Richard MacManus

TechCrunch has obtained screenshots of the as yet unreleased Google Calendar, called CL2. The leak came via Google’s closed beta of about 200 participants. Apparently CL2 is a long way away from launch, but there are some meaty details in Mike’s post. CL2 looks to be a very strong product from Google (which has by … Read more

Microsoft has just released (or is about to) a series of new products: Windows Live Search Beta, Windows Live Toolbar Beta and the next version of Live.com. Details on my ZDNet blog. One thing of personal interest to me is that a former Read/WriteWeb sponsor, web research product Onfolio, has been acquired by Microsoft and … Read more

ETech 2006 has started and it’s the one conference this year which people kept telling me I should be at (but oddly, no one offered to pay my airfare…). Oh well, luckily I have my finger on the blogosphere pulse and so I’m going to post updates of my virtual findings over the next few … Read more

Ian Rogers of Yahoo Music gave an interesting talk at BarcampLA entitled Media 2.0 Physics. I encourage you to pore over his presentation and notes. I liked the part about Yahoo and original content: “So Should Yahoo! be in the (Original) Content Business? Like HBO before us, Yahoo! should only create content in two cases: … Read more

– 37Signals publish a PDF book (“DIY publishing: There’s a new sheriff in town.” — suggestion to 37Signals: create a product that enables other authors to DIY publish…) – Kottke on DIY book publishing (37Signals profit margin will probably be much higher than any royalties they would’ve got from a publishing company) – eBay’s Jason … Read more

The big news in my part of the world today is that trademe.co.nz, a virtual clone of eBay that has risen to dominance in the eBay-less New Zealand market, has been sold to Aussie media company Fairfax for a staggering NZ$700 million [news via Dave]. Mr Barren thinks Fairfax would’ve been attracted by the 15.6 … Read more

Robert Scoble swears off tech.memeorandum for a week, due to excessive snark in the Sunday edition: “…it‚Äôs the little things in life that make you smarter. The little things don‚Äôt show up on Memeorandum. They do show up on RSS. Which is why I‚Äôm still subscribed to 847 smart people‚Äôs feeds.” I don‚Äôt think the … Read more

The Google Analyst Day presentation makes for interesting reading. Thanks to Greg Linden for providing the early analysis and text from the now withdrawn powerpoint presentation (only available now as a 10MB PDF – sans the ppt notes unfortunately). Greg provided the notes to slide 19, which are fascinating for those of us interested in … Read more

Some interesting reactions to Reuters CEO Tom Glocer’s speech at the Online Publishers Association. I thought it was encouraging news and in my previous post I (somewhat breathlessly) compared it to Associated Press CEO Tom Curley’s similar speech a year ago. Upon further reflection, it’s not quite at the level of Curley’s speech. Eran Globen … Read more

Jeff Jarvis is live-blogging the keynote of Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters, at the Online Publishers Association. I got pretty excited by a similar speech by Associated Press CEO Tom Curley just over a year ago, so this Reuters keynote is pressing my buttons too. I particularly liked this point, on the role of big … Read more

The NYTimes reports that Yahoo! is backing off its big plans to create television-style original content for the Web. Fears that Yahoo original content will alienate movie studios and television networks appears to be behind this shift in strategy. In that sense, I can understand Yahoo focusing more on the other two pillars of its … Read more

– How would you spend VC money if you could? (Matt McAlister lists his virtual shopping list — publisher services is his top pick: “Understanding content and communities is the name of the game.”) – MobHappy: mobile will define Gen M (for under 20’s ” the mobile will take over from the PC as the … Read more

Dave Winer has announced OPML 2.0 (in public review status currently). OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. In semi-laymens terms, OMPL is a common XML data format for outlines and subscription lists – just as RSS is a common data format for content syndication. So why is OPML significant? Its main claim to fame … Read more

– Apples rolls out new Intel Mac Minis, iPod Hi-Fi (the iPod Hi-Fi described by Steve Jobs as “a home stereo reinvented […] for the iPod age”) – MediaPost: Mainstream Media Warms To ‘Web 2.0’ (WashingtonPost guy: “We’re trying to lengthen the interaction between reader and content.” NYTimes calls it a “nexus of content and … Read more

On ZDNet I’ve just posted a lengthy analysis of the main Ajax homepages (aka personalized start pages): Over the past year many new AJAX homepages, aka personalized start pages, have been introduced to the market. Microsoft and Google have offerings, as do a host of small startups. First I’ll define what an AJAX homepage is, … Read more