Webware100

Webware 100 winner: Gaia Online

Site: GaiaOnline.com
Category: Social & Publishing

Gaia Online is a large, forum-based social network. Users can create their own avatars, then earn virtual money by playing games and interacting with the virtual world. Gaia also includes its own video hosting service, and a 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 more than 100,000 micro-transactions happening on its site every day. In addition to the games, Gaia Online also has active more

Webware 100 winner: Answers.com

Site: Answers.com
Category: Search & Reference

Want to find out more about something? Check Answers.com. The service pulls information from several different reference sites to provide answers to your questions. You get full encyclopedia entries from services such as Wikipedia and Britannica, as well as spelling, usage information, and translations into different languages.

Since these other services are updated frequently, entries on Answers.com tend to stay fairly current. Users are also able to register, and answer questions that have been asked by other users.

In addition to its Web site, Answers.com offers a software program users more

Webware 100 winner: Ask.com

Site: Ask.com
Category: Search & Reference

Ask.com is currently the fifth most popular search engine on the Web. It lets users search the Web for links, images, videos, driving directions, and news, along with local city listings and shopping links for products.

One thing it does that no other major search engines do, is display results from these other search types on the same page. This lets you see a wide gamut of results, all at once. It also differs from other search engines in allowing users to customize and skin various elements of the engine from a large more

Webware 100 winner: Yahoo

Site: Yahoo.com
Category: Search & Reference

Yahoo.com is an Internet news portal, as well as a directory of Yahoo's various Web services. It's one of the highest-trafficked sites in the world. Users can catch up on daily news items, weather, horoscopes, and even get a quick peek at activity in their Yahoo Web mailboxes. Along the top there's also ready access to Yahoo's Web search.

Since last year, Yahoo has been testing the next generation of its home page to a small group of users. This new version will let users customize what elements more

Webware 100 winner: Live Search

Site: Live.com
Category: Search & Reference

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.

Besides Web searches, Microsoft has a few search tools built into Live.com that let you search books, XML feeds, and the company's questions and answers service.

One thing that separates it from competitors is the Cashback service, which offers users cash back on certain more

Webware 100 winner: eHow

Site: eHow.com
Category: Search & Reference

eHow is a free how-to site that includes both videos and articles. The site enlists the help of professionals to create the more than 300,000 articles that provide step-by-step text instructions. It also has articles that are written by its users, bringing the total to 500,000 guides.

Most of its guides consist of step-by-step instructions, tips and warnings, and a user comment section where people can add their results or opinions. Registered users are also able to claim having done something mentioned in a guide, which is kept track of in their more

Webware 100 winner: About.com

Site: About.com
Category: Search & Reference

About.com is a database of how-to guides and informational pages. Unlike crowd-sourced guide services, About only uses guides written by credible experts it's hired. About picks its guides to write in certain subject areas. Their work is then overseen by a professional editor who does copy editing, fact checking, and offers advice on improvements.

About's business model revolves around advertising and being picked up in search results. Each topic page has its own contextual ads which are usually related to the topic. About can also sell advertisers space on certain topic more

Webware 100 winner: WikiHow

Site: Wikihow.com
Category: Search & Reference

WikiHow is a crowd-sourced how-to guide, powered by MediaWiki, the service that powers Wikipedia. Users put together steps, tips, and warnings on any topic, and other users can make additions or edits to those articles.

The service has more than 50,000 how-to articles, which are constantly being updated and edited. They're usually found in the results from major search engines, which has led to a steady month-by-month growth since the service launched in early 2005.

Webware 100 winner: Scour

Site: Scour.com
Category: Search & Reference

Scour is a search tool that blends results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN together in one stream. You can hot-swap between the three, or break out any single result into another search. If you come across a bad result, or one you think should go above the others, you can also vote it up (or down) or leave a comment.

Unlike traditional search engines, Scour also has something called Friends Feed, which keeps track of friends on the service and tells you what results they are commenting on. It also rewards users with gift more

Webware 100 winner: Wikipedia

Site: Wikipedia.org
Category: Search & Reference

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. Instead of being authored by a select group of editors, Wikipedia can be edited by anyone anywhere, and at any time. Wikipedia is available in a large number of languages and has entries about nearly everything. It's become so well known, people consider it an adjunct to Google as a place to find out more about almost any subject.

Each Wikipedia entry gets its own article as well as a built-in discussion in which users can talk about things they want to add or request changes from more