My Favorite Web 2.0 Services - Updated

Last Updated:  03.04.08

• Added RefTagger

I'll update this regularly like I do my Blackberry, Firefox plugins and Setting Up A New Windows PC pages.

Blog Platforms

• Typepad - one of the best platforms for managing a blog, though I wish they would upgrade to the latest movable type features faster.
• Blogger - has really improved their service, now including tagging (which enables a type of Archiving by Category, which was impossible previously).  However, they do NOT have an import feature, which means that you can never move a blog from somewhere else.
• Word Press - wp is very cool and free, probably best of breed in the free arena.  Allows import/export.
• Vox - a free typepad offering, with social networking thrown in.  Blah
• Windows Live Spaces - ugh
• NOT WORTH TRYING:  friendster, jroller, tripod, xanga

Blog Metrics

• Google Analytics - the most awesome and detailed free service, but sometimes too complex for simple metrics
• Sitemeter - one nice feature is that it can show you who is no your site in real time.
• ExtremeTracking - has nice metrics on referrers and google searches that led to your site

Blog Tools

• BlogBackupOnline - awesome free tool that backs up your blogs on a daily basis, and perhaps even can output in many different formats - might be useful for porting from one service to another
• FavIcon from Pics - easy way to generate a favicon from any picture - even makes animated favicons
• Online Ribbon Generator - nice.
• RefTagger - automatically links scripture references to your choice of translation on biblegateway.com, and the Libronix entry.
• Tab Generator - easy way to generate tabs for inclusion on your site

Book Publishing

• lulu -  I've looked at the other self-publishing houses, and lulu is my fav - nicer interface, more helpful info, better prices, and they allow you to do as much of the work as you like (your own cover, isbn, etc.)
• bookland - Free ISBN image creator - save your money, buy your own ISBN and use this site to create the image for your book cover (isbn placement explained)
• Perhaps worth trying:
  • blurb - integrates with your blog to create blogbooks too.  Nice.
  • iUniverse
  • xlibris - a Random House property, I'm not sure how good it is since WOT warned me that it was suspicious.

Book Tools

• Perhaps worth trying:
  • BookMooch - swap books with people worldwide

Contact  and Calendar Management

• Plaxo - Not only does plaxo sync with outlook (which you can't do with google calendar), but you can share your calendar online, and they are now somewhat integrated with linkedin.com, and you can import your contacts from yahoo and gmail.

ebay tools

• getitnext - a nice search tool that makes ebay searches easier
• lastminuteauction - shows you items that are close to closing, witih very few bidders or low prices.  nice.
• phantombidder - for automated sniping
  

eCommerce

• cafepress - There may be better out there, but for creating t-shirts and other merch with your logo on it, cp is cool.
• spreadshirt - these guys are contenders, have to check em out
  

Email

• Gmail - the many firefox greasemonkey scripts make this configurable and usable.  Nice.
• Yahoo Mail - the new interface is fancy, but too many ads and slowwwww.
• Hotmail - they've improved it a lot

Feed Management

• Feedburner - Is there anyone else?

File Sharing

• YouSendIt - for sending large files that you can't send as email attachments, ysi is easy to use and free
• DropSend - they have a nice local applet you can use, but was buggy in the past

Fonts

• dafont - it is dabiggest and dabest free font download site

Genealogy

• Geni - the best free, easy to use genealogy tree software around.

Health Records

• HealthVault - Microsoft has launched this new free service.  We'll see how well it works.
• miVitals - another up and coming personal medical records site
• PHR - a site designed to help you understand why and how to manage your own health records.

Legal

• legalzoom.com - great way to get low cost will, living will, and other legal documents completed.  A will can be made for as little as $69.  Nice.

Movies and Photos

• ConvertTube - converts YouTube movies to other movie formats for downloading.  Just plug in the URL, and it does the rest. Nice.
• Picasa (Google Photos). What makes this service the "best" is the free Picasa photo manager software, which allows you to manage, edit, and upload to google photos.  However, google photos is just average in functionality.  My beef is that, if you have many photo albums, the default view for your list of albums is using a cover image, and after a while, it's just too many.  Sorting or filtering by year, or a simple text list, would be nice.
• Photobucket (formerly Yahoo Photos) - nice interface, but lacks the picasa software that google has.
  

Professional Networking

• LinkedIn.  To tell you the truth, I don't really use professional networking, but most professionals I know are connected via linkedin.

RSS Reader

• Google Reader
• Bloglines - I used to use this, but I like google reader better.

Shopping

• bensbargains.net - though there are a lot of bargain sites out there (see the related post in the last section below), what makes ben's stand out is that lots of people comment, so you can determine whether or not that cheap headset is a bargain or a piece of junk, or whether or not that vendor really makes good on rebates or not.
• craigslist.com - don't forget to look for deals on craigs - you can also get an RSS feed for your search, so you can check daily from your feed reader.
• dealcatcher.com - most bargain sites focus on tech, but this one also has nice feeds for places like amazon, overstock, etc.
• Price Protector - when you purchase something, register it here and they can tell you if the price changes so you can get your refund during the price guarantee period.
• Universal Package Tracking - paste your shipping number in, and it will provide a nice RSS feed so that you can track your package in your feed reader.

Social Bookmarking

• Furl.  It is way nicer than del.icio.us, and I don't use any of the others - not digg, spurl, etc. For an amazing review of social bookmarking sites, check out roxomatic's detailed evaluation of social bookmarking sites.
• addthis - this is for blog owners who want one universal link for users to clip articles with - they can choose the social bookmarking service of their choice, and addthis will remember that choice going forward.  Cool.

Storage and Backup

I haven't picked a favorite yet, but here are the contenders, in order of my preference:

• orbitfiles - automated backup, 6GB free, $5/mo. unlimited
• allmydata - automated backup, 1GB free, $5/mo. unlimited
• divshare - NO automation, free, unlimited file storage and sharing
• adrive - NO automation, 50GB of free online storage
• gspace - a cool browser add on for firefox that lets you view and use your gmail accounts like an online drive, and now that gmail provides 2.9GB (and rising), that makes for more space than the free accounts below, most of which offer 1Gb free (and you can have more than one gmail account, so it's limitless)
• mozy (2Gb free)
• xdrive - these guys supposedly provide 5MB free, but I was not able to complete the registration - the captcha function didn't work.
• box.net
• omnidrive

Travel

• kayak - Works great
  
• farecast -  also a contender
• yapta - a free plugin that not only does fare comparisons, but will update you on fare changes after your purchase (for a refund)
• DON'T BOTHER WITH: travelocity, orbitz, cheaptickets, sidestep

RELATED POSTS ON OTHER SITES

Web 2.0

• All things web 2.0 (an entire site dedicated to 2.0 sites), including:
  • All Things Web 2.0 - "THE LIST"
  • Web 2.0 Directory
  • TOP 100 Top Rated Web 2.0
• Apps for Web and Mobile (makeuseof.com)
• Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites (Realworld software, Dec 2006)
• Fun and practical new "Web 2.0" sites (Computer Shopper)
• (Mostly) Free Resources for the Web Worker (Webworker Daily))
• I want to - Phil Bradley's excellent site dedicated to web 2.0 apps - useful categorization
• Over 200 Web 2.0 Sites in 41 Categories (seomoz.org)
• The top 100 Web apps (webware.com)

Shopping

• 40 Unusual Sites you should bookmark (makeuseof.com)
• 13 Bargain Websites (actually, many more due to comments)
• Shop like a pro - 7 tools to help you crack Ebay

Comments

[Jesmi]

Nice article and references.

[free ebay sniper]

Hidbid.com is another free ebay sniper service that you may also want to try. It's web-based, so it doesn't matter what type of computer that you have, a pc or Mac. There's no need to leave your computer on or be at your computer when the auction ends.
I schedule snipes for every auction that I bid on.
It really makes no sense not to.

[seeker]

Phantombidder is what I use but it is not free - you pay like .50 for each successful snipe. Thanks for the input.

[psykotedy]

Okay, so I have to comment here. First, Plaxo rocks, but there are ways to sync your Outlook and Google Calendar (thank you Lifehacker!)

[seeker]

I read the comments on the string, and Syncmycal seems cool, but it aint free. Using Plaxo, you can do much more, and free.

[Lucy]

you should try www.swaptree.com its a place where you can trade books, cds, dvds, and video games for free.

[Lucy]

you should try www.swaptree.com its a place where you can trade books, cds, dvds, and video games for free.

[Phil Bradley]

Really nice collection, and I really like the Online ribbon maker idea, which I've added to my own home page. In a case of blatant self promotion I've got a collection of over 500 Web 2 resources at the above URL and I have a weblog at http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/ which I try to keep people up to date with what's out there.

[The Geni Team]

Great list--thank you for including us! I've given you our email address would like to make contact with you.

[Jenny]

Excellent list.

For all online backup and storage related info, I recommend this website:

http://www.BackupReview.info

[Robyn]

First, thanks for talking about YouSendIt- And for providing that great list!

In addition to our free service, YouSendIt Lite, which allows users to send up to 100MB per file, we have several paid subscription services allowing transfers of multiple files per send, as large as 2GB each. Our paid services provide more features and bandwidth, such as the ability to send, track, and receive all types of large and important digital content in a totally branded environment. For details check out: http://www.yousendit.com/cms/compareaccounts

We also have free plug-ins and applications that work with your YouSendIt account. Using these products, you can conveniently send right from within applications like Outlook and Photoshop.

Express, our free desktop application, allows users to drag and drop multiple files or folders in unlimited batches- without even opening a browser.

To say "thanks" for keeping the dialog going, I've created a unique promotional code for readers of this blog to receive an entire month of YouSendIt Business Plus, free!

Simply create and activate a free Lite account at https://www.yousendit.com/signup.php?, then go to “my account”/”account details” and enter the promo code: RHORBP21. Accounts will be upgraded for 30 days, then revert back to the free version when it expires. No credit card info is collected. It’s just our way of saying “thanks” for talking us up and trying us out.

Robyn- Marketing Communications, YouSendIt

[seeker]

Jenny,

Thanks for the recommendation for www.BackupReview.info, although, it kind of looks like the "top 25" list is missing a few big players - is this top 25 merely paid placement by the various backup services? This site looks like it is selling more than reviewing.

[Sal]

Thanks for the resources and links!

Sahil,
Founder DeskAway.com

[Mathijs van der Kooi]

I think our new startup -- www.Start4all.com -- deserves a place in the listings under the category 'Blog Platforms'. Start4all.com is a mashup of Wordpress and link pages that you can connect to your blog. The linkpage is easy to edit (Ajax based technology).

[Phil Bradley]

First, thanks very much for the kind words - I'm glad that you find the resource useful. I've just updated the storage page, collaboration page, and I'm working on the training page. One resource that was recommended to me on the storage front is Adrive (.com) which provides users with 50 GB of space. I was playing with it today and it looks very good - worth trying out if you have chance.

Phil

[Phil Gons]

Thanks for adding us to the list!