25 must-visit websites for 2007 - Part 2

It’s always tricky to predict how the web will evolve – after all, who had heard of YouTube 12 months ago? However, we think we’ve got a pretty good idea which sites will transform the way you use the web in 2007. We've chosen 25 of them - and here numbers 6 to 14.

6 Jotspot www.jotspot.com
What is it? A mouth-watering Google-owned wiki-builder.
No one is entirely sure what Google plans to do with Jotspot (whether it will be integrated into other services or relaunched as a standalone tool) but it fits well with several of Google’s other products - Most notably Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Google Groups. A wiki is an editable website that contributors can easily add to or revise without any knowledge of HTML. Wikipedia is, of course, the most famous example. Jotspot’s wiki creator doesn’t just let users build web pages, however - you can also generate collaborative spreadsheets, shared calendars and photo-sharing sites.

7 YourMinis www.yourminis.com
What is it? A widget-friendly, customisable homepage.
YourMinis gives you access to a wide range of widgets that you can add, remove or move around the page. There are tabs at the top of the site which give you access to themed sections such as News, Entertainment, Sports and Fun. Each tabbed page has its own set of widgets but you can chop and change them as you see fit. You can also add tabs of your own. Although there are plenty of similar sites, YourMinis (from Goowy Media) is easily the most impressive and should find a lot of fans.

8 Soapbox http://soapbox.msn.com
What is it? Microsoft’s attempt at a You Tube-style video-sharing site.
During its current testing phase Soapbox is invite-only, but it will be available to a wider audience in the coming months. The idea is very similar to YouTube – you create videos and post them online – but Microsoft aims to link it to many of its other services and software including Live Messenger and Live Spaces. The quality of the video is better than on most sites and it will be possible to view movies full screen. Uploads are limited to the standard 100MB in size.

9 Like www.like.com
What is it? A visual search site that lets you look for products
This visual search site from Riya (www.riya.com) is generating a lot of interest. The idea is you can look for fashion items that appeal to you – such as watches, shoes, jewellery or bags – then view products that share the same visual characteristics. So if, for example, you love the look of the Rolex Submariner watch but don’t fancy the $6,675 price tag you can search for watches which look the same but are much cheaper. You can narrow the results by colour, shape, pattern and price range and also focus on a specific section of the item. As the range of products covered grows, so Like will become more useful.

10 Twango www.twango.com
What is it? A swap-and-share site for your photos, video and music.
Flickr lets you share your photos with the world and YouTube provides an outlet for your video. Twango however is a site that lets you share both, as well as audio files. In fact it supports more than 100 different file types. Content can be private, shared with a group or made entirely public and is stored in Channels – tabbed containers for different media or topics. Every channel has an associated email address, so you can send your content directly to it. You’re limited to 250MB of uploads a month, with a maximum single file size of 100MB. Twango is very new (it was launched in October, 2006) so it doesn’t have much support yet, but it’s certainly looking very promising.

11 Omnidrive www.omnidrive.com
What is it? A foolproof online repository that lets you back up files to the web.
Providing you with a large chunk of space (more than 10GB), Omnidrive lets you add and manage files and folders via either the standard web-interface or a downloadable Desktop client. The latter lets you quickly drag and drop files to and from the web space. Online items can be shared with other Omnidrive users or published, which will provide you with a direct download link. MP3s stored online can be streamed to any PC using the built-in player. It’s impressively done, with an attractive interface. However, although it’s currently free, future accounts are likely to be charged at around $40 (about £21) a year.

12 Map24 www.uk.map24.com
What is it? Excellent map site providing accurate directions to let you test drive your route before setting out.
We featured this online mapping site quite a bit last year - indeed it beat Google Maps in our head-to-head round-up. The site has lots of great features, including the ability to fly along a generated route in 3D, just as you can in Google Earth. It’s very fast and easy to use too, and much of its success has been garnered from word-of-mouth feedback. It would be rewarding to see it become even more popular this year as for features and friendliness it’s head and shoulders above its rivals.

13 Diigo www.diigo.com
What is it? A superb new way to store your favourite bookmarks and research on the one site.
Diigo (it stands for Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other) is a social web clipping and annotation service. It’s aimed at anyone who uses the web for research purposes, although students in particular will find it useful. It lets you add highlights and sticky notes to any web page (and access them from anywhere too) and clip items of interest from other sites.
You can store your bookmarks on Diigo (or another bookmarking site) then make them cached and fully searchable. If you need to collaborate on something you can also share and interact on stored contents.

14 2 Prong http://2prong.com
What is it? The easiest no-click way to get a temporary email address.
Lots of sites require you to register with an email address. If you don’t want to use your real one, 2 Prong will to give you a fake temporary address that you can use long enough to verify your account. Unlike similar sites, all you have to do to use it is open 2 Prong in one tab/window and the site you want to register with in another. A fake email address will be automatically copied to your clipboard so you can just paste it into the site. When an email is sent to the address it will appear instantly on the 2 Prong page. Incredibly simple, but destined to be hugely popular.

Even more top websites for 2007 >> click here