After 5 months, 200 applications reviewed, 20 winner take all rounds, and 4 rounds of playoffs, we are down to the Final Four. It’s time to crown our champion.

Here are the Final Four matchups:

Technorati vs Myspace

YouTube vs Techmeme (f/k/a Tech Memeorandum).

Semi-Final 1: Technorati vs Myspace

As I talked about the other day, the way to ensure a long and hopefully profitable Web 2.0 life is to become part of the interconnectivity infrastructure. Technorati is slowly but surely doing that, by becoming the de facto standard for link tracking and blog mindshare measurement. Google will always have a share of the blog search market, but Technorati seems to be lapping Google as far as adding other features. Toss in a great and proactive CEO and some VC money and the sky might be the limit for Technorati.

But there’s still that one problem. Technorati has nothing to sell. It’s free, which puts it on the back of the almighty ad dollar along with the most of its Web 2.0 brethren.

Still, most of the top bloggers use Technorati daily, and that’s a good position to be in.

I am no fan of Myspace personally, but almost everyone I know under 25 has a Myspace page and uses it as an online hub for cross-connectivity. It is definitely an important part of the infrastructure.

My concern is that Myspace is not doing enough (words don’t count) to prevent itself from becoming a buffet for stalkers and worse. But I can’t argue with numbers, and Myspace dominates the social networking space. Like Technorati, it has nothing to sell, but its huge traffic numbers will give it more revenue options than any other ad-supported Web 2.0 web site.

People who don’t blog use Myspace every day. Its penetration into the non-geek population makes it hard to argue against its continued dominance.

As an aside, I wonder if it pisses Yahoo off that Myspace has taken over the internet with what is, in large part, merely an updated version of Geocities- something that Yahoo had a decade ago?

Conclusion: Myspace wins convincingly.

Semi-Final 2: YouTube vs Techmeme

I have become more and more of a believer in YouTube over the last few months. It too is a crucial part of the interconnectivity infrastructure- having become the central depository of online video.

I link to YouTube videos all the time, as do many, many other bloggers. That fact in and of itself is impressive, but there’s more. We have only scratched the surface as far as the archival possibilities go- from old cartoons, to old music videos. As long as the content owners don’t get stupid, YouTube may become what Google wanted to become- the archive of everything.

Like everybody else in the Web 2.0 space, YouTube has nothing to sell. But its dominant mindshare and its reliable technology make it a juggernaut in the new cyberspace.

Techmeme (formerly known as Tech Memeorandum) is the first web site I visit every morning when reading my news. I use it several times a day. To say that it is indispensable to my internet experience would not be an overstatement.

It closely follows one of my primary rules of business: to be excellent at one thing is far better than to be mediocre at many things. But as far as the larger world goes, Techmeme’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness- it is part of the interconnectivity infrastructure for those of us who read and write on tech topics, but it is largely unknown to the rest of the world.

So while it is, by leaps and bounds, the most useful and beloved of all of these applications to me, its penetration into the larger population is far less than the Myspaces and YouTubes of the world.

Conclusion: YouTube wins convincingly.

Championship: Myspace vs YouTube

This is truly a battle of the titans. Myspace has the numbers edge at the moment, but I think YouTube will show more staying power in the long run.

As soon as the parents of the world (and the legislators they vote for) come to understand the risk their kids are taking by putting their lives online, Myspace will come under increasing pressure to become safer. Will that result in a kid-migration to some new, offshore networking service that we haven’t heard of yet? I don’t know, but it might.

More likely, Myspace will become the new AOL, where newbys learn how to interconnect and quasi-blog. As they become better at it, they will move to more robust blogging platforms. Myspace has a good, long ride ahead of it, but I don’t believe it is the final destination for all the eyeballs that currently reside there.

YouTube, on the other hand, allows videos to be served anywhere. If you move from one platform to another, you can take your YouTube content with you. Look for YouTube to cater to the fast growing blog market by developing more and more tools to enable video blogging and other content interfaces.

The Champion of the Newsome.Org Web 2.0 Wars is…

YouTube, in a nail biter.

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.

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 and Round 2. It’s time for the third round in the quarter-finals.

Here are the contestants for the third quarter-final round:

Wikipedia
Flickr
Myspace
Blogger
Pandora

Wikipedia is a collaborative online encyclopedia that has become the best resource on the net, and it’s free. I use it every day and link to it all the time at Newsome.Org.

Flickr is simply the best photo storage, organization and sharing site in the world, period. I use it to store and share photos, to order prints and to make books and posters of my photos. It is an indispensible part of my internet experience.

Myspace is, well, Myspace. I don’t get it, but millions of people do. It has more mindshare at the moment than any other part of the internet. Even non-geeks know what Myspace is.

Blogger is a free blog creation and hosting service. I use it to publish this blog, though my files are hosted on my own server. In fact, I’m typing this post via Blogger.

Pandora maps songs by melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, etc. to create and play groups of similar songs. It works incredibly well and along with Last.fm and Vault Radio, it forms the basis of my internet music listening experience

And the Winner of the third quarter-final round is:

This is a tough one, since I use every one of these applications and services almost every day, except the one that is the most popular site on the internet. I love Pandora and Blogger, but there are other services that do similar things almost as well. Flickr is probably my favorite site on the internet and one of only a few that I actually pay to use. But Wikipedia and Myspace are titans of the internet.

Wikipedia ought to win, but if you give any weight to financial prospects, you simply cannot not pick Myspace.

Myspace moves to the Final Four.

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. It’s time for the second round in the quarter-finals.

Here are the contestants for the second quarter-final round:

Last.fm
iKarma
Memeorandum
AllPeers
Riya

Last.fm is a very impressive social network focused on music. It has streaming music based on what you like and what those who like what you like like. I have used it extensively and, along with Pandora and Vault Radio, it forms the basis of my internet music listening experience.

iKarma is a feedback and self described reputation and feedback system. Think of it as eBay feedback for the whole internet. There still isn’t much feedback content. Neat idea, but it needs more people to input more feedback and I’m just not sure that’s going to happen.

Memeorandum is the king of the memetrackers. I’ve talked about it a ton, and it is one of the first sites I read every day. It is probably the most useful web site on the internet when it comes to finding tech-related news.

AllPeers is is a Firefox extension based on a bittorent application that allows groups of buddies to share files.

Riya is a photo sharing service with a twist. It has face and text recognition capability that help you identify and name your photos. Though I am not as blown away as others by the face recognition features, it is a well designed photo sharing service in its own right.

And the Winner of the second quarter-final round is:

In a battle between Last.fm and Memeorandum, I have to give the edge to Memeorandum based on how often I use it. Unlike last round, when YouTube edged out TailRank due to its penetration into the non-tech population, none of this week’s contestants have that kind of penetration.

Memeorandum moves to the Final Four.

The Web 2.0 Wars season has come to an end. The list of winners and playoff brackets were posted the other day.

Now it’s time for the first round in the quarter-finals.

Here’s how the playoffs will work. After taking a look at my prior commentary about each application, I’ll revisit the page and see what, if anything, is new. I’ll add an update for each contestant and pick the winner.

Here are the contestants for the first quarter-final round:

Pageflakes
YouTube
Poddater
TailRank (replaced Tagworld)
FireAnt

Pageflakes is a content aggregator and custom portal. It is easy to set up and has some pre-configured content to help you get started. You can import your RSS feeds or add content manually. I still prefer My Yahoo, but that may be because I am so familiar with it. Pageflakes is a well designed and easy to use application.

YouTube is a video hosting, sharing and search service. It’s free and seems fast and reliable. Since it won Round 2 back in early February, it has really taken off. Even people who know little about tech and the internet are becoming aware of YouTube. This week I noticed a secretary in my office watching this somewhat pitiful and somewhat hilarious ego-fest (Warning: strong language; not suitable for kids). Youtube is a force to be reckoned with.

Poddater is a personals meets podcasting site. You make a video profile and upload it to share with others. I’m about a thousand years too old to be interested in this, but it’s a unique idea and the web site looks very well designed. This is one service that I can’t sign up and try for obviously, but the idea is a good one.

TailRank is a memetracker, and a mighty fine one at that. Since winning Round 4, Kevin and crew have added one excellent feature after another to TailRank. Listening to users is smart on so many levels, and Kevin listens to his users. A well designed and useful application with huge potential.

FireAnt is a video blog directory and search engine. The downloadable client allows you to watch video blogs in many different formats. You can search for content and you can subscribe to RSS video feeds and have content delivered to you automatically. It’s a neat service, but I still prefer YouTube for my video needs.

And the Winner of the first quarter-final round is:

While all of these applications are excellent and have great potential, YouTube and TailRank are juggernauts of the new internet. Either one would be a great choice to move to the Final Four, but YouTube’s penetration into the non-tech population gives it a slight edge.

YouTube moves to the Final Four.

Aften almost 200 applications reviewed and 20 winner take all rounds, here are the winners of the preliminary rounds.

The Web 2.0 Wars March Madness will consist of 4 quarter-final matches, 2 semi-final matches and a champship round. During the playoff rounds, I will spend a little more time digging into each application, which will result in a more detailed review.

The teams will be grouped into the following groups for the playoffs.

Pageflakes
YouTube
Poddater
Tailrank (replaced Tagworld)
FireAnt

Last.fm
iKarma
Memeorandum
AllPeers
Riya

Wikipedia
Flickr
Myspace
Blogger
Pandora

Digg
Basecamp
Backpack
Technorati
Mercora

Look for the first quarter-final match in the next day or two.

It’s time for Round 20 in Newsome.Org’s Web 2.0 Wars. The contestants and rules are here.

This is the final heat of the first Round. The playoffs will be next.

Other Rounds: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Here are the contestants for Round 20:

Mercora
StumbleUpon
ClipShack
MeetWithApproval
HomePortals
SpinSpy

Mercora is a music search service. It requires you to install software on your computer, so I can’t comment on how well it works.

StumbleUpon is a browser extension that let’s users rate and recommend web sites of interest.

ClipShack is a video hosting and sharing service. Crowded space.

MeetWithApproval lets users schedule and confirm meetings.

HomePortals returned error messages galore when I tried to visit. DQ’ed.

SpinSpy is a news by contest site, sort of like Digg

Before Today I’d Heard of:

0 out of 6.

And the Winner of Round 20 is:

Mercora in a very small and very weak heat.

Technorati Tags:
newsome.org web wars, web 2.0

It’s time for Round 19 in Newsome.Org’s Web 2.0 Wars. The contestants and rules are here.

This is the final heat of the first Round. The playoffs will be next.

Other Rounds:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Here are the contestants for Round 19:

Yelp
Smarkets
Inform
Filangy
Magnolia
43things
ShoZu
Technorati
Wrickr
Feedmarker

Yelp is a review aggregator with a local flavor. It catagorizes reviews by city.

Smarkets is a “stock market for products” game based on products sold at Amazon. You can buy or short. One of the most insufficient FAQs I’ve ever seen.

Inform is a new aggregation site. Users can create custom channels for topics of interest. It collects and connects the content, as opposed to relying solely on RSS feeds (they say that makes it better).

Filangy says is is “an exciting new concept in search that caters to the user’s specific searching needs and provides results that are needed.” OK, but that doesn’t really tell me anything. Needs more meat on the About page.

Magnolia is a beautifully designed social bookmarking and content management service.

43things is a goal setting and sharing service. Good mindshare, but I don’t really get it. Maybe I need to think up some goals.

ShoZu is a mobile phone service that helps you to save photos and videos from your camera-phone to your preferred online sharing site. it works with Flickr and a bunch of others.

Technorati is a blog search and tagging service. Huge mindshare, and I’ve called it the backbone of the blogosphere.

Wrickr has no meaningful information on its web page. Another example of a company tossing a web site up before there’s anything to see.

Feedmarker is a bookmarking service, that includes a feed reader and tagging. And it’s open source (good marks for that).

Before Today I’d Heard of:

3 out of 10.

And the Winner of Round 19 is:

Technorati in a photo finish with Magnolia.

Technorati Tags:
newsome.org web wars, web 2.0

It’s time for Round 18 in Newsome.Org’s Web 2.0 Wars. The contestants and rules are here.

This is the final heat of the first Round. The playoffs will be next.

Other Rounds:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Here are the contestants for Round 18:

Lexxe
Lookster
PXN8
Measuremap
Facebook
Netvibes
Goowy
MyVideoKaraoke
Gmail
Backpack
Platial

Lexxe is a search engine. One thing I like about it is that web searches and blog searches are combined.

Lookster is not yet live and has no information at all on its web page.

PXN8 is an online photo editing application. You can also buy a copy and install it on your computer.

Measuremap, recently bought by Google is a stats tracking application.

Facebook is a social networking site limited to college students.

Netvibes is an Ajax-based personal portal page. It probably has the greatest mindshare of the new portal players.

Goowy is a very nice looking personal portal page, that adds some extra features like online file storage.

MyVideoKaraoke is a site where users can upload videos of people singing karaoke songs. There aren’t all that many songs up yet, but this is a really interesting idea.

Gmail is Google free, web based mail. I wrote about it here.

Backpack is an online information collection and storage application. Sort of like a turbo-charged on-line Onfolio or One Note.

Platial is a collaborative atlas. You can add tags for locations of places that you are others may be interested in. Neat idea.

Before Today I’d Heard of:

7 out of 11.

And the Winner of Round 18 is:

Backpack, in a hotly contested heat. Backpack has a lot of potential as a one-stop shop for online storage and information organization.

Technorati Tags:
newsome.org web wars, web 2.0

It’s time for Round 17 in Newsome.Org’s Web 2.0 Wars. The contestants and rules are here.

This is the final heat of the first Round. The playoffs will be next.

Other Rounds:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Here are the contestants for Round 17:

Truveo
NewsVine
egoSurf
Clipfire
Mozy
Quimble
Basecamp
Pegasus News
Remember The Milk
Squidoo
PictureCloud

Truveo is a video search engine. It seems pretty fast.

NewsVine is a social bookmarking site that combines features of a number of other services, such as Digg and Google News. I talked about it here.

egoSurf is a program that searches your name and web site and tells you where you stack up on the web. I got a 9346. I hope that’s good. I think this is a cool idea.

Clipfire is is a shopping search engine and community. I want to buy a Dell 1900FP monitor, but when I searched for it I got links to all sorts of Dell stuff. Same result for Thinkpad X41. Unless I’m missing something, there results are not focused enough.

Mozy is a free remote backup service. You get 1G of space (2 if you fill out a survey) in return for accepting some ads via email.

Quimble lets you create and share polls. I’ve noticed some nice looking Quimble polls on various blogs.

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.

Pegasus News is a “local media venture” (whatever that might be) to be launched in Dallas, Texas in “early 2006.” OK.

Remember The Milk is an online method to manage to-do lists. Nobody tell my wife about this site, please. Cool looking site.

Squidoo is a site where people post content on topics they care about. They say it’s a combination of Friendster and Wikipedia.

PictureCloud is a service that lets you create 360 degree photo representations of stuff. Unfortuntately all the samples were cut in half when I viewed them via Firefox. Not good. They worked in Internet Explorer.

Before Today I’d Heard of:

4 out of 11.

And the Winner of Round 17 is:

Basecamp nudges out Remember the Milk, just because it has a business plan that doesn’t rely solely on ads.

Technorati Tags:
newsome.org web wars, web 2.0