Richard MacManus

Here’s a site to keep an eye on – an English language blog about Web 2.0 in China: “China Web2.0 Review is a blog dedicated to track and review web2.0 development in China. We will profile and review web2.0 applications, products, services and business in China, and track the buzz about web2.0 in Chinas internet … Read more

Flock has been getting a lot of flack from certain quarters. Mostly they’re being (unfairly) tagged as a kind of symbol of the so-called Web 2.0 bubble. I’ve been dismayed by some of the venom that’s been directed at Flock – some of it has been downright spiteful. I’m a bit saddened to see it’s … Read more

This week: Microsoft Live, Flash Maps and the Mechanical Turk, Web 2.0 meet-ups all over the world, 2.0 Blog of the Week – Supr.c.ilio.us. sponsored by: Microsoft Live wrap-up The big news of the week was Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Live and Office Live. My post entitled Microsoft Livens Up Web 2.0 summarized all the … Read more

Interesting NY Times article about Yahoo!. Some key quotes: “The idea that human judgment can improve a search engine’s automatic findings is hardly new. From the dawn of the Web’s history – that is, over the last 15 years – companies have invented tools to help users assess the quality and relevance of information, often … Read more

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk? It’s a web service that enables you to “complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it.” Amazon describes it thusly: “…when we think of interfaces between human beings and computers, we usually assume that the human being is the one requesting that a task … Read more

The UK has its own Web 2.0 Conference on 11 November in Brighton, in the form of d.Construct: “d.Construct 2005 is the UKs first grassroots Web 2.0 conference. It is an affordable, one-day event aimed at those building the latest generation of web-based applications. The event will discuss how new technology is transforming the web … Read more

Dion Hinchcliffe has an excellent post outlining the top 10 issues for Web 2.0 today (an 11th was added in the comments by Paul Montgomery). Here’s a summary of Dion’s list with comments from me, but be sure to check his site too because he has useful commentary for each point. 1. Excessive Hype: “Nothing … Read more

So the latest ruckus in tech.blogosphere is about Dave Winer’s call to Clone the Google API (note the URL name). Robert Scoble wrote an enthusiastic post entitled Yahoo’s new pretty maps are doomed (and so are Microsofts), which understandably got up the nostrils of Yahoo!’s Jeremy Zawodny. Microsoft’s Dare Obasanjo wrote a post that outlined … Read more

This what it’s all about: “Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations.” That finding is from the Pew Internet & … Read more

Summary: My Day 1 impressions of Windows/Office Live are positive and I think Microsoft is taking up the challenge of an increasingly Web-based software world, while at the same time sticking to their desktop software knitting. I’m particularly intrigued by the Xbox 360 relationship and I think we’ll see a lot more multimedia coming out … Read more

Microsoft just announced its new Web-based Windows and ‘software as a service’ strategies. After first announcing the Xbox 360 will be released on Nov 22 in North America, Gates talked about their new “Live” brand (thanks Mike from TechCrunch for the news – he has pictures too). The “Live” era will encompass the “Software Plus … Read more

As part of the news this morning (my coverage here), Microsoft has released a website called live.com. It appears to be start.com under a new name – i.e. the RSS Reader/portal homepage that was released earlier this year. And it still doesn’t have decent Firefox support! Dave Winer has a screenshot. Back-story of live.com domain … Read more

This week: Microsoft’s Web 2.0 strategy, Google Base, Yahoo! travel, Web 2.0 Humour, 2.0 Post of the Week. sponsored by: Microsoft’s Web 2.0 Strategy There’s big news coming this week from Microsoft, on the consumer as well as business side. It sounds like Microsoft is really ramping up its Web 2.0 strategy. Meanwhile, this week … Read more

I was quoted in an IDG InfoWorld story, entitled Gates, Ozzie seen unveiling hosted services next week: “Some prominent Microsoft watchers, such as Richard MacManus, also have suggested a hosted version of Microsoft Office may be in the works. In his Web log, Web 2.0 Explorer, freelance Web analyst and writer MacManus on Sept. 28 … Read more

My latest ZDNet column is a potential doozy: Microsoft is leaping into hosted applications big time. InformationWeek reports that Microsoft plans to offer hosted implementations of SharePoint, CRM and ERP applications. But the best quote in that article was left till last. A “Microsoft insider” was asked which other products and services Microsoft would host … Read more