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Five Web Apps that Deserved More Attention in 2008

Even though 2008 isn’t exactly ending on a high note, we have definitely seen our fair share of interesting new web apps and online services this year. Some of those, however, never quite caught on, even though they are really interesting and cool. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why these things happen – could be because of the day they launched (or even the time of day they launched); could be that people didn’t quite get the purpose of the app (yep – lots of bad marketing around); or maybe I’m just an idiot for liking these services…

Here are the five services that I though deserved a bit more attention in 2008 (in no particular order):

Pixelpipe

I wrote about these guys on RWW in August. Pixelpipe is basically ping.fm for media files. It lets you forward your pictures, videos, and audio files to lots of different social media sites and photo or video sharing services like FriendFeed, Flickr, brightkite, kyte, bebo, Twitter, or Facebook.  This week, they also announced a cool new mobile site and I use their iPhone app almost daily.

Blogrize

Blogrize is a mix of Digg, Techmeme, and ReadBurner. It’s mission is to create a community of readers around blogs but giving them a place to share and vote on everybody’s shared RSS feeds. Every blog gets its own community and hence the recommended items tend to be very focused, as readers tend to self-select. It’s still a small site (and was gone for a good part of the year), but it’s off to a good re-launch this month (and they just started importing FriendFeed ‘likes’).hopefully we will see more of it next year.

Mufin for iTunes

Mufin’s website and web app is crap – no way around it. But its iTunes plugin (Windows only) that uses Mufin’s algorithms to categorize your music collection based purely on the sound and rhythm of the song – not on what other people liked. It’s become a constant companion for us while listening to music and in many ways, it’s better than Apple’s own Genius feature, as it simply scans and analyzes your songs without any regard for how the files are tagged or whether they are available in Apple’s library. Great way to discover music you didn’t even know you had.

Feedly

Feedly is set as my homepage and is the first thing I see every morning. It’s a magazine style RSS reader that draws from your Google Reader subscriptions. It’s a Firefox plugin with a lot of cool social features, but even though it started out with a lot of hype earlier this year, we haven’t heard much about it lately, which is really a shame. Feedly’s roadmap for 2009 looks great however and we hope a few of you will check it out.

Mento

In many ways, Mento is the PixelPipe of social bookmarking services. It allows you to easily send your bookmarks to sites like FriendFeed or other bookmarking services like Delicious. Mento is also a great bookmarking service in its own right (especially because it allows you to clip images from the sites you are bookmarking) and it has some cool social features. Even if you already use Delicious, Mento is a good alternative, as it still saves your bookmarks to Delicious as well.

A few more:

For good measure, here are a few other companies that we hope will have a breakout year in 2009: OtherInbox (still in private beta, but it’s changed the way I give out my email to sign up for services), Browzmi (social web surfing and cool use of XMPP – surprisingly fun and really well put together), and Qitera (just launched, but is a cool bookmarking service).

Who did we miss?

Surely we have missed out on a few services in this list. If you have your own overlooked favorites, let us know in the comments.

Good to see your mentions of BlogRize and Feedly here. I won't tell you where they debuted in the blogosphere, as did Browzmi.

The issue for many of these sites is that people have a limited amount of time, and unless there is major differentiation, good enough is good enough, so it's a tough sell.

Good to see your mentions of BlogRize and Feedly here. I won't tell you where they debuted in the blogosphere, as did Browzmi.

The issue for many of these sites is that people have a limited amount of time, and unless there is major differentiation, good enough is good enough, so it's a tough sell.

I have a pretty good idea where I first heard about them

But you're right – it's hard for new services to differentiate themselves and find a new niche for their products. The first mover still has an advantage, even if the first service in a niche might not turn out to be the best a year later…

I have a pretty good idea where I first heard about them

But you're right – it's hard for new services to differentiate themselves and find a new niche for their products. The first mover still has an advantage, even if the first service in a niche might not turn out to be the best a year later…

Well, I've got my sales & promotion cap on Louis. In the year 2009 the people will be sold! My prediction

Well, I've got my sales & promotion cap on Louis. In the year 2009 the people will be sold! My prediction

I like your post.

I like your post.

Hi Louis,

I think that you are right if you focus on the 500K people or so you are currently using Google Reader: Google is a great brand and Google Reader is a good product continuously getting better. But I think the answer is different if you step back and look at the 150M or firefox users.

-Edwin

Hi Louis,

I think that you are right if you focus on the 500K people or so you are currently using Google Reader: Google is a great brand and Google Reader is a good product continuously getting better. But I think the answer is different if you step back and look at the 150M or firefox users.

-Edwin

Frederic. Thank you for including feedly in this post!

Frederic. Thank you for including feedly in this post!

Feedly: THE Must-Have. The folks at Mozilla might be happy: Feedly forces its users to run Firefox
Seriously speaking, I use Feedly since Day 1 (or 2, maybe): it rocks. The best RSS reader & organizer so far on the market. Netvibes is doing its best to catch up (e.g. the “magazine” layouts), yet the gap is quite large.
I must admit: this is the first time ever I can't “live” w/o a browser extension.
Plus: the technical support by the Feedly 'team' is awesome.

Feedly: THE Must-Have. The folks at Mozilla might be happy: Feedly forces its users to run Firefox
Seriously speaking, I use Feedly since Day 1 (or 2, maybe): it rocks. The best RSS reader & organizer so far on the market. Netvibes is doing its best to catch up (e.g. the “magazine” layouts), yet the gap is quite large.
I must admit: this is the first time ever I can't “live” w/o a browser extension.
Plus: the technical support by the Feedly 'team' is awesome.

Thanks for the Browzmi mention Frederick. (Louis – thanks for finding us) I think it was one of the Friendfeed founders that said something like – very small feature adjustments one way or the other can make or break a consumer service. So many of us are so similar when it comes down to the problem solved, that the implementation is key. When friendfeed was covered in NYT article, my reaction was that they just implemented a way to share without any effort, which was really cool. So as long as little services can keep at it, tweaking as they go.. differentiation can be achieved. It's a fun effort

Thanks for the Browzmi mention Frederic. (Louis – thanks for finding us) I think it was one of the Friendfeed founders that said something like – very small feature adjustments one way or the other can make or break a consumer service. So many of us are so similar when it comes down to the problem solved, that the implementation is key. When friendfeed was covered in NYT article, my reaction was that they just implemented a way to share without any effort, which was really cool. So as long as little services can keep at it, tweaking as they go.. differentiation can be achieved. It's a fun effort

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Interesting applications, i didnt come across them before.. they are really cool and surely deserve more appreciation! Cheers

Interesting applications, i didnt come across them before.. they are really cool and surely deserve more appreciation! Cheers

I still go for blogrize! but you have an interesting list here.

yes, Feedly its very interesting application

yes, Feedly its very interesting application

Absolutely beneficial and useful application, they surely deserve more applications!! cheers

World and internet is too fast in these days and it is even difficult to find that what is happening all around us. To be very true, 3 of listed sites are those with which I am not familiar. Perhaps it is due to my lack of knowledge and other activities. May be I was so busy with all my blogging activities.

World and internet is too fast in these days and it is even difficult to find that what is happening all around us. To be very true, 3 of listed sites are those with which I am not familiar. Perhaps it is due to my lack of knowledge and other activities. May be I was so busy with all my blogging activities.

Interesting list and discussion. Based on what I'm reading here, it sounds like Feedly is a potential break-out. Share that the iTunes app is Windows only.

Interesting list and discussion. Based on what I'm reading here, it sounds like Feedly is a potential break-out. Share that the iTunes app is Windows only.

I just test Mufin for iTunes

For me it is really difficult to love without all that new utilities and good feature sites. I think those old times have gone when we always spend a lot of time finding good stuff. We now can easily fetch everything which we want to on our desktop without much time. Thanks new technologies and social media.

it is difficult to survive without such applications because we have to grow with emerging technologies and latest applications. I am not sure how many of us have been using these applications but these are must used applications which shouldn't be missed.

your blog is great!

the article is awsome

Great post! I actually like using Mento.

website design service It’s a Firefox plugin with a lot of cool social features, but even though it started out with a lot of hype earlier this year

Ecommerce Web Design Mento is also a great bookmarking service in its own right (especially because it allows you to clip images from the sites you are bookmarking) and it has some cool social features.

Yeah, but the number of users is pretty low. And every social bookmarking site is only as good as its users.