Internet, Social Publishing, trends
Vampires, Smartphones, and Social Activism: Which Websites Were Hot in 2008
Gregory T. Huang 12/17/08
It’s not just Facebook, MySpace, and Wikipedia anymore. A large number of social websites and wikis have become major players on the Web. Today’s launch of the Seattle-based cooking site Foodista.com is the latest example. But the top social sites of the year were dedicated to TV shows, social activism, gaming, smartphones, and education—in that order.
That’s according to a report out today from Seattle-based social publishing startup Wetpaint. Wetpaint compiled its stats based on the traffic and amount of user-generated content across the 1.2 million-odd social sites it hosts. The company has partnerships with major brands like Dell, HP, The Discovery Channel, Fox, Showtime, and T-Mobile, and those sites drive a fair bit of traffic.
You can read the report for the details, but here are the top category winners from the Wetpaint network:
—TV fansite: True Blood
—Activism: Join the Impact
—Gaming: Last Chaos
—Smartphone: T-Mobile Dash
—Just plain weird: Warrior Cats
“I am always fascinated by the topics that rocket to popularity in any given year,” said Ben Elowitz, co-founder and CEO of Wetpaint. (With the popularity of other sites like Dude Boobs and Chuck Norris Jokes, that’s putting it mildly indeed.)
No predictions for 2009 were given, but I’m guessing that TV and gaming sites won’t suffer too much in the recession…
Gregory T. Huang is the Editor of Xconomy Seattle. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com or call 206-624-2249.
