While "Web 2.0" is the lastest insanely overused buzzword on the net, it's probably an appropriate, if broad, label for what's going on. It's a new way of doing things. And rather than trying to disect what it really means, let's just say that it's about using the web for real applications, created using a mashup of programming languages, often designed to take advantage of the combined intelligence and cooporation of the community that uses it.

• Emily Chang's eHUB - eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.

While approached from a tech standpoint, this is a fantstic place for non-geeks to easily find useful tools and fun toys before they hit the mainstream.

• The Unofficial Web Applications List - This site is dedicated to the growing volume of web applications out there.

This isn't a list of sites to read. It's a list of sites to use. It catalogs sites that tend to offer more traditional applications.

• Web 2.0 Mashup Matrix - This is an experiment. It is intended to be both a reference point and also a visualization. It is an interactive guide to the combined efforts of seperate webtools.

While the old school coders live to reinvent the wheel, a new breed is learning to use existing tools to bring new value to end-users and the creators of the existing tools.

• Tech Crunch - TechCrunch is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing every newly launched web 2.0 business, product and service.

This provides a bloggy approach to the medium and takes a closer look at things, but doesn't cover as much ground as other guides.

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