Richard MacManus

Maker Studios is the fifth most popular YouTube partner in the U.S., according to statistics reported today by Nielsen. Maker Studios models itself on Hollywood movie studios, except it produces content for YouTube instead of the Big Screen. It’s a great concept, but unfortunately low-brow fare like William The Psychic isn’t going to help YouTube … Read more

We’re running a series based on Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report mid-year, in which she listed 50+ industries that are being “reimagined” by social and mobile technologies. One of her slides was about the home improvement information industry, which up till recently revolved around broadcast media like magazines and TV. Meeker pointed to a new … Read more

RSS lives! Not everything is a real-time stream of status updates from Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Subscribing to an RSS feed is still the best way to closely monitor your favorite blogs and topics. So where to check your feeds? Google Reader is the undisputed king of RSS Readers for the desktop, mostly because it’s … Read more

In 2012 we’ve seen amazing growth in the Consumer Cloud, meaning cloud computing for everyday users. There are three main categories in the Consumer Cloud: storage, sync, and notes. Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud and Evernote (respectively) have been the most impressive performers in each category so far this year. Note that the cloud – a.k.a. the … Read more

It’s easy to get obsessed with the super-fast, real-time cycle of online news. But don’t forget that the Web is a massive treasure trove of information about any topic. With just a bit of work, you can set up tracking and get regular updates about topics you’re passionate about. In this how-to article, we share … Read more

When Facebook announced Timeline in September last year, a key new feature was the ability to define different types of “life events.” Events such as starting a new job, entering a new relationship or getting married, making a home improvement, getting a tattoo. The idea behind Life Events was to better structure Timeline data. Unfortunately … Read more

There’s been a lot of talk in the tech community that Pinterest has changed the popular art of scrapbooking. Internet analyst Mary Meeker even suggested that Pinterest had reimagined scrapbooking. But after looking at how two scrapbooking gurus are using Pinterest, our conclusion is that the lucrative scrapbook market is still ripe for reinvention in … Read more

Kevin Kelly’s book What Technology Wants was one of my favorite non-fiction books of 2011. In my April 2011 review, I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. It’s fitting that Kelly’s book is the first to be turned into an iPad app on a new iOS platform called Citia. The result isn’t an ebook … Read more

Earlier this week we examined why Zynga is shedding users, causing its stock price to almost halve from its December IPO level. Zynga rose to prominence on the back of a farming simulation social game called FarmVille. Its success spawned a series of other ‘Ville’ games, such as CityVille, CastleVille, FishVille and PetVille. The theme … Read more

Sports news website Bleacher Report (B/R) was mentioned twice in Mary Meeker’s 2012 Internet Trends report: as an example of re-imagination of both sports news and TV. Bleacher Report, founded in 2006 by four sports fans from Silicon Valley, has become so influential that Time Warner is rumored to be trying to acquire it. What … Read more

Social gaming company Zynga had an outstanding 2011, leading to a well-hyped IPO in December. But Zynga’s biggest risk was always an over-reliance on Facebook, with most of its revenue and users coming from the social network. It’s now six months after Zynga’s IPO and its stock price has halved, currently sitting at under $5. … Read more

Mary Meeker’s recent Internet Trends presentation introduced a new buzzword into the tech world: reimagination. Meeker listed 50 different market categories that are in the process of being reimagined – in other words, disrupted or changed. Over the coming months, we’ll profile some of the leading reimagineers of this Web era. We start with a … Read more

One in every ten tablet users views video content almost daily on their device, according to a new report by comScore. The study also found that tablet users are nearly three times more likely to watch video on their device compared to smartphone users. Nearly one in four smartphone owners now owns a tablet, according … Read more

Despite GroupOn’s stock price struggles this year, online commerce is a market ripe for disruption. OpenSky is a relatively new e-commerce site that is getting buzz and gaining traction, thanks in part to the presence of celebrities like Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi. OpenSky started off tapping Twitter for inspiration (you “follow” celebrities with similar … Read more

Today location check-in app Foursquare unveiled a new design for its iOS and Android mobile apps. It now focuses on recommending places for you to go, based on your current location. It’s also more social. This is a sensible pivot, but Foursquare is not yet at the place it needs to be. My usage of … Read more