Webware100

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods. Users can create their own virtual shop fronts to sell almost anything they'd want. Etsy has an integrated search tool that lets anyone search the site for goods and services out of a centralized directory. Users can also get into the nitty-gritty and design the specific look and feel of their own shops.

The site is a wonderful place to find the kind of crafts or goods you'd find at a local market--items that are often overlooked or simply diluted in the avalanche of consumer products that … Read more

Microsoft's Live Search is Microsoft's free Web search tool that plugs into various Microsoft Web properties as well as general indexing for pages all over the Internet.

Users can search for news stories, photos, videos, as well as Microsoft's other Web services like Live Maps and MSN. One thing that separates it from competitors is the Search and Give service, which takes 10 of your searches a day and converts it into charitable contributions to the nonprofit of your choice.

Besides Web searches, Microsoft has a few search tools built into Live.com that let you search … Read more

eBay is an online auction marketplace. It was one of the first auction Web sites on the Internet, and it has become hugely popular as a way to buy and sell goods on the Web. PayPal requires user registration for buyers and sellers, and it has instituted a user-credibility system with both karma points and a buyer and seller review to let users police themselves. The more frequent and well-respected users get certain advantages over new users, and commercial sellers are able to get discounts on listings and payment options.

eBay makes its money by charging its sellers a listing … Read more

Hakia is a semantic search engine, a technology that lets users search the Web using everyday word combinations. Also, instead of simply trying to provide popular results, it'll pull in the ones more relevant to the query you're asking--something that's difficult to get right but incredibly important to the future of search engine technology.

Besides its core search, Hakia has a social aspect with a feature called "Meet Others." It will give you the option, from a search results page, to jump to a page on the service where everyone who searches for the topic … Read more

Craigslist is a free, online classifieds service that's localized by geography. Do you need to sell that old refrigerator this weekend? Put it on Craigslist. Users can post items they want to sell and get responses by telephone or e-mail from people who live around them. It cuts out the middleman and often results in quicker sales than you'd get with other services such as eBay or your local newspaper.

In addition to a free-for-all buyers-and-sellers market, there's also a job board that's populated by many employers who agree to pay the $75 per category to … Read more

Google Maps lets you get directions and find places online. It shows streets, traffic, and satellite images. Users can type in an address and get a pinpoint location or pull up driving directions. Users with a Google account can also partake in the My Maps service, which provides users with simple drag-and-drop tools to chart their own customized maps and share them with others.

Google Maps' biggest claim to fame is Street View, a view level of the map that lets you see a 360-degree view of a street at eye level. Users can explore a photograph of their local … Read more

Amazon.com was one of the first online retailers in the world. It started out with books and now sells nearly every consumer good, including groceries and over-the-counter medicines. The service is well known as one of the best places to find new or used books at prices below what you'd pay in most retail stores. It also features free shipping on many of its items.

One of the things that makes Amazon.com dynamic as an online retailer is its community of users, who write reviews and rate nearly every product on the service. Amazon.com is also … Read more

Windows Live Home is a one-stop place to monitor all your activity on Microsoft's various Web properties. People can get a bird's-eye view on their Hotmail, Live Spaces, and Live Calendar, and easily see who's on Windows Live Messenger, and how much space they're using on their SkyDrive.

Users can also add all sorts of customizable gadgets to their Live Home page, as they would on Netvibes or My Yahoo. That same directory houses gadgets that can be included in the Windows Vista sidebar, or on their Live Spaces or Events pages.

Winner: Windows Live Home (… Read more

Safari is Apple's Web browser. It's one of the more speedy browsers around, and it was one of the first Web browsers to introduce a built-in RSS reader. It's currently in its third iteration and has traded blows with Firefox to provide the fastest browsing experience on the Web with its rendering engine.

Safari began as an in-house replacement to Microsoft's Internet Explorer for Mac, which Microsoft didn't update or improve on at the same rate as it did for its Windows counterpart--and eventually dropped shortly after the release of Safari.

In 2007, Safari got … Read more