Webware100

Site: Woot.com
Category: Commerce

Woot is an online retailer of goods. Most of the items sold are electronics, although you never know what will be next. The site sells a new product every night at midnight Central time and will keep it available until the next night or until it sells out.

Unsold goods are then later sold (usually at a discount) in what's called a Woot-off, where the retailer continues to sell new or previously listed goods until it runs out of stock, replacing it with other items. Woot-offs are well known for ending with the notorious "bag of crap," which contains a random grouping of items that are undisclosed to the buyer until it arrives in the mail. Bags of crap have been known to randomly contain high value items such as big-screen TVs and popular electronics.

Besides its standard store, Woot has three other variants that use the same, or a similar sales model. Wine.woot.com sells a new selection of wine or alcoholic items each week, while Shirt.woot.com sells a new user-created T-shirt every day. Woot's other site, Sellout.woot.com, is a partnership with Yahoo's Shopping site, and usually sells the second string items from Woot.com.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: PayPal.com
Category: Commerce

PayPal was one of the first services to let people exchange money online. It was popularized--and later purchased--by eBay, and is one of the most widely recognized payment systems on the Internet. It's used in online auctions and stores as a way to control and manage payments.

PayPal has survived throughout the years by charging fees to its sellers. Buyers in online auctions and those making donations via the service aren't charged these fees.

One of the reasons people choose to use PayPal over other services is its buyer protection and anonymization services, which offer some protection against online fraud. More recently, alternate services such as Google's Checkout have garnered some of the attention in this space for similar efforts with lower fees.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Eventbrite.com
Category: Commerce

Eventbrite is an events management service. If you're having an event and want to manage the entire thing online, Eventbrite lets you set up a customized destination page where attendees can register and buy tickets. It can also take the event you created and send it out to other events services in order to promote it.

Eventbrite makes its money off of fees. The more expensive your event is, the more it charges. It also takes care of things like credit card processing, so the people buying your tickets can make the purchase as if they were buying something online.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: ZocDoc.com
Category: Commerce

ZocDoc is a doctor and dentist finder. It also lets patients book a time with their doctor online, just like they would when making reservations for a restaurant. Users simply need to drop in their insurance carrier and plan, then where they live. The service does the rest by showing available appointments, and providing the tools to secure available times.

ZocDoc also features a ratings system, which lets users rate each provider with both a star rating and a written review. Included in this rating are things like bedside manner and wait time, which can help other ZocDoc users steer clear of potentially bad providers and find the good ones. The service is currently limited to the greater New York area, but has plans to branch out nationwide.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Amazon.com
Category: Commerce

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 transparent about which products are selling well in each category, which provides a secondary means for consumers to find out what's hot.

Since last year, Amazon has introduced an updated version of its Kindle eBook reader, along with a Kindle application for the iPhone. The company also began selling direct downloads for computer games through its Web storefront.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Elance.com
Category: Commerce

Elance is an online hiring and management service. Employers can find people in various disciplines for hire, then use the site to manage their project status, and get in touch. The site also takes care of things like payments and accounting, making it easier to focus on the actual work being done.

Elance has managed more than $161 billion worth of earnings since 2005, and has helped build some very large sites--including Digg.com, which creator Kevin Rose reportedly paid around $200 on Elance to create.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Craigslist.org
Category: Commerce

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 $25-$75 per category to list their openings. There are also house and apartment listings, personal ads, and an active user forum where people can talk about whatever they want.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Zillow.com
Category: Commerce

Zillow is an online real estate service. Instead of having to go visit houses in person, you can do so online, browsing by neighborhood and narrowing down what you're looking for based on a variety of parameters. It'll do some of the legwork for you by figuring out how your house stacks up against other houses in the area, including how much it's worth per square foot and how much other houses sold for in your area.

One of the neatest features, however, is the option to ask a question of the sellers or the real estate agents. You can do so without even having to register. In turn, the service has effectively created a very large directory of real estate agents whose properties can be browsed, including houses they've sold in the past.

(Credit: CNET)

Site: Etsy.com
Category: Commerce

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods. Users can create their own virtual shopfronts 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 make their way onto other classified and auction sites such as eBay. It's also a great place for people to sell their stuff without having to buy a special domain, write code, hire someone to build a Web site, and pay for the hosting.

(Credit: CNET)