Webware 100 winner: Friendster

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