I’ve got my year in review post (which I’m still writing) however I can concentrate on the best of the ‘net 2005. It’s been a busy little year for cyber-space with a lot of crazy ideas. Seeing what sticks has been the name of the game. I’ve split it into a couple of posts because it was getting too big to digest.

Google vs Yahoo! Finally there seems to be a competitor to Google’s onslaught on world domination. Yahoo! used to be a big player back in the day, so it’s nice to see that they’re giving Google something to think about. While everyone is pitting Google against Microsoft, we’re slowly seeing another player that seems to be coming to focus as well. Yahoo! have sorted out their email app, and have added a few services to their roster that makes it slightly more interesting to watch than Google. Even though Google upped their storage indefinitely, introduced Gtalk and added things like rss feeds to their email accounts (Yahoo! came first with this), Yahoo!’s actions seemed more calculated. Although I don’t use Flickr or Delicious, but I know a lot of people do. It’s good for the netscape, so I want to see how Google counter attacks (and I don’t mean them buying something) but releasing something new.

Mint This was an interesting thing to watch. I’ve honestly not seen many applications that can match this sort of success, it’s nice for Shaun and it just proves that if you’ve got a good idea and you make it both functional as well as pretty to look at then you’re onto something. I personally believe that he could have made more money if he’d brought the entry price down slightly as it’s just a stats program, it’s still interesting to watch it’s popularity grow. Should be interesting to see if this will continue or not.

Blogging Networks Blogging networks were on EVERYONE’S keyboards (or lips whatever you want). Broken Kode joined 9rules, and something like 5 million blogging networks popped up around the place. The main reason is making some money from ads such as Google’s adsense or Yahoo’s equivalent. The big news was Weblogs Inc being sold to AOL for whatever number it actually was (what is it this week, $20 million?).

To be completely honest I actually shy away from networks except the 9rules because the actual model is very very different. It takes a specific voice for me to actually give it a go and something like Jack of All Blogs. The Cowboy has got some serious bile festering in his stomach and it’s seriously great to watch him unload it onto people. Notice the trend, I follow the person, not the blog. Which is why I don’t read Engadget anymore, but we’ll talk about the best websites of 2005 in part 2.

Treehouse Treehouse was released from the boys over at Particle Tree and I finally got an internet magazine that I could seriously get into the articles. It’s great looking package and well worth the price of admission. The topics range and you’re always going to gain a lot more knowledge than the price of an individual copy. Here’s hoping 2006 actually produces a print version of this excellent publication.