© Rachael Furn 2007 - 2009
Not suitable for vegetarians
March 12th, 2008
The lovely people over at Carsonified have just published a survey about people’s favourite web applications of the year. The results were interesting to say the least.
#1 Gmail
Gmail is something that I’ve always disliked for various reasons. Maybe it’s just me not appreciating it enough. Whilst I do have a gmail account, I rarely, if ever, check my mail online. It’s all served up nicely in Thunderbird for me. I get a total of 2 emails per day via gmail. One is a copy of my google analytics stats, the other is a news update for ’simple plan’.
#2 Flickr
Again, flickr is another web app I’m probably not using correctly. I much prefer hosting all my pictures myself, and maybe I don’t take enough pictures regularly enough to update my flickr account (yes I do have one). Then again, maybe I have too many pictures and should really upgrade to a pro account.
#3 Twitter
I seem to go through phases with Twitter. Sometimes I love it, other times I can’t stand it. I think it all depends on how I’m feeling at the time. Right now I’m liking “twitter what you eat” which, despite being a completely ridiculous idea, is actually kind of fun. I need to find more people to keep up with though, so feel free to add me if you know me.
#4 Facebook
Where to begin with facebook? For the most part I love it, but there are also times when I hate facebook, especially when it comes to the applications you can have on your profile. Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with people, especially because we often forget to do this away from the computer.
#5 Ravelry
Ravelry is one web app I’ve never actually heard of. I’m not a member so I can’t really comment on it. According to their about page, though, Ravelry is “a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.”
#6 Wordpress
Ah, trusty Wordpress. I don’t really think of this as a web app anymore. It’s so much more than that. You have so much control over it, and I love that. If you really want to, you can download and install it on your ipod. Wordpress shouldn’t be on this list – it’s in a league of its own.
#7 Mint
Mint seems to be causing a bit of a craze in the world of statistics. Personally I prefer clicky, and I’m gutted that clicky isn’t on this list. Mint is very useful, yes, but I don’t like the interface at all.
#8 last.fm
If you’re a big music fan, then you need last.fm. It’ll take notes on everything you listen to on iTunes and display it in your last.fm profile. There’s also an application that lets you listen to your own radio station with last.fm. Type in the name of an artist you like, and last.fm will introduce you to similar artists. It’s a brilliant way to discover new music. My username is “calmbanana” if anyone wants to be my musical friend…
#9 Basecamp
I currently have no need / use for basecamp, which is a “smarter, easier, more elegant way to collaborate on your internal and client projects.” However, if I ever do get into that area of work, basecamp will be top of the list of apps to use.
#10 Livejournal
I’ve never really used livejournal as a blogging tool, though all my posts here are cross-posted to my livejournal account. I mainly use it for posting / commenting in some of the hundreds of thousands of livejournal communities.
Whilst I don’t use / like / recommend all of the apps on this list, I can see why they are in the top 10. Do you think any are missing?
© Rachael Furn 2007 - 2009
Not suitable for vegetarians
Flickr should be at the top spot.
I used to be a user of last.fm but felt I wasn’t getting much out of it. I rarely attach my iPod to the lappy and never listen to music from it. (also, between you and I the stats it came up with show that I am indeed boring and only listen to a couple of songs over and over).
How can you make a classification of top 10 applications for 2008, when we’re barely in the 3rd month of 2008?? Shouldn’t people wait for this year to end before making a classification.
All in all… I used LJ, didn’t much like it, because it forces a certain incorrect coding on you. I like Gmail’s conversation feature. I’s so much comfier having all e-mails pertaining to a certain discussion all in one, raher than having re1, re2, re3…
As for Thunderbird, I use it at work, but am not too fond of it really. Gmail’s much better and has more features.
Wordpress, oh I like it alright… but it’s just too bloated, and seems to lack certain key features. I dislike installing 42095704 plugins, and expect to be able to custom call a function, to fit my needs. Yet, if I don’t want plugins, mostly I have to hack the functions to make them look as I want them. The only reason I’m not coding my own because WP has a relatively good spam control and comment moderation feature.
The rest I don’t use, so no comment.
I like Gmail, Flickr, and last.fm. I’m indifferent to Twitter, LJ, Facebook, and Mint. I’ve never heard of Ravelry or Basecamp before. The one thing I hate on this list is Wordpress. Well, I guess I don’t hate it, but as Vera said, it’s bloated. It just seems so clunky, and it’s hard to control and customise if you don’t have the right expertise.
Wow! Thanks for this.
I guess I’m doing well. I &hearts Gmail, Flickr & Twitter is my bestest friend! LOL
I was wondering about Mint but don’t know enough people who have it. I may ck out Clicky, never heard of it. And as for WP! Love! Although I KNOW I don’t use it to it’s full potential!
BTW, you are becoming my fav blogger! LOL
Even if you dislike Gmail you have to agree when I say it’s far better than Hotmail or whatever it’s called these days.
I haven’t heard of Ravelry or Basecamp….but Ravelry is for knitters and crocheters? I might check it out, then!
I just joined Ravelry a few days ago, and I have to say that it’s like the Internet’s cloud nine for knitters/crocheters. A-effing-mazing.
Youtube doesn’t count as a web app, huh? Youtube is horribly glitchy/ugly/bad anyway, sort of like the Myspace of music sites…Vimeo is much better, but it just doesn’t seem to be catching on. I would think that it should at least qualify as a runner up though.
I am in-love with Gmal, flickr, facebook and wordpress. 4 out of 10. I wish I could find something awesome about the other ones but right now I can’t. Nice list though
My favourite of the list is probably Twitter, although I never really use it at all.
I need to get around to keeping up with it sometime.
I love Last.fm, WordPress, Twitter, and Flickr. Tweet what you eat is really cool. It’s kind of opened my eyes to how much stuff I eat that isn’t exactly good for me. o__O I’ve just recently developed a “crush” on Twitter. You can bet I’ll add you as soon as I’m home from work today. Twitter is blocked her at work.
Flickr is cool too. I do have a pro account. I don’t update there very often. I’m considering putting a gallery on my site to showcase some of my “good” pictures. I like how your gallery is set up. I may try that myself.
I have accounts with 5 apps from the list. Gmail and last.fm are my favourites. I have 4 Gmail accounts and Firefox addon to easily switch between them and notify me when there’s a new email. I love the filters and the option to make email skip the inbox and go directly to the archive. And last.fm is my ultimate resource for discovering new bands.
I use Wordpress, but probably wouldn’t have any trouble with switching to something like TextPattern or Expression Engine. I just started using it because everyone else did. It’s also pretty simple to handle.
I have a LJ account, but I rarely use it, the same with Facebook. For stats I use Reinvigorate, which I think is great.
Out of the list, I’ve used Gmail, Facebook, Basecamp, and Wordpress.
Gmail I use only to have an email. For actual email use, I use Thunderbird 2.0. However that may change in the future because I want to try an online only approach to email.
Facebook is one that I like but don’t use that much. I go on once a day, if even at all, just to see any pictures or comments.
I used Basecamp to try to host one of my school club’s projects (huge charity event) but it didn’t really catch on. I feel like it’s more of a, if you know what it is, you’ll use it.
And as for Wordpress, I must agree that its a bit bloated but it has all the features I need for project sites (I use my own CMS on my own site). I do however love the API provided (great for writing plugins – of which I have 2, working on my third).
As for the rest, I haven’t used so I can’t give a good opinion.
I abhor twitter. It’s like the epitome of the cliché useless ~*Web 2.0*~ stuff. Nothing bad in user-contributed content, but I really don’t give a flying shit (s’ry for corrupting your blog with vulgarities) about what my acquaintances (offline and online) were doing at 2:03 p.m. last Monday. If you were doing anything interesting, tell me straight away.
The others I’m mostly indifferent too, or love them. Except Facebook, but I think I already expressed my hatred for it on here?
Actually, I’m very glad (and surprised) Facebook isn’t #1 XD
Gmail is love. It’s great how all the replies are pretty much kept in one E-mail, plus you can chat with other people, group chat, and chat on AIM.
The only other ones I use are Livejournal and Wordpress, both of which I like very much. By the way, the layout on your LJ is one of the cutest ones ever! I remember using it before.
Wordpress = my favourite
I use Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, Wordpress and Livejournal. I don’t really use Flickr though, especially since I also have TWO galleries on my site at the moment! And LJ is just for me to blab on and on about whatever emo thoughts are in my head. I must click on Gmail, Facebook and Wordpress every hour, when I am near a computer, at least! I rather enjoy Facebook when I am away from home, but now it seems kind of pointless. Apart from talking to my friends who aren’t in Calgary, of course!! As for the others, I have a last.fm account, but I don’t remember my s/n. And Twitter? I already spew enough nonsense on my blog/ on my LJ.
Er… Mint? No! Clicky! YES! 
Right. Well, this was an entirely disappointing response to your lovely blog post.
You can use Gmail and Thunderbird together. I have my main domain’s mail go through Gmail and then have Thunderbird pull from Gmail – this way I have an online backup of all my sent and received mail, and all the benefits of having Thunderbird too. Perhaps take a look at the POP3 handling on Gmail? No one ever sends to my Gmail address, I never use it, but I still have all my mail stored there. It is very useful.
I just thought of something… er… how is there already a Web Apps list for 2008?! It’s only March! What if more, better apps come out, and they’re… better!? Will there be a new list? *deeply concerned*
I can’t live without my gmail, flickr, wordpress and occasionally twitter for keeping in touch with people when I am away from the computer for a few weeks.
I started off hating Facebook and then loving it and I think I have come all the way back to hating it again now, It bugs me when I see all the library computers at Uni clogged with facebookers when I have actual work to do and have to wait until someone finishes tagging themselves from last night’s big party. Sorry rant over
I am kind of surprised Skype isn’t on there but then I guess that was so very 06/07.
Out of the ten, I only use three of these: Wordpress, Gmail, and Facebook. Thunderbird is great
I have never heard of Mint of Basecamp, and instead of LJ for cross-posting, I use blogger.
I am a big fan of GMail. I have the email for my domain running through it, and thus I provide email accounts for most members of my family! They love it. As Matt said above, you can run different email accounts through it (I have about 5 coming into mine!) and it is so useful to have everything in one place. The spam-filtering is also superb. I know its not for everyone and does take some getting used to, but its worth persevering with in my opinion!
Basecamp is also great… used it extensively in my last job, although finding less use for it these days I have to say.
My Flickr Pro account expired and I have no real incentive to sign up for it again… and despite being a HUGE music fan, I do not use Last.fm for similar reasons as were mentioned above, ie. I rarely listen to music on my computer.