MoMB’s Saurier Duval ranks the best betas of 2008

One of our favorite sources for discovering new services is the Museum of Modern Betas (MoMB). It has an impressive track record, as the blog – founded and painstakingly maintained by Saurier Duval – reviewed the 6000th beta last October.

MoMB’s Duval is the perfect example of somebody who has put his heart in something and creates something really useful and beautiful over the years.

The betas blogger has the tradition of publishing a short list of the year. Although he skipped it in 2007, he did rank the betas of 2005, 2006, and now 2008. Here’s the top three, but make sure you browse to MoMB to check out the runner ups. They’re also rather interesting and different than the ones you see on the major tech blogs.

1. Goosh – The Unofficial Google Shell

This google-interface behaves similar to a unix-shell. You type commands and the results are shown on this page.
// Goosh.org

2. 280 Slides – Presentations made easy

Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world.
// 280slides.com

3. Google Insights for Search – See what the world is searching for

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.
// Google.com/insights/search