free local classifieds online
• www.backfence.com – run your own online “hyperlocal” newspaper 

Knowledge Sharing
Share your experiences, expertise, thoughts, or anything really 

• www.tripadvisor.com – review your hotel, destination and holiday
• www.corkd.com, labels.winelibrary.com, www.bottletalk.com  – wine reviews
• answers.yahoo.com – ask questions, get answers from people - useful when their search engine gives you crap results
• www.squidoo.com – apparently you share your specialist info through “lenses”. I had to go to the New York Times to understand what it was…
• www.iqons.com, www.shareyourlook.com, www.shoutfit.com, www.stylehive.com, www.stylespy.net  - share your look / celeb looks/ fashion tips 

Blogging
Blogging is one of the web2.0 cornerstones – making the Internet a truly read/write medium 

• www.travbuddy.com – travel blogging
• www.wordpress.com – blogging application
• www.blogger.com  – blogging app from Google
• www.moveabletype.com – blogging application
• www.livejournal.com – the original social blog
• www.vox.com – kind of social networking too, but does have photo galleries etc
• www.xanga.com  –another blogging community site
• www.gather.com  – incentivised  blogging, ‘for adults’  

Start pages
Make these your homepage and you’re one click from all your favourite content 

• www.google.com/ig - Google Homepage
• www.netvibes.com   – overwhelming
• www.protopage.com – ugly!
• www.schmedley.com – influenced by Mac OS X Widgets
• www.pageflakes.com -  v pretty but didn’t actually work for me 

Widgets & Symbiotic sites
Making stuff to stick on other sites 

• www.stickam.com – add a live webcam to your blog etc
• www.zingfu.com , www.ibubble.com – add frames, speech bubbles, etc to photos
• www.photobucket.com – image hosting for myspace etc
• www.coolmyspacecomments.com – lets you embed really annoying crap in comments
• www.kwiz.biz – bloody awful looking quiz generator for myspace etc
• www.meebo.com, www.ebuddy.com  – instant messenger on your site
• www.slide.com, www.rockyou.com  – put photo slideshows on your myspace profile
• www.feedburner.com – track your RSS feeds and more
• www.musestorm.com – make widgets from your RSS feeds
• www.zwinky.com, www.weemee.com, www.meez.com  – avatar creators 

Web Based Applications
Stuff that might put Bill Gates out of a job? 

• docs.google.com – Google takes on Word, Excel and Outlook Calendar
• www.basecamphq.com – online collaboration tool
• www.stikkit.com - web based sticky notes
• www.8apps.com – more collaboration tools, with built in social networking
• www.famundo.com – get your family organised
• www.singshot.com – online karaoke

Social Music
Share your music, and your tastes - legally!

• last.fm - simply amazing - free radio and it learns what you like!