2009 Webware 100 winners were announced some days back. When I looked at the winners list, there were some of them I never heard of. Some of them I have used earlier but stopped because there were better options available.
I must say that I found a lot of great services and products through CNet’s 2009 Webware 100 Award. Here is a list of 69 products I use out of 2009 Webware 100 winners list. I have kept the categories same as the actual list.
As I said, there are lot of good services which could not make it for the finals or be the winners, so I will highly recommend to go through the published 2009 Webware 100 nominees in various categories.
I must say that I found a lot of great services and products through CNet’s 2009 Webware 100 Award. Here is a list of 69 products I use out of 2009 Webware 100 winners list. I have kept the categories same as the actual list.As I said, there are lot of good services which could not make it for the finals or be the winners, so I will highly recommend to go through the published 2009 Webware 100 nominees in various categories.
- Audio & Music:
- iTunes: Apple’s iTunes media store sells and recommends music, movies and iPhone Apps. It’s a complete media manager where you can import your existing music, video or buy them through iTunes Store. iTunes is a required application if you own iPhone or iPod.
- Lala: LaLa is a music search and discovery tool. Listen to full tracks and/or buy them without DRM. Just create an account and keep listening to unlimited music for free.
- Last.fm: Social music discovery and listening tool. Listen to full tracks, and create stations around artists you like and create your music network with friends. You can play all your existing library from anywhere, anytime once you have scrobbled songs on last.fm.
- Pandora: A free music streaming and recommendation service. Changes what you’re listening to based on how you vote on the track that’s playing. Search for an artist and Pandora creates a radio station for you based on your choice.
- Browsing:
- Mozilla Firefox: An open-source browser built by Mozilla. It’s currently the No. 2 browser in the world. I have written numerous articles about Mozilla Firefox and the endless treasure of add-ons. Firefox is my personal choice of browser and believe me I ditched IE and even Google Chrome for it.
- Internet Explorer 8: Microsoft’s latest browser. It’s faster than the old version and has made strides in compatibility and security.
- Xmarks: Formerly FoxMarks, a service that synchronizes bookmarks across multiple browsers. Access all your bookmarks and passwords (if you allow) on any machine you use. Xmarks has made Delicious useless for me.
- Commerce:
- Amazon: Online Shopping for electronics, books etc. Has the best customer service for purchases or returns, and reliable products.
- Paypal: An online payment service users can use to send money to each other, and online store owners can use for purchases. If you have ever sold or bought anything from eBay, then you would be familiar with that too.
- Communication:
- Dimdim: A live Web-based meeting tool. Lets users chat and share files, screens, and presentations over the Web. Way better than WebEx and a lot cheaper if you plan to buy for an enterprise. Else it is FREE upto 20 participants.
- Gmail: Google’s Web based e-mail, which currently offers users in excess of 7 GB of free storage. Comes with lots of added features with it.
- Skype: A software-based VoIP, text, and video chat service. It runs on multiple platforms and is available world wide. Skype has changed the way people communicate, whether it is your neighbour or a family member on the other side of the earth.
- Windows Live Hotmail: Microsoft’s Web e-mail service. Users can aggregate their e-mail from other services and store up to 5 GB of messages in their accounts.
- Windows Live Messenger: Microsoft’s live chat service. It can be found on multiple devices from mobile phone’s to the Xbox 360. Works with Microsoft Windows only.
- Infrastructure & Storage:
- Adobe Air: A runtime designed by Adobe Systems that powers rich Internet applications that run right on the desktop and soon mobile devices. You may see really cool applications created with Adobe Air, e.g. TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop, Newyork Times Reader etc etc.
- Dropbox: Provides an online folder that can be synced up across multiple computers. Any files you add locally get synced up to all your other computers, and you can access the stored files from your browser.
- Drop.io: An online storage service that centers around the idea of “drops.” Each drop is a compartmentalized folder of data with its own identity, meaning you can share its contents with others without having to provide access to the rest of the files you have stored on the service. Drop.io has a whole lot of other services ending with .io which makes your life way too easy.
- Facebook Connect: Allows site developers to let visitors of their site log in with their Facebook account to use features that previously would have required registration. In turn, whatever they do on the site can be promoted back in Facebook. It works the same way as OpenID, OAuth and all. (Review on Knowliz)
- Mozy: An online backup service. You can back up individual files, or an entire computer.
- OpenID: Lets you use your verified credentials from one site in another, all in place of having to sign up for yet another log-in. (Articles on Knowliz)
- Windows Live Skydrive: Microsoft’s Web-based storage service. Users get 25 GB of free storage that’s shared across several other Microsoft Web services. (Various Articles on Knowliz about Skydrive)
- Location Based Services:
- Flightstats: Tracks flight delays and airport closures around the world so you can avoid them before you leave the house to go somewhere, or pick someone up.
- Goog411: Google’s free 411 service (Review on Knowliz). Users can either type in their search or speak it into their phones. I use it all the time when I don’t have access to internet and I am away from a computer.
- Google Earth: Google’s 3D maps software. Its latest version added historical maps and a recording feature that lets you share your routes with others.
- Google Maps: Google’s free online maps service. It provides driving directions, traffic, and search results for local businesses.
- Live Maps: Microsoft’s free online maps tool. It provides driving directions, traffic, and search results for local businesses.
- Topix: Local news from around the Web based on the city you set it on.
- Tripit: Makes keeping track of travel information easier by aggregating it into one place. (Review on Knowliz) Now has an iPhone Apps too.
- Yelp: Lets customers review restaurants and other businesses with anywhere from one to five stars. (Review on Knowliz). Now has a fantastic iPhone Apps too.
- Photo & Video:
- Flickr: Yahoo’s photo and video sharing community. Users can upload and organize their photos, then share them with others.
- Hulu: Lets you watch full-length movies and TV shows in your browser, and unlike some services that do this, the content is distributed by the companies that created it. (Review on Knowliz)
- Justin.tv: A live streaming platform that lets anyone record what they’re doing to a channel they own. Users can watch live, or after the broadcast has ended.
- Photobucket: Hosts more than 7 billion user images and videos, and lets users share their photos on blogs and social networking profiles.
- Picasa: Google’s free photo hosting service. It’s closely tied to Google’s Picasa software program and can be synced up with the photos users have on their desktop.
- Picnik: A browser-based photo editing service that lets you edit photos from your hard drive or from various social networks and photo hosts.
- Ustream.tv: Allows anyone with a Webcam or video camera to broadcast a live show that can be watched even after it’s been recorded. Has a very useful iPhone App for live broadcasting for Jailbroken iPhone. (Review on Knowliz)
- Vimeo: A video host that’s focused on creative projects from its users. It was also one of the first services to offer streaming HD video.
- Youtube: A free video hosting service owned by Google. It’s recently begun offering HD video.
- Productivity:
- Google Calendar: Puts your personal calendar in the browser, and lets you create and manage appointments and subscriptions to Web calendars in the same place.
- Google Docs: A collection of online office programs including a word processor, spreadsheet tool, and a presentation maker.
- Microsoft Office Live Workspaces: Microsoft’s tool for sharing Office documents and mission critical files between multiple users.
- Mint: An online finance management tool. Can track spending, credit cards, and bank accounts.(Review on Knowliz)
- Zoho: A collection of online office tools, from word processing to personal productivity. Zoho gives you everything you need for a small office : Documents, Email, Invoices, Planner etc etc.
- Search & Reference:
- About.com: A collection of how-to guides and informational articles, written or sourced by experts.
- Answers.com: Answers.com pulls information from several different reference sites to provide answers to user questions. Very useful if you use it with firefox add-on – Alt + Click on any word and get the complete detail about that word. Try it yourself.
- Ask.com: Lets users search the Web for links, images, videos, driving directions, and news, along with local city listings and shopping links for products.
- Google: The most popular search engine on the Internet, lets users search the Web, blogs, images, and more. Who doesn’t know about Google?
- Live Search: Microsoft’s free Web search tool that plugs into various Microsoft Web properties as well as general indexing for pages all over the Internet.
- Wikipedia: A free online encyclopedia. Instead of being authored by a select group of editors, Wikipedia can be edited by anyone anywhere, and at any time.
- Social Networking & Publishing:
- Facebook: A popular social networking service where you can share anything from photo, video, link and blurbs to playing with your friends, using applications within Facebook and lot many things. Check out Knowliz Facebook page and become a fan.
- Meebo: A multi-network instant-message service that runs in your browser window and on mobile phones. Check out meebo related articles on Knowliz.
- Twitter: A microblogging service that lets users publish 140-character messages out to the world. OMG! That’s something people talk about all the time in Blogosphere. If you don’t have a twitter id, create on now and follow Knowliz on twitter.
- WordPress.com: Automattic’s two blogging services. WordPress.com is hosted, while WordPress.org can be installed free of charge on a user’s own servers.
- CNet Editor Choice:
- Aviary: A suite of online design tools that emulate desktop applications and let you transfer work from one app to another.
- Evernote: Create, clip, and share notes on the web and see them everywhere, even on iPhone.
- Farecast: has been acquired by Microsoft now. Gives you a prediction of airfare, hotels for your vacation and tell you if you should buy it now or later.
- Google Voice: Earlier known as GrandCentral and acquired by Google some 2 years back, this one service makes your and your friends life too easy. Because you can get one number for you life. No matter how often you actual number changes, your Google Voice number remains same. Read the complete review of Google Voice on Knowliz.
- Twitter Search: Search engine (formerly Summize) lets users search user tweets in real-time and view words or topics that are trending.
- Windows Live Sync: Both a file-mirroring service and a remote access tool. Users can pick a file that they want mirrored on other computers, and they can dig around the hard drive of a remote computer to get at files they don’t have locally.
- Knowliz Picks (Top 10):
- Thinkfree Online: A suite of free Web-based office applications including a word processor and shared storage for group files. One of my favorite office web application after Google Docs and Zoho. The interface is exactly same as MS Office.
- Timebridge: Helps multiple parties find a single time to meet based on each other’s availability.Very good and easy to use when people have different email ids like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and all. They don’t have to be from same organization to get your FREE/Busy information.
- Qik: Turns most phones with video cameras into personal broadcasting services. The service also archives live footage for viewing later. One of my favorite because Qik has made live broadcasting so easy that you can’t believe it.
- Evite: An online invitation service and party planning tool that lets you design invites, send them out, then track who’s coming to an event. Very intuitive and feature rich.
- JS-Kit: Suite of add-ons for site owners to tack on community functionality to their pages, including enhanced comments, ratings, and live chat. (Review on Knowliz)
- Billshrink: BillShrink.com is a unique, free web tool and consumer advocate service that saves consumers money by making continuously updated, personalized, usage-based recommendations on cell phones, gas station and credit cards.
- Bit.ly: Makes big links smaller, and also lets you know who’s clicking on them.
- Blogtalkradio: A platform for broadcasting users’ own talk radio shows over the Web. Includes controls for handling callers and queuing up pre-recorded content.
- Jaxtr: Free VoIP calling service that connects international calls through a local intermediary number. (Review on Knowliz)
- Howcast: User-created how-to videos that are built with professionaly-created templates and play on a video player that breaks up each step into a segment.
In fact, it would have been really tough for voters to vote for any one service. All services are good and are mostly free. I sometimes wonder what would have people used if these services were not there to be helpful in every aspect of our lives.
Anyway, now you tell me how many of these you have used and love. And how many of them you have never heard of.
(Image Credit : CNet Webware 2009)
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