Oct
Web 2.0 The Easy Way: 27+ Resources That Do The Hard Work For You
Want to create that Web 2.0 look without the hassle?
You probably do, because once something becomes popular, everyone wants to copy it. Even squeeze pages are getting a Web 2.0 makeover!
The problem is, it looks like a Web 2.0 look would take work. You need a striped background, logo reflection, rounded corners, star bursts, and a “beta” attached to your logo. And that’s just for starters!
But since Web 2.0 is sooo popular with the “in” crowd, free tools to give you that required 2.0 look are popping up everywhere. Here are 25 that will transform your site the easy way:
Backgrounds
1: Stripe Generator creates striped backgrounds with or without gradients; no Photoshop skills required.
2: Tartan Generator (from the creators of Stripe Generator) lets you make cool tartans that work as page backgrounds.
3: Gradient generator for doing gradients in page backgrounds.
4: Gradient generator is… another gradient generator.
5: Tile Machine makes tiled backgrounds with various designs.
6: Background Image Maker has a few options for background images.
Layouts
7: Full Layout Generator which actually creates the framework for a Web 2.0ish site.
Rounded Corners
8: Rounded Cornr makes rounded corner images.
9: Google’s rounded corner generator makes neat rounded corners, too.
10: Even Corner Shop does too!
Image Effects
11: Reflection.js is a little piece of Javascript that will add reflections to all the images on your site.
12: Canvas Corner uses a little Javascript to add nice rounded corners and drop shadows to images. (more)
13: DropShadow lets you easily add a drop shadow to your picture.
Logos
14: Logo Creatr will create a sweet 2.0 logo and even add the word “Beta” to it. (It doesn’t matter if your site is 3 years old – if you want to be Web 2.0, you have to be in beta.)
15: Web 2.0 Styler makes nice 2.0 text logos, with more color options than Logo Creatr.
Buttons, Badges, and Icons
16: My Cool Button is a way to make, well, cool buttons.
17: Buttonator makes buttons, but you have to pay $10/month for it.
18: Button Boost is another site that will boost your button skills.
19: Glassy buttons does buttons although they’re not quite a 2.0 level.
20: RSS Buttons is another button maker, but for those small, rectangular buttons.
(There are a ton of these. Blogflux button maker. Button maker. Brilliant button maker. Pixel Button. RSS Graphic Tool.)
21: Feed Icons provides those neat orange RSS feed icons in multiple sizes.
22: Starburst badges are another variety of image that is virtually required for a Web 2.0 look.
23. Tabs Generator will create sleek tabs for you.
Cool Ajax Stuff
24: Loading icons using Ajax are also required for all Web 2.0 sites to tell the visitor “not only is this page loading, this page is loading with style.” You might even want to slow down your page loads so that visitors can admire these neat icons even more.
25: Prototype Windows are neat Ajax pop-up windows. I’ve seen them used nicely by designers for showing larger images of past projects, but I have a feeling internet marketers will use them to get past pop-up blockers.
26: Transparent Messages are great for displaying little confirmation notices without loading a new page.
27: Grey Box is an Ajax pop-up window that lets you display content, including other sites, beautifully.
There you go. More than twenty-seven resources to make your Web 2.0 transition easier!
Now for the fun stuff:
2 Resources That Didn’t Make The Cut
28: Web 2.0 Button is another button generator with various backgrounds that will make for a great Web 1.0 logo that everyone will laugh at.
29: Hot Shadow can create a custom Google search engine with a logo, but you can also just use it for creating text effects. Or will you be the next Google?
And here’s some further reading for those of you willing to put in a little elbow grease:
Further Research
Mini Ajax
A collection of all kinds of neat Ajax tools to do just about anything, from file uploads to website heat maps.
Web 2.0 Header Tutorial
Making your own header, including a logo and navigation bar.
Web 2.0 Logo Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2
Doing your own logo.
Mashable
The source for anything web 2.0
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Let’s make the entire web look even more the same
, people should rely less on tools like this and use their imagination more again, figure out how to do things yourself instead 
. This sort of stuff makes many pages on the web so boring to look at since the designs all end up being too similar.
Thanks for the list. Since I suck at making graphics I will find lots of use for these sites. The tartan maker is d\so addictive it’s not even funny. We found it about a week ago and have spent way too much time playing around on there.
Very cool list of resources. Thanks for sharing it.
Nice list. I have yet to get on board with 2.0. Most of my sites are about Web 1.7
I just tagged and submitted this item about everywhere. Great list. Hey, that loading icon threw me off. I kept waiting for something to load.
Thanks Stephan!
That icon throws me off too, each time I’m back at this post!
Thanks for this list. Great resource. I’m sure I will use some of these sites.
There are a couple of other icon sites that seem useful to me. Not sure if these would fall into the category of Web 2.0 exactly but here they are anyway:
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/mini-pixel-icons/
There is one important resource I think you have left out. Website ribbon generator. http://www.websiteribbon.com/ Its cool for a web 2.0 these days.
The mapicon Factory is a pretty good resource for generating icons for avatars, blogs, and map mashups.
http://www.cartosoft.com/mapicons
web 2.0 badges
These are awesome. Love the tongue-in-cheekiness
Nice list. Thanks for sharing with us
Thanks for the list! There are some extremely useful sites on there that really help make life easier for the lazy webmaster.
Excellent! Yes all the web 2.0 stuff seems all rounded and smooth.
This comment box is freakin awesome! this dude is staring at me…lol
wow. thanks for the excellent resources. now i can make my site 2.0!! yay!
I like the logo creator. Thanks
Thanks for sharing these resources with us!
Does anyone know where you can go to find that exactly what is meant by Web 2.0? I hear so much talk about it, have ideas about what it is, but have never seen a definitive description.
@Dave
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
This is the best resource list for me. I also wish to join the dying web 2.0 look. Show me the money. – Rif Chia
@Sucker
Mate, the web is going to 3.0 soon. Any idea what look is out for Web 3.0?
Rif Chia
Thanks so much, my design skills and web creative is very limited so all this is going to come to great use – thanks again, what a star.
Hi Sucker
Great list, I am getting into the whole web design stuff. I think this will probably help me create new buttons and stuff for my sites since I use ,mosty pre made themes and lack uniqueness.
Thanks for the nice list of Web 2.0 designs
Roger Hamilton
Wow! These are great resources. It helps me a lot in customizing the blog I want and save me money from hiring a designer. Thanks dude!
logo Generator, Drop Shadow and Button ultimate a supeb list. Thank you
Great list of web development resources. I like the Ajax loading pages. I really was looking for a cool looking loading button for a page I have and the first of those sites really helped me out. Thanks.
Awesome list, it is always nice to find tools that can speed things up. The only bad thing is when everyone relies on tools, sites start to look the same like mentioned above.
Hi,
I am new to your blog I’m kinda liking it. I was thinking about designing some buttons (web2.0 style) and now I can see that some of the above tools will help me. This list will definitely help many bloggers.
Thanks.
“Let’s make the entire web look even more the same” That’s hilarious!
“if you want to be Web 2.0, you have to be in beta.)” Also most hilarious!! I haven’t laughed this hard since, I don’t know.
thanks for the list enjoyed the ajax links, thanks
Well nice list of web2.0 resources. Thanks for sharing it. Its really helpful to make your own graphics.
Very useful list. i’m using Reflection.js and tile machine but will check the others.
What a useful list of resources, thankyou very much. I fear Photoshop may be getting less use with the stripe maker link being on here!
Thanks.
I am not too good at graphics and probably these resources will come to my rescue. Seems you will make me lazy!!
Thanks for sharing that excellent list.
I just can’t wait to use all of them..
A little greedy now
excellent list of resources, it’s so helpful we people gather these in one place rather than having to hunt around for them yourself!
This list will definitely help many bloggers.
Great list! The list will make others work fast and easy. Gonna try using it to customized a site. thanks for these list.
I am so thankful to you for making this list. There are some excellent tools in here. I will absolutely be using several of them on my website.
Grey Box is awesome…. I use it all of the time for various sites.
This list is awesome, thanks for taking the time to put all these resources together.
That’s a pretty nice resource, I used to spend time doing all of this stuff in Photoshop!
Really Great Resource and Also It’s Useful. Thanks For Sharing list.
I use banner maker pro 7 for banner creation. Works the best for me.
Gee I’ve been thinking of creating my own web 2.0 websites, thanks for these great tips.
The second most popular article on this blog is getting a bit long in the tooth, but the basics remain the basics, and this gives us a fairly comprehensive overview of how to web 2.0
thanks for the great info, do you know where to find this script?
These are great! I especially like the AJAX stuff. It looks more modern and interactive.
Great list. Thanks for sharing useful resources.
A slightly sarcastic intro about the Web 2.0 world I suspect, but certainly a great set of resources.
The reflections javascript is certainly one of my personal favourites, and something I have used for a while now.
Great post!
Excellent tips, mainly number 15: Web 2.0 Styler makes nice 2.0 text logos!
Nice to insert in blogs, shch as news sites!
Thanks.
these are some very cool tools and i am always in search of such stuff.
Great list of tools. I like some of button makers tool.
great resources! some of these will really help me in speeding up my daily blogging
Nice list. Thanks for sharing with us
I say go back to the 1.0 look. I miss the good old geocities sites with the sparkling animations. After all, if your site stands out, you may catch more attention.
Jokes aside, I noticed your link to miniajax. Even though design is important for retention, I think functionality is also just as important for web 2.0 sites. Design is half the battle.
Wow, these are great tools. Thanks for sharing with us. Many of the people are looking for these but I am sure will not find all of these on one place. You have compiled a great list.
Great stuff!!! I can use many of these for my new site. Thanks
I hate web 2.0. It definitely fits in the web 2.0 stupid file. When did nice site updates come to be called web 2.0. And everyone thinks they’re hip talking web 2.0. Nevertheless, these are great web 2.0 suggestions
These links will come in handy for dressing up my 2.0’s, thanks for the resources. It’s nice to have some option since everybody’s properties start looking the same after awhile.
I cannot say that I like web 2.0 that much but still I appreciate the suggestions that you shared with us.
Hah, talk about taking all the work out of it. I’d actually like to see a site 100% from generators.
thank you. some of the links very useful. I bookmarked your page to keep it handy. will need it for sure.
this is what i needed. thanks for the great resources.
About 80% of design on the web 2.0 is not fit for human consumption.