Webware100

DeviantArt

Category: Community

DeviantArt is a service that hosts user-created art, be it a photograph, written word, or digital creations. Art creators can post their works for others to see and interact with. Users can comment on any piece of art, sharing it on their blog or Web site, and purchasing it in the integrated store. It's one-part portfolio, and one-part social network, as the more popular artists on the service garner their own fan base and income off art sales.

In addition to user profiles, portfolios, and the online shop, DeviantArt also has an active set of forums and … Read more

MySpace

Category: Community

MySpace is one of the most well-recognized social networks in the world. It's also one of the most trafficked on the Internet. The service originally started as a social network for music enthusiasts, and as a place where bands could promote their upcoming concerts or albums.

The main draw to the service is its user profiles, which are completely customizable by editing some code in the settings. Because of this capability, many sites and services have sprung up, offering various add-ons that require no coding knowledge for the end user. Users can communicate with one another via … Read more

Bebo

Category: Community

Bebo is a not just another MySpace, it's a one of the fastest growing social-networking Web sites on the Internet. Users can create their own profiles, and in typical social networking style, list favorite bands, pictures, and activities to share with friends on the service. Like competitor MySpace, Bebo is music-centric, and provides bands with ways to share their music using band profile pages.

What may be more interesting than the service itself is its history. Bebo was the top Google search query for all of 2006, according to the search engine's yearly zeitgeist. It's … Read more

Gaia Online

Category: Community

Gaia Online is a mix of social networking and massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). Users can create their own avatars, then earn money for them by playing games and interacting with the virtual world. Gaia also includes its own marketplace, driven by a micro economy among its members. The natural appeal of the site is due both to community and the built-in rewards system for participation.

Gaia Online was founded in 2003, and has over 300,000 active users daily. In addition to the games, GaiaOnline also has active forums, where users can discuss anything that's … Read more

SoonR

Category: Mobile

Need to access a file on your home or work computer while out of the office? If you're using SoonR you can grab it while on the go and move it to a shared storage box. You can also check your Outlook in-box, and using SoonR's new AnyTime feature, you can do all of this even when your computer is turned off.

SoonR also has a chatting application called SoonR Talk that lets you access and talk to your Skype buddies on your mobile phone for free, or you can call real phones via SkypeOut. This … Read more

FeedBurner

Category: Publishing

FeedBurner is a service for blog or Web site owners to keep track of who is subscribing to their RSS feeds. Users who sign up their blogs can keep track of readership statistics, along with where their content is being syndicated or linked to. FeedBurner also offers its services to Podcast creators, helping them keep track of how many people are subscribing to their shows.

In addition to a free service, FeedBurner also offers a pro version that gives more extensive statistics and is aimed primarily at advertisers and content owners who need a really detailed outline of … Read more

Silverlight

Category: Publishing

Silverlight is a framework for providing rich applications to the Internet browser. It's a direct competitor to Adobe's Flash, the popular format that powers most of the video we see on the Internet. Silverlight supports the display of high-definition video files and, importantly, Silverlight's creator, Microsoft, will do the heavy lifting of sending them over the Net.

Silverlight apps will run on both major Windows browsers as well as on Safari and Firefox on a Mac. We're already starting to see some pretty good-looking Silverlight Web applications crop up, although the platform is both … Read more

Vox

Category: Publishing

Vox is half social network and half blogging tool. Users can create their own Vox blogs that are part of the Vox network. All sorts of media items can be posted, from pictures and video to audio and books. One of the things that makes Vox stand out compared with some other social networks is the option to set the privacy level on every single post. This gives blog authors complete control over who gets to see and access their content.

Vox is a sister product to another Web-based blogging tool called TypePad, although Vox comes free of … Read more

TypePad

Category: Publishing

TypePad is a Web-publishing tool for bloggers. Users can create a basic blog for a small monthly fee or purchase one of several subscription plans that offer file hosting, extra bandwidth, and support for multiple authors. Like similar Web-based blogging tools, TypePad offers a bevy of customizable themes that can be edited without any coding experience. It also features movable-content modules called widgets that can display interactive information from third-party services. Users can make and host photo galleries and make blog posts from mobile devices.

TypePad is a sister product to Movable Type, a blogging platform that TypePad … Read more

PollDaddy

Category: Publishing

PollDaddy offers a simple approach to making polls, which you can post nearly anywhere on the Web. PollDaddy's poll-creation tool requires no knowledge of HTML or coding, and once made, the poll can be posted on blogs, Web sites, and social-networking profiles.

PollDaddy's polls are fairly minimal, with multiple-choice answers and a way to see the current results prior to voting. They can also be customized with themes, color schemes, and logos. All public polls are available to be browsed by popularity and freshness. You can also see what page the poll is listed on, which … Read more