Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009
Every year at ReadWriteWeb, we look at hundreds of new web apps aimed at everyday users. Occasionally, we come across a service that stands out from the pack because it offers a novel solution, disrupts the way incumbent market leaders do business or changes the way we experience the Web.
Here is our list of the top 10 consumer web apps of 2009. These are apps and services that helped consumers use the web in new ways this year; and brought technologies that were previously only geared towards advanced users to a mainstream audience.
Some of these apps aren't new - but just like last year, we've tried to select a mix of applications that either reached the mainstream this year, or that we think will be big in the year to come.
Bing
Until earlier this year, Google didn't have any serious competition in the search market. Now, however, thanks to Microsoft's Bing - which launched in July - users finally have a choice when it comes to search engines. Bing's market share climbed steadily over the last few months, and Microsoft keeps adding interesting new features like visual search, hover previews, integrated Twitter search and a smart integration of some of Wolfram Alpha's most compelling features.
Bing, which bills itself as a "decision engine," tries to give its users more than just 10 links. Instead, Bing focuses on giving users answers right on the search results page. A search for a football or baseball player, for example, will bring up recent stats, while a search for flights brings up data from Microsoft's Bing Travel service.
Wolfram Alpha
No other new web service was greeted with the same amount of hype as Wolfram Alpha this year. Inevitably, Wolfram Research's "computational knowledge engine" disappointed many who were looking for a Google killer, but Alpha introduced a new paradigm for search engines: Instead of giving you a long list of links, Alpha tries to give users an answer based on information from reputable sources. If this sounds familiar, it might be because Microsoft's Bing is trying to do something very similar - even if Microsoft's approach isn't quite as radical. Because of these similarities, it also doesn't come as a surprise that Bing was the first search engine to integrate search results from Wolfram Alpha.
While it isn't useful for everybody yet, the Wolfram Alpha team has worked hard to expand Alpha's knowledge. If you are an engineer or scientist, Wolfram Alpha might just be the most useful web app for you. For the rest of us, Alpha's ability to solve anagrams, aggregate weather data and tell you the distance between two cities proves to be useful, too, though not as useful as the service's ability to solve complex math problems. We still have to wait and see what the future holds for Wolfram Alpha.
For now, the service is a great experiment and even if it fails (which we don't think it will), its influence will surely extend to other search engines like Bing and Google Search. In the spirit of trying something different, Wolfram also launched a $50 iPhone application in October. Even though Wolfram Alpha's web interface is available for free, the company insisted that its mobile application offered enough new features to justify this price.
Google Chrome
Google launched the first beta version of Google Chrome in late 2008. Even though Chrome still only holds a small share of the browser market and doesn't offer a stable version for OSX or Linux yet, Chrome has already changed the browser market. Chrome's relentless focus on speed helped to reignite the browser wars and even Microsoft now compares the performance of the next version of Internet Explorer to Chrome. Thanks to its fast JavaScript rendering engine and interesting new technologies, Chrome is changing the way developers are thinking about browsers. Even if you don't use Chrome, you will see Chrome's influence in the upcoming versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Chrome, of course, is also the basis for Google's upcoming Chrome OS, so chances are that we will see a lot more of Chrome in the next year.
Posterous
Whether you want to open up a new blog without any fuzz or just share photos and messages easily on multiple services like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, light blogging service Posterous has you covered. The service launched in May 2009 and was definitely one of the most interesting new arrivals in the blogging landscape this year. What makes Posterous stand out is its ability to cross-post updates to other services (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter or your own blog, for example). In addition, it's also extremely easy to set up a new blog. Just email a message, photo or video to post AT posterous.com and your new blog is ready to go. Advanced users can also port their own domain names to the service and theme their blogs.
With PicPosterous, the company now also offers an easy to use iPhone app.
Hulu
Thanks to its prominent ads during the Super Bowl, Hulu became a household name in the US this year. Even before this publicity campaign, however, Hulu had already established itself as a the #1 destination for finding episodes of TV shows online. Hulu started out as a joint venture between FOX, NBC and other TV networks. In April, ABC also joined this group. Thanks to this, Hulu now offers one of the only destinations to easily find TV shows online in the US. While Hulu is currently available for free, it's worth noting that Hulu could start charging for subscriptions as early as next year.
Next page: Consumer web apps 6-10
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A great list. I also love TipTop at http://FeelTipTop.com
I still have memories of when I was going my MSc project & looking at Search Engines ... I told all my friends about Google & they looked at me as if I was weird & were quite happy with AltaVista.
Now I try to convince my students that there are things other than Google ... and they look at me as if I'm weird.
Dropbox has been a killer application for me both personally as a consumer and my company.
So maybe this answer is broader. But sharing 5gb of space with 30days of archive for $0, that is priceless and very worthy to be on this list.
How can something be in a top 10 of best WorldWideWeb application when it is restricted to US only like as Hulu and Google Voice?
Jo, believe me nobody is more frustrated than I that some of the best consumer apps are US-only (I'm based in NZ, but the rest of the RWW team is in US). I am lucky enough to have a Google Voice a/c, although my usage is restricted by not being in the US. Hulu I'd love to get, although frankly NZ's broadband wouldn't cope anyway.
When it comes down to it though, these apps are good enough to make the list despite their limited accessibility. We can only hope they go international soon...
Nothing much, just the top 1 and 2, Google Wave a Google Chrome OS, the 2 most commented cloud apps/systems of the year.
"Did We Miss Your Favorites?"
...ummm Gmail?
P.S. Tweedeck is a local app, not a web app!
I don't understand why Bing, Wolfram Alpha, and Posterous were in this list. Bing and Wolfram Alpha have all the indications of lackluster commercial success, and are certainly not the game-changers that their pre-release hype promised. Posterous' claim to fame is that it lets you easily set up a blog so simple that you'll be unsatisfied with it.
My top app is invaluable to me. It's Aussie startup, Streetfolio.com
This one is up-and-coming for 2010 - www.ResoundingHealth.com - the first really new medical search engine in years. Features CaseBooks which are a place to store and organize your Internet research on health topics. Deploys DTC but also see B2B example at www.CelebrityDiagnosis.com
Someone recently recommended googlevoice, I don't see what it does that youmail doesn't, except ring multiple phones [that I don't have].
Youmail is fantastic, I left my phone at work for 1 day and really didn't care since I would have gotten an email from youmail and been able to listen to any messages that were left.
Seriously, try it.
For iPhone app search I use web app http://appexplorer.com/
More comprehensive than the search built into iTunes.
I don't get RWW's fascination with Posterous... realy. Why not Tumblr then?
Very surprised that Dropbox is not on this list, Its single handedly game changed pen sticks and as Nic said its an amazing service considering it is free!
I love TweetDeck, but a web app...really? I guess client/server is so Web 1.0.
Incredible List!
I'd like to add Taroby, a multipurpose web 2.0 App for teams and work groups, which helps me work with a virtual team, quite smartly. Check it out at www.taroby.com
Congrats to @posterous!
Hm. Confused by the inclusion of Posterous when Tumblr isn't anywhere to be found.
Congrats to Posterous! Their service simple, slick, and powerful. No site has better push-2-facebook integration plus support for multimedia handling and location. Tumble is good but not great.
I am surprised Boxee and DropBox are not on this list. They are my favorites!
Posterous gets 2 thumbs up from me.
Great list, thanks for the information.
Thanks for the great list, Im amazed google chrome is there I didnt know it was that popular!!
it is said that Google Chrome is not very easy to use,right?
I usually use google as search tools!I like it .
Bing was a fairly decent effort. But im not sure it can be considered one of the best new applications.
Chrome was a good effort at a new browser, but not that different from Firefox or Microsoft.
Well, my family loves HULU and a friend who doesn't subscribe to cable tv, thinks it's the greatest thing going.
I tried Chrome but I don't see it adding anything that isn't already available with Firefox.
Bing was a fairly decent effort. But im not sure it can be considered one of the best new applications.
Chrome was a good effort at a new browser, but not that different from Firefox or Microsoft.
thank you for posted
Some of these apps aren't new - but just like last year, we've tried to select a mix of applications that either reached the mainstream this year, or that we think will be big in the year to come.