Webware100

Stardoll is a Web-based version of dress-up dolls. Users have a wide variety of real-life celebrities and pop culture icons to choose from. Each doll can be dressed up in various pieces of clothing and shared with others. Users get their own profiles to house their doll collections and become friends with others who enjoy similar dolls. They can also maintain a blog and photo gallery. It's a mishmash of social networking and an arts-and-crafts fair.

The service is free. Users can also create their own doll avatar known as a MeDoll. MeDolls can be dressed up in a variety of clothing items, which can be purchased using a virtual currency known as StarDollars.

Winner: Stardoll (Stardoll.com)
Category: Social

MySpace.com 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 an integrated e-mail platform, as well as a standalone instant messaging application.

Since launching with profiles, MySpace has added blogs, a photo- and video-hosting service, and a way to add music tracks to your personal page. Most recently, it's launched its own application platform for third-party developers to create applications that tie into user's data feeds.

Winner: MySpace (MySpace.com)
Category: Social

LiveJournal is a popular blogging service that lets users set up a simple, no-frills blog with very little technical know-how required. Users can skin it any way they'd like, and make it a part of the LiveJournal blog network.

LiveJournal is also a very tight-knit social network. Users can befriend one another and keep up to date when other users post to their blogs. While the idea has made its way to other mainstream social networks like MySpace and Facebook, LiveJournal retains its appeal mostly because of its intensely engaged audience.

The company was sold to Russian media company SUP late last year, although many who worked on the site continue to as part of the service splitting off from former parent company Six Apart.

Winner: LiveJournal (LiveJournal.com)
Category: Social

Google Groups is Google's Web-based answer to e-mail discussion groups. It integrates forums, file sharing, group e-mailing, and collaborative document creation to take the discussion away from your e-mail client and put it in your browser.

There are thousands of groups on Google, and if you can't find what you're looking for you can start your own. If you've got a Google account, Google Groups will simply reuse some of that information to create a profile. Groups users can also custom tailor the information they share with others for each group they're in.

There have already been several interesting uses of Google Groups, including company tech support pages and product knowledge bases. Like other Google projects, users have taken the tools provided and bended them to match.

Winner: Google Groups (Groups.Google.com)
Category: Social

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 it has more than 300,000 active users daily. In addition to the games, Gaia Online also has active forums that are in part for fun, but also are an integral element to the plot and progression of Gaia Online's plotline. Since launch, the forums have been host to more than a billion member posts.

Winner: Gaia Online (GaiaOnline.com)
Category: Social

Friendster is a popular social network, and one of the first sites to offer user profiles and the capability to network with others. This very functionality led to a patent by the United States Patent Office that has been the subject of some criticism both about patents in general and their effect on Web services.

Friendster may be best known for turning down a bid by Google to buy the service in 2003, which is right around the time when the site grew too large and popular to support its scale. The site still has more than 50 million members.

Winner: Friendster (Friendster.com)
Category: Social

Facebook is a popular social networking service. Originally offered to college students, it later opened up its doors to anyone with an e-mail address. Facebook gives users a place to make and explore personal profiles and interact with friends. While offerings were initially limited to a comment board called "The Wall" and a personal picture, the site now has several in-house services like user chat, photo hosting, interest groups, status messages, link sharing, and the news feed.

Facebook's biggest move, however, was introducing a development platform that lets developers make their own "application" for Facebook. These applications can run the gamut, from single-use widgets to full-blown Web sites that can be accessed and integrated into a Facebook user's data. Users can add as many applications as they want, then integrate and rearrange them on their profile page.

Winner: Facebook (Facebook.com)
Category: Social

DeviantArt is a service that hosts user-created art, be it a photograph, written word, or digital creations. The service has been around since 2000, and currently hosts more than 54 million pieces of user-generated art. 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 a built-in private messaging service. Users also get their own blogs. The site's main destinations is its shop, which hosts user artwork and promotes up-and-coming artists based on their popularity on the site.

Winner: DeviantArt (DeviantArt.com)
Category: Social

Bebo is a not just another MySpace, it's a one of the fastest growing and largest 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 also the top-visited Web site in all of Ireland. Earlier this year it was also snatched up by AOL for a staggering $850 million.

Winner: Bebo (Bebo.com)
Category: Social