I love Web 2.0! This list of award-winning applications is absolutely fantastic. I actually spent more time with this week's applications than I have with any other week's tools. While I will admit that I didn't explore sites that applied directly to libraries or literacy, I found tons of great applications for my life outside the library!
I chose www.zillow.com, a real estate application, because I am interested in buying my first home in the near future. This site is unlike so many other real estate sites because you can browse for listings by city, state, county, or STREET, which is incredible! We are interested in buying a home on a road that is several miles long, but it almost impossible to search for listings simply on that road on any other site. Also, Zillow uses Microsoft Virtual Earth to show other properties in the area that you are looking, and gives Zestimates (Zillow estimates) of approximate appraisal value. What a cool way to explore! You can also explore the map by moving around with your mouse, and explore a small area for available properties. I have spent many hours at home exploring this site for new listings, and I'm sure that I will explore many of the other award-winning sites. I already use a few, such as Urbanspoon for restaurants and Etsy for handmade items, and I love them both.
In terms of library applications, I don't see many of these things being used at my level, which is middle school. Perhaps in a public library some patrons would find these sites useful, especially when searching for jobs (Standout Jobs, Career Builder, Monster), documents (DocStoc), language tools (Mango), etc. Some of these applications could be extremely successful in aiding adult patrons, or even high school students. At the middle school level, I think that I will need to keep searching a little bit before I find applications for my students.
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