ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

FACEBOOK HAS REPLACED FOX INTERACTIVE, owners of increasingly untrendy MySpace, at position 5 in ComScore’s MediaMatrix Top 50 U.S. Web Properties list. The top 4 is still the same as last year (see 2008 chart below) : Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, said ReadWriteWeb.

Top 10 U.S. Sites, July 2009; source: comScore

Top 10 U.S. Sites, July 2008; source: comScore

ACCORDING TO READWRITEWEB.COM (RWW), the top 10 profitable (or very close to profitability today) enterprise Web products for 2008 are:

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS): Amazon, which began as a bookseller, has generated such enthusiasm and loyalty in the developer community. Platforms will do well in 2009, though not many will. The platforms market is a race for scale, requiring massively deep pockets.
2. Basecamp: 37Signals, maker of project collaboration app Basecamp, is the favorite start-up of a lot of people (even its competitors). Their “less is more” elegance has become the mantra of developers everywhere. The one issue? It keeps its products separate. You have to choose which one to use.
3. Confluence (Atlassian): RWW expects to see major wiki adoption in the enterprise. Atlassian (and MindTouch below) seems a safe bet for enterprise, having traction and a good breadth of products.
4. DimDim: In a recession, companies travel less, so they use web conferencing more. DimDim’s proposition is incredibly simple: web conferencing for less cost. The one issue? It is still a bit raw, and the company will need deep pockets to satisfy an expected growing demand.
5. Google Apps: The move from PC-based office software to web-based “office tools” accelerated in 2008 and became increasingly mainstream. The one issue? Google’s flagship Gmail is still in beta and suffers from reliability issues, and some modules (such as for spreadsheet) still seem a bit raw compared to those of competitors. Read the rest of this entry »

WHICH ARE THE TOP BLOGS IN ASIA? How does one measure the success of a blog?

In China, Ya.IYee came up with a list of “Top 40 Chinese blogs” based on stats given by RSS reader Zhuaxia抓虾 (apparently most popular in mainland China right now, with around 30% or 60,000+ users).

In Malaysia (thanks, LiewCF), Gaman compiled a list of “50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia” based solely on Technorati rankings while Blog Webmaster Malaysia Alang created a list of “Strongest blogs in Malaysia” based on Page Strength, a combination of different factors, including Google PageRank, Technorati, Alexa, etc.

In the Philippines, a few dozen companies pooled resources to sponsor and to present “The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards” in 12 categories recently (end march) — based on the evaluation of 14 judges. I couldn’t help but wonder though: Who in turn has/have evaluated the competence and objectivity of these 14 judges?

Which evaluation criterion (or ranking) is most reliable (or not reliable) to you? Why or why not?

Afternote 14-04-2007: LiewCF.com, listed on Technorati’s Top 10 for Malaysia, is not among “the strongest of strongest blogs.” Somehow, Page Strength shows no result for his Alexa Rank and listing in DMOZ. Read the rest of this entry »

FIRST, Sister Judith Zoebelein, editorial director of the Vatican website, was interviewed by Robert Scoble and friends at the recent LIFT conference in Feb. They discussed the relevance and challenges of using Web technologies for a 2000-ish-year-old organization like the Catholic Church.

SECOND, the Podcast Awards for 2006 are out. Among the winners are three Catholic podcasts: Read the rest of this entry »