ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

Yes, it’s already Feb. Still, over here, utility is much more important than “the latest and the coolest”. So, here’s a handy list of the best Web 2.0 software in 2006 from Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 blog:

• Social Network: MySpace. Runners up: Bebo, Facebook, Vox, XuQa, MyBlogLog (Me> IMHO, MySpace seems rather sleazy. Academics, students and alumni probably would do better to join FaceBook. People keen on business networking would do better to join LinkedIn.)
• Start Page: Netvibes; Runners up: Pageflakes, Windows Live, Goowy.
• Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon. Runners up: Delicious, TrailFire, Magnolia, Listible.
• Peer Production News: Netscape. Runners up: Digg, NewsVine, Reddit.
• Social Media Sharing: YouTube. Runners up: UnCut Video, JumpCut, Google Video, Revver. (Me> What about Eyespot? Like the remix feature there.)
• Online Storage: Amazon’s S3 with JungleDisk. Runners up: OmniDrive, iBackup, AllMyData.
• Office 2.0 Suite: Zoho Office Suite. Runners Up: ThinkFree, Ajax13, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Foldera. (Me> Just give me everything on the same platform as far as possible. Right now, looks like I can find most essential services on Google. Looking forward to Zoho Notebook though.)
• Honorable Mention: BlogFilers: TechMeme, Social Music: Pandora, Professional Social Network: LinkedIn, Consumer Generated Advertising: The Chevy Apprentice campaign, Online File Conversion: Zamzar (MS Office docs, images, audio, video, etc), Web Application Stack: Ruby on Rails, Mashup Tool: DataMashups

Noteworthy news over the past week or so:

• FIREFOX 3 will go beyond HTML rendering to provide Information Broking services based on microformats (which add semantics to markup). For example, “the contact information you see on a Web site will be associated with your favorite contacts application, events will be associated with your favorite calendar application, locations will be associated with your favorite mapping application, phone numbers will be associated with your favorite VOIP application, etc.” (see ReadWriteWeb entry and InformationWeek article; thanks to Elearningpost)
• GOOGLE READER now tracks Personal Attention Metadata. “Now I can see what’s on the top of my radar… I am subscribed to 483 feeds. Over the last 30 days I’ve read 24,891 items and have shared 1,657 items.” (see MicroPersuasion entry; thanks to Eric Rice and Robert Scoble)
• OQO’s latest handheld PC, MODEL 02, arrives — looking really cool and sporting a 1.5GHz VIA processor, 60GB drive, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 5″ 800×480 display (interpolated up to 1200×720), pen-based input, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, integrated EV-DO, and an HDMI-out port. (see Engadget entry; thanks to Robert Scoble’s link blog on Google Reader)
• SANDISK launches 32GB solid state drive (SSD), and indicates that within a year from launch, they should drop in price by some 60%. “So we’re talking 32GB SSDs for what, $250 by Q2 of 2007?” (see Engadget entry)
• UCLA announced plans in December to adopt Moodle as their institution-wide learning and collaboration environment (see EdTechPost entry; thanks to Stephen Downes’ OLDaily).