I went to the Future of Web Apps conference last week at the Palace of Fine Arts. I would say that maybe half of the speakers talked about the future of web apps. The other half talked about their companies and how you too can be a successful web 2.0 company that eventually gets bought by some larger company. I wasn’t really interested in the entrepreneurial aspect of it all.

I gathered that the future of the web will focus on identity, having one ID to log in all over the web; moving back towards desktop applications, while incorporating the online versions; and more/less community (there were split feelings on this one). I personally think that community-based sites are not going away, they’re just going to keep developing and evolving into new things.

Some of the presenters would push their own sites, but some of them would also list other web 2.0 sites as examples to illustrate a point. Here are sites that I found to be pretty cool, some of them are definitely worth checking out.

Techy Stuff:

• Digg Labs – great experiments for showing data
• Sxore – identity and reputation in blogging
• Microformats – if you haven’t heard about this yet, check it out
• MyBlogLog – blog stats, I’m signed up here, and addicted
• Measure Map – stats for your blog
• Visual Complexity – different and creative ways of showing data

Communities and Fluff:

• Last.fm – music community (I’m on here too)
• Popsugar – celebrity community site
• Amateur Illustrator – illustration community site
• Cute Overload – oh, I am so addicted to this one
• Hype Machine – discover new music
• Teachade – teacher community
• FeelingBullish.com – building reputations for investors

Useful:

• Kayak – trip planning
• Fly Spy – has some limitations at the moment, but has potential
• Fare Cast – EXCELLENT site, tells you when to buy your plane tickets
• Trip Hub – trip planning

Overall the conference was definitely worth the cheap admission price.