Maybe it’s just because I made one myself and tend to notice these things more now, but it seems there are an over abundance of web 2.0 tracking sites popping up. However, there is still not a clear winner when it comes to providing a way of finding the best of the new online services. This weekend Pete Cashmore launched his Weblist blog which adds detailed reviews and user ratings to the mix. Another one that’s gaining steam is this list on listible which actually started back in January. The diggwatch blog has added a list, based on the Web 2.0 logo mashup. All of these go along with the previous set:

Web 2.0 Blogs (news/reviews/analysis):

Web 2.0 Listings

Best of lists:

These all serve their purpose in one way or another . Mostly, they are best suited for promotion and demonstrating the explosion of internet services along with keeping early adopters in the loop of new stuff. But, say I want to find the best calendar app with reviews, ratings, a screenshot, in a easy to navigate list. Where do I go to get that info? Seth Godin tells us categories matter, yet only eHub and Hinchcliffe’s lists (which aren’t perpetually updated) have some sort of categorization.

The blog format of TechCrunch, WebList, Web 2.0 Explorer, and Solution Watch is great for an initial review, but breaks down quickly when it comes to trying to scan hundreds of applications. TechCrunch does try to solve this with the occaisonal rollup of a segment. eHub is more concise and has categories, but lacks reviews and ratings. The innovation map lacks descriptions, categories and ratings. The listible list is also concise and has a rating feature, but lacks reviews, categories and editorial control, so at some point it will probably become worthless.

One of the commenters on Pete’s Weblist introduction mentioned a versiontracker.com type site. That’s exactly right. What we need is something like Programmable Web’s api and mashup databases. These have a nice concise listing, with descriptions, creator, tags/categories, popularity, ratings. Take this and add a TechCrunch/SW/Weblist style review, screenshot, and comments to the detail page. Expose an RSS feed and a simple API to enable mashups like the innovation map. Then you’d have something great. That would really help people discover Web 2.0 apps of interest.

Since Weblist has ratings, it’s probably closest. Add a rollup page like Programmable Web’s, track click-thrus for popularity, and add tags and you would pretty much be there. Hopefully somebody will build this. If you’re looking to promote something or yourself, this would be a great way to do it. If not, I’ll add this to my todo list, but I really do need to focus on my other projects, so don’t tempt me.