--- title: "Weekly Wrap-up, 17-21 July 2006" date: 2006-07-21 author: "Richard MacManus" categories: - name: "ReadWriteWeb" url: "/category/readwriteweb.md" tags: - name: "2006" url: "/tag/2006.md" --- # Weekly Wrap-up, 17-21 July 2006 Long-time readers of Read/WriteWeb may recall that I used to do a weekly summary of the top stories of the week, called the [Web 2.0 Weekly Wrap-up](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cat_web_20_weekly_wrapups.php). It ran all through 2005 and for a long time was the most popular feature on R/WW. I decided to put it to one side at the start of 2006, but now may be a good time to resurrect it… ## Netscape’s offer and Flickr’s clogged tubes ![flickr tubes](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220im_/http://static.flickr.com/76/193695543_b0edc819bc_m.jpg)PR over Netscape’s community news [re-design](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netscape_commun.php) went from bad to worse with [ a NY Times profile](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/17/technology/17netscape.html?ex=1310788800&en=3a8bc636943247d2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) on Monday (btw I was interviewed for that, but much to my disappointment my remarks were left on the cutting room floor). Later in the week Jason Calacanis [ turned up](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.calacanis.com/2006/07/18/everyones-gotta-eat-or-1-000-a-month-for-doing-what-youre/) the bluzzometer (which is a blog buzz measuring tool) with his offer to pay the top bookmarkers at Digg, Reddit, Flickr and other places $1000 per month for doing their thing on Netscape.com. In [my post](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/calacanis_offer.php) I noted that this essentially amounted to an offer to buy out digg users. From the ‘It ain’t broke, honest!’ department, MySpace had some issues with [ hacking](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/07/myspace_ad_served_adware_to_mo.html) and [Flickr had](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2006/07/temporary_stora.html) a “temporary storage glitch” (see image to the left, by [ASurroca](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.flickr.com/photos/asurroca/193695543/)). Meanwhile young YouTube hit a stats milestone this week, with [ the news](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=12855295&src=rss/technologyNews) its users are now watching more than 100 million videos per day. Later in the week there was some [controversy](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/20/youtubes_new_policy_.html) about content ownership on the service. ## BigCo Action The week started with lots of Yahoo news. They [released](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_yahoo_homep.php) their new Ajax-powered homepage to the masses and also gave Yahoo Finance a [facelift](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/17/yahoo-tweaks-finance/). Things turned slightly custardy later in the week though, when Yahoo’s stock went down after their [second quarter results](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/18/technology/yahoo_analysis/). Apple reported rosier [third-quarter results](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jul/19results.html), eBay [also](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/13883) announced earnings, Microsoft had its [4th quarter results](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY06/earn_rel_q4_06.mspx) and (to complete the set) Google announced its [Q2 results](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/13986). Microsoft [announced](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.voipnow.org/2006/07/microsofts_show.html) a partnership with Nortel around “unified communications” – meaning e-mail, IM, telephony, and multimedia conferencing. Microsoft also made blog headlines by pledging to [play fair](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=240) with others, in a set of 12 principles. Neil Patel wrote [a great post](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/googles-growing-list-of-domains.html) detailing Google’s growing list of domains – they now own 520 of them. My favorite: richardsbrain.com (I’m afraid, very afraid…). In other Google news, one of their execs had the nerve to [challenge](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095705.html) the Father of the Web Tim Berners-Lee. ## Scoop of the Week [ThinkSecret scooped](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0607itunesmovies.html) the news that Apple will announce movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store, at Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in a few weeks. For reactions, check out the [TechMeme scrum](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.techmeme.com/060718/p12#a060718p12) about the story. ## Product Plays of the Week In product news, podcasting startup Odeo released a new service called [Twttr](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://twttr.com/) – [described](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.rev2.org/archives/2006/07/16/group-sms-through-twttr-from-odeo/) by Sid Yadov as “a new tool which helps you stay in touch with your friends through SMS”. In search news, Ask.com released a product called [RSS Smart Answers](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blog.ask.com/2006/07/introducing_rss.html) and Google released a product called [Accessible Search](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-07-20-n88.html) – a “web search for the visually challenged.” On the enterprise side, Salesforce.com released [Summer ’06](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=236) – 20th generation of their online CRM service (see also [my interview](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=238)). ## Buys of the Week RSS feed management powerhouse Feedburner [ purchased](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2006/07/planet_blogbeat_acquired_by_fe.php) RSS analytics startup Blogbeat. Microsoft was busy this week, acquiring [Softrucity Inc.](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-17SoftricityPR.mspx) (a provider of application virtualization and dynamic streaming technologies) and [Winternals Software](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6095376.html) (a small maker of Windows utility programs). From the ‘I want a piece of *that* action’ dept, Amazon Jeff Bezos is [investing](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/bezos_expeditions_invests_in_37signals.php) in trendy web design firm 37Signals. ## Pageturner of the Week By which I mean, best analytical post (not counting my own posts, of course). [Tim O’Reilly’s](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/07/levels_of_the_game.html) ‘Levels of the Game: The Hierarchy of Web 2.0 Applications’ is required reading for those who want to understand “the dynamics of the network economy”, as he put it. ## Blog headline of the Week Mike Arrington’s TechCrunch protege Marshall Kirkpatrick came up with the memorable headline: [Got Herpes? Try Prescription4Love](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/17/prescription4love-fills-a-real-niche/). I’m guessing it was a deliberate ploy to [ get on](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.valleywag.com/tech/sex/std-dating-site-scratches-techcrunch-writers-itch-187923.php) Valleywag. On that dodgy note… That’s a wrap for another week! (yes, my old [catchphrase](https://web.archive.org/web/20110930080220/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_weekly_w_24.php) is back too) *Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/weekly_wrapup_1.php))*