Richard MacManus

There have been a lot of excellent posts and articles this week about APIs, the Web as Platform, web sites as software companies, and so forth. Here’s my own mash-up of some of the highlights: The Philosophy of Web 2.0 To set the scene, let’s consider what the essence of Web 2.0 is. Peter Merholz … Read more

Feedster have come up with a Top 500 blogs list, in response to Jason Calacanis’ challenge. I make the charts at number 215. Even though charts are elitist and all that, it’s cool to see my blog up there. Maybe charts are only elitist when I’m not on them? But reality check: as number 220 … Read more

I got quoted in an IDG article, currently on Macworld, about the RSS naming debate. I’m pleased to get my name in mainstream media, however they got the dates out of context. Here’s the extract where I’m mentioned: “The debate raged on after Torres’ response to Winer. In an Aug. 10 entry on his Web … Read more

sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: RSS branding, More Web 2.0 definitions, Spam … Read more

This week I kicked off a discussion about what the brand name of RSS should be, going forward. It’s generated a lot of great discussion, including some excellent comments on my blog. And funnily enough, I’m now convinced that in fact RSS is not the right term to market to the masses. ‘Web feeds’ is … Read more

This from Sir Robert Scoble: “Watch for more business deals and from places you wouldn’t expect them. I’m hearing from several of my friends, for instance, that AOL is looking for media properties blogging networks.” Interesting… I wonder if AOL read my Network of Niches post – I know some MSN folks did 😉 That … Read more

IBM’s new ‘SoulPad’ is a virtual computer on a small portable storage device, like a USB key or an MP3 Player. According to IBM, SoulPad “enables a paradigm of mobile computing where a user can suspend his computing environment on one PC and resume it on another PC that he may have never seen before.” … Read more

Google News now has RSS feeds (finally!). It’s great that all the big Internet companies now offer RSS feeds, but Google’s move unfortunately signals a split in RSS branding amongst the big media and technology companies. Like Microsoft, Google isn’t embracing the term ‘RSS’. Microsoft wants to call RSS “web feeds”, while Google is simply … Read more

A Network of Niches is a group of niche bloggers, each with their own unique look n’ feel but collectively part of a branded network of like minds. This could be the way forward for a big company like Yahoo or AOL to roll out their blog networks, at the same time giving hope to … Read more

The Not Web 2.0 discussion has legs. Dave Winer pointed to Dare Obasanjo’s post, specifically this bit: “The problem with ‘Web 2.0’ and other over hyped buzzwords is that 90% of the stuff you hear or read about it is crap.” I agree, provided my blog is in the top 10% of Web 2.0 content … Read more

sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: Hype 2.0, Education 2.0, Battlestar Galactica 2.0, … Read more

Remember my post last year entitled Gettin’ Paid: A Future for Content Creators?. In it I passionately made the case that there is a future for niche writers to make a living on the Web. Well there are signs that it may yet happen… Microsoft has just started a network of blogs called Filter. The … Read more

sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: Hype 2.0, Education 2.0, Battlestar Galactica 2.0, … Read more

Summary: Web 2.0 is everyday, non-technical people using the Web to enhance their lives and businesses. The fact that so many people are now creating and building on the Web is what the ‘2.0’ signifies. Tim Bray dislikes the Web 2.0 meme, but mainly because it isn’t technically version 2.0. With all due respect, this … Read more

Jane Kim, program manager for RSS in Internet Explorer, has written a useful post detailing the new RSS features in IE7. A few comments from me… 1) Microsoft has decided to call RSS “web feeds”, at least for now. Jane says they’re “still actively exploring what is the right name to use for RSS feeds”. … Read more