Top 5 Web 2.0 Winners

Yahoo has grown by leaps and bounds over the last year introducing a myriad of services ranging from online photo services, to even more user driven services like http://answers.yahoo.com/. Yahoo also unertook a very agressive site redesign adding to its Web 2.0 adherence.

YouTube has led to an unprecedented growth in Video Blogs and Video Podcasts online. Not only have they given the internet community the free unlimited bandwith they have spawned a deeply committed and thriving online collective that devours new media daily.

Privacy Concerns aside Facebook’s consistent development and commitment to a refined online social experience, they have primed themselves to be the next big acquisition, with rumors of bids in the Billions with a B. The new features pull together all the data and social interactions into a MiniFeed that allows users to be tightly integrated into the social happenings of all their friends. If that doesn’t sum up Web 2.0, I don’t know what does.

In this winner-takes-almost-all world of online web applications flickr would definetly be the forerunner in online photo storage and social tagging. Since its creation Flickr has been acquired by Yahoo, who not online made it availble to its millions of users but continues to improve the overall experience in what appears to be a profitable manner.

Digg’s growth, aided by the very popular Diggnation podcast makes it a no brainer for the Web 2.0 winners list. A massive social network centered around bringing the very best content on the web to millions of users as well as an AD supported business model are at the heart of this Web 2.0 machine. Digg is the new standard for online news, while Netscape and other struggle to imitate, Digg continues to innovate.