Poll: Best Internet Bigco of 2006
Written by Richard MacManus / December 11, 2006 5:42 PM
/ 16 Comments
As a follow-up to our previous post covering the top Web Trends of 2006, we'd like to get your vote for Best Internet Bigco of 2006. Long-time R/WW readers will know that at the end of each year we write a post noting our top Web companies of the year. In 2005 the best bigco was Yahoo, while in 2004 it was Google. Who will it be in 2006? Well this is where you can influence the decision ;-) I'll reserve the final editorial judgment for our 2006 Best Of post, but I'm keen to know what you all think!
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Google will probably end up the people's choice ... but I think Amazon's web services suite is one of the more compelling things to come out of the big companies this year. (I realize many of the services have been around for awhile, but it wasn't until this year that they really came together in a meaningful way.)
I also voted for Amazon. I think they're truly on to something. Google really did very little in 2006.
Agree. Amazon rules. Plus,Aamazon is a couple of years older than google and yet it feels like Amazon can still walk and talk like true innovators do.
YouTube stands out this year from a user perspective. They simplified the process for user-generated multimedia content. As a result, they received more attention from MSM than did many larger corportates, with several national networks using clips from their site as a regular part of their programming (YouTube clip of the week on Good Morning America, etc.)
Perhaps not BIG on the back end, they, and others like MySpace, Digg and Flickr should certainly be recognized for their contributions to the evolving social media space on the Internet.
All the best
Tom
Google really boosted things this year imo.
They buy everywhere, they build more an more...
Apple and Google have impressed the most, apple continue to successfully 'go it alone', and Google for their constant innovation. I don't think eBay have done that much this year, Microsoft are just copying Google feature for feature, Amazon have brought out some amazing services this year(s3 etc) but as far as their online shop goes they have stopped sending most of their products to Ireland (where im from) which is a real pain. Yahoo, as ever are floating around in the clouds!
"Best" is such an ambiguous term. :-) Google have continued to do interesting things, Apple is still the coolest of the cool, but the real standout for me this year was Amazon and their web services, because they're actaually doing something revolutionary and unexpected (well, for a bookstore, anyway!). Essentially they're trying to commoditize scalability, which is a pretty neat trick. Sure, maybe Sun got there first, but Amazon is actually making it affordable.
The sheer volume of Google's new services towers over the rest, making it hard to pick out anyone else.
Yep, Google has been doing a good job polishing that "golden code" of theirs. The YouTube deal was huge, plus they appear to be leaning towards working closely in the mobile implementations of a lot of their services lately.
YouTube's success peaked before Google took their wallet out, so I can't attribute the YouTube phenomenon to Google (at least for this past year). As a matter of fact, since Google has stepped in, there seems to be some stammering (not Google's fault). Copyright issues and of course, the disappearance of all of that great Daily Show footage.
One vote for amazon.com. My dumb ex-wife would disagree. This is not why I dumped her, but for different reasons all together.
Meebo
Next to my mail system and my blog it's my most used "Web 2.0" service and I love it. Connecting people (via info, maybe) is what it's all about
Meebo more counts as a 'small co', so definitely in the running in that category ;-)
I'm quite surprised Google is so far ahead in peoples reckoning. But the juggernaut does keep rolling on.
One bigco I didn't include - and hasn't been mentioned so far - is AOL. Be interested in peoples thoughts about them too. They have done good things with their AIMSpaces and other 'open' initiatives. Not enough imho to warrent being best bigco - but noteworthy.
I still go for Yahoo & Google. :)
I would go for Google and Amazon...
I'd like to vote for Tencent. My opinion is clearly biased though since I work there :)