The Web 2.0 Wars season has come to an end. The list of winners and playoff brackets were posted the other day.
Here’s how the playoffs will work. After taking a look at my prior commentary about each application, I’ll revisit each application and see what, if anything, is new. I’ll add an update for each contestant and pick the winner.
We are now in the quarter-finals and have already had Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3. It’s time for the fourth and final round of the quarter-finals.
Here are the contestants for the fourth quarter-final round:
Digg
Basecamp
Backpack
Technorati
Mercora
Digg is a wildly popular, user driven site that allows users to link to and vote on internet blog posts and news stories. It has huge mindshare and I greatly admire the technology, but as I’ve said many times I don’t like the news by contest process. There is also the potential for gaming which stories get top billing.
Basecamp is a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects. Prices range from free to expensive. I like the fact that I haven’t seen a million of these and they actually charge for the service, thereby at least giving a nod to a legitimate business plan.
Backpack is an online information collection and storage application. Sort of like a turbo-charged on-line Onfolio or One Note.
Technorati is a blog search and tagging service. It has huge mindshare, and I’ve called it the backbone of the blogosphere- when it works. Unfortunately, it has regularly occurring hiccups.
Mercora is a music search service that stumbled across the finish line first in a weak heat. I got flamed for not picking StumbleUpon.
And the Winner of the fourth quarter-final round is:
This is also a hard round. I have been a devoted user and defender of Technorati, and I still like it, but my link numbers go up and down in a random fashion and I know for a fact (via trackbacks, etc.) that a lot of blogs are not being tracked correctly. Digg is a technological juggernaut, but I just don’t like news by contest. Basecamp has a business plan, but plays to a niche market. Backpack is cool, but in a crowded field.
Most people would give it to Digg in a landslide. But I’m going with a fading Technorati.
Technorati joins YouTube, Memeorandum (now called Techmeme) and Myspace in the Final Four.
Look for the semi-finals shortly.
Newsome.Org 