Web-based applications and the Web 2.0 Awards

Zoho Writer is something I wish had been around a few years ago when I was in library school. One of our mandatory classes involved an enormous group project in which we analyzed workflow patterns for an organization, documented them, and made recommendations. Our group of four (or was it five?) people spent countless hours meeting and cooperatively editing the various documents required for the class and the final presentation to the class and all of the organizations that had been involved. While ZohoWriter may not have helped as much with the final product (I'm always suspicious of any type of file conversion when there's a set of very specific rules as to the formatting and presentation of the final product), it would have been a great help as we shared our various portions of the work.

I'd heard of Kayak.com before, and since I'm always on the hunt for good airfares, I decided to try it out by searching for fares from Ft Lauderdale to my hometown. I was slightly surprised to see that it found a good variety of fares, as my hometown airport isn't exactly known for a large number of options (it's always funny when the pilot announces that we're first in line for takeoff - the only other possible travelers in line for takeoff would be of the feathered variety). While I'm not sure that this particular tool is as useful for me as it would be for someone going to a larger city, it certainly helps to be able to search multiple travel sites at once. I also appreciate that it searches airline sites as well, although with only two airlines (we just got a second last year!), and a grand total of 5 flights out daily, it's not a particularly difficult task to search the airlines' sites myself. I do appreciate the ability to easily email or print the fares found, and the ease of adjusting preferences for layovers, departure and arrival times, etc. Another thing I found myself appreciating here was the lack of graphics. Even with a fast Internet connection, ads (because let's face it; that's what the majority of the graphics on standard travel sites are) are annoying and take time to load. So I suspect that I'll be using Kayak.com more in the future, even for booking flights to my tiny hometown. I love one-stop-shopping!