Since introducing my mom to Pandora Radio recently, I’ve found myself thinking about all of the amazing services available on the Internet today. The ones that really stand out for me are those that created a completely new concept that changed the way we use the Web, creating entirely new “eco-systems” and becoming the essential web services we couldn’t live without today. Most of these service are truly wonders in part because they were all built without an obviously successful business model. The idea in most cases was simply to build something so irresistably cool and useful that they would become essential to enough people who would then be willing to pay (perhaps indirectly) or accept a certain amount on advertising exposure.

So here (in a particular order) is my list of the top Eight Wonders of the Web:

1. Google

Google wasn’t the first to market with a search engine (anyone remember Lycos? AltaVista?), but their approach to generating high-quality, nearly instant search results, combined with their minimalist, dead-simple user interface, was so compelling that they quickly dominated the search engine market, laying the groundwork for their advertising engine. Today of course they have become a critical part of the ‘net infrastructure. I could not do my work without Google. They’ve also consistently rolled out an amazing set of API’s and services, including the incredible 1-800-GOOG-411 free information service for business listings.

2. Wikipedia

It’s hard to remember life before wikipedia. Although not always as complete and accurate as commercial encyclopedias, there’s no question that the convenience and navigational power outweighs these shortcomings. Plus, the open nature means self-correcting and constantly updated; a globally-accessible repository for the collective knowledge of the world.

I’m not gonna write anything about the rest of these, just list ’em… you get the idea.

3. E-Bay

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5. Amazon

6. Internet Radio (Pandora/Podcasts)

7. YouTube

8. Social Networks (MySpace/Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter) – OK so I kinda copped out here and lumped these into a single category. Personally I can’t stand MySpace, but it deserves mention here. I’m betting/hoping Facebook will wipe it out of existence pretty soon.

Did I miss any?

What do you think the next one will be?