Editors Choice 09

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: OAuth (Most Important Technology)

Site: OAuth Category: Editors' Choice, Most Important Technology

OAuth is a developing standard that lets Web services interact with each other on behalf of users, without requiring users to give up their passwords.

Why do we need it? Best reason that makes it clear to almost everyone: Twitter apps. Currently, when you're using a third-party Twitter application, like Tweetdeck for example, you have to give the app your Twitter credentials--user name and password. That's a key to your entire Twitter account. An app like Tweetdeck could, if hacked or written maliciously, log in to your Twitter account and … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Farecast (Best Exit)

Site: Farecast Category: Editors' Choice, Best Exit

The founders of airline price forecasting site Farecast cashed out during a brief resurgence of the airline industry after the September 11 downturn and before the double whammy of the 2008 oil crises and the financial sector collapse.

We liked the service from the start. It did something no other travel site did: it predicted the airfare between two points on any upcoming date, and it would advise you when the best time to buy your tickets was--if you should buy now or wait a bit. Farecast officially launched to the public in … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Evernote and Windows Live Sync (Rafe's favorites)

Sites: Evernote and Windows Live Sync Category: Editors' Choice, Rafe's favorites

These products are Webware editor's Rafe Needleman's somewhat secret productivity tools. Neither are well-known products, but both enable a person who does a lot of writing on more than one computer to stay productive.

Evernote is a note-taking application that has both downloadable software and a Web app. No matter which machine--PC, Mac, or iPhone--you use to take notes, you can see them almost immediately on any other of your machines that have the software. You can also get your notes on the Evernote Web service. … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Google Voice (Oncoming Train)

Site: Google Voice Category: Editors' Choice, Oncoming Train award

The giant telecom industry is about to meet another giant force: Google. Its new telephony service is a real threat to traditional phone systems. Google Voice gets the "Oncoming Train" award since it's the product most likely to disturb existing services and companies.

While at the moment Google Voice needs existing phone networks to function, there's reason to believe the company will at some point begin offering phone service of its own, or at the very least work with mobile carriers (as it is with its Android … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Present.ly (Best Twitter Rip-off)

Site: Present.ly Category: Editors' Choice, Best Twitter Rip-off

Everyone wants to build a better Twitter. Or at least a profitable version of it. The best microblogging service other than the original is Present.ly, a microblog service for businesses. Present.ly launched with features that Twitter still lacks for business users. It lets users attach files, for example, and set up groups easily, which is great for teams.

Also, Present.ly is available as installable software, as well as in a hosted service. That means that all those paranoid IT managers who want to make their teams happy by … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Twitter Search (Look out, Google)

Site: Search.twitter.com Category: Editors' Choice; Look out, Google

Twitter itself is fun. Twitter Search, though, is another thing entirely. Twitter Search provides real-time search results on timely issues and news that even Google can't touch. It's this feature, not the Twitter social network, that could end up being Twitter's true path to revenue, as well as the feature that knocks Google off its peg as the master of all search.

Even Google execs have acknowledged that dealing with real-time search is one of the company's most important challenges. Twitter has stuck a pin in … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Cuil & Mobile Me (Failure to Launch)

Site: Cuil and Mobile Me Category: Editors' Choice, Failure to Launch

A lot of Web services fizzle on launch. The "beta" label often provides a line of defense against launch hiccups. But every now and then companies overhype new products that simply aren't close to ready for prime-time launch. The two big winners of the Failure to Launch award for this Webware 100 are, clearly, Cuil and Mobile Me.

Cuil as launched as a competitive search engine to Google, built by ex-Googlers. Early demos looked good, but when the site actually opened to the public, it was … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: GoodGuide (Best Newcomer)

Site: GoodGuide Category: Editors' Choice, Best Newcomer

We created the Editors' Choice awards for products like this: Small and relatively unknown products that demonstrate real leadership, but that don't yet have enough traction to win in the user vote part of the Webware 100.

GoodGuide is a product recommendation system focused on "safe, healthy, and green products." It will tell you what chemicals are in your toothpaste, or if your socks are made with sweatshop labor.

The company's real value add is in acquiring the data on the products. There's an iPhone app for the … Read more

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Aviary (Technical Achievement)

Site: Aviary Category: Editors' Choice, Technical Achievement

Aviary started as a photo editor built into a browser, but since we first covered the app its developers have rolled out a vector editor, a color palette editor, and a tool for creating visual effects. All are delivered through Flash apps in a Web browser. The apps force you to reconsider ever using traditional software again.

The Aviary team also built in unique collaboration dn remixing tools, so artists can lend and borrow graphics and maintain intellectual property rights in the process.

Webware 100 Editors' Choice: Amazon Web Services (Start-up's Friend)

Site: Amazon Web Services Category: Editors' Choice, Start-up's Friend

How can a bunch of kids in a garage create a Web service that half the people on the planet can use at once? By running their app on the cloud computing platform from Amazon Web Services instead of on their own servers.

Amazon Web Services, a collection of services include a computing engine, a database, and storage services, were created to be easy to provision (set up), and to scale as needed. The real benefit is that the developer doesn't pay for services delivered until they are. So … Read more