Comparing Web 2.0 Cocktail Applications: CocktailDB, DrinksMixer, ExtraTasty, and Cocktail Builder
January 2nd, 2009
This week we did our homework for New Years - online drink recipe applications. If you would like to a primer on the subject, there is our post, Taking In The New Year: Web 2.0 Cocktail Recipe Applications, and links to the full reviews are below. We'll talk more about CocktailDB, Drinksmixer, Extratasty, and Cocktail Builder after the chart, but we should begin with saying that all the applications this week returned results on ingredients and by name. Read More »
When users land on CocktailDB they may well feel that they have arrived; the application that features a large database with the ability to suggest by mood and ingredient has been lovingly prepared, and made bartending simple. 
If there's one thing that complements cocktails well, it's friends, which is why ExtraTasty's approach to a social drink database makes sense. Look up the recipes you want to try, share favorites with friends, and even send it along to your mobile with ExtraTasty. 
Hosted by the entertainment site CraveOnline, users looking for cocktails may mistake the ad-heavy DrinksMixer for only a promotional tool, but the recipe application has one of the largest collections of cocktails, from the homespun to the famous. 
While simplistic in appearance and layout, cocktail builder has the range of function that the home bartender would want. Get recipes and suggestions while rating your favorite cocktails, or using an ingredient list to come up with new cocktails with cocktail builder. 
Looking at Foodari, you may think it to be a bit cluttered - even its tabs seem cramped - but Foodari's cramped because it's trying to do it all. Recipes, books, videos, forums, and food related feeds (blogs and stories) from the web. 
The first thing you notice with OpenSourceFood is the clean and modern design, bringing a high contrast layout with large, full pictures. Navigation is easy - links are quickly found, and the tab layout (Overview, Recipes, Voted, Following, People) lets users get to the area they want quickly. Keyword search is on the main page and the recipe tab will show suggestions. 
Clean, easy-to-use, and with a large number of recipes possible (250,000 they say), Supercook is an application that takes recipe searching from a different angle -- what ingredients you've got on hand. 
When it comes to recipes you want more than a tool for finding recipes - you want to save them, organize them, and maybe even create a menu for an event. Reci-P lets you do this and more, by providing a recipe book that's entirely online. 
Web 2.0 users looking to publish documents online - either to promote their ideas, or share information have found new outlets in online magazine publishing applications. DoXtop is one of these applications, giving users a chance to upload, combine, and find documents within its interface. 
Online publications don't do well on their own. At least that's the thought behind Calameo, the international online magazine publishing application. Calameo offers web-based publishing for a wide variety of formats, each with their own directory heading, and a chance for users to express themselves or find new materials. 
Individuals and businesses alike publish magazine format documents, but as publishing transfers increasingly online, applications such as Issuu, with its strong design sense and intuitive features, have become popular outlets for online magazine publishing. 
When thinking of how you want to remember your trip or how you might want to discover new destinations, a map is what you'll most likely visualize, and it's a map you'll get with the travel journal Driftr. Designed with a simple to understand and visually pleasing interface, Driftr uses a large world map as one its navigational tools. The map is everywhere in Driftr, even on your page, where it will show all the places you've been and are going to. 
The most appealing part of GoAbroad may be seen when you first get to it - a pleasing and engaging interface with embracing colors. GoAbroad quickly sets apart two types of users: Travelers are the majority users, the people who want to discover new locations and share the ones they've been to, and Advisors are institutional or special interest users that want to create a group of travelers. 
Users looking for a more narrative form of travel journal may respond to MyLifeofTravel, which focuses most of its attention on blogging. Unlike some applications that break down travel information into tips and places, placing your trip details in prominence, MyLifeofTravel puts the blog first, with trip information becoming only a detail to the page. 
There will be times when travelers will want to do more than just browse for destinations - the may want to book lodging as well. For this there is myTripBook, a travel application that combines the details of your trip with a travel booking engine that covers not only hotels, but hostels. 
Catching up on your blogs, news, and sites is no simple matter - unless you have a RSS reader, that is. RSS feed readers combine all the stories you care about into one place and some, like Bloglines, help you find new feeds as well. 
Anyone that has tried to keep up with the news knows that it's no simple matter. TV, radio, tens of newspapers, and hundreds of places on the internet to keep up with make just staying up on the latest events a full time job, but web 2.0 has a solution to this problem. This is where NewsGator comes in. RSS feeds are links to the source - references if you will, so to get the benefits and interaction out of them you need a reader that can combine them. NewsGator not only combines your feeds into an easily readable page, but it lets you sort and organize them as you wish. 
Supporting 16 languages, visual search engine uvLayer takes the search for video and makes it as easy as collecting cards. Truly, this this Flash based interface makes searching through YouTube and Truveo that easy. Simply pluck labeled and movable thumbnails from your search and drop them into the groups you want. Intuitive, logical, and fun. You could not ask for much more from a visual search. 
The first thing you notice with oSkope is a pleasing interface. That may sound petty, but when you consider how visual the results of every search are, a smooth and attractive interface makes a search engine easier to use. The next thing you notice is how oSkope prompts you to select a service from one of the six available; Youtube, Flickr, Fotolia, Yahoo! Images, Amazon, and eBay. For searches across these platforms - by product or image, oSkope is a method of search suited to the visual. 
StumbleAudio is for the music searcher. It is a music database that lets the user "stumble" across titles in a genre and vote for what they like. Incredibly easy to use and visually appealing, StumbleAudio is a great engine for the user who is randomly exploring for new music. The first thing to know about StumbleAudio is that it is album oriented. Whenever you stumble on an track, you are presented with the entire album of that artist, and able to navigate through it. 
One of the major elements in web 2.0 has been the application of social networking, and we've seen it integrated into anything from blogging to politics. iLike, the web 2.0 application for music discovery, uses the favorite tracks of the community - specifically friends - to bring you music recommendations. 
Let's jump in. From the beginning Jango is off to a good start - there's no download, and you don't even need a login to get streaming music with suggestions. Jango will let you create a "station," which is to say a starting point for your music playlist, and will cater the streaming music to that choice. Vote up or down with the emoticon icons near the top or forward to the next song with the track controls at top left.
Pandora, the online radio station that is driven by community input, is as ambitious as it is addictive, and worthy of its mythological Greek namesake. Named by ancient gods as the "gift of all," Pandora has changed the way people think of radio, turning a one way listening experience into an interactive experience. 
