Webware has just announced the Webware 100 winners for 2007. It’s a contest where users vote for their favorite web applications. There were 10 different categories with 10 winners in each category. Over 5,000 nominations for sites were submitted, and then Webware editors trimmed the list down to 250 finalists. From there, users cast 489,467 votes to determine the top 100 sites for 2007. The top winners for each category include (drum-roll please…):
- Browsing: Firefox
- Communications: Gmail
- Community: Gaia
- Data: Google
- Entertainment: Stardoll
- Media: YouTube
- Mobile: Google Gmail Mobile
- Productivity and Commerce: eBay
- Publishing: WordPress
- Reference: Wikipedia
Just looking through the list of the top 10 for each category, it’s amazing how much competition you’ll find in nearly every area. Good competition too. And to think that there were 5,000 nominations for sites to be included within these categories? That’s insane! I don’t know how all 5,000 of these companies stay afloat with such strong competition all around.
Most of the winners in each of the categories really didn’t leave me surprised. I expected Firefox to take the cake for browsing, Google to take the award for Data, and Wikipedia to win for Reference. I was however, surprised that Gaia beat out MySpace and Facebook in the community section. To be honest, I have never been to Gaia’s website, and I really wasn’t sure what it was about. I’ve just spent the last few minutes exploring, and after leaving, I’m still surprised they beat-out MySpace. It looks like a popular place for teenagers to hang out, which also might indicate the roll that teenagers played in this contest.
Were you surprised by any of the results? Was one company more deserving than another, and didn’t make the list? For example, under data, I thought that Ask.com deserved to be there. They’ve put a lot of work into their search, and it’s drastically improved. It didn’t even make the list! You can find the complete list of 100 winners here.
I expected every single result. It really joys me to see WikiPedia in there. I think there needs to be a good solid article written about Wikipedia and why it’s more reliable than most people think.
You know Alex, that’s not a bad idea. I use Wikipedia all the time and haven’t come across anything that was inaccurate. I know it happens, but I haven’t experienced it yet.
Yes Wikipedia is very good resource and I was very glad that Google and Yahoo came to their aid when they were need of servers. It is a very good tool and a prefect example as to why the whole Internet was invented in the first place (an academic resource that people can contribute to). :D
I hadn’t heard of the Stardoll before, but the others I had. That Stardoll is actually kind of interesting.
I echo with all of you regarding Wikipedia. There are many knowledge elitist who are against amateur knowledge. All Wikipedia’s articles I’ve read are up-to-date and factual.
I was expecting Flock social browser would be amongst the winners. Anyway, Mozilla Firefox was included in the winning list. LOL!
This is last year’s winners, and so I don’t think Flock had really “emerged” as much as it has by now.