Web Worker Daily

Nobody really knows how big Web 2.0 is, even though as web workers we’re generally using it every day. In part that’s because we can’t even agree on definitions, and in part it’s because the target is moving too fast to pin down. But the folks at Simple Spark, an online catalog of web applications, recently provided one data point. Their list of every browser-based application they can find recently crossed the 5,000 mark - and they celebrated by combining all 5,000 of those logos into a single five-minute-plus video. Here it is, one look at what web worker nation has been up to:

While it’s pretty much impossible to distinguish all the individual logos in the video, you can certainly form some general impressions. Clearly there are a whole mess of web applications out there, and clearly most of us have only heard of a small fraction of them. Web 2.0, or the user-driven web, or whatever you want to call it, is also clearly growing quickly; we web workers are rising a wave that’s still building. Sure, lots of these sites will probably be gone in a year. But the important thing is that the energy, experimentation, and enthusiasm are out there. And with more than 5,000 web applications out there already, our dependence on desktop software is steadily dwindling. Those of us who dream of being able to do our work from anywhere that we can get a connection can be increasingly sure that this is really possible with each passing logo.