I have taken a keen interest in Web 2.0 and the powerful network effect that many of these new web sites are attempting to generating. Since I’m a stock investing blogger, I have been watching how this new online development is effecting the investment landscape. Web 2.0 is finally starting to have an impact on stock investing sites, so I decided to research the competitors in this space.

Web 2.0 sites “…emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.” Tim O’Reilly recently noted, “This is what I’ve elsewhere called ‘harnessing collective intelligence.'”

Many Web 2.0 sites have the potential to harness the network effect that occurs when a service becomes more valuable to its users the more other users utilize it. In terms of business and investing, the network effect provides one of the most powerful and durable competitive advantages.

I have been trying to harness this network effect of Web 2.0 with my recent Value Investing News project. To better address my value investing community niche, I decided to research the top Investing 2.0 sites. I first spotted the “Investing 2.0” phrase at TechCrunch. Over the past year, TechCrunch has reviewed three investing 2.0 sites, including Stockpickr, Motley Fool Caps, and Zecco. Based on those stories, the comments on those stories, and my own research, I pulled together the following list of top stock investing 2.0 sites.

Top Stock Investing 2.0 Sites

The Top Stock Investing 2.0 Sites list is sorted by Alexa Traffic Ranking. I know that the Alexa Ranking can be gamed and is only based on the web surfing habits of its toolbar users. Therefore, I’ve also included Google PageRank scores to also provide an indicator of how influential each site is on the web. Please let me know if I have missed any sites. I may update the above table with additional metrics and revised statistics in the future.

The top Investing 2.0 site on the list is Motley Fool Caps. However, the Alexa Traffic Ranking for Motley Fool Caps, which is on subdomain caps.fool.com, includes all the traffic for the fool.com domain name as well. Alexa captures all the traffic on a domain and does not break out subdomain statistics. Basically, this means that the new Stockpickr site could in fact be the king of the Investing 2.0 hill.

I am very happy that my niche social bookmarking site, Value Investing News, has come in tenth place. The site has only been running for about four months, has no financial backing, no professional programming talent, and focuses on likely the smallest online investment community, value investors. Given all those handicaps, a top ten ranking between ValueWiki and Feed the Bull is great.

I feel that many of the stock picking sites will eventually run into trouble, even though right now many of them contain excellent discussions. Herd mentality and stock pumping could really hurt members of those sites. Social bookmarking sites that focus on news and commentary will likely have more longevity. At least that is what I hope, since Value Investing News is primarily a social bookmarking site focused on linking to high quality investment analysis.

What are you favorite Investing 2.0 sites? I of course love Value Investing News (user name: George). You can also find me on Motley Fool Caps, Stockpickr, and Marketocracy. Feel free to share your user names and profiles on these sites with the rest of the Fat Pitch Financials community by leaving a comment below.