Time.com has released their annual issue of the top sites of the year, â€50 Best Websites of 2008.â€
Time.com has published an annual list of staff and reader suggestions since 2003. For context, the first year it featured now infamous sites like eBay, Hotmail, Paypal and Google. In 2006, sites included YouTube and MySpace.
This year's sites like Pixelgirl Presents, Mobaganda, Hypebeast, COLOURlovers, Digitalvaults.org, and Wikisky.org are undoubtedly sites to keep an eye on.
Users have the ability to influence the rank ordering of the 50 sites by voting. Standing at the top of the list so far, with 59,955 votes and an average rating of 95 is Penny Arcade, followed by Gaia Online at a rating of 81 with 51,222 and GasBuddy at 17,292 votes and a rating of 78.
If Trendhunter.com had the chance to add three more sites, we'd choose Behance, PopURLs and Alltop.
50 Best Websites
Time.com Picks The Best of 2008
Trend Themes
1. User-driven Ranking - Businesses could incorporate user-driven ranking into their website or product, where customers vote on their favorite items to create a personalized leaderboard.
2. Site Curation - There is an opportunity for businesses to curate and organize niche websites or products into lists that cater to specific interests, like the Time.com 50 Best Websites of the Year.
3. Emerging Sites - Businesses can keep an eye on lesser-known, up-and-coming websites, like those featured on Time.com's 50 Best Websites of 2008, to potentially invest in or partner with for future growth.
Industry Implications
1. E-commerce - User-driven ranking can be incorporated into e-commerce websites to improve customer engagement and personalize the shopping experience.
2. Content Creation - There is an opportunity for content creators to curate and organize niche websites, products, or articles into lists that cater to specific interests, like the 50 Best Websites of the Year.
3. Venture Capital - Venture capitalists can keep an eye on lesser-known, up-and-coming websites, like those featured on Time.com's 50 Best Websites of 2008, to potentially invest in and support for future growth.