Jim has an entry pointing to yet another list of the best web applications, 100 of them divided into ten categories.
Webware, yet another piece of CNet, evidently selected them based on almost two million votes from “webware readers and internet users across the globe. [Webware readers?]
Anyway, it’s interesting (but probably not surprising) that Google products are listed in eight out of the ten, missing out only in audio and “utility and security”.
They’ll probably fix that oversight in time for the 2009 list.
In looking over the list it’s also amazing how many of these products have become essential for large numbers of us in such a short time.
Then there’s the fact that most of them are also free, at least at a basic level.
I’ve read Chris Anderson’s Wired cover story Free! Why $0.00 Is The Future of Business and I still don’t understand how not charging for high quality applications is sustainable.
The point of the Chris Anderson article seems to be that as the cost of doing business on the web goes down, it becomes more possible for companies to pay that cost in ways other than charging the consumer.
The premise Anderson lays out in his article sounds valid but I still can’t figure how delicious, flickr, Google Reader, Google Earth, Twitter, and any number of other tools are making money from me when I see almost no ads and rarely if ever click on them when I do. Maybe I’m just clueless (quite possible :-).