Today, CNET launched Webware, their new web applications oriented blog. The blog is the brainchild of Rafe Needleman, who also writes for the Alpha Blog.

I had a chat with Rafe a while back about the name Webware, which he says is a perfect description of the new applications that are being served up in a web browser. And indeed, the word webware in this context has been picking up according to Technorati.

So, once you get your fill of reviews here at BuzzShout, make sure to check out Webware for CNET’s take on next generation web applications.

Photo by Scott Beale

Last night, I ventured over to the first annual Vloggies, the award ceremony celebrating the top video bloggers in the world. The show, which was held at the Swedish American Hall in SF, was absolutely fantastic. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect–but, needless to say, my empty expectations were surpassed tenfold. Aside from a few technical issues in the beginning, the entire show went smoothly and professionally.

I go to a lot of tech events in the bay area, and the Vloggies was like no other tech event. This really was an award show. Most people showed up in their best dresses and suits, ready to receive or give awards. The show was also entertaining, striking the right balance between breadth and depth. This is really important, since there was no way they could have presented the thousands of video blogging nominees from all over the world.

The Vloggies was principally created and executed by John Furrier and Irina Slutsky of PodTech. Irina also hosted the show, and did a wonderful job.

Whenever I go to shows like these, I always find it surreal to watch video blogs on a big screen. When you think of Social Media, you usually imagine the millions of small screens that video blogs can easily reach. Traditional media is what we usually associate with big screens and budgets. It’s nice to see the big recognition that vloggers deserve.

In true SF fashion, there was a gaggle of top A-list bloggers, vloggers, and entrepreneurs were in the crowd, including Robert Scoble, Renee Blodgett, Kevin Rose, and Thomas Hawk. And obviously, there’s a steady stream of photos being uploaded to Flickr.

Scott Beale’s blog, LaughingSquid.com, marries art, culture and technology. But did you know that Laughing Squid is also a web-hosting company, and that he has used the brand for several other of his past businesses? How did Scott become so well known in San Francisco? Is it because of his eclectic blog, or maybe his photos? Find out in this exclusive interview where we catch up with Scott at the StyleHive launch party.

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Interview with Scott Beale (6 minutes, direct download)

411Sync, which was profiled a few months back here on the Shoutblog, has reached over 10,000 keywords created. That’s a tenfold increase in 3 months. They are seeing over 160 keywords being made everyday.

411Sync is the only company that I know of that is letting users dynamically create and share keywords for mobile phones. Think Yubnub, but for mobile phones.

Keywords are really the way to go in the mobile space, since it allows users to access a deep selection of services without the hassle of menus. 411Sync recently turned down an acquisition offer from a privately held mobile email company. The CEO, Manish Lachwani, tells us that an acquisition at this point would be too early, since they’re currently working hard on new features that they’ll be rolling out.

411Sync also rolled out an SMS bookmarklet, which allows users to easily send web clippings to their phones.

Today, WebAssist launched their new tools for Dreamweaver which will allow easy integration of Google apps into websites. More specifically, they are offering wizards to create Google Checkout, Google Map, and Google Search functionality in web pages, without the need to understand the APIs.

For many seasoned developers, this is not a big deal, since there are a plethora of Google tutorials and API instructions online. But, for those novice web developers out there who use Dreamweaver, these wizards can be incredibly useful. I had the chance to get a demo from the CEO last week, and the tools are definitely easy to use. For example, to create a map, you simply input your locations, click on a few map style options, and the code for the map is placed on the page. There’s no need to figure out geocoding or API calls. Of course, you’ll still need to go and get your own API key from Google.

WebAssist is offering these Google tools for free, and they don’t ever plan on charging.

With these tools, WebAssist is cutting into blipstar’s service, which allows users to create and manage Google map locations online. There are two major differences: blipstar is web based and they are charging money. However, they do have more advanced features, like the ability to import locations from a database. We’ll have to wait and see if blipstar makes any price adjustments based on the new tools WebAssist is providing.