Webware.com in its recent survey of supposedly 489,467 votes (probably from 20 unique users with spam bots), found the follow as being the best of the best for 2007. i'm not sure why they didn't decide to wait until the end of the year, but i digress...
"Browsing - Fundamental Web access tools: Browsers, extensions, widgets, and security."
And the winners are: Firefox, Google Reader, Internet Explorer, MyYahoo!, OpenID, Opera, Safari, StumbleUpon and Yourminis.Umm... something seems screwy already. Google Reader? As a webbrowser or a pdf viewer? Google Reader... beating out Internet Explorer...
>.>
<.<
If you say so.
Glad to see Firefox took first: hands down, the most powerful. Opera has really fallen by the wayside. Too bad so sad. Oh and Safari bites everyone's dust, no surprise there.
"Communications - Person-to-person communications platforms: E-mail, chat, voice"
And the winners are: AIM.com, Gmail, GrandCentral, Meebo, Skype, Trillian, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger.Obviously the fact that AIM still has such a ridiculous following is more than a little disappointing. It's nice that Gmail came out 2nd but... Google Talk didn't even place? Google Talk was beat out by... Skype? Gimme a break. Jabber is Jabber so far as I'm aware. i was happy to see Meebo and Trillian place well. Oh yeah, and those of you who voted for Hotmail and Yahoo!, wake up--your decade ended a while back.
"Community - Online gathering places and group-powered content."
And the winners are: Bebo, Deviant Art, digg, Dogster/Catster, facebook, friendster, Gaia Online, Linked In, Me.dium, MySpace.
Wow, this is sad. Of those listed, I only have a Deviant Art and a Facebook account (against my better judgement, for the express purpose of helping my friend with her BFA pottery show). Who the heck are those other people? I thought friendster was a flop? Dogster/Catster? Umm... i don' t know who you are, but your name is utterly retarded and you should be drug out into the street and shot. Fortunately, MySpace came in dead last, there may be hope for the world yet.
"Data - Tools for finding online info, and storing and sharing files."
And the winners are: AllPeers, .Mac, Bittorrent, box, ChaCha, Google, Pando, Windows Live Search, Yahoo! Search, YouSendit.
Fascinating. There's really no excuse for Bittorrent not taking first place. It's apparent to me that this survey was only given to techys who like to try out stuff, not the average end users who actually knows what the heck she or he is doing. Bittorrent is used, oh, i don't know, about a thousand times more than the rest of these people. .MAC beating out Bittorrent. HAHAHA~ *begins to hold stomach and cry from the excess tears* In your wildest dreams Apple. That'll be the day. Oh, and people who voted for Windows Live Search and Yahoo! Search may in fact be living in a cave ten miles beneath Antarctica. In terms of sheer usability and practicality how could Google not stomp them completely off the list?
"Entertainment - Tools for taking time off: Games and contests."
And the winners are: Desktop Tower Defense, Eventful, GameGum, Homestar Runner, Lime Rider, Newgrounds, Revision3, Stardoll, Yahoo! Bix, You Don't know Jack!
I'll be the first to admit, i know nothing about online games. What i do know is that Newgrounds is older than most people who use it. Same goes for You Don't Know Jack! but at least that has some semblance of intelligence behind it. Homestar Runner...? What can I say: people are immature... and they always will be. The rest are of little consequence.
"Media - Places to consume and share videos, photos, and music."
And the winners are: Flickr, Fotki, Last.fm, Netflix, Pandora, Photobucket, uStream.TV, Yahoo! Video, YouTube, Zooomr.
I am beginning to think the couldn't have been real voters for this, perhaps a program was written in VB to generate random votes in all categories. Millions and millions of people use YouTube everyday, both views and posters. In what universe would that not justify it taking first place? Flickr is good, but hardly as recognized. Netflix? You've got to be kidding me; no body really gives them money do they. Please tell me they don't. I will be sad. Photobucket is good. The rest can bite me.
"Mobile - Products that make your mobile phone a Web 2.0 appliance."
And the winners are: Google, 3Jam, Google Gmail Mobile, Mundu Radio, Radar.net, SoonR, ShoZu, TellMe, Yahoo! OneSearch.
Uh-huh. i guess i'm not surprised that Google placed twice. I am disappointed that Palm didn't place, i guess i'm living in the stone ages by still using my Handspring Treo.
"Productivity and Commerce - Sites for getting things done and doing online business."
And the winners are: Amazon, Basecamp, Blinksale, Craigslist, ebay, Google Adwords, Google Calendar, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Microsoft Office Live, PayPal.
Sounds about right. Though, i think PayPal ranks a little higher than DEAD LAST if you ask me. Craigslist is nice but... beating out ebay? Wow. We live in tumultuous times. Google Adwords i can understand, and Google Docs i can accept (without understanding ) but Google Calendar?! Umm... i am standing behind my theory of randomly generated votes.
" Publishing - Tools for producing your own site: Blogging and Web content services"
And the winners are: Adobe Flash, Blogger, Drupal CMS, FeedBurner, Google Analytics, PollDaddy, Silverlight, TypePad, Vox, and WordPress.
W3Schools didn't even rank. It seems like they are only going for sites that offer widgets. Speaking of widgets, seems to me Google ranked a little low this time. i guess you never know who'll come out on top with net tools. WordPress came in dead last. No surprise there. Adobe Flash...
... ADOBE Flash...?
...
i hate my life.
and last but not least, the one that actually maybe pertains to Library 2.0:
"Reference - Fonts of knowledge--from history to movies to maps."
And the winners are: Answers.com, Ask.com, Geni, Google Maps, IMDB, Microsoft Virtual Earth, WebMD, Wikipedia, Wikia, Yahoo! Maps.*shakes head in disgust* Yet another example of throwing your vote away. It's apart to me now that they must have used chimpanzees in their demographic. This truly hurts my head.
Answers.com? How could that actually yield any valid research?
Ask.com - hahaha
Geni - no comment
Google Maps - should be number 2 in the list if it were to only encompass these 10.
IMDB - lol. You call that research?
MS Virtual Earth - ahem. Excuse me? i'm sorry i don't think i heard you correctly. Did you say Google Earth? Yeah... that's what i thought you said. Idiots.
WebMD - sigh
Wikipedia - how could this not take first place?
Wikia - no comment
Yahoo! Maps - remember what i was saying about those chimpanzees? i take it back, single celled protoplasmic life forms would know to vote for a better web resource.
All in all, i'd say i want to throw out this survey. The fact that Yahoo! made it to so many categories only reinforces the fact that internet users are prone to sitting too close to the monitor and subsequently irradiating themselves. Yahoo! doesn't seem to me to be the sort of dynamic company that's going to lead us into the new millennium. i myself stopped using Yahoo! when i was 15 years old. Obviosly that's about the age-level mentality of the people who voted on this survey.
The only thing that makes me feel like the internet isn't doomed is that AOL only ranked once. Unfortunately, that was only because of the age old bandwagon advertizing slogan which persists to date amongst the unthinking masses: "But all my friends use it..." ^^;;
1 comment:
I don’t have any comments on the survey itself but found the Webware.com Web site mentioned to be a good source of information on many of the types of Web applications out there. Some were new to me, so thanks for this.
Post a Comment