BRILLIANT 2.0 - Update

About a year ago I started compiling my EVERYTHING 2.0 lists. Doing my earliest research, I got my best input from a few sources that presented their "Best Web 2.0 sites in 2005". In the course of 2006 I started adding little asterisk signs to the sites that struck me as brilliant - either conceptually, or businesswise, or technically, or graphically, or... well... otherwise.
Of course these assessments were totally subjective. Sometimes depending on my mood of the day, sometimes on some other whim. In some cases I might be a bit biased: some of these companies are my clients, or I've invested in them, and some of these entrepreneurs are my friends.
Furthermore, I didn't (and don't) have much time left to go back to web sites after assessing them the first time. I am aware that many of them - being in a state of perpetual beta - have been improved considerably, and might deserve one or more *** now. Some of these sites might even not exist anymore ;-!
So, please forgive me that the following list is only a dominantly subjective aggregate of all things that somehow struck me as brilliant. And please feel invited to comment on it.

Ajaxian** - Ajax blog - About
Bioteams* - Blog on team dynamics & virtual collaboration - About
Buzzshout* - Review & rank Web 2.0 companies - About
Eyebeam*** - Bleeding edge R&D - About
Genbeta* - 2.0 blog (Spanish) - About
Itredux* - Concise categorized database of Office 2.0 companies - About
Programmableweb** - Web 2.0 reference website, main source on APIs and mash-ups - About
Publishing2** - Web 2.0 from a publishing & marketing point of view - About
Solutionwatch* - Reviews of 2.0 websites - About

Lastfm* - Profile your taste, share, personalize your radio - Audio
Pandora*** - Personalized radio - Audio
Splice* - Mix, mash-up & share your music - Audio
Tunefeed* - Share your music on any website - Audio

Chuquet* - Find buzzes - Bookmark
Delicious* - Social bookmarking - Bookmark
Slurlmaker* - Bookmark sites in Second Life - Bookmark

Psiphon* - Surf the web anonymously - Browse
Songbird* - Browse, download, manage & share all media - Browse
Swoot**~ - Build your own browser - Browse

Rrove* - Save & share places - Collaborate

Wiffiti* - Text your message to public screens - Comminicate
Blinklife*** - Social email - Communicate
Chatcreator* - Create your chat room instantly - Communicate
Chatsum* - Chat with & leave messages same-site-visitors - Communicate
Ebuddy - Integrates several messengers (formerly E-messenger) - Communicate
Gabmail* - Record & send videomail - Communicate
Grandcentral* - Get 1 phone number for all your calls - Communicate
Grandcentral* - Get 1 phone number for all your calls - Communicate
Hellodeo* - Record & send your video message - Communicate
Hullo* - Integrates soft, cell & landline phones - Communicate
Nabaztag* - Get info & communicate thru wi-fi rabbit device - Communicate
Nabaztag* - Get info & communicate thru wi-fi rabbit device - Communicate
Newsletterarchive* - Store & share your newsletters - Communicate
Rebtel* - Call international at local rates - using your cell phone - Communicate
Sitepal* - Design speaking animated avatars - Communicate
Stickam* - Multimedia communication tool - Communicate

Cambrianhouse** - Collaborate on new software - Community
Capazoo* - Create, publish & share your content - Community
Dailystrength* - Share health challengres & get wellness support - Community
Humblevoice* - Publish, share bands, music, other media & arts - Community
Humblevoice* - Publish, share bands, music, other media & arts - Community
Myvtc* - Share media & documents for generations to come - Community
Pickupgame* - Find people locally to play games - Community
Playdo* - Gaming community - Community
Plazes** - Claim & share your locations - Community
Postsecret* - Publish & share secrets - Community
Sprinko* - Do & share everything here - Community
Talkdiggeralpha* - Semantic tools to find, follow & join web conversations - Community
Whyrobbierocks~** - Style your avatar & travel with it around the world wide web - Community
Xing** - Community for entrepreneurs & professionals - Community
Zoominfo* - Search persons; create your own page - Community
Zooof* - Discover, maintain & extend your family ties - Community

Ambientdevices* - Datacasting inc. interfaces - Data

Honeycomnewsmap* - News treemap - Dbase
Perspectives** - Visualizes spatio-temporaly the places we inhabit - Dbase
Socialcircles* - Visualizes relations in an email database - Dbase

Dontclickit*** - Clickless interface - Design
Gogofrog* - Create & share your 3D web page - Design

Hypediss* - Hype or diss stories - Dig
Pickstation* - Listen to & digg music tracks - Dig

Amazon* - Shop, sell, review & rank - Ecommerce
Cottonrape* - Shopping game - Ecommerce
Craigslist* - Post & read classifieds - Ecommerce
Ebay* - Sell, rate & buy; auction - Ecommerce
Edoc* - Fashion ecommerce goes alternate reality game - Ecommerce
Froogle* - Local shopping search engine; Google Maps mash-up - Ecommerce
Shoposphere* - Create & share pick lists - Ecommerce
Spreadshirt* - Design, buy or sell your T's - Ecommerce
Start12*~ - Find, compare & review online service providers - Ecommerce

Couchsurfing* - Home swapping & holiday dating - Economy
Democracy2.0* - Consumers/Citizens unite! - Economy
Kiva* - Give a micro credit to an entrepreneur from a developing country - Economy
Milliondollarhomepage* - Buy pixels to finance study - Economy
Mturk* - Complete simple tasks & get paid - Economy
Programmermeetdesigner* - Partner matching for IT projects - Economy

Mindpicnic* - Share & learn from online knowledge - E-learning

Emurse* - Create, share & send your permanent resume page in any format - Employment
Odesk* - Work as or hire remote workforce - Employment

Squawklive* - Mashes up stock data & news, sends alerts - Finance

Alexadex* - Buy & sell shares in sites - Game
Fotograb* - Participate in & create photo treasure hunts - Game
Goggles* - Flight simulator's map mash-up - Game
Googlefight* - Compare search results - Game
Inkling* - Social delphi, exchange for futures - Game
Mobspray* - Create & share graffiti in places thru mobile2RFID - Game
Naughtyamerica* - Multiplayer video sexgame - Game
Spore*** - User generated gameplay & characters - Game

Geovector*** - LBS services with a usable interface. - Geo
Googleearth* - Global maps - Geo
Lowlandsguide~** - Explore the lay of the Lowland Festival with this mobile app - Geo
N2yo* - Realtime satellite tracking - Geo
Plazesbadge* - Show where you are (e.g. on your blog) - Geo
X-moment*~ - Publish an event at a location - Geo
Yahoomaps* - Global & local maps & search mash-ups - Geo

Gizmoz* - Create your 3D video avatar & use it anywhere - Identity
Internetaddressbook**~ - Find & be found, with all your 2.0 profiles - Identity
Klostu* - Connect yourself to all message boards, communities & people - Identity
Rapleaf* - Manage your reputation & rate your friends - Identity
Sxipper* - Wand service (with OpenID; Firefox only) - Identity

Colr* - Play with color photos & publish results - Images
Flashface* - Compose your Most Wanted portrait - Images
Flickr* - Manage & share your photos - Images
Fotolia* - Buy & sell images - Images
Fotologue* - Publish & share photos (beautiful Ajax interface) - Images
Interact10ways* - Interact with Getty images - Images
Landcraft* - Render your own 3D landscape & share it - Images
Mypictr* - Create & publish your profile pic for social softwares - Images
Photosynth*** - Rebuild the world in photos - other users' and your own - Images
Polarrose*** - Help to make the visual web searchable (Stealth) - Images
Queeky* - Make drawings online & share them - Images
Slide* - Create photo loops & share them on your website - Images

Hitchhikr* - Share knowledge & experiences on conferences - Knowledge
Postgenomic* - Share & rank life science knowledge - Knowledge
Rootvaults* - Store, manage & share knowledge online - Knowledge

Listigator* - Create, edit & share lists - List
The100lists* - Publish & share your lists - List

Memetrics* - Optimize your marketing across media - Marketing
Root* - Trading platform for realtime consumer data - Marketing

Bix* - Create & vote for content, and win - Multimedia
Hackoff*** - Book published as blog & podcast - Multimedia
Insolitus* - Upload & share all your files & docs - Multimedia
MediaMax* - Store, manage & share media - Multimedia
Sevenload*** - Upload & share photos & videos - Multimedia
Streamload* - Store & share your media - Multimedia

Daylife* - "4 minute old" news magazine; you can contribute tips & ideas - News
Digg* - Identify, rank & share interesting news - News
Newsmap*** - Rank-interfaced news (who knows what happened to Hives?) - News

Boxed* - Build calendars out of all sorts of online sources - Office
Contactoffice* - Virtual office (Belgian) - Office
Mystickies* - Browse, search, sort & edit notes online - Office
Writeboard* - Write, share, revise & compare documents - Office

Citadel* - Communicate & share in groups - Organize

Desktoptwo* - Manage your desktop in a browser - OS

Rapidobject** - Create, print, sell & buy 3D objects - Personal manufacturing

Fannation* - Customize your sports team's content here - Portal
Googleig* - Personal portal - Portal
Goowy* - Personal portal (desktop & browser versions) - Portal
Netvibes***** - Personal portal - Portal

Formatpixel* - Design, publish & share in any format - Publish
Snappreview*** - Offer your site's visitors a preview of any page you link to - Publish
Tiddlywiki* - Publish and share notes - Publish
Wikibios* - Let your friends collaborate on your bio - Publish
Wikipedia* - Read & co-edit encyclopedia - Publish

Kitbit* - Strives to emulate natural intelligence thru accumulated experience - R&D

Mappedup~* - Map your feed sources geographically - RSS
Reblogger* - Collect, filter, sort, index & publish feeds - RSS

A9** - Clustered search - Search
Audioclipping* - Search AV (German) - Search
Brandgossip*~ - Find what people say about your brand - Search
Chacha* - Get real time results with help of live guides - Search
Exalead** - Unified search technology - Search
Gadabe* - RSS metasearch (relaunched as Tagjag) - Search
Google* - Search & adwords - Search
Hotdaddy* - Search engine aggregator - Search
Kartoo** - Clustered, mapped search - Search
Lijit* - Social contextual search - Search
Liveplasma* - Search & find other things to your taste - Search
Livesearch* - Refine your search while you type - Search
Loki* - Search & navigate web & real life - Search
Majestic12* - Distributed search engine - Search
Monitor110** - One-stop semantic financial research suite - Search
Musestorm*** - Metasearch in Flash (several interfaces) - Search
Previewseek*** - Byebye Google? (Coming back soon) - Search
Retrievr* - Search images by sketching - Search
Riya* - Face recognition based photo search - Search
Rollyo* - Create search agents - Search
Sidekiq* - Hyper meta search - Search
Technorati** - Find what people are saying - Search
Twerq* - Remember search results in tabs - Search
Ujiko** - Visual your search, manipulate results, manage your reputation (by the wizards from Kartoo); the more you use it, the more cool features you get - Search
Vivisimo*** - Clustered search - Search
Yubnub* - Search & share search commands - Search

37signals* - Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List - Software
Backbase* - Ajax applications - Software
Dapper** - API generator - Software
Domaintools* - Excellent toolset for everything related to domains - Software
Mendix*~ - Semantic application development - Software
Rubyonrails* - Web development framework - Software
Sitekreator* - Build, publish & host websites - Software
Speedtest* - Check your ISP's speed - Software
Swarmteams* - Solutions to set up & manage mobile One2- or Many2Many community communications - Software
Tapuxmobile* - Mobile fun & community content & apps - Software
Uize** - Java API Library - Software
Zamzar* - Convert your files online - Software

Pando* - Store & share data - Store

Semapedia** - Add wikipedia tags to real world things - Tag

Remotecontrolmail* - Go thru your snail mail digitally before you receive it - VAS

Darejunkies* - Video challenge contest - Video
Youtube* - Upload & share video - Video

Fon*** - Share, buy, sell wi-fi connections - Wi-fi

Italic = new. Update 070128.