Here are some websites that is expected to boom this year.

Etsy.com

The New York-based internet retailer says it is “your place to buy and sell all things handmade”. Where Amazon revolutionised online commerce and eBay made its name allowing people to sell off their unwanted possessions, Etsy hopes to tap into the trend for hand-crafted and personalised items.

With thousands of craftspeople selling everything from clothes and ceramics to jewellery, the site has quickly become an Aladdin’s Cave of the internet.

Its innovative sales approach - such as letting shoppers browse by colour, or allowing geographical searches to support local suppliers - has drawn a legion of followers. Etsy now has more than half a million registered users and 60,000 sellers.

Founded by 27-year-old Robert Kalin from Boston, the site was launched in 2005 and now has more than 40 staff in New York and San Francisco.

Some critics find it a contradiction - a mass market dedicated to niche products - but Kalin says: “Etsy is a distribution platform for any kind of content that isn’t mass produced … not just craft-based, it might include music.”

Twitter.com

Twitter lets you text message large groups of people simultaneously, and for free. Sign up and send it a message - from a phone, internet or instant messaging service - and it will be sent to your contacts.

Updates are limited to just 140 characters, leading Twitter’s creators to call it “microblogging”. The craze caught on with the technology cognoscenti in 2007, but many pundits expect it to now reach out to the mainstream.

Some say it is a simple way of keeping a connection with friends and family, regardless of time and distance.

“Twitter is about the intimacy of details,” said author David Weinberger. “Through it I see small events in the lives of friends about whom I otherwise might only learn the big events when we catch up after long intervals.”

Crucially, it has also been picked up by businesses as an easy way to push messages out to their customers.

Co-founder Ev Williams helped popularise blogging with Blogger.com before selling it to Google in 2002.

WAYN

WAYN is aimed at those interested in travel

WAYN networking sites catering for a specialised audience - in this case travellers from around the world.

It was the brainchild of three friends - Pete Ward, Jerome Touze and Mike Lines, who came up with the idea to connect people based on their location.

Since its inception in 2002 it has grown and is now the UK’s 10th most popular social network, growing from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 10 million today.

It has recently announced partnerships with Lastminute.com to integrate their hotel content and booking service and with Hostelworld.com to search for and book budget accommodation.

WAYN was initially launched as a paid service but in April 2007, it became free, though some functions remain available only to those willing to pay - for example, turning off advertising.

Like Capazoo it has begun offering users the chance to earn money. Members use a wizard to create wish lists of products they would like to own or recommend to others which are then displayed in their profile. When contacts or random browsers buy from their web shop the members receive commission from WAYN.

Alex Burmaster, analyst at research firm Nielsen Online believes that sites catering to specialist interests could be the future of social networking as they seek to distinguish themselves from the competition.

Seesmic.com

Since Google bought YouTube two years ago, a slew of video sites have arrived on the web. One to watch could be Seesmic. While YouTube has become dominated by spoofs, skits and professional marketing videos, Seesmic hopes to recapture the spirit of those who first made the site a success: people who want to put video diaries on the internet.

Focused on short webcam “conversations” between individuals, the site has not gone public yet, but has had positive reviews from testers and could become the home for a generation of opinionated, attention-seeking web surfers.

It is backed by Ron Conway, an early investor in Google and PayPal, and European entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, responsible for Kazaa, Skype and internet TV company Joost.

When it does go public, the site hopes to plug into other hugely popular websites - such as MySpace and Facebook - rather than replace them.

It was founded by a French entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur. The businessman and blogger is known for his brash style, but it is his role as an internet adviser to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, that could lend most weight to the site.

PERFSPOT

Perfspot is aimed at university students and young professionals

Perfspot is a social networking site geared toward university students and young professionals, and its ethos is based on the desire to obtain a “perf” life.

It offers most of the usual features of social networking, including newsfeeds, customisable profile options and the option of linking photos to other users’ profiles plus unlimited space to upload images and videos.

It hit the headlines in the late summer, becoming the fastest growing social networking site. In the months April to August 2007 it grew a massive 756%, compared to Facebook’s 541% growth.

As the UK’s fastest growing brand this year it is a good illustration of how social networks can come out of nowhere if they hit the right note with users.

WEBJAM

Webjam chief executive believes one-stop shops are way forward

A UK site that allows users to aggregate the best of the web in one central location.

A cross between a blog and a social networking site, Webjam allows novices to create webpages for a particular interest or hobby - say a bookclub.

It also allows people to keep all their social media, from Flickr photos to newsfeeds, in one place. This blend of aggregating, blogging and social networking has led to it being described as “the Swiss Army knife of the internet user”.

It is particularly useful for those who want to create a webpage for a society, club or hobby but don’t know how to do it as it allows you to ‘copy’ an existing group and personalise it.

According to chief executive Yann Motte, one-stop shops like Webjam are the way forward.

“Going forward it won’t be possible for people to manage lots of different accounts,” he said.

Dopplr.com

With Facebook so prominent in 2007, many copycat services are expected in the next few months. But Dopplr.com is trying to find a different angle. Aimed at frequent travellers, the site lets users keep track of where their friends and colleagues are and enables them to meet up in unexpected places - or keep tabs on who is visiting their home town in the next few days.

The site had a public launch this month. During the test phase the audience was limited to international jet-setters and conference veterans, but thanks to a series of canny features - including integration into Facebook - it is ready to break out and gather many more users.

The site, founded by an international team of web technologists, is run from an office in Hoxton, in east London. This year two of its masterminds, Matt Biddulph and Matt Jones, were named among the capital’s most influential people.

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, has said it is his favourite website. “You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it,” he told the New York Times.
Moshimonsters.com

Mike Butcher, the editor of startup news website Techcrunch UK, said Moshi Monsters is “Tamagotchi meets Facebook for 7-12 year olds, but with education thrown in”. Created by London games firm Mind Candy, Moshi Monsters takes the idea of virtual pet games such as Nintendogs, and adds the concepts of social networking and puzzles.

Players “adopt” a monster by buying a small charm which gives them an access code to the website. They then pick their monster, and look after them by solving regular puzzles. Monsters can interact with each other online, providing a socialising aspect for children with strict systems in place to keep players safe. With its cartoon graphics and addictive qualities, Moshi wants to become the next craze for UK children - and has plans to launch in Europe and the US.

The site is going through testing but the so-called “tween” market can be incredibly lucrative. Club Penguin, a children’s virtual world started two years ago, was bought by Disney this year for $350m.

CAPAZOO

Will the idea of paying users catch on?

This is a Canadian site which is interesting because of its business model.

Like other social networking sites it includes a variety of functions, including blogging and photo and video uploads but it also offers something unique - it pays users for the time spent on the site and the activities they do.

So for example members can get points for inviting friends and posting content.

Users can offer the points - known as Zoops - as gifts to other members.

The points accumulated by users can be redeemed for cash although to do this users must sign up to a membership program which costs either $24.95 or $34.95 per year.

It is a service that more social networking sites are likely to experiment with although the jury remains out on whether it will be a selling point for customers.

REALBUZZ

Realbuzz is a social networking site aimed at those interested in sports and outdoor pursuits. It is keen not to operate entirely in the online world and encourages members to meet up offline at sporting events.

“Realbuzz is not about people sitting behind their computers, it’s all about them getting out into the physical world and experiencing something new,” said a spokesman for the firm.

It has around 100,000 active users in the UK and has strong links to the London Marathon.

Chief executive Tim Rogers is himself a veteran of more than 60 marathons.

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